The Home Ed Hut

Dentist Visit 🦷

A brilliant session with Mariana, who was fantastic with the children and made learning all about teeth really engaging and fun!

We started with lots of hands on teeth themed activities, from making playdough teeth to brushing a large model mouth full of teeth 🦷

We had an early lunch ready for our dentist arriving to begin the session.

Our dentist taught the children all about how many teeth we have, what teeth are made of, and how to brush them properly. She was brilliant at explaining everything in a way the children really connected with.

Next, each child had a toothbrush and toothpaste and practised brushing their teeth properly. We then used disclosing tablets to see how well we had done, which was fascinating for the children to see!

As the session went on, some children chose to head off and play, while others stayed for more hands on learning activities, including sorting foods into “good for teeth” and “not so good for teeth,” along with other fun dental themed tasks.

Those who didn’t take part in the full session took home their activity packs to continue the learning at home 🙂

A really fun, informative and practical session that the children got a lot out of!

Babe Day! 🐷🌾

As part of the Into FilmFestival, we went along the week before with parents to watch Babe together as a group, which set us up perfectly for all the fun and learning that followed!

We had an amazing farm themed tough tray, along with water play and sand outside. I love that even the older children still get fully stuck into this kind of play, they really value it and it’s lovely to see!

We kicked things off with a game of “Guess Who I Am,” where each child had a sticky note animal and had to figure it out by asking yes or no questions. Lots of laughs and great thinking!

Next, we explored all the different roles animals have on a farm. Everyone used whiteboards to draw their ideas, which made for a really fun and interactive discussion.

We then shared a summary of Babe for those who hadn’t seen it and watched some of the most well known clips. This led to a brilliant conversation about the values in the story, kindness, friendship, and how small ideas can grow into big ones.

Inspired by this, the children created their own “dream drawings,” which we later combined into a “Big Dreams Start Small” patchwork poster.

Lunch outside in the sunshine was a highlight, followed by lots of imaginative play, den building, cops and robbers, running bakeries, and looking after teddies.

One of our older children led a game of Simon Says, which brought lots of energy and laughter, and then some of the children chose to rehearse their favourite scenes from Babe.

We ended the day with their performances, which were fantastic to watch!

Another joyful day full of creativity, imagination and play 🥰

Mini Beasts, Mighty Fun! 🐜✨

Brilliant day learning all about ants and minibeasts 🐜🦋

As everyone arrived, we had two trays set up with fun sensory minibeast play and some bug symmetry drawing.

We trialled something new in this session, one of the children wanted to lead a session for an hour and share their passion, and it worked brilliantly. They created a PowerPoint all about ants, brought in their tiny colony to show, made a quiz and led a pipe cleaner ant craft. Everyone engaged really well and it was a fantastic example of peer to peer learning. We'll definitely be doing some more of this.

After learning all about ants, we put our new knowledge to the test with a roleplay simulation that the child had created. We all took on roles as different ants and went head to head (Bullet Ants vs Fire Ants) in a race to raise eight ants through the egg, larvae and pupae stages. A lot of chaotic fun!

After lunch and some great outdoor play, including football, roleplay, babies, sensory play, tug of war and more, we split into two groups and took turns doing:

Group 1: A minibeast hunt at the back of the hut
Group 2: Finding toy bugs hidden around the garden, then drawing, naming, measuring and recording their special features

We finished with some fun wind up butterflies to send flying!

Whizz Pop Bang! 💥🔬

Lots of science-based fun!

While we were waiting for everyone to arrive, we kicked things off with a big game of tig outside. Then we got the bubbles out, using different shaped wands to create all kinds of bubbles. Some of the children showed amazing perseverance, trying to make bubbles big enough to cover their whole bodies!

Next, we learned about how popcorn pops, watched it in action, and then enjoyed a yummy bowl each.

We then moved on to exploring sound by making “screaming cups,” which were very noisy 😆 We talked about the science behind sound, including vibrations and how amplifiers work.

Before lunch, we carried out an experiment using bicarbonate of soda and vinegar to blow up balloons, and explored the science behind the reaction.

After lunch and some great outdoor play, the weather turned, so we headed back inside for bubble painting and some hands-on experimentation with different reactions.

We also did a big group Mentos and Coke experiment outside, which was very exciting!

Throughout the day, some of the children made “bangers” using decorated paper bags, popping them with their hands—brilliant fun. We also had lots of noisy balloons to experiment and play with.

To end the day, we enjoyed a calming guided meditation to help bring our energy levels back down after all the bangs, pops, and whizzes. It was so peaceful, even the grown ups could have fallen asleep!

Another fantastic, fun-filled day! 😊

Ancient Greek Mythology Day 🏺✨

We started the morning with Ancient Greek Top Trumps and an activity where the children could write their names using Ancient Greek letters. Such a great way to get everyone settled in!

Then we headed upstairs to learn all about Greek mythology, including the creation story and lots of the gods. We had some brilliant discussions about what myths are, with the children sharing their own ideas, from the Loch Ness Monster to dragons.

Next, we split into two groups to explore two famous myths, Medusa and Theseus and the Minotaur. The plan was to create props and act them out, which started off really well… but after lunch, the enthusiasm for acting disappeared! That said, the prop-making was fantastic. We had pipe cleaner snake hair for Medusa, robes, crowns, swords, shields, and even heads for the Hydra.

Before lunch, we made offerings to the Greek gods with our own food platters and “nectar.” The children chopped up cheese, grapes, figs, and apricots, and mixed their own drinks with honey, lemon, lime, and sparkling water. Yum!

After lunch and some great outdoor play, we made evil eyes, learned about Pandora’s Box and wrote down our own hopes, and explored Mount Olympus. We finished the day with our very own mini Olympics, including discus, running races, wrestling (very entertaining to watch! 🤣), and tug of war.

Another fantastic day. Thank you, little ones! 🥰

Gardening Day at Grappenhall Heys Walled Garden🌱

We kicked off the day by making Earth Day crowns outside the gardens to celebrate yesterday, before meeting the amazing team who run the site - they were absolutely brilliant!

We were given a tour around the gardens and saw so many different foods growing. Oliver, the garden manager, was fantastic, informative and great with the children, even letting them try a variety of edible plants.

We then split into two groups. One group designed their own plant pots and chose what to grow - options included beetroot, beans, pea sprouts, coriander, and salad leaves. We can’t wait to see (and taste!) how they grow! Thanks to Kate, the Community Outreach Officer for organising.

The second group explored the gardens on a quiz, searching for hidden mini watering cans - lots of fun! Then the groups swapped over so everyone got to do both activities.

The walk back was a long one, but the children really impressed us with their determination and positive attitudes. We paired older children with younger ones throughout the day, and the teamwork and support they showed each other was just lovely to see.

We stopped at the park on the way back for a well-earned play, before arriving back at the hut just after 12. After lunch and some downtime, we planted tomatoes, which we’ll be monitoring and measuring each week.

The children also helped remove some tiny sycamore saplings that would have taken over a section in the garden - great teamwork all around!

Easter Eggstravaganza Escape Room! 🐰🥚✨

We started off with a special message from the Easter Bunny straight from The Easter Egg Factory 🎥🐇. The video told us that all the stations throughout the factory were scrambled 😱, and we needed to work in pairs 👯‍♀️ to fix each station, collect puzzle pieces 🧩, and build them together at the end to reveal a secret password 🔐 and reset the factory! 🏭💡

Here were the stations:

🌿 The Burrow Intake Hut – This station had 4 crates 📦🔒, each with a padlock. The children had to figure out how many of certain letters were in the master ingredients list 🔤 and use the code to unlock the right crate. Inside were lots of ingredients 🥕🌽, which they had to put in order using a riddle 🤔. Then they used secret numbers on the barcode to unlock the puzzle box & collect their piece! 🧩

🎨 Pattern Development Studio – The children solved a riddle to correctly assemble the egg boxes 🥚📦 and crack the code to retrieve their puzzle piece!

🔦 Egg Inspection Bureau – Using a UV light 🔦✨, they spotted hidden numbers on the eggs and selected only the ones that weren’t broken 🥚❌. These numbers formed a code to unlock a suitcase 💼 and find their puzzle piece!

⚡ Spring Energy Generator – A tricky one! The manual had missing pieces 📖🧩. Once they matched the pieces to the correct pages, the page numbers revealed the code to unlock their puzzle piece 🔢🔐.

🧱 Egg Construction Conveyor Belt – The conveyor belt was broken! 🚧 They followed a LEGO manual to rebuild it 🧱, and along the way passed little LEGO people holding numbers which gave them the code for their puzzle pieces!

🧪 Flavour Lab – Time to use maths skills ➕➖! They added up mystery flavour totals 🍓🍫 to work out the correct code and unlock their puzzle piece.

🧵 Control Centre – All the wires were jumbled 🔌😵! Using secret scrolls 📜, they reconnected them correctly, then decoded symbols into words 🔍 which revealed where the hidden key 🔑 was!

👃 Master Tasting Chamber – A sensory challenge! They matched smelly ingredient boxes 🤢 to the correct coloured bottles 🎨 (like ketchup to red ❤️). Then they decoded numbers into letters 🔠 to find a hidden key and collect their piece!

🚚 Hopper Dispatch Depot – Using a delivery list 📋, they delivered Easter items to the correct addresses 🏡. This spelled out a secret sentence that led them to a hidden box in the garden 🌿📦!

🍬 Hidden Vault – The final challenge! They followed clues 🕵️‍♂️, counted sweets 🍬, and used the total to crack the vault code 🔐 and retrieve the last piece! 🎉

Once all the pieces were collected, they worked together to build the jigsaw 🧩 which revealed the final passcode 💻🔢 to reboot the factory system!

When the correct password was entered, another video played 🎥 announcing the factory was fixed 🏭✅ and their Easter eggs were hidden in the garden… 🐣🌷

Cue the ultimate egg hunt!!! 🥚🏃‍♂️🎉

🐣🌍 Easter Around the World! 🌍🐣

We had a brilliant day learning all about Easter traditions from around the world with our younger group. We started off the morning with a chocolate cereal sensory tray with Easter bunnies 🍫🐰

Then throughout the day we learnt all about different countries from around the world, and how they celebrate Easter. The children found each country on the map, listened to stories and watched interesting clips about the traditions.

🇸🇪🇫🇮 First up was Sweden and Finland, where children dress up as Easter witches 🧙‍♀️ and make their own sticks to swap for candy 🍬. We painted and decorated our own Easter sticks 🎨✨ which looked fab!

🇦🇺 Next up was Australia, home of ‘The Easter Bilby’ 🐾🐇 these guys are so cute (no, we can’t have one Kate! 😆). We then made our own Easter creatures, designing them on paper first and then creating them out of polymer clay 🎭. Some really cute little Easter creatures! 💕

🇩🇪🇮🇳🇵🇱 Next up was Germany, India & Poland, where painting eggs is a big tradition. We headed back downstairs to decorate our own polystyrene eggs 🌈

After lunch and a good play outside, we headed back in to learn about the USA 🇺🇸 and Scotland. In Scotland, they have egg rolling competitions 🥚🏁 to see whose egg gets the least cracks of course we had to have a go!

Next up we made cornflake nest cakes 🧁🍫 (because you can’t celebrate a UK Easter without them! 🇬🇧🐣)

🇲🇽 Then we learnt about Mexico, where they make ‘confetti eggs’ 🎊🥚 so we made our own and sprinkled confetti over each other’s heads! 🎉😂

Lastly, we finished with a hilarious piñata outside 🎉 — lots of giggles all round 🤣

Mother’s Day Gift Making 🥰🎁

A few weeks ago we made some special Mother’s Day treats for you our gorgeous Home Ed Hut Mommas 💝

The children worked in pairs — mixing up older and younger partners — and it worked brilliantly!

Everyone got stuck in measuring ingredients, grating chocolate, and heating up the cream, golden syrup, and a pinch of salt to make some delicious truffles 🍫 Once everything was mixed, they popped into the cool box to set.

While we waited, we had lunch, squeezed in a few Pokémon battles, and then moved on to creating the gift boxes. There was so much creativity and care put into them, they looked absolutely beautiful ✨

Finally, it was time to finish the truffles! Each pair rolled them and chose their toppings:
🥥 Coconut
🍫 Cocoa powder
🍬 Sprinkles
🌰 Nuts
🍥 Icing sugar
🤍 White chocolate

They turned out amazing, I had to try one before Mother’s Day (quality control, obviously 😄) and they were divine!

Cooking & Baking Day! 🍕🍰👩‍🍳

Everyone split into groups to choose a main meal and dessert, then created their own shopping lists the week before, ready for us to buy all their ingredients.

On the day of baking and cooking, they grabbed their ingredients, picked their utensils, and got straight to work on their mains! We had:
🍕 Pizza & chips
🍖 Sticky ribs & chips
🧄 Pizza dough balls
🌮 Fajitas

The kitchen was busy (and smelled amazing 😍).

After lunch, it was time for desserts… and they did not disappoint:
🍥 Cinnamon swirls
🍨 Ice cream sundaes & milkshakes
🍩 Churros
🎂 Vanilla cake

Everything looked and tasted incredible, seriously impressive effort all round 👏

Well done everyone! 😄