This week in the indoor environment, the children have been observed mark making with purpose, adding details to their designs and scribing meaning to their marks. The children have filtered their mark making experiences from the art area into the small world area.

Following from children’s interests of jungle animals, the children have been creating their own puppet masks using a variety of different collage materials. The children then further extended their learning by discussing some animal features with a particular focus on the patterns of the animals for example “leopards have spots”, “tigers have stripes on them”. They then used their puppets to role play in the small world area, creating their own stories and were able to recall the animal sound.

Some children helped create a farm yard sensory tray using pasta, rice and straw. The children were able to use their imaginative skills whilst role playing and were able to exploring using their senses to experience real life materials found on the farm. Some children were able to use descriptive language throughout. Next week the sensory experience will be extended to create a jungle and real resources will be used to enhance the children’s curiosity of sight, touch and smell.

This week outdoors, the children have shown a continued interest in looking after our plants. We continued to lookout for changes and made sure they were watered in the warm weather. Along with our peas and carrots, we added our pumpkins which we grew from seeds & raspberry plants to our space and finished with some beautiful flowers which were kindly donated. The children have watched the process from seed to plant and are continuously learning what it takes to look after our environment and the different names for parts of a plant.

The children began showing an interest in dinosaurs through role playing. Dinosaurs and factual books were added to our small world space to explore more.

The children have enjoyed a focus on significant numbers. Using the number line and blocks to count out the correct quantities and being able to recognise their own age and numbers of their house.

Curricular Areas: Health and Well-being, Numeracy, Social Studies, Science.