It has been a very surreal week with the announcement of further lockdown measures! Whilst we are able to stay open, we have, understandably, had much lower numbers of children this week and this has given us a chance to focus on small group activities.
We have introduced an 'all about me' theme this week to enable us to focus on children talking about themselves and us linking this in with how we're feeling. This focus on emotions is even more important in view of the uncertainty caused by lockdown, with many children affected by the situation. We shared a story called, 'I'm the best', all about a dog who upsets his friends by claiming he's better than them. His friends then point out what they're good at - and Dog becomes sad that he's upset his friends. This has offered a lovely opportunity for a carpet-time discussion about what makes us feel sad, the impact of making our friends sad, and what we're all good at.
Other popular stories this week have included a book called, 'Superboy' - all about an ordinary boy who turns into a superhero to help others, but needs to look out for 'Dastardly Dad!' Again, this led to a lovely carpet-time discussion about superheroes, with the children deciding what superhero powers they felt the staff might have! This story also introduced the word 'super villain' and we discussed what the word 'villain' might mean... according to the children it's, "the one who takes over the World!!"
Space has been a popular child-led theme this week. A large box inspired us to build a rocket - with children using pens and craft provisions to decorate their rocket. We then made space rocks and planets using scrunched up foil! We shared a fact book that looked at all of the different planets, and children discussed having seen the moon. At carpet-time, we shared our favourite space inspired songs and talked about what we might see if we were astronauts in space!
We have enjoyed playing Orchard games this week, working in groups of 4 to take turns to match objects. We've also been playing a shark game - using small rods to fish items from the shark's mouth before the shark chomps down!
A final activity we've enjoyed this week is tap-a-shape. Using small tacks and hammers, we have practiced our fine motor skills by tapping these tacks through shapes to make patterns and pictures. We observed lovely levels of focus as children were very careful to do this safely.
Other popular activities this week have included, bikes in the garden, dancing on the carpet, threading to make necklaces, and mixing water and flour to explore textures in the tuff tray.
Ideas to continue the learning at home:
Why not continue our carpet time discussion about what makes us happy or sad? It's important to help children to talk about their emotions and to give them the language to do so.
This link gives some fantastic ideas to talk to children about how they're feeling...
How to talk to your child about emotions - CBeebies - BBC
We have introduced an 'all about me' theme this week to enable us to focus on children talking about themselves and us linking this in with how we're feeling. This focus on emotions is even more important in view of the uncertainty caused by lockdown, with many children affected by the situation. We shared a story called, 'I'm the best', all about a dog who upsets his friends by claiming he's better than them. His friends then point out what they're good at - and Dog becomes sad that he's upset his friends. This has offered a lovely opportunity for a carpet-time discussion about what makes us feel sad, the impact of making our friends sad, and what we're all good at.
Other popular stories this week have included a book called, 'Superboy' - all about an ordinary boy who turns into a superhero to help others, but needs to look out for 'Dastardly Dad!' Again, this led to a lovely carpet-time discussion about superheroes, with the children deciding what superhero powers they felt the staff might have! This story also introduced the word 'super villain' and we discussed what the word 'villain' might mean... according to the children it's, "the one who takes over the World!!"
Space has been a popular child-led theme this week. A large box inspired us to build a rocket - with children using pens and craft provisions to decorate their rocket. We then made space rocks and planets using scrunched up foil! We shared a fact book that looked at all of the different planets, and children discussed having seen the moon. At carpet-time, we shared our favourite space inspired songs and talked about what we might see if we were astronauts in space!
We have enjoyed playing Orchard games this week, working in groups of 4 to take turns to match objects. We've also been playing a shark game - using small rods to fish items from the shark's mouth before the shark chomps down!
A final activity we've enjoyed this week is tap-a-shape. Using small tacks and hammers, we have practiced our fine motor skills by tapping these tacks through shapes to make patterns and pictures. We observed lovely levels of focus as children were very careful to do this safely.
Other popular activities this week have included, bikes in the garden, dancing on the carpet, threading to make necklaces, and mixing water and flour to explore textures in the tuff tray.
Ideas to continue the learning at home:
Why not continue our carpet time discussion about what makes us happy or sad? It's important to help children to talk about their emotions and to give them the language to do so.
This link gives some fantastic ideas to talk to children about how they're feeling...
How to talk to your child about emotions - CBeebies - BBC
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