Welcome back to a new year and into term 3! Our general theme of the term has been “Living together”, which has gotten a whole new meaning during these times. Due to a change in staff members this term and the global pandemic, the importance of sticking together and being helpful with others has indeed been very much in focus. There has been focus on role play and playing together such as taking turns also in free play but also during transition of going outside and so on. Children have been helping each other putting on coats and helping the smaller ones finding their things and bringing them back to their cupboards. We have been discussing community helpers but also what it means to work and be together side by side; what friendship means, how to be helpful and kind to others and what it means to be a part of a group!
Being a good friend and belonging in a group
We have been discussing what is a good friend and discussing what means to live and work along side others. How do we feel when someone in your group helps you or shares your toys and on the other hand, how do you feel when others are not doing so. We read the book “The smartest (kindest) giant in town by Julia Donaldson and claimed that we will try to do the same for others this term: good friends are sharing, caring and helpful!
We have been reading plenty of other books about being helpful and having a role in a group or a community. These books include Elmer and the lost teddy, Busiest firefighters ever, Betsy the doctor, the jolly postman, All kinds of people, and more…
We have been singing the song “The more we get together” and discussing who belongs to our class in Chestnuts and Willow! Since we have a mix of younger and older children, this has given us a great opportunity for the older children to help assist the smaller ones.
ARTS AND CRAFTS
Below are pictures of children making a classroom collage (and learning about mixing primary colours while doing so, too!)
Kids have been practicing their pre-academic skills such as holding scissors and cutting but also drawing and getting used to holding a crayon or a felt tip pen. Great focus! The children have also been painting on a canvas using winter colours; blues, reds and yellows and using their hands to get messy!
FOREST EXPLORATION
Team building games
The children learnt about what it means to work together as a group and they came up with good ideas such as it is all about helping others. Some children shrewdly observed that it means that while working together, the whole group either wins or loses, which affects everyone! The children made some team building games indoors such as the team tower game where children were supposed compete which of the teams were able to construct the tallest tower working together.
Most team building games took place outdoors, where our little Willow and Chestnut students got to participate in games and learn from the older children in Maple class. We reviewed playing games such as Tug of war from last term but also began practicing new games such as egg-race! The children learnt a lot about trial and error while completing these games and got to discuss what to differently next time. They got to applaud the winning team and learn how to be a “good” loser, as well!
The things that we do in the forest!
These little ones did lots of great free play and exploration in the forest this term. They practiced and improved their balancing and climbing skills. Children kept enjoying ballgames outdoors! They also began to practice making bark rubbings on trees. The bigger ones helped the smaller ones by holding their hands while walking to the forest, since helping and taking responsibility for the people around us has been in focus.
Music
Children have been playing instruments this term: they have been trying to follow a beat and learn to play quietly and loudly. Here are a few pictures of the children joining Maple class for music and dancing!
INDOOR GAMES
Restaurant role play
Children practiced their role playing skills this term, which is crucial for this age in order to learn taking turns and putting yourself in a position of another person or having a role. The children practiced serving each other food and eating together. They also created a restaurant with multiple tables all on their own, taking turns playing the waitor/waitress and the customer!
Classroom games
Children have been developing their gross motor, fine-motor and cooperative skills this term through games revolving around matching colours and throwing and building a team tower. Good team play and listening skills! Children also got to work their fingers by fun playdough activities.
….The more we play together, the happier we´ll be! To be continued…during term 4 😉 Have a good holiday !!!
Our theme of the term has been “Houses and homes”, which is a topic that has allowed our children to express and talk more about their families and homes both here in France and/or the one of our origin. Due to us learning in an international environment, this has offered us a learning opportunity to understand that our classmates have different backgrounds. We have talked about houses and homes all over the world, and about the fact that all living beings, people but also animals, have a home. We have discussed the importance of homes but also materials that houses and homes are made out of. This term has also been special also because it has involved waiting for Christmas, which is a special time of the year for both children and adults. We have been taking part in stories and sing songs about Christmas and their characters and practising for a Christmas play that engages all children to take part in by singing and dancing. Not only that, children have also been involved in making the prompts for the show!
Our houses, our homes
The theme this term is ”houses and homes”. The children have been reading the story about the three little pigs, and along with that they have been discussing different houses across the world. The children have been reflecting over their own home (is it large/tall/short? Is it an apartment building or a house?). We have been looking at pictures of different types of houses in the world. There are still people elsewhere in the world who live in houses that are made out of sticks or straw whereas us here at Forest are lucky enough to live in houses that are strong, just as the house out of bricks, which even the wolf could not blow down with all huffing and puffing in the world! The children have been discussing the importance of homes and taking part of the discussion with Maple class. It keeps us safe from the cold and the rain, and it gives us a place to spend time and hang out!
Here, little Chestnuts are painting their own homes out of chosen house samples using finger paints. Below is also the little ones making the three little houses for the story “Three little pigs”.
The children got to take part in play dough activity of Maple class, while reviewing the parts of the faces with the story three little pigs!
FOREST EXPLORATION
Story based imaginary forest play
The children listened to the story “Three little pigs” and participated in reconstructing the story by trying to find and build houses for the pigs out of straw, sticks and “bricks”. This was a good opportunity to build on our imaginative play skills linked to nature while learning new vocabulary and seeking to sequence the story. The children also helped build a large house out of “bricks” together with Maple class, a house that is so strong that the strongest wind wouldn´t take it down. The children kept building the tree house over a longer period of time, evaluating It´s strength and observing how long it would sustain! The children were also exciting exploring the other wood houses built in the forest by the older classes over the past months. The children also utilised the forest tree houses while playing out the story “Hansel and Gretel”!
Forest play, forest play!
This term we did lots of games in the forest. The children practiced throwing, catching and kicking a ball. They did different obstacle course activities, running and jumping, tug of war… They also kept practicing their climbing and balancing skills!
Caring for the horse
The children did a little trip through the orchard to go visit a beautiful, gentle, white horse named Gringo. They got to roll up their sleeves helping to care for him! They would help shovel up after the horse, pull and push the trolley and take turns petting the horse.
DIWALI festival of lights clay activity
The children got to take part in making clay candle holders together with Maple class this term. They got a piece of clay to model with at first for play purposes, and then they shaped the piece into a candle holder. They decorated it with beautiful beads!
CHRISTMAS PREPARATIONS
Christmas play and rehearsals
Children all participated by dancing and singing in the Christmas play held on 4.12.2021. Our little chestnuts and willows got to be little sheep and participate in the songs “Hey ewe” and “Something´s going on”.
Gingerbread houses
The children have made several 2D houses this term, out of shapes, with paints and using different textures. This time they got to make tiny 3D gingerbread houses and take them home for Christmas! They participated in the process by squeezing and manipulating the dough to make it softer for rolling. Like playdough! Then they got to use their strength to roll it flat with a rolling pin. Finally, children helped make the shapes of the house by using cookie cutters. Eating the cookies that did not meet the requirements was great, too. 😉 Teachers helped to glue the house pieces together (this, to avoid from the kids getting burns from melted sugar!), and the children got to decorate their houses as they pleased as well as participate in wrapping them up, eg. lacing. Great fun it was!
Christmas preparations, arts and crafts
Children made nice little Christmas cards to go along with the ginger bread house gifts. They made Christmas ornaments eg. miniature Christmas trees to hang in the real tree at home. They painted the sticks, then assembled them into a shape of triangles and decorated with beautiful gems. They got to participate in decorating the canteen Christmas tree and to take part in listening to the stories of the Gingerbread man and the Snowman. They also practiced the song “Snowflake” and listened to the song “Walking in the air”. Great way to get into the Christmas spirit!
The topic of this term has been “All about me”. This included us getting to know each other in Chestnuts and Willow classes through different games and activities. We also practiced getting used to common routines and rules to follow in the class. We discussed our own family, what foods we like and dislike, our favourite colours, our body and our feelings.
ARTS AND CRAFTS
This is my first work!
Children were choosing their favourite colours while presenting their painting and cutting skills!
Getting to know each other
Children were getting to know each other by matching pictures of each others faces. Along with learning about the part of the face and presenting themselves, they were working with their very own “My face” puzzle! This was a little bit difficult! Shuffling up the other children´s part of the face was quite funny, too!
Feelings and faces
Children learnt about feelings such as happy, sad, angry and sleepy. We discussed this in class by recognizing whenever and in which situations we have felt those same feelings. Children have been making little faces by choosing suitable expressions; mouths and eyes, to create faces with different feelings.
My family portrait
The children were practicing their fine motor skills by decorating their family photo frames (sticking, gluing) while learning about family vocabulary and presenting the one of their own. The family photos stayed in the class to reassure the children and to remind the children that family is always close. The children were often going to look at their family photos especially at the beginning of the start of preschool!
Canvas art: Experimenting with colours
As we have been learning about favourite colours and reading the book “I feel teel”, we took the opportunity to make a piece of art together mainly using roll brushes. Children were choosing how and what to mix out of the three different primary colours: red, yellow and blue. The goal was to observe what happened on the canvas and the new colours and shades that appeared as they got mixed. We ended up making a beautiful quilt of colours together! The children also got to make their own colour mix on a piece of paper and bring it home.
MUSIC AND SONG BASED ACTIVITIES
We have had music on Wednesdays with our music teacher and together with Maple class. We have been learning french songs and learnt how to move and improvise to music with changing pace and rhythm! Songs that we were practicing this term were amongst others “Il était une bergère” and “alouette”.
We have also been practicing several theme based action songs this term with our class! We have been shaking our maracases to the beats to the songs in the forest and in the orchard. Songs that we have been learning this term have been: One little finger, How many fingers, Head, shoulder, knees and toes, If you´re happy, Ladybug song (Frank Leto), I am a pizza, Big green monster, Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?
Musical based activities help the children to learn new vocabulary, connect brain and body by making actions while singing. We have been combining songs with both actions and art, so the children have been strengthening their coordination, their grammar, story sequencing and fine motor skills while making an artwork around the song, too!
I am a pizza- musical activity
The children were learning to express their food preferences, so we too the opportunity to learn to funny song “I am a pizza”. We learnt the new vocabulary by memorizing what toppings there were. The children were to to sequence the making of a pizza: dough, tomato sauce and the toppings. The children were were practicing their fine motor skills while colouring the tomato sauce and sticking the toppings on with glue. The children loved making the actions to the ong and the process of making a pizza and getting it delivered at home, by music and movement.
Big green monster- song based activity
Children were learning about the vocabulary of the body and the parts of the face as well as putting them in the right place. They were also learning about colours and describing features in the environment. Through this song the children were preparing their way to describe things using proper grammar (big, green face/sharp, white teeth) in a funny way. This activity also prepared us to get into the spirit of Halloween!
Ladybug song
Children were learning about body parts by practicing the ladybug song by Frank Leto. We painted loads of little ladybugs out of forest materials such as pine cones, rocks and nuts in order to learn body parts by listening and landing the ladybugs all around our body.
Brown bear- song
The children began to learn about their senses in their bodies such as smell, touch, sight and hearing. They were learning the song “Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?” to better acquire concepts of how to express what they can see and observe the world around them. They were able to show off their knowledge of colours and animals, but they also learnt a whole lot about grammar learning this song!
This activity allowed us to further practise our cutting and pasting skills. We have also been reviewing animal sounds and doing animal bingo, so this song also supported these great listening and attention skills 😊
OTHER PROJECTS/SCIENCE
Making playdough
On a rainy day we came together with Maple class to make playdough. Everyone took turns doing something such as measuring, pouring and stirring. All children got a small amount of playdough for personal play!
Sensory exploration
The children began to touch the subject of five senses in order to prepare them to describe their environment. They went on a discovery in the forest to find and compare different textures, but were also to listen to different forest sounds and smell forest smells! They would also get to touch different textures such as rough, smooth, soft and squishy and make their own sensory boards. They got to feel balloons with different textures, eg. sand, beans and water, and try to guess what was inside!
Halloween activities
This year we prepared for Halloween by doing a Halloween object hunt in the forest together with Maple class. This was good in order to help children memorize names of the different characters, practice their matching skills but most of all, make them run from tree to tree ticking off their findings. The children were very excited! We were also practicing our role playing skills by making charades with the characters in the forest. Others had to guess what character you were based on your acting. Kids were really good at it, too! Last but not least, we read a story about Winnie the Witch and made a witches broom out of sticks….
We painted a large pumpkin together that we later carved and emptied together. Children made little pumpkin trick-or-treat bags and painted little Halloween pictures. They made ghosts by cutting, gluing, tearing and scrunching! This awesome Halloween-week ended with role play dress up, where children were allowed to dress up as whatever they wanted. Such a great way to end the first term!
FOREST ACTIVITIES/EXPLORATION
Painting in the forest
The children have been learning about feelings. Reading the story “I feel teal”, we have been discussing about how different colours make us feel and what happens when you mix them. What colours make green, purple or orange when mixed together? How about how to create colours such as “teel”, “magenta”? Is grey a “sad” or a “happy” colour? How about yellow, or red? Children were painting in the forest, experimenting with colours. They did this while running from pot, moving around, sharing the same colours.
Climbing and balancing
This term the children were practicing climbing and balancing on and in trees in order to improve their strenght and coordination. They were also doing jumping obstacle course with logs that they helped carry. Trees are great resources for children to develop their gross motor skills!
Colour race
They were also doing different games and activities in the forest such as colour race, shapes hunt and parachute games. Children were learning about colours by movement games. They loved sorting the balls in the right boxes by team work in only… seconds!
Parachute fun!
The children have been learning about taking turns expressing themselves and their favourite colours. They have also been learning to get to know each other. Parachute games teach children a lot about teamwork, eg. shaking and bringing the parachute on the same level and intensity. Copying others movements and waiting for our turn to run under the parachute one by one has also been important to learn!
Forest stick men
We were learning about emotions and parts of our face and body this term. These were practiced through musical and art activities. We were also practising making forest faces and bodies in the forest!
Children helping Marianne finding tree branches, drilling holes and attaching branches together making a tree puppet.
Forest objects patterning and memory games
Children were beginning to learn vocabulary around the forest including different trees, leaves and nuts, which was a good way to also practice patterning with forest objects! Ground, stick, leaf, ground, stick, leaf, ground, stick, leaf… As this is still tricky for us little ones, luckily Maple class children were here to help us out and show us how to get started! Children were also looking for small forest objects in two´s and we then made a little memory game with them, that was fun!
Swimming
Swimming has been exciting and new for many children! During this time we have been focusing on feeling comfortable in the water. Jumping in, floating like a star and blow bubbles under water has also been part of our water exposure. So much fun!
Carousel activities
Last but not least, children have been doing lots of free play, improving their vocabulary, playskills and hand-eye coordination exploring different activities and games in the class. Giving a go making new activities that we did not particularly like in order to practice new skills to choosing activities that we prefer, have both been in focus.
The topic of the term has been “Green fingers”! The children were learning about the needs of plants, vegetables and fruits that grow under, above ground and up in trees. They learnt about insects such as bees and butterflies that help pollination. What is pollination? They learnt about that, too! The children learnt about flowers and fruits that grow all around the world and about the amazing tree, It´s parts and what it can do throughout the year. The children were planting potatoes and flowers and took care of them. We went to field trips such as the butterfly farm and got the observe different types of butterflies.
Children starting the term by decorating the walls with flowers made out of dried flower petals!
Tops and bottoms
Children learning about where vegetables and fruits grow: Under the ground, over the ground or up trees.
Gardening
Children learnt about what plants need in order to grow. They learnt the song “the farmer plants the seed” by doing the role play of the song and by sequencing it by drawings. They also made their own watering cans for watering their growing potatoes! This term they also planted flowers.
The children learnt about the butterfly life cycle and butterfly yoga! The children were excited to learn about how bugs and bees pollinate our nature and help our vegetables and fruits grow. Children also made a bee-house together! They made lots of arts and crafts related to butterflies, beehives and flowers using different techniques and materials such as pasta, dried flower petals, bubble wrap, fork painting, stamping with toilet paper rolls, duplos and more.
Butterfly museum
Children made a field trip to the Butterfly House in La Queue-le-Yvelines! They would observe real butterflies, but they also got to see real caterpillars and cocoons.
Flowers and fruits
The children learnt about flowers and fruits that grow all over the world, including in their home countries. They loved learning about flowers while playing the flowers memory game together! They also learnt about the parts of a tree and about trees that bare fruits. The weather and the climate affects where different types of fruits can grow! Children tried to plant their own apple tree on the school back yard 😊
Mother´s day
The children got bring their mothers a special gift this year: dandelion salve and daisy oil. They got to be a part of the process preparing and extracting the flowers making the oils themselves.
Canvas art and pasta painting
The children were experimenting with pasta and colours and made some individual paintings but also a class canvas. Children would also do sensory play with numbers with the remaining spaghetti to work on number recognition (math).
Painting a sensory rain forest
The children were painting a sensory rain forest for their role play with jungle animal figurines.
Mix and “maths”!
This term the children were involved in different math topics. We continued to learn about numbers from 20-30. Children learnt about numbers through outdoor chalk games, making spagetthi numbers and the number chase activity with the big bee.
They also began to learn about measuring and comparing length. They got introduced to the clock and continued practicing their understanding of the concept of time by discussing daily routines and practicing remembering the months of the year. They learnt to make their own patterns by movement games and by images, in order to support their skills in sequencing.
Children learnt about adding and taking away through summer activities such as counting in sand with marbles and shells. They were practicing these skills also by playing other types of interactive games such as spider math addition game and addition with dominoes. Children learnt their math through pirate games, nature-matching and memory games. Counting in two´s with towers and pictures of two (memory game cards). Lot´s of progress was made in math this term, good work.
Counting in two´s
Learning about subtraction with the pirate: How many coins did the pirate steal from you?
Learning about numbers 20-30
A mix of activities such as the clock, daily routines, grouping activities and addition games
Literacy and phonics
This term, we have been applying all of our knowledge and understanding of Phonics to writing. We began with practicing writing familiar tricky words and started to move onto simple sentences.
These activities enable us to practice our pencil control and letter formation. This also re-enforces the letters and sounds that we have learnt.
We have been learning about the world around use and the animals, insects and habitats that surround us when we are at school. As a class we read a range of different stories relating to animals and their habitats and discussed why they are best for certain animals.
As part of our reading we learnt about a range of animals that we would see or find in the area of the school. We speak about what would make a comfy bed for them and decided to make a bed for a hedgehog.
As part of our learning we read a story about birthdays and a list that the characters make for their friends and family of things that they would like for their birthday. We discussed this as a class them created our own lists.
We read a range of different stories this term and developed our understanding of how a story is made and the order a story follows for it to make sense.
We were given a story in a mixed order and set the challenge of putting it into the correct order. From this, we were asked to retell the story using our sequenced pictures.
Show and tell
Children would take an item or an art work made at school and present it to friends. They got to practice asking and answering questions.
Windmill origami !
Swimming
Oh, how fun it was to begin swimming again! Children were learning about being comfortable in the water and they also learnt about basic water safety and keeping themselves afloat in water by different types of games and exercises.
Science day
The children got to be a part of science day where they would learn about science experiments conducted by the upper classes. They got to present their butterfly life cycle yoga routine and their work, too!
The topic of the term has been “The exciting egg project” and vehicles. The term was began by reading the story “Egg drop” to merge these two topics together. Children got to observe the “egg-citing” journey of eggs hatching into little chicks!
Where vehicles travel
To build on the last term´s topic on different jobs and the local village, children were learning about where vehicles. We learnt about where different types of transportation travel. Children made their own arts and crafts by colouring, cutting and pasting. They also made their own rocket ships and helicopters! Children played games such as patching up cut up vehicle puzzles and trying to guess vehicles by feeling them inside a mystery box.
Egg project and easter preparations
For easter the children got to do egg waxing with Laura. The children would decorate their eggs with wax and then soak them in natural colours extracted from natural dye (for an example red cabbage juice, turmeric and leaves). Those eggs looked quite impressive! We did egg patterning arts and crafts, and the children also got to plant easter grass to take home and care for over the holidays. The chocolate hunt in the forest made big smiles on everyone´s faces!
Observing the chicks
We learnt about how many days it takes for an egg to become a chick. Children were very excited to see the little ones hatch! The chicks were kept inside in a cage in the beginning, but as they grew into young chickens, they were kept outside during the daytime to get fresh air. Children would take turns chasing the ones that would occasionally try to escape! They got to take care of the chicks by feeding them and giving them water.
Classroom canvas
This term the children collaborated making a canvas art work to review the four seasons and at the same they got to practice writing their names by stamping with paint. We got a beautiful and colourful piece of art in our class.
Numeracy
Children enjoyed making different types of patterning activities. Chaining together as a group was particularly fun as we could use it as a jump rope as a result! We built number towers (1-10 and 10-20) by using traffic light patterns as an aid and we also made patterning exercises with the chicken life cycle.
The children were practicing number fluency by counting up and down within the numbers 1-10 and manipulating objects within. Writing numbers 1-10 independently was practiced a lot this term. We also did lots of counting up to 20 and worked on our number recognition of 11-20 by different types of matching games such as the egg life cycle and egg number matching.
Children are getting familiar with numbers 11-20 through sensory exploration and art.
We were learning about sizing, sorting and classification. We also made lots of activities related to the egg project theme such as sorting big and small and the concept of whole and half! We kept learning and about adding, taking away and number bonds to 10 but we also began counting in groups (2´s, 5´s, 10s)
Literacy and phonics
In literacy we read different stories and activities such as role play and sequencing activities related to the theme; “Daddy on the moon”, “Thomas the evil diesel”, “In the nest”, “The red hen” and “Are you my mother?”. Writing own names, letter hunt, sound object games, letter sound activities writing and matching known letter sounds was also enjoyable for the children! In phonics children kept learning about several new letter sounds. Soon they will know nearly all letter sounds in the alphabet and they can start blending them fluently!
Music
Children made their own egg shakers this term. We practiced sequencing the song: “We all go traveling by”. Since the song was long, we sequenced the song with pictures and then kept it with us while practicing!
Forest play
Below are some pictures of us cycling and climbing as well as painting in the sunny forest.
This term our topic has been “A day in a life”. We learnt about the people who help us in the community. This term was full of exciting artwork and role play. Children were very excited about getting into character and imagining what they want to be when they grow up!
The children got to practice taking on a role of being classroom helpers themselves. The helpers role has been to set a good example to others on how to follow classroom rules, tidy up after working and to be helpful with friends and teachers. Children got to earn rewards (animal pictures) for good tidying, listening and table manners this term.
Role play and artwork
We have lots of future doctors, nurses, ambulance workers and firemen in this class! Children were playing doctors, nurses and patients and they made doctor packs. They sang the song “Ms. Polly had a dolly” and they learnt about what doctors do and where to call if there were to be an emergency. They also enjoyed reading the book “Zog and the flying doctors” by Julia Donaldson.
Children practiced being firefighters having to fight fire and saving animals from a burning house that we painted together. Fire hoses were made and fire was put out immediately! We read books related to firefighters and had discussions about basic fire safety.
The children learnt about buildings and services in the local areas and how to get there. Children participated in making a recycle city by painting buildings, roads and vehicles in the city. They also began learning about orientation. They would direct each other to get from a to b in recycle city: “Go straight, turn right, turn left to get to….the post office/hospital/school”. They also drew their own road maps! Children were beginning to practice knowing their home addresses and the city or village where they live in. They got to send a letter to a friend through the secret mail man service to tell them what they want to be when they grow up!
Children were practicing to understand and explain what their parents are doing each day. “My mother/father is a….” Some children made their mothers/fathers face in felt.
Children made pizzas to be sold at the restaurant where they would practice taking turns on the roles of being waiters and customers.
Mathematics
This term in mathematics the children were exploring the concept quantity by both adding and taking away. The children began their exploration by putting objects on a scale: adding and taking away in order to see the shift in quantity but also weight.
We kept working on number recognition by matching numbers in and out of order. We did this by playing exciting number matching and memory games (eg. ladybird game). We also kept working in mathematics by carrying out workers in the community-role play by restaurant (waiter/customer) and shopping role playing games. The children were practicing not only their number recognition skills but they also began counting “money” (stones) while “shopping”! They practiced writing numbers making their own money but and even got to take some money with them home. Throughout the term children did many activities that involved tracing numbers and writing them independently. The dice addition game was also suitable for working with friends or alone!
The children loved to learn adding through bowling with red and green bottles. A typical problem would be: “How many green bottles did you knock over? How many red ones? How many all together?” Children were also helping each other by taking turns writing on the score board.
Children learnt about different ways to represent the number 10 by working with the numicon puzzle and blocks.
Phonics fun
This term the children have continued with their phonic learning and have begun to apply these skills to early reading. As part of our learning we have been taking picture books home and created a story around them.
As part of our learning have took part in craft activities and workshops. The children used a range of materials and resources to create models or representations of the letters we had been learning.
The children have also continued to develop their fine motor skills and practiced sitting at the table and holding a pen. The children have worked on extending the their vocabulary by writing as well as segmenting and blending longer words.
Literacy and story time
This term we read books relating to a range of different jobs. We read the captivating story of “The smartest giant in town”. The children had some puppet play and an activity related to the story. The range of books related to firemen or teachers, eg.”Don´t eat the teacher!” and “When I grow up”. We also began practicing making our own story using picture prompt of different nouns, adjectives and verbs using story dice! The kids made up quite funny stories!
Forest and Winter fun
This winter we got real snow! Since then we have been discussing seasons and weather. This gave us a great opportunity to discuss the weather change. The children were excited to learn about how and why ice forms and melts. We then started collecting pieces of ice and watched them melt as they were taken inside! When there was lots of snow in the forest we painted in the snow together with Chestnuts class. Below there are also pictures of us doing parachute activities in the forest.
Understanding the world
We learnt about four seasons and observed the weather changes while exploring outside: water forming into ice and leaves falling on the ground. In class we sang songs about four seasons, and will keep working on our classroom seasons tree throughout the year as the seasons change.
The children enjoyed playing a weather card game in which they would also practice their math skills (take away X, how many cards do you have left?) We kept practicing to understand the concept of time by discussing the change from day to night, today, yesterday and tomorrow and discussed the days of the week. As the children took turns being the teacher helper each day of the week, it also helped them to understand the concept of yesterday, today and tomorrow. The children would keep track of who and how many helpers there have been during the week and how many helpers there were to come.
These little scientists began to mix primary colours while painting this term. They learnt that orange and yellow becomes orange and the mix of all of these makes a fierce fire! Blue and yellow becomes green: Children painting the grass or the earth for our miniature recycle city.
Making playdough
This term we made our own playdough! Due to current regulations the children got to participate in the making of it and were given their own individual bags to be kept in individual trays. Children loved to make animals and shapes and to form letter and numbers with it!
Music and movement
What animal are you? Children loved dancing with Laura on Wednesday mornings! In class we began exploring the concept of loud and quiet as well as indoor and outdoor voice. We sang songs related to the monthly topic and understanding the world but also mathematics: Hello- song, Put on your shoes, Ants go marching, Firefighter song, Ms Polly had a dolly, Twinkle twinkle traffic light, I am a pizza, How´s the weather and What´s your favourite season. Children enjoyed dancing and doing actions while singing.
