ANOTHER(!) week of snow which has been fantastic for learning outdoors and developing our thinking skills and curiosity.

Finding and making prints in the snow has led us to ask lots of questions and to wonder, which are both important literacy skills.

Thea found horse prints, bird prints, her own footprints and Sidney the cat’s prints! I wonder where Sidney was going and where he had been?

Ali found prints on the road to his house, he wondered if they might be frog prints but after a bit of discussion thought it might be a cat. I wonder if it was Sidney?

Harry also found animal prints which he described as “hopping foot prints” and thought it might be a “peerie bird”.

Bobby found lots of footprints in the snow too and some ice prints too.

Joanna and Sophie made prints in the snow while pulling each other on the sledge. It was hard work pulling. Sophie realised that having someone sit on the sledge made it heavier to pull!

David also made marks in the snow with his sledge and he noticed that the first snowdrop of the year was poking it’s head out from under the snow. A lovely sight and a sign that we are getting more hours of sunlight 🙂

 

Making marks, printing and drawing has also continued to be a popular indoor activity this week as well.

Ali used paint and cutters to make his own colourful print pictures.

Thea painted her hands and feet and made prints with them.

Bobby drew around his superhero characters and studied the shapes they made.

Thea drew a picture of her favourite book “Spot the dog”.  She did a great job making sure she included all four legs and his spots in the picture.

Joanna and Sophie practised developing their fine motor skills for mark making and writing by doing threading activities and using chop sticks. Joanna also created pictures using aqua beads which are great for helping to develop a pincer grip for writing.

Bobby also used his mark making skills to help him learn number quantities. He drew the number of circles beside the numeral and then used his Duplo to make number steps.

 

Lottie has also enjoyed working with numbers this week. She liked watching the numbers songs on CBeebies which inspired her to do some number activities on her own. She completed her number jigsaw and counted the rings to check that they matched the number. It’s always good to check your answer!    

She also chose to sort the number cookies in her cookie jar and with a bit of help she managed to sort them from 0-10.

Joanna has been developing her problem solving skills by learning to play chess over the past few weeks.

While Bobby has spent a lot of time this week constructing Duplo, learning about gravity, design and problem solving while transforming Duplo creations into different things such as a car, a robot, a camera, a lighthouse, a radio and a gun.

And David has used the outdoors to learn about speed, height and depth when jumping peat banks in the hill and learned about water and how it changes into ice when exploring at the Houll loch.