Monday
Our story for this week was the wonderful 'Handa's Surprise', so we had fruit-themed activities running every day. Today we introduced the story to the children (using our new Big Book) and supported it with a drop box with linked resources, as well as providing the children with masks and pictures of fruit to colour in and play with. The secret stones that the children so carefully decorated last week were sent home today - have you hidden yours yet? And (just in case you missed it) the World Cup has started and the children have gone football-crazy, so of course we played football today as well.
Tuesday
In story time today, as well as reading 'Handa's Surprise' the children were able to see and handle the tropical fruits mentioned in the story. We put them all together in a basket and tried balancing it on our heads like Handa does in the story. They were so heavy! In our maths corner, we were using Numicon to make numbers bigger than 10 - some really impressive mathematical thinking went on. The children also enjoyed making and decorating gingerbread men again today. They could recall the ingredients that they needed, and remembered the important rules of hygiene and cooking safety.
Wednesday
Today the children had the opportunity to taste the different fruits that appear in 'Handa's Surprise'. The children really loved this activity, using their senses to explore the feel, smell and taste of the different fruits. We took a poll at the end, and the children's favourite fruit from the activity was pineapple. Well done to all the children for being brave and trying something that was out of their comfort zone. Later, we went over to the school playing field to practise for our Sports Day. We have some very competitive children, it turns out!
Thursday
The children were learning about dental hygiene today, with laminated teeth which they had to brush clean of plaque. Elsewhere, some children were enjoying our new princess jigsaw puzzles, while others continued with the Numicon activity we introduced on Tuesday. As it was another glorious day, there was lots of time for play outside; some of our children were thinking about the forthcoming summer holidays and getting some sandcastle-building practice.
Friday
It was a day of high activity today, as we went over to the school field for Sports Day practice as well as using the balance beams and having an Early Movers yoga session. Phew! Becky brought in a special surprise for the children: the different stages of a frog's life cycle, all in the same container! The children loved seeing the frog spawn, tadpoles and froglets (though, fortunately, no fully-grown frogs...) and enjoyed listening to 'Tadpole's Promise' at story time.