Early on this week, the children were very busy preparing for our exciting track opening ceremony on Tuesday afternoon. We wrote a thank you card to Mr McAndrew from the council, for giving our school some money in order to make our track design come to life! We also decorated bunting with our favourite vehicles, practiced our cycling and scooting skills, and wrote supportive messages to help us cheer our friends on. Thanks to those of you who were able to make it to celebrate with us. The children really have enjoyed making use of our track and we cannot wait to develop the space further with additional signage, to support the children in making links between their real-life experiences and their play.
The children have been very busy in their choosing time this week. From very specific and purposeful colour-mixing, to detailed story writing using our phonic knowledge, developing elaborate small-world narratives, to taking on supportive roles for our peers. We really have been working hard in our choosing time!
The teachers have particularly enjoyed hearing the children’s stories as they proudly read them back to us. The independent use of Tales Toolkit prompts has really supported the children’s story sequencing abilities. You can find these symbols and templates on the class pages if your child is keen for a bit of story writing or story telling at home!
The children’s small world narratives have revolved around our PSED learning in the latter part of the week. With Harold, we have been thinking about our responsibility to look after our world. We watched A Whale’s Tale which had such a huge impact on the children, that they continued thinking about this theme well into the rest of the week, with Charlie remarking that “we can’t leave the animals to clear up our mess… we have to do it!”
Needless to say, the arrival of the snow got lots of children engaging in outside play this week, in spite of the arctic winds! The children explored the snow’s consistency, deciding it was good enough to make snowballs out of. This prompted a competition to see who could make (and subsequently, throw) the most snowballs. After all this, we enjoyed some snow pie in the mud kitchen, served by some very enthusiastic cooks, who wanted to ensure we all had very big servings! We also enjoyed learning hockey skills, such as dribbling and passing to our friends. We may have some budding players in our midst… watch this space!