had jam sandwiches and had asked that we make some for them (“They will feel a little bit ill.”) but we had forgotten the butter.
What could we make it out of?
There was some cream on the side. Was that like butter?
“No, butter is sticky. That’s runny.”
“We could put some syrup in it.”
“We could put it in the oven.”
We had some marbles and a jam jar so we decided to put the cream in there and give it a shake to see what would happen.
Soon the cream was getting thicker but we needed it to be thicker still.
“Why don’t we put some milk in? … Oh no! Then it would be even more sloppier and the marbles would move about.”
“Why don’t we use a mixer to make it quick?”
Luckily, just then, the cream turned into butter!
“The marble isn’t in there any more… I think it’s gone into the butter.”
“You can’t hear the marbles because it’s all melted into the butter – because they’re stuck.”
Spreading was not easy (“You drag it along with your knife.”) and nor was cutting but the children were so pleased when they had managed it.
“I’ve never cut a sandwich before!”
“I’ve cut it into quarters. It’s 2 and 2.”
“Next time the pigs mustn’t have jam. They could have cucumber or salad.”
The jam sandwiches were a great hit with the children – no crusts or crumbs left! I wonder why?!
Role Play: Electricians
We began by talking about electricity and how lights and kettles etc needed them to work.
“Can we use the plugs in the hall?” This led to a chat about the dangers of electricity.
“It will kill you.”
We talked about our pretend electricity as we were pretending to be electricians.
Tubes proved useful to push the cables through “like school’s electricity.”
“I’ve found a flat surface for the plug.”
“I’m connecting the electricity to the fan…It can go in the house. Make sure you connect the electricity to the fan otherwise it won’t work.”
“This mixer has no electricity. I need a wire with a plug.”
“Look! There’s wires inside. The electricity goes in lots of different wires for all the TVs… These holes in the walls are for the electricity…,and theses tubes are to protect the wires…Now its ready for the walls.”
“We’re connecting electricity to the water pump…We’ve attached the wire to something at last.”
We found out that Chinese people love cherry blossom. We didn’t have any cherry blossom so we investigated flowers instead.
“I just seed the juice coming out of it…Cool! I found juice! .. The hard bits in the leaf are for to hold it up.”
“This is soft and gentle to cut but this is hard…The petals are easy to cut too.”
“Oh no! This bit just exploded!... This stem is easier to cut because it’s lighter.”
“There’s whiteness in this stalk and greenness in this one.”
“There’s something at the very bottom. It’s hard…I can’t squish it.”
“Under (the petal) there’s light green and on top there’s dark green.”
“If you do this, you find green treasure – it’s hard.”
“You break it in half and all these bits come off.”
“Smell it! This one smells like…not really nice. These yellow ones smell like orange.”
“I peeled off the outside of the stem and there’s string inside – it helps to stick the big stem.”
“There’s a dark hole in this stem.”
“The petals are stuck on the green bits.”
“All of them are like that.”
“If you snip it, the juice comes out. If there’s no juice the bees have sucked all the honey out and honey is wetness.”
“I think it’s wet so it will grow because that’s how flowers grow.”
“Let’s think…Try and get loads of these seeds out.”
“When I cutted this bit, water came out!”
We decided to add some water of our own.
“What happens if the flowers get in the water…? They will get all soggy… I’m mixing…What happens if we snip them in the water…?
“Will they grow into flowers again?”
What if we used the squeezer?
“It will all squish down…Yeah! They’re all squashed!”
Pestle and mortar:
“The water’s gone all green!”
“My petals are yellow…I’m trying to get yellow water.”
Block challenge: to build a house tall enough to fit the wolf standing up!
This took quite a lot of thinking, negotiating and perseverence but they got there in the end!
Cutting the windows and doors fo