Makaton Signs: Thank you, Good, Hello
Yoga - We are learning the story Handa's Surprise at the moment which we are really enjoying. We are learning which animal takes which piece of fruit and we are getting really good at it, using all the props out which help us a lot. We are also learning a couple of really fun songs "Animal Fair" and "Down in the Jungle" we are having lots of fun! Forest Club - Keeping an eye on our vegetable patch at the allotments. Learning what it takes to care for them. We need to keep the weeds at bay, water them, put some stakes in for those that need to climb, watch out for bugs such as caterpillars, slugs and snails and greenfly. Some even need for the early flowers to be pulled off so as the plant can put its energy into growing instead of making flowers. Also at our outside area swinging on tyre swings, climbing trees, bashing down the stinging nettles, making dens, creating mud pies and other such delights collecting all manor of things in our buckets, leaves, flowers, branches, garlic. Mix it round and serve it up.
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Weekly Makaton Signs: Hello, Thank you and Learning their names.
The story we are learning this term is Handa's Surprise. We are learning the actions for all the fruits and animals involved. The sequence of how the story goes, which animal takes which fruit. The props are out so the children can have a chance at retelling the story amongst themselves. Lots of lovely sunshine brings lots of fun with water, splashing around and getting wet. Please if possible could spare clothes be provided in case of a change needed due to getting wet. If clothes could be labelled too that would be most helpful. Plenty of imagination making biscuits, cakes, pizzas, pancakes, tracks of tractors, squidgy, squeezy, pull, roll, flatten. So much can be achieved from just a ball of playdough and try smelling it too, there is always a different flavouring added. Transition to school. There have been school visits for some and lots of chatter about teachers and the sorts of things they have been doing whilst there. Work experience - We currently have two students with us on work experience from Chew Valley School, Morgan and Megan. They are here for the week to help us play. Forest School - We had some impressive tree climbers last week, and some amazing swingers really enjoying the tree swings. Lots of digging and exploring. Our vegetables had grown a lot since we last visited our allotments I hope you liked your beetroot. Weekly Makaton Signs: Learning our names, Hello, Thank you.
Top tips for talking: Join in with your child's play - A language and thinking will develop through interactions with others. This arises naturally from a shared activity which provides something of interest to talk about and gives clear context for words and meanings. Top tips for two year olds: I can do it myself! Even though it may take me ages to do something and I may not get it right; its really important I have a go. I may become frustrated if everything is done for me. You'd be surprised how much I can do given the chance. Gruffalo - The story for this term. Learning the sequence of events. Discovering different ways to move such as tip toe for the mouse, stomping for the Gruffalo, slithering for the snake, flapping our arms for the owl and sneaky for the fox. We welcome some new children this term and our older children have been very helpful with the smaller younger children, showing them around and helping them to do things. Forest Club - Lots of planting going on at the allotments, potatoes, lettuce, peas and flowers. Learning about how to care for the area. Keeping the weeds out of the way, watering, keeping slugs at bay humanly and other such pests off such as rabbits and deer and once the peas start getting taller they will need something to grow up. Trying to enjoy the weather - one minute warm, next cold again, sometimes frost and sometimes rain. Remembering to be ready for any type of weather with the right clothing and shoes. Weekly Makaton Signs: Learning own names, thank you, good, singing our rhymes with actions.
We has a police car visit together with Stanton Drew Primary, Meerkat class. Great to see some of our friends from before and lovely for some of our little ones to see their brothers or sisters. The Police van - we had a good look around it and inside. We got to try on the hats and helmets, we even went into lock up room in the back. The siren was very loud with lots of flashing lights. Finally we got to say something through the loud speaker, wow you could hear your voice for miles and miles. The policeman called Arthur told us how the police are there to help us in times of trouble and what number we need to call "999". Forest Club - Lovely sunshine with lots of exploring, bashing down the stingers with our sticks, which are always kept below our hips. Climbing trees, and searching out the bugs hiding in the bark - earwigs, woodlice, worms, spiders, centipede's. So much life hiding amongst us. Over to the allotments to plant some potatoes. Martha's Mummy Laura came into bake some Burrowing Bunny Biscuits with us. Pouring, mixing, smelling vanilla essence, bringing it all together for something delicious to eat. Thank you Laura The sunshine is starting to shine. Time to start thinking about our sun hats, sun glasses and sun cream as we need to start thinking about protecting ourselves from the sun that can cause us to burn and go red. Weekly Makaton Signs: Learning our own names, Action Rhymes and Stories.
Little Rabbit Foo Foo - The children know this really well now, actions and the sequence of events. Lots of really good story tellers. Why not ask your child to share the story with you. Pets, Vets and Babies - Lots of caring and sharing. Making sure they are fed and have something to drink. That the pets are taken for a walk, as are the babies taken out in the buggies for fresh air, don't forget they need plenty of sleep too. Lots of us have some babies at home, which opened up lots of chat about how they are, how they help with the baby. Talking about their family, brothers and sisters, nanny and pops, Mum and Dad. Some babies cry a lot and keep everyone up, but its only because they can't talk, its the only way they can let us know that something is wrong. Obstacle course - under or over the table, crawling, jumping and balancing. Good for large motor skills. Having a go, trying out new things and skills. Forest Club - Learning how to swing ourselves or with the help of our friends and not the adult. Good team work, helping to push one another and trying to tell our friends how to swing themselves, describing about using your legs, to make it swing. Then off to the allotments to dig over an area ready for planting. We did find some potatoes left over and lots and lots of worms, big ones, small ones. Top tips for talking:
Repeat back your child's language in the correct. Praise the child's efforts, even if the results aren't perfect. If a child makes an error in a word or sentence, simply say the correct version rather than pointing out the mistake. For example, if the child says, "I goed to the park", you might say "Wow, so you went to the park". Makaton signs: Learning our own names, Thank you and Hello. Welcome back everyone. Playdough. Have a smell. What does it smell of? What does it remind you of? Vanilla - Icecream, cakes! Playdough such a familiar thing. There is no right way or wrong way to play with it. It can be whatever you want it to be. It also helps to build up the muscles in your hands, which is needed for when children start to learn to write and cut things with sissors. Good manipulation, sharing of the playdough and sharing of ideas of what to create. The possibilities are endless. 'Little Rabbit Foo Foo' is our story this term. By following a story over a period of time the children become very familiar with it and gain confidence in order that they can tell the story themselves. We continually have props out, so the children can approach these on their own terms without fear of getting the story wrong or in the wrong order. Children learn about how a story is constructed. Such as a beginning, a middle and en end. That there is a sequence or order of how the story goes. That a book is not needed necessarily if you have props or even just pictures that you can follow. Lots of collaboration on building pathways or tracks using planks, crates and discs. Looking around to see what else can be used, what way to make the path go, how far apart can we put the discs, how far will our legs stretch to reach. What do we need to do if our legs won't reach? Laptops and keyboards - lots of chatter. Listening as they order their food from Tesco's or looking up on Google to search for something. Doing their work, like Mummy's and Daddy's do. Pancake day - we had lots of fun racing with our pancakes and flipping them and we were all rather good at it! Forest School - Growing in confidence, the children are blossoming just as the trees soon will be. Going further, getting braver and really getting stuck into exploring. Seeing the first signs of spring appearing, it really is a magical place in spring stretching their imaginations far and wide. Top tips for talking:
Get down to your child's level when talking to them. Its easier to talk to each other if you are face to face. Whether it be playing on the floor or the grass, kneeling at bath time or sitting together at meal times. Being down at your child's level makes it easier to keep eye contact when talking together. Top tips for 2 year olds: Remember I am only 2 years old; I may have only been walking for a few months or just starting to talk. Please remember to have realistic expectations of what I should be doing. Weekly Makaton Signs: Goodbye, Hello, Thank you and their names. Celebrating the Chinese New Year, the year of the Rooster. The children are now very familiar with how the 12 signs of the zodiac became each animal. The props have been out for the children to retell the story themselves. This helps them to understand how a story is constructed, there is a beginning, a middle and an end. There are also numbers 1 - 12, animals, sounds of animals, and how can we move like the animals such as slithering for the snake, flapping for the chicken and stomping for the horse. We also had a get together to share the New Year celebrations with our families. Sharing the story of, wishing everyone a Happy New Year and enjoying a feast. Forest Club, All kinds of weather from frost and crispy underfoot and water that didn't splash, you could bang it with a stick. To squishy, Squelchy mud, we can't go over it, we can't go under it , just gotta go through it! Throwing logs into the ditch. The bigger the log the bigger the splash. Watch out! What was that? you are not supposed to throw yourself in, what a splash - Really good reactions from the child how feel in, no tears, he took it all in his stride and was extremely proud of himself for making the biggest splash:) Big blue barrels! what fun, rolling around inside them, sitting on top and realising how to stay atop, that if you moved your body to distribute your weight you could balance. This encourages critical thinking, physical movement. We had a visit from a puppy called Bella. The children learnt how to be gentle and not make loud noises as Bella would be frightened. Top tips for talking: Join in with your child's play.
A language and thinking will develop through interactions with others. This arises naturally from a shared activity which provides something of interest to talk about and gives a clear context for works and meanings. Weekly Makaton Signs: Hello, Thank you, Good, we are also learning our names. Painting - We have the paints out at the moment, so the children can experiment with colour, mixing colour, what colour does it make? Lots of them have been getting stuck in painting their hands and making some hand prints and some finger prints, even an arm or two! Painting encourages mark making and fine motor control, we have been encouraging the children to wipe the brush after putting it in the paint so that the painting is not to drippy and wet. Play dough - Making all kinds of shapes, snow men, snow balls. The children find the play dough very familiar and it can help children settle well and feel at ease. Great for fine motor skills and building their creativity. We are currently learning the story of the Chinese New Year. Learning how the 12 signs of the Zodiac became each animal. This year it is the year of the rooster. We will be having a celebratory day for Chinese New Year on the 1st February where you will all be invited to share a Chinese lunch with us. Weekly Makaton Signs: Thank you, Hello, Good
Top tips for toddlers: Its mine! - Its all about the process and not the end product! I want to explore resources and objects, I don't mind if I have nothing to take home. I like to paint where ever I want to, on the paper with lots of colours or just one......I don't mind if it doesn't look like anything to you, it's mine! Top tips for talking: Join in with your child's play - A language and thinking will develop through interactions with others. This arises naturally from a shared activity which provides something of interest to talk about and gives a clear context for words and meanings. Lots of Christmas surprises - so busy, busy this week making and creating. The sleigh has reappeared, the room has been decorated, it can only mean one thing Christmas is coming. We have got an advent calender and each day we choose two children to come and pick out a chocolate, and to then sit in the sleigh during mat time. So if you see a small chocolate in your childs draw it was their turn in the sleigh today. We have been practicing our songs from the Wriggly Nativity ready to share with you on our last day. We have also been listening to the story of the 1st Christmas. More practising of our party games too, so much fun to be had. Jack Frost has been around a lot this week. Please remember to layer up as being in a big old hall with very high ceilings it is tricky to keep warm. Great to see so many of you this week layered up with thermals, vests, tshirts, jumpers and ski trousers and jackets with thermal boots to keep our toes warm too. Forest Club - Listening to the cruch under foot as we were walking down to our area. The pond was frozen over, icicles. The soil was hard too, not squelchy like the other times. Later when the sun shone through, those areas that saw the sun had no frost but those areas in the shade were still white! why? what had the sun done? with sticks everybody gathered up the leaves into a big pile, the children were then chicks in the nest waiting for Mum (Kelly) to come and feed them worms. Those mischievious chicks kept messing up the nest, lets gather up those leaves again. Weekly Makaton Signs: Hello, Good, Thank you
We have been looking at our Christmas Story of the "Wriggly Nativity", going through the story and playing the songs. This is something that we would like to share with you at the end of term. We have started making some of our Christmas surprises, so although we may be busy, busy there may not be a lot of things coming home to show and share. Lots of helpers in this week; Nancie, Emma and Olivia. They are taking childcare as a future step in their careers and as such are here to help and get a real feel for caring for children. Forest Club - Lots of fun had in the morning exploring, jumping, climbing and den building. We had toast cooked on the fire and hot chocolate; Yummy! Then the rain came at lunch time and we stayed dry under our shelter whilst we ate our lunch. We had fun keeping warm in the afternoon with lots of running around playing "what's the time Mr Wolf" |
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