Tuesday 14 October 2014

The Three Little Pigs

 An activity day was organised to explore the story of ‘The Three Little Pigs’


We listened to the story during lunch, some of the older ones repeating phrases such as ‘Huff and Puff’ while we encouraged the little ones to try to blow the house down!

We spent some time playing with Play-Doh and the different materials the pigs used to make their houses! 


'E' was able to retell parts of the story remembering the wolf came along to 'Huff and Puff' because he wanted to "eat that piggy"




'H' and 'M' explored sticking the 'building materials' into the dough 'H' saying "oh no!" as the bigger sticks kept falling over. They used some pig and wolf animals to stick into the dough and we looked at the foot prints they made. I used one of the wolfs to re-act parts of the story saying "I'm going to huff and puff and blow your house down!"then we all blew at the buildings and said "gobble gobble gobble" and the wolf ate up a piggy!!

Lastly we made some Pig masks! Mark-making practice on a plate to colour it in pink like a Pig. Then we cut out some eyes and helped put some detailing features on before we all practiced our Piggy snorting!

The older ones obviously understood this quickly and enjoyed colouring in their masks trying to cover up all of the white bits



The younger ones needed a bit of encouragement, but enjoyed taking part in the activities with the older children and lots of snorting and giggling at the end!!






Characteristics of Effective Learning – All children enjoyed listening to the story sitting quietly or joining in with familiar lines. 'H' took his cue from us and the other children to practice blowing the house down, 'M' chose not to take part in this. While sat with Play-Doh the younger children looked around the table to see what the other children were doing and followed their example. They chose different sticks and bricks to stick into the dough, testing which ones stayed stood up and saying ‘oh!’ when the bigger ones fell over.
All the children are familiar with Mark-Making but we were using new paint sticks which the younger ones wanted to scratch at to explore and feel the texture of the paint between their fingers before we then gave them a bit of encouragement to colour in their pig faces

Thursday 9 October 2014

Duplo Building

'E' pulled out the Duplo blocks today, they have been out for a while but there hadn't been much interest in them until today. After she had tried to force them together a couple of times and announced "I can't do it!" We spoke about how they fit together, I showed her how the lumps need to fit inside the hollow side of another piece. They need to line up square and click together, then she got it and started making some short towers.




A couple of days later the blocks came out again, 'E' has mostly remembered how they go together, I had to remind her just a couple of times to turn one of them over. She announced she wanted to make a really tall tower!
I showed her how to put the bigger pieces at the bottom so it balances better, we made a tower so tall 'E' could hardly reach the top!!

Characteristics of Effective Learning
'E' tried to have a go at first but being a bit tricky she needed a demonstration on how they fit together. After she had learnt how to do it she came up with ideas of what she wanted to do

Wednesday 1 October 2014

Nature Painting

We started the morning talking a walk around the park to collect leaves, sticks and any other natural objects we could find


Throwing some leaves around and watch them flutter to the floor



Picking some good leaves for painting



Beautiful autumn skys



Lets get painting! We demonstrated how to paint one side of a leave and then turn it over to stamp the image on the paper. 'E' picked this up very quickly and made a few good prints!


Mixing some colours together to make autumnal combinations.
'E' also had a go with some sticks, dipping them in the paint and making marks on the paper.


'M' and little 'E' explored the paint and objects with interest. 'M' made some circular prints with acorn caps and 'E' rolled a conker around on the paper leaving painted tracks






Great exploration and she wasn't worried about the mess either!



Characteristics of Effective Learning
'E' joined us after we had done our collecting and just joined in with the painting. She usually enjoys painting greatly but today she wasn't all that interested in the activity and after one quick picture she wanted to go off and play. She understood direction of what we were doing (leave printing) and was able to replicate our demonstration quickly. She extended what had been demonstrated by picking up a stick and dipping it into the paint too.

'M' and Little 'E' explored the paint and objects with interest. Trying different movements with objects and the marks they leave. Little 'E' spent some time running her fingers through the paint, feeling the texture of the paint mixed with some bits of bark.