The children looked at animal patterns and discussed the reason that animals have such a range of patterns. These include various reasons- camouflage, to attract a mate or to scare other animals. We discussed the animals in 'Handa's Surprise' and the children then created their own animal patterns using the wax and resist technique.
A further activity related to this book was based on healthy eating and living. We talked about healthy foods and how we must eat a healthy balanced diet. We also talked about other important things we should do to stay healthy- sleep, drink water, keep clean and exercise. We reminded ourselves of the fruit in 'Handa's Surprise'. The children looked at a range of fruits and then had to wash their hands before making a fruit kebab with 7 pieces of fruit on it, linking in to our number of the week! They then ate their kebab. Some of the children had the chance to make observational drawings of the fruit.
The final Adult directed activity was focused on handwriting. The children worked on their curly caterpillar letters in small groups with an adult. The other children worked on other fine motor activities.This week the children practised the formation of letters e, s and f.
e-start with a loop, then make a curve.
s- make a curve, slope, make a curve back again.
f- make a curve, come all the way down, lift and cross.
In maths the children have learnt about the number 7. They rotated around 4 different activities. Each session we started by counting on and back from different numbers.
Activity 1- The children were given a pretend pizza and had to add 7 of each topping.
Activity 2- The children sat in a circle and played a game. They rolled 2 dice and found the total. If their number was less than 7 they stayed in their place, if it was 7 or more they had to jump up, run around the circle and back to their place. On the second round the children totaled the dice and ran to point at the answer on the number line.
Activity 3: The children were each given a bed and small teddy and some blankets. They had to place the blankets on the toy. For example they were told to give the toy 3 blankets and then 4 more. They were asked how many blankets there were altogether. Then the toy was too warm so they had to take 2 blankets away, they were asked 'how many are left?' etc
Activity 4: The children were each given a car park with 7 spaces drawn out. They had to park the cars in the car park and then 2 drove away, how many were left? The teacher continued to question them, asking them to move cars in and out of the car park.
In phonics this week the children have learnt about the phonemes o, c, k, and ck. When we learn about a vowel we look mainly at words where the vowel is found in the middle (pot, cot, hot, stop) and other words with the vowel at the start (odd,). 'ck' is found at the end or in the middle of words (duck, luck, dock, sock, sick, lick, lock,crackle). 'c' words- cot, cat, cap, can, cop, 'k' words- kit, kick, kip. Ask your child to use their phoneme fingers or robot arms to sound out these words and their blending arm to blend them back together.
ChIL- The children enjoyed exploring this week's maths box- it was full of things to do with measuring. The children have continued to use printing techniques they were taught last week. They enjoyed extending their learning- some children were playing pirates on the climbing frame and started shouting 'walk the plank'. They were asked where their plank was and then created their own using the large building blocks and a plank. Some children were looking for a slurp monster and made some tracks, they had lots of fun trying to work out where it had gone.
The children enjoyed bringing their Teddies in for Children in Need. Thank you for all the donations, I'm sure you'll agree it is a very worthy cause. In assembly the children placed their coins on Pudsey. Here are the children with their teddies:
Things you could do with your child....
- Practise this week's phonics
- Read with your child
- Count out 7 and make 7 in different ways
- Talk about healthy living
- Encourage your child to form the letters correctly in their name
- Play games particularly using dice and dominoes
Reminders and requests...
- Next week is a 4 day week. There is no school on Friday.
- If you have any interesting objects that we could have we would be very grateful. We will be putting them in our special box so that that the children can think of imaginative uses for them. For example: Super large Keys or tiny keys, interesting sticks or stones or just random objects.
- We are always in need of fabric, wool, anything that can be used for junk modelling- boxes, tubes, pots, tubs, newspaper and lids (e.g. from milk cartons). Wrapping paper is also useful. We would also be grateful for rice, lentils, pasta.
- Is there by any chance a parent or grandparent or friend who could play the piano for our Christmas play? We would be very very grateful!
Have a super weekend,
The Year R Team
