Category Archives: Snack

Baking, Creative movement, Creativity, Expressive Arts, Froebel, Imaginative thinking, Literacy, music, nature, Outdoor Learning, Snack, Social Studies

What have we been doing at Cart Mill this week?

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This week at Cart Mill we have been taking part in a wide variety of learning experiences across each of our playrooms and our garden.
In our Discovery room we have continued along our Jack and the Beanstalk learning journey by investigating “forces” and “travel”. Our mission was to find a way for Jack to get to and from the castle without the giant seeing!  To do this we decided to fill the balloon with air and let it go to see how far it would travel towards the castle. It’s been so much fun seeing how much air we need to make the balloon go fast or slow.

In our Studio we have shown an interest in diggers and have been using the water tray as our construction site. We used dried rice to represent the dirt and had great fun using the construction toys to fill, empty and transport the rice.  We used our technology skills to look at videos of real construction vehicles on our smart board. This experience had such a great level of engagement from all our children, especially our younger ones. We even found a Danny go video called “digging in the dirt” to all join in with, incorporating our health, well-being and movements skills.

In our Home room we have continued to develop our baking skills by researching recipes, measuring ingredients and making yummy vegan treats for our afternoon snack!  The best part was taste testing our baking!
In our playdough area  we have been experimenting by adding different scents to our playdough. We’ve tried peppermint, lemon and orange extracts. We even tried chocolate powder to make chocolate playdough. It smelt so good and looked just like chocolate. This week we decided to wander out to the the planting area to choose herbs and flowers to introduce some different scents. We picked basil, thyme, garlic and some flowers. As we grow in confidence, we are able to make our playdough independently using our self serve playdough station.  It has been lots of fun choosing loose parts to add to our playdough and creating  wonderful models.
Between the smells of playdough and daily home baking our home room smells delightful.

And finally our garden! The weather has been a little varied this week with showers of rain in between the sunshine.  As usual, we didn’t let that stop our fun!  We have used the gross motor rollers to mark make, played role play games using the play house and even took part in music and movement games such as head shoulders knees and toes. We extended our muddy movers skills by playing catch with the sticky ball and catching mitts. It was lots of fun taking turns with catching and throwing.

We all love learning through our play at Cart Mill! I wonder what we will do next week during our summer adventures?

UNCRC article 28- we have the right to play.

Literacy, Snack

What’s cooking in the Cart Mill Kitchen

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This week in the snack area, we’ve been exploring foods from around the world, sparked by the children noticing that the fruit we eat comes from different countries. Our focus this week was on making pitta bread and hummus, a delicious snack enjoyed in many Middle Eastern countries. We looked online to find a recipe we could follow. Let’s find out how we made them. 😃

Step 1: Making the Pitta Bread

First, we used scales to measure the ingredients, Weighing out 350g of gluten-free flour, we added it to a bowl. Next we used a jug to measure out 300ml of natural yogurt, adding it to the bowl along with a pinch of salt and 2 tsp of baking powder. We mixed them all together with a wooden spoon to create a simple dough.

We then used a rolling pin to roll out the dough into small circles, ready to cook. Doing this helped develop fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. Once cooked, the pitta breads were ready to taste at snack time.

Step 2: Making the Hummus

We combined chickpeas, garlic, lemon juice, and tahini in a blender, taking turns to measure out the quantities needed.


Next we turned on the blender mixing them until we achieved a smooth paste. At first we noticed that the consistency was a little thick. Using our problem solving skills one the children suggested adding water. We added a little water at a time till it was perfect to try with our freshly baked pitta breads. The process expanded the children’s vocabulary and helped them follow multi-step instructions.

Take a look at some of the fabulous comments bellow.

“It’s mixing together”

“It’s evolving”

“I think it will be smooth”

“It’s mixing really fast”

The children enjoyed both the process and the delicious results, learning about foods from around the world and exploring new cooking techniques. 

I wonder what we could make next week? If you have any suggestions please leave them in the comment box below. 😃

Article 1
Everyone under 18 has all these rights

Article 28
You have the right to education.

 

Snack

Homemade Cart Mill Crumble!

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In the bustling kitchen of Cart Mill, our young chefs have been busy making their very own apple crumble from scratch.  Working together they have transformed simple ingredients into a mouth watering dessert. Let’s dive into what they did today.

Ingredients:

  • Fresh, crisp apples
  • Gluten-free flour
  • Butter (Homemade of course)

Cooking Steps:

Peeling and Chopping Apples: With careful guidance and a trusty peeler, the children skilfully removed the apple skins supported by an adult to ensure every apple was perfectly peeled. Once peeled the apples were diced into tiny pieces ready to be cooked till nice and soft.

Making Homemade Butter: The kitchen was full of excitement as the children embarked on a butter-making adventure. Filling a container with double cream, and a few marbles they were ready to begin.  Woking together they shook the contents for a very very long time, but their persistence paid off. When we opened the container what did we find….BUTTER!

“It takes a very very long time”

“look its butter”

“Butter comes from cows”

“You make butter with milk”

Creating the Crumbly Crumble: With homemade butter in hand and flour at the ready, the children blended the two ingredients together. Displaying excellent fine motor skills they rubbed until a crumbly concoction emerged. It will be a perfect topping!

Layering and Topping: As the final step, the children layered the cooked apples into a dish. Adding  generous sprinkles of the crumble mixture on top they were complete and smelling delicious!

Now, with their apple crumbles assembled they are ready to take home for baking until golden and bubbling. We wrote our names on the lid so we could identify them at home time.  Well done team!

At Cart Mill, cooking is all about fun and teamwork! Making apple crumble together not only filled their tummies but also explored new skills.  Cheers to their cooking adventure!

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Article 1
Everyone under 18 has all these rights

Article 28
You have the right to education

Article 29
You have the right to education which tries to
develop your personality and abilities as much as
possible and encourages you to respect other
people’s rights and values and to respect the
environment

Snack

Beautiful banana and blueberry muffins independently 😁😁😁

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Today at Cart Mill we enjoyed some delicious banana and blueberry muffins.  The children are familiar with this receipe but today it was carried out independently by a 4 year old with the only assistance given was with the oven.

He collected all the ingredients he needed.

He could recall the measurements and weighed out what he needed

He peeled his banana using his fine motor muscles in his strengthening hands.

We used coconut milk and he poured out just enough using a measuring jug, supporting his numeracy skills.


He mixed all the ingredients together very well

And divided the mixture evenly into the cupcake tray

When he had finished making the muffins he washed his dishes and put all his ingredients away….well done, what a great job today!!!

Ingredients :

3 scoops of gluten free flour

1 scoop of sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon xanthum gum

100 ml of coconut milk

some blueberries and a banana

Try to make these delicious muffins we can always guarantee lots of tasters if you need any. 😜

Article 24 A right to be healthy

Baking, Creativity, Snack, Social Studies

The great Cart Mill bake off🧁

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Today the children wanted to make muffins for snack. They each washed their hands and put aprons on before starting as we spoke about the importance of hand hygiene especially before and after preparing food. We looked out all the ingredients and pre heated the oven.

Ingredients:

  • 3 scoops of gluten free flour
  • 1/2 scoop of sugar
  • 1 teaspoon of Xanthan gum
  • 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
  • 100 ml Soya milk

“Can I add raisins?”

“me too”

The children measured all the ingredients out and carefully added them to their bowl, giving them a good mix using their gross motor skills.



“it’s so hard to mix now, it’s not soft”

Now they are ready for the oven. We discussed our rules about using the oven.

“It’s very hot, only adults allowed”

“You need oven gloves, so you don’t burn yourself”


When they were ready we let them cool down in the kitchen. Next we gathered chopping boards and knifes to cut up the muffins and we cut them up and shared them equally between 3 plates to have for our afternoon snack. They even had a wee sneaky taste test for all their hard work.

“hmmm yummy our friends are going to love these”

Article 29 – I have the right to an education which develops my personality, talents and abilities. 

 

Snack

Promoting muffin and snack making, self serving and tidying up after ourselves 👍

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At Cart Mill we are promoting independence, responsibility through learning to be resilient and confident and to be able to do things for ourselves.

Today we made muffins to serve at snack for our friends, this is a very popular experience which we do daily to give everyone a turn. By making the same recipe everyday allows the children to become confident in making the muffins independently with only a little support needed for the oven.

The children are familiar with the receipe…3 scoops of gluten free flour, 1 scoop of sugar, xanthum gum, baking powder and some coconut milk to bind together.

We put the muffins in the cases ready for the oven, 180 degrees for 20mins.

Whilst waiting for the muffins we start preparing our snack. The children choose their snack in the morning and being very careful with the knife we start chopping…

Watermelon, green apples, pineapple to go along with our freshly made muffins….delicious!!!

The choice and amount are displayed on our wall so the 2-5 year olds can identify the snack and clearly see how many they can have in accordance with our guidance and learning that we are sharing with our friends.

We sit together at snack enjoying the social element of talking to our friends and scaffolding our learning by watching the example set by our peers.

Why not try to make these muffins easy muffins at home (I’m sure the children will help you 😀)

Article 31 Every child has the right to relax, play and take part in a wide range  of cultural and artistic activities

 

 

Expressive Arts, Snack, Special Event

Today we were Celebrating Burns day at Cart Mill family centre 😁

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Here are some of our Burns day activities. We enjoyed Vegetarian haggis neeps and tatties for our snack and asked the children what they thought of it thumbs up or thumbs down I’m pleased to say the majority of the children liked it.

” The haggis is a bit spicy, but I like it”

“ can I have some more , it’s so good”

“I don’t like it, it’s to bitty”

” The turnip is my favourite it’s a nice yellow colour “

We also enjoyed painting using a big box and cars to move the paint around to look like tartan.   The box was quite heavy and the children had to get it into the correct angle to move the cars. “ My car is super fast” “ Im making the green tartan”

After lunch the children decided they would like to try some highland dancing. They were twirling jumping and dancing in time to the Scottish music.

Snack, Social Studies

Scrumptious Snack

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Here at Cart Mill Family Centre our children are very independent when having their snacks. Our children are encouraged to show their independence skills from start to finish during the duration of the snack experience.

First the children choose what they would like to have for snack. Today we chose apples, bananas and cucumbers.
Our children are very clever and they help to prepare the snack for everyone by cutting it up.

We are very careful of our fingers when using the knife to cut the fruit.

Our children from 2-5 all have the opportunity to help prepare snack. By encouraging independence and using our fine manipulative skills to cut the snack is a great learning opportunity for our children to gain confidence from a young age.

We used different tools to help us prepare snack such as the apple corer. We had to push down hard. It was quite tricky at first.


We filled up the water and milk jugs and set up our table ready to invite our friends to join us for snack. We know the importance of washing our hands before we eat.

We collect our own cups and plates from the trolley before choosing our seat.

Our snack table is all self service and is a free flow snack which allows children to come as they please and have a leisurely snack experience which develops our social skills as we sit together having conversations with our peers.

Using the tongs helps our fine manipulative skills while saving on the germs.


We pour our own drinks and choose what we want. If some our younger children need help our older ones are always on hand to help. Once we finish our snack we take our plate and cup over to the skink to rinse it and pop it in the dish rack for the staff to help with the washing dishes.


We are very clever here at Cart Mill. The children have picked this routine up very quickly with our younger children now showing these skills and are enjoying the chance to become independent.

Baking, Snack

December Round Up in the Baking Area

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Over the last few weeks in the baking  area the children have enjoyed lots of different experiences starting with making our own potato scones for St Andrews day, they worked so hard peeling, chopping, mashing and shaping before practicing their spreading skills buttering and of course enjoying the taste.

They have also been busy making a variety of different muffins for snack time, we’ve had blueberry, raisin and banana.

The children have been working on developing their fine motor skills at snack time having a go at spreading butter onto crackers, cheese onto bread and jam onto bread which has been voted the best.

We enjoyed the process of making fruit kebabs, peeling, chopping and carefully pushing them onto a skewer we introduced a wee bit of maths by recognising and following a simple pattern or making up their own.

We ended by making some delicious gingerbread cookies and decorating our “ home made” empire biscuits.

Literacy, Snack, Special Event

Christmas at Cart Mill

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As we said yesterday, this week at Cart Mill is full on festive. Today we enjoyed a special Christmas lunch with turkey and all the trimmings, followed by ice cream. We have also been busy writing letters to Santa and this afternoon we baked gingerbread biscuits.

When writing their letters, the children talked about all the gifts they were hoping for. We hope you know what they are hoping for too!

‘ I Would like a unicorn’ ‘Its quite hard to cut out the stamps because they are so small’

‘I’m posting my letter i have written lots in it’ ‘ I would like a diplodocus for for Christmas and a big T-Rex also a giraffe’

There has also been requests for a coffee machine for the bath, bubble machines, dolls and Spiderman. Let’s hope Santa is listening!

We then made our gingerbread men or angels. After seeing the play, we thought it would be so good to make our very own gingerbread! The centre was full of festive smells as the biscuits baked.


‘I measured out three table spoons of sugar’ ‘I think these will be tasty’ ‘I’m rolling it out flat’


Every day seems so busy at Cart Mill, it will be Christmas before we know it!