October Half Term 2016 - Explorers Week
On Monday we started the week creating our 'explorer's' role play corner and in the afternoon the children can took part in an Explorer's Quest around the Scout Hut and outdoors with challenges, clues and rewards.
On Tuesday morning we went to the cinema at Parrs Wood to watch a movie then in the afternoon we looked at the North and South poles' magnetic forces and made our own magnetic road and car game to play. (this has proved so popular it is now a regular feature at our afterschool care.)
On Wednesday we went orienteering at Chorlton Water Park where we followed the easy courses suitable for children and learned to use a map and compass to find the symbols along the way.
On Thursday we became outdoor scavengers and used what we found in the garden to create Wild Self Portraits and for our afternoon activity we will made mud cakes (with chocolate and jelly worms).
And to finish off the week in style we went on a bear hunt on Friday 28 October at Z-Arts in Hulme to visit their 'Bear Hunt, Chocolate Cake and Bad Things' interactive exhibition. Pictures of the week coming soon in our gallery.
Summer 2016 - Beaches, Best of Manchester and Rio Carnival
We had a super Summer visiting new places, celebrating Manchester and of course joining in with the sporting and cultural delights of the Olympic Games in Rio.
In week 1/2 we had a ‘Beaches and Pirates’ theme when we created an indoor beach and had a super trip to Southport and visited an ice cream farm for a treat and play.
In week 3 we celebrated the ‘Best of Manchester’. We took a trip to Portland Basin Museum which is a fantastic museum perfect for children and enjoyed the hands on Reddish Vale Farm Park with the farm animals. We created a Manchester cityscape for our role play area, baked Manchester Tarts and designed our own Manchester t-shirts.
By week 4 Olympic fever had taken over and we had our very own Olympic Carnival week. We created our own Olympic world - with a podium, medals, flags and national anthems and the children had fun creating their own medal ceremonies. We visited Longford Park athletics track in Chorlton and tried long jump, high jump, shot put and relay racing. We also invited sports coaches in football and tennis to host some fun activity sessions. Thanks to Susan Keaney of Fletcher Moss Community Tennis and Stuart at Primary Sports Coaching.
We ended holiday care with our own carnival complete with bouncy castle, face painting, music, food and games.
What we did at May half term.....'All Creatures Great and Small'
Tues 31 May - We created an outdoor scene indoors including soil to dig, trees and grass and in the afternoon Zoo Lab Live Animal handling visited with their exotic and exciting creatures that the children got to hold.
Weds 1 June - Spider Webs great and small were created, starting with web making activity with hula hoops plus giant spider web game outside (it involved throwing a ball of string and lots of hands!).
Thurs 2 June - Stop motion animation (this was a big hit at Easter as the children love making their own mini movies), and crazy creature masks were made plus 'All Creatures Sports Day' including the 'bug and spoon' race....
Fri 3 June - We went to Fletcher Moss Park in Didsbury (we travel on the bus) for a morning of pond dipping and nature fun with the Park Ranger. We had a picnic lunch at the park and in the afternoon we got active as Susan Keaney a qualified tennis coach (who runs Fletcher Moss Community Tennis) provided a fun session of tennis skills and team games.
Easter Holiday Care - our OUTER SPACE adventures...
Week 1
- Group creative activity to build a lunar landscape and made papier mache planets
- Space Suit Team challenge using boxes, materials & foil, outdoors tennis runaround and 'Beat the Alien' penalty shoot out
- Stop motion animation workshop and outdoors we had a space challenge obstacle course
- Made our own robots – using junk modelling and outdoors we had a Spacemen v Aliens football match
- Made salt dough aliens and played Solar Rounders – get past the planets to make it to the Sun
- Day trip to Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre, Macclesfield to learn about space, our planets and galaxies
Week 2
- Rocket making and stop motion animation and Star Troopers v Aliens football match outdoors
- Made our own solar system using polystyrene balls to create a hanging display and tennis runaround outdoors
- Cinema trip to Cineworld, Parrs Wood to see Capture the Flag film (animation about NASA going back to the moon)
- Baked rock cakes and Space Challenge obstacle course outdoors
- Making alien slime and creating aliens out of eggs and outdoors giant chess and snakes and ladders
- More movie making with stop motion animation plus outdoors badminton and ball games
- Create wax and black pictures and then off to Ladybarn Park for a Space Treasure Hunt and picnic
- Star Wars Day, mask making, recreating our favourite Star Wars scenes – children came dressed as their favourite character or created their own costumes plus a Space themed disco with lots of party games, party snacks and face painting
And through the weeks we had our wide selection of books, Lego, K'nex, board games, table football, pool, table tennis and lots of outdoor games and activities to do, including challenges and quizzes for the older children.
Read below to see what we have done in previous holidays and see pictures in our gallery....
February Half Term
We had a great SCIENCE week during Feb half term. Here's what we did:
Mon 15 Feb - Made slime and experimented with it, we also designed and made our own parachutes.
Tues 16 Feb - Made salt dough volcanoes and watched them erupt (with baking soda and vinegar!), plus we had a quiz about our senses and making sound devices
Weds 17 Feb - All day trip to the wonderful Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester
Thurs 18 Feb - We took part in sensory activities including making lava lamps, colour symphony art, oil and water experiments and optical illusions fun
Fri 19 Feb - Mad Science visited us at the Scout Hut to run a special 'polymer' workshop with the children and we made our very own bouncy balls to take home.