Snow, Number Lines, and Burnt Biscuits

Yes, like many parts of the UK this week, we woke up to a slight covering of snow one morning. I told the kids it would be cold outside and they would not want to stay out there for long, but of course nobody paid any attention to me! The boys ate their breakfast with extreme speed and, as soon as Indi had been taken to nursery for the morning, jumped into their wellies, coats and hats, and made off into the garden. But they were soon making snowballs with their sleeves, having realised that cold hands are no fun! I let them run wild out there for the better part of an hour, then they came in - with obvious relief! - and settled down to some more number work, this being our 'numeracy' week.

Chocolate Wholemeal Biccies

Part of our number work included doing a spot of baking, so we could use some scales and talk about weights, measuring out, grams and kilograms etc. I had originally intended to make wholemeal bread with the boys, but taste buds prevailed when they looked into the store cupboard and we ended up making a batch of these rather burnt-looking chocolate wholemeal biscuits. (M. insisted on branding them all with a fork prior to baking, which meant the flattened-out edges burnt, but they actually tasted a lot better than they look here!)

We've since bought some self-raising flour, plus walnuts and currants, with the intention of making wholemeal walnut bread and currant cakes next week.

Teddy Bear Number Line

My great artistic talent was brought to 'bear' - such a dreadful pun, sorry! - for this counting activity, which involved my drawing a bear and photocopying it twelve times. The children then drew the numbers 1 - 12 on the bears' tummies, sorted them out into the correct order, and we then pegged them up as you can see on this length of string which is now festooned across our living-room.

It was a good activity, simple in concept but rewarding if you think outside the box. First off, the boys went through their Two Times Table, counting along the row, then they had to spot 'odd' and 'even' numbers. Even little Indi surprised us by being able to count all the way through the numbers (though she does tend to get six and seven mixed up if she counts too slowly). We ended the activity by having them look away, then removing three numbers at random and giving them a time limit to spot which numbers were missing. Once they'd guessed correctly, I handed them over and the kids had to replace them in the line.

The teddy bear line is still in place - making it rather difficult to get to the post in the mornings! - so more counting games ahead next week.