We hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and New Year. We have been busy settling back into our routine here at Oakburn. Here are some of the exciting things we have got up to this week.
Woodwork area
New year, fresh starts! In woodwork this week we have been starting from the basics and building our way up! Focusing on the basics has allowed all the children to learn the foundations of woodwork from hammering into practice blocks to 1-1 sawing, as well as, discussing all the safety aspects of woodwork so that everyone is at the same level! Better yet, this has given the more experienced woodworkers the opportunity to discuss and educate the less experienced through confidently demonstrating and answering questions related to the safe approaches to woodwork! Not only have we been learning about how to craft with wood, we have been learning about how to craft deeper friendships! Amazing work woodworkers!
The Courtyard
This week in the courtyard we have been developing our numeracy and gross motor skills. We played an exercise game where the children threw the beanbags into the hoops then completed the activity in each hoop, the corresponding number of times.
We have also been using dice and dot patterns to build our numeracy. The children were able to find the dot pattern which matched the number they had rolled on the dice.
Art Area
This week in art we have been very lucky and got new resources for our transient art area. The children have been learning about how to take care of our resources and where they stay. They have been busy using their fine motor and creativity skills making flowers and creating fairy gardens too 🧚♀️
Acorn Room
The children were showing a particular interest in lights. A child was observed stomping their feet, exploring the flashing light on their welly boot. This led to L.F creating a glow stick sort experiences. With support the children were able to develop their colour recognition skills and sort the glow sticks into colours. A child was observed exploring the torches, this lead to a number shadow experience. The children took turns to hold the torch and numbers. The children were able to identify the numbers on the wall 0-5.
STEM area
In the stem area we have been exploring our senses. This week we have been exploring touch. Using there hands the children have been exploring how different materials feel.
Small World Area
This week in the small world area we have been talking about winter and the cold weather. One of our activities involved numbered mittens and cotton wool balls (as snow). The children were able to use the tweezers to pick up the correct number of snowballs to place on the numbered mittens. This activity was developing their hand eye coordination, fine motor skills and number recognition skills
Outdoors
In the garden this week, it’s been very frosty and cold. We have been using the ice and snow to draw pictures with sticks in the garden developing our fine motor skills and being creative using natural resources around the garden.