Help Children we have run out of teabags!

You will need: teabags, materials, a rubber band (these can be anything from  around the house  for example kitchen roll, foil, sandwich bags, cotton etc)

1. Show your child how to make a cup of tea using a teabag in a transparent mug or beaker. Allow them to see how the water changes colour as it becomes tea. Explain that at school today there were no teabags, as someone had bought loose tea by mistake rather than teabags.

2. Open up a teabag and look at the tea leaves,  feel and smell them. 

3. Demonstrate making a cup of tea with the tea leaves and show how the tea leaves remain at the bottom of the cup. Explain that teachers do not like this as they might accidentally drink the tea leaves, which do not taste nice.

4.  Explain  that one teacher has invented a clever way to make the teabag but has not had time to test different materials to find out which materials are good choices to use.

Show your child how to put some tea leaves into the centre of a piece of material, pull all the edges together, wrap a rubber band around to hold the edges in place and use a peg to dunk it in the water.

Challenge 1(aimed at year 1 children) : Look carefully.  Which material works best?  Remember we want the water to change colour so it makes tea but we do not want the tea leaves to escape.  Test some different materials from around your house and see which one makes the best teabag!

Challenge 2 (aimed at year 2 children): In your book list the materials you used and put a tick or a cross next to them to say if you think they were a good material to use.  Then choose the one you think was the best.  Explain why you think it would work the best as a teabag.

Don't forget to send us some photographs and your challenge to Gospelsremote@infinityacademies.co.uk or Apostlesremote@infinityacademies.co.uk!