Month: October 2021

This week in the discovery area we have been leaning about space and their planets by reading “our space” story.  The boys and girls have been taking in interest in rhyming. So we brought out a game where you have to match rhyming words and put it into a rocket. The children have really enjoyed this challenge 😊

In the STEM area we have been focusing on learning about money and the different values of it. We have been using padlocks and keys to help develop fine motor skills and problem solving.

We have been using a numeracy car park to help develop number recognition and having races to see how different sizes can go at different speeds 🚗

This week in the Studio, we have been using our Autumn treasures to create interesting things. We have been developing our creative skills and building relationships as we worked as a team to roll the conkers around the tuff tray to create a painting. We had to use good communication skills to work together and tilt the tray to roll the conkers in the paint. 🎨🍂

This week we have been further exploring transient art, we have been using the loose parts resources to create wonderful things. One of the children this week made a house of sticks, conkers and acorns. We have developed our curiosity, inquiry and creativity skills whilst exploring transient art 🍂🍁🪵🪶

We have been using some of the leaves from our Autumn treasure bags to make “leaf monsters”. We have used our creative skills to use some of the craft resources to make these, everyone’s was different and they are all very imaginative. 🍂🍁

 

This week in the outdoor area we have been looking at signs of autumn. We went on a leaf hunt around the garden and collected lots of different leaves, discussing the shapes,sizes and colours.  We then sorted these leaves into groups of small/big, narrow/wide and made our own leaf graph sorting them into groups of colour.

Continue reading “The Garden 18/10/21”

This week we have continued to develop the pirate ship with loose part, adding a floor with bricks making it easier to walk on, masts to attach sails onto and a canon to take down enemy ships.

Hannah showed them how to tie a basic knot with rope as they wanted to attach things onto their ship. They used this skill to attach an an anchor, and a fishing hook!

The children have been using the pirate ship to climb on developing gross motor skills and for imaginative play pretending to be pirates!

In the construction area the children made a mind map to decide what they wanted to create using the junk modelling boxes. Therefore I sat down with the children and we created a mind map, the majority of the children voted a frozen castle therefore, that is what we made!

 

The children have really been engaged in this and seem to really enjoy creating the frozen castle!

This week we have been developing our courtyard home corner into a pizzeria! The children have been exploring numbers and practicing their subitising with the pizza reels using number dots and different pizza toppings! 🍕

We are continuing to incorporate the puppet theatre into our play experiences. The children requested animal puppets and superheroes!🙌An exciting combination! Spider-Man and Flora Flamingo puppet became great friends!🦩

On Tuesday the Build a Bears came to visit!❤️🐻We had lots of fun dressing them. It was a bit tricky at times but at least our fine motor skills got a good work out!

On Wednesday and Thursday we discovered that their are particular places of interest and very special landmarks all over the world…🙌🌏The Empire State Building in New York, The Pyramids in Egypt and The Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy! We had brilliant discussions about these using our small world resources..

We also had fun with stickers at our ‘Sticker Station’…Note books, post-it’s, stampers, stickers, felt tips…Lots of ways to develop our fine motor skills!🤩🤩🤩

 

The children have been developing their numeracy skills using the loose parts to form the shapes of numbers. They then used the iPad to take a photo of their number, which was later printed and used as signage in the garden!

The numbers made by the children now label the pots and pans on our music wall. The children have been using a variety of items like sticks and spoons to create their own music 🎶 The items are numbered, so the children have been returning them to the matching number on the hook once they’re finished playing.

The children have also been using some of the loose parts gathered from the ‘Autumn Treasure’ bags to make their own musical instruments. They used their fine motor skills to thread bells and pine cones onto sticks using wool, and practiced winding and tying knots too!

The rhyme of the fortnight is “Humpty Dumpty”, the children have been learning this at group time and also been taking part in different activities linking with this.  We have been looking at numbers and matching the dots.  We will be looking at makaton and rhyming words over the next couple of weeks.

 

This week in the stem area, we have been developing our numeracy skills as we learned about the quantities of the numbers 1-10 using the abacus and numeracy stacker toy.

In the Stem area this week, we have been using the money matching keys and padlocks to explore the value of money. We were able to match the written amount to the matching coin.

We have been exploring measuring this week in the stem area using the scales and stones. We have explored which is heavier and lighter.

This week the children have been developing their numeracy skills. They have created their own clothing items and together we put numbers 1-10 on them.  The children have worked together and some on their own, have put the clothing in to the correct number order.  This has also supported the children’s counting skills and their number recognition.

This week we have been exploring everybody’s findings from their Autumn treasure bags. Thank you so much to everyone who contributed, I hope all of you had lots of fun searching for treasures.

In the Studio this week we have been exploring transient art, transient art by definition  is non-permanent and allows the children to manipulate, explore, and experiment with patterns and shapes in a completely process-oriented way. We have explored making self portraits using loose parts, the children then discussed how their faces were feeling and why they felt like this.

This week in the Studio the children have been developing their fine motor skills and their knowledge of shapes as they traced the shapes using paint and pom poms on pegs.

In the studio this week, we have been exploring our findings from our Autumn treasure bags. We developed our creative and fine motor skills as we used these items to mark make using paint.

We have been exploring the loose part resources we have in the garden. Pipes, bricks, wood, pallets, tyres, crates etc. are all available for the children to use anytime outdoors.

Using the pipes to explore ‘forces of nature’, how water travels, what happens when you dam it and where the water may come from. We used our problem solving skills to fix breakages in the pipes and how to catch leaks.

The construction of a ‘house’ has also been taking place, using the wooden crates, bricks and pipes. We decided to paint it a lovely green colour, although the next day the children discussed changing it into a pirate ship, adding a plank and changing the colour to blue. It seems as though this will be a small ongoing project.

We would be grateful for any loose part donations from your homes!