St David's Day

As the parents of the children in my care know, at the beginning of each year I produce a planning document detailing dates throughout the year that we may celebrate - I make it clear that I will always follow the current interests of the children, if a child is not interested in the things I had planned, or has other interests at that point in time then I will not plough ahead with my planning regardless.

Last Friday was St. David's Day - I was only caring for O, and on Fridays when it is much quieter than our very busy Thursdays, O likes to do activities that I plan, as well as going to our usual Friday morning group.  We talked about St. David's Day, and O was excited to tell me that he had been to Wales.  We talked about the daffodils and O made a lovely pinwheel daffodil - we also looked at the daffodils that O planted a very long time ago and were delighted to see that they were growing in their little pots.

After lunch O helped me to make some Welsh cakes - this was a great baking activity for O, as he doesn't really like the food mixer that we have used to make our fairy cakes in the past, and we didn't need the food mixer as we mixed everything by hand!  O helped me to weigh the ingredients, then he enjoyed the sensory experience of mixing everything with his hands - the butter was very squishy, and the eggs were slimy - it was very good fun!

I cooked the cakes, and O ate the first one when it was warm straight out of the pan - he said they were yummy!

Cranberry & Seed Muffins

We made cranberry and seed muffins yesterday.  First of all J put muffin cases in the tin, which is quite a tricky thing to do as they all stick together!  

Then we weighed all of the dry ingredients, J poured them into the bowl and mixed them all up.

J whisked the egg and poured it in, then he poured in the other wet ingredients.  We both made sure everything was mixed up very well.  

J spooned the mixture into the muffin cases and sprinkled seeds and sugar on the top of each one.

I popped them into the oven to bake, and once they were cooled slightly we all ate one - they were scrumptious!

Baby Jesus

The week before Christmas Albie and J did some 'baking' and made 'Baby Jesus'.

We crushed some Shredded Wheat, which was actually quite difficult for little hands.  Then the boys mixed in some melted chocolate which was very tempting but they did manage to resist licking the spoon.  The boys then spooned the chocolatey mixture into fairy cake cases - then they were allowed to lick the spoon!

I showed the boys how to roll a small piece of fondant icing into a ball and then flatten it with the rolling pin, they were very good at this.  We then wrapped a Jelly Baby in the icing 'blanket' and placed it into the chocolate manger.  As it was Christmas we sprinkled on a little dusting of edible glitter, and our Baby Jesus' were ready - and they tasted yummy!

Children in Need 2011

The children did various activities during Children In Need week.

The children painted Pudsey masks using cotton buds - the theory was they would end up with a spotty mask....

The masks weren't that spotty!

Albie decided he wanted to colour his mask in with pencils as that is his favourite activity at the moment - his mask was the spottiest of them!

The children also coloured in Pudsey posters....

Albie decided his poster was more fun as a paper aeroplane!

Albie and J made spotty cakes....

The cakes were delicious!