Monday, 10 February 2014

Australia

We have family in Australia and my husband lived out there for a while as a child. Then realised that all the children had some sort of link with Australia or had friends about to go on holiday there, so thought it was a perfect time to do a theme on Australia.


We loved Diary of a Wombat, it's so funny, lovely illustrations had my children in fits of giggles and it got funnier the more time your read it too! We then enjoyed watching this clip on wombats, it is done my the children of Steve Irwin. We discovered they had done lots of videos, so we watched a few of the different animal ones that you might find in Australia, this wasn't all in one go but at different times throughout our theme.

I love reading and sharing books with the children,these are some of the books we used this time.



We spent some time looking at aboriginal art on the computer and the cards I had made up, the children then tried to create their own art, using cotton buds instead of paint brushes, with excellent results.






We watched some clips of Aboriginal dances, with some interesting attempts to do the dances themselves. Listened to some didgeridoo music, then listened to some more songs, nice list of songs can be found here including Waltzing Matilda

After reading Rainbow Bird, we used water colours to create rainbow patterns.









With the older children, well all the children but this was aimed more at the older ones, we looked at Australia and matched up where the different places were. The cards came from Montessori Print Shop these are a free download,  I also bought these which are lovely pictures of Australian animals and some facts about them.




Found were England was and were Australia was on the globe.


Used this book to look at Sydney Opera House, how it was built and some of the close up pictures of the architecture.




Wednesday, 5 February 2014

Chinese New Year

We had fun looking at the Chinese New Year celebrations, how Chinese people would spring clean their homes, to brush away bad luck. Watched some clips of the dragon dances. Read about how the Chinese dragon is seen as helpful, friendly creatures, that are linked to good luck, long life and wisdom. I read this lovely book Lanterns and Firecrackers which the preschoolers I care for really enjoyed, it talks through why the Chinese clean their homes, wear new clothes, use firecrackers etc to celebrate the new year and scare away bad luck.

 We then made and decorated some paper lanterns. Then instead of just painting pictures of the Chinese dragons I thought it would be a good idea to use hand prints to make dragon pictures. after discussing with the children the colours they had seen in the pictures and video clips of the dragons, they set to work to create some beautiful pictures.


Then instead of just painting pictures of the Chinese dragons I thought it would be a good idea to use hand prints to make dragon pictures. after discussing with the children the colours they had seen in the pictures and video clips of the dragons, they set to work to create some beautiful pictures.



The stories we enjoyed.





Monday, 13 January 2014

Winter


For our theme for the new year, we'll be looking at winter, winter animals, sports, clothing and of course snow!


The night before I spent time converting my dining room table to an interesting snow cave, I also had some glow sticks for them to use. They loved, spending a fair amount of time in the cave, reading stories and playing games with the soft toys.



We used some puffy paint -  shaving foam and pva glue to make some snow/snowmen pictures.







They used the snowman match up game from the Montessori Print Shop, to play a solo game of  matching pairs




and then we played a group game of matching pairs.



Made some delicious, gingerbread snowflakes which they decorated with white icing.


We painted snow storms, using masking tape and snowflakes we had cut out,

                            

                           

then painted over them

                            
         
                            

once the paint was dry, I removed the masking tape etc to reveal the snow pictures.

                           
                       
                            

                           

Our Winter Display





Cereal Bars

These are a couple of our favourite cereal bars, my little ones just love these. We usually double the recipe and freeze some for later. They are easily adapted to dairy free, just use your normal dairy free margarine, for gluten free just make sure the oats are the gluten free ones or just use buckwheat flakes, I personally like using half oats and half buckwheat for these recipes.

                                                           Raisin and Oat Bar



                                                    200g oats / buckwheat flakes
                                                    60g to 80g dried fruit /seeds
                                                    110g  butter/margarine
                                                    60g brown sugar
                                                    10g golden syrup (optional but makes a more chewy bar)

Mix the oats / buckwheat with whatever dried fruit and seeds you are using.
Melt the butter and sugar in a pan, let it come to a boil and while stirring continually, let the mixture gently bubble for about 6 minutes. Then mix into oat mixture. Tip into a lined tray and press down well and bake for 15 to 20 minutes at gas 5.
When cooked, gently cut into pieces, it will be a bit crumbly at this stage but leave to cool in the tin and it should have set nicely by then.

                                                        Apricot and Coconut Bar


                                                    180g oats / buckwheat flakes
                                                    40g dried apricots, chopped into small pieces
                                                    40g desiccated coconut
                                                    120g  butter/margarine
                                                    10g golden syrup
                                                    60g brown sugar

Mix the oats / buckwheat with the diced apricot and coconut.
Melt the butter, sugar and syrup if using in a pan, let it come to a boil and while stirring continually, let the mixture gently bubble for about 6 minutes. Then mix into oat mixture. Tip into a lined tray and press down well and bake for 15 to 20 minutes at gas 5.
When cooked, gently cut into pieces.

Monday, 16 December 2013

Printing wrapping paper

Last week we made our own wrapping paper, we printed it using florist oasis blocks.


I designed some blocks and the children made some as well. The oasis block is really easy to cut up etc. I used a sharp knife to cut it into small blocks, then either a pencil or this time I had saved the scrapers from the scrape art kits, which worked very well. Just make sure you you carve deep enough so it doesn't fill up with paint. I've found the block work best if you paint them with paint, rather than dipping them into paint and you can print several pictures each time.








Saturday, 14 December 2013

Chocolate Christmas Pudding Cakes

The children love making these cakes


they are so simple but look lovely. We made chocolate cakes and then decorated them using ready made icing and some holly cutters. This is our chocolate cake recipe, yes it is very runny, would recommend using a ladel to get the mixture into the cake cases.

                                                     Chocolate Cake

                                                        140g caster
                                                        2 eggs
                                                        130g plain flour
                                                        50g cocoa powder
                                                        2tsp baking powder
                                                        150ml milk
                                                        150g butter, melted
                                                        100g chocolate chips

1 - Put eggs and sugar in a bowl and whisk until pale in colour.
2 - Add the milk to the egg mixture and gently stir.
3 - Sift in the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder and gently mix.
4 - Stir in the melted butter and then add the chocolate chips.
5 - Ladel in cake cases and bake at Gas 4 for about 20 to 25 minutes.

Then when cool you can decorate them if you wish or enjoy them plain.