Home Corner: This week in the Home Corner, the children have been exploring the Season of Autumn through the use of their senses. We made a variety of scented play-doh that smelled like cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. The children developed their numeracy skills as they measured out all of the ingredients and developed their fine motor skills as they scooped and stirred the ingredients all together to form play-doh. The children formed the play-doh into a variety of different shapes and sizes, including making “Pumpkins” by rolling the play-doh into balls.
STEM: This week in the STEM area, the children have been exploring their senses through a variety of different experiments. One of these experiments included exploring the effect that water had on bath bombs, the children learned all about the concept of “dissolving.” We explored our sense of smell during this experience as the bath bombs all had a variety of different scents, we explored colours as the bath bombs changed the colour of the water each time. We have also been developing our fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination this week as we have been hammering golf tees into pumpkins. We developed our concentration skills during this experience as we had to really focus on where we were hammering, so that we didn’t hurt our fingers, we learned about staying safe whilst using tools such as hammers. We have also been exploring the Incy Wincy Spider game in the STEM area this week, we have been learning about direction and positional language during this. This game involves moving Incy Wincy Spider up and down the drain dependant on the weather, the children have also been learning about the concepts of “Backwards” and “Forwards” whilst playing this.
Creative Area: This week in the Creative area, we have been exploring a variety of shapes and patterns using Lego bricks and paint to print on to paper. The children developed their knowledge of size and shape as they printed on to the paper, using language such as “Bigger” and “Smaller” to describe the prints that the bricks made. We have also been exploring the Season of Autumn as we have made prints using Autumn leaves and paint to make lovely Autumn pictures. We discussed the different colours, shapes and sizes of the Autumn leaves whilst using them to print with. We talked about the difference in our environment during this seasonal change and why this happens.
Outdoors: This week outdoors, we have been exploring making potions using a variety of resources. We added some magic ingredients that made our potions fizz and expand, we learned about cause and effect during these experiments as we watched the effect that different ingredients had on each other. We also explored our senses during this experience as we touched a variety of different textured ingredients and smelled the different scented ingredients.
Forest Schools: This week has been our first week of Forest Schools with the children, we explored the boundaries and rules of Forest Schools. We will be visiting the Secret Garden for 6 week blocks, our first block began this week and the children thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the area. The children will be developing their knowledge of living things and how to care for living things as they take part in planting sessions whilst at the Secret Garden.
