This week in the early years we have been learning all about the celebration of the Lunar New Year. We focussed on China but also looked at the other countries where it is celebrated such as Korea and Vietnam. The children learnt all about the story of the Great Race and how each year is named after a different animal in the order that they finished the race. In all of the classes, children have been engaged in crafts and activities to enhance their learning in this subject.
The early years children have also been celebrating Children’s Mental Health Awareness week. Each day, they have been practising a different wellbeing technique such as five-fingered breathing or having an attitude of gratitude. I hope you have found the tips and tools placed on Google Classroom to be of use to continue this learning at home.
In Reception, the children have enjoyed dressing up in traditional Chinese clothing and dancing to Chinese music. They have been developing their fine motor control by moving noodles and rice from one container to another using chopsticks and spoons. Using their mathematic and recall skills, they have ordered the animals in relation to how they finished the Great Race. They also created their own animal puppets to act out the story.
In addition to learning about the Lunar New Year, Reception have been looking at the book Billy and the Beast to finish their Watch out – there’s a monster about! topic. On Monday, Reception had a visit from a creature who goes by the name “Terrible Beast”. He made a mess in the classrooms, knocking things over and leaving footprints and fur everywhere before eating some of our snacks. The children have been on a mission to find him by creating traps and wanted posters. Mr Robins heard about our monster mission and came to share a book about a young heroine who finds the real monsters in her story.
We have also been enjoying our PE lessons this term which have culminated in using the large apparatus in the hall. The children demonstrated excellent balance and coordination while travelling over, through and jumping off various equipment.
This week, Nursery have been learning all about Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We had so much fun making teddy bear headbands that we used to help us act out the story. We also enjoyed making our own porridge to see if we like it as much as the bears do. We extended our learning by talking about all the yummy food we like to add to our porridge and what our families like to eat. We have also been looking at the comparative language of big, medium and small. This has helped us to find the correct size objects for either daddy bear, mummy bear and baby bear. We have also been looking at the festival Luna New year and found out it’s the year of the dragon. To celebrate this, we have made our own dragons.
