Term 3

For the last week of term we read Mr Wolf's pancakes, a brilliant story about Mr Wolf who would like to make some pancakes but is unsure how. He asks his neighbours to help him with reading the recipe, writing a shopping list, working out his money and carrying his shopping. All of his neighbours are very unkind to him and say no, so Mr Wolf does it all by himself. Once his pancakes are made, his neighbours arrive at Mr Wolf's door asking to help him eat the pancakes. Mr Wolf says no, as they did not help him, but his unfriendly neighbours force their way into his kitchen to try and eat them. Mr Wolf responds the only way he knows how and eats his neighbours!!!! He then eats all his pancakes.

Our first activity was to write a shopping list for Mr Wolf.

        

We experimented with pancake ingredients to see if we could make a pancake batter. We used flour, eggs and milk. The children loved this activity and had great fun adding the ingredients and stirring the mixture.

                        

It was lovely to welcome so many parents to our pancake stay and play sessions. 

          

In Maths we have begun puzzling! We worked in groups to complete the puzzles.

        

Our child-initiated learning has been busy with building, exploring pancake mixtures, shapes, dominoes, trains, tea making, patterns and make overs!

                          

 

 

 

 

This week we have been reading My most exciting Eid. This is a story about a little girl called Safa and her family and how they celebrate Eid.

We created our own hand henna designs.

                      

We made stained-glass window stars!

              

          We visited Maidstone Mosque and learnt all about the Muslim faith and Eid. The building was beautiful once inside and the children enjoyed exploring and looking at the Koran.

                    

In Maths we thought about shape and patterns. We had to recreate a piece of art by Henri Matisse.

                

Our child-initiated learning has been very busy this week. We have been learning with puppets, puzzles, paint, play dough, water, and sand.

                

        

Over the next two weeks we are reading Ridiculous! This is the story of Shelley the tortoise who decides that instead of hibernating, she would like to explore what winter is like. She meets lots of animals along the way that say that it is ridiculous for a tortoise to be out in winter as she is not able to look after herself like they can.

Our first activity was to sort clothing into either summer or winter clothes. The children were wonderful at this and knew that you need gloves in winter and sunglasses in summer!

                                      

We created winter pictures using black paper, white paint, plastic forks and cotton buds. The children enjoyed using different tools to paint with.

                            

We explored ice. Mrs Jessop froze some animals and bugs into ice, and we had to work out how to free them! The children had to decide what we could use to break the ice. Our ideas were: rolling pins, knives, stones, cooking utensils, pestle & mortar and wooden blocks.

 

 

              

In Maths, we talked about dots. We looked at dominoes and practiced counting the dots and, for the smaller numbers, had a go at subitising how many dots there were.

      

During our child-initiated learning, we have been drawing flowers, role-playing shops, modelling with play dough, creating large train tracks, building towers, mark making with chalk, and using pipettes.

                                  

During the second week of our 'Ridiculous' learning, we drew cats using a simple step-by-step process. We then had a go at adding on a body and legs.

                                

We drew the animals that Shelley met in the story.

            

We created collage pictures of a tortoise.

                                

During PE we used the gym equipment and travelled in different ways. We pulled ourselves along on our tummies using our arms, we balanced, we crawled in and out and did roly polys. The children were brilliant and really showed off their skills!

                    

Child-initiated learning has been packed full of fine motor control skills, mark making, creating patterns, building and much more! We even built a tower of pegs that went all the way up to the ceiling :-)

 

                          

For the first two weeks of term we ready Be Brave Little Penguin, a lovely story about Pip-Pip the baby penguin who has to learn to swim. It is a story about self-esteem and bravery.

Our first activity was to place pictures of penguins in order of size, from smallest to biggest.

                              

We drew pictures of things that scared us. This ranged from spiders, monsters, dinosaurs, sharks, ghosts and the dark!

                  

We demonstrated our resilience and showed how brave we could be by jumping off some crates independently.

            

          

We decorated medals for Pip-Pip for being so brave.

                          

We drew Pip-Pip the penguin by following 6 simple steps!

                          

During PE we moved around the apparatus like woodland animals. We jumped like frogs, slid along the benches like snakes and sat like squirrels whilst moving the ball around our bodies. The children loved using the different apparatus and demonstrated some brilliant skills!

                  

In Maths we explored with different types of blocks, pushing them together and building with them.

            

We have been incredibly busy during our child-initiated learning! We have been building, mark making, exploring water, making pasta ice creams, digging, solving puzzles, and so much more :-)

                      

Term 2

Christmas Fun!

We had a lovely visit to St Martins Church where we learnt about the story of Christmas, decorated crowns and angels and learnt about the gifts the Three Kings gave to the baby Jesus.

                

We had lots of fun at the Christmas Fair! We even met Father Christmas.

                  

On the last day of term we had some Christmas Crafts and played some party games.

                  

 

We have been reading What the Ladybird Heard at Christmas, the latest instalment by Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks. In this book, the ladybird once again stops Hefty Hugh and Lanky Len from stealing the Christmas presents with help from all of the animals.

We made ladybirds using paint and paper plates.

                          

We made ghost pictures using black paper, cotton wool balls and googly eyes.

        

          

Our child-initiated learning has been busy with building, mark making, role playing, dancing, counting, cleaning and much more!

                      

 

This week we have been reading Ready, steady, Mo! by Mo Farah. A story all about running and where you may run to.

Our first activity was to think about what we would like to be when we grow up. We had a range of ideas from firefighters, dinosaurs, Lightning McQueen and brave!

                

We practised our fine motor skills by threading wool through shoe templates.

        

We created art pictures by dipping our fingers into paint and "running" them over our paper.

                          

During PE we practised our dance moves!

          

We created patterns in Maths using a range of objects.

            

We have had a very busy child-initiated week. We have been building, matching, exploring pipettes, creating and much more.

                    

We had a great time on the Christmas treasure hunt! The children really enjoyed doing the funny movements to get to each picture :-)

                  

For the next two weeks we are reading The Night Pirates. A swashbuckling story about a group of little girl pirates who visit a little boy called Tom in the middle of the night to borrow his house to disguise the ship so they can go and steal the big grumpy pirates' treasure. Tom goes along with them on the adventure.

We made treasure chests using egg boxes, paint, tissue paper and gems!

                          

We created treasure maps to help us find the treasure. We used wet tea bags to rub over our maps to make them look old.

                                

We made skull and crossbone bunting!

            

Our first activity was to create night pictures using black paper, white crayons and kitchen foil.

                             

We thought about shadows and talked about how you cannot see any features on a shadow. We then completed an autumn shadow matching activity.

      

We practised our name writing for the very first time! The children were brilliant at tracing the letters in their names and some even tried to write their names independently.

                        

We had an exciting visit from Nina at Boogie Tots on Tuesday for our PE lesson. The children loved joining in and listening carefully to the instructions. 

    

In Maths we were labelling 1, 2 and 3. We had a range of pictures with different amounts of items on them. We needed to decide if it belonged on the 1, 2 or 3 pile.

      

Our child initiated learning has been busy with ice exploration, puzzles, shapes, cutting, den building, and mark making :-)

          

                      

For the next 2 weeks we are reading The Magic Crayon, a story about Chloe who has an annoying brother called Jack. One day, Chloe finds a magic crayon in her bedroom glowing, and she draws a picture of a witch to scare her brother. The witch comes to life and turns Jack into her pet frog! Chloe goes on a magical adventure to save her brother from the witch.

We made frogs using painted hand prints, googly eyes and pink paper.

                      

On Tuesday, as it was Remembrance Day, we created poppy pictures using red and black paint and corks. For our 2-minute silence, we watched the CBeebies Poppy animation.      

        

          

We created perfume to make the smelly troll in the story smell nice. We used water, vanilla and orange flavouring, food colouring and rose petals.

            

In Maths we have been showing 1, 2, and 3. We read the story "The Three Little Bunnies". We then hid our hands behind our backs and when Mrs Jessop said either 1, 2 or 3 we had to show that many fingers.

        

Our first activity was to draw the witch from the story.     

            

We made paper plate wolves!

                          

We made gingerbread houses using brown paper bags and chalk pens.

                                  

We drew what we would like to come to life with a magic crayon if we had one. We had a range of ideas from Lightening McQueen, unicorns, dinosaurs and dragons.

            

In Maths, we have been exploring and describing shapes. We had feathers, conkers, acorns, pine cones, brushes, corrugated card, and Lego pieces to describe. We came up with some great words: soft, hard, bumpy, spiky, and tickly.

      

During PE we have been using our body parts to balance. We each had a bean bag, and we had to find different ways to balance them on different parts of our bodies. We balanced them on our heads, elbows, knees, ears, feet, legs, noses and even our tummies!

        

Our child-initiated learning has been full of wall building, ball skills, cutting, drawing, reading, counting and potion making :-)

                        

 

This week we have been reading No Matter What, a story about a fox called Small who is worried about whether his mummy will always love him. Small has all sorts of questions about love, and his mummy must reassure him that her love will never, ever run out.

As a class, we created a beautiful heart for our classroom window using our cutting skills to chop the paper before placing it onto the sticky-backed plastic.

            

We made friendship bracelets for someone we love, using pipe cleaners, pasta and cheerios.

                          

In Maths we have been exploring repeats and routines. In groups we talked about how we get ready to come to school each morning and what order we do things like brushing our teeth and getting dressed.

  

During PE we explored our emotions and thought about how we would move if we were feeling happy, sad, angry and excited. We also played a game where the catchers had to tag their friends. Once they had been tagged, they needed to stand still looking sad and their friends who were free had to free them by tickling them to make them happy.

            

On Halloween we had a pumpkin-themed day. We created crazy pumpkins and explored pumpkins in the environment.

                  

We have been busy during our child-initiated learning with mark making, bug hunting, dancing, building, making tea and much much more.

                              

Term 1 

This week we have been reading My Daddies, a lovely story about family and the adventures that can be experienced through stories.

We thought about our families and who lives with us, we then drew them.

            

We created photo frames!

                        

We decorated hot air balloons using collage items.

              

During PE we were superheroes! We had to move like superheroes being careful not to bump into each other and then when the parachute came out we had to be the superhero colour that we sat behind. When Mrs Jessop shouted a colour, all of the superheroes had to jump up and run around the parachute and sit back down in our space. We were really good at it and it was lots of fun :-)

        

It was amazing to welcome so many parents to our first stay and play event! It was lovely to see the chidlren so happy making their sandwiches and sharing stories with you.

 

      

 

This week we have been reading lots of Percy the Park Keeper stories. The children have loved getting to know Percy and the animals from his story. We started our week with a visit to the park. The children were amazing and we are so incredibly proud of how well they walked to and from the park.

 

                  

We went hunting for conkers in the woodland area in school.

 

          

We played animal bingo!

    

Our child-initiated learning this week has been full of colour exploration, building as a group, puzzles, role playing and much more.

                            

 

For the next two weeks we are reading Barbara throws a wobbler. Barbara is having a very bad day! As more and more things go wrong, Barbara's mood gets worse, which eventually creates a 'wobbler' which follows her around until her mood subsides. Our first activity was to think about how we look when we are sad, happy or angry. We completed a sorting activity to support this.

 

                                  

We made our own Wobblers using play dough, googly eyes and pipe cleaners!

                        

We thought carefully about how our faces look when we are happy, sad and angry and then had a go at drawing our emotions.

      

In PE we pretended to be mythical creatures. We started the lesson by moving around the hall as unicorns, fairies and dragons. We then had to protect our fairies (bean bags) and hold them carefully while moving them around our bodies. We balanced them on our heads before placing them on the floor. We ran around the hall and when Mrs Jessop shouted, "The dragon is coming," we had to quickly lay on the nearest fairy to save it! It was a very fun, energetic lesson :-)

        

In Maths this week we have been starting to learn about repeating patterns. We found that lots of the nursery rhymes we sing in class repeat themselves and we had a go at creating our own 2 colour repeating patterns.

          

We have been very busy during our child-initiated learning this week. We have been searching for items in the garden, having make-overs in the role-play room, built some amazing train tracks/roads, shared stories with our friends, performed theatre shows and continued to practice our balancing!

 

                                   

For the second week of Barbara throws a wobbler we created 'emotion' leaves using googly eyes, pens and leaves.

                        

 

This week we have been sharing some Meg and Mog stories. Our first activity was to create our own magic wands.

                                      

In groups, we created our very own magic potions! We added ingredients such as, eyes, bugs, animals, gems, pine cones and much more. 

        

We created spooky pictures using black paper and chalks.

        

 

Finally, we followed some witch yoga! The children were brilliant at this and really got involved!

      

During PE, we were witches and wizards and had to negotiate space safely. 

              

For our Maths this week, we have been exploring and building with shapes and objects. The children really enjoyed this activity and got fully involved with their building.

                

We have been incredibly busy during our child initiated learning this week! We have been exploring with water, building, creating patterns, colour sorting, mark making, climbing and lots more :-)

                                    

 

This week we have been reading The Three Little Pigs. The children have been really involved in this story. We started the week by creating the little pigs houses using the same resources they did in the story.

                        

We created our very own pigs!

                    

In maths we have been learning about more than, less than and the same. The children had collections of items and they needed to work out which collection had either more, less or the same amount. They amazed us with their knowledge!

      

Our child-initiated learning has been full of balancing, building, mark making, exploring and developing our fine and gross motor skills!

    

 

                        

Well done to our first Greenfields Greatness winner!

 

Pear Tree have had a brilliant first week of term. We have made lots of new friends and have had a great time exploring our new learning environment!

 

                    

For our adult-led activities this week, we have introduced ourselves to our new friends, painted our self-portraits, drawn our family and in music, played the traffic light game where we had to stop when the red showed and practised playing loudly, softly, quickly and slowly :-)