We have been focusing on a topic entitled ‘all about me’ – children have been busy observing themselves in a mirror and discussing what they see; hair colour, eye colour, skin colour, face shape etc. This inspired us to paint our own self-portraits, offering children an opportunity to really focus on what they’re painting and carefully selecting the colours they need.
As well as looking at ourselves, we’ve also talked about what makes us each ‘special’ – we’ve written these down and made our own ‘special tree’, celebrating what we feel we do well. It was lovely to hear children praise their own abilities and is a great opportunity to link in with their personal, social and emotional development. To link in with this we read one of our favourite stories, ‘I’m The Best!’ – A story that explores how we each have things we’re good at. This led to us also discussing the ‘special powers’ of superheroes; with the girls tending to favour Elsa from frozen, and the boys talking about Batman and Superman. We had fun making our own Superhero masks at the craft table, as well as dressing up as our favourite superheroes and dancing to ‘Frozen’ music!
We started the week with a collection of pebbles and simply offered these as an open ended resource for the children to explore. The week started with children making simple shapes from the stones and lining them up, we also discussed the texture and shapes of the different stones. As the week progressed, some children used the stones as a basis for mark making and painted the stones; making stone bugs! We will continue to see where our imaginations take us next week with our remaining stones!
With the royal wedding on Saturday, we were excited to borrow a range of miniature wedding outfits on Friday; beautiful dresses and morning suits, as well as bouquets of flowers and confetti! Children took turns to dress up and admired themselves in the mirror – some even spoke of the people they planned to marry!! The children then helped to make bunting, ready for our wedding street party, as well as helping to prepare the food. The children buttered the bread and even cut the sandwiches and fruit – a great opportunity for helping develop their fine motor skills and hand-eye co-ordination.
Ideas to continue this week’s fun at home: Why not talk about why you’re special as a family? What do you do well? What talents do family members have? Feel free to share talents such as musical instruments, amazing story telling or cooking as a parent helper!