Ricotta

Today we turned our hand to making ricotta.

First we put milk and some extra cream in a pot and gently heated it until it was just boiling. We had to stir it so it wouldn't stick to the bottom of the pot.




Then we squeezed some lemon juice and added it to the pot along with some salt. It then had to simmer for a few minutes.

Can you see the curds that formed in the milk?

Mr Haste poured it into some cheesecloth to separate the curds from the whey. We had to lift it up so the whey could drain easily.

Here is the finished product - extra fresh ricotta cheese.

Cottage Cheese

On Tuesday we made some cottage cheese as part of our technology unit.
We mixed milk powder with some milk then heated it gently until it was just luke-warm. Then we added rennet and left it for 15 minutes to set.
After that Mr Haste cut it into 1cm cubes to let the whey separate from the curds.
Then we poured it into cheesecloth for two hours.
The next day we tried some on crackers.
We used the recipe from
http://www.nzwomansweekly.co.nz/food/nanas-pantry/homemade-ricotta-and-cottage-cheese/

Can you see the whey that has separated from the curds overnight?

A quick sample of the students:
7 really liked it
6 thought it was ok
6 didn't like it at all

Given that it was cottage cheese and children I call that a victory!

Xtramath

This term we have been trialling Xtramath - learning our 100 addition basic facts from 0+0 to 9+9 and then moving on to our subtraction facts.
Four students - Hannah, Charlie, Lidia and Emily have moved on to subtraction. Well done to them.
We have another group sitting in the 90s working on those last few addition problems - Arama, Benjamin, Izzy, May and Rachel. There is another big group just behind.

For me as a teacher, I see all the students' growing confidence in their basic facts knowledge in class at maths time. They are moving up the basic facts ladder too. I am confident that this increased knowledge  will help them learn new strategies in the future.
Thank you to all the parents who have been supporting the students to practise at home.