Book of the week
Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper.
Synopsis
Cat, Duck and Squirrel live in an old white cabin, with a pumpkin patch in the garden. Every day Cat slices up some pumpkin, Squirrel stirs in some water and Duck tips in some salt to make perfect pumpkin soup... until the day Duck wants to do the stirring...
A funny, rhythmical story about friendship and sharing, with fabulous animal characters, illustrated in glowing autumnal colours.
Weekly Activities
We explained to the children that this week we would be chopping firewood, building a fire, preparing/cooking vegetable soup and eating our delicious soup at snack time - very exciting!
We talked about how to eat healthily and why. The children then helped to prepare the vegetables by pealing and chopping them. We discussed how to use the peeler and knife safely. The children measured out the amount of pearl barley and water we needed to put into the cooking pot.
Next is was time to chop the logs. We showed the children how to safely use a hatchet to chop thick logs into thinner logs. The children were then encouraged to find thin, medium and thick sticks. We talked about the three things needed to make a fire: oxygen, heat and fuel. We went on to talk about how to build and then light a fire. We discussed how we keep safe when the fire is lit and the fire safety rules that we have:-
- Sitting sensibly around the fire on the logs (only getting up if an adult has asked)
- Always walking around the outside of the logs/base camp
- Only using fire gloves or log metal tongs after the fire is lit
- Remembering that the charcoal will still be hot even after the flames have gone out
All the children had a turn building the fire and using a flint and steel which is how we light our fires. Once the fire was lit, we put the cooking pot on a grate and boiled the water. We added a vegetable stock cube and the pearl barley. After cooking this for a short time we added our vegetables which included carrot, parsnip, potato, sweet potato and swede. After letting it simmer for a while our soup was ready! We took our bowls and used a ladle to pour the soup. We then had lovely warming soup as our snack at snack time.
Aims and Objectives
Talk about fire safety
Talk about fire building
Talk about tool safety
Discuss healthy eating
Develop fine motor skills so children can use a range of tools competently, safely and confidently
Home Activity
Winter Bird Watch
Winter is a perfect time for bird watching. There are still plenty of winter birds around throughout the year and with the branches bare, birds and their nests are often easier to spot in the winter.
A lovely way to draw your child’s attention to the birds is with a low-sounding instrument such as a wooden whistle. Try blowing it gently and leaving a long pause.
Ask your child to watch the sky as you call the birds.
You could provide pictures of winter birds to tick off as you spot them such as:
Robin
Chaffinch
Woodcock
Waxwing
Starling
Blackbirds
Talk to your child about how some birds fly away to warmer countries for the winter, and some stay at home. Look out for ground feeders like blackbirds and birds that like to feed higher up, like robins.
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