The Starry Night

Over the last couple of days we've been talking about the night sky, what can you see in the sky, stars the moon, aeroplane lights and fireworks. This afternoon I showed them a picture of Vincent van Gogh's The Starry Night and we looked at Katie and The Starry Night

I had this idea that if we used shaving foam and paint they could have fun and recreate some of the swirling images from the painting. It wasn't about recreating a perfect copy of the painting rather them exploring the movement and images. I did think about cutting out some houses etc for them to add to it, if I do it again when they are older I might add them, then again I might just wait and see what they want to add themselves, as it's always interesting seeing what they see and what they take from a painting.

 

As per usually here, once we had finished the planned activity they were let loose to do and create (within reason) whatever they wanted! Using a spatula they mixed the paint and foam together and created a lovely mint green.

Then they added more foam and used their hands to mix it in.

One then decided to use the spatula to paint with

and the finished spatula painting.

Then they asked for some more paper and decided to place the paper in the tray on top of the remaining foam, press it down and then lifting it out to see what they had created.

When I'm doing a theme, I always sort out a selection of relevant books and put them into a basket for the children. They have enjoyed looking at books on owls and reading some owl stories. I printed out laminated a tree and 5 owls to go with the 5 Little Owl rhyme, they have loved this counting rhyme and the owl pictures. We have sang the song and played with the owl pictures several times. Lots of counting done as well, as each time an owl flies away they are counting the owls left on the tree. Yes one owl is upside down, when I first put them on the tree, I pointed out one was upside down, I went to turn him the right way up but they said no and now every time they have to have one upside down owl!

5 Little Owls

5 little owls on a dark, dark night,

5 little owls are quite a sight,

5 little owls, are you keeping score?

1 flies away and that leaves 4.

4 little owls as happy as can be,

1 flew away and that leaves 3.

3 little owls calling "Who, who, who"

1 flew away and that leaves 2.

2 little owls having lots of fun,

1 flew away and that leaves 1.

1 little owl and we're almost done

He flies away and that leaves none.

Night Time

Over the next few weeks, we will be looking at night time, what do we do at bedtime, what animals are awake at night time, lots of owl stories and crafts as the children love them. We will also look at some festivals/celebrations that take place in November, which all involve light and/or fireworks, mainly Martinmas, Diwali and Bonfire Night

I came across some lovely owl songs/ poems, the printable that I will use to go with 5 little Owls and other owl based activities which can be downloaded  here for free.

Pumpkin Recipes

 I've made pumpkin soup before but this time decided to add a sweet potato to it, it was a big hit with the children. We then made some more pumpkin muffins but this time without egg, they worked well, very light and fluffy and no you can't taste the vinegar at all, just in case you were wondering.

Pumpkin and Sweet Potato Soup

1 onion diced

1 sweet potato, peeled and cut into chunks

500g pumpkin, peeled, seeded and cut into chunks

300ml of vegetable stock

5ml nutmeg

Fry the onion, potato and pumpkin on a low heat for about 5 minutes, add the stock and nutmeg. Bring to the boil, reduce heat, cover and leave to gently simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, until the potato and pumpkin are tender, then blend and enjoy.

Eggless Pumkin Muffins

225g plain flour

10ml baking powder

100g margarine

90g sugar

250g grated pumpkin

5ml bicarbonate of soda

15ml vinegar

Cream the margarine and sugar together

Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda together, then add a spoonful of flour mix at a time to the sugar/margarine mix, until all the flour is mixed in.

Then add the pumpkin flesh and mix well.
Combine the bicarbonate of soda with the vinegar in small pot, as soon as it's mixed and is fizzing, add it to the cake mix and mix into it.
Spoon out into cake cases.

Bake at Gas 5 for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden, makes 12 muffins.

More Leaves and Hedgehogs

Last week, the children and I discovered that the lovely large oak tree had shed lots of it's leaves, they had a fantastic time, running through the leaves, jumping in heaps, scraping them into piles, making patterns etc. It has become something they have asked to do everyday since and most days we have managed to do this, it's lovely to hear them giggling. I added to their laughter by making up a rhyme.

Leaves in a bunch

  go crunch

and scrunch

but we don't go munch

 on leaves in a bunch

We then set up our tuff spot with all our Autumn leaves, selection of conkers and all the animals from the stories we have been reading, they built some houses and spent time making the animals stomp and jump through the leaves.

We enjoyed another episode of Come Outside, this time on hedgehogs Come Outside - Hedgehogs and made some bread rolls and shaped them into hedgehogs, they did really well using scissors to snip the bread to create the spines.

I used this lovely cutting out activity from this pack all about fall, lots of careful cutting practise, they then spent time sticking them onto sheets of paper.

I've always found that the children really enjoy any scrape art, so have bought a selection from Baker Ross including these lovely leaf ones. 

 When they had finished they wanted to make them into another garland, while getting out the glue etc, they found some pom poms to add to them.

Leaf Wreaths, Matching and Glitter!

The children and I collected up a selection of our Autumn animals, that we have come across in our stories and a few of the conkers we had collected on our walks etc that we have collected, spot the odd one out!

 With the left over leaves from the leave printing, we decided to use them to make a leaf wreath, using a paper plate as our base.

I used this Fall Preschool Pack for the leaf shadow printables, I have one little one who loves to match things, so these are perfect, as it took matching to another level, they keep asking for this activity again and again too.

Now I had some large felt leaves, that I hadn't used, so thought maybe with some glitter added to them might be a good craft activity. They loved it, ended up using all the felt leaves I had left and lots of glue and glitter everywhere. I know I am going to be finding glitter for weeks, mind you we have bonfire night coming up, so more glitter, then Christmas, so maybe that should read months?

They took over a day to dry as there was a lot of glue used

but they look great.

On of my older ones finger knitted a cord for me and we stapled the leaves onto it and have hung them up in the kitchen. Think I might make or buy some Christmas shaped ones and do the same a s Christmas craft.

We have done really well this year with produce from the allotment, this was are harvest from this weekend along with a bucket of potatoes and a bag of apples. So tonight we had rhubarb and apple crumble for pudding and a lunch time they enjoyed freshly grated beetroot and carrot, along with baby sweetcorns, there is something very satisfying about cooking with food you have grown yourself. Tomorrow night I am planning on using some of the pumpkin and courgettes to make a curry, that's the theory anyway!

Leaf Printing and Fruit Cake

The children and I enjoyed collecting some leaves and then printing with them. Well some printed others where happy just to paint their leaves.

I have had a couple of attempts of trying to adapt a fruit cake recipe to eggless, with varying degrees of success, this time I decided to try and boil the fruit, it worked and I am very happy with the results. It's great to have another recipe I can make with L as she loves to cook and help out in the kitchen. I've used oat milk but if no one has a dairy allergy then normal milk will be fine.

Eggless Fruit Cake

100g raisins

60g currants

60g sultanas

125g soft brown sugar

150g margarine

125ml oat milk

350g plain flour

5ml mixed spice

zest of one orange

30ml vinegar

5ml bicarbonate of soda.

1. Cream together the sugar and margarine.
2. Gradually add milk and flour and mixed spice, alternating a spoonful of flour and then some milk.
3. Add dried fruit and zest of orange.
4.  In a small pot mix the vinegar and bicarbonate of soda together, it will fizz, add it straight to the other ingredients while it's still fizzing and mix everything together.
5. Place in cake tin, bake at gas 2 for about 2 hours

Oaty Apple Crumble

My little ones asked to make apple pie yesterday morning, I said after toddlers we could go and buy some apples and maybe make an apple crumble, which they excitedly agreed too. So last night they prepared and cooked our pudding, with a little help from me. They did really well cutting up the apples I had peeled and cored. Then weighing out the flour and oats, think we need some practise on the rubbing in side. Please excuse the rather blurred photos, all action shots and my camera couldn't keep up with them. There were lots of giggles and laughter throughout this cooking session, think they thoroughly enjoyed the whole process except having to wait for it to cook.

Oaty Apple Crumble

100g plain flour

80g oats

50g brown sugar

5ml cinnamon

125 margarine

4 to 5 cooking apples.

Peel, core and slice the cooking apples, place them in a casserole dish and sprinkle with some sugar.

Place the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, add the margarine and rub in, sprinkle crumble mix over the top of the apples.

Cook at Gas 5 for about 35 minutes.