This week we have continued our learning about Autumn. Following on from the interest in the book “Pumpkin Soup” by Helen Cooper last week we chose to make our very own pumpkin soup . This gave us the opportunity to investigate pumpkins in more detail . We have discovered that pumpkins have skin, flesh and seeds. We chopped the flesh to use in our soup which we all had the opportunity of tasting at group time. Although some of us were reluctant to taste our soup, with some encouragement, many of us enjoyed it so much we asked for a second helping !
We enjoyed the sensory experience of putting our hands into the pumpkins and pulling the seeds out . We used descriptive words when engaging in this activity including “slimy, wet and cold”. When asked what could be done with the seeds Ava suggested planting them to make more pumpkins and Aaron thought we could use them to make pictures at the glue table. Mrs Olford suggested toasting them so we could eat them. There was a mixture of opinions on whether the children liked the toasted seeds or not. Some voted with a thumbs up to indicate they enjoyed them, some with horizontal thumbs to indicate they thought they were ok, and some thumbs downs as they didn’t enjoy them.
We have been learning about autumn festivals this week starting with Halloween. Some of us chose to dress up in scary costumes while others chose favorite story and film characters.
We explored goo and slime. Some of us were reluctant to use our hands, instead using tweezers to lift spiders and insects out of the containers.
We used our mark making and fine motor skills to draw pumpkins in trays of semolina.
We dooked for apples in our groups using several techniques including putting our faces in to the water and biting the apples.
We continued with Autumn festivals by observing fireworks on the smart board to link with Guy Fawkes. We also listened to government publication “Frances the Firefly” to help introduce us to the dangers of fire.
Next week we will be learning more about fire safety and if it doesn’t rain we hope to have a practical experience out in the garden.
