Star Kids Blog

Salt Dough Masterpieces

2008-03-12T18:09:00.000-07:00

First we made a dough out of equal quantities of salt and plain flour mixed with water and then we made our sculptures. They were then dried in the oven and when they were dry we painted them. We like what we made. We hope you do too!

Our artists are at work already!

2008-02-06T15:15:00.000-08:00

Although the kids' main concern seems to be catching up with their friends from last year they have still had time to display their creativity.

Here we have an octopus called Tommy Ben Benton who is having a ride on the slide, a bookmark and two Lisa Simpsons, a beautiful drawing from a new Prep child and a zoo themed painting.

We are eagerly anticipating their future creations.

Zucchini Slice

2008-02-06T15:05:00.000-08:00

There were some very apprehensive faces when the kids arrived yesterday and found they would be eating something called Zucchini Slice. However, a few brave people tried it and the word soon got around that it was delicious.
Here is the recipe for all those people who wanted it given to their mothers!

Zucchini Slice

Grate -
375gm zucchini
125gm tasty cheese

You can also add bacon, onion, mushrooms, corn, carrot as you like.

Add -
5 eggs
1/4 cup oil

And fold in 1 cup self-raising flour.

Spread into tray and bake at 180 degrees for 40 minutes or until top is a rich golden brown. Serve hot, warm or cold.

Happy New Year

2008-01-11T19:16:00.000-08:00

2007 ended for us with a bang as thunder and lightning accompanied the heavy rain on 20th December. However, in the days before the rain we did manage some very attrctive craft.

Wishing you all a very happy new year and looking forward to catching up with you all on 30th January.

Diwali

2007-11-08T15:02:00.000-08:00

This week we had our annual celebration of the Hindu festival of Diwali and the culture of Sri Lanka and India. Dharma put in a terrific effort to lead this day. We cooked pappadams, tried on saris and tasted some different foods.

Spooky Day

2007-10-04T19:51:00.000-07:00

The second of our two curriculum days was a bit wet and windy so everyone was happy to stay inside.

We made witches and decorated balloons into spooky heads.

The highlight of the day was probably the wrapping of the mummies!

Survivor Island Day

2007-10-04T19:42:00.000-07:00

Well the first of our two day Curriculum Day programs was a survivor island challenge day with cubby building, races, tug of war and lots of fun.

We also explored the survivor island rubbish dump where we found lots of things that inspired us to create.

Creativity at work

2007-06-24T00:16:00.000-07:00

We have seen some stunning creations recently. I am so proud of all the things they have produced. Here are some decorated tiles.

And I couldn't resist showing you this little green man hiding under his umbrella from the rain!

Chocolate cake

2007-06-07T16:51:00.000-07:00

Here is the recipe many of you wanted last Monday when you tried the delicious, moist, egg-free chocolate cake that Patricia made with the children.

Absurdly Easy Chocolate Cake
3 cups flour (680 grams)
2 cups sugar (450 grams)
6 tablespoons cocoa (100 grams)
2 teaspoons baking soda (10 cc's = 10 ml)
1 teaspoon salt (5 cc's = 5 ml)
3/4 cup vegetable oil (200 cc's)
2 tablespoon vinegar (30 cc's)
2 teaspoon vanilla (10 cc's)
2 cup cold water (480 cc's)
Directions: -
Mix the dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients. Stir until smooth. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes in a lamington tin or it will make two layers of a two-layer 9-inch or 8-inch round cake, or one small sheet cake. When cool, frost it.

I did not get a chance to photograph it - it went too fast!

May and June

2007-06-07T16:26:00.000-07:00

For all of you who have been anxiously awaiting an update on this page I do apologise. Here it is!

We have had a busy month with several different art projects attempted.

Firstly we had a go at wire sculpture. Here is one by BB.

We celebrated Reconciliation Week with dot paintings and learned that there are over 200 Indigenous languages in Australia but only 20 of them are still used strongly.

At the request of many of the children we decorated stones again - painting them and adding glitter highlights.

Cubby houses, iron-me beads and paper aeroplanes are also proving very popular at the moment.

Blow Paintings

2007-05-02T17:49:00.000-07:00

Late last term a couple of children did some Blow Paintings which are rather nice. These are from OB.

Term Two

2007-05-02T17:41:00.000-07:00

We are well into Term two now. The children have been making the most of the mild autumn weather so we have not had a lot of work to show you.

Tuesday we decorated fish with sequins and on Wednesday we were going to paint key tags but instead the children opted to paint their decorated fish instead.

We hope you enjoy these pictures of fish from EC, RI, YF, GC, BB, SS and OB. (I hope I haven't forgotten anyone!

Found in the Hall after the Curriculum Day

2007-03-22T15:16:00.000-07:00

We play with each other at after school care. We are writing this on Curriculum Day. (16/3/07) We also enjoy playing together at school. For afternoon tea we had milk and bananas with coconut or chocolate on top. We brung (brought) our lunch from home. We painted a key ring and made a bracelet with my name on it. I'm having a fun day. (author/s unknown)

Curriculum Day

2007-03-18T15:58:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to all the children who came for our Curriculum Day program. Their behaviour was exemplary and it was a real pleasure to spend the day with them. We did some cooking, some jigsaw puzzles, some painting and some jewellery making. We saw many good games of table tennis and, thanks to JM who bought in an extra controller, some played games on the Play Station.

I can't show you most of the photos here but this is one of the key tags the children decorated and some of the jewellery they made.
I would also like to thank Joe, one of our fathers, whose vigilance and quick thinking has found another trolley for us! Thanks Joe, you are a star!

Lots of fun

2007-03-08T15:19:00.000-08:00

We have had lots of fun this week with the Play Station restricted to Mondays and Fridays and we will now only show videos on bad weather days.

This week we made salt dough (plain flour, salt and water), modelled with it, baked it until it was firm and then painted it. We also painted stones.

To celebrate the change of seasons (?) a lot of old favourites came out of storage. We had dress ups, a dance group in the sandpit with the CD player (!) and a tennis tournament using the small tennis net. Cars are popular and dinosaurs have been roaming around the hall!

We have many excited kids looking forward to the Curriculum Day next week.

Play Station and painted flower pots

2007-03-01T15:08:00.000-08:00

The children have been very mature in their behavior with the play station quietly waiting their turn and allowing other children to have a go. I am concerned about the number of children just watching and we will have to consider tweaking the rules.

However, not all the children are interested in the play station and we have created some beautiful art projects.

Here we have three wondeful decorated flower pots created by JP, MM and SS?

We have a Play Station!

2007-02-22T15:42:00.000-08:00

Many thanks to a very special Dad (father of GM) who has donated a Play Station 1 to us. We had a meeting with the children to work out rules and they decided that each child should have it for one full session each as many would find they could not get far enough in the game if only allowed a shorter time. We will only allow G rated games to be played. At present we only have two games - both car racing games. We will continue to show a video on Fridays so the Play Station is only available Monday to Thursday.

The rules for use are posted on our notice board.

Happy New Year

2007-02-22T15:37:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to all our friends celebrating the Lunar New Year. At aftercare on Monday we celebrated with Yum Cha - spring rolls, dim sims and fourtune cookies.

Cubby Season

2007-02-14T14:11:00.000-08:00

Its the start of cubby season at Syndal with a group, led by JM, building the first cubby of the year.

Others spent the session decorating frames and doing some origami.

Spaghetti Sauce

2007-02-13T14:08:00.000-08:00

Monday was a very exciting day for us as GM, who had been telling us about her mother's special pasta sauce for ages, led the cooking activity and showed us all how to make it. The kitchen was extra full of helpers and GM did a great job of instructing and supervising. We then had the sauce with pasta for Afternoon Tea on Tuesday. It was declared "delicious!"

She has agreed to share the recipe with us.

GM's Mother's Special Pasta Sauce Recipe

1 onion
1 carrot
2 zucchini
500gms minced meat
1 can of condensed tomato soup
1 cup (250ml) tomato paste

Chop the onion finely and fry in a little oil. Add the grated carrot and zucchini. Add the meat. Add the soup and tomato paste and simmer for about half an hour. Pour over cooked pasta and enjoy!

JM has done a drawing for us.

Quality Assurance

2007-02-11T13:11:00.000-08:00

Once again we are going through the assessment phase for QA and we are asking parents and children to complete the NCAC survey forms. These should be ready for you during this week.

Ice cream in a bag

2007-02-11T13:07:00.000-08:00

Last week we made ice cream in a bag! We put milk, sugar and vanilla essence in a ziplock bag and put that inside a bigger ziplock bag with ice cubes and salt. Then we had to run around and shake it for 5 minutes. After that we could eat it. "This is the best ice cream in the world" said JY.

2007-02-08T16:09:00.000-08:00

These beautiful and vibrant paintings were created when JM and JP decided to experiment with mixing colours and seeing how they looked.

Monday cooking

2007-02-05T13:56:00.000-08:00

We have moved our cooking activity to Mondays this year. Yesterday, as it was too hot to cook, Patricia and VJ and JY made chocolate truffles and used this recipe - http://www.abc.net.au/centralvic/stories/s1746347.htm

They were very yummy!

Others used the playdough in new anc reative ways.

JY also drew this wonderful car picture and I have added a couple of his other car pictures as they are too good not to share.

Play dough

2007-02-01T14:46:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we made our own play dough and then we made lots of funny things!

Christmas Craft

2007-02-01T14:41:00.000-08:00

Here is a photo of some Christmas wreaths that we made at the end of last year.

Welcome

2007-02-01T14:15:00.000-08:00

Welcome to our new site for Syndal Outside School Hours Care Centre. We are planning to share with you all the fun things we do at Aftercare.