Cooking toast on the fire & making butter!

Those who regularly follow this blog will know that we have an 'Outdoor Day' every Friday, when the class spends the majority of the day outside, usually only going inside for around an hour to watch a DVD (another Friday routine) & have lunch.

Double cream, marbles & a jar - makes butter!

We also light the fire in our amazing Haba BBQ fire grill, that our Board of Governors was good enough to fund for us last year. It has more than paid for itself by now a year after we first got it. We try to 'cook' something on the fire each week too, whether it's marshmallows, milk for hot chocolate, bananas stuffed with chocolate, apples & cinnamon or sausages. 

Family Days. Tried & Tested - where the original idea came from

This week it was decided to cook some toast on the fire & our wonderful NVQ student had seen a great idea for making butter on 'Family Days. Tried & Tested' on Facebook & I did also find this one from Babblin Brooke so please do go check it out too. The basic idea is to get some double cream, put it in a jar with 2 marbles & let the children shake the jar until it separates & you are left with butter & butter milk. Even at the age of 3 & 4 most were able to shake the jar for quite a long time & the adults helped too. The children were amazed to see butter in the jar at the end of all the shaking.

I love on Fridays that the minute I start to set the fire some of the children begin to gather around the fire on the stump seats. I had bought a BBQ fish holder in the end of summer sales & knew it would be perfect for toasting bread & it was perfect!
Children who don't normally take snack had 2 pieces of the toast & declare the butter delicious. This was a great activity & one we will be trying again with perhaps some added flavours to the butter.