This week our topic book was Sometimes I Like To Curl Up In A Ball by Vicki Churchill and Charles Fuge. This story is all about a little playful Wombat who loves exploring and going on adventures. Little Wombat spends his day doing all his favourite things; strutting around and around until he falls over. He also loves sticking out his tongue and making funny faces and jumping as high as he can to see how much noise he can make when he lands on his feet. At the end of the day little Wombat likes nothing more than curling up in a ball next to his Mummy where he is warm and safe. The Chicks loved this story and we had great fun acting out scenes and making funny faces to impersonate the Little Wombat!
The highlight of the week however was our Outdoor Learning Day where we visited the Common. The children collected sticks and then compared the sizes of the sticks and counted out how many we had. The Chicks further developed their gross motor skills by taking risks while independently climbing the trees. We extended the Pink and Yellows Groups learning back in the classroom and the children counted and compared the sticks according to weight and size while using Mathematical language such as big, small, tall, short, fat and thin.
Back at 345 The Green and Orange Chicks expanded their learning about the weather. The children looked up at the sky and observed that the sky was "very bright" and they could see "white lines in the sky" that the aeroplanes were making. The children had to quickly cover their eyes from sky because the sun was very bright.
The Chicks also noticed that their bodies were making shadows on the wooden fence and we all enjoyed making different poses and watching how our shadows changed shape! This led us to touch the fence, discovering that the wood felt warm. Miss Katka encouraged the children to touch the ground and the parts of the fence that was in the shade. The Green and Orange groups noticed that it was very cold. We discussed why this was and learned that they were cold because they didn't have the sun shining on them. After our outdoor weather exploration the children continued to explore hot and cold during their Maths Activity by studying hot and cold water in jars before dressing the people in the correct clothes according to the weather.
The Pink and Yellow Chicks explored letter sounds this week by trying to find different letters hidden in shredded paper. They were very good at sounding out the sounds that they had found. We continued our focus on sounds in Music where the children enjoyed tapping out the syllables in their names using the rhythm sticks The Green and Orange Chicks joined in with the fun and explored different beats while playing the drums, maracas and the tambourines.
During Cookery the children explored their senses through taste, smell, and touch. We explored the differences between cooked and uncooked vegetables, describing colours, tastes and textures. We also learned that vegetables grow at different times of the year and learned which vegetables grow in Winter. The children cut up the vegetables using knives and they discovered that the raw vegetables were harder to cut. All the children loved eating the vegetables and I was very surprised as how many Chicks enjoyed the brussels sprouts!