Gingerbread People

In this week's cookery session we made gingerbread people.

Hunting - Native American Style

This term at our home-education group we are studying the culture of Native Americans. This week we discovered how youngsters in the tribe learn to hunt and we played some hunting games. One of the mums had made some darts and spears for us to try. The kids loved it!

L throws a dart made from corn husks, a pointed stick and feathers



R tries out a spear

We will soon begin making a tipi, check back soon to find out how it goes.

Chocolates for Granny

At our drama class we are working on the play of "Little Red Riding Hood". We thought we would make some props and R decided on chocolates for Red to take to Granny.

Ingredients:

• egg box
• cotton wool balls
• cake cases
• PVA glue
• paint
• water
• buttons
• pom-poms
• beads

Painting the chocolate boxes


Method

• Paint the egg box
• Mix some chocolate coloured paints with PVA glue and a little water
• Dip the cotton balls in the paint mixture and place each in a cake case
• Add buttons, beads and pom-poms to decorate
• Drip different coloured paints on top
• Place the "chocolates" in the "chocolate box"



R and L with their fake chocolates



Flat-Pack Hell

I have finally gotten around to rearranging the play room to make it more suitable for all our different learning projects. This involved a trip to IKEA and, when we arrived home, flat-pack hell. After screwing on 48 table legs and building 2 more storage units it then took me approximately 5 hours of rearranging the furniture to get it how I liked. Here's the result:

Role play area and small world table

Music area just next to the stereo

R enjoying music in the music corner

Reading sofa and play area



Drawing and writing area -just need to add some more paper

The learning area with storage for all our maths and English equipment and space to display projects



Tickletown Map

Well we've finally got sick of the sight of Tickletown (our junk model village). So just before we dismantled it we made a map of our work. We looked at a real map and discussed what features it showed and things that it didn't show (especially things that move like cars and people). We added symbols to our model base to show where houses, carparks, forests and parks were. R wrote the road names onto the roads before we took the signs down. So now we have a 1:1 sacle map of our town. Next we will scale the map down.


Tickletown 3D



1:1 scale map of Tickletown

Mini Quiches

Today was savoury cooking day. The children chose to make mini quiches.


R makes pastry




L adds the filling




Fresh out of the oven



Tickletown-part 4

We finally finished making the last of the mail for the residents of Tickletown (our junk model village). R used a scrapbook program to make a party invitation.

Party invite by R

We don't have a post van vehicle so we "resprayed" our police van with Australia Post logos.


R converts the police van into a post van

I photographed all the parcels and letters that we had made and then printed them small so they would fit inside the van. The kids used their cutting skills to crop them to size.

Our mail printed in miniature

We made a sorting box for letters and R used his knowledge of the alphabet to put the road names on in alphabetical order. He then sorted the mail.


Sorting the mail to be delivered

Both children worked to separate the parcels from the letters and we used maths vocabulary and our balance scales to order and label the parcels according to size, shape and weight.


L collects all the parcels together

R working out which parcels are the heaviest

Ordering parcels according to size

We played a great game to deliver the mini letters and parcels around Tickletown. One person chose a piece of mail , read the address and loaded it into the van. They then had to guide the other person (the van driver) around the town until they reached the delivery address. Lots of vocabulary came up including, left and right, compass points, road names, junction names, landmarks, and coordinates. Real live sat nav! The children spent the afternoon directing each other around Tickletown.

L is directed to drive the van over the bridge and past the library



R drives the post van North

L makes her delivery in Bridge Street