With Halloween looming, we've been making the most of pumpkins this week as a source of inspiration! We started the week by setting up our 'pumpkin station' - an opportunity for children to paint the pumpkins, scrub them clean, then dry them and paint them all over again! Next, we used our pumpkins to discuss sizes, before then adding pens to enable children to draw faces. Finally, with our pumpkins having survived being rolled, dropped, kicked and transported in buggies, we cut off the tops and used a variety of spoons, as well as fingers, to scoop out all of the pumpkins seeds - this offered a wonderful opportunity to develop fine motor skills which children will eventually need for writing.
Pumpkins also featured in our tuff tray, with coloured rice shaped like a giant pumpkin! The children enjoyed scooping and spooning the rice, before then mixing it with dough, sand, and water to experiment with the different textures they could create. We were also inspired to paint pumpkin pictures at the craft table - mixing our own orange colour and then adding cut shapes to create faces!
We continued with our Halloween theme by creating spooky rice crispy bites! The children helped to add the different ingredients and then mixed them all together! This led to lots of lovely descriptive words being used, such as; 'sticky', 'slimy', and 'gooey' - the children also made connections between the melted marshmallows and the melted ice that we explored last week!
The weather has been very wet all week - so it was important to find ways to incorporate physical play indoors. We were able to enjoy our Jolly Jo sport's session on Tuesday - where we played a rugby ball chasing game, crocodile game, and musical statues. We also set up an indoor assault course on Wednesday, where children had to go over a bridge, under a tunnel, through cones, and then choose what to do on the mat. Children showed us their jumping, hopping, rolling, as well as some very impressive forward rolls!
Autumn has continued to inspire us. We have enjoyed using autumnal leaves with playdough, gluing and sticking, as well as using crayons and producing leaf rubbings. This interest in leaves offers a wonderful opportunity for children to talk about the changes they might notice as we head into autumn.
Finally, we always enjoy a variety of stories and, this week, we decided to make up our own! The children had enjoyed a cardboard shark all week (inspired by the ever popular 'Baby Shark' song), so this shark became the main character of our tale! Sean Shark visited Squirrels and looked for something to eat - he tried lots of different toys, but the children had to tell him, "No Sean shark - you can't eat that!" This helped to illustrate that stories are not limited to what is written in books - we can all make up our own tales and adventures - which is something we will explore further after half term.
Ideas to continue the learning at home:
Why not use a favourite toy as the main character in your own made up story? Making up stories together helps children develop their imaginative ideas, as well as understand how stories are structured - with a start, an event, and an ending! You could even write these stories down so you can then re-read their made up stories. We'd love you to share these with us too!
Pumpkins also featured in our tuff tray, with coloured rice shaped like a giant pumpkin! The children enjoyed scooping and spooning the rice, before then mixing it with dough, sand, and water to experiment with the different textures they could create. We were also inspired to paint pumpkin pictures at the craft table - mixing our own orange colour and then adding cut shapes to create faces!
We continued with our Halloween theme by creating spooky rice crispy bites! The children helped to add the different ingredients and then mixed them all together! This led to lots of lovely descriptive words being used, such as; 'sticky', 'slimy', and 'gooey' - the children also made connections between the melted marshmallows and the melted ice that we explored last week!
The weather has been very wet all week - so it was important to find ways to incorporate physical play indoors. We were able to enjoy our Jolly Jo sport's session on Tuesday - where we played a rugby ball chasing game, crocodile game, and musical statues. We also set up an indoor assault course on Wednesday, where children had to go over a bridge, under a tunnel, through cones, and then choose what to do on the mat. Children showed us their jumping, hopping, rolling, as well as some very impressive forward rolls!
Autumn has continued to inspire us. We have enjoyed using autumnal leaves with playdough, gluing and sticking, as well as using crayons and producing leaf rubbings. This interest in leaves offers a wonderful opportunity for children to talk about the changes they might notice as we head into autumn.
Finally, we always enjoy a variety of stories and, this week, we decided to make up our own! The children had enjoyed a cardboard shark all week (inspired by the ever popular 'Baby Shark' song), so this shark became the main character of our tale! Sean Shark visited Squirrels and looked for something to eat - he tried lots of different toys, but the children had to tell him, "No Sean shark - you can't eat that!" This helped to illustrate that stories are not limited to what is written in books - we can all make up our own tales and adventures - which is something we will explore further after half term.
Ideas to continue the learning at home:
Why not use a favourite toy as the main character in your own made up story? Making up stories together helps children develop their imaginative ideas, as well as understand how stories are structured - with a start, an event, and an ending! You could even write these stories down so you can then re-read their made up stories. We'd love you to share these with us too!
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