Gruffalo Masks

The children have been very busy this week with the Gruffalo activities I had planned.  We started with some Gruffalo masks.

The children painted a paper plate each with brown paint, and when they were dry, they stuck on his features from the story...

"...He has terrible tusks and terrible claws

and terrible teeth in his terrible jaws.

He has knobbly knees and turned out toes

and a poisonous wart at the end of his nose.

His eyes are orange, his tongue is black,

he has purple prickles all over his back.."

I was so pleased with how they turned out and they have pride of place on the living room door where everyone can see them.  In fact, we've turned it into a bit of a Gruffalo themed door!  The children also coloured in some Gruffalo pictures and made a jumping jack.

Also this week we did some hand painting and made a lovely autumn tree, using the handprints as leaves.

Sacrewell Farm Trip

We go on outings every week, but 3 or 4 times a year we like to take the children a little further afield where they can experience new surroundings.  This month we had a lovely outing to Sacrewell Farm and Country Centre in Peterborough. It was about an hour's drive from our house.  We had fun in the car on the way playing eye spy colours and counting the different coloured cars. We were so lucky to have such perfect weather.  It was hot and sunny, a rare occurrence for March.

We played in the hay bale maze and stopped at the end to take a group photo!  It was a long way around and we got lost a few times, but eventually found our way out.

We walked around the farm and had a ride on a tractor.  We saw lots of animals.  We also bought some food to feed them.  There were goats, shire horses, sheep and tiny lambs, guinea pigs, rabbits, ducks, and a big fat pot bellied pig!

In the afternoon we found a nice grassy area where we sat on a blanket for our picnic. We had sandwiches, sausage rolls, satsumas, fromage frais and raisins with fruit juice to drink.

 There was a lovely play area where the children played on  the swings, slides, and play house.  The children all sat down at the table and pretended to eat dinner. They were all getting very tired by now.

There was a life-sized model of a cow which children could go and "milk".  The children were a bit apprehensive at first, but soon enjoyed squeezing the cow's udder to get the milk into the bucket.  It was really water, but they enjoyed it nethertheless and was a lovely new experience for them.



Jumping in muddy puddles like Peppa Pig!

 We found a friendly tortoise who came up to the fence to see us.  I couldn't resist picking  him up!  He was very heavy and the children all stroked him to see how hard his shell was.

There were lots of tall trees around the lake.  The children all looked in the leaves to see if there were any squirrels

After a long and tiring day, the children all fell asleep in the car. It was a very quiet journey home! We all had a lovely day.  Sacrewell Farm is a brilliant place for pre-school children and we will definately be returning again soon.