Making bread was a delicious, healthy and educational experience for Room 8

Making bread was a delicious, healthy and educational experience for Room 8

If you fancy bringing some ‘Bake Off’ inspiration, read on – we have everything you need to get started. While fairy cakes, flapjacks and meringues have their place, do not forget how easy it is to bake bread. The comforting smell of a freshly baked loaf stays with us for a lifetime, and making bread can be a therapeutic activity for children. Regarding this aspect, we loved the baking bread moment and used cracking the eggs and the flour as a sensory play. Moreover, it was so much fun!

From a nutritional point of view, bread is excellent for children; it is packed full of long-lasting energy, B vitamins and calcium. Bread is also helpful for teaching children about other foods, such as butter, which children need to eat to build muscle and gain nutrients like iron, omega-3s and calcium. Chocolate spread, jam, and honey are tasty but very high in sugar, so they should only be used in small amounts.

If you are not a confident cook, you could be tempted to take the automated option as we did – a bread-making machine. This was a time-saver, but it produced delicious bread. 

Baking gave us lots of fun, even though it was rather messy! However, despite all the mess, we gained many benefits from the baking experience.

The children had many opportunities to develop and use both hands together in a coordinated way.

Pouring ingredients into bowls was an excellent way for them to practise their eye-hand coordination.

Whether they read the recipe themselves (in words or symbols)  and follow our verbal instructions, following a recipe boosted our pupils’ listening and sequencing skills.

Following instructions is a vital school skill, and baking gave our pupils lots of practice.

Letting our pupils bake helped them learn about real-life measuring and number concepts.

Baking gave our pupils a real sense of achievement. We were working on a task that produced a product they enjoyed and shared with others, giving them confidence.

Of course, the last benefit was the result – delicious bread! After all our hard work, we sat down and enjoyed the results. 

Thanks very much, Heathryburn School Community Cafe!

Every Tuesday afternoon is a joy for Room 8. It’s Community Cafe time. We all are happy to visit and spend 45 minutes with our friends across the road, boys and girls from Heathryburn School. We all enjoy a warm drink, and there is a choice of different foods each week. It is easy to see that the pupils-host enjoy taking orders, serving food and getting to know other members of the local community and us. The predictable environment with structure and high level of routine along with a package of social learning and interaction help and support our boys and girls to develop their social skills and gain knowledge. Angela, the community café coordinator, is always available for 1-1 support for anyone who would like to discuss any problems. 

By accessing this venture, Room 8 was able to develop their communication skills, meet new people and friends, work as part of a team, make a decision, apply functional numeracy and literacy. 

We all agree the community café showcases an alternative model of community – where people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities spend time together – socialising, working, creating and enjoying each other’s company.

Thanks very much, Heathryburn School Community Cafe.

Life skills in Room 8

Mug cakes are the perfect, low-mess solution for our sweet tooth and easy enough for our pupils in Room 8 to make under supervision. There was no hot oven; instead, we had a personal-sized treat ready to enjoy in mere minutes with the help of a microwave.  

Our favourite mug cake is a mug cookie. It’s got a classic chocolate-chip cookie flavour but a bit of a cakey crumble. We may have overdosed on the chocolate chips, but we weren’t sorry, especially for a Friday afternoon. 

Here are some helpful tips we used for making our mug cakes:

Mix, mix, mix! 

While most of this mug cake recipe is stirred upright in a coffee cup, we made sure we mixed everything well. 

From our experience, we suggest using a fork to whisk the ingredients and a small spatula to clean the bottom before you cook. Nothing ruins your mug cake faster than finding a glob of flour on your fork.

Take it slow. 

Microwaves vary in wattage and strength, so we had to take care not to overbake. We started at the low end of the recipe recommendation and checked, then added 15-30 second bursts until the cake was puffed and looked dry.

We enjoyed it! 

Room 8 class project ‘What makes someone a superhero?’

Did you know there are SUPERHEROES all around us? 

Superheroes are ordinary people who do EXTRAORDINARY jobs.

Absolutely anyone can be a SUPERHERO if they want to. All you need is imagination, hard work and lots of kindness.

During this term, we had many activities where we encouraged the children to listen carefully to how that person’s job involves helping others and gave them time to ask questions about what they have heard. We used a selection of photos of ‘Superheroes – people who help us’ in activities as matching pictures/words/sentences. Also, we introduced and explained new vocabulary and encouraged them to listen to each other’s suggestions.   

One of our favourites has been the ‘People who help us’ themed role-play – ‘I’m a dentist’, inspiring the children to use the new vocabulary they learned during the topic. 

We created a class display, ‘All about our superheroes who help us.’ We had a big poster, ‘You are my superhero’, and we took pictures with all staff around the school that help us daily. We want to say a big ‘Thank you’ to all of them.

The most important activity has been with our superheroes – the parents. We spent one hour singing and dancing, having an excellent time together.

 Well done, Room 8!#


Is the Dentist Like a Superhero?


Superheroes come in all shapes and sizes. Wonder Woman uses her superhuman strength, speed, and ability to fly to beat the bad guys, while heroes like Batman and Iron Man rely on state-of-the-art inventions to help them join the fight against evil—even though they’re just ordinary people. What if we told you a dentist has more in common with superheroes than you might think?

Room 8 organised the Project ”What makes someone a superhero?” to help our pupils to boost their enthusiasm for trips to the dentist.

We used these ways to highlight that a dentist is like a superhero.

1) The dentist role-playing taught us to protect ourselves by flossing and brushing our teeth.

2) This role helped kids fall in love with science and dentistry. Many superheroes, like The Flash and Iron Man, were scientists or inventors before they started fighting crime. They inspire kids to love science and stand up for good throughout their comic series and movies. Our fun tooth decay experiment with eggshells was all about teeth and how to keep them healthy. First, we talked about how important it is to brush our teeth every day and then chatted about foods that are good for teeth and foods that aren’t.

Sugary, sticky food is not suitable for teeth as it sticks to the surface. Bacteria then break down the sugar to make acid which can damage teeth.

3)We summarised that dentists support kids with healthy smiles they’re happy to show off.

We also learned that we don’t need special powers if we’d also like to be a superhero. Like a dentist, we can start conquering plaque by brushing and brushing and flossing our teeth regularly at home. 

At your next appointment, your dentist will see how healthy your teeth look and know that you’re a dental superhero in training!

How To Catch A Star With Room 8

‘How To Catch A Star’ by Oliver Jeffers

Once there was a boy, and that boy loved stars very much. So much that he decided to catch one of his very own. But how? It is enough to make a boy want to give up! Yet sometimes we discover things aren’t where, or what, we expect them to be.

The pupils in Room 8 decided the boy is a superhero, followed him through the story and admired his persistence in making his dream a reality. We learned from him being inventive as him in his attempts to catch a star, waiting from sunrise to sunset for a star to appear. We all also appreciated his patience and determination.

We went further and experimented how to power a spaceship with just a drop of hand wash liquid.

So, during Science, we cut a rocket shape out of a carton with a little space for the ‘engine’. When we added a drop of soap in the hole, it pushed the water out, backwards. The water moved out the back of the rocket and pushed it forward.

Fun, fun, fun!

National Selfie Day in Room 8


Check your hair, find your light, and strike a post — National Selfie Day was on June 21. Time to find the perfect angle. Try out that new filter! If you’re feeling yourself, wearing a new favourite outfit, or even if you’re just bored, it’s time to pull out that camera phone and proclaim, “But first, let me take a selfie.”


The most important is to ‘Be yourself’. The idea of taking a selfie is to document who you are. But remember, you’re taking a selfie to show off YOU, not to become a copy of the others. Embrace your individuality for a selfie that looks and feels like you.

Did you know?

You can let someone else take your Selfie. This kind of photography is called Posies among the millennials, and the picture is usually taken by someone else, and the person in front of the camera has to pose.

Room 8 has celebrated ‘Selfie Day’ having lots of fun.

First, everyone came and discovered the most beautiful picture with their favourite pupil in the class. We all were surprised to find that in the box it was a mirror, and everyone was the favourite. 

Second, we had a shooting with some selfie challenge prompts:

· Choose your favourite hat

· With something you love

· Six selfies with different faces

· Video selfie of you dancing

· In a mirror

· With someone else

· Upside down

· With a photo

· By a window

Handa’s Surprise With Room 8

Handa is a young girl who lives in a village in Kenya. She decides to take seven different fruits in a basket to her friend Akeyo who lives in a nearby village. Handa walks to Akeyo’s village with the basket of fruit balanced on her head. Room 8 follows her on her journey, learning about each fruit is taken by a different animal until no fruit is left. As she is nearing Akeyo’s village, a goat breaks free from the post it is tied to and heads straight towards a tangerine tree which Handa is walking under. The goat headbutts the tree causing tangerines to fall into Handa’s basket. When Handa reaches Akeyo’s village, she is surprised to see tangerines in her basket. Akeyo is very happy as tangerines are her favourite fruit.

Every week we had a great sensory experience learning about each fruit from Handa’s basket. 

Since then, we had fun making chocolate covered banana pops, pineapple smoothies and learnt about sinking and floating using some boats made from oranges.

Room 8 Engage And Have Fun With The Three Little Pigs

When the three little pigs set off to build new houses, the first little pig chooses to make a house out of straw. The second little pig makes a wood house, and the third little pig uses bricks. But which house will keep them safe from the big bad wolf? 

What have we learned from this story?

Hard work pays off – the primary moral lesson learned from “The Three Little Pigs” is that hard work and dedication pay off. Also, working together is far better than working alone.

Our pupils have been introduced to story plays before and always enjoy them.

The story plays use props and characters to retell a story. If you are looking for a new way to tell a story, this form of storytelling is magical for kids.

Room 8 has had so much fun building houses just like the pigs. These 3 Little pig houses have been used for sequencing and discussing elements of the story. 

“I’m a Little Piggy” is set to the tune of “I’m a Little Teapot.” The song was sung during our Book study sessions, and it has a related literacy activity. Also, it encouraged the kids to stand and act the song out as they sang.

“I’m a Little Piggy”

I’m a little piggy

Short and pink.

Here is my belly, and here is my snout.

When I get hungry

Hear me oink.

Tip the pail and pour it out.

Fizzy Snowmen In Room 8

This week, our weekly story was ‘Sneezy the Snowman’ by Maureen Wright. In this story, Sneezy the Snowman is cold. In trying to warm up, he makes choices that are not in his best interest! Room 8 found the humour in this story as they realized that the choices made have a negative consequence. This was a good way to talk about choices with the children. The story is also written with rhyming words which can help children develop listening and literacy skills.

There were a lot of fun, learning activities that were inspired by this book. Through hands-on activities, children:

• Developed visual discernment skills in playing snowman matching games
• Used higher level thinking and problem-solving skills to describe why their snowman melted when creating their own melted snowman during Science and followed the pattern to recreate Sneeze’s red and blue scarf.
• Discovered the ‘life cycle’ of a snowman, and snow or ice.

During Science, we made a melting snowman experiment that was both simple and festive. The first step was to mix one glass of baking soda with 1 tbsp of salt, 2 tbsp of hand wash and 4 tbsp of water. Next, we moulded three balls and stacked them. Then we decorated the snowman with paint and twigs. Finally, we used a pipette to add vinegar to the snowman and observed as it slowly melted.