Friday 26 February 2016

Busy bodies and nimble fingers!

SO MANY WAYS TO PRACTISE OUR FINE MOTOR SKILLS
As well as having a great deal of fun, the children observed closely to see where the sand travelled. They poured sand into small tubes using different sized scoops and spoons.



 The children were eager to catch as many fish as they could with the computer game. They often use the large interactive whiteboard, but this week we focused on mouse control and use of the arrow keys on the keyboard. It was lovely to see children play the game again and again to move the net more accurately and increase their score.










Isn't spaghetti wonderful! More opportunities for practising cutting and gripping skills.



                                                            
          
 


The playground was a great canvas for giant sized mark making - shapes, x marks the spot, writing names and lots of fun drawing.




There were some superstars this week when it came to tracing and copying letters. These children concentrated for a long time and were very proud of their work




GREAT OUTDOOR SPACES TO DEMONSTRATE OUR GROSS MOTOR SKILLS...
Running, bending, chasing
I'm trapped! 

Climbing and balancing

stretching, striking, aiming


steering, pedalling, balancing, negotiating space

AND FINALLY, LOOK HOW CREATIVE WE'VE BEEN THIS WEEK!










 





Tuesday 16 February 2016

Sharing Special Times Together

FINDING OUT ABOUT CHINESE NEW YEAR
CBeebies provided some great video clips that captured the children's interest and helped them follow the celebrations of two Chinese children and their family.
Isn't this lion costume magnificent! One of our teaching assistants just happened to have one! Some of the children were eager to try it on!

SHROVE TUESDAY
Using up lots of ingredients was something that has been done for a long time on Shrove Tuesday. We talked about how after Shrove Tuesday, Christians start to count the days until Easter, which is another special time about Jesus. 








The children loved making pancakes and there were few leftovers!


Later on in the morning, armed with paper and pencils, we went to see the folk having their coffee morning. We explained we had been making pancakes and said we wanted to find out what they liked on their pancakes.
It was delightful to see and hear young and old talking and drawing together - with lots to say!

We meet these lovely folk at the church coffee morning in school most months, and it is lovely for us all to get to know each other, and that confidence is growing with our children.
Before we left them, we sang and marched to one of our favourite songs -"The ants go marching..."

PARACHUTE FUN

Oh the grand old duke of York....look at those superb soldiers!


 Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall... oh no! he's fallen off.. get your horses King's men, and let's gallop to rescue him!

We needed to do a bit of problem solving and work together to work out how to get the ball on the top of the parachute to roll to different children!



IT'S FUN TO PLAY AND LEARN WITH FRIENDS







Saturday 6 February 2016

Indoors and outdoors learning and fun

I'LL HUFF AND I'LL PUFF...

Out of one child building a house for the three pigs, came a whole series of activities for a group of children one day. There was storytelling, construction problems to solve, and great working together.



In the role play area some children had built a house and along came some very hungry wolves to blow it down!




These two children tried building with bricks and "cement".













BUILDERS AT WORK

Constructing a trap to capture the baddies!

















Designing a bridge for the cars to roll along.




It took these children a great deal of time to achieve what they wanted.

They worked hard and needed to persevere with plenty of collapses!



MAKERS AND SHAKERS
Following on from last week's interest in sound making, the children explored making and changing sounds using containers made from different materials and a range of items to add.


 Initially most children opted to cram as many beads, conkers etc into the container expecting to make a loud sound!
There were surprised faces, and then began the experimenting, eventually working out the containers needed space for the contents to move around in to make sounds!

NO TIME TO STOP!
It was pleasing to see the confidence with which the children are tackling climbing and balancing apparatus. They were so proud they had completed the log trail, that they did it again several times, attracting more children to join the challenge.


The slope was well used by children who travelled faster and faster each time on their wheeled transport with many squeals of delight!



Please can I buy...?
Other special moments...
Sharing stories with a friend.