At the beginning of the week a parent made a very kind donation of some dressing up clothes and a garage which have been extremely popular. A favourite item is a reversible dress and much time was spent helping the children go from a blue to a pink dress This gave us our word of the week which was “reversible”.
Throughout the week we had the extra help of a volunteer called Maren who is a German student studying to be a teacher. She was very popular with the children and showed endless patience in reading stories and helping the children to do puzzles and play games. She will be with us for a few more days and we are sure that the children will gain a good deal from her presence in the setting.
This week we celebrated Chinese New Year. When you come to collect your child please look at our lovely display of Chinese lanterns, a goat made from the childrens hand-prints (it is the Year of the Goat) and Chinese pictures. We looked at the story of willow pattern plates which have been popular in China for centuries. Each marking of the pattern tells part of the story and the children enjoyed looking out for the two birds that represent the two lovers flying away. Some of the children made their own willow pattern plates using paper plates and painting them in blue. We then got them to re-tell their own story which we wrote out for them. Some of these stories are also on display in the Squirrels room.
For snack each day we had noodles, rice and prawn crackers which most of the children enjoyed.
The year of the Goat reminded us of the story of Three Billy Goats Gruff and the children enjoyed acting this out using puppets that a group of them had made with Gills help.
Next week is World Book week and the children are welcome to come in dressed as their favourite book character. We plan to look at lots of different books and to make up some of our own stories which we can act out.
Words we have learned this week:
Reversible
Pattern (from the Willow pattern plates)
Ideas to continue this week's fun at home:
Cook some rice or noodles and try picking up with chopsticks – (messy but fun)
Cutting small shapes out of paper with child friendly scissors. We did this to make the lanterns and it is excellent practise for scissor control and hand/eye co-ordination. Fold paper in half and get your child to make small cuts to create patterns.