Here in Little Cypress we have had lots of fun over the past week! We have experienced various types of weather, from unseasonably warm October sun to near constant rain and drizzle in the last couple of days. As always, nature provided us with the best learning experiences and many, many wet sleeves and items of clothing along the way!
Leading our Learning
We always try our best to go with the interests of the children to drive the learning and provision, as this is the most motivational way for children to become absorbed and excited about their time here. The children have been talking about Halloween and some of the things they are planning to do over the half-term break, gifting us as practitioners with a wealth of learning opportunities and activities to scaffold these interests.
As a result, the children have been developing their fine motor skills by pushing pins in to pumpkins and squashes and then manipulating elastic bands to create different shapes and patterns. We experimented with both push pins and golf tees and realised that the golf tees were harder to push in than the pins. Lots of scientific and mathematical language ensued: “I think it’s because the pins are tiny and the golf tees are bigger!” and “I’m little so I can only push in the little pins but the other ones are too difficult for me because they are big!”
We have explored a variety of typical Halloween images, including pumpkins, bats, owls, witches, black cats and so on and made some wonderful repeating patterns with the different shape, using Halloween colours: black, purple, orange and green.
Matakon Sign of the Week
Our Makaton Sign of the Week is a very useful one this week, seeing as our school Therapy Dog, Seve, spends so much time with us in Little Cypress! Click here to see how to sign ‘dog’.
We hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
Miss Chapman and The Little Cypress Team
