martes, 31 de diciembre de 2013

Make your own CALENDAR for NEW YEAR 2014

It can be a fun craft for new year to create your own wall or desk calendar at the beginning of the year.

 Personalize each month with coloured pictures of you, your family and pets! You can add a creative sentence to every month!

Have a try and your calendar will be exclusive and unique!! Hang it on the wall or put it on your desk at home!









viernes, 20 de diciembre de 2013

STORY CUBES- every day make up a story!

  • Story Cubes is a pocket-sized creative story generator, providing hours of imaginative play for all ages. Throw the dice and create a new story any time!

  • 1 or more players
  • Reinforces artistic expression
  • Ages 8 and up
  • Playing time: 15 minutes

miércoles, 4 de diciembre de 2013

BUILD A PAPER HOUSE and LEARN ENGLISH

                                                             Materials:

- a cardboard box , scissors, magazine cuttings, glue, varied coloured papers and reciclying materials to make the furniture: lamps, cupboards, wardrobes...

Procedures:

Every child can have his/her special , own decorated paper house.With this activity they can learn: names of rooms (bedroom, kitchen, bathroom,....) and parts f the house (attic, garage...) and practice some vocabulary as : go upstars/downstairs, go to the kitchen, outside/inside...
Some guessing games as : "What´s the room were you can wash but you can´t watch television?", "What´s the room where you can play but you can not cook", "What´s the room where you can watch TV but not sleep?"...

MAKE YOUR OWN HOUSE AND HAVE FUN!!!






sábado, 9 de noviembre de 2013

"MY HANDS " poem by Perrine Schlumpf (au pair from Sweden)

My hands


My hands upon my head I place,
On my shoulders, on my face;
On my hips I place them - so,
Then bend down to touch my toe.
Now I raise them up so high,
Make my fingers fairly fly,
Now I clap them, one, two, three.
Then I fold them silently.

Help children to WRITE their DIARY!



Diary writing can be fun and very useful for children learning English. They can start from a simple sentence :
"I fly my kite in the sky", "Mum has baked a lovely chocolate cake", " I have a new friend...!" and everyday something different comes up. After a few weeks they can revise the writings and have fun!!! Difficulties increase with age and children skills.

martes, 5 de noviembre de 2013

FINGERS ROLEPLAYS


Let´s  speak ENGLISH!
Two fat gentlemen
Two fat gentlemen met in a lane,
Bowed most politely, bowed once again.
How do you do? How do you do?
How do you do again?

Two thin ladies met in a lane, etc.
Two tall policemen met in lane, etc.
Two little schoolboys met in lane, etc.
Two litte babies met in a lane, etc.

Poems by Perrine Schlumpf (Best Au pair Barcelona au pair)

miércoles, 30 de octubre de 2013

Simple HALLOWEEN DECORATION with BALLOONS

All you need is different colour balloons: orange, black and white ones are the stars! and a couple of black permanent markers to draw their faces. Or you can twist the ballons to make your halloween scary creatures: spiders on the wall, dancing skeletons hanging up or flying withches all over your room!

Have a look at these models!!




And have fun!!!!!!!!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

sábado, 26 de octubre de 2013

HALLOWEEN MASKS

Halloween is a good excuse for home made masks. The materials can be as many as paper, papier maché, clay, cloth with a paper base, a balloon and so on.
To make a good  mask of your halloween creature, it´s important to take some time to make a plan. Once you have the base you can add: ears, horns, beaks, noses, colour feathers, glitter, colour beads , etc..

PAPER MACHÉ MASK





Materials Needed:
  • Round Balloon
  • Newspaper
  • Paper mache paste
  • Acrylic Paint
  • Paintbrush
Instructions:

Make sure you cover you work surface well. This can be newspaper laid on top of wax paper, freezer paper, or even on old tablecloth or shower curtain. This is a very messy project. Also, please note, to allow ample drying time, you will need a few days to complete this project.
To make a mask using a face as a mold, start off by tearing off a piece of aluminum foil at least twice as long as the subject's face, fold it in half. Use the subject's face as a mold by gently pressing the double layer of tin foil over it. Wad up newspaper and place it inside the curved section of the foil mold and lay it on your work surface.
If you prefer to use a balloon as a mold for your mask, start out by blowing up a balloon and tying it closed. Find a bowl or cup your balloon can sit on while you work on it. Completely cover the cup or bowl with plastic wrap so the paper mache hopefully does not stick to it. Tear newspaper into strips about 1- or 2-inches wide and 4- to 8-inches long. You will need a lot of newspaper. Choose one of the paper mache paste recipes here and make it. 
If you are working with a foil mold, make sure not to press too hard or it may lose it shape! Cover the foil mold with at least 3 or 4 layers of paper mache, letting it dry completely between layers.
If you are working with a balloon, you will only want to cover half of the balloon with paper mache unless you want to make an entire head. Once you have on one layer of paper mache and it is dry, use various supplies to make dimensional facial features on your balloon. You can make a nose, ears, thick eye brows, lips, etc. 
Once the paper mache is dry, the mask can be painted and decorated however you like. If you used a balloon base, pop the balloon and remove any loose pieces. If you can't get them all, don't worry no one should see them on the inside. You can use a variety of craft supplies to add some personal touches to your mask, such as yarn, fabric scraps, beads, glitter, and paper. You are only limited by your own imagination.
While this mask is more for decorative purposes you can cut eye holes out before you decorate it and also punch holes on either side to add ribbon or elastic to fit around your head.

lunes, 21 de octubre de 2013

Delicious BROWNIE SPIDERS

Halloween is just around the corner! When I happened to see this adorable little spider cake  last week, I of course had to find a use for it.
So for this Halloween,I introduce you these fun little Brownie Spiders!!!

Surprisingly, these little brownie spiders actually turned out to be really easy to make! While it took a little time to poke in all of those “legs” (chocolate-covered chow mein noodles), the rest seriously could not have been easier.

Wishing you all a happy, delicious Halloween!



Brownie Spiders preparation

Prep Time: 30 minutes
Yield: 12-18 spiders (depending on size)

Ingredients

  • 1 pan of baked brownies
  • 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
  • 2 cups chow mein noodles
  • candy eye balls
  • circle cookie cutter or biscuit cutter (mine was 1.5-inch diameter)
  • a toothpick

Method

Use a circle cookie/biscuit cuter to cut out your desired size of circles for the spider "bodies". Place on wax paper for prep, or place them right on your serving tray.
In the microwave or a double-boiler, melt the chocolate chips in a medium-sized bowl. Then remove 1 tablespoon of the melted chocolate and set it aside. And then gently stir the chow mein noodles into the remaining melted chocolate until all of the noodles are coated. Spread the noodles out somewhat on a plate covered with wax paper (you don't need to completely separate them), and then pop it in the freezer for about 10 minutes to chill and re-harden the chocolate.
Once chilled, remove the chocolate covered noodles, and pick out some long ones to use as the spider "legs". Use a toothpick to poke 8 holes on the top of the brownie circles around the edges, then poke the noodles into the holes to be the legs.
Then take the tablespoon of melted chocolate that you set aside, and use the toothpick to transfer a dot of melted chocolate to the back of each candy eyes to be the "glue". Place the eyes on the front of the brownie circles.
Serve the brownie bites immediately, or cover to keep for up to 4 days.


HALLOWEEN IS COMING!!

     
 





There is something about Halloween which really catches the imaginations of children - perhaps it is all the candy and sweets and dressing up! We will introduce you  a huge selection of Halloween activities for kids here at "Happy Days with my Au pair" everything from easy Halloween crafts to Halloween songs, rhymes, costumes, masks...


 
 and much more spooky fun!!

www.bestaupairbarcelona.com

FINGERS PAINTING DAY

T
Here you have some ideas about painting with your finger prints.
Discover the artista inside any Little child!



 





This is www.bestaupairbarcelona.com blog to share activities with our au pairs/babysitters/nannies and English teachers.
We welcome you to our blog also to share your ideas and keep on going in this wonderful task with children.
There will be handcrafts, songs, outside activities, cook récipes, games... and lots of fun,of course.
Teaching English is fun!!!
Thanks everyone to do our Project real !