The sunshine to start the week helped us turn our thoughts to spring. We had planted some seeds before half term, and we were excited to find that these had started to grow! This led to us finding our watering cans and getting to work watering the whole garden! With the interest in water, we also filled a tuff tray with water and added our sea animals – these were soon joined by the dinosaurs (who seem to get everywhere!), as well as cars!
The sun also inspired our craft table, on Monday we made mosaic themed sun catchers using sticky back plastic. It was very tricky, with the plastic sticking to everything, but this in itself led to an interesting conversation about the sticky texture, as well as talking about colours and light.
Magnets were popular this week. A child’s interest in magnets led to us setting up a tuff tray of various items to explore; spoons, baking trays, magnetic trains, magnetix building blocks, and a metal tin. The children then took their exploration outside and found their own items; including the shed and watering can. This shows how we plan; we observe children’s interests (magnets) – we then plan activities based on this (an exploration tuff tray) – we then enable children to lead their own learning, explore their own ideas and learn through play!
Fairy tales have been popular this week. Our ginger scented playdough led to us reading the story of the ginger bread man. We also enjoyed the story of Jack and the beanstalk on Friday – this inspired us to then have-a-go at making our own beanstalk! With World Book Day on the 7th March, we will extend these ideas further next week.
We explored an activity called ‘ Tap Tap Art’ this week. This is an activity where children use small hammers to secure shapes into cork with small tacks. This is a great way to develop fine-motor skills, hand-eye coordination and to discuss colours and shapes. Some children simply made an array of shapes, other had their own ideas to make pictures from the shapes, and some even carefully copied the pattern of shapes from the box.
Marble Run was particularly popular this week. After being forced indoors by the rain on Thursday, we all came together on the carpet to build marble runs. Children worked together and demonstrated some lovely turn taking ideas.
Ideas to continue this week’s fun at home: Looking forward to World Book Day – why not share a favourite story. Look at the pictures, talk about the characters, encourage children to join in with repeated refrains and simply enjoy books!
The sun also inspired our craft table, on Monday we made mosaic themed sun catchers using sticky back plastic. It was very tricky, with the plastic sticking to everything, but this in itself led to an interesting conversation about the sticky texture, as well as talking about colours and light.
Magnets were popular this week. A child’s interest in magnets led to us setting up a tuff tray of various items to explore; spoons, baking trays, magnetic trains, magnetix building blocks, and a metal tin. The children then took their exploration outside and found their own items; including the shed and watering can. This shows how we plan; we observe children’s interests (magnets) – we then plan activities based on this (an exploration tuff tray) – we then enable children to lead their own learning, explore their own ideas and learn through play!
Fairy tales have been popular this week. Our ginger scented playdough led to us reading the story of the ginger bread man. We also enjoyed the story of Jack and the beanstalk on Friday – this inspired us to then have-a-go at making our own beanstalk! With World Book Day on the 7th March, we will extend these ideas further next week.
We explored an activity called ‘ Tap Tap Art’ this week. This is an activity where children use small hammers to secure shapes into cork with small tacks. This is a great way to develop fine-motor skills, hand-eye coordination and to discuss colours and shapes. Some children simply made an array of shapes, other had their own ideas to make pictures from the shapes, and some even carefully copied the pattern of shapes from the box.
Marble Run was particularly popular this week. After being forced indoors by the rain on Thursday, we all came together on the carpet to build marble runs. Children worked together and demonstrated some lovely turn taking ideas.
Ideas to continue this week’s fun at home: Looking forward to World Book Day – why not share a favourite story. Look at the pictures, talk about the characters, encourage children to join in with repeated refrains and simply enjoy books!
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