Thursday 11 February 2016

Shrove Tuesday 2016

All children love baking activities so shrove Tuesday was the perfect opportunity to get in the kitchen and create some food. 


The children initially looked at a simple recipe sheet for making pancakes, talking about the order that we put the ingredients in the bowl and how we combine them together. The children all took turns in helping. 


We then set to work with the children using the scales to weigh out the correct amount of flour, pouring in the milk and the eggs and then mixing the ingredients together to create a batter. They felt the texture of the eggs and talked about the cold wet batter. 


Then it was time to cook! The children took turns in watching the batter transform in the frying pan from a liquid to a solid and they all wanted a go at flipping the pancakes, some of which were more successful than others! What a yummy way to spend a morning and we covered so many areas of learning:

Social Development: Working together and taking turns with the cooking tasks.
Physical Development: Using spoons correctly to weigh out the flour and mix the batter together with attempting to catch the pancakes!
Communication & Language: Following instructions to make the batter and using new words to describe our ingredients.
Literacy: Looking at written print of a simple recipe
Numeracy: Reading the numbers on the scales and counting the scoops of flour.
Understanding the World: Taking part in traditions of the community

Thursday 4 February 2016

Stick Man play


We enjoyed a lovely walk through Cann Woods this morning where the children absolutely loved the selection of dens that were constructed under the trees. They had great fun moving the logs around to create their own dens as well as experimenting with climbing and balancing.


We decided to use some of the sticks to relate to our story today - Stick Man. Even the dog joined in by playing his part of the dog running off with the stick!


Having read our story the children all joined in making their stickman pictures - an activity that the older children were determined to take part in on their return home from school. We got some pretty cool stick men!

Tuesday 2 February 2016

Winter Sensory Play


Children of all ages enjoy open ended sensory play and over the last few weeks we have had a few variations of winter themed play for them to enjoy. 


Initially we used our snow blanket with cotton wool balls and tweezers to encourage fine motor skills as well as the introduction of words relating to winter using our magnetic letters. We introduced some animals that live in cold conditions, talking about their habitats.


Our second sensory tray proved to be a lot messier! We used tin foil as an ice base and covered this with corn flour to represent the snow. The children attempted to build snowmen together with making vehicle tracks in the snow. 


Particularly evident within these play sessions is the great use of imagination with elaborate stories being invented by children from three to nine years! Our youngest (1 year old) was content using spoons to move cotton wool balls around and lining up cars in the snow.