Blog 10 - 25th Nov
As well as lots of story retelling, the children have really enjoyed creating their own Gruffalo paintings and Gruffalo pictures, which are on display in our classroom. We decided to revisit the skills of scrunching and ripping tissue to make pictures as some children needed support with this last week. The aims of these activities were not only to develop our fine motor skills, but to develop vocabulary. Before making their pictures the children had to describe the Gruffalo and select the appropriate materials and colours. For example, he has ORANGE eyes, a black tongue 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.
Along with the initial sound Gruffalo hunt, we had a good go at hearing the initial sound in our name. As you've been able to see on your child's journal this week, we have spent quite a bit of time looking at our names. The children had to firstly recognise their name (which most of us are now pretty good at doing,) tell me the initial sound in their name, find that sound using magnetic letters and have a good attempt at copying that sound! We will spent the nursery year revisiting this - but doing this at home will be super too!
In our number work we have continued to play the "gruffalo game" to develop our counting and subitizing skills.
In the tuff tray we have been having great fun exploring "Gruffalo Crumble" and "scrambled snake" these were all sensory trays were the chidlren could feel differnt e=textures and use spoons, scoops, bowls and cups to explore.
A Gruffalo inspired story telling area was a hit with most children this week. This is where children were able to make their own Gruffalo stories. 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, 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.
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,
Mrs Farrar and Mrs Grimes