Mincemeat's Great Train Ride
Hello children, it’s lovely to meet you all! I’m Lois, and I write fun stories for children about being kind. There’s someone here who is very kind and he’s asking to meet you all! Here’s Mincemeat the cat! He has lots of adventures with Great-Grandma! Today, you’re going to hear all about his latest adventure and we’re going to be doing some fun activities from the story! See you soon for the STORY!
9.30am Activity:
Mincemeat and the Incredible Train Ride
Well now that you’ve met Mincemeat, we’re going on a train ride! The train is called Zayn. And here’s the Station Master Clarence Clipit. He’s got twinkly eyes and a moustache that looks like a brush! Zayn lives in a train shed at Candy Floss Central where all the trains start from.
Grown Ups:
Encourage your child to listen to the story. Help them identify anything kind happening. Help them identify what Mincemeat loves doing. Stress the safety aspects I highlight in my reading.
10.30am Activity:
Baking
Hello and welcome back! Did you discover from the story what Mincemeat loves doing? That’s right! Mincemeat loves baking! He makes very yucky food for Great-Grandma which you must never ever make at home! It’s just for my stories! Now how would YOU like to do some baking! I’ve got a recipe here I think you will have fun making! See you later in the day. Have fun!
Today we’re going to make Chewy Chocolate Oat Squares! 😋
You will need:
75g butter, softened
175g light brown soft sugar
125g runny honey
3 medium eggs
125g rolled oats
175g plain flour
½tsp bicarbonate of soda
2tbsp cocoa powder, sifted
125g white chocolate, cut into cubes, plus 50g melted.
Heat the oven to 180C, gas 4. Grease and line a 30x24cm shallow tin with baking parchment.
In a large bowl, mix the butter, sugar and honey, then stir in the eggs, followed by the oats. Sift over the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cocoa and chocolate; fold to combine.
Pour into the tin and bake for 35 mins, until cooked through.
Leave to cool in the tin, drizzle over the melted chocolate. Allow to set, then cut into squares. Store in an airtight container for up to 2 days.
Grown Ups:
Encouraging your child to help measure out ingredients, will practice their counting and grasp of weights and measures. Reinforce the need for oven gloves as in the story, to teach about heat safety. Ask what is in this recipe that Mincemeat must never eat? (chocolate) This teaches responsibility.
Maybe you’d like to post a video or photo on social media so that other adults and children can see what is being achieved.
1:30pm Activity:
Invent Your Own Station
Hello again! Welcome back, Mincemeat hopes you had lots of fun baking! We hope you are going to enjoy the next two activities. Do you remember any of the stations along Zayn’s route? Well here’s a train track for you to add your own stations to! Try and draw them and then colour them in and give the stations names! See you soon for the next activity!
Grown Ups:
This encourages getting your child’s imagination to work as well as improving fine motor skills in drawing and colouring. There is a template you can download, or you can make up your own.
2:30pm Activity:
Kind Paws
Hello children! We hope you’ve had fun inventing more stations for Zayn! Now we’re going to talk about being kind. Did you notice how kind Mincemeat is? Can you remember one thing he did in the story that is very kind? I’ll give you a little clue – it might have something to do with flowers! On the kind paw see if you can write or draw any kind things that happened in the story or the kind things YOU do for your family or friends.
Grown Ups:
This encourages children to think about others, showing kindness and being empathetic. We have a paw template you can download, or you can make up your own.
If you've finished these and still have time for fun...
Perhaps you can print out more than one kind paw and make a ‘Kind Book’!
Story time:
Mincemeat and the Unexpected visitor
Hello children, welcome back! Snuggle up for the next story in the series, ‘Mincemeat’s World of Adventures’, when an unexpected visitor arrives at the cottage!
Thank you so much for joining Mincemeat and me! We hope you’ve enjoyed all the activities! Now for the story!
