Blog 1st October 2021

What a busy week!
We've been down on the Apple Class farm this week finding out about the role of a farmer and talking about some of the tools and vehicles that a farmer needs to help him/her with their job. 
The children have enjoyed cutting and sticking their own farms and this provided a great opportunity for us to support individuals with their scissor work.  We are working towards holding scissors in our dominant hand and making firm snips along a line. It would be great if you could reinforce this learning with lots of scissor work over the next few weeks. If you have any questions or queries about how your child should hold scissors or how to support if they are struggling - just have a word and we'll gladly help!
 
Later in the week, we spent some time outside in our Apple Class garden building a tractor in small groups. We talked about the parts that we needed: wheels, doors, a cab, a funnel, a trailer to attach onto the back and a steering wheel and seats. What a great time we then had taking our tractor for a ride around the farm taking on all of the jobs a farmer has to do.  We fed the animals, rounded up the sheep, collected eggs, mucked out the pigs... the list goes on!
 
Back in the classroom, we used our toy form for some counting practice.  Firstly we asked the children to count a group of animals in the field.  We then encouraged the children to make a set of a given number of animals. So for example, we said "Can you put 4 animals in the field."  For many children, the tricky thing is remembering to stop at 4!  So, lots of experience of counting objects in sets that you make or encouraging your child to make a set of a given number would be great.  You can make sets with fruits, vegetables, toys, cars... anything that interests your child!
 
There were many farm inspired songs and stories over the week. 
Photos and some examples of these will follow very soon!
 
In the meantime, have a great weekend and we'll see you for some more farm work next week. We will be thinking about harvest and all of the jobs that the farmer needs to do at this special time of the year.