Key Stage One have been researching different animals and their habitats this week. Each class has researched a different habitat and location around the world.
We visited each classroom this morning to look at their anchor charts and research to learn about the different locations around the world.
It was great to hear the children being Geographers and learning so much from each other.
Mrs Parsons x
The week commencing 05/02/24 Nursery were exploring their latest text within our expedition Once upon a Time – Who is hiding in the pages of this book? We were looking a comparison of the traditional tale of āGoldilocks and the Three Bearsā, through a text titled āGoldy Luck and the Three Pandasā by Natasha Yim. This story is a celebration of oriental culture made accessible to children through a traditional tale. The Children really enjoyed learning about the differences between the bears in the story, Goldy Luck and Goldilocks and the Chinese culture overall, which made great links for the celebration of Chinese New Year.
Goldy Luck, Mr and Mrs Chen had rice porridge known as Congee in their adaptation of the story, so the children played and investigated rice in the sensory tray. They filled red containers and and practised picking up Pom poms with chop sticks building their fine motor skills in our finger gym.
We then researched Panda Bears by looking at non fiction texts in our Tuesday Reading Crew using the text ā A Book of Bearsā by Katie Viggers. The children learned where Pandas come from, where they live, what they eat and what they look like. We used this information and other stimulus to produce beautiful artwork of Panda faces.
Children experimented with Chinese dining within our role play area, sitting on floor cushions and using tweezers and chop sticks to eat pretend noodles in their role play. Nursery also had a Chinese food tasting crew on Thoughtful Thursday, during which they tried a number of new foods including noodles, Sweet and Sour Sauce and Prawn Crackers. Most of the children liked the noodles 🍜 and had second helpings. Some of the words used to describe the sweet and sour sauce were āSpicyā, āTinglyā, āSweetā and āHotā.
Nursery explored traditional Chinese dress and took part in their own traditional street parade. The children split into two groups and played a range of instruments and took turns to march and dance, exploring various levels in pairs using Chinese dragons. What beautiful work they produced!
Throughout the week children created various paintings of a Chinese theme including dragons and lanterns as it is officially the year of the dragon, 2024. This got us thinking about the year of the childrenās birth which was for most the year of the Rat or some the year of the Ox. We watched of short video/puppet show about the ancient myth of how the Chinese calendar came to exist and the order of the animals by year. The children took part in an online tutorial modelled by myself to draw a rat 🐀, representing the year of their birth. The results were awesome, we have some budding artists.
Over the past week Nursery have explored and embedded our story of the week āGoldilocks and the Three Bears.ā The children began the week by being fairy tale detectives, as someone had been into Nursery over the previous weekend and broken our dollies chair, bed and left their empty food bowl laying around. The children were very excited and outraged by this, they had lots of different ideas of who this could be including; āthe Trollā, āA big mouseā, āthe Gruffaloā, āa bearā and āGoldilocksā herself.
Nursery played in oats, experimenting with filling and emptying containers of three different sizes, using small, medium and large spoons.
They explored and sorted hard and soft materials.
Using their maths skills Nursery measured the Three Bears using unifix cubes and worked hard to count how many cubes tall the bears were, using their fingers to encourage careful counting and 1-2-1 touch counting. The children revisited and used our key vocabulary Large, Medium and Small to describe Daddy, Mummy and Baby Bear.
As part of our Thoughtful Thursday Crews Nursery followed an online drawing tutorial, following step by step instructions and modelling from myself of how to draw a bears head. Our 30 hour children extended this activity to add the bears body using their own imagination.
As part of Flexible Friday Crew, the children all tried Porridge 🥣. For some children this was a new experience for others it was an alternate way to eat their porridge, as we had the option of either Golden Syrup or Sugar with our Porridge. Some children like āJamā, āNuts, raisins and Honeyā, āNutellaā, āRaspberriesā, āBlueberriesā and āStrawberriesā with theirs at home.
Finally to consolidate and bring all of our learning to life, Nursery took part in mini role plays of the story in front of their peers and grown ups. This takes a lot of confidence and most of the children enjoyed and were willing to take part in the experience using lovely story language. Well Done Boys and Girls! Youāre all āGo for it Gorillaāsā and superstars!
There is no better way to start the week than with sharing the beautiful work that has been happening in classes. It was also lovely to give out postcards to those children who are always modelling our core values and HoWls during our community meetings.
I’m already looking forward to next week ⭐️
Mrs Parsons xx
Nursery have been working hard to resolve social conflicts this last week, as part of our first case study āHow can the Goats and the Troll be friends?ā This is within our new expedition āOnce upon a timeā and working towards answering our guiding question āWho is hiding in the pages of this book?ā
Nursery have listened to the traditional tale of āThe Three Billy Goats Gruffā and an alternative version of the story āThe Three Billy Goats Fluffā by Rachael Mortimer. They have thought hard about the issues of both key characters; in that the Goats would like to eat the juicy, green, lush grass, but unfortunately they have to trip, trap across the bridge to reach it which in turns wakes up the Troll, who is desperate for some sleep, peace and quiet. Mummy Goat made the Billy Goats booties in the alternative story, but we wondered what if you insulated the bridge? So we have tried hard to make a quiet bridge for the Troll to live under using a variety of insulating materials. We tested baking paper, tinfoil, felt and bubble wrap. Hereās how we got onā¦ā¦
Some of the language and ideas expressed throughout this problem solving was amazing! The children said āthe troll is grumpy because he is tiredā, āthe troll is frustrated because he wants to sleepā, ātrip trap, trip trap keeps waking him up, because itās noisy on the bridgeā, āThe goats need to be kind and go quieterā. The children spoke in depth about the materials, carefully using their senses to investigate them, some of the words used were; āShinyā, āCrunchyā, āCrinklyā, āRattlyā, āSoftā, āFluffyā, āFurryā, āBubblesā, āPoppingā, āToo loudā, āQuietā, āSilentā and ānoisyā.
What beautiful work Nursery – most children either came to the conclusion that the felt was the āquietestā or āsoftestā material or that the paper and tin foil were ātoo loudā or ānoisyā. Some of the children thought about folding materials into layers to make the bridge even softer and one child thought about using the soft toy troll as a material, as he thought the felt was āstill too noisy and the troll is bouncierā. Great experimenting!
In Reception the children have been exploring different resources and creating houses for the three little pigs. The children came up with some impressive design ideas.
To begin our spring term expedition Nursery have become Nursery Rhyme Detectives! Our task this week has been to find new clues each day to work out which Nursery Rhyme we are exploring that day. The children have searched high and low for clues and used their existing and new knowledge of Nursery Rhymes to work out which props fit with which Nursery Rhyme. Here are some of the props Nursery have found so farā¦.
Also to immerse ourselves in our new expedition, Nursery have been working collaboratively to create artwork of large scale images of Nursery Rhyme characters and iconic objects. There have also been a couple of rather large mice around the Nursery Building!
Today Nursery hosted their very first Celebration of Learning to draw our expedition to a close of āWhat do stories tell us about Autumn?ā Both Morning and Afternoon Nursery shared their learning through a series of photo slides and interaction. They sang songs to their parents and then added decorative touches to complete the final product with their parents, making the whole project a community affair. Our Bird Boxes look beautiful and are now ready to go their new homes. The children also shared their learning journeys, show casing all of their beautiful work so far! Well Done Nursery you did a great job!
On Monday we created artwork inspired by the story The Leaf Man written by Lois Ehlert. The children used natural resources found in our outdoor area to create the own leaf men, creatures or animals. Look at their beautiful work!
Nursery have been taking part in Maths Week England. Starting with todays challenge of making Triangular Art. Each child decorated their own triangle, thinking about the shape of a triangle; how many sides it has, how many points it has and that it is a 2d flat shape. The children did careful counting to three to check these key features.
Our second stage of the challenge was to make larger trianglesā¦ I wonder how many of our small triangles will we need? The children had a go at arranging the shapes to make a triangle. I then modelled, if we use three, we can make a larger triangle. The children followed instructions and copied to help make a larger piece of floor art.
Can you guess what we have created using triangles?
Great work Nursery, you have been Exploring Elephants, Persevering Parrots and Challenge Chipmunks today! Bring on the next challenge.
