Tuesday 20 December 2011

Christmas party

This week (20th December) was our last session before Christmas and the last session of the year, so we had a Christmas Party to celebrate.  We decorated balloons with stickers and drawings and made little mice out of walnut shell halves and felt for ears and tails.  You put a marble underneath the shell and then the mouse will slide across the floor! (tutorial here)

We finished off with a bring and share Christmas lunch - which was yummy!  Lots of lovely cakes (amongst all the healthy vegetables and hummus of course..)  The only downside was we didn't get a chance to play Twister - maybe next year!

We will be meeting again on the 3rd January 2012 - please email us for details tauntonhomeeducation@yahoo.com  And, in the meantime we wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!







   






   

         

       




Wednesday 14 December 2011

Making salt dough decorations

It was a very festive feel this week (13th December), as we made salt dough Christmas decorations. To make them, you need 1cup of flour, 1 cup of salt, spices (if you want!) and approx 3/4 cup of water, mix it all together and add more water if needed.  Knead for a few minutes before rolling out and cutting out your shapes.  We made a big selection of shapes - gingerbread men, snowmen, stars, trees etc, and decorated some of them with cloves.  Salt dough takes quite a long time to set (you can either air-dry them or cook in the oven at a very low temperature - it can take several hours), so we took them home at the end to decorate later.

A few of us braved a walk at Fyne Court afterwards - even though it was starting to sleet a little as we left!















Wednesday 7 December 2011

Making cardboard gingerbread houses

This week, 6th December,  we made and decorated 'gingerbread' houses - unfortunately not made of gingerbread, but of cardboard instead - and we had our first dad at the group!  The children decorated the little houses with stickers, cotton wool and other things, and then the mums (and dad!) glued them together with the hot glue gun.  There was also some piano playing by the smallest 2 members of the group - see the photo!  As always the group ended with a quick trip over to the little park by the hall.












Wednesday 30 November 2011

Paper snowflakes and conker webs

For our last meeting in November, we made lots of paper snowflakes, and some "conker webs" ( see tutorials here, here & here).
To make a conker web, you need a dry conker, in which you make several holes around with a sharp needle, and then push in some cocktail sticks. 
Then you take a piece of wool and wrap it around the sticks, going round and round until you feel like changing colour. It's very easy and gives lovely results.
The children also enjoyed playing with bricks, listening to a very lively rendition of "We're going on a bear hunt" and helping with the sweeping.