Bananagrams

Mum went to a blogging award night on Friday and she came home with this great new game in a banana case for me. It is called Bananagrams and it's a bit like Dominoes and Scrabble.

We played it on Saturday and it is really fun. The rules are super easy and I got good really quickly. You just make words and see how many you can make and the quickest person wins.

Mum won first and then I won and then dad played and he won. We taught granny as well. Grandad didn't do very well, he doesn't like words much and I beat him.

Mum and I also played together and we used all the letters and made loads of words, that was fun too.

I like that you shout peel when you need another letter; it's like peeling a banana.

I like the case because it's small and soft and a fun shape and easy to carry around.

I want to teach my friends the game and I think school could have Bananagrams clubs and we should play it in phonics. I might take it to school for show and tell.

Mum says there are a pear game and apple game for younger kids but I don't have those, they sound good though as well.

Emma (mum) says:
BANANAGRAMS® (RRP £14.99) – named Toy Fair 2009’s “Game of the Year”, Bananagrams is a fast and fun anagram game that drives players bananas! Requiring no pencil, paper or board, Bananagrams comes in a small portable banana-shaped pouch and is perfect fun for kids from 7 – 107 years-old, at home or on the go. Created by a word game-obsessed family of three generations, Bananagrams is a labour of love that that has quickly become an international phenomenon. Bananagrams is available in a series of books and in Hebrew, Spanish, French, Norwegian and German as well as in a larger version – DOUBLE Bananagrams, the big banana for the larger bunch (for up to 16 players)! An outdoor version, Jumbo Bananagrams, will be available from summer 2012.

The Bananagrams’ family of games is available at a wide range of High Street toy and book stores or online at www.bananagrams.com

For more information visit: www.bananagrams.com
Check out their all-new Bananagrams blog at www.bananagrams.com/peels
Like them on Facebook on www.facebook.com/bananagrams
Follow them on Twitter www.twitter.com/bananagrams_uk

Fire of London Model

Yesterday mum and me had a girlie afternoon and I chose to do craft. We were going to make an animal but then I thought I could make the bakery from the great fire of London. Here's what I did.

Got a shoe box and 4 toilet rolls and lots of old newspaper and PVA glue and Sellotape.

Cut out doors and windows in the shoe box. Mum helped me do that.

Put glue all over the lid of the shoe box and stick bits of newspaper all over it. Then glue paper all over the rest of the shoe box. Then glue paper over the toilet rolls.

Mum said we should leave it to dry bit I didn't want to.

Put the lid upside down and Sellotape the toilet rolls in each corner. That's quite tricky so mum helped a bit.

I wanted to make it all on fire and so we got loads of red and yellow paint.

I painted red all over everything, lots and lots of red paint. Then I dabbed yellow for flames on top of the red. Dabbing looked like the top of the fire.

When the paint was still wet we put the top floor on the bottom and it stuck together by today.

I love my model and it was really fun to do. I think my teacher will like it too.

Home Made Maze

We make all sorts of amazing things at God Squad (Sunday School) like this maze.  I have made lots of these now and they are loads of fun with marbles moving round them.  And they are really easy to make once mum has broken up the lolly sticks.

Here is how to make one yourself.

1. Draw a shape for your maze

2. Cut this out of cardboard

3. Decorate the cardboard any way you want - I like to stick plain paper on and then draw on it

4. Put different pieces of lolly stick on top to make a maze

5. Stick them down with glue when they are where you want

6. Roll a marble around your maze.

Guess the Shape

I love games.

When we're in the car when we're going a long way I like eye-spy and twenty questions and car colour bingo.

When I've got a paper and pencil I love playing squiggles or noughts and crosses or copy my picture.

Today I found this old wiggly piece of edging from mum's box of making things. We made a new game of guess the shape. First I made a shape, the mum had to guess it. Then it was mum's turn.

Can you join in?
Guess this shape.

Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom Volume 4 - The Elf Games

Ben the Elf is working hard practicing his running and jumping and lifting acorns ready for The Elf Games. Holly the fairy wants to help Ben with magic but that's not allowed. Just like the London 2012 Olympics we see how the competitors manage.

This episode and the ten others on this DVD, the 4th volume, show just how well the two friends can do if they work together. From the makers of Peppa Pig this is a must have for all families with preschool age children.

Our holiday in France

We went to France on holiday and had loads of fun. 
We went on a ferry in the fog and we couldn't see anything all the way to France, that was really silly.

When we got to France we drove to a place Mum wanted to see with a very old cathedral.  I wasn't sure about I wanted to see it but it was really really big and amazing.  It is 1000 years old, that's older than the history we are doing at school in the big dig.  Really old.  Look at these photos, isn't that amazing.

After we saw the cathedral and the chocolate cathedral in the shop next door we drove to Disney and stayed for a week.  We saw all the characters and I rode all the rides even the big ones with Dad and we saw the parades and we did everything. 

I loved the runaway train ride best and made Dad go on it loads and loads of times.  He took me on tower of terror and it was really scary but I think I liked it.  Mum loved meeting the characters with me and we both loved cuddling Pooh Bear.

There were four parades we saw and they were all brill.  One was a train for the 20 year celebration, it was all bright rainbow colours and it had all the main characters on it.  There was the main parade in Disneyland Park with all the princesses and toy story people and alice in wonderland and everything; I loved that one the best.  Mum and Dad liked the stars and cars in the studios park which had all the characters but in funny decorated cars; it was OK.  The best was a special show in the middle of the night at the castle; it was all lights and fireworks and a story and it was the best best best ever.

We went into Paris as well which Mum wanted to do and Dad didn't and I was OK with.  Mum was right to make us go, it was so cool and had the best thing of the holiday there - the eiffel tower.  Dad and me walked all the way to the second stage and it was very very high.  Mum had arranged for us to get an open top bus as well and she said she saw things she had never seen before, I liked that she liked that.  I liked the huge needle from egypt that is in a park, it is massive and all covered in the old writing.  We saw the cathedral called Notre Dame - it's just like Amiens one and Mum says it was designed the same.  I had a crepe at a cafe where we could see the Eiffel Tower, Mum and Dad kept kissing because they ate there when they came to Paris years and years ago, that was weird but nice.

After Paris and Disney we went to the beach and had lots of fun even when it was windy and crazy.  I made lots of Rs in the sand and I buried myself in the sand and I made sand castles in the sand and mum took photos of all of that.  She also took photos of the sea and sun like she always does at the beach.  We saw a fish market and the fishermen mending the nets, that was not something we expected and it was good.  After that Dad ate muscles and mum ate fish, but I didn't want that so I had sausages and chips.  We also went to a very old town on a hill with walls all round it, we walked round the walls and it was so so so windy that we thought we might fall off but we didn't.

The last day was really windy and we had a very rolling and shaking journey on the ferry.  I didn't mind too much when I was sitting down but Mum went to sleep to stop her feeling sick.  When she took me to the toilet we couldn't walk properly and we laughed lots and lots about that.

We had a brilliant holiday but I'm looking forward to seeing my friends at school tomorrow.
Rachel

Grandad blows to France @johncraneblog

Grandad had a lot of fun this half term in France; he explored cathedrals, travelled around vineyards and went on lots of rides at Disney.

But the highlight of the whole trip was being made his own almost wind proof sand and shell chair on a very very blowy beach. He loved it.