Blog 2 - 20th September

Hello Apples, Friday seems to come around so quick. I do hope everyone has had a very enjoyable week.. Let me tell you about ours. 
 
This week we have begun our topic, Mavellous Me! As this is our first topic of the year, it will centers around the children, something which they know so well. We've started to think about what we look like and what makes us unique and what makes us different from others. Our key vocabulary has been all around our facial features (nose, mouth, ears, eyes.) We also extended this to include cheeks, eyes lashes, eyelids, eye brows and nostrils. 
 
To help learn about what we look like, we've had lots of circle time discussion about what makes us different to other people and have then recorded this on paper in the form of self-portraits. The children enjoyed looking at themselves closely in the mirror and we encouraged them to talk in sentences to tell me about what they could see.  To continue this learning, next week the children will enjoy making "silly" faces in the tuff tray. They will use a selection of materials to help them. 
 
As well as links to our topic, the children have had lots of opportunity for other learning. In the creative area the children have had the chance to practice their scissor control (please keep this up at home).
 
 
In the malleable area the children have been developing their fine motor skills by manipulating playdough to roll and shape it to make faces.
 
We have also spent lots of time outside this week and importantly have encouraged the children to dress themselves independently (putting on their own cardigans and jumpers). A lot of children still struggle with this and need lots of support to have a go on their own first and then ask a grown up when they are really stuck. We will continue support the children to be resilient so that they can be independent learners. When outside, the children have loved climbing the adventure playground, riding on the bikes, exploring in the sand pit and enjoyed our writing shed. 
 
 
We have had an extremely busy few weeks and the children have already learnt so much. Thank you to everyone for arriving on time so that we can start the day promptly. We will be closing the gates at 8.55am for safeguarding reasons. 
 
 
 Have a great weekend everyone and enjoy the photos (scroll down!)
 
Ms Farrar 
Scissor Control 
Outdoor Learning 
Drawing our Self Portraits 
Making faces using Natural Materials 
Making Faces with Loose Parts