Building has been a popular activity this week. Indoors, many children were building towers using the wooden bricks. We are now observing how children can work together on these tasks, taking turns to add bricks and developing ideas as to what their structures are, or could be used for. Outside, the building continued, this time using the giant Duplo blocks as children tried to build themselves! Blocks offer a wonderful opportunity to encourage maths; counting how many blocks high a structure is, or exploring concepts such as 'tallest' and 'shortest'.
We introduced children to our rhythm sticks this week; we used the sticks to create a beat whilst singing. The children then chose to extend this as they explored what sounds they could create with the sticks hitting them against trees, the summer house, the grass, plastic crates and anything else they could find! A very noisy, but exciting way to explore sound!
We played a game of Silly Soup during carpet time this week; a game that introduces children to a given sound. Our focus sound was 'D' - children had to decide whether various items began with a 'D' sound, and could therefore be stirred into our soup, or whether they began with a different sound and should be returned to the kitchen. Once we'd made our soup, children then went on a sound search; trying to find items from around the room that began with our focus sound. We had some great ideas, including a dinosaur, doll and even a dung-beetle!
Jolly Jo this week focused on moving skills. Children initially weaved in and out of cones, then we moved on to moving like different animals. Children moved like snakes, lions, monkeys and dinosaurs!
Other popular activities this week have included searching for bugs (inspired by a large spider on the playhouse!) Making kites (inspired by a Mr Men story). Painting onto clingfilm and foil in the garden, and drawing around ourselves and decorating people pictures,
Ideas to continue the learning at home:
We've been talking about ourselves this week, so why not continue this at home? Talk with your child about activities they enjoy, friends they have and what makes them happy.