Scandinavian Almond Bars

Scandinavian Almond Bars
1/2 C butter 1 3/4 C flour
1 C white sugar 2 tsp. baking powder
1 egg 1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. almond extract 1/2 C sliced almonds
2 T milk
Cream butter and sugar, add egg and almond extract and mix until fluffy. Stir in flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix well. Divide dough into 4 pieces and roll each into a 12 inch log. Place 2 logs on a cookie sheet 4-5 inches apart and flatten with hand until it's about 3 inches wide. Brush flattened log with milk and sprinkle with sliced almonds. Bake at 325 degrees for 12-15 minutes until edges are slightly browned. While cookies are still warm, slice diagonally into 1 inch slices. Cool and drizzle with almond icing.
To make icing: stir together 1 C powdered sugar, 1/4 tsp. almond extract, and 1/4 C milk until smooth. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

I saw a picture of these bars on Flickr. They looked so delicious, so I searched the name on the net and found this recipe. It is made exactly as it was described and the finished product looked the same as well. I made them with my niece this afternoon to pass the time. The taste is no disappointment either, easy enough to whip up in a few minutes and the ingredients are basic as well.

Recipe from http://www.zionmilaca.org/cookies.html

More play snaps

Mary and Joseph...





the shepherds...



the innkeeper...




and the narrator, dressed as an angel to join in the fun!

Christmas Pagent

Not until next week! But the kids were so cute in their costumes, I had to take pictures. Here are the angels;



and here are the kings; we are short on boys, so some little girls gladly agreed to fill the roles of shepherds and kings!




More coming later!

Star Lantern

Actually a dodecahedron (12 sided shape), the lantern is made with pentagons, folded and pasted. The folding is what creates the stars. The shape is beautiful with a candle illuminating it. These are simply illuminated by the sun.

I did these with my grades 1,2 and 3 classes, and it went better then anticipated. They all did their own cutting, and I helped grade 1s with the scoring and folding, and the rest mostly guiding and lending a hand for the gluing.

The idea comes form this site, I found a pentagon online, decreased it's size and went from there.

http://www.labbe.de/shop/bs.asp?g=444&a=7&b=8390&c=&f=#page

Christmas

The busiest time of year again.(or maybe the most unpredictable) Every year I strive to keep it simple at school. I try to limit crafts and activities and keep to my schedule as much as possible. This year is no exception and as always, I have to change things around in order to get some practicing and crafting done.

Just now my students left for some singing practice. This gives me a few minutes to spend on here.

For the concert, I am doing a play, 'Jesus' Christmas Party', and a poem recital of 'What shall I give him?' with the ASL interpretation. We will only begin practicing in earnest next week. This week we are doing the story as a big book. That, I hope will make the memorizing of the lines easier. I wasn't going to do a play, but kids love being on stage and my students are no exception, so I gave in and am doing a play I did successfully before.