This week in the sewing area the children have been using loom bands on boards to create pictures and letters of their name, this helps to build on their hand and finger muscles and develop further their fine motor skills. The children have also been continuing from last week sewing buttons onto fabric and using different stitches. Another activity that children have been participating in is tying ribbons onto the board for an autumn colour display. These activities help to improve their fine motor skills and require focus, precision, hand-eye coordination and dexterity as they manipulate small objects.
We have also had a special visitor to the sewing area, we have been very lucky to have a grandparent of one of our children come in and teach us about sewing, we have been learning the names of different tools used in sewing and all about being safe with needles. Thank you so much for coming in and teaching us!
“I want to make an angry lion, a fierce and angry lion” JK
“I want to do a love heart, I picked orange thread” AM
“Can I use different colour ribbons? I like the orange, yellow and green ones like the leaves on the ground” AM
“I get big buttons to put on” HS
“I’m just sewing” SG
“Look how long this ribbon is!… mine is longer than yours” AK
The children went into pairs and played “What a Performance” board game. They took turns to roll the dice and moved their character forward the correct number of spaces, carefully counting each square as they went. Each space had a different type of activity — Act, Do, or Say. Mr McIntosh selected the card and read out the instruction for the children to complete. The children carried out a range of fun challenges such as pulling silly faces, walking in a funny way, or thinking of something that begins with the same letter as their name.
The children waited patiently for their turn, showing good listening, cooperation, and turn-taking skills. They demonstrated early numeracy as they counted the dots on the dice and the spaces on the board. The activities encouraged creativity, imagination, and confidence as the children acted out different ideas and expressed themselves through movement and language. They supported and laughed with one another, helping to build positive relationships and social interaction within the group.
In our discovery area this week the children have been building with both magnets and cubes. Both of these help foster core developmental skills. Children engage in critical thinking, problem solving, logical reasoning and learning through trial and error. They are both open ended toys, allowing children to express themselves and build a limitless variety of structures, from castles to spaceships. They are also great for fine motor skill development and hand eye coordination. Building also introduces STEM which offer hands-on introductions to basic principles of science (gravity, magnetism), technology, engineering (balance, stability), and mathematics (geometry, patterns, symmetry, measurement).
In the block area the children have been continuing to build some large houses and bridges, using their problem solving skills and creative thinking. We have seen some great team work and collaboration.
We have also been exploring numbers in the tuff tray, using the numicon and pom poms. We used the tweezers to add pom poms to the holes in the numicon and then touch counted to find out how many we had. Some children were also able to subitise to identify the number of holes. We then found the matching numbers written on the tray.
We have had a wonderful and somewhat wet time out at woodland this week and had the pleasure of welcoming some of our parents to join us on our woodland adventures! Here are some pictures of our pop in and play woodland sessions.
