WEEK 3 TERM 1
Here we are at the end of week 3 already and as each week goes by we introduce a little bit more into the timetable.
I am sure by now you all know about the 'Helper list'. It won't be long before the children themselves work out 'how many sleeps' until their turn - it is something so simple but it means a huge amount to the children, their self esteem goes through the roof, just listening to their confidence when asking others to line up or take a message to another class and even leading the prayer at lunch time in front of EYFS, Year 1 and Year 2 - such a privilege for us to see it all in action and watch them 'grow'.
This week we added a few more things to our daily timetable. It is only our second full week and already we are seeing routines becoming embedded, they are recognising their names on their book bags and water bottles, they are becoming more independent and less reliant on our support. They look forward to putting their feeling flowers in the pot - I might even go so far as saying they enjoy tidy up time - everything is fun and that is exactly the way school should be - they don't realise just how much they are learning.
Monday morning came and for the first time ever, all the library books were returned on the right day - well done everyone. All the children popped them into the 'returns' basket with their 'ticket'. All very serious business indeed.
A really important part of our Library time is introducing the children to a wide range of vocabulary. Even before opening the book we talk about the title, author, illustrator, spine, blurb and flick test - this week, ask your child - "We don't say the name of the book, we say the.....? Hopefully they will say title, they may even remember the word blurb and what the blurb does, if not don't worry, these are words that they will be exposed to daily, they will soon have the answers tripping off the end of their tongues!
In Maths this week the children looked at shapes and their properties. This week we were looking at circles and triangles. We were able to recognise that a triangle has 3 sides and 3 corners and a circle is round. Take a look at some of our shape pictures.
The morning fine motor activities this week involved threading, matching patterns, making faces using loose parts and using scissors to snip the playdough - this is a great way to support their development and teach them how to hold the scissors correctly before even trying to cut the paper which is often more tricky than they realise!
On Tuesday, Mr Mandry was back to teach us PE - and this week we were introduced to flight. We were jumping from height (just off the benches) and learning how to land safely with knees bent. Then on Thursday Mrs Langford introduced us to Cosmic Kids Yoga - we were stretching and bending and feeling very relaxed.
On Wednesday, we were ready to burst with excitement, yes it was Pantomimus (music lesson) and we met Danielle. Danielle is one of the most fantastic music teachers and she comes in every Wednesday afternoon to teach us. It is so difficult to take photos during Pantomimus sessions because the children are rarely still, they are up dancing, skipping, clapping etc. At the end of the session, Danielle brought the children back from the hall into the classroom and their smiles were enormous -we think Wednesday is going to be the most favourite day of the week for some children.
Wednesday is also roast dinner day and this week it was roast chicken - it proved to be very popular!
Of course the BIG NEWS this week is that we have started learning our Phonics (you may have noticed the stickers coming home each day with the sound written on them). Yes, this week we have learnt the sounds s,a,t,i and p. We have been learning to say the sound, recognise the sound, hear the sound in a word and have even started to write the sound. Next week we are learning - n,m,d,g,o.
And we finished the week off with some good old powder paints and colour mixing. We were learning the process of picking up a small amount of powder paint on our brush, tapping our brushes so that the powder fell onto the pallet, then adding a small amount of water and mixing so that we had pure yellow. Then we had to wash our brush and dry our brush, before picking up some red powder paint and then mixing that in carefully to create a shade of orange. We then repeated that process until we had reached pure red. Using powder paints to mix the primary colours involves a process and it takes a while to achieve the desired effect and colour shade. The children really had to think about what they were doing and they quickly came to realise that they could make different shades of orange. They stayed focused throughout and were fantastic at using the right resources for the job! I wonder what colour they will be making next Friday afternoon?
