Toddler Kitchen – Cookie Cutter Shaped Pizza

We were making pizza (recipe at end of previous post) and Luath was helping me roll out the dough.  She said where are the cookie cutters – we haven’t made pizza for a while but have made cookies and played with dough.  I thought why not, we have done mini pizzas using scone cutters before.  Luath wanted gingerbread men and also an umbrella.  We did some scone circles too.

I drained our tomato sauce to make sure it was thick.  They didn’t photograph to well but they looked quite good.  Planned with the right toppings they could be brilliant. Luath enjoyed eating them especially when daddy said she was just like the fox and they started saying “ a quarter gone” munch munch.

(Luath is 27 month)

Indoor Play – Banana Box Trip

A supermarket nearby leaves banana boxes at the end of the checkouts.  They are really sturdy and we have used them often in play.  It takes a lot for them to break and when they finally do they work well in the vegetable plots.  A much loved game of Luath’s is when we attached a dog lead to the box and pull her around the house. The box has been every vehicle and we have gone on many different trips.  It is a great game that you can play on/off all morning.

Usually we have a few different locations to travel to – petrol station (just an area of the room), school (the easel), library (where we put some books), roundabout (a stool), doctors/vets (Luath’s doctor’s kit) etc 

The length of time spent at each location varies, it might be a quick visit or we may stay there and pretend play for a long time.  The library and the doctors are popular places to linger.
  
(Luath is 27 months)

Outdoors everyday week 17

Very wet windy, cold  .  Some of the things we did while outdoors this week were:
Tried out new shoes.  Learnt what sinks/floats in a puddle.  Climbed a hill.  “Snowflake” (Luath’s version of a snow angel). Tried to embrace the bad weather on Earth Day.  Sailed paper boats in a puddle. Using stepping stones.  Jumpscotch.  Outdoor percussion.
 

(Luath is 27 months)

Outdoor Play – It’s not just throwing stones, we are learning

As kids we used to say “you are a townie” if when you reached water you immediately started throwing stones into it. (We meant that rural kids wouldn’t get that excited about water but if you lived in the city it would be a great novelty).  We definitely don’t live in a city or town and we couldn’t live much closer to water unless we lived on it, but you will find us frequently throwing stones into the water.  Luath loves it and actually there is a lot of learning going on. 

20 things we are learning while we throw stones

Nature
 
Hands on – feeling different textures and temperatures of objects
Observing surroundings - lots to see and talk about
Weather – experiencing rain, wind, sun, fog…
Language skills
Lots of opportunity for new words, phrases, descriptions
Maths

Big/little
Heavy/Light
Counting
Comparing/matching
Science

Displacement – of water as stone hits
Gravity
Sound – different noise depending on stone size and water depth
Energy – kinetic energy from the stone produces ripples
Float or sink – throwing different objects
Timing
Throwing on the count of three
Fine motor skills

Picking up small objects = with bare hands, gloves and mittens
Manipulating objects in both left and right hands
Gross motor skills

Balancing
Bending
Throwing – underhand, overhand, unilateral, bilateral, aiming
Multi tasking
Balancing, bending turning and picking - in Luath's case also usually while talking

And the most important thing is that it is fun.
(Luath is 27 months)
Shared with Outdoor Play link up via Learning for Life see other outdoor play ideas linked up

Book(s) of the week – Duck in the truck by Jez Alborough

We started the week reading a library book Duck in the Truck and have read it frequently since.    Luath quite often pretends either she is or whatever she is playing with gets stuck, so Luath loved that duck’s truck got stuck in the muck.  Frog, sheep and goat come to help.  It is a bright picture book with a rhyming text.  There are many things to look at in the illustrations.

We also read two other Duck books often this week, Ducks day out and Duck to the rescue.
(Luath is 27 months)

Jack and the FlumFlum Tree

Jack and the Flumflum Tree was Luath’s favourite book last week, we read it many times.  We have done a few things inspired by the book.
Made some paper boats.  Jack builds a wooden boat but a paper boat sails alongside in the illustrations.

We made them on Earth Day out of flyers and sailed them in a puddle.
    
We did an experiment to see what would sink or float in a puddle.

I made a tom tom (a tub, cloth and elastic band) and we played it with wooden spoons while reading the part of the book they feature in.  I also read in time to a beat.
 
We looked at the book illustrations.  All the objects that granny puts in the patchwork sack are hidden in the front/back pages.

We did some play with a shark and other animals.  Initially I took out a shark. monkey and birds as they feature in the book, but Luath thought more should try out our beach and sea.

(Luath is 27 months)

Shared with Read.Explore.Learn at JDaniel4’s Mom

Toddler Kitchen – Sweet fruit and nut muffins (No sugar or dairy)

This is a yummy scrummy recipe from The Baby-led Weaning Cookbook.  You can alter the recipe to suit what you like, what you have available and the age of your LO.  It works well increasing the ingredients and the muffins freeze well.  We tend to make mini muffins.

Recipe (makes about 12 regular or 24 mini muffins)
2 eggs beaten
100 ml sunflower oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
225g self raising flour (wholemeal, half/half, normal)
2 medium carrots grated
2 dessert apples, peeled, cored, grated
75-100g dates, finely chopped
50g desiccated coconut
50g pecan or walnuts ground or roughly chopped if older child (optional)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
(we have altered the spices used, added raisins instead of dates, added seeds instead of the nuts, added some banana)
Method
Preheat oven to 180C
Line muffin tray with paper cases (we use silicone trays and just fill directly into them)
Put oil, eggs and vanilla extract in bowl and mix well.
In another bowl put flour, carrots, apple, dates, coconut, nuts and spices.  Mix well. Make well in centre and add egg mixture.
Fill cases and bake 15-25 mins until golden brown and springy to touch. Cool for few minutes and then turn out.
Our muffin making
The amount of help Luath gives varies.  Some days she is very involved, others she wanders in and out.  This day she tasted some flour and decided she didn’t like it.  She ate some of the carrots.  Had a try at grating an apple (I placed the apple on one of her forks and I held the grater).

She then spent the rest of the time between the living room and the kitchen, frequently asking “Are they ready yet?”  She loves them and so do we.
(Luath is 27 months)
Shared with Tuesday tots via Rainy Day mum

How do you know it is a duck? – Virtual Kids Book Club – April – David Shannon-Duck on a Bike

I struggled with the virtual book club’s author this month. David Shannon wasn’t an author I knew.  When I saw it in the upcoming year list I kept a look out for his books.  There are none in the library here.  I flicked through one book in a charity shop and looked at books being read online, but I couldn’t find one I liked or that was suitable for Luath.  Last week I finally found “Duck on a bike”.  Which is a fun story about a duck cycling, all the other farm animals have negative comments about this, but they finally succumb when a group of children leave their bikes unattended.  The book reminds me of the Jez Alborough duck books.  Luath found it funny.

In this book and many other books ducks are white, different to the ones we see by our house (Mallard and Eider)

and different to the toy yellow ducks

and the multicoloured bath ducks, but we know they are all ducks.

How do we know it is a duck?
We looked for ducks while we were outdoors, looked at ducks in books and our duck toys. We talked about what makes us know they are all ducks – the webbed feet, waddle, bill and a quack (not true for all ducks, the eiders make quite a distinctive sound and it is not a quack).  We have started going to a music and movement class and at the moment we have been hatching out of eggs and becoming ducks. So I decided to give Luath some webbed feet and a bill to expand on this.

These were made quick and with thin cardboard, the feet would be better with stiffer cardboard. I cut two duck feet shaped from cardboard packaging and a bill from an egg box.
 
I made five holes in each foot.
 
Using a shoelace I attached the foot to Luath’s gym shoe.

I attached a shoelace to the bill.  Elastic would be better.

She put on her duck feet and bill.  She decided that the bill made a great necklace.  We did our duck dance and lots of waddling.  NB As the laces were a choking hazard Luath was supervised while she had them.
 
Two resources about what makes a duck a duck:
 What is a duck? and characteristics of a duck to teach a young child
(Luath is 27 months)