So the graphing of M&M's has led to much conversation at the KindleSeed homestead. When we told Rob about our predictions he immediately sided with Kahli- he knew the colour distribution would be varied, he even knew that blue was the most popular colour.
Aparently this information is common knowledge and can be found on the M&M's website.
Also M&M math keeps everyone interested, from elementary math students, all the way up to college students.

Graphing M and M's.
Originally uploaded by annamaren.

K was right! Look at how many blue ones there were in our bag compared to brown ones.
Makes me wonder what it would look like if we did it again!

K sorts M's for the bar graph.
Originally uploaded by annamaren.

We worked on graphing M&M's for Math today.
We made predictions about the variety of numbers for each colour that we might find.
My prediction was that since bagging M&M's was a mechanical procedure in a factory that it was likely that the numbers of each colour would come out fairly evenly.
K predicted that the machine at the factory would seem more like a person just grabbing M&M's jsut randomly in handfuls.
She was right. Check out the photo of the graph!

Party!
Originally uploaded by annamaren.

K had friends over for the afternoon to enjoy a special Valentine Party. We made cookies and hot chocolate for our friends, and the girls played American Girl dolls all afternoon.
All of these girls are sweeties. Just looking at the photos I took of this afternoon, these sweet fresh faces and those big beatiful innocent eyes.... I am so thankful that K has such joyous, innocent gal-pals and chums. They all seem to play together so well.
Ahhhhh, girlhood magic. I love it.

Chocolate scented playdough!
Originally uploaded by annamaren.

Today's project was making Chocolate Scented Play Dough. As my mother knows, I am not the worlds best playdough maker. (I have burned the stuff, turned it into gloop, I have even made playdough that disgustingly seperated, almost like curds and whey, a mere 24 hours after making it. That was by far the worst.) Anyway.... so I held no high hopes for the Chocolate Play Dough, yet here it is! And boy did it smell good!
K is making a chocolate castle, like the one Willy Wonka made for Prince Pondicherry. : )

Bread.
Originally uploaded by annamaren.

Here's the bread itself..... MMmmm

I have been seeing this bread all over the place...... here is the recipe from www.notmartha.org
Over at Knitonequilttoo she has a post with pictures. That is the actual recipe and method I printed out. (Because it has pictures!) Also I baked it right on my pizza stone. K and L loved it.




No-Knead Bread

Appeared in the article The Secret of Great Bread: Let Time Do the Work by Mark Bittman in the November 8th, 2006 New York Times

Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery

Time: About 1 1/2 hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising

- 3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting [I used bread, also suggested is substituting 1 cup whole wheat flour*.]
- 1/4 teaspoon instant [aka Rapid Rise, QuickRise, Instant Active Dry, Perfect Rise, or Bread Machine Yeast] yeast
- 1 1/4 [1 3/4] teaspoons salt
- Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 [1 1/2] cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees. [I put it on top of my fridge.]

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal [rice flour was suggested as it won't get gummy**]; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart [about a 4-quart pot is preferred] heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 [10 or 15] minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1 1/2-pound loaf.

I posted the unit we will start tommorow in the Themes section.... it's Chocolate!!
Yep, there's lots to learn about chocolate! I am looking forward to a delicious couple of weeks.
If anyone has any great ideas for lesson planning, please e-mail me, I'd love to add it!

We've put in to swap some of the crafty love in our house with some mysterious other internet family. Don't know who yet, we'll see!
The idea is that K and L will work on some fun crafting goodness (with my help!) and send it off to another family's children. People are participating from all over the world! There's still a tiny little bit of time to sign up- 'till Monday... if you are interested in playing too!