Welcome to The Reception Cafe.
In Reception we have snack in the morning and in the afternoon. Morning snack is usually in the classroom in our Cafe area. The children work with Mrs. Jackson, preparing the snack, setting the table and clearing up after. We are never short of volunteers to help!
We have hot and cold snacks, sweet and savoury - making full use of seasonal fruit and vegetables, some of which we grow in our own garden. We change the menu every week, adding some new things to our ever expanding list of favourites.
Afternoon snack can be indoors or out depending where the children are and again the children help to make, serve and clear up.
The food is not as important as the social aspect of sitting together, sharing ideas and having a chat. We often have visitors who join us at the table and they are always impressed at how well the children look after one another . "Please" and "Thank you" are the most heard words at snack time!
The children also bake with Mrs. Dermanowicz. When we have a birthday we even get to choose a birthday treat and make it with some friends.
(To view the photos as full-screen, please click on the image)
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| cooking |
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| chopping |
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| baking |
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| fresh ingredients |
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| enjoying our snacks |
30 May 2011
Our last Snack blog of this school year! Our menu for the next few days will consist of us using up everything in our store cupboard and refrigerator and enjoying all the lovely baking that has been going on this week.
Birthday baking
Since our last blog we have had two 5th birthdays to celebrate - Toby's birthday was on the 18th May and Takeru's was two days later on the 21st.
Some of our children celebrate their birthdays during our Summer holiday. Emma, Elias and Hyunsoo have been busy all weeking choosing recipies, deciding who they would like to help them and then baking cakes and cookies for us all to share.
Our final baking session was a class cake - and it was delicious!
16 May 2011
Our menu for this week.
09 May 2011
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| This week's menu |
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| Julian and Ellie prepared our menu |
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| wraps on Friday - yum! |
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| Elias shows us what to do. |
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| A perfect wrap! |
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| Great concentration from Roman |
2 May 2011
Welcome back after the Spring Break. Here is our menu for this week.
Menu prepared and posted by Hayoon.
Smartie Cookies
Our intrepid bakers were using their baking skills once more and made up another recipe - Smartie cookies. This time we had some very special visitors as some of Ms Young's 5th Grade class came to video the baking (and more importantly, came back to enjoy the snack). Mrs Dermanowicz lets the children use their prior knowledge and choose the ingredients and the amounts that go into this experimental baking excercise and although the results may not look like the cookies we make from recipe books, they tasted wonderful and we all enjoyed eating them.
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| our intrepid bakers and the 5th grade film crew! |
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| Ellie measures carefully |
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| Takeru knows exactly what to do |
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| The children keep a record of each recipe |
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| Loren and Ellie give the cookies a thumbs-up! |
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| 'They taste really great' said Estrella. |
11 April 2011
This week some of the children made Easter Nests with Mrs Dermanowicz. The nests were filled with chocolate eggs and a lovely treat on our last day at school before the Spring break.
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| Takeru and Maarit start making our Easter treat |
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| Emma and Toby make sure there will be enough for everyone |
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| Lots of careful measuring and counting ..... |
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| ..... and a secret ingredient! |
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| All the nests are the same size (almost)! |
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| Quality control from Takeru! |
4 March 2011
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| our menu for this week .... |
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| . . . our menu for next week! Ellie took the photos. Inventive baking! This week Mrs. Dermanowicz took another group of children and they made up their own recipe for cookies. They based it on what they learned over the last few months from all their baking sessions. Olivia, Julian, Loren and Caro discussed what ingredients would make the best cookies and then decided how they should be made. We ate them for afternoon snack and they were delicious.      Chocolate Cookies with Smarties Recipe by Olivia, Julian, Loren and Caro 300g flour 250g butter 2 packets smarties 3 tbls golden syrup 5 tbls icing sugar 300ml milk The children also baked with Mrs Jackson this week. Loren, Ellie, Hayoon, Hector and Mateo made Apple Muffins and we had them for morning snack.     Apple Muffins Ingredients : 120g butter 285g flour 1 tbl baking powder pinch of salt 2 eggs 85g brown sugar 220ml milk85g white chocolate 2 apples, peeled and chopped 1 tsp cinnamon Method: Melt the butter. Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Beat the eggs in a bowl then add the sugar and melted butter. Fold in the flour. Add the apple and chocolate. Spoon into cupcake liners and bake in a preheated oven – 200 degree for 25 – 30 mins. Great for morning snack – even better when still warm! Recipe from Children’s Quick + Easy Cook Book. Typed with Hector’s help! |
28 March 2011
our menu for the week
Happy Birthday Ysaline! Ysaline was 5 on Sunday, 27 March and she made a lovely cake to share with all of the class. Her friends Emma, Olivia and Caro helped Ysaline and Mrs Dermanowicz bake a chocolate cake and decorated it with smarties. It tasted wonderful.
Snack news from previous weeks
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| mixing all the ingredients |
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| Ysaline makes it look easy |
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| Olivia takes over mixing |
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| almost ready for the oven |
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| smarties make it just perfect! |
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| Ysaline and Emma work on the blog page, choosing photos and layout! |
Look what we were doing at afternoon snack!
wholemeal alphabet cookies are not only good to eat!
we had summer fruit salad this week!
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| Hector helped Mrs Jackson put all the photos on the blog - and he typed the caption. |
Potato and Sweetcorn soup
The children asked if we could make potato and sweetcorn soup again – not only do they like making it but they love eating it!
Hyunsoo, Hector, Toby, Jude, Estrella and Augustin peeled and chopped all the vegetables and Elias, Hayoon and Mateo helped to cook the soup. Elias set the table for our snack and Mateo helped with the tidying up – a real team effort!
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| Hyunsoo and Elias get to grips with the peelers |
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| very professional! |
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| so much concentration from Jude |
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| The Soup Kitchen at work |
Making up our own recipes!
Some of the children have been talking to Mrs. Dermanowicz about all the different cakes and biscuits they have made over the last few months. Mrs. Dermanowicz asked them if they could make up their own recipe for a cake – and that is exactly what they have done.
Jude, Estrella Augustin, Hector and Ysaline thought about all the different things they liked to eat and this is their recipe:
200g sugar
300g flour
3 eggs
125g butter
300 ml milk
100g chocolate
1 pack baking powder.
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| Hector weighs everything out |
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| Ysaline breaks the eggs |
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| Jude starts the mixer |
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| Estrella and Augustin make sure it is all mixed in |
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| watch out! Hector and Jude don't spill a drop! |
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| Augustin counts every second . . . |
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| and now the best bit ..... |
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| YUM! |
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| the proof of a great cake - an empty cake box! |
Reception from previous weeks:
Damper
Ingredients:
3 cups self-raising flour
½ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter
½ cup milk
½ cup water
Method:
Sift flour and salt into bowl
Rub in butter until mixture resembles soft breadcrumbs
Make a well in centre, add milk and water, Mix lightly with a knife until dough leaves the side of the bowl.
Gently knead on lightly floured board.
To cook:
Shape into round, place on greased tray and pat into 15-16cm round baking tray.
Cut 2 slits (X) with sharp knife – 1cm deep.
Brush top with milk
Hot oven for 10 mins. Then moderate oven for 20 mins.
Banana Smoothies
6 bananas
1 litre milk
500gr yogurt
honey to taste
a few strawberries to make it look good!
Thank you Loren for taking photos for us (except the ones you are in!)
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| our ingredients |
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| Giulia and Loren peel lots of bananas |
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| Loren checks for lumps! |
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| cocktail a la Reception! |
Alphabet soup
Ingredients:
passata – 2 x 500g jars
passata – 2 x 500g jars
vegetable stock
1 leek
2 onions
celery
tomatoes (chopped) – 500 gr
basil
alphabet pasta
seasoning
olive oil
Using a food processor thinly slice leek, onions and celery. Saute until soft using a small amount of olive oil.Add passata, chopped tomatoes and stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 30 mins. Use a hand blitzer to puree if required.Add chopped basil and check seasoning then add some pasta shapes and cook for a further 15 minutes.
Serve with a spoonful of sour cream and a basil leaf.
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| Our ingredients |
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| Hector and Julian chop tomatoes |
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| Our Soup - ready to eat! |
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| Mateo helps to prepare the recipe for the blog |
