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Baker’s Dozen

Baker’s Dozen

Self-Raising flour was patented in 1845. It is interesting to explore how flour is made and of course to do some baking.

A dozen is another way of saying 12. Dozen comes from the Latin word for 12, Duodocim. A baker’s dozen is 13. This is believed to date back to a mediaeval law which stated how heavy a loaf of bread should be and there was serious punishment for any baker who sold underweight bread, so bakers threw a 13th loaf into a dozen, just to be on the safe side.

Activity 1 – Making Flour

You will need:-

  • some whole grains of wheat, corn or barley (a pet shop, corn merchant, or someone who keeps chickens or ducks should have some)
  • a chopping board
  • a rolling pin

Spread some grains on the chopping board and grind and crush them with a rolling pin or large stone to make flour. Children will need careful supervision.

You can discuss how the grains are actually seeds which will grow into corn if planted in soil. The corn is grown for its seeds to make into flour. You may have seen corn growing in farmers’ fields. Corn can be ground manually with a large stone or in larger quantities in a windmill, which has very large stones which turn and rub against each other when the wind moves the windmill’s sails. Flour is ground in modern electrically powered mills now, although there are still some windmills in operation.

Activity 2 – Model Windmill

You will need:-

  • Cardboard tubes
  • 2 strips of card for the sails, 24cm x 7cm each
  • a split pin paper fastener or a drawing pin and blue tack
  • Felt tip pens or crayons to decorate

If you’re using toilet roll inners, make a small cut at one end and push the cut end inside the other roll.

If you’re using a kitchen roll inner, this should be long enough, but your windmill can be any size you wish. Draw doors and windows on the roll and decorate to taste. Cut out the sails from the two long strips either by copying the measurements from the diagram below or by clicking on the ‘Windmill sails template’ to download and print. Decorate the sails too.

Windmill sails templateDownload

Fasten the sails to near the top of the windmill using a paper fastener or a drawing pin with blue tack over the sharp point inside the tube.

Is there a windmill near to where you live that you could have a look at? It is difficult for children to imagine how very large a windmill is until they see one in real life.

Activity 3 – Playdough Shapes

You will need:-

  • 1 cup of salt
  • 1.5 cups of flour
  • Water to mix

You can use a different measure to a cup, as long as there is 1.5 measures of flour to 1 measure of salt. You can use a small glass or a yogurt pot etc. to make smaller quantities.

Put the salt and flour into a large bowl. Add water gradually to make a firm dough. Roll out the mixture and cut into shapes or use to make models. These can then be dried in a low temperature oven for about 1-2 hours. They can then be painted or varnished once they are cool.

Activity 4 – Paper Windmills

Windmills on a stick can be used for fun on windy days and as bird scarers to protect crops.

You will need:-

  • Squares of thin card or thick paper
  • Beads
  • Wire or pins
  • Sticks or dowelling
  • A windy day!

Decorate the square of paper or card. Mark and cut out four lines from the corners of the card or paper almost to the middle, ensuring that the cuts don’t meet. Bring alternate corners to the centre. Using a wire or a pin, pierce through the four corners and the centre of the card and secure to the stick. A bead can be placed between the back of the card and the stick to allow better movement.

Take the windmills outside on a windy day or run about with them.

Activity 5 – Baking Cakes or Biscuits

Use some flour and do some baking, using a favourite recipe or one of the recipes below.

Decorated Cupcakes

You will need:-

  • 100g Margarine, Spread or Butter
  • 100g Sugar
  • 100g Self Raising Flour
  • 2 eggs

Preheat the oven to 180 deg C, Gas 5

Mix the ingredients together with a spoon or an electric mixer. You can add cocoa powder, chocolate chips, dried fruit or cherries if you like.

Spoon the ingredients equally into a greased cupcake/patty tins or into paper cases in a cupcake/patty tin and bake for 20 minutes.

If you want to decorate the cupcakes, you can use buttercream or glace icing once they’ve cooled. Alternatively, while they’re still hot, rub a piece of chocolate from a chocolate bar over the top of the cakes. The heat from the cakes will melt the chocolate. If you like, you can then sprinkle decorations into the melted chocolate before it sets.

Buttercream

  • 350g Icing Sugar
  • 175g Margarine, Spread or Butter
  • 2-3 tablespoons Milk

Mix half the icing sugar, the butter and 2 tablespoons milk well together, then add the rest of the icing sugar and more milk if necessary. Spread on top of the cooled cupcakes. Add chocolate buttons or other decorations.

Glace Icing

  • 125g Icing Sugar
  • 15ml Warm Water
  • A tiny drop of food colouring (optional)

Mix well together. If it’s too thick, add a little more water, if too thin, add a little more icing sugar. Spread or drizzle on top of the cooled cupcakes. This amount should be sufficient for about 10 cupcakes. If using sprinkles, put these on while the icing is still wet.

Decorated Biscuits

You will need:-

  • 100g Margarine, spread or butter
  • 100g Sugar
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten
  • 275g Plain Flour

Preheat Oven to 190 deg C, Gas 5. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.

Mix the butter and sugar together in a bowl until combines. Add the egg, a little at a time and then add the flour. Combine the mixture to get a dough. This may be done with the hands.

Roll the dough out on a floured surface until it is 1cm/ half inch thick. Cut into shapes using biscuit cutters or an upturned glass or cup and place carefully onto the baking tray.

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool for 2 minutes before transferring onto a wire cooling rack.

Once cool, decorate with glace icing made using the recipe above.

Coins

Coins

We handle coins all the time, but how often do we stop to look at them? They are different sizes, shapes and weights. They have pictures and emblems on them, a date, a value and other writing. Perhaps you have some coins from other countries left over from holidays abroad. Here are some fun activities for all the family to enjoy.

Activity 1 – Coin rubbings

You will need:-

  • A selection of coins
  • Paper or old paper envelopes
  • Wax crayons, coloured pencils or ‘lead’ pencil

Place a coin under the paper and hold firmly in place. Rub over the paper where the coin is, with a wax crayon. Don’t forget to do both sides of the coins. Use different coloured crayons for different coins if you like, to make it look more colourful. Have a close look at the details of the coins that the wax crayon has picked up.

Activity 2 – Shove the Coin

Using a smooth (unscratchable) table, worktop or floor, shove a coin forwards with the palm of your hand and have a competition to see who can push to coin the furthest.

Activity 3 – Clean Coins

Clean some coins with a household and/or metal cleaner. Then try dropping some coins in a cup of fizzy drink and see how clean they are when they come back out.

Activity 4 – Drawing with Coins as templates

Draw around a coin and turn your circle or hexagon etc into a drawing of something else by adding extra features. Or draw lots of circles and make a pattern to colour in.

Activity 5 – Coin Games

See who can:-

  • Walk, carrying a coin between their knees
  • Walk, balancing a coin on the fronts of shoes, on the nose, on the forehead and on the top of the head
  • Walk along with two people carrying a coin between their index fingers.

Activity 6 – Spin the coin

On a hard surface, stand a round coin on its edge. Place your thumb on one side of the coin and your forefinger on the other and spin the coin. See how long your coin keeps spinning and see which coins spin the best.

Activity 7 – Identifying Coins

Each coin is different so that blind people can identify coins just by feeling them. See how well you can identify coins without looking at them.

You will need:-

  • a selection of different coins
  • some coloured non-see through plastic, a black bin bag is ideal
  • sticky tape
  • little pieces of paper (optional)

Make a little pocket for each coin out of a cut piece of black bin bag material, with just one layer of plastic on either side of the coin. Seal the top and sides with a strip of sticky tape. (You may wish to put a number or code on each sealed coin and keep a record of which coin corresponds to which number or code.)

Feel through the bag to try to identify the coin by it’s size and shape.

Alternatively, just wear a blindfold and try to identify the different coins.

The Yeti

The Yeti

The ‘Yeti’ or ‘Abominable Snowman’ is part of the Sherpa people’s legends and history. The Yeti is rumoured to be large with white or grey long fur with enormous feet and big sharp teeth. In 1951, footprints claimed to be of the Yeti, this character of Himalayan folklore, were discovered and photographed on Mount Everest.

Activity 1 – A day in the life of a Yeti

Think about what it might be like to be a Yeti. Act out it’s activities in a typical day. First it might wake up, shiver a bit and jump around to keep warm. Then it might dig in the snow to find it’s breakfast and slide on it’s bottom down a mountain side, play some games, hunt for its lunch and hide from some people going past. What else can you think of?

Activity 2 – Hunt the Yeti

You will need a supply of Yeti footprints, ideally about 30cm by 20cm. First make a template. (You could start by drawing around a large shoe and then adding toes.)

Then draw round the template several times onto card from a cardboard box or cereal packet and cut them out carefully. Depending on the age/ability of the child, either the adult or the supervised child can do this.

Next, set up a treasure hunt. Write a clue on each cardboard footprint that will tell the child where the next one is. eg ‘on four legs, a bottom and a back (chair), we plump these up (cushions), we draw these in the evening (curtains). Ensure there is a suitable ‘Yeti’ at the end of the trail. It could be a teddy bear or treat. Hide the footprints in the relevant places and let the Yeti Hunt begin. To add extra interest you could include tasks which need to be performed eg, do 5 star jumps, recite a poem, count from 10 backwards.

Activity 3 – Make a Jumping Yeti

You will need:-

  • A piece of thick card 20cm long
  • White wool
  • Card feet (5cm long versions of the footprints in Activity 2)
  • Adhesive
  • 40cm Sheering elastic
  • Bamboo cane, skewer or a stick
  • Stick on eyes (googly or made of paper)

Wind the wool loosely around the card until it is quite thick (see picture)

Slide the wool off the card and wind and tie a piece of wool around, a quarter of the way down to form a neck. Then wind and tie a piece of wool around the centre, to form a waist. Cut through the bunched wool at both ends (top of head and at the feet end) to make a rough pom-pom. Attach a length of sheering elastic to the wool used to pull in the neck and fix the other end to the bamboo cane. Glue the card feet and eyes in the appropriate place.

Activity 4 – Play Yeti Footsteps

With the large yeti footprints from activity 2, move across the floor, using the footprints as stepping stones.

Additionally, the ‘hunter’ (adult/brother/sister) can be facing the wall with the yeti creeping up behind them using one pair of yeti footprints as stepping stones. When the hunter turns around, the yeti must freeze so as not to be seen.