Chinese New Year

This week we have been celebrating Chinese new year. At forest school the children have embraced the year of the pig by visiting the piglets. In the classroom the children have made lanterns and joined in with themed activities to mark the event. On Tuesday the children enjoyed a special lunch followed by a fortune cookie.

 

In Read Write Inc the children have been looking at the d sound. They used paper shapes to make their own dinosaur pictures and made dinosaur imprints in clay after looking at dinosaur fossils. 

Being creative!

Over the last few weeks the children have been learning the importance of recycling. They have become familiar with the phrase 'reduce, reuse, recycle' and they were invited to try and reuse some junk modelling materials to make something new.

We looked at images of planet Earth and talked about how we can help to look after it by disposing of our rubbish carefully and recycling when possible. The children uses pipettes to drip blue and green on to paper circles to create their own planets. Activites such as this help the children to strengthen the muscles in their hands as well as be creative and explore colour mixing.

In Read Write Inc we have been looking at the 'a' sound and the 's' sound. The children reinforced the 'a' sound by making apple pies. The children helped to prepare the pastry squares and talked about the corners and edges. The children filled the middle with apple. We talked about why we have to be careful when using the oven.

After looking at the 's' sound the children were able to join in with some snake themed activities. They decorated snakes with spots and stripes.

The play tray was filled with numbered snakes and numbered pegs. The children were encouraged to match the pegs to the snakes. Varying sized snakes also encouraged the children to try and sequence by size.

The children took turns to try and complete the snake puzzle.

Playing with the ice

Despite the cold temperatures over the last few days the children have still enjoyed playing outside. They have been fortunate enough to have been able to experience cracking ice and mark making in the frost. Playing with the ice has generated lots of expressive language as well as some problem solving opportunities. The children tried to break the ice to release toys trapped inside and discovered that hitting the ice with a pan was a very effective way to smash it! 

Please ensure your child has a coat, hat and gloves in school everyday so they can enjoy being outside without feeling cold. Many thanks.