This week the children have been working really hard to grow their brains, especially with their writing and mark making! In literacy, we explored the rhyming couplets within The Magic Paintbrush story, which inspired us to write our own! The acquired phonic knowledge is really showing through in the children’s teacher directed writing and in child initiated pursuits. Ash have been learning ow (as in ‘growl’) oi and ear this week, and Saplings have been looking at k u and b. All the children worked together to explore rhymes through puzzles, books and songs!
In maths, the children took their learning to the forest to see if they could explore and compare different lengths of sticks! They found that the short sticks were used in a different way to the longer ones. For example, the longer ones could be used as bridges over a large ditch, whereas the shorter ones could be used “to make fires” or “for a mouse home“.
We have been continuing our learning about things that are safe and things that are not safe in PSED with Harold this week. The children decided to make signs for the classroom, including ‘stop’ signs at the exits because “you can’t go out there without a teacher” and even speed limit signs, so that people remember to walk inside! They enjoyed having their mini-mes be ‘safety detectives’ within the classroom too, and it was interesting to discuss with the children about how the things that were deemed unsafe, like scissors, could be made safe by careful use!
The garden has been a hive of animal spotting this week as the children took part in a spot of bird watching and even discovered a number of newly dug holes near the back of the garden. The children had a big discussion about whether the holes might have been made by rabbits, foxes or something smaller. There was some excellent mathematical reasoning within the children’s opinions, as they considered the size of the hole compared to the size of the possible animal. I think we might have some detectives in our midst!
Speaking of detective work, P4C this week found the children exploring an article written about Jack and Jill. The children helped Mrs Lawrence to read the article and gleaned clues from the text about what could have happened at the top of the hill! Many children thought that perhaps Jill had accidentally spilt some water which Jack subsequently slipped in, but some disagreed…
“I think Jill might have pushed Jack because they had an argument, maybe”
“I think Jack was standing too close to the edge”
“I think maybe Jill just bumped into Jack!”
The children had great fun illustrating and writing their own newspaper articles following this discussion, indicating their take on the mystery of Jack and Jill!
