Yummy Pancakes!

It probably didn’t escape your notice that it was pancake day this week.  So, of course, we simply had to make pancakes and eat them too!  Unfortunately, the Ipad ran out of power just after we’d taken this photo, so you’ll have to take our word for it that they were delicious!

Can you remember the four ingredients we used to make the pancakes?  That’s right; flour, milk, eggs and oil.  We stirred the mixture up in a bowl and then the grown-ups carefully poured a little bit of the mixture into a frying pan – “to make them flat”.  Can you remember why the grown-ups did the cooking and not the children?

When it came to eating them, we squeezed a little lemon juice over them and then sprinkled a little sugar on top.  Finally, we rolled them up.  Yummy!

Image result for pancakes lemon and sugar

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/6815/traditional-pancakes-with-sugar-and-lemon.aspx

The children were particularly intrigued by the lemons and several of them wanted to have a go at tasting a lemon slice.  We all agreed lemons are very sour indeed!  Can you think of any other foods that have a sour taste?  What sort of a face do you make when you eat something sour?

Our key text this week had to be Mr. Wolf’s Pancakes which you can revisit here:

Can you remember how Mr Wolf’s neighbours knew the pancakes were ready?  That’s right, they could smell a delicious smell all around the neighbourhood!  Do you have a favourite smell?

In Nursery this week, the water tray smelt wonderful, thanks to these slices of fresh lemons and oranges.  Of course, these ones were not for eating! We know that we only eat things in Nursery at snack time after we have washed our hands.

This week we have been talking to the children about why it is important to wash our hands before we eat something.  We explained that we need to make sure our hands are nice and clean so that any germs on them don’t end up in our tummies as this can make us feel poorly.  We also explained that germs are very sticky and they like to hide all over our hands, not just on our finger tips!

This is why we need to pull up our sleeves, use soap and make sure we wash the fronts and backs of our hands, in between our fingers and our thumbs too!

We enjoyed watching this NHS video which demonstrates how to get “happy, clean hands!”:

 

 

Growing Bigger & Tasty Toast

Our story time focus this week continued with a growing theme and this time we thought about ourselves.  We wondered if we are growing and when we might be as big as our big brothers/sisters or even Miss Cronin?  The children were fascinated to hear that grown-ups have actually stopped growing (upwards, at least!).  We read a delightful book called ‘The Growing Story’ which was originally published in 1947.  It has since been beautifully re-illustrated by Helen Oxenbury (who also illustrated We’re Going on a Bear Hunt).  In ‘The Growing Story’ a little boy watches the plants and animals around him growing bigger as the seasons change and he wonders if he will ever grow too…

Image result for the growing story helen oxenbury

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a good quality video clip of the story for you to revisit at home, but you can read more about the story here and share some of the lovely illustrations together…

Image result for the growing story helen oxenbury

Image result for the growing story helen oxenbury

We also read the story of Titch by Pat Hutchins about a little boy trying to keep up with his big sister and even bigger brother.  The children decided that Titch was probably about 2 or 3 years old, while his sister Mary was 4 or 5 and his brother Peter was 6 or 7 “or even 10!”.  Such impressive mathematical reasoning Nursery – well done!

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You can revisit the story in this clip below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_BNxLeKI20

The children decided that one of things they need to do to make sure they are growing is to eat lots!  So, we all had a go at making toast.

First, we put the square piece of bread in the toast and pressed the button down.  We stayed well back from the toaster because “it is hot” and “because it is electric”.  We knew that only grown-ups should touch a real toaster and if we see one at home, we must not make toast without asking a grown-up first.

We waited patiently until the toaster popped!  Then Mrs Morris carefully took the square piece of bread out of the toaster and we looked at it to see if it had turned into toast.  If it had turned golden brown, we knew it was now toast!

The next step was to use a knife to spread the butter onto our toast.  Miss Cronin showed us how to hold the knife carefully, using our pointy finger on top to steady it and guide it along the toast.  We also held the piece of toast in place with our other hand.  After the butter, it was time to spread on the strawberry jam.

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https://assets.seesaw.me/us-2/c/f/9/d/c/0/cf9dc0c5-5ddb-4537-bcbf-c6848ae9cfa3.jpg:::1574467200:::604800:::vG6KtpiWI7eUQduOjkLDnoArppV8N7K0vESrYxo1lPuwXd7DwEA_nOhOgiDqumaVzB4hJeQHpPj-8mpUskQ50A.jpg The children then chose to cut their toast into two triangles, four triangles or keep it as one square.  After all that hard work, it was time to eat our toast and everyone agreed it was delicious!

Finally, the children’s interest in numbers this week also led us to this nursery rhyme…can you guess what it is?

That’s right!  It’s the old favourite – Ten Green Bottles!  Why not have a go at singing along at home or make your very own green bottles (e.g. you could write numbers on yoghurt pots or something similar from your recycling box).

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Let’s Go Camping!

As people across the country looked forward to heading out into the cold, Autumnal nights to keep warm around the bonfire and watch the night-sky light up with fireworks, we were busy enjoying our very own firework display and campfire in the classroom!  Don’t worry, we all kept safe with the firework display provided by several youtube clips on the interactive whiteboard and the campfire consisting of wooden logs, orange tissue paper and lots of imagination!

Several weeks ago, we had noticed that the children were particularly interested in the idea of “going camping”.  So, we decided to support their learning through play with the creation of a campsite complete with tent, sleeping bags, camping pillows, camping chairs and, of course, torches!

The children absolutely loved their campsite and quickly set to work, rolling the playdough into sausages, ready to be cooked on the open fire…

…making sure there was plenty of firewood to keep the fire going…

…and even reading a story or two by torchlight in the tent…

Our camping chairs provided the best seats in the house for the firework displays…and a quick chat on the phone!

And the firework displays inspired our very own firework mark-making in coloured sand…

We read the story of Bernie Sparks and Rocky the Rocket on Bonfire Night to help the children understand about how to keep themselves safe on the real Bonfire Night.

And, following on from last week’s excitement 🎃, we also read the story of Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper.  This charming book tells the tale of Cat, Duck and Squirrel as they learn about friendship and sharing by working together to make their favourite pumpkin soup.

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You can revisit the story below.  Try turning the sound off and reading it aloud yourself.

The Little Acorns had a go at creating their own pumpkin recipes…

And back in the classroom, Mrs Morris came up with this rather novel use of an old pumpkin!

Have a lovely weekend everyone and thank you for all the wonderful contributions to our nature table – it is really looking beautiful! 🍁