Dear Angwin families and friends,
Three words! Busy, fun and packed! Exactly how the last two weeks
have been for our little Angwin people. Our Autumn
holiday activities came and went just like that!
The children have been so keen to share with us all the fun stuff
they got to do with their families during the Easter break and those who
managed to squeeze some lovely adventures while the school holidays were on. It
was lovely for the children to recall all the swimming, camping, face painting
and partying they got to enjoy. Some just loved staying in their pjs and veg out! Lucky kids!
The last two weeks gave the Angwin
children the opportunity to engage in some fabulous experiences.
Firstly, explored sense of smell using samples of dried and fresh
spices and herbs. Thank you to parents who brought us some samples to explore.
“Oh, this smells really strong and it looks like a star”, said Arwyn about star anise.
“It smells like vicks. The one that your
mummy rubs on you when you are sick”, added Isabella smelling a cracked nutmeg
seed.
“This smells like chicken. I think I’ve had this before”,
commented Joe about cumin.
“Smells like cinnamon. My Yia Yia puts it in her cooking”, added Isabella in
recollection.
The children had so much fun using mortars and pestles testing out
what happens to spices when they are pounded.
“It turned into powder!” Angus shouted.
“I can’t even see the pods anymore!’, Anthony observed.
We also tried toasting the spices one at a time and the children
put their noses to the test. Our room smelt like the spice market!
“Oh, that smells like toxic gas!” Angus commented.
“Look! The colour changed!”, Anthony commented.
“It’s now dark brown!” Arwyn noticed.
“Oh my goodness! I can hear popping spound!”
Auggie said.
We used our ground spices in our painting and made some spice
decorated sensory salt dough to display in our classroom. Amazing what our
noses can do!
We also cooked “polvoron”, a flour based
Spanish dessert known to Valentina and Mrs Rocca in relation to our exploration
of cloud dough.
In Week 2, we joined the Chapple and Edgerley children for our Pyjama Day party enjoying a movie
and some popcorn. We even made specially decorated paper cones to enjoy our
popcorn even more.
The children also displayed great control, fine motor skills and
safety awareness as they used butter knives and peelers to help us prepare
ingredients for our vegetable soup. They had a go at cutting carrots, potatoes,
pumpkin, celery and spinach.
“I’m good at cutting”, Anthony shared.
“Look, I cut them in very little pieces”, Autumn said proudly.
“I didn’t know how to use the peeler before, but now I do”,
Caitlyn said.
“I think the carrots are the hardest to cut” Leon noticed.
With all our ingredients prepared, we cooked our soup on our
portable stove and smelt away with our noses again! Oh that smell that garlic
and onion makes!
The children all had a go at tasting the soup and some even asked
for seconds.
“I tried the celery”, Angelina proudly informed.
“ I’m gonna try the soup and I will tell
my mummy about it”, Isabella said.
“ I said I wouldn’t eat it but I actually did!” Allegra said.
“I love the potatoes, pumpkin and carrots. It’s yummy!” Anthony
commented with a smile.
Full bellies and happy smiles.
On top of all these, we visited the library, explored the big
playgrounds and enjoyed collecting leaves and flowers to bring back to our
classroom.
The last two weeks have been certainly fun and we learnt a lot.
Looking forward to our Winter Holidays already but we can’t wait
to have Mrs Schmidt and Mrs Bishop back for Term 2!
Mrs Rocca and Ms Gray
