Blog - 15th October 2021
Another busy week in Apple class! Lots of busy fingers and busy brains. Thank you so much for the first few responses to the Autumn shared learning (to make an Autumn picture). The children were so proud to stand in front of the class and talk about their pictures and creations. They are now on display in our classroom. There is still time to bring in your Autumn picture so if you wish to make a masterpiece at home, we would love to see it!
This week we have been learning about and celebrating harvest. We have learnt what harvest is, why some people celebrate it and how the farmers harvest the land to provide us with some of the food we love and enjoy. We have drawn lots of fabulous pictures of fruits and vegetables, we’ve made farms and tractors using a variety of resources and made our own scarecrows out of playdough. We practised talking in full sentences about the different vegetables and had great fun scrubbing some potatoes in our water tray. We explored the different sizes and different varieties of vegetables in our tuff tray and matched them to the correct coloured strips. Finally, in our tuff tray we made up our own stories using different multicultural small figures.
The children have particularly enjoyed using the harvest and Autumn treasures as food in the role play area (the kitchen) this week. Loose parts are so important to stimulate imagination and creativity. Remember, a stick can be a wand, a walking stick or a spoon. A pine cone could be a banana, a train or a piece of cake! When your child is playing at home, try to encourage them to use objects around the house in their play. For example, they could use a scarf as a superhero cape.
In our mathematical learning, we had a go at making repeating patterns using vegetables. The children tried really hard and most of us understood a simple 2 part pattern (potato, carrot, potato, carrot) and some of us had a go at a 3 part pattern (onion, carrot, broccoli, onion, carrot, broccoli). It's important for children to understand pattern so that they can make predictions and make connections. Keep practising making repeating patterns at home. You could use any household items- fork, spoon, fork, spoon or sock, shoe sock, shoe. I'd love to see pictures of you making your own patterns on your learning journal.
This week we were very excited to have a go at recreating Vincent Van Gogh's painting "The Mulberry Tree". First we talked about what an artist is and lots of children were able to reflect upon the paintings they have created recently. Excellent reflective learning Apple Class! Next, we discussed how we knew the picture was painted in Autumn time. Most of us could spot the yellow leaves on the tree. We also thought carefully about why the artist may have created "wavy" leaves on the tree. Some of their ideas were: "the leaves are falling off", "it is really windy" and "the tree is wobbling in the wind". We had some super thoughtful discussions, well done! Afterwards the children enjoyed recreating their own paintings just like an artist. We have also enjoyed singing our 'Autumn Leaves are falling Down' song and the children enjoyed dancing like autumn leaves with paper streamers. This was so enjoyable for all!
In our outdoor provision we made our own ‘hibernation station’ for our hibernating friends (in particular hedgehogs). We learnt about what hibernation was and how we could give these animals a helping hand during the colder months. The children used their imaginations and gathered many leaves, small sticks and twigs, to help them create small areas for these animals to stay protected from predators.
And to end our week, on Friday afternoon, we had great fun moving to slow and calm music, we made all sorts of shapes with our bodies (a little bit of yoga.) We felt very calm and relaxed after a very fun and busy week!
Don't forget to watch our wonderful harvest song videos on our class page. We have some budding stars amongst us!
We hope you all have a very enjoyable weekend - remember to take a look at your child’s learning journal and add any observations yourself. We’d love to see what you get up to this weekend.
Miss Whitlow, Mrs Grimes and the Apple class team