NATIONAL HOT CHOCOLATE DAY – January 31

NATIONAL HOT CHOCOLATE DAY

Each year on January 31, National Hot Chocolate Day warms up people across the country by celebrating the timeless cold-weather beverage.

Hot chocolate is a warm beverage made with ground chocolate, heated milk or water, and sugar. In America, we often use the terms hot chocolate and hot cocoa interchangeably. However, the two beverages are different.

Cocoa vs Hot Chocolate

We make hot cocoa with cocoa powder, heated milk or water, and sugar. We’re able to do this thanks to a process developed by father and son chemists. The thicker, more flavorful beverage, we make hot chocolate from ground chocolate containing cocoa butter. It’s also called drinking chocolate. Hot chocolate has also been around longer than hot cocoa. In the early 1800s, Casparus van Houten Sr. developed a process to separate the cocoa solids from the butter. His son, Coenraad Johannes made those fats more soluble in water. Together their processes made cocoa powder possible.

But before then, everyone drank hot chocolate. This thicker, creamier beverage often offered medicinal benefits for stomach ailments during the 19th century. In fact, long before the beverage’s popularity in Victorian times, it served in ceremonial culture.

2000 years ago, the Mayans likely created the first chocolate beverage. A cocoa beverage was also an essential part of Aztec culture by 1400 AD. Europe popularized the drink after it was introduced from Mexico in the New World.

Make it and Benefit

Hot chocolate can be enjoyed in a variety of combinations, topped with whipped cream or marshmallows. Sometimes a sprinkle of cinnamon or a dash of peppermint makes the chocolate extra special. In the United States, an instant form of hot chocolate is popular. It is made with hot water or milk and a packet containing mostly cocoa powder, sugar, and dry milk. People enjoy topping it with marshmallows or whipped cream.

There are health benefits to drinking hot chocolate. Cocoa contains significant amounts of antioxidants that may help prevent cancer. It has also been shown that the cocoa beans help with digestion. The flavonoids that are found in the cocoa also have a positive effect on arterial health.

HOW TO OBSERVE #NationalHotChocolateDay

Enjoy a cup of hot chocolate. You can make it with dark or milk chocolate. While you’re at it, try experimenting, too. Add some cinnamon or other flavors to your chocolate. Of course, inviting a friend to join you is essential to the celebration, too. Try adding these toppings.

Whipped cream
Marshmallows
Sprinkles
Candied fruit

Take a photo and use #NationalHotChocolateDay to post on social media.

NATIONAL HOT CHOCOLATE DAY HISTORY

National Day Calendar continues researching the origins of this chocolatey beverage holiday.

There are over 1,500 national days. Don’t miss a single one. Celebrate Every Day® with National Day Calendar®!

1^st Grade:

This week we continued working with anagrams. I had to refresh the children on the definition. I introduced them to the story The Great Show- and-Tell Disaster by Mike Reiss. This is a fiction picture book in which the author uses anagrams to write a funny story. We discussed some different anagrams and then I started the story. After reading each page, I would them ask them what the anagrams were. Most of the children were spot on. A few, though, were guessing words that rhymed. This took a bit more time to go through. I wanted to make sure they were able to grasp this new word and definition. We will continue with anagrams next week.

2^nd Grade:

We went over the last two chapters, 7 and 8, that we’ve already read. We then reread the boar’s conversation at the beginning of Chapter 8. I explained to them that we will be using a story structure that is helpful to incorporate when evaluating proposed solutions. It is called the Six Thinking Hats.

The purpose of the Six Thinking Hats is to examine an issue from different perspectives. This helps ensure that every detail is thought through. They need to come up with what the boars say with each hat. The boars may state information or ask questions. I reminded them that they are writing the dialogue for the boars, so they only have information that the boars have at this point. We will finish up with this part next week.

3^rd Grade:

We continued with our Jane Goodall reader. The children finished their annotations and we went through each page. I then introduced them to Patrick McDonnell and Jeanette Winter as two author/illustrators who created a biography of Jane Goodall.

We read both biographies that they will use to compare and contrast the books’ details. We will continue with this next week.

4^th Grade:

We started off the class discussing more mystery vocabulary. I then gave the girls some time to finish up “The Beneficiaries” part of the packet. We then discussed who had the motive to steal Mrs. Moneybag’s will. We came to the conclusion that everyone had a motive besides her friend who was as rich as her.

We then moved on to “The Suspects” worksheet. The girls grouped together and read through the detective’s notes. Based on the evidence, the chauffeur was devoted to Miss Moneybag’s, so he is eliminated as one of the suspects. We then moved on to “Who Had the Opportunity”. Now that they have the suspects with a motive, they need to determine if any of them were in the mansion between 1:45pm and 4:00pm. This logic puzzle was a bit more difficult and we needed to take it step by step. We did figure out that the secretary can be eliminated. We will continue with this mystery packet next week.

1^st Grade:

This week in math we finished up with our square unit lesson by completing a Think Deeply. Zani measured the target but it didn’t look right. The children then needed to write the reason it was incorrect. Some of the children needed help with this one. Most just wanted to say it looked wrong without explaining why that was. We then discussed what was wrong with the picture. I explained to them that the target had gaps and the square units were overlapped.

Then there was a big “oh, right”. They then got to work writing in the correct answers. I read a fax from Imi and Zani asking for help measuring a fair booth with their beaks. The children colored and cut out Imi and Zani’s beaks. They then partnered up to measure a five foot line which is the length of the fair booth.

Once they were done we compared their measurements with each other’s and discussed why they were different. They decided that it could be because of overlapping or gaps. We then ended the week with a cute book called Inch by Inch by Leo Lionni. This story is about an inchworm who measures different things as a way not to be eaten. I then introduced the standard unit length on 1 to them. Over the next couple of weeks I will be giving CogAt tests to kindergarten. I won’t be pulling the kids for the month of February.

2^nd Grade:

This week the children continued working on their 2-D shapes. We then moved on to 3-D shapes. We discussed that 2-D shapes are flat and have two dimensions, such as length and width. 3-D shapes are solid and have the dimensions length, width, and height.

I showed the kids a video on how to make their 3-D shapes with straws and pipe cleaners. I then had them open their workbooks to “Building Prisms” and “Building Pyramids”. I put the children into groups. I explained to them that there will be trials and errors while constructing 3-D shapes, and during this activity they have to work together as a team. After all the explanations, the children didn’t get much time to work on their 3-D shapes. We will continue constructing are shapes next week.

3^rd Grade:

The children finished up with their hundreds chart puzzles. We then moved on to the seven hundreds chart. I explained to them that they are going to solve some similar puzzles that are from a seven hundreds chart. The chart will start with seven hundred and one and goes to eight hundred. I had them open their Student Mathematician’s journal and asked them to complete the Puzzling Puzzles journal without looking at the seven hundred’s chart. I encouraged them to sketch in the surrounding boxes if they were struggling. We then met back up and went over the answers. They completely get it!!

4^th Grade:

This week the children finished up their chapter check-up. Last week, two questions were stapled to the check-up, so they had to complete those. After going through the completed tests, I realized that the children didn’t answer one of the questions correctly.

After going over what I expected from them in their answers, I set them to correct the problem. When they were finished, I gave them some free iPad time while the other students were finishing up. Overall, I am very happy with the results. We will go over the check-up next week.