CUPCAKES BAKED
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CUPCAKE PAPERS REMAINING
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One of my Valiant 11 Primary students had an early January birthday. We do not eat snacks at church on Fast Sunday, so I promised to make her cupcakes of choice for the second Sunday. Like me, Mabel likes pink and sweet things, so the first batch of cupcakes this year is my favorite: white cupcakes from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes, with plenty of frosting and sprinkles on top!
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The last time I brought cookies to Sunday School, one of the students said that she hadn't had time for breakfast or lunch, so they were the first thing she had eaten all day. Because of that comment, I thought it would be good to make something a little more nutritious, so I browsed all of the muffin recipes I had bookmarked. Despite my good intentions, the muffin I chose to try is not particularly nutritious and probably should be called a cupcake. I doubled the recipe, made several changes, and should have made several more (for example, the streusel made as written did not come together very well), so my version of the recipe, with a much shorter title than the original, is below. Bakery-Style Maple Muffins Streusel Topping:
Use a pastry cutter to mix all streusel ingredients together until they form coarse crumbs. Set aside. Muffin Batter:
Cream butter and sugars. Beat in eggs, then add maple syrup and vanilla extract. Add dry ingredients alternating with buttermilk. Fill muffin papers with batter. Sprinkle streusel on top of batter, pressing in a little if desired. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Allow to cool completely. Milk Glaze
Maple Glaze (see note)
Notes:
The children happily devoured their cupcakes with heart sprinkles. We decided that next week will be a cookie week, but nobody expressed a flavor preference. . .fortunately, nobody in this class is picky! We talked about all of the children's families. They have different numbers of brothers and sisters, but everybody has parents and siblings who love them. We talked about why babies need families: they cannot feed or take care of themselves. We also discussed why five- and six-year-olds need families: to help them learn, to drive them to school and church, to help them clean the house, to provide food and clothing, and to give them lots of love and support. We looked at this picture and learned about the Angel Gabriel visiting Mary. We talked about how surprised we would be if an angel came to bring us a message! The angel told Mary not to be afraid, and then told her that she would be Jesus' mother. We talked about what a special responsibility this was. We learned that an angel came to talk to Joseph, too, to tell him that Jesus would be born. Joseph would help Mary teach Jesus. We talked about how Jesus Christ needed parents, just like we do, to protect him and take care of him as he grew up.
We talked about many different ways that we can show love for our families. We concluded by using lots and lots of heart stickers to make love notes for our parents and siblings. It was Bird Day in CTR 5! The children loved their tiny egg cupcakes, especially the yummy chocolate frosting. We reviewed what CTR means: Choose the Right! We learned that Jesus wants us to follow Him, and we do that by obeying his commandments and making wise choices. We learned about a boy named Warren who lived near a bird refuge. Warren found some children who had killed a bird and wanted to destroy some eggs. He chose the right by preventing the destruction of the eggs and telling his father what had happened, despite the threats from the other children of what they would do to him if he told the truth. Warren's father taught him to be kind to the others, even though they had been mean to him. Our feathered friends helped us with the next part of the lesson. Each bird had a scenario attached to its wing or leg, and the children explained how they would choose the right in each situation. The children loved the birds and wanted to keep the especially interesting ones! We concluded class by coloring pictures of birds and playing with our lesson helpers until our parents arrived.
It was the day before Sister Combs's birthday, so of course we had to eat cupcakes. We had a deep discussion about whether the frosting or the cake was the best part (conclusion: they are both pretty amazing), and about what our favorite colors are (because of the pink sprinkles). We learned that Adam and Eve were the first people on the earth, and that they had a family. They taught their children to choose the right, just like our parents teach us. We learned that Heavenly Father gave us temples so that we can be sealed to our families forever. The children were dismayed to learn that people who get married on the beach or in their back yard are only married until they die! We want to be with our families forever, so we learned how to prepare to go to the temple. The children shared things that they can do, such as paying tithing and other offerings, keeping the Word of Wisdom, telling the truth, and being kind to family and friends.
We looked at lots of pictures of different temples, and shared our experiences visiting some of them and walking around the grounds. Ian even had a picnic outside the Denver temple before he moved! The children are excited to learn more about the temple and to go when they are older. We started coloring our own little "I Love to See the Temple" books. There was not enough time to finish, so some of the children were planning to complete their masterpieces as a Sunday afternoon activity. Having successfully completed the Primary Program, everybody was full of energy today! The children became even more excited when they saw the chocolate cupcakes, generously provided by Senior Primary Sister Combs in honor of her birthday. We made a big mess and had a spirited discussion about our favorite flavors of cake and frosting. Sister Combs's birthday is next month, and the children think that she should bring a big cake to celebrate. We played several rounds of a memory game, and then talked about something we do at church every week that helps us to remember Jesus Christ: we partake of the Sacrament. The children pointed out that we use small cups of water instead of a big cup of wine, and that our chapel looks different than the room where Jesus taught his Apostles about the Sacrament. We learned that these things are not important--the things that matter are the Sacrament prayers and our reverence during the Sacrament. We learned that Jesus also taught the Nephites how to administer the Sacrament, because it is important for all of his disciples to remember him. We had a lot of fun demonstrating how we should and should not behave while the Sacrament is being administered. The children all agreed that dancing in your seat and talking to your neighbors are not appropriate! Instead, we should sit quietly, think about Jesus, and politely pass the trays to our neighbors (if Mom and Dad say we can). We colored pictures showing correct behavior during the Sacrament to take home and share with our families.
One chocolate-chip cookie cupcake was enough to make each child full and happy! Emmett in particular was really excited to have cupcakes. We learned all about the wicked King Noah, who also taught all of the Nephites in his kingdom to do bad things. The children thought all of his subjects should have moved away when he told them to pay taxes, and that all the ones who had stayed then should have left when he hired false priests who preached false doctrine. Unfortunately, that is not what happened!
We learned that Heavenly Father sent Abinadi to tell the people to repent. King Noah heard about him and did not want to change his behavior or have the people change theirs, so he had Abinadi arrested. Abinadi taught the king and the false priests Heavenly Father's commandments. We took turns choosing stars that had commandments written on them, and discussing what Heavenly Father was telling us to do. Each child had to explain how to keep the commandment, and then had the privilege of putting the star on the chalkboard. . .because magnets are the most important educational tool in our classroom! We learned that Noah did not heed Abinadi's counsel, and only one of his priests did. Alma listened and felt the Holy Ghost telling him he needed to repent. He begged King Noah to free Abinadi, but Noah refused and threatened to kill Alma as well as Abinadi. Alma ran and hid and wrote down all the things he had learned from Abinadi. Much to the outrage of the entire class, King Noah then proceeded to kill Abinadi. They thought Abinadi should have escaped and taught more people! We talked about how Abinadi had done what Heavenly Father wanted, and that he had taught Alma, who would later teach a lot of other people. We learned that the Holy Ghost can teach us about the truth of all things. We discussed praying and listening for the Spirit. We learned about a boy who was meeting with the missionaries and received a witness from the Holy Ghost that what they were teaching him was true. We talked about being like a star and letting our light shine through our good examples. We listened to an old Primary song that Sister Combs sang frequently as a child. Then we colored a lot of stars and even more stars. Today was all about talents! We learned that each of Heavenly Father's children has talents. Sister Combs shared one of her talents--baking delicious white cupcakes--to start the class. Everyone was excited about this talent! After we had finished enjoying the first talent, we heard a few talents that each member of the class has, and tried to guess which ones went with which person. We noticed that several children love to sing, and a lot of them love to draw. We have some who are really good at sports and outdoor activities, and others are great readers. It was fun to compare our talents! We learned that it takes a lot of practice and hard work to develop our talents. President Heber J. Grant was not very good at playing baseball, singing, or writing legibly, but he spent hours working on these talents and eventually became skilled at all three. The children especially enjoyed hearing that Heber's handwriting looked like an ink bottle had exploded before he perfected his penmanship. We learned Jesus' parable about talents. Several of the children remembered this story and helped retell it to the rest of the class. They loved the first two servants' reward for working hard and earning more talents, but they did feel a little sorry for the third servant, who had his only talent taken away from him. We resolved to be like the good and faithful servants, who developed their talents, not the slothful servant, who hid his talent in the earth.
Each child took a star and colored it in a unique way, because each of them has a unique set of talents. It was fun to see all the creative color combinations and patterns. Those who had time left before the end of church also enjoyed coloring shooting stars. It was Back-to-School Cupcake Sunday! One of the students in our class had been on a dairy-free diet, so these were Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes, with sprinkles on top and no frosting. It is too hot to take frosting to church right now anyway. Some of the children loved these, but others were seriously unimpressed. The sprinkles looked artistic, anyway. We learned from a story about Theodore M. Burton, who went to visit his grandmother's farm when he was five. Grandma told him to stay away from the chickens, because they were feeling very protective of their chicks. Theodore went close to a chick to feel how soft its feathers were, and the mother hen pecked his hand! After Theodore stopped crying, his grandmother explained why the chicken had hurt him, and sent him back outside to play. She warned him to stay away from the goose and her goslings. Theodore went outside and started to come close to the geese, but the mother goose hissed at him and he ran back inside. We talked about how much happier Theodore would have been if he had been obedient to his grandmother. We also talked about how our Heavenly Father, parents, grandparents, and Primary teachers give us rules to protect us, just as the chicken and goose were protecting their children. We learned that Jesus Christ was obedient to all of Heavenly Father's commandments, even when it was really difficult. We will never be asked to do anything as hard as what Jesus did for us, but we should do everything that Heavenly Father asks of us. We did some fun activities and sang a couple of songs about obedience. "Do as I'm Doing" seems to be our favorite song at the moment. . .and it involves moving around, which is always helpful at the end of a long day at church!
We learned that Noah was obedient when he built the ark and gathered all the animals onto it. We had fun at the end of class coloring our Noah's Ark pictures! |
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