Gale Virtual Reference

1.Spring Festivals:
A. United States: Mardi Gras
Food and Recipe:Mardi Gras King Cake
Ingredients
1 package dry yeast
¼ cup warm water
6 teaspoons milk, boiled then cooled
4 to 5 cups flour
1 cup (½ pound or 2 sticks) butter, softened
¾ cup sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
4 eggs
2 teaspoons butter, melted
Small ceramic figurine (available at religious stores) or bean (optional)
Light corn syrup, for glazing
Colored sugar crystals (green, yellow, purple), for topping

Directions
1.Dissolve yeast in warm water.
2.Add milk and about ½ cup of flour.
3.In a large bowl, blend butter, sugar, salt, and eggs.
4.Add yeast mixture and mix thoroughly.
5.Gradually add 2½ cups of flour to make a stiff dough.
6.Turn onto a clean, floured countertop and knead for about 8 minutes.
7.Clean mixing bowl and coat it with butter. Place dough in greased bowl and brush with 2 teaspoons melted butter.
8.Cover with a damp cloth and allow to rise until double in size, about 2 hours.
9.Punch dough in the center with a clean fist.
10.Dust a clean counter with flour. Turn dough out onto counter and knead for 2 minutes. Roll into a 4-foot long rope.
11.Form the rope into an oval and transfer it to a 14- × 17-inch greased cookie sheet. Pinch ends of dough together. (Add a few drops of water to seal the seam, if necessary.)
12.Press the figurine (or bean) into the dough from underneath, so that it is hidden.
13.Cover with a damp cloth and let rise until double in size, about 1 hour.
14.Preheat oven to 325°F.
15.Bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until lightly browned.
16.Brush top of cake with corn syrup and sprinkle with colored sugar.

Games or pastimes
Parades are the most common event in Mardi Gras and the building of the floats is considered a local pastime.
I found this by first typing in Mardi Gras and then narrowing it down by catagory.

B. China: Ching Ming Festival
celebrated April 5 or 6
Food and Recipe: Hta-Ma-Ne

Ingredients
4 cups cooked glutinous rice, kept warm (available at Asian food stores)
1/3 cup peanut butter
11/2 tablespoons finely grated fresh ginger or 1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 tablespoons fresh garlic, finely chopped
3 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
1/2 cup shredded coconut

Directions
1.Heat oil in a medium saucepan and stir together cooked rice, peanut butter, ginger, garlic, sesame seeds, and coconut.
2.Cover and cook over low heat for about 10 minutes to heat through, stirring occasionally.

Games or pastimes

During this holiday families make elaborate paper offerings to their ancestors that are burned at ceremonies. They also do Kite flying.



Recently added 2012 titles

After going to advanced search and typing in dates between 2012 and 2012 I chose these two:

Bowling, Beatniks, and Bell Bottoms: Pop Culture of the 20th and 21st Century America. This was a fun look at cultural history. I read about the creation of SPAM to popular tv shows and fashions. I really enjoyed looking around and reading the articles.

Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of Foods & recipies of the world. This just took a look at different culture food traditions and included recipes. I could really get lost in this just trying different recipes!

ProQuest

1. While searching for Les Miserables I went under subject and just chose literary criticism and it gave me a bunch of reviews of the book. I found that a neat way to sort through all the possible hits you would have gotten otherwise. It is nice to be able to drill down to exactly what you want to save you time of sorting through all that yourself.

2. I really had trouble finding relevant material for this. I don't know if I was doing it wrong or what. But I tried several searches, such as, Hurricane Sandy AND Libraries, Hurricane Sandy then tried to drill down with subjects and such, and I would get results back, but not the impact on libraries per say. Maybe my searches were inaccurate and I need to keep trying, but I spent at least 30 minutes trying to find something that would work.

SIRS

SIRS Discoverer
1. When I was looking for solar system information for a third grader who reads below grade level, I went to the advanced search typed in solar system, then you can enter the childs lexile reading level. That way you are assured that you can give the child information that she can read and comprehend.

2. The two ways I searched for volcanoes were hitting the science button on the first page, then on the right side of the next page I clicked on Geography, then volcanoes. Finally I clicked on the graphics tab and came up with 152 images. The second way was a keyword search for volcanoes. I clicked on graphics again and came up with 137 images.

SIRS Researcher
1. The debate between using Google and SIRS website was interesting. I found a PDF that said that only 10% of a Google search would be k-12 relevant or editor/teacher-reviewed. By going through SIRS it would save you a lot of time because you are assured that the web sites are reviewed for content and are accurate. So you are getting higher quality results immediately instead of having to sift through a lot of google sites.

2. Finding information for a civic discussion, I used 2 different searches, water restrictions and water conservation. I think both of these can be helpful with the discussions, although I didn't quite find what I was looking for, but again a lot of good information, including court cases.

Learning Express

1. A fourth grader who needs help with reading comprehension should be shown to the reading skills improvement page and the 4th grade reading practice showing him/her the comprehension practice exams. I would also show this student that after they take the exams that they can go back and she what the correct answer is and why. 2. on improving office manager skills I went to job search & work place skills and went into the locating info practice test. This was a nice little test that gets you familiar with reading charts, graphs, invoices, etc. Although when I was going through the test I did find a typo. Is there any way to contact them and let them know? But this would definately help brush up on some of the skills you may be called upon to do as an office manager. 3. A student looking for info on nursing or pharmacy, I went into Jobs& Careers under nursing and caree guidance and found a downloadable book about the nursing field. I didn't see anything in there about Pharmacy and when I did a search it just came up with pharmacy exams.

1c - World Book Foriegn Language

I tried the spanish version and tried to search for house using the english word and I didn't get the proper results, I could browse and eventually get there, but that took awhile. In the browse feature, I clicked on the A-Z and then I was able to search in English, which made things easier to get to where I wanted to go. I again couldn't get the text to speech feature to work, so I might have to try a different computer. I think this is a great offering for Spanish speakers, that we can offer them some help in their native language.

1B World Book Public Libraries

1. World Book Online kids - I went into Science Projects had some great ideas for simple science projects that you could incorporate into class time or even kids could try at home. I thought the translate button was very nice, but I couldn't get the text read aloud to work. 2.World Book Online InfoFinder - I tried the Virtual tours of the Titanic, and it had some great information in it. This could be very helpful for students who have a hard time reading that they still could get facts and information. 3. World Book Online Reference Center - This is the same as the World Book Advanced so see previous post.

Lesson 1a: World Book School Edition

1. World Book Kids - I went into the games & activities and found a lot of different games in different subjects areas. I went into english and tried the parts of speech matching game. I can see this being a fun resource to use to have kids practice their parts of speech. Anytime you can do these activities in a game format, I think kids enjoy it more and stick with it better. 2. World Book Student - I went into Behind the headlines and thought this would be great for current events. They had great information on the inauguration. You could also play a game that reviews some of the current events. How Cool! 3. World Book Advance - This would be a great resource for books! I really liked that you were able to download the ebook, so you don't have to be online the whole time. Also it was nice that it does quite a bit of work for you by tying in Web pages and content standards. I really liked the Back in time articles. 4.World Book Disscover - I really liked the how to research. This would be great for students and teachers. Students learn some of the basics of how to do a research paper and the teachers side, gives you guidlines on how to set up the papers so they are more plagerism proof. Neat!