Week beginning 17th March 2014

The week began with lots of work in the outdoor area, sweeping, raking, digging etc to get ready for planting.  The mud kitchen has been well used with children stirring, mixing and spooning their mud creations in the saucepans, bowls and jugs.  We put some new compost into the sand tray as an alternative to sand and the children used it to fill buckets and make ‘pies’ and ‘cakes.’  We have also continued our self portraits where the children have painted some lovely pictures of themselves by looking in the mirror and painting what they see. On Tuesday the big model elephant came into Squirrels and there was a lot of excitement as we set about transforming him into Elmer.  We cut out lots of colours in tissue paper and pasted it on with paintbrushes and PVA glue.  He now looks amazing in his new patchwork coat.  We read a story about Elmer in which  he changed his patchwork body into grey just like all the other elephants.  He did this by squeezing all the juice out of some berries and rolling his body all over it! On Wednesday we had lots of boxes in all sizes to play with and we made the biggest one into a house with a door.  We tried to see how many children would fit into the box and we found we could get more in when they stood up than if they were sitting down.  We put some numbers on the outside of the box and made some windows and then we needed a letter box so that the postman could call.   The house was used throughout the day both inside and outside.  An obstacle course was made all around the garden and this kept the children involved for a long time.  The children are very motivated when they are so involved with their activities, creating and thinking critically as they try different ideas. On Thursday we had sports with Leo and we also made a chart showing what we would like to grow in our garden this year.  The children would particularly like to grow bananas and grapes for snack!  We hope to grow tomatoes, strawberries, potatoes and beans as well as some flowers and herbs.      On Friday we played some games on the computer and built towers with wooden blocks, big and small.  We used the play dough to make cakes and other foods and we played the dinosaur colour game.  We have been practising sounds by playing games and looking at letters.