Friday gymnastics continues this term and the children are now showing increasing confidence in their skills. This group was working on balancing which can be challenging for some but all the children showed themselves to be confident individuals by ‘having a go’ under the guidance of adults. It’s great to see the children confident in the wider school environment too as some can find this initially daunting.
As the school hall is available to us again for a Friday session, we are providing the opportunity for the children to develop their gymnastics skills. Initially the children in the Rainbow Room will be enjoying this experience then later in the term those in the Raindrop Room will spend a few weeks having weekly visits. This gallery shows the children getting back in the swing of some fun activities.
Some of our children enjoyed a performance on Friday by a harpist and a saxophonist in the school hall. This was a wonderful opportunity for them to hear a performance by very talented musicians and we would like to thank Oliver and Hugh for this fantastic experience. Your performance had a genuine impact on our children.
With a small group of Rainbow Room children showing an interest in volcanoes, they decided to investigate a little more to see what they could find out. We looked at videos and photos of volcanoes on the internet and visited the school library to see what we could find out. The children who did the initial investigation were then able to share their findings with the rest of the children and soon lots of them were interested, even playing imaginatively in the construction area to depict an erupting volcano.
The next stage of learning was to move outdoors to create volcanoes using papier mache and then, once dry, they were painted to make them look more realistic. By this time nearly all the children were involved and excited about their volcanoes so we decided it was time to create our own volcanoes based on two different sets of materials (Coke and mints/vinegar and bicarbonate of soda). The children showed themselves to be super scientists, observing and comparing closely the difference between each eruption. The experiment was carried out several times and everyone was very excited to discuss their observations.
Once the experiment was completed, the children used pooters to empty their volcanoes and they turned their papier mache creation into a snowy village for their animals and Duplo figures so the children’s hard work was put to good use. It can be surprising what develops from a few children asking about a volcano but we think that these children led a super learning activity.
As we had the opportunity to use the school hall for a weekly session last term, we used the time to access some of the gymnastics equipment which provided a super challenge to the children. As well as building their confidence in the wider school environment, they learned how to safely use a range of equipment that they would not normally have access to. Most children grew in confidence during these sessions and were able to demonstrate learning over the weeks. This is an example of a group working on balance skills.
What better way to learn about shapes than to go out and find some in our own environment? A group from the Rainbow Room went on a shape hunt in the school’s nature area and were excited to find lots of examples of shapes in the real world. They even took the photos themselves and we think that they did a good job as “detective photographers”. Great work finding all these shapes and more. We think that your photos are super and have made them into a display in the Maths area of the Rainbow Room.
As so many of the children had dressed up for Hallowe’en on Friday, we all went to the school hall to have some fun playing games. “Pass the Hat”, musical statues, corners and so much more … we all had great fun and everyone was certainly ready for their lunch after our time in the hall.
I wonder if the children have been out on their bikes while they have been on holiday? They were working on their biking skills at the end of term as we borrowed a set of balance bikes and helmets to give them some extra practice in the school playground. We could certainly see great progress in their balance and control so we hope that some have been able to play on their bikes in the holidays.
Our “Rumble in the Jungle” focus in the Rainbow Room led to the children learning a dance to a song from “The Jungle Book”. Here you can see them initially practising the dance in Nursery then marching along the corridor to Primary 1 to give a performance of their final work in the Primary 1 classroom, wearing the animal masks they had made themselves.
We thought that the children showed great confidence to perform to an audience in an unfamiliar environment and they produced such a super performance that they then performed to Primary 1/2 as well.
Wednesday afternoons have provided the opportunity to develop the children’s skills with Mike, the tennis coach, who has organised lots of fun activities to help the children begin to learn control of a tennis ball. Each room will have two sessions in the school playground with Mike this term and the children have shown great enthusiasm for all his activities, listening well and showing good concentration. I wonder if we have a budding tennis star in our Nursery?
We would like to share a gallery of the Raindrop Room’s first tennis session last week.
Click then click again on a photo to make it bigger.
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