The topic this week for our Understanding the World focus has been Polar Region 
animals, the children have really enjoyed looking and discussing the different animals.
The children had a focus on polar bears and penguins but after reading our class story in Literacy 'say hello to the snowy animals' by Ian Whybrow and Ed Eaves, we learnt about some tricky animals such as caribou, arctic hares, artic foxes, snowy owls and seals.
The children now know penguins and polar bear will never see each other in the wild. Some children understand why the animals are mostly white because they live in a snowy place. A few children know polar bears live in the North Pole and penguins live in the South Pole. We relooked at the map as the children loved looking at the different countries and understood (on the map shown) why the Polar Regions are white because it is always snowy.
The children enjoyed our role play area of the igloo where they could make shadows using the different animals which encouraged conversation about the animals of what they might do and the noises they might make. We linked shadows to Science as we spoke about the paper blocking the light to form a shadow. The children were amazed how it worked!
The children were lucky to have multiple small world areas this week, they used the jungle to compare to the Polar Regions:
‘This is a hot country’ -Vinnie
‘Sand in hot country, snow in cold country’ -Derren
‘Different animals live in the cold and hot’ -Matilda
‘Polar bears cant live in hot’ - Hope
An Arctic scene with igloos and animals where children can practice their animal names, noises and understand where they live. The Antarctica scene was created from rice (as water) for children to count the penguins to match to the numeral on the icebergs. The children really enjoyed this activity as they enjoyed counting the penguins.
‘They jump in the water, splash’ - Hope
‘No polar bears are allowed’ - Erica
Both small world and role play areas encourage Expressive Arts and Design as children can imitate how animals sound and act. The children all had their own interpretation of how the animal could sound! The children loved acting out animals and really encouraged them to think like the animal.
"I eat fish" - Derren
"I have lots of fur" - Matilda
"Grrrrr" - Amara
"Jumping and swimming" - Rueben
In the provision the children engaged with lots of activities such as igloo making, shaping sorting, mark making in the snow and creating polar scenes using their cutting skills! The activities are closely linked to the topic to encourage new vocabulary to be used and to share their own thoughts!
On Friday, we raised money for the NSPCC: number day as children wore their own clothes with either a number or pattern/shape on. The whole day was filled with Maths in the provision and activities. The children focused on number blocks as we use them daily in the classroom. The children had lots of maths activities from number matching, counting games, dominos and a hopscotch. The children all made their own number block, and enjoyed creating them as it reinforced their number knowledge.
