The Pin: 

Chicken Pot Pies from the Pastry Queen:







                                                                      Source: barnesandnoble.com via Laura on Pinterest

Want the recipe? Go here.

The Good: Awesome, time-tested recipe. This was my first time to freeze it, and the pies froze and baked well. Jim and R will eat these. J is old enough to stop by Sonic on the way home from baseball practice.

The Bad: I'm not talking bad here, just a few personal preferences. I take out the red bell pepper because Jim doesn't like it. I add more chicken stock to the cream sauce because the pies are too firm for us. I also only use 8 oz. of cream cheese for the crust, and it turns out just fine. Why buy another brick of cream cheese just for 2 oz? And while I like the chicken pot pie at home, nothing beats the memories Tuesdays at the Rather Sweet Bakery in Fredericksburg, Texas for the original! Unfortunately, the cafe is closed now. Good thing for cookbooks!
The Pin:



                                              Source: freezermealsforus.blogspot.com via Laura on Pinterest



And yes, I realize there's not a . in my Dr Pepper. That's not a mistake. I went to Baylor in Waco, the home of Dr Pepper, and the trademark is one of the things I retained from my previous life of searching the AP Stylebook.

I found this recipe when I was searching for freezer meals on, of all places, Freezer Meals for Us. The Dr Pepper caught my eye because J & R love it, and we all love spaghetti.

The Good: Fairly easy to make, tasted good after being frozen and baked. I was a little worried about the Dr Pepper taste because it's not my favorite soda (give me Diet Coke!), but it wasn't overpowering. My kids were surprisingly hesitant to try a recipe that included Dr Pepper, but they ended up liking it. Jim really loved it!

The Bad: With a whole 12 oz. can of Dr Pepper in the sauce, I was afraid it would be too juicy, but the sauce gelled nicely while baking. Next time, I will use a smaller package of noodles to even everything out. I added a nice layer of HEB's Italian Blend Shredded Cheese while baking and topped with Parmesan cheese during the last few minutes of baking.

Summary: Easy to make, freezes well, family loves it. A keeper! 
The Pins: came from two un-speech-related sources.

                                                                     Source: chrisgalbraithcreations.blogspot.com via Laura on Pinterest



                                                      Source: ustamp4fun.com via Laura on Pinterest

Here is my speech take on these:

I took the cute folded ear, the peeking bunny, and added some eggs with speech words. I also added a glyph. I used this activity with K-5th groups, and how often does that happen?!?

Directions:
Create a glyph. I chose Easter colors. The reason this example is so tiny is because I reduced the font to fit three glyphs on a printer page due to the cost of ink and paper. There are directions for parents on the top. Next time, I would keep the first sentence: We worked on Easter words in speech therapy. But, I would leave some blank space for individual instructions. They are quick to write.

The questions are:
What is your favorite thing to do on Easter? (go to church, go on an egg hunt, see the Easter bunny, get an Easter basket)
What do you like to eat on Easter? (chocolate egg, jelly beans, Peeps, carrots)
What flowers do you like to see on Easter? (I'm in Texas, so bluebonnets are a big thing). (lily, bluebonnets, daisy, buttercups)
What is your favorite Easter color? (purple, yellow, pink, green)
What is your favorite kind of egg? (hard-boiled, plastic, confetti, chocolate)
What is your favorite pattern on Easter eggs? (polka dot, flower, stripes, swirls)

I also put the color-coded glyph on my chalkboard:

Make a pattern. I used my Cricut to cut out some shapes from the Plantin Schoolbook Cartridge, and then I traced the ovals, circles and hearts onto paper and made copies:



As the students work on coloring and cutting out, practice their speech/language with them.

With coloring, I found it easier to give my groups a selection of the colors I used - purple, green, yellow and pink - rather than giving them the entire crayon box. It eliminated searching for the right color and trying to use a color NOT on the glyph. Also, on my model, I colored over the first word, Easter, and it didn't show up very well. I just kept it as an example of what NOT to do!

Cutting out took some time. Next time, this project will cover two days. Day 1 will be a book and coloring. An Easter book I like and used with K-2 this year was Hopper's Easter Surprise by Kathrin Seigenthaler and Marcus Pfister. Day 2 will be cutting out and assembling.

To assemble, glue the inner ears onto the outer ears and then glue the ears to the back of the head. Glue the cheeks and nose together. Use a marker to draw eyes, whiskers and freckles. Glue the chin onto the back of the construction paper. Cut the paw oval in half and glue paws to the paper.

Glue Easter grass to the paper. The students LOVED this part because they got to "scribble" with their glue sticks. I bought a 2 oz. package of grass, and it was MORE than enough. I used Elmer's glue on the back of the eggs, and the students glued those on.

The Good: Great project for K-5; older students caught onto directions quickly, and the younger students enjoyed the assembly; great communication for home so parents can see what their child is working on in speech; good activity for language and carryover of artic.

The Bad: This was not quite as functional for students just starting who are in isolation. They had to quit working on the project and work with me for a bit on sounds, which caused some time crunches in completing everything.

Summary: I will definitely keep this in my rotation of Easter activities.


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