Baking With A Purpose!

As most of you know, our kids love to bake. Whether it’s for the baking experience or for the yummy treat that they get to take home at the end. This week our kids baked delicious Chocolate Chip Cookies. These cookies were not only made for the pleasure of the children and staff but were made for National Seniors Day that will be recognized at West Richmond Community Center on October 1^st, 2013. These cookies will be handed out to show our appreciation. Although it’s often a race to sign up for the baking activity in the afternoon (with so few spots available), many batches of cookies were needed for this special occasion so several hard workers took part in the preparations. These little treats brought smiles to our children’s faces and hopefully their hard work will bring a smile to someone else’s face too!

Katrina 

Adding the ingredients.

Taking turns mixing. 

Starting to look like cookie dough.

Fresh baked goodness. 

The final product. YUM!

Play Dough Funanza!

Hopefully both students and parents are settling in their work and school schedules well! 

I can't believe we're approaching fall already. But I am surprised to hear myself say that I'm kind of looking forward to it (I'm surprised because I am very much a summer gal). And with the changing of seasons, we prepare to welcome the seemingly perpetual rainy days. With that in mind, I got my hands on a super easy play dough recipe to test out with the kids in the hopes of occupying some boredom as the weather gets gloomy. I liked this recipe because many play dough recipes call for cream of tartar, something that I know is not a commonality in all kitchens, but this recipe doesn't use it at all. I did find when making this with the kids is that you will need more flour than it calls for, but that's easy enough to tweak as you're kneading. I also noticed that it didn't make enough for our kids in one batch (however I did have about 10 kids in my group), but it'd be plenty for 2 or 3 kids. 

Here's the recipe for any parents who might want to bust some boredom in the future...

Ingredients:

1 cup flour (will likely need more, but easily tweaked)

1/4 cup salt

1 packet of Kool-Aid (for colour and pleasant scent)

2/3 cup hot water

1 tbs oil

Instructions:

1. Mix the flour, salt and Kool-Aid together.

2. Boil the water. 

3. Add oil to the water.

4. Pour some of the water into the dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon or spatula. Keep adding water and work the dough until the colour is even and feels like play dough. 

The Junior OSC kids had a lot of fun with this play dough, making all sorts of shapes and creations with cookie cutters and 'play dough tools'. 

Sara 

Heart flower!

Some silly cutouts.

A carved heart and the tools used.

A tasty waffle.

Welcome back!

Welcome back new families and old to the Jr Out-of-School Care program!

Our staff are looking forward to getting back into the routine of the school year. We hope everyone had a relaxing summer soaking up some rays, but are ready for fall. The weather is changing and we ask that you provide your children with the appropriate clothing to be comfortable playing outside. If it is not raining we will try to get the children out to enjoy our playground. Staff will try to get blogs out on a weekly basis to give families an idea of what kind of interesting and engaging projects we do here.


If your child will not be attending Jr. OSC on any given day, please call 604-238-8408. If no one answers, please just leave a message and we can mark down the appropriate information. Also, please be clear about who is leaving the message and the first and last name of the child as there are some children with the same name.

We are excited to meet all the new families and children and help them settle into a comfortable routine here at West. If you have any questions or comments, please don't hesitate to ask any of the staff or email me at Emartyniuk@richmond.ca.

Emmett