Week 1
This term our topic is 'Growing and Changing'. This week we have been reading the story 'The Runaway Pancake'. We have been making faces on pictures of pancakes and colouring in pictures of the story.
The children have all set some cress seeds in their own pot and are checking them daily to see if they need more water and to see if there is any change to the seeds. We have started to prepare our garden area outside. Children helped to pull up the weeds and then on one area we sprinkled wildflower seeds.
Week 2
This week we started our new reading book 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'. The children have used potatoes dipped in paint to print their own caterpillars, they then added googly eyes and drew on some legs. We have had some caterpillars delivered and keep checking them regularly to see how much they have grown. At carpet time we have been talking about what the children can do now that they couldn't do when they were babies.
On Wednesday we joined an online story 'Ten Tiny Squirrels' which was read by the author who wrote the book Kael Tudor.
Week 3
This week we have continued to read 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'. The children are really enjoying the story and have been acting out the story with the stick puppets. We have continued to talk about how they have changed since they were born and what they can do now that they couldn't do when they were babies.
This week we noticed that the sunflowers were starting to grow so we talked about what they need to help them grow, the children were able to tell us that they needed water and light. We have some caterpillars in our class and the children like to look at them daily to see how much they have grown and are eager for them to change.
In forest school this week the children made some seed bombs that have now been added to our wildflower garden. They also had a lot of fun on the rope swing.
Week 4
This week we started a new book 'Handa's Surprise'. We have been using some of our different senses to look, touch. smell and taste different types of fruit, including mango, pineapple and avocado. The children really enjoyed the pineapple and mango but didn't like the avocado. We have made fruit baskets by roller painting on a paper plate and then using paint sticks to colour in fruit pictures. Some of the children had a go at cutting out their own fruit pictures to stick on the plate. We have also been talking about farming and what farmers do and what grows in our country that we can eat.
The children enjoyed helping to plant our second garden bed with carrots and peas, with the weather being warm they have also enjoyed using the small watering cans to water the seeds. In the classroom we have been looking at how much the sunflower seeds have grown and how the garden peas in our mini green house have started to shoot through. Our caterpillars are also growing and we are hoping they soon start to form a chrysalis.
Week 5
This week we have continued reading 'Handa's Surprise'. We spoke about the different fruits Handa put in her basket and which ones we like to eat. We have also continued learning about what farmers grow in our country and what crops some of our local farmers grow. We have enjoyed watching the garden peas starting to grow in their little mini greenhouse, as they are getting bigger now we have transferred some of them into individual pots until they are big enough to transfer to the garden.
We have had lots of fun doing all the different Easter activities this week like collaging a bunny and learning not to put too much glue on the glue spreader when using the glue. The children used different things to apply paint to their egg pictures they used their fingers and also cotton buds to do small dots. We had different Easter playdough mats out for the children to make different things to go on them e.g make eggs for the basket, petals for the flowers and ears for the bunny, by doing these things it's helping to build and strengthen their fine motor skills.
We would like to wish you all a good break and look forward to seeing you next term.
