Noah's Ark jelly

The KitKat finger is - believe it or not - almost the same proportions as the ark. And, as an added bonus, when you bite into it, it has three floors!!! 

The ark on calm water

You will need (per person):

• About 150-200ml of blue - or clear - soft drink. (I used berry & tropical flavour Powerade - a 500ml bottle between 3 people)
• Gelatine. About 1 leaf per 100ml of juice.
• 1 finger of KitKat.
• A small bowl wide enough to fit the KitKat.

What to do:

1. Soak gelatine in cold water for 5 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, put some of the juice in a pan, and heat.
3. Take off the heat, and add the gelatine. Stir to dissolve (it was pretty much instantaneous when I did it).
4. Add the rest of the juice and pour into bowls.
5. Put in fridge to set.
6. (Optional, if you want stormy water). Chop up the jelly small and stir around a bit.
7. Place KitKat finger upside down on top of 'water', to make an 'ark'.
8. Eat. 

P.S. Don't be put off by using gelatine - it's actually even easier than using jelly cubes.

The ark on choppy water

Paper boat

Was looking through some stuff, and came across this.

Class cards

A couple of ideas for if you want a group of children to make a card for someone. Particularly if you don't have loads of time, and need something that will be simple and effective.

In both cases, I used a sheet of A3 card folded in half, to make an A4 card.

Idea 1:

This one was a goodbye card for a Sunday School teacher.

• Beforehand: Cut a selection of 4½ cm squares in four colours. This is especially easy if you use a guillotine, but it's not neccessary. 
• With the children: Each child draws whatever they like - aliens were popular in my class, as well as some less conventional objects (a sock?!?). 
• Stick them on, starting from the bottom. I did it in order of the colours, also trying to ensure there weren't too many similar drawings together.
• As it is impossible to fit a whole number of squares on an A4 sheet, leave a space for the name or a greeting.

I have done a similar one as a wedding card (can't find a photo). In that case, I got them all to draw one or more hearts on the squares.


Idea 2:

This one definitely suits a short name.

• Beforehand: Print out the letters as outlines. The font I used was Roger*, but you could use anything chunky, or draw bubble letters. Cut paper apart with one letter to a piece (but don't cut the letters out).
• Cut up lots of little squares of tissue paper. Pile the paper up and cut through several layers at once. About 2cm square is good - and they don't need to be very neat.
• With the children: Children stick the tissue paper on the letters. It should overlap the lines a little.
• Cut them out. We had the adults doing this: one with scissors, the other did the holes with a craft knife. Older kids could do the scissor cutting themselves, but many 5-6 year olds don't cut neat enough for the letters to be legible!
• Stick them on (preferably better placed than I did) and add stickers if there's time.

Tips:

• It really pays to be well organised, so you know exactly what you're aiming at. 
• Have spare squares or letters, in case someone makes a mess/loses one etc. Keep the spares separate, though, so they're not used unless needed. You don't want to have too many squares to fit!
• Have enough squares or letters to cater for newcomers or visitors (if your group is likely to have them). That's why I spelled out "Baby Sophie", not just "Sophie". This will also be helpful if some children are quicker than others - they can do several.
• Do the actual sticking yourself, or it will be chaos. But if you have time, you can call the group together and get them to help: "First I need the 'B' - who's got the 'B'? What letter will I need next?" etc.

*The 'y' is not actually from Roger, as I don't like the one from it. So I made one from an upside-down 'h' and the tail of a 'g'. But if you are a normal sensible person you don't have to do that.

A useful thing to know

If you are wanting to use a template to cut circles out of cardboard/paper, a CD is the perfect size to get three circles out of an A4 sheet. Place two circles right in the corners of one long side, and a third in the middle of the other long side.

But, as I told the children yesterday: only do this with an old, unwanted CD, and never with one that belongs to someone else (just in case your pencil slips...)

Fishy

I was having to draw some 'How To' instructions for making a CD fish mobile, so I made one to check they worked OK. Sometimes my work is fun!

If you want to make one yourself, there are a number of versions on the internet this is a good one, though the knot in the thread isn't necessary. I just used ordinary sewing thread. Make sure you use really small pleats for the centre fin, or you'll have to redo it - as I did.