Author: Mrs Sobocinski

Now that Spring has finally arrived, we can start to plant seeds. If you have pre-purchased seeds and pots great, if not we can improvise!

1. Find something to use as a pot. It could be A ready made plant pot, a toilet roll tube, A yoghurt tub or an old fruit tray. Be creative!

2. Fill it with soil, garden soil is fine, and make a hole for the seed.

3. Plant the seed in the soil. If you don’t have packets of seeds then why not try an apple/orange/butternut squash/ or other fruit or vegetable seed.

4. Water the seed and place the pot in a warm place with plenty of light.

5. Keep your seed soil moist and wait for it to grow!

 

There are lots of activities you can do while your seed and plant are growing. Here are just some of them:

Count how many days pass until the leaves start to show.

Create a watering chart.

Measure the height of your plant each day/week.

Draw a picture of your plant as it grows.

Create seed planting instructions for others, using word and pictures.

Explore some books on plants.

Or simply enjoy this story by some of our wonderful practitioners.

Our author of the month is Lynley Dodd the writer behind the Hairy Maclary books which are all about a dog called Hairy Maclary and his friends. They follow their adventures and are full of funny rhymes and interesting characters.

If you don’t have any of her books at home, you can read some of them on her website

The website also contains lots of fun games and information on the many different characters that her books feature.

Activities

Read as many of the Hairy Maclary books as you can.

Create your own book character. What kind of animal will they be and what rhyming name will they have?

Think of different words and find as many rhyming words as you can to go with them. Try cat or dog to start with.

Write your own Hairy Maclary themed story and remember to add lots of pictures!

Use toys to recreate some of the stories.

If you have, or were to get a dog, what breed would you choose? Draw a picture of it.

What does a dog need to be happy and healthy? Write a list.

Time to work on developing our throwing and catching skills in the garden!

Activities

Take a ball outside and see how many times you can throw it into the air and catch it without dropping it.

When that becomes too easy, throw it up and see how many times you can clap before you catch it.

Try throwing the ball to another person and catching it when they throw it back.

Explore throwing over and under arm as well as chest passing.

Challenge Time!

To make it even more challenging try the activities above with different sizes of ball, you could try a basketball, tennis ball or bouncy ball!

Humpty Dumpty

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;

All the King’s horses and all the King’s men

Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

 

Activities

This week we are going to explore Technologies through our Nursery Rhyme activities!

Use building blocks or Lego to create a wall for Humpty

Make a crown for the King

Create finger puppets of the characters in the rhyme and act it out

Design a Humpty jigsaw

Draw a map to show the route the King’s men took from the castle to Humpty

 

Sharing stories is a lovely way to spend your time. Go and find your favourite cuddly toy and book then curl up in a cosy spot to enjoy the story together.

Moomin and I loved reading about the adventures of Hairy Maclary and his friends.

Activities

Once you have read the story you could act out parts of it using your cuddly toy to help.

Can you point to the title?

What is a blurb?

See if you can find the letters from you name in the book.

Think of a different ending to the story.

Tell a family member about your favourite part of the story.

Draw your favourite character.

Choose another book to enjoy!

Make a reading nook in your home.

I wonder what adventures you will go on?

Each week we will look at a different way to develop fine motor skills. These skills are important as they help children to:

• Develop the muscles needed to write
• Enable their hands to work together
• Carry out precise and controlled movements
• Build hand and eye co-ordination

They are also ideal for children to work on independently!

 

Our focus today will be on using tweezers. There are lots of chunky and fun tweezers that are available for children, however normal household tweezers are ideal to use. You can even make your own from two lolly pop/chop sticks and an elastic band!

There are many, many activities that you can do using tweezers and the ones below are just a small selection. Why not look online together as a family to find some more?