Monthly Archives: December 2012

How to Make Magic Reindeer Food

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Magic Reindeer Food - make Christmas-scented, sparkly magic reindeer food to help get Rudolph and his friends on their Christmas Eve journey!

Christmas is coming, so we’ve made some Magic Reindeer Food to help sustain Rudolph and his friends on their epic annual journey across the world in one night.

To make our Magic Reindeer Food, we used:

  • 2 cupfuls of porridge oats
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 2 teaspoons ground ginger
  • a good sprinkling of gold and silver glitter

 

Reindeer Food Ingredients

Little Man and Little Miss spooned oats into their own bowls

Spooning Oats

Next we added some ground cinnamon and ginger – it smelt delicious!

Smells delicious!

Then we added the magic ingredient – glitter – to help Rudolph find our house and his midnight snack! (top tip: if you cover some of the holes of the glitter sprinkler with some sellotape, it comes out in less of a hurry and makes this bit a more satisfying experience all round!)

Add sparkly glitter

They gave their Magic Reindeer Food a good stir

Stir it up!

 

It’s now safely stored in a plastic box with a lid, ready to sprinkle on our front path on Christmas Eve.

 

What do you leave out for Santa and his reindeer on Christmas Eve?

 

 

Owl Babies Storyscape

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One of the children’s favourite stories, one they have loved since its first outing, is Owl Babies by Martin Waddell.  Owl Babies is the story of three baby owls who wake up one night to find their owl mummy is gone.  The three owls try to think where she might be, and decide to sit together on a branch, close their owl eyes, and wish for their mummy to come home.  Which she does, thank goodness.

My two especially love the repeated refrain of the littlest owl, Bill: “I want my mummy!” and at the end, “I love my mummy!”

One of their birthday presents from us was a puppet set of owls; three babies and a mummy.  They have been quite interested in them, but when I introduced this Owl Babies Storyscape it took their interest, and their engagement with the story, to a new level.

In the morning I set up a sheet of hessian with some leaves we had collected earlier in the Autumn, some natural craft feathers, pine cones and some sticks.  I wanted them to explore these things first, before I introduced the owls themselves.

They were fascinated by the feathers and we watched them sailing through the air when we dropped them.  They also loved the sticks, and had a great time banging them together and making lots of noise!

We then went into the kitchen for a mid-morning snack and read the Owl Babies story together.  When we went back into the playroom I brought out the owls and they immediately made the connection with the story.  We acted out the story, using the book to refer to.  They were able to use the owls to help tell the story and loved balancing them together on the biggest stick when they were waiting for their mummy.

Here’s the owl mummy flying home

When the owl mummy came back she gave the baby owls big kisses, so we had some embellishments on the story, too!

There are lots of stories that lend themselves to this sort of activity and I’m planning to do some more in the future.  It becomes a multi-sensory activity, helps them to gain a greater understanding of the themes in the story, and really brings the book to life.

 

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