Here’s a simple spider craft for preschool that’s great for Halloween craft or nursery rhyme fun.
Marvellous men: fabulous blogs for Fathers’ Day
Happy Fathers’ Day! A great excuse to celebrate some inspiring blogs written by men. Here are three fabulous ones for you to check out: [Read more…]
Meringue recipe
This meringue recipe makes the perfect party dessert and as they’re so easy to make it’s a great recipe for the children to try out for themselves. It also calls for a little showmanship and daring, much to the kids’ delight.
I won’t make any attempt to pass them off as being a healthy option though as they are of course very sugary, but serving them with a pile of fresh fruit balances things out a little. This recipe makes mini meringues, which is a better child-sized portion. Not that I care about easing my conscience too much – they were for my birthday party after all!
Here’s how to make our Mini Meringue Recipe
To make 12 white and 12 pink mini meringues you will need 2 egg whites, 100g caster sugar and two drops of pink food colouring
Preheat your oven to 110C / 225 f / Gas 1/4 and then place your egg whites in a large bowl.
Let the children crack their own eggs – go on! If you have any stray pieces of egg shell it’s easiest to use another piece of shell to scoop them out as like seems to attract like. You only need the egg whites for this recipe. To separate them you can strain the egg through your fingers, keeping hold of the yolk. An easier way with children is to crack your egg on to a saucer or plate, then use an egg cup to enclose the yolk. Then you can pour off the rest of the egg white into your bowl.
Use a whisk to beat the eggs until they form thick, white peaks. This is great fun for the children as the eggs totally transform in colour and texture as you beat in the air- science in action. When the egg whites are stiff enough you can hold the bowl upturned over your (or their) head and the eggs will stay in the bowl – ta-daa! Then whisk in the sugar, adding it little by little.
Line a baking tray with a sheet of greaseproof paper and use teaspoons to place 12 blobs of the meringue mixture on to the tray. Add a couple of drops of food colouring to the remaining mixture and very gently stir the colour through. Use teaspoons again to make 12 blobs of pink meringue on the tray.
Bake for 40 minutes, then turn off the oven. Leave the meringues inside the oven for another 5 minutes if you like yours to have a delicious chewy centre, for another 20 if you prefer them to be crisp.
You can serve them as they are or sandwhich one white and one pink meringue together with some whipped cream. Serve with fresh berries and other chopped fruit. Just right for birthday or summer party.
You can find more recipes here.
happily shared with share your Sunday best and craft schooling Sunday
Junk model ideas
Are you celebrating Earth Day with your children this Friday 22nd April 2011? For environmentally-friendly, creative play we love to make junk models. We love using items from our craft box which otherwise would be thrown away – turning them into toys and extending the life of the materials.
Here’s a showcase of our favourite upcycled junk models. If you have any more ideas you can share with us, please leave a link in the comments or on our Facebook page – we’re always looking for new inspiration and have a stack of boxes ready to go!
A riding stables created from the contents of our making box
A dragon made from egg boxes
A double decker bus from a shoe box
A dinosaur world from a cardboard box
And have a look at our the ideas shared by all our Play Academy community in our Carnival of Junk Play
happily shared with made by little hands Monday and Friday’s nature table and preschool creations and the resource centre and creative Friday and for the kids Friday and It’s Playtime and upcycled awesome and kids get crafty
How to celebrate Earth Day
Are you celebrating Earth Day with your children this Friday 22nd April? It’s a great opportunity to review your family life and see what changes you can make to go green. Here are some ideas for an eco-audit of your play.
REDUCE
- How many toys do you really need? Instead of a house full of more and more plastic, concentrate on a small selection of ‘open-ended’ toys that can be used in lots of different ways: wooden blocks, stacking cups, small world people & animals.
- Borrow rather than buy new things. In addition to borrowing books from your local library how about borrowing from your nearest toy library too? The USA Toy Library Association or the National Association of Toy and Leisure Libraries in the UK can help you find your nearest branch.
- You could also start a toy swap amongst your friends to pass on items as your children grow or lose interest in particular toys.
RE-USE
- How about re-purposing items around the house and garden for your children to play with? My girls love playing with clothes pegs, shoe boxes, fircones, pebbles and other un-toys… Zero airmiles, zero packaging, free and full of opportunities for creative play.
- In the UK you could access Scrapstore, a charity which collects safe business waste for re-use as craft and play supplies.
- You can promote ‘going green’ in your children’s pretend play too. I love it when my girls are playing shops and I hear them saying ‘I don’t need a plastic bag thank you, I’ve brought my own’.
RECYCLE
- Saving yoghurt pots and egg boxes to make a craft box is an essential in a crafty home, and gives your household waste a second life. How about including tin foil, old wrapping paper and chocolate wrappers too.
- You can collect all the off-cut bits of paper and cardboard after a craft session and save them in a special ‘collage’ box to use in future projects instead of sweeping them straight into the bin.
- If you’re anything like us you’ll have a constant demand for paper to draw on. You can open up cereal boxes and use the reverse-side of letters instead of always buying new.
For more ideas to celebrate Earth Day with your children, come back tomorrow when we’ll be sharing our favourite junk modelling ideas. You can also find some wonderful ideas for environmentally-friendly story books over at Playing by the Book and Good Books for Kids (but remember to borrow them from the library rather than buying them new!)
What other things do you do to promote Earth-friendly play? I’d love to hear your ideas.
happily shared with Share your Sunday best and we teach and Friday’s nature table
St. Patrick’s Day ideas
Are you celebrating St. Patrick’s Day this week and looking for St. Patrick’s Day crafts or games? Here are our ideas for a playful celebration with your kids.
Go green for the day: dress in green clothes and see how many green toys you can find. How about a green lunch too? Guacamole dip with cucumber and celery, spinach and ricotta tortellini with pesto sauce, with green jelly and grapes for pudding.
Hold a treasure hunt: hide some golden coins (made from circles of card or chocolate coins if you want a treat) around the house or garden and see if your little leprechauns can find them all. You can have the children work in pairs to hide and find the coins too, and have the child who hide the coins give clues to help the other child find them – great fun and a good exercise in team work and following instructions.
Try some shamrock stamping: heart shaped cookie cutters make a great shamrock shape!
Mix in some maths: patterning and matching games are an enjoyable way to practice early maths skills, so why not give your maths games a shamrock theme? Make some shamrock cutouts – from any green card, paintings or scrap paper you have, or by using a selection of green paint sample cards from your local DIY store. Younger children might like to see if they can pair up all the matching shamrocks or create some repeating patters (which you could transform into bunting). Older children might like to play a memory game: place all the shamrocks face down on the floor. Take it in turns to turn over two shamrocks. If you find a matching pair you can keep them – if not, place them back, face down again. The person to find the most pairs is the winner – and everyone gets to exercise their brains as they try to remember the location of the different patterned shamrocks.
Make some rainbows: with this rainbow finger painting craft , this idea to put a rainbow in your tummy or this rainbow threading pattern
How are you celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with your children? Got a great St.Patrick’s Day craft idea to share with us?
happily shared with Tot Tuesday and Works for Me Wednesday and Kids Get Crafty and ABC and 123
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