{Semi} Wordless Wednesday

GF/DF Going For The Gold Cookies

The Olympics have been a big part of our lives this past week. Last week I wrote about some ways we were learning about the Olympics and the countries involved. This week, I would like to share a recipe that we made for "Gold Medal" cookies. What is so special about these cookies?  They are gluten and dairy free....and still delicious! 

Gold Medal GF/DF Cookies

1/2 c dairy free butter (we use Earth Balance non-dairy 'buttery' sticks)

1 c. sugar

2 eggs

3/4 tsp. cream of tartar

3/4 tsp. baking soda dissolved in 1 TBS non-dairy milk (we used vanilla soy)

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. GF vanilla

3 c. GF flour blend (we used King Arthur)

Cream 'butter' and sugar. Add vanilla, cream of tartar, 'milk', baking soda. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Add 2 c. flour w/ salt sifted through. Add remaining flour in small amounts until dough is a soft, but somewhat stiff consistency. Chill for an hour. Roll dough out to about 1/4" thickness. Using a circle shaped cookie cutter, cut circles out. Bake in a 375 degree oven for about 8-10 minutes or until edges turn slightly brown. Cool for a few minutes on pans before placing cookies on cooling racks. 

While cookies are cooling, prepare frosting.

1/2 c dairy free butter (highly recommend using only Earth Balance non-dairy 'buttery' sticks for the right consistency)

2 c. powdered sugar

1 tsp. meringue powder

non-dairy milk to proper consistency

Toppings: 

Wilton Gold Color Mist
Wilton Food Writer Edible Color Markers

After frosting the cookies, and allowing them to dry overnight, we sprayed them with the gold food spray and made them into shiny round 'gold medals'.  Using the markers, we decorated them with various Olympics designs, such as the 5 rings, US flags, and little statements: "Go Team USA" and "Go for the Gold!"

Copyright 2012-2014 - "Be The One" - www.aclassofone.blogspot.com  All rights are reserved. No text, photos, or content may be reproduced without direct permission from the author.

Having Fun While Learning With the Winter Olympics

My kids are more enthusiastic about the Winter Olympics than ever before. What is not to love? Extreme sports, athletes pursuing their dream, dedication, inspiration, patriotic spirit....not to mention all the science, geography, culture, language, and math you can sneak in if you are looking for those opportunities!

I wanted to share a few ways to make the Winter Olympics a fun and educational experience....

First, there is a huge list of resources at The Winter Olympics Resource Roundup at The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew's website.

Reading history lessons while keeping an eye on skating and hockey.....

I would like to share two resources we used that have been phenomenal.

First, we did a Winter Olympics Lapbook that I purchased from A Journey Through Learning for $1.00. Yes...a dollar! It has an instant download also, with full color pictures. Kelly (3rd grade) put it together in two days, and we learned a lot about the Olympics through it. It covered the history of the Olympic Games, the current location (so we found out exactly where Sochi is), and then what the different sports are all about. It is making watching events a lot more interesting, since we actually understand what is going on.

Here are some pictures of the assembled lapbook:

The cover: Kelly drew a slopestyle snowboarder performing a trick jump - from Team USA of course!

The history of the Games:

The third folder has a separate mini book for each event, where Kelly can record the medal winners and their countries. An added bonus is that she likes to find out where each of the countries are, so we are covering a lot of Geography 'territory' by doing that. 

This is a picture of a huge wall mural that Laura made, showing all the events and when they are taking place, so we don't miss anything exciting: 

Lastly, there is a really neat website put together by NBC that investigates the science angle of many of the Olympic sports. Laura is studying Physics this year, and found the short videos very informative and relevant to her studies. It is really interesting to see Physics in real life action. It makes learning such a hard subject much more interesting when the student understands its relevancy to real life situations. 

Here is a link to the Science of the Olympic Winter Games where you can find all the videos to watch. I guarantee you will find them fascinating!

Go TEAM USA!!!

Copyright 2012-2014 - "Be The One" - www.aclassofone.blogspot.com  All rights are reserved. No text, photos, or content may be reproduced without direct permission from the author.