ROOM ON THE BROOM

This week we have been reading a great rhyming story called Room on the Broom:
Room on the broom song

We wrote or drew our own magical potions.

We have been making magic spells like the witch and we are learning a Nursery Rhyme about how to cast a spell:
When you want to make a spell

We made a muddy bog just like in the story (using water, cornstarch and food colouring- apologies for any brown staining on hands!)

For a bit more about cornflour and water, click below!
CORNFLOUR AND WATER

And used measuring cylinders to pour out bubbling green potions.

We have been using story sequencing cards to re-tell the story.
In the gym we acted out the story and moved like the different characters.

We're about to fall off the broom!

We even tried balancing on each other to feel like flying and to make a scary monster!

In phonics we have been learning about alliteration; we used some toy animals to help us- dangerous Dave the donkey, Lenny the lazy lion, Carla the crazy crocodile and elegant Edward the elephant.

For maths we developed our measuring skills: we made a broomstick big enough to carry all of us and we had to make sure that there was room on the broom!

Homework:
Please have a look at the TEACH YOUR MONSTER TO READ post. Try to log in and create your monster and play the first game.
Have a go at measuring different things at home, you could use a tape measure but you could also use non standard measurements like lego pieces!
Choose one of the tasks and challenges and a story to listen to (links on the right hand side of the blog).

TEACH YOUR MONSTER TO READ

Teach your monster to read is an online game which supports reading.
It is free to use at home on your computer.
Each child has their own page and can create their own monster to play with (some of the children have already created their monsters at school!)
Follow the link below and you will get to our class signing in page.
To enter just type in your child's first name.
The game is well explained but if you have any difficulties please do ask Miss Lucie for help.

TEACH YOUR MONSTER TO READ

FIRE, FIRE!

This week we have been preparing for our visit to the Fire Station.
It's been a serious business!

• 
  
• We have watched some fire safety films.
• We have made fire officer name badges.
• We have done fire fighter training in the gym,
• We have painted and drawn pictures of fires.
• We have built a fire engine and played lots of fire fighter games.
• We even learned a song about fire, click below to listen.

London's Burning

Here are some of the interesting things we saw at the Fire Station, see if you can guess who their latest recruit is!!

 Which number can you see on the fire engine?

This is the big map that shows the area covered by the Istra Fire Station.

All the hoses must be put back carefully after they've been used.

How many fire extinguishers can you count?

Each firefighter has their own personal breathing apparatus.

Demonstration of how to use the mask and breathing apparatus.

Can you guess who is under all this equipment?

In maths we have been exploring the concept of pairs (not pears!)

Can you see the different pairs that we have been looking at?

Homework

Please talk about fire safety in your home. What is your plan if there is a fire?

Ask your child to draw a map of their escape route if there is a fire.

MOOD MONSTERS

This week we have met some mood monsters!

The red monster is angry and stamps and shouts.
The blue monster is sad and sometims cries or hides.
The green monster is scared and might shake like a jelly.
The purple monster is excited and bounces up and down.
The yellow monster is happy and smiles and laughs.
The orange monster is surprised and has wide eyes.

Which moods have you experienced this week?

Have a look at the monsters we made with the kinetic sand!

We also listened to lots of different types of music and thought about how we felt like moving our bodies and how the music made us feel. We chose which mood monster to sit in front of when the music stopped playing and took it in turns to say 'The music made me feel......'

In maths we have been working with numicon. Matching numerals to quantity and finding different ways to make the same number using the numicon (addition).

We always enjoy reading together. One of the stories we enjoyed this week was Dogs don't do ballet

Click below to listen to the story again. And talk about the things that you do that make you feel happy.

Dogs Don't Do Ballet

Our Rhyme this week was Hickory Dickory Dock. Click here to listen to some of the children reciting it, can you guess whose voice is whose?

We've also been getting nice and slimy with some non-newtonian fluids. We dyed this cornflour and water slime bright yellow and enjoyed scooping, pouring, moulding it and watching it drip through our fingers!

AND we finished our display based on the story about Augustus the tiger. Look closely and you will see that recreated some of the artwork in the book, practised our handwriting and pencil control with the captions and the tiger stripes at the top and bottom of the picture.

HOMEWORK

Please listen to 'Rhythm and Dynamics' and 'Who's voice?' in the tasks and challenges section.

Talk yo your child about which different moods they experience, what can affect their mood? Play them some music you like to listen to when you are happy, sad, angry, calm.

Draw a mood picture or make a mood collage.

AUGUSTUS AND HIS SMILE

This is the book we have been working with this week.
We have talked about feeling happy and feeling sad and how different activities, experiences and even weather can affect the way we feel.
To really get to grips with the story, we constructed different elements of the story in the gym and took it in turns to act out the story.

Augustus crawls through the bushes....

Augustus climbs the tallest trees....

Augustus scales the peaks of the highest mountains...

Augustus swims to the bottom of the deepest oceans...

Augustus finally finds his smile in a sparkling puddle!

Not only were we developing our gross motor skills, we were expanding our imaginations and developing our literacy and language skills.

Later we made maps of Augustus's journey to find his smile.

We have also been dancing along to a happy song you can find it by clicking this link or looking in our SONGS AND RHYMES section

HAPPY DANCE

We have also been doing the ROLY POLY rhyme which makes us all giggle! Click below

ROLY POLY

Also in the classroom we have been working with numbers

and on fine motor skills and collaboration and cooperation

We've managed to get outside every day this week:

building shelters in case the rain started pouring down!

working on our core strength and balancing 

examining the last of the strawberry plants

We've had a busy week so make sure you have a good rest of the weekend!

HOMEWORK

Have a go at the rhythm and rhyme games on busythings.co.uk

Listen to one of our stories.

Ask your child if they can remember all of things that Augustus did that helped him to find his smile.

Help your child to draw a picture or make a collage of something that makes them feel happy and bring it in to school to show us!

MUMS AND DADS

This week we read one of our favourite stories, Monkey Puzzle, the children love joining in with the little monkey who's desperately trying to find his mum in the jungle.
Click below to hear the story.
Monkey Puzzle

We talked about our own mums and dads and drew pictures and made paper dolls. Can you recognise yourself?

We've had lots of rainy weather which means it's sometimes been too wet to go outside, but we still manage to get active with sessions in the gym instead.

We also keep our fingers active developing our fine motor skills. This tray of paint may look beautiful it soon got all mixed up using the forks. Later children got their hands into the paint and made some fantastic scratch marks, swirls, circles and lines.

In phonics we have been exploring body percussion- what noises can you make with your body? We had fun working in pairs finding out what noises we could make with a friend, like clapping together or tapping someone else's back while they said ahhhhhh.

HOMEWORK

Listen to the 5 little monkeys song again. 

Practise writing numbers 1-5.

Play with the number of monkeys: what if there were 8 monkeys and 2 fell off the bed? What if there were 4 monkeys and 1 snuck back on the bed while mum wasn't looking?

SELF PORTRAITS