Session 8 - February 28th - Festivals Around the World

Miss Hutchinson led a session on Festivals Around the World, she explained that countries such as Spain, Germany, Italy, France and Mexico celebrate festivals in lots of different ways.  She set the girls the task of working together in groups to research and create a presentation on a given festival.  They used a range of strategies to complete their research and got creative in designing their presentation. 

Despite a few nerves the girls presented the information in an entertaining and informative way.  By the end of the session we had found out about the Carnevale di Ivrea or the battle of the oranges which occurs in the northern Italian city of Ivrea, Martinstag, which is the west Germany feast of St. Martin celebrated on November 11th.  The world's biggest tomato fight at La Tomatina in the Valencian town of Bunol in August. Mardi Gras  which in English translates as Fat Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday and Dia de Los Muertos which is celebrated in Central and Southern Mexico to remember friends and family members who have died.   

The girls all put a tremendous effort in to their presentations and everyone had a fun time getting creative.  Thank you to Miss Hutchinson for leading the session.

Bread Recipe

Session 7 - February 7th - Baking Bonanza!

In the words of the girls' session 7 was brilliant! 

Ms Hutchins taught the girls how to bake bread which they got to take home and enjoy.  The session began with a look at yeast, it's function in baking and how it ferments.  The girls watched as food (sugar) and warm water were added to the yeast to begin the fermentation process.  Ms Hutchins explained that yeast works by consuming sugar and excreting carbon dioxide and alcohol as byproducts. 

Following a recipe the girls began to mix together flour, salt, sugar, yeast and water to form a dough.  They learnt that the dough needs to be kneaded to develop the gluten and make the dough stretchy enough to make really good bread.  With aching arms the girls then shaped their bread ready to prove in the oven at a low temperature. 

After washing up and cleaning their work area the bread began the cooking process. The girls happily went off to enjoy cookies and juice and returned to a wonderful aroma of freshly baked bread before removing their wonderful creations from the ovens.  The finished results were very impressive, the girls (and Miss Ladbrook) were very keen to try the finished result!

To finish the girls tried other foods that use bacteria, they then carried out a sensory analysis using all their senses to describe the foods.

Thank you to Ms Hutchins for a really great morning, it was wonderful to see the girls share their hard work with parents and grandparents when they were collected.