Virtual Book Club For Kids (Giles Andreae)

As a 4 year old, Lucas loves pirates, dinosaurs and sausages. So when I saw that Giles Andreae was the author for this month's Virtual Book Club For Kids and I came across this book, both him and I were very excited to read it!

The story is about a young adventurer and his pirate mates, whose enemies are the Pirate Dinosaurs. These Pirate Dinosaurs even have a secret hideout, where they make sausages!

The first thing we did was watch a video on sausages are actually made. I have also arranged for a tour of the local butchery, but as it is currently school holidays here in New Zealand we have to wait until next week.

One of the sentences in the book when the dinosaurs are singing about sausages reads "roasted or toasted or frittered or fried, sauteed or scrambled or pancaked or pied". Lucas and I talked about each of these sausage cooking methods, and decided to make a sausage pie.

We gathered together our ingredients:

• 2 sheets frozen flaky pastry defrosted
• 1 potato peeled and grated
• 450g sausage meat
• 1 carrot peeled and grated
• 1 apple peeled and grated
• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup Wattie’s Tomato Sauce
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley
• 1/2 cup grated cheese

Preheat the oven to 180°C fan bake or 200°C conventional. Grease a 22cm pie or flan tin.
Roll the pastry sheets together and cut to line base and sides of prepared tin.
Squeeze the potato in a clean tea towel to remove any excess moisture this was one of Lucas' jobs!



Mix together potato, sausage meat, onion, carrot, apple, breadcrumbs, egg, and Tomato Sauce.



Spoon sausage mix into the pastry-lined tin and spread evenly with a spatula.
To make topping: Mix breadcrumbs and cheese together and sprinkle over the pie top.



Bake in the preheated oven for 40-45 minutes until filling is cooked and topping is golden.

Lucas was very proud of his sausage pie!



We had lots of fun learning about sausages, as well as cooking with sausages.

We also talked about pirates and pirate ships, and as I was looking through the craft cupboard I found a kitset pirate ship in a tin, so we decided to build our very own pirate ship.

Lucas was very keen to paint all of the compenents of the ship.



Adam was drawing his very own pirate flag while Lucas continued to paint.



After the paint was dry, it was time to put the ship together, This was very fiddly, but good for the fine motor skills!



Then it was a matter of leaving the glue to set, and Lucas had his very own pirate ship.



What a great discovery from the craft cupboard to fit the book perfectly.



Check out more Giles Andreae book inspired crafts and activities below as part of our Virtual Book Club for Kids July Blog Hop! Feel free to link one up if you have a craft or activities post that goes along with a book by Giles Andreae.