Autumn has finally arrived at Hackney Marsh Adventure Playground. The leaves are falling, orange and yellow hues decorate the pathways, platforms and tree houses. The mild temperatures meant we still have plenty of activities happening outside from den building, decorating the tree house and at the end of the day 'murder in the dark' hide & seek team games.
Tuesday 1st November, Salt Dough Autumn Leaves:
This week we experimented with making salt dough autumn leaves. In the past we have made play dough which is a much loved activity. The children enjoy squeezing, shaping and modelling the dough but their items are never persevered. This time we followed a very simple salt dough recipe and added food colouring at the beginning in autumn shades. Salt dough is a cheap alternative to commercial clay based material and easy to make.
What you need: 2 cups of plain flour, ½ cup of salt, 1 cup of water, food colouring, extra flour for rolling out.
Mix the flour and salt together and then add enough water to make a dough ball that is firm but not sticky. Add the water drop by drop until you get the right consistency. Knead the dough until its flexible then roll it out, on a floured board. The thickness should be approximately 1cm. Place the shapes on a foil-lined baking tray and cook in the oven at 120oC for 2 hours or leave to air dry for a few days turning occasionally.
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| Children rolled out their coloured salt dough. The next stage they pressed a real leave into the soft dough and finally cut around the shape. When the leaves have dried we will varnish then so they have a sleek gloss finish. |
ROCKY ROAD TOFFEE APPLES-YUMMY!
With Bon-fire night just a few days away we made these delicious rock road toffee apples. These were really easy to make and lots of children took part in doing a task. We organized a small factory line, one person added the toffee, another person dipped the chocolate, someone else added the chopped up marshmallows and sprinkles were added just at the end. The only downside to this was that we had to wait for everything to cool down before we could tuck in!
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| Well worth the wait - mm, yummy! |
BON-FIRE event
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| Ooh - a marshmallow tree! |
This year we held our bon-fire event a day early and organized a number of fun things for the children to take part in. First, we had to get the fire going with the help of a few older children this didn't take long. A huge cook out was prepared and sausages, potatoes, soup and apple pie were all on offer.
Children earlier in the week helped Cat (playworker) to make a stuffed guy for the fire. A number of debates were had about what the face should be, if it was a girl or boy?
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| The guy was thrown on to the fire, with in minutes in went up in a ball of flames to the delight of all who were watching! |
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