Cheesey flapjacks

Today was a cold, wet, windy miserable day so we decided to do some baking.  But encountered a lack of flour!  So while 2 yr old eyes up the page with the 3 layer chocolate cake and announced "we can make THAT!" I decided we should attempt the slightly easier cheesey flapjacks from the netmums recipe book.  Here is a link to it - http://www.netmums.com/family-food/recipes/a-z-of-family-recipes/savoury-flapjack

Very easy to make! Lots of fun mixing and cracking eggs. 

I am terrible at flapjacks, they end up stuck to the tray and need to be chiseled off.  So I decided to roll small balls and flatten them, making mini cheesey oat biscuits instead. 

They have gone down quite well so far! Finished product pic comming soon...!

Italian day

As part of our "around the world in a week" project in the summer we had an Italian day. 

First of all we made the dough for our pizza as this needs to sit for a good few hours.  The recipie we used came from the NetMums book http://www.netmums.com/family-food/recipes/a-z-of-family-recipes/pizza and is fairly simple to make and I have had good results with it before.

Children enjoy doing the mixing and kneeding of this, and if you have older children then they can help with the measurements too.   I tend to weigh the ingredients and pop them in small bowls for the children to pour in, and let them count the spoonfuls going in too.  Cover with clingfilm and leave it to rise...

 

We also decided to make pretend pizzas for our craft. For this I cut out circles from cereal packets - use a plate to draw round if you like.  And then paint with red paint - easy peasy!  Then again leave these to dry!

 

 

We later chopped up some paper/material anything really we could find in our bits and bobs box to make toppings.  We did ham, green peppers, salami and cheese but the list is endless!  And stuck these on with glue.  And here we are....almost good enough to eat?!

 

 

This activity is good for - . learning about other countries, learning about hygine when cooking and baking, exploring how food is made and trying new foods and flavours.   

Further ideas for this activity - colour pictures of Italian flag, look up pictures/map of Italy, discuss what the weather is like in Italy.  Could make other Italian foods and perhaps make a whole week out of it! 

 

 

Autumn tree

This one is a bit of a work in progress!  First we got a book out from the library about Autumn and read this, chatted about what was in the book and the different colours of leaves.

Then we got a huge piece of paper (big roll of paper, 2 pieces stuck together and held down with pots and pans!) and drew a tree and the word Autumn. Then we mixed up some red and green paint (A good opportunity to chat about colour mixing and discuss all the combinations you can use) and got painting!

While it was drying we went out for a walk and collected lots of autumn leaves from the ground and I also made a few myself by chopping up appropriately coloured paper.  Nothing quite like a nice crisp Autumn walk!  Depending on the age of children you could chat about colours of the leaves, or the types of leaves and the trees they come from. 

Later that afternoon we glued the leaves on to the paper....

Songs we sang while doing this -

"Autumn leaves are falling down, falling down, falling down.
Autumn leaves are falling down, on the ground.

Get a brush and sweep them up, sweep them up, sweep them up.
Get a brush and sweep them up from the ground" (To the tune of London Bridge)

"In the autumn the leaves change colour,  leaves change colour,  leaves change colour.
In the autumn the leaves change colour, red and gold and brown.

In the autumn the leaves change colour, leaves change colour, leaves change colour.
In the autumn the leaves change colour, then they all fall down" (To the tune of round the Mullberrybush)

We will also be adding various Autumn creatures.

 

Potato print hedgehogs -

 

 

Cut out a triangle from half a potato and use this to print spikes on to the hedgehogs

 



 

 

 

The owls on the tree -

All ready for some leaf printing after a cold autumnal walk to collect leaves!

 

 

 

Dipped the leaves in paint then printed them.  When dry they were just out and added on to the tree as the falling leaves.

 

 

 

The finished tree -



Clay hedgehogs

As part of our Autumn themed crafts/activities then we made clay hedgehogs.

First to make the clay you mix

• 4 cups plain flour
• 1 cup salt
• 1.5 cups water

You might need to add a wee bit more water if it is too hard to mould the clay.  We made them in to hedgehog shapes, using the end of a plastic knife to mark the eyes.

 

Then popped them on to greaseproof paper and in to the oven for about an hour at 160. 

When they come out you will see they are a little bit golden. 

 

Then mix some red and green paint up to make brown.

 

And then get painting!

 

 

You can then add painted/googly eyes, nose and any other decorations you like!

 

 

 

Welcome

Welcome to GiraffesCrafts blog - ideas and examples of activities, crafts and baking with young children.  :)