This week the children have been focusing on "down in the garden" for our Understanding of the World, the children have begun to learnt lots of new insects names, they also know insects can also be called bugs or creepy crawlers. 

 

In Literacy, the story book the children focused on was called "The Bug Collector" by Alex Griffiths. This book showed a little boy catching bugs in jars and what happened to them, this showed the children how we should treat the insects, by not catching them but making them homes like a bug hotel. The story shared lots of new vocabulary for the children to learn such as names of new insects.

 

In the role play area this week we opened a flower shop, the children really enjoyed exploring the different flowers. The children all took on different roles in the shop and were able to understand what the different role do. The children enjoyed making flower arrangements the most, which encouraged them to name the colours they are using and describe the flowers.

In the small world area, the children had a garden, where they could explore the area of looking for insects. This allowed the children to name the insects and understand where they might live. The children were also given the opportunity to go on a bug hunt ticking off the list when they found the insect! They all loved doing this!

 

This also linked to Expressive Arts and Design where children learnt some insects sounds and how they might move around. Some children were making the sounds quietly or loudly too! Both learning areas encouraged Communication and Language as children communicated with each other using language and developing their social skills. In the construction area the children were encouraged to build their own bug hotel using different shaped small bricks, the children enjoyed making homes for the insects and lots of children were naming the shaped bricks. In our garden the children had a pond with ducks they had scoop the duck in the net and find the letter starting for their name.


 

For maths, this week the children had a focus on prepositional language, they were given a small world garden with insects and the children would use their language to explain where the insects are. For example "butterfly on the leaf" or "grasshopper in the bush". The children enjoyed this activity as they were able to make links to the topic which made it lots more fun and purposeful! 

 

Focusing on fine motor skills, this week the children have practiced their pincher grip by using the tweezers to pick up the worms from the soil. The children also made amazing mark marking by using stamps and rollers to create patterns and experiment with colours. 

 

Mothers day morning

To celebrate Mother's day, we invited all the special ladies in the children's lives to our Mother's day event. The children all sang two specials songs for them, there were all different activities for the children to do with their special ladies such as nail painting, story telling, doll house, finger painting, colouring and dancing! The morning was beautiful and full of lots of love, the children enjoyed spending that extra quality time with their special people.