Courtyard
This week in the courtyard we have been looking at patterns. The children have using lots of different materials to copy and create patterns. We used the numicon to create patterns which the children were then able to recreate by themselves.
Art Area
This week in the art area we have been drawing characters from “Also an octopus” book. We have been talking about the author and illustrator and adding lots of the same details to our drawings.
STEM area
In the stem are this week we have been exploring light and shadows. Using torches the children explored how to make shadows and different colours and shapes we could make with the light.
Snack Area
The children have been using fruit to 🍎🍇🍌 explore patterns. We used the fruit to create our own patterns making predictions about what fruit would come next. Some children explained what they thought a pattern was, “ it’s one thing, then another thing that is the same as before”. This supports logical thinking and reasoning skills. 🤔
Woodwork Area
In woodwork this week, the children have had to chance to explore patterns. Children were asked to select their own pattern to copy and some of these patterns had a missing colour which they had to figure out. This was an excellent way to get them thinking about colours and pattern recognition. This activity also combined their fine motor skills (to select the correct coloured bead) and their gross motor skills (to hammer the bead and nail in). There was so much learning present and it was all displayed perfectly by these hard-working children!
Malleable Area
This week in the malleable area we have been focusing on health and well-being. On Monday we used the big teeth to practice how we brush our teeth at home by using toothbrushes and toothpaste. The children explored their fine motor skills as well as discussing the importance of brushing our teeth twice a day before bed and when we wake up. We also sung along to the child smile song together.
Construction Area
This week the children have been looking at numbers, we creating a bowling game for this. The children rolled the cylinder down the ramp to knock the blocks over! They then counted how many blocks had fell and what numbers were written on them. During this the children were developing their number recognition skills.
Story Corner
The new Author of the month is Julia Donoldson. This week the children chose superworm as the first Julia Donaldson book to focus on. I read the story to the children, after the children participated in a mark making experience choosing their favourite parts of the story and re drawing it. I then added to this learning by introducing rulers to measure the length of the worms created. This encouraged number recognition from 1-20.
Small World Area
In the small world area we have been looking at story books about Dinosaurs including “ Old MacDino had a farm”. The children were counting the dinosaurs on the pages. We then used our toy dinosaurs to add and subtract numbers. The children counted out the dinosaurs and then added them together or took them away. This was developing their number recognition skills, their 1-1 counting skills as well as addition and subtraction skills too.
We also were putting the dinosaurs in size order from smallest to tallest.
