We’ve had a brilliant couple of weeks learning all about the ancient Egyptians. Here are some pictures of our art work. Please excuse the blurred faces, it is my policy not to post any identifying images of children – but these Pharoah pictures were too good not to share with you.
Kathleen Bell Childminding has received national recognition for supporting the use of Real Nappies in their childcare setting.
The commendation has come from the organisation: Go Real, the Real Nappy Information Service as part of their annual Real Nappy Week celebrations.
Real Nappies are chosen by parents across the UK predominantly because of their environmental and financial benefits. Currently the UK throws away 3 billion disposables every year with 90% going to landfill; but Real Nappies not only divert waste from landfill, they can also be up to 40% better for the environment than using disposables, helping parents actively combat their carbon footprint.
In addition parents can save at least £500 per child in Real Nappies, an important saving in the current economic climate. Real Nappies are also championed by many parents who favour the soft comfortable fabrics as well as the fun and functional designs.
With many parents now choosing to use Real Nappies they are consequently also looking for a childcare setting which is happy to accommodate their nappy choice.
Go Real Manager Rebecca Rapson said:
“More and more parents are using Real Nappies and so want to find a child care setting that is comfortable and confident with using them too. This Real Nappy Week we wanted to congratulate those childcarers that support and promote the use of Real Nappies in their setting and show others just how easy it is to do.”
She went on to say:
““Real Nappies have never been easier to use. The progress in design means that they are very similar to disposables to put on and the other great benefit for small businesses is that their waste disposal bill could also be reduced!”
Nurseries that have been declared “Real Nappy Friendly” will be given a certificate to promote their status and will also appear on the Go Real list of nappy services, enabling parents to find Real Nappy friendly childcare, local to them.
For more information on choosing and using Real Nappies visit Go Real – The Real Nappy Information Service.
I can’t believe I forgot to post the chess picture.
This kept the children quiet for ages yesterday afternoon, I was only needed to gently referee the more tense “discussions” and occasionally remind them the rules.
Well sorry Ms Atwood but I don’t smell like dirt but I did send the children home with paint on their cuffs and possibly even their noses – does that count?
It’s the end of the Easter holidays here as I am off for until the schools go back on Monday so we’ve packed a fair bit into the days we have had together.
We’ve been to the library to do lots of crafts, learned to play chess, baked cupcakes, made a posy of paper daffodils as a gift for a loved one, decorated paper eggs, made an Easter wreath and today we painted beautiful crayon-resist spring pictures. It’s been all go! Good thing we’re having a few days off before we get back into the school routine.
Enjoy the pictures.
Finally – Euan captured this picture of the sunlight through his window casting a teeny tiny rainbow on his bedroom wall.
How cheerful are these guys? They are the first thing you see when you come in my front door and I love them. Such happy fellows to greet you when you come home. I’ll be keeping them up there for a while. At least until I find out where they’ve hidden their pot of gold!
This is the delicious Hot Chocolate Kit we made to give the Mums on Mother’s Day. I don’t normally share instructions for our creations but I think this idea is too good not to share!
First gather a clean jar, some little yoghurt pots (petit filous size) or an ice cube tray to use as molds and some lollypop sticks.
Melt a couple bars of chocolate – we used milk chocolate but personally I would have preferred dark – in a pyrex bowl over some simmering water.
Stir in some cocoa and icing sugar until you’ve got a fairly thick paste (I didn’t measure how much, I just chucked it in.)
Half fill your yoghurt pots or completely fill the ice cube molds.
Place in the fridge to chill for bit.
Once they’ve started to set put the sticks in.
When they are completely set, remove from the molds. I plunged one into hot water to take it out but the sides were all squidgy and melted. I found the best way was to use just the warmth from my hand. Patience is required rather than brute strength – you’ll just pull the sticks out.
I had some wee plastic bags left from when we made cake pops, so I used those to wrap the lollies and secured with sticky tape. I think cling film would work perfectly well, or you could take the scissors to a freezer bag.
To finish off, we filled the jar half full of mini marshmallows, decorated the jar with jewels and then added a label with the instructions. Which are:
Melt the lollies in a mug full of hot milk, add marshmallows, and enjoy!
We’re going to be doing a mile for Sport Relief on the 26th of March. You can sponsor us on our Giving Page or pop round and make a donation. Every little helps, and it’s for a fantastic cause.
During our Space topic, we had a great time learning about constellations, the solar system and space travel. We used the information we learned from NASA’s kids club website and books from the library to creat some art for our display area.
This is our vocabulary rocket – we worked together to share some fabulous space related words.
After learning about constellations, and trying to spot some in the night sky we used chalk and sticky stars on black card to create our own.
We studied the planets in our own solar system and made planets of varying sizes from paper mache and painted them.
Here they are on the line drying.
.. and hanging around our “sun” in the living room. I think they look fantastic and brighten up the living room.
Part of next week will, of course, be taken up with matters of the heart as we get ready for Valentine’s Day – we’ve already made a start, but this is all top secret until the big day!
After Tuesday we are into half term. We have some exciting plans for that, we will be starting our Space topic when we plan to make papier mache planets, design our own constellations and make and decorate star biscuits.
I’ve also received some “helpful” suggestions for activities in the future, which involve making our own paints and building a medieval village (and castle) from cardboard boxes.
They certainly keep me busy!
I follow a lot of child related blogs on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. One of my favourite recent discoveries is The Imagination Tree.
Yesterday she posted this fabulous quote by a 4 year old:
(image from http://www.sxc.hu/profile/kentmurray)
It’s our new motto, just look under the blog title above.
