Favorite Recipes

Have you ever made a meal from a recipe? In this blog, you’ll find some favorite recipes from Classtopians. Some people use recipes to cook and some people are able to make food from “scratch”. When you are young you may need to use a recipe to begin cooking because you won’t know the right amount to use. So, using a recipe will help you figure out what to do. Later on when you are older you can experiment in making the meal.

Most recipes are passed down in families and sometimes friends share recipes. If you have a special recipe that you love, share it with someone you know.  

Here are some recipes from the Classtopians

Grandma Patties -from The's Grandma

This recipe comes from our friend, The. The recipe was passed on to him and he shared it with our teacher. Now we all get to try it and so do you. It is a great vegetarian substitute for meat.

1 cup bulgur wheat- sold at Sprouts grocery stores

(Soak wheat in 1 cup of boiling water for 1 hour or so)

1 onion grated

1 cup cheese (cheddar)

½ cup bread crumbs

1 egg

1 cup walnuts

Season to taste ( oregano, sage, dill, basil, salt, pepper)

Oil for frying

Heinz home style Turkey gravy in bottle - sold at Target

Preheat the oven to 350

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and form in patties.

Fry patties in a large skillet until golden brown.

Add turkey gravy to the patties and put in the oven for 40 minutes.

Stuffed Bell Peppers with Grandma Patties- by Scadoxus

*This recipe can be added bell peppers. Stuffed bell peppers are great for Lunch or dinner.

To make the bell pepper version cook the patties and add mushrooms and turkey gravy to crumbled patties. Cook 10 minutes on the stove. Cut bell peppers in half and empty the seeds from the inside. Stuff the peppers with the mixture and sprinkle grated cheddar cheese on top. Place the stuffed peppers in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes covered with foil at 350. Uncover for the remaining 10 minutes to get some color.

Enjoy!

Laila’s Turkey Meatloaf

You will need:

2 pounds of turkey

1 large egg

Half cup bread crumbs

Half cup oatmeal

1 15 Oz can of tomato sauce

1 tsp black pepper

1tsp garlic salt

1 tsp Italian seasoning

1 tsp parsley

1 tsp oregano

   

 Directions:

Preheat oven to 375

Get large bowl and mix ;

Turkey

Your large egg

bread crumbs

oatmeal

Half can of tomato sauce

Black pepper

Garlic salt

Italian seasoning

Parsley

Oregano

Mix until fully combined.

Next, form a loaf inside of pan.

Put it in the oven and cook it for 45 minutes. After the 45 minutes, pour the remaining tomato sauce on the top and cook

for 15 more minutes.

Finally, take out of the oven and serve with mashed potatoes and green beans. Or just anything you would like.

Just right out of the oven.

Me and my scrumptious plate.  Yum! 

Steak with Mixed Vegetables -by Elizabeth

This recipe Elizabeth favorite because “When you eat it you taste different kind of flavors.” She makes this with her mom. It is a good way to spend time together.

Ingredients can be found at any grocery store.

The ingredients are:

* 1 pound of stew beef

*3 Bell Peppers [red, yellow or orange

*1 Onion

*2 Tomatoes

*3 Potatoes

1. The first thing you need to do is to cook the meat. While it is cooking start to cut the onions, tomatoes, and bell peppers into slices.
2. When the meat is almost ready put all the ingredients in the pot.
3. Put some salt and pepper in the pot with the ingredients.
4. Wait for 20 or 25 minutes
5. After you have waited for the 25 minutes turn off the fire and you are ready to serve.
6. Enjoy your food and have a nice day.

Breaded Chicken -by Alyssa

This is Alyssa’s favorite recipe to make with her Nanna.

                         Ingredients

2 chicken Breasts

1 teaspoon of Dijon Mustard

2 tablespoons of Margarine or Butter

½ cup of Bread Crumb

Salt

Pepper

Pound the Chicken Breast very thin

Season with salt and pepper

Melt butter then let cool for 2 minutes

Add Margarine

Dip both side of the chicken in the butter/margarine

Put chicken in Bread Crumb

Arrange on cooking sheet

Put in oven at 400 degrees

Keep in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes

Turn once

Serve while still warm

This recipe is great with rice and vegetable, or just a nice big salad.

The Power of Friends

This Blog is dedicated to the Anonymous Donor who kindly funded our project, We Need To Breathe. All of us in Classtopia  thank you for your generosity. Without your support this project could not have happened so quickly. Special thanks to Kylie's mom who ran around the city looking for borders and stepping stones for the garden. To Ms J., one of the office staff, who kindly shared her funds with us, we love your support. Our friend The, who donated and continues to donate plants as well as other materials to the nation, thanks for adding another dimension to the Classtopia experience.

The Process
We are very happy to announce that on February 9, 2017, we created on DonorsChoose.org, a project for Classtopia. The name of the project "We Need to Breathe" was initially a small project to get some much needed tools for working in the garden. The purpose of the project was to get Classtopians more involved in civic duty and responsibility to the community. Creating new garden spaces on the campus was a way to help make the campus more beautiful. We wanted to revitalize some overlooked areas by creating small garden vignettes. This would change the space in very dramatic ways: students and staff would stop to look at the plants and flowers and connect with each other and the obvious increase in biodiversity on the campus would lend itself to more students having first hand experiences with plants and animal life cycles. The goal is to have outdoor learning spaces for people of all ages.

Since October, we have been working hard on campus beautification projects.  The first garden, now completed and thriving, has given us the confidence to want to do more to make the campus a more inviting place.

We noticed that the garden bed behind the school's auditorium was in dire need of care.  There is evidence that a long time ago there was intentional planting. Toady, what remains is a grouping of persistent Yucca plants that continue to grow despite neglect.

First view of the area.

After informing the principal of the plan to take over the new area, Classtopians went into full attack mode and decided to clear the area of weeds, pull dead Yucca leaves, and prune unsightly branches  After an hour of work and thirty pair of helping hands the space looked much better. We collaborated on the ideal plants for the new space and settled on a garden that would have to be a drought tolerant because of the amount of sun it received daily. Classtopians monitored the area for several days to make sure that the choices of plants would be the right. The space was sunny enough for succulents and to incorporate a butterfly garden.

Plants needed to be cleaned 

Students attacking the Yucca plants.

Team work.

Yucca plants and removed Eucalyptus tree stump.

Planter bed after initial clearing of weeds.

We needed help to get the project on the way. Kylie's uncle had some information about DonorsChoose and passed it on to one of our new Coordinators, Ms. C. She helped a lot with the process and before long our project was submitted and approved. We waited to see if our project would get the funding we needed. While waiting for the funds we continued to make plans for the new area.

On February 15, we reached out to a long time friend about our project and what we were doing in Classtopia. Within minutes of the e-mail our project was completely funded. The project list included; a shovel for digging holes, a greenhouse to begin germination of seeds from the garden and for the garden areas around the campus, a 175ft. hose to reach the planting beds far away from the spigots, four terrariums to raise delicate seedlings and cuttings, and a pruner to clip and maintain plants.

Materials for project began arriving on February 21, and were quickly put to the test. The shovel was the first item to be used. The new area needed to be aerated for the plant roots to expand and for the impending rain. Everyone took part in the activities.

We also received a small grant from Ms. J. to buy plants. She works at our school and believed in our project. With the money we were able to buy plants at mickeyhargitayplants. Mickey was generous enough to donate some additional plants to us and also challenge us to take care of some neglected nursery plants. We are happy to say that all the plants are doing well.

Classtopians at work.

"Many hands make light work."

.

First plants in the new bed. Plants stayed in pots a few days to acclimatize to the area. 

• 

   Borders for the bed. Donated by Kylie's mom.

We continue to work hard in Classtopia to beautify every little bit on neglected space on our campus. We recognize that we need friends just as much as we need to breathe. It is through the generous contributions of our friends that we are making a difference to our school community.

Justice Department

Today in Classtopia we spent to create the Justice Department. The Classtopian who was chosen as head was Christopher. Even though Christopher was elected by spending, Elizabeth will be in charge. Natalia will work with Elizabeth to get things done in the department. The purpose of the justice department is to help Classtopians solve conflicts.

For example:

Most conflicts between students happen during recess or lunch. If they don’t know how to solve the situation, they can come to the Justice department. We can help them solve their dilemma. 

The most important thing about being in the justice department is that we have to be fair. Whoever is solving a problem between two Classtopians has to be fair. Our teacher said that we have to be impartial. That means we have to treat both sides equally. So, if one of our friends is having a problem with another classmate we should not just be on our friend’s side and help them out. We have to help both classmates so we can fix the problem fairly and that is what Justice Department does.

YOU HAVE A PROBLEM ?

WE CAN HELP YOU.

THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT

         

Picture by Natalia

This is a picture of the spending Classtopians did to pick the head of the Justice Department. Christopher spent 398p on himself which made him win even though he was the only one that spent on him. This was the first time that this has happened. Almost everyone in Classtopia was compensated. Christopher advocated for himself and it paid off.  

Members of the Justice department are Christopher, Elizabeth, Natalia Alyssa, Jessica, Nathaniel, Niven, Kylie, Camila, Diana, and Luis Angel.

Justice Department is here to help you solve your problems. So

Classtopians if you have a problem Justice Department is your solution.

So get ready Classtopians Justice is coming your way!




Today, March 17, 2017, there was a conflict between two students during class. The JD was able to help solve the conflict in just a few minutes.

Justice Department on the job.

This blog was co-written by Elizabeth and Natalia.

Young Botanists At Work

Today in Classtopia, the big lesson, for those of us we completed our homework, was to continue working as future botanist. We used our pre prepared bottles to sow our fern spores. We got our spores from our friend, The. He got them from Barbara Joe Hoshizaki. The also gave us the book Fern Grower’s Manual. The book has all kinds of information about fern and how to grow them correctly.

We had so many to choose from. Each person decided which spores they wanted to grow. Some of them we all decided to sow, because we wanted to see whose plants would be the first to start growing.

The spores were in tiny little bags that we received. First thing we did was to label the bottles with the name of the spore. We used q-tips to put the spores in the bottles. After we were finished we put them in ziploc plastic bags. They are now ready to begin the process of growing. We need to be patient because it might take a while for them to grow.

After we finished with the fern spores, we worked together to build one of the four terrariums we got. We also started to build a Raised Garden Bed that we are going to put in the new garden area to grow some vegetables or just some plants. We were going to start the greenhouse but it turned out that the greenhouse was pretty big and it had too many parts for building in the back of the classroom, so we will do that one later, and outside.

Overall it was a fun day at school for those of us who participated. We learned a lot about a different kind of plant- ferns. We also learned that coming to school prepared means that we get to do more interesting activities.

Below you can see the different types of fern spores that we used and how they look when we are done.

These are the spores we used.

These are the bottles we put the fern spores in.

With the tweezers, we carefully take out the leaf trash.  

These are the spores in their new temporary home.

This is the terrarium we were building

This is the finished terrarium.

If you live in the area and would like to learn more about ferns then please consider attending a meeting of the The Los Angeles International Fern Society.

Tips And Tricks For Boxing

10 Tips and Tricks for Boxing  Elizabeth again with another blog!! I have some awesome tips and some amazing tricks to use while boxing. After you are done reading the 10 tips and tricks I guarantee you, that you will be satisfied with them. They will help a lot if you want to be an outstanding boxer. So let's get started!

Tricks

* Make sure you put on your boxing gloves tightly

* Never stop moving in the ring when you are boxing

* Pretend you are  going to punch in the face so that they protect their

  face and you can attack the stomach

*Get as close to your  opponent so you can punch them.   

* Surround your opponent in a corner then punch them.

* When you punch, turn your whole body to where you are punching

* Stay calm, focus, and breath

* Make sure your hands cover your chin

* Exhale when you punch

*Always relax your shoulders



                                                                                                                   

                                                                                                                      Tips  

*Always wear protective gear

*Always bring water

*Never keep your eyes off your opponent  

*In the beginning punch light, then harder at the end       

*Always throw a combination of jabs and punches

* Always be quick

* Throw short punches but long jabs            

*Put your hands high, elbows low, and your face up.

* Always do your best

*Have fun

Read Across America Day

Read Across America Day   
Today is Read Across America day at our school. We are happy to celebrate this wonderful day to remember the author Theodor Seuss Geisel who used the pen name Dr. Seuss to write books for children of all ages. At our school to celebrate we had readers come to share their favorite book by Dr. Seuss. We were expecting Officer Joseph and instead we got  Ms. Gonzalez. She read the book In a People House. We thought that was going to be it. Then the phone rang and we got a message that our reader was on his way. When he entered the door  we greeted him and he said he was not Officer Joseph, he was Officer Segovia from the Wilshire police Station.

Some Classtopians volunteered to help him read the story The Cat In The Hat. We were lucky to have two readers read to us. After we were done with the story we asked a lot of questions about the police department, then we talked about why we were afraid of the police. By the end of the morning he had to go and we felt a whole lot better about police officers.

Now to talk about  Dr. Seuss. He was born on March 2, 1904. Dr. Seuss was an author. His first book published was And to Think I saw It On Mulberry Street in 1937. His most famous book that he ever wrote was The Cat in the Hat. Another one of his most recommended books is the book The Lorax. We did a foot vote and How The Grinch Stole Christmas had 13 votes. The Lorax had 9 votes. Horton Hears a Who got 4 votes. And Luisangel was the only one who chose The Cat In The Hat. These books are fun to read for big and little kids, and for the parents who have to read them to their children.  

In Classtopia today we remember Dr. Seuss and his wonderful contribution. Every Classtopian has read a book by this very famous author.  We recommend you read a book today by Dr. Seuss or by any of your favorite authors.

We remember a quote by Einstein that says’’ Logic will get  you from an A to a B. Imagination will take you everywhere’’.

Let us continue the celebration of  this big and important day by reading.

Below are Classtopians and their favorite books by Dr. Seuss.

 

In this picture these books may look like Dr. Seuss’ books but they are not they are from P.D.Eastman, and Tish Rabe.

                                         This is Officer Segovia reading.