Family Learning Summer Programme – Week 4 Challenge

• Sharing a book together (that is above your child’s reading ability) helps them to develop their vocabulary or discuss experiences they have not explored before. Why not try an audio book with your child, where you can discuss the chapters and help them to come up with a review – what they likes, disliked, how it made them feel? Who was their favourite character.
• A good skill for literacy is research and fact finding – so encourage your child/ren to create a nature diary – by either looking up with the use technology or ideally books to fact find and enhance what they have drawn or observed in their world around them.
• Help your child/ren with writing their own stories, provide them with some paper, recycled cardboard, pens and pencils to capture ideas. It is not about the quantity they write, it could just be ideas, or character names – creativity has to start somewhere.
• Poetry and songs are great at encouraging children to look at the meaning behind words, tackle concepts and emotions that are complex and evoke feelings that can be explored. Find a poem that rhymes, or a song that they like the words too and explore it with them.
• Find a word of the week – that can be rhymed with their name – Gorgeous George (explore gorgeous is not just about appearance but also personality) or why not extend their knowledge  – sanguine – optimistic and hopeful, where the word originates  – French and Latin –of blood

Ice cream in a Bag

Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla, peppermint or other flavouring
• 1-3 Tablespoons sugar
• Any mix-ins or flavours you’d like (chocolate syrup, M&M’s, etc.)

Method:

1. Ask someone to hold open a small Ziplock bag
2. Measure out one cup of milk and pour it into the bag.
3. Measure and add the 1 teaspoon vanilla and the 1-3 tablespoon sugar. (You can add your mix-ins now, but they may change the colour of your ice cream; I like to add mine at the end.) Seal this bag very carefully.
4. After zipping the bag closed, you can make sure it’s sealed tightly by folding masking tape over the top. (You can also double-bag it to prevent punctures.) Set the small bag aside.
5. Ask someone to hold open the large Ziplock bag. Fill this bag about 1/3 full of ice. Pour in about a quarter cup of rock salt.
6. Drop the small (sealed!) bag into the bigger bag of ice. Seal this bag carefully too, so you don’t splash yourself with salty ice-melt.
7. Shake, shake, shake the bag for about 10-15 minutes, until the ice cream has attained the consistency you like.
8. Add mix-ins.
9. Now you eat it! You can eat it right out of the bag, or transfer it to a bowl or cup. Enjoy!