With Christmas looming ever closer, we have continued our festive theme this week! Craft activities have included; making paperchains, decorating wreaths, painting melting snowmen and lots of glitter and sparkle! We've also been using our festive stampers and stencils for exploring mark making opportunities.
On Thursday, the children used large sheets of paper to draw around themselves. They decided they were gingerbread men! This led us to have-a-go at making our own gingerbread men that we could eat! The children helped as we measured and mixed the ingredients, we then rolled the dough and cut out our gingerbread men. With the sun almost trying to shine, we decided to take our snack into the garden, sharing the tale of the gingerbread man, and eating our warm gingerbread from the oven - yummy!
We were excited to invite Louise, from Sounds Right Phonics, into the setting on Wednesday. Our focus sound was C / K - which enabled us to find lots of festive words; carols, candles, crackers and cookies! This session helps familiarise children with beginning sounds, as well as introducing the idea of 'blending' sounds to produce words. It forms a great introduction to skills that children will continue to develop as they transition to school.
As the weather gets colder, we've added Polar animals to our tuff tray alongside ice cubes! This provided an interesting sensory experience as we explored the feel and texture of the ice. The children also experimented with how to make it melt quicker! We bashed it and mashed it and warmed it in our hands, and observed as it melted back into water.
Animals have been popular in general this week, with children requesting them almost daily. The children combined the animals and trains on Tuesday to make a 'safari train to drive around the zoo'. On Wednesday and Thursday the animals were combined with the wooden bricks. First, children built horizontally, making enclosed spaces to house the animals. Then, they experimented with building a vertical zoo; with animals perched high up on ledges! Our ethos remains to offer a child-led environment, where children are encouraged to have their own ideas for play, to combine the resources they need, and to become curious and independent learners.
We have continued to rehearse the songs for our nativity, and are looking forward to performing this to parents / grandparents next week. To help inspire our children, we were delighted to be invited to Highwoods school on Thursday to watch their nativity too. This was a great opportunity to catch up with familiar faces, and watch a different version of the Christmas story!
Other popular activities this week have included; our bikes and trikes, jigsaw puzzles, making masks, and playdough.
Ideas to continue the learning at home
Keep practicing those nativity songs ready for next week!
On Thursday, the children used large sheets of paper to draw around themselves. They decided they were gingerbread men! This led us to have-a-go at making our own gingerbread men that we could eat! The children helped as we measured and mixed the ingredients, we then rolled the dough and cut out our gingerbread men. With the sun almost trying to shine, we decided to take our snack into the garden, sharing the tale of the gingerbread man, and eating our warm gingerbread from the oven - yummy!
We were excited to invite Louise, from Sounds Right Phonics, into the setting on Wednesday. Our focus sound was C / K - which enabled us to find lots of festive words; carols, candles, crackers and cookies! This session helps familiarise children with beginning sounds, as well as introducing the idea of 'blending' sounds to produce words. It forms a great introduction to skills that children will continue to develop as they transition to school.
As the weather gets colder, we've added Polar animals to our tuff tray alongside ice cubes! This provided an interesting sensory experience as we explored the feel and texture of the ice. The children also experimented with how to make it melt quicker! We bashed it and mashed it and warmed it in our hands, and observed as it melted back into water.
Animals have been popular in general this week, with children requesting them almost daily. The children combined the animals and trains on Tuesday to make a 'safari train to drive around the zoo'. On Wednesday and Thursday the animals were combined with the wooden bricks. First, children built horizontally, making enclosed spaces to house the animals. Then, they experimented with building a vertical zoo; with animals perched high up on ledges! Our ethos remains to offer a child-led environment, where children are encouraged to have their own ideas for play, to combine the resources they need, and to become curious and independent learners.
We have continued to rehearse the songs for our nativity, and are looking forward to performing this to parents / grandparents next week. To help inspire our children, we were delighted to be invited to Highwoods school on Thursday to watch their nativity too. This was a great opportunity to catch up with familiar faces, and watch a different version of the Christmas story!
Other popular activities this week have included; our bikes and trikes, jigsaw puzzles, making masks, and playdough.
Ideas to continue the learning at home
Keep practicing those nativity songs ready for next week!
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