Holiday heroes

Stuck inside the house these school holidays? Get the kids creative in the kitchen with these fun ideas from McKenzie’s Foods. For more ideas visit www.mckenziesfoods.com.au

Make your own lunch - homemade pizza

Ingredients:

375ml (1 1/2 cups) warm water 2 tsp (7g/1 sachet) dried yeast Pinch of caster sugar 600g (4 cups) plain flour 1 tsp Australian Natural Sea Salt 60ml (1/4 cup) olive oil, plus extra for brushing Your choice of pizza toppings

Method:

Step 1: Combine the water, yeast and sugar in a small bowl. Set aside for 5 minutes or until foamy. Combine the flour and salt in a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Add the yeast mixture and oil. Use a round-bladed knife in a cutting motion to mix until the mixture is combined. Use your hands to bring the dough together in the bowl. Step 2: Brush a bowl lightly with oil. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Place in the prepared bowl and turn to coat in oil. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm, draught-free place to rise for 30 minutes or until dough doubles in size.

Step 3: Divide dough into thirds. Flour the bench and roll out each piece into 2530cm rounds. Place each base onto either a pizza stone or a baking tray lined with baking paper. Step 4: Top 2 bases with tomato puree and savoury toppings of choice including mozzarella cheese, ham, pineapple, capsicum, olives and mushrooms. Cook in a preheated oven (180°C) for 15 to 20 minutes or until base is golden. Step 5: For an extra special treat top the last pizza base with butter. Cook for 10 minutes, then top with Nutella spread and chocolate pieces. Top with McKenzie’s Shredded Coconut. Cook for a further 5-10 minutes until chocolate melts.

Makes: 3 Pizzas Preparation Time: 20 minutes Cooking Time: 15-20 minutes

Ingredients:

1 cup plain flour 3 tsp Baking Powder 1 tsp Australian Natural Sea Salt Water

Method:

Step 1: Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Add enough water to make the consistency of a pancake batter. Step 2: Divide mixture into four parts and place each into zip lock bags. Add a few drops of food colouring to each zip lock bag. “Squish” the mixture in the zip lock bag until desired colour is reached. Step 3: Rubber band the zip lock bag on one edge like you were icing a cake and snip off the very tip. Paint away. Best to use thick paper or cardboard to paint on. Step 4: Once painting is completed, place your son/daughter’s masterpiece in the microwave for 30-45 seconds and watch the puffy paint puff and grow!!! If paint is still wet, place in the microwave for an additional 10-15 seconds. NB: Please note all microwave wattages are different so times may vary.

Baking gingerbread biscuits

Ingredients:

125g unsalted butter, softened ½ cup brown sugar ½ cup golden syrup 1 egg yolk 2 ½ cups plain flour 1 tsp Bi-Carb Soda 2 tsps Ground Ginger 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon ½ tsp ground cloves Royal Icing: 1 ½ cups pure icing sugar 1 tsp lemon juice 1 egg white

Method:

Step 1: Preheat oven to 180°C. Line 2 oven trays with baking paper. Step 2: Beat butter, sugar and golden syrup with electric mixer until pale and creamy. Step 3: Add egg yolk and beat until just combined. Sift flour, Bi-Carb, ginger, cinnamon and cloves into mixture. Use a wooden spoon to combine. Step 4: Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth. Roll out dough to approximately 5mm thick. Use cutters to cut out shapes. If hanging on string, with a skewer, create a hole in your preferred spot. Place on prepared trays. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden. Remove from oven and cool. Step 5: TO MAKE ROYAL ICING: Sift icing sugar into a small bowl. Add lemon juice and egg white to form a firm paste. Place in a piping bag fitted with a 1mm nozzle. Pipe icing onto biscuits. Set aside for 1 hour to set. Makes: Approx. 20 Preparation Time: 30 minutes Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Remember to always supervise young children

Materials:

Used empty drink bottle (plastic or glass) Newspapers PVA glue and water mixed together Water 4- 5 drops dishwashing liquid Red food colouring 2 tbsp McKenzie’s Bi-Carb Soda ¼ cup of Vinegar

Method:

MAKING THE VOLCANO SHELL

Step 1: To make the basic shape of a volcano cut the middle of a plastic bottle out and then overlap the two ends together securing it with masking tape. Step 2: Now for the fun part: Apply paper mache to the volcano using small strips of newspaper dipped into a gluey water mixture. Allow to dry. Step 3: When the paper mache is dry, get the kids to paint the volcano.

MAKING THE ERUPTION:

Step 1: Fill the bottle almost full with water. Put four to five drops of dishwashing liquid into the water followed by two drops of red food colouring. Step 2: Add the Bi-Carb to the mix. Put the Volcano over the bottle so it is in place and ready to go.

Homemade Playdough

Ingredients:

2 tbs cooking oil 4 tbs McKenzie’s Cream of Tartar 2 cups plain flour 1 cup salt Food colouring 2 cups water

Method:

Mix all the ingredients in a saucepan and stir over medium heat for 3-5 minutes, until the mixture congeals.

IT’S CHILD’S PLAY

Did you know that 90% of a child brain is developed before the age of 5, and this development occurs through play opportunities?

Research suggests that opportunities to play are a significant factor related to brain and muscle development, and that purposeful play within the context of nurturing relationships and responsive interactions supports this development of the brain. Play is thought to stimulate imagination and creativity, to encourage problemsolving, and to offer children opportunities to experiment with their understandings and test their theories of how the world works. When children use props or materials to symbolise something else, it allows children to be involved in and be the conductor of their brain development. For example, a block becomes a mobile phone, this can be linked with language and literacy development along with skills in representing ideas and transforming materials. Imaginative play assists children to use objects and events in their play to make sense of the world and understand the process of how things work. Play is also thought to be an excellent context for parents to promote vocabulary learning by extending children’s interests and offering opportunities to acquire new words related to their interests through everyday interactions. By using the process of trial and error in their play children are also found to have better thinking abilities, such as the ability to reason and conceptualise actions, and are also more able to transfer learning into problem-solving tasks. Children who engage in imaginative play and fantasy play are found to demonstrate better cognitive control and resilience as they are the organisers and directors of their play. Tips for effective play experiences: • Use simple toys that encourage imagination and creativity, including household objects such as boxes, blankets, pots and pans, as well as playdough, blocks, sand, paper and crayons. Offer versatile and open-ended dress ups such as capes, scarves and aprons. • Be available to children as they play. Encourage children in their play trough being involved or questioning the reason why they are playing that character, building that cubby or drawing a particular picture.

This engagement is more likely to engage children in cognitively challenging conversations.

Allowing children time to discover, think, predict and problem solve through play with an adult’s guidance is the best way to build your children brain.

• Initiate conversation, model language use, and facilitate and expand on pretend talk.

Describe the play by asking open-ended questions to elaborate on play themes and introduce relevant knowledge and concepts. For example, I can see you are cuddling your teddy, do you think teddy is sad or is he feeling hungry?

Encouraging shared problem-solving

Play activities encourage discussions on ways to problem solve with peers, siblings or parents to build knowledge and understanding. Problem-solving opportunities can emerge from the issues, problems and questions in children’s everyday lives, such as reaching the top of shelf to get a toy, making a tunnel in the sandpit, or helping set the table. Tips for engaging in shared problem-solving: • Create opportunities for shared endeavours: even the briefest of moments of shared attention with young infants are valuable. • Provide open-ended activities and authentic materials (such as seeds and real gardening tools, or actual supermarket items for playing shop) this facilitates children’s thinking and language as they participate in the experience. Plan activities which encourage challenging conversations, for example how many placemats do we need for our family to sit together for dinner? • Make the problematic situation explicit, asking children to give their account of the problem and offer their perspective. Hold off giving direct answers or evaluating responses as good or correct. Encourage children to share knowledge, ideas and hypotheses, challenge and evaluate each other’s ideas, and consider choices. For example, I am wondering if we keep filling the basket with blocks that it will overflow, is the basket too small for all our blocks? • Support children in extending their abilities to meet problem-solving tasks. Unpack problems (whether these are task-focused or emotional problems) through question sequences, and model strategies such as observing and monitoring your own actions and thinking. For example, what is stopping you from placing your arm in your jumper, is the sleeve of the jumper tangled? I wonder how we can untangle the sleeve.

The most important concept to remember is that play is the avenue for children to work out their world and build their understanding by being actively involved and have ownership over their play event. Allowing children time to discover, think, predict and problem solve through play with an adult’s guidance is the best way to build your children brain. By Suzie Wood – Head of Quality and Compliance – Story House Early Learning