Autumn term - part 1

Let's Explore!

The children are settling in lovely and forming good relationships with the staff and forming new friendships. They are exploring all areas of the indoor and outdoor classroom and learning our first rule of  "use it, choose it, take care of it and put it away!" 

The children went on a nature walk collecting, feeling and looking out for different things. They spotted leaves, flowers, bark and twigs. We have also been reading "Going on a Bear Hunt" and the children have been repeating back the phrases of the story that they are familiar with. We are also experimenting with various tools and equipment in the playdough, sand and paint and practising counting during song time.

This week we have introduced our dough disco routines as well as "Wiggle me into a Squiggle". This is a 5-10 minute gross motor movement session using our "flipper flappers" (in time to the music) followed by the same movement with pens, crayons, brushes, rollers or fingers on paper, in sand, shaving foam etc! We have been showing the children the "up" and "down" movement. You can try this at home using tea towels or cloths, just make sure that they have a piece of material in each hand. In dough disco we have been squeezing, rolling a sausage, patting and pinching the dough with all our fingers.

This week we had our first go at "Going on a Bear Hunt" yoga and the children loved it! We have also been learning how we should hold and use scissors safely and been cutting snips or along lines on the card.  

Let's build!

This week we are busy builders! The children have been learning about different structures (walls, towers, houses) and materials (brick, mortar, wood, stone, sand) and also how to work as a team to create structures together. We have been sorting objects in various ways - size and colour and started to learn the songs for our Nativity. We have printed with lego bricks, made walls out of playdough and wooden bricks as wells as moulded and built castles out of the sand. 

This week we have been learning all about Autumn. We have been investigating harvest produce such as pumpkins, carrots, potatoes and onions, by exploring texture, colour and feel. In the dough we have been making our own hedgehogs and putting the peg spikes on hedghehogs for our funky fingers activity, sorting and counting acorns and conkers and singing Nativity songs!

Autumn - Part 2

Marvellous machines!

This project teaches children about technology that is part of their everyday lives and how machines help us. The children have had a go at building their own cars outside, tunnels and roads for cars to go down and also learning about the differet types of machines they can find at home (including what they sound like.) We have had the bikes out with some pretending to be mechanics fixing the wheels and making sure they are full of petrol. The children made their own robot pictures from shapes by drawing around the shapes and sticking the shapes togther. Then there was some Robot Dancing!

Puppets and Pop-ups!

This project explores puppets and pop up books. The children have been making their own sock puppets, and using stick puppets to tell their own stories in the small world.

This week the children have made sock puppets and been making up their own stories using the fairy tale stick puppets. Then it snowed so fun was had on a snowy walk around school.The children did an amazing job singing their Nativity Story songs for you at our show. We were all very proud of them!

Our talk4writing has been the story of The LIttle Red Hen and last week the children got to make, bake and eat the bread too. This week is all about Christmas. The children have been telling the nativity story in the small world, have been making decorations, cards and trees. Party pictures will follow at the start of next term. We wish all our families a "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!"

Christmas activities!