Back-To-School, Now Back to Blog!

Oh, I have missed my blogging!  School is back in full swing and I haven't had either spare time or a clear enough conscience to write since not all of my professional paperwork was finished! 

I work at a great school with great people and, as the September 30 count said, 431 great kids from age 4.5 to 10!  For our initial staff meeting, a few of us decided to make breakfast.  Tracy said I could only bring fruit...I said, "Okay..." and she very knowingly added, "...and not fancy stuff!"  Bummer.  She knows me, alright...but I didn't promise and off to Google Imageland I went.  Somehow I clicked on a website from Russia and after a few hours, I had some imperfect but still-cute apple art to share!

Things I learned during this first attempt:

• Try hard to choose apples which are very alike in size and shape so your slices line up and the shape of each polka-dotted apple is maintained.
• Use really sharp tools and practice on some potatoes first before you have crooked cuts or misaligned spots on your fruit canvases.  Some of the apple injuries were reminiscent of my attempts to slice a pizza with a pizza cutter; very few of the cuts matched!
• People who are your friends appreciate the effort and novelty and say nothing of the imperfections. :-)

I'm not going to write up a step-by-step this time but here are some pictures of my venture:

    

       

 

It was a lot of fun.  I dipped all of the cut pieces in orange juice to try to avoid browning and it worked quite well.  My co-worker, Travis, who has a physical education background and encourages others to pursue healthy lifestyle choices, said that people are more likely to eat cut up fruit versus having to commit to a whole fruit.  Most of my plate was emptied by my friends; I shared the leftover apples with my class and they were pretty impressed and appreciative, too.

Thank you for coming to or coming back to the island after my hiatus and I hope you are having a pleasant autumn season.  My next post will be about Hallowe'en foods which I have made.  In the meantime, why not head to Pinterest for some inspiration?  I love the joke about Pinterest from ragebuilder.com.  I couldn't find the original source so just look for the three block cartoon in this group of funnies; here is a link to it.   I'm not quite that bad but on my Pinterest boards, I have gathered lots of fantastic teaching ideas, helpful home things, and jokes to keep my family and students laughing.  Take care and remember an apple a day might keep the doctor away.  May only your apple skins be spotted or striped, not yours!


Jennifer