Gracehill Afterschool Club Ballymena had an exciting February Half term. A well earned break from home schooling, and a lot of planned activities organised for the week. It was going to be a great half term week at Gracehill!
February half term started with nice new playdough. Carly was in charge of making the colourful playdough. The children really enjoyed making pretend buns and cakes. Each child then kept their own playdough in a bag. This then could be used by the child another day. This was great fun and so relaxing!
Gracehill February half term wouldn’t have been complete without yummy homemade pancakes. Pancake Tuesday was a great excuse for Shannon to get on her apron and get baking. Chocolate spread, butter and sugar or syrup were some of the toppings available. Everyone went home with full bellies. Staff included!
Gracehill Afterschool Club Ballymena also enjoyed a few lovely walks. Gracehill Village is a beautiful place to take a walk. Coats on and the sun in the sky made the walk very pleasant . The hot chocolate back in club was gladly received, not forgetting the marshmallows on top.
February Half Term Talent show was really enjoyable. With so many talented children the show could have gone on for ages. We had dancing, jokes, magic tricks, art and singing. The staff enjoyed watching the wonderful talents the children displayed.
Gracehill Afterschool Club always like to play games. A couple of new games were made. The heart game was popular and with valentines day in February it was very appropriate.
Baking also took place at February half term. Cornflake buns were made and fairy cakes were decorated. Yummy buns to take home and enjoy!
What a busy February half term at Gracehill Afterschool Club Ballymena!
Gracehill Afterschool Club Ballymena had lots of Christmas fun this year. In the run up to the Christmas holiday’s from school the children got busy making pom poms. Different colours of wool were got. The staff cut out the cardboard circles and that was the children ready to make a start on the pom poms. We had some lovely colourful pom poms to take home for Christmas.
The Christmas fun continued at Gracehill with a fantastic wall display. Who else would we have on the display but Santa Claus himself! And of course we couldn’t forget Mrs Claus. Carly, with a few little helpers got started into the display work. The children had great fun painting the finished Santa and Mrs Claus. They both looked brilliant while wearing their masks!
The children at Gracehill Afterschool Club also enjoyed making little elves. These were placed around our lovely wall display. This just gave it the final touch! Christmas pictures were popular for displaying as decorations.
Christmas Fun continued at Gracehill Afterschool Club with a party! Everyone loves a Christmas Party even the adults. With lots of lovely food to eat the children enjoyed some games. Pass the parcel and musical chairs are always a favourite. Lots of music and fun was enjoyed. Everyone likes to receive a present at Christmas. Party bags were given for the children to take home . Thank you to Flossy Treats for the lovely chocolate treats .
Gracehill afterschool Club had lots of Christmas Fun this year!
Gracehill Afterschool club Ballymena had a great two weeks of Autumn Lockdown Fun. School’s closed early for half term, which allowed for extra fun at club. Lockdown Rocks was a great theme for the holiday fun weeks.
We started off our Autumn Lockdown Fun at Gracehill Afterschool with making a new pumpkin game. The children had great fun trying to get the highest score as they through the balls into the pumpkins mouth. We have a lot of competitive children! The swirly autumnal mobiles were made to decorate the room. Felt tips and colouring pencils were used to make these beautiful mobiles. A new display was made with a barn and the children had great fun helping to paint leaves and a barn owl.
Everyone brought their wellies for an adventure around Gracehill village. The garden square was full of lovely crisp autumn leaves and these were great to walk and jump in. The children collected large stones from the garden. These were washed and painted by the children. They were then added to the snake at the Moravian Church Gracehill.
At the end of the first week of Autumn Lockdown Fun we had our very own Afterschool’s Got Talent. What a talented bunch we have. We had singers, comedians, gymnasts and fitness experts as well as an artist. Pumpkin carving is always popular. John and Lily chose what pumpkin faces were to be carved.
The second week of Autumn Lockdown Fun was as exciting as the first week. We had a movie and treat day, with the usual popcorn and crisps to enjoy while watching Mr Peabody and Sherman. Baking was also on the agenda. The children enjoyed making Top Hats and decorating a digestive biscuit with yummy sweets to take home.
Gracehill Afterschool Club look forward to Christmas!
Gracehill Afterschool Club Ballymena re opened in August 2020 after being closed for 5 months due to Covid-19. The staff spent a lot of time and effort making the club safe for everyone. Before re opening the club, a Covid-19 policy was put in place along with a risk assessment. New child friendly posters were ordered to display in the club. These posters were to remind everyone about social distancing and the importance of hand washing. Arrows were put on the stairs so everyone would know what side to walk up and down. Gracehill Afterschool club also got new hand sanitizing dispensers from Galgorm Group Ballymena.
On the 3rd August 2020 Gracehill Afterschool Club Ballymena re opened with all the new safety measures in place. The children were happy to be back to club and enjoyed meeting up with their friends again. The Lego, once again became the favourite, with some children building wonderful master pieces. The children decided to make a display of a rainbow, as this was the symbol used over lockdown to support all those working in the front line.
After careful planning ,the children, assisted by staff members, decided to make the rainbow using handprints. After getting aprons on, the children got their own tray of coloured paint. The children dipped their hands into the paint and then made handprints. After drying off the handprints they were cut out and a lovely colourful rainbow was created.
Gracehill Afterschool club are glad to be re opened and providing a childcare service again to all children and parents. Full time and part time spaces are still available at club. If you would like to enquire about spaces please email office@gracehillafterschoolclub.com or ring the club on 028 25638099.
This new year has been all about baking for everyone at Gracehill Afterschool Club. Our theme was about winter so of course we had to make some snowball buns. We started with crushing digestive biscuits in a bag (a great stress reliever). We then mixed the biscuit with cocoa powder, condensed milk and melted butter. Taking a marshmallow, we made a ball of the mixture and wrapped it around. Finishing off with rolling in coconut.
Chinese New Year
On 27th January we had rice and curry sauce with crunchy prawn crackers for break. This was to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Most of the children had a taste of it all and some were asking for seconds!
Valentines Day
Gracehill bake off continued for Valentines Day when we made yummy Jammy Dodger biscuits. These are made by mixing butter and sugar together in a bowl. Then we added the egg and continued to beat until it was all well mixed. Next we added the flour and folded it all together to make a dough. After the dough was ready the children enjoyed rolling out the pastry. As it was for Valentines Day we cut out heart shapes to make our lovely biscuits. After removing from the oven and cooled slightly, each child jammed the biscuits together to make our Jammy Dodger.
Pancake Day
On Tuesday 25th February Shrove Tuesday was celebrated at Gracehill with homemade pancakes. Sharon and Shannon were the cooks for the day and after making up the pancake batter of soda bread self raising flour, buttermilk, caster sugar and eggs they were to put on the hot griddle. The children had a choice of toppings which consisted of strawberries, blueberries, bananas, grapes along with either syrup, chocolate spread, sugar and butter or jam. As you can see by our photos they were really enjoyable. Gracehill bake off went down a real treat and was thoroughly enjoyed.
