Happy New Year

Homemade Christmas Crackers

Hola!

 Heu sentit a parlar de Christmas crackers??? They are a fun tradition in the UK for Christmas. For more info about the origin and what it is click christmas cracker link

 Although you normally buy Christmas crackers, this year we thought it would be fun to make some of our own. We got to choose what to put inside and how to decorate them. 

 This is the simple process we followed with Aleks!

 Vam utilitzar rotllos de paper de cuina i WC, paper de seda i cinta. A més a més d'uns caramels per ficar dins. Com veieu, l'estètica sembla un caramel gegant. La tradició diu que dos persones han de tirar banda i banda i fer petar el cracker ( els originals porten un petard a dins que sona). Els nostres són "childfriendly" i no fan soroll peró si són divertits.

Tot i ser una tradició nadalenca, potser us podeu animar i preparar-ne per cap d'any o reis!!

Have fun and enjoy!

Walking water experiment

SALT DOUGH CHRISTMAS TREE DECORATIONS

Hello everyone!!

 We have been extremely busy these last two weeks, specially this weekend getting ready for Christmas. We enjoyed our Kid's Club on Saturday and spent Sunday getting some things ready for Christmas.

 We have still not put up our tree, but we have been preparing some decorations to go on the tree.

 Salt dough, està feta amb 1 got de farina ( substituïu per Maicena en cas d'al·lèrgies), 1 got de sal comuna i mig got d'aigua ( a discreció, heu de veure que queda una masa compacta com de pizza o pa). Com veieu a les fotos, els dos petits de la casa van ser responsables tant del procés de fabricació, com de l'elaboració i posterior decoració. Es pot coure la massa per endurir-la més ràpidament. Nosaltres ens esperem un parell de dies.

Podeu afegir colorant a la massa per fer motius com arbres, o podeu deixar el color natural.

 Hope you like it and enjoy it!

DIY Window Clings

Hello!

 Long time no see!!! We have been up to many things lately....we have just started an adult English Speaking club to meet up once a week for a chat in our town, and as you may have seen, we also started the Kid's Club on Saturdays.

 But as always, we are still into trying out all kinds of crafts and experiments with the boys. 

 Our latest try out, was making our own window clings. We found loads of tutorials and tips on the internet and specially pinterest.

 What you need is really simple. These are the ingredients:

Washing liquid, glue, colouring ( I use food colouring but any will do). You can vary the amounts to the quantity you would like to make, also taking into account if you want to make different colours. We put half a pot of glue ( I think of 100ml) and a little spoonful of fairy liquid. Probably it would be better to use a neutral colour soap, as fairy left things quite green. Then you will need a glass pot or jar to put the ingredients in and long sticks to mix them.

  Then we used some plastic folders, and with a paintbrush Aleksandar made some letters ( he is right now into reading and writing and numbers, so that was his choice). Pau on the other hand enjoy making blobs that resembled leaves somehow. 

 You should then leave overnight ( an a good 12 hours) the figures to dry. Then you can peel them off the plastic and stick them on the window or any glass suface. They can be reused many times.

 Unfortunately I didn't manage to take pics of the final results, but here you have some inspiration ideas from the internet.

Have fun and enjoy!

Youtube channel English

Incy wincy spider

Hello everyone,

 Halloween is near and that means scary things and costumes. Well, some children love scary things, others get scared.

 When I started working last year at the daycare, I used to have children aged 6 months to 2 years old. Instead of talking about monsters, witches or jack o lanterns, I decided to talk about spiders....well, one specific spider, who is a very friendly spider.

 This year, we started some of our halloween decorations with incy wincy spider. 

 It was quite a simple activity. First we used FINGER PAINT (make your own homemade fingerpaint ). We used black, made a print of their hand with paint on an orange PAPER PLATE. You can also cut out a PAPER CIRCLE OR SQUARE. 

While the paint was drying ( I am thinking of using an alternative with my students at school. They will draw the spider and cut it out and stick it on the paper/plate not sure still which one to use!) I cut holes around the edge with a paper puncher (or hole punch). 

Once the paint was dry, we gave incy wincy EYES. We got a pack of plastic eyes from a shop, but you can also paint them! 

The final touch as you can see was making the spider web for incy wincy. I stuck a piece of white wool on the back of the plate with sticky tape and then let the boys make the pattern they wanted.

Simple, easy and they had loads of fun!

 You can also sing with your little ones the incy wincy spider song. You will find lots of versions on the internet. This is the one we like, which you can find on my youtube playlist

And remember, have fun and enjoy!

Giant Bubbles

As it looks like the sunny and nice weather will be around this weekend, why not try to make giant bubbles?. My suggestion, is simply to go outside and try . We had to give it a go a few times before we actually managed to get some good size "giant" bubbles.

 In any case, take all kinds of material that you can use to blow bubbles, and your kids will certainly have fun for a while!

You need these ingredients and lots of patience

 Remember: Have fun and enjoy!!

Homemade playdough ( non edible)

Hello everyone!!!

 because you never know when the weather might suddenly change, and autumn might decide to appear, it is useful to have some indoor activities that are really easy and simple to organise.

 I found this homemade playdough at Happy Hooligans web, which by the way is a fantastic website and has loads of ideas. I follow them both thru pinterest, facebook and check the web from time to time. Totally recommended!!

 As you will see, you only need two ingredients: HAIR CONDITIONER (any brand or make will do) and flour ( we started off with cornflour but needed some plain flour at the end. If you want the gluten free option then go for the cornflour!!)

 Just take a look at our two boys. Pau, our youngest was not specially motivated to make the playdough, but once he saw the final result, he decided he wanted to play with it. They loved it!

PLEASE REMEMBER! This is a non edible version. So if playing with babies or toddlers, keep an eye on them.

 Have fun and enjoy!

Icing Cupcakes

Una de les passions d'aquesta família nostra és cuinar i fer rebosteria, tot i que al final, el que més ens agrada és la xocolata tal qual.

 L'Aleksandar s'ha aficionat molt a la rebosteria, i de tant en quant demana de fer algún pastís o cupcakes (semblants a les magdalenes).

 La setmana passada vam decidir fer uns cupcakes senzillets, recoberts només amb glasa de colors i sprinkles, perletes, figuretes...Com que també faig cosetes de rebosteria a casa tenim assortiment, peró avui en dia, a tots els supermercats podeu trobar tant el sucre glas per fer glasa com decoracions.

 Us deixo la recepta i algunes fotos.És una gran oportunitat per practicar amb els peques vocabulari, ingredients i colors.

 Aquí teniu

i la recepta!!

Have fun and enjoy!!

Mountain Jar

I have recently discovered hundreds of ideas and projects to do with my two boys, among many, we really like the "experience jars".

 We used the opportunity of going on a short day trip to the mountain last week, to pick up all kinds of things that remind us of the mountain.

 Let's say, mountain souvenirs!

Once back home, we bought a big plastic jar ( I think it was less than 2€) and started our activity.

We checked what we had, we said the words in English and decided to also practice a bit of writing, to decorate the jar. Aleksandar had loads of fun, and looks forward to our next "experience jar"

Have fun and enjoy!

Family excursion - Poblet and La Roca de l'Abella

 Hello everyone,

  Last week we went on a little excursion, to a nearby picnic area called "La Roca de l'Abella", just a few kilometres away from Poblet, and near Riudabella. 

 It is a beautiful place, although due to the hot and dry weather, we were not able to see much water around, so we will be back in the autumn for more!!

 It is a short walk ( less than 1 km) which makes it easy to do with little children. Both our boys loved picking up LEAVES (FULLES), BRANCHES (BRANQUES), STONES (PEDRES), BLACKBERRIES (MORES), MOSS (MOLSA) and FLOWERS (FLORS). We will show you next week the activity we have planned to do with all this. It will be our MOUNTAIN JAR.

Here you have some pics 

 The reason we chose this excursion was because two years ago I discovered a great newsletter/web/blog managed by a family and for families. It has this wonderful newsletter, with all kind of useful and interesting ideas and suggestions about what to do and see with children in our local area, Tarragona province. It is called EXPLORA TARRAGONA and it has also been publishing some fantastic books full of excursions, not only in the Tarragona area, but also in other areas such as the Ebre and central Catalonia. Please visit and subscribe, they have info in Catalan, Spanish and English, and regular updates.

Back to school with a big HELLO!!!

 September usually means back to the daily routine and for families with children, it means back to school. 

 One of our favourite songs which I have used many times with children, is this super simple Hello song. It has everything you could wish for, simple lyrics, easy to follow tune, actions and repetition.

  In case you want to sing along with your children, here you have the lyrics to the song!!

The second time around, just change CAN YOU CLAP YOUR HANDS for CAN YOU STOMP YOUR FEET!

Have a great time and enjoy!

How to make moon sand

Peppa Pig goes on holiday

Hello everyone!

 As we are currently enjoying some nice, cool weather, and probably staying more indoors due to the rain, why not watch cartoons with the youngest at home? We love cartoons at home, specially Peppa Pig. This is one of our favourites, and as it refers to holidays, just perfect for this time of the year. 

Watch and try and get your little ones to remember some of the words in English:  HOLIDAYS,  CAMPER VAN, DUCKS, MAP,...choose depending on age and interest.

Per cert, si teniu tablet o smartphone, us recomano que busque i descarregueu del  PLAY STORE (el nostre es ANDROID), un YOUTUBE DOWNLOADER ( una app que us permetrà descarregar videos de youtube i guardar-los al movil o a la tablet, pero poder mirar sense connexió a internet). 

Have fun and enjoy!!

Homemade finger paint

Hello!

 només comentar-vos que nosaltres directament vam fer la barreja de corn flour (maizena) amb aigua.

 Have fun and enjoy!!

Hello!

 interested in games, activities, recipes, exercises and mucho more to get your children to learn and speak English?...then WELCOME you are in the right place.

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 Hope you enjoy all our ideas and suggestions!!


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Have a nice day!