Blog - 26th Nov
As well as lots of story retelling, the children have really enjoyed making their own Gruffalo pictures using tissue. We decided to revisit the skills of scrunching and ripping tissue to make pictures as some children needed support with this last week. The aim of this activity was not only to develop our fine motor skills, but to develop vocabulary. Before making their picture the children had to describe the Gruffalo and select the appropriate materials. For example, he has ORANGE eyes and PURPLE prickles. Most children could remember the key features of the Gruffalo but some needed to look closely at the soft toy as a prompt. Vocabulary is so important for making meaning clear to others and so developing vocabulary is something we do continuously in Nursery and the children will have lots of opportunity to develop this in the year.
Key Vocabulary this week: character, author, title
Many children have been using these words within their play - especially when re-enacting their own Gruffalo stories.
Outside, the children had a really good go at developing their phonic skills. We went on a Gruffalo hunt, whereby the children had to search for the Gruffalo characters around the garden and tell me what initial sound it began with. For example, g for gruffalo, m for mouse, f for fox. They then had to match the character with the letter sound on their worksheet. This was quite a tricky activity. Only some children could hear the initial sounds in the words. Some children were able to tell me the sound the animal made instead. We will continue to do lots of phase 1 early phonic work to support hearing initial sounds.
In our number work we have continued to play the "gruffalo game" to develop our counting and subitizing skills.
In the mark making area the children have had a good go at copying some of the characters names from the story (to practise pencil grip and early letter recognition).
We had great fun painting our own Gruffalo’s this week, which are on display in our classroom. We followed instructions well to make sure we included all of the Gruffalo’s features (black tongue, purple prickles, green poisonous wart on the end of his nose.)
In the tuff tray we have been making our own Gruffalo stories. A Gruffalo inspired tuff tray was a hit with most children this week. There was a ‘log pile house,’ a ‘tree top house’ and even a lake! We used the wooden Gruffalo characters to help us get into character!
To go alongside making their own stories in the tuff tray, many children have been using the characters as props in almost all areas of the classroom! Again, this is a great way to develop a good understanding of the story and build upon their communication and language skills.
In our Musical Apples sessions - Wednesday morning and Thursday afternoon, we had great fun in the hall. With a Gruffalo/monster theme, there was a lot to do. We played a game with the tambourine - if we heard a quiet rattle, we moved like the mouse and if we heard loud bangs, we moved liked the Gruffalo. We sang along with our fabulous Gruffalo song and we also learnt two great monster rhymes. We ended our session by dancing to The Monster Mash while playing with our collection of multi coloured ribbons.
On Thursday, there was great fun outside as we made Gruffalo crumble. What were the ingredients? Well, you'll have to ask us to find out!
As you can tell, a very busy week with lots of learning taking place. Next week we will focus on the story Stick Man by Julia Donaldson. We will continue story retelling and lots of early phonic work as well as other activities.
Wrap up warm this weekend everybody and take care,
Miss Whitlow and Mrs Grimes