Videos
Hey My Name is Joe – Exercise Rap!
In the Hairy Scary Castle
Hello again!
We hope you are enjoying the activities and videos. Please don’t forget to comment or make any requests either via the website or facebook.
Beech and Acorns continue to do lots of cooking – this week they have been making stir-fry. Willow continues with lots of science experiments – Dave has been making rain!
Treasure Hunt
Children love this game – you can use anything to hide inside or outside the house, in the park! Be creative where you hide things – create challenges – things up high or tangled in bushes.
Key learning –
- Characteristics of Effective Learning – Noticing, sight and touch. Showing focus and high levels of involvement and concentration.
- Counting – how many things you have found.
- Talking about the objects they have found.
You will need –
- Anything to hide – toys, kitchen objects, food (although wash before eating!) etc. etc.
- Time to prepare – making resources (see below) and hiding them.
In Willow this week we went on a letter hunt. We talked about and showed letters before going on the hunt. Some children recognised the first letter of their name and we had fun using the initial sounds and linking to ‘I Spy’ (activity from 2 weeks ago). You could use letters or numbers just by cutting them out of old magazines or newspapers. This will also help children with their scissor skills.
If you want you could extend by drawing treasure maps. Children love the ‘x marks the spot’ and you can have fun using directional skills eg. 5 steps straight on then turn to the left and look up.
Role Play Stories
Key learning –
- Understanding story
- Sequencing events, knowing what comes next
- Remembering characters, environments and details of story
- Being imaginative – changing the story!
This is a great way to see whether your child remembers and understands stories. We often find that the children have missed the key point in The Gruffalo that the mouse is tricking the Gruffalo, the concept being hard for many 3 and 4 year olds to grasp!
You will need –
- Props from the story you decide to do. Think about all the essential things you need to tell the story. Willow have been focusing on Goldilocks and the 3 bears for the past few weeks, we used different sized teddy bears, bowls and spoons, chairs and beds and a doll for Goldilocks. Props can be from anywhere – toys, kitchen, garden – use your imagination.
- Yourselves! You could be the characters in the story if you wish.
Start by asking your child if they remember the story. Who would they like to be or have eg. Big bear. Don’t be afraid of joining in. Use key phrases like ‘I wonder what happened next’. Let your child take the lead. Don’t be afraid if your child wants to change the story – comment on how they have changed it eg. ‘You’ve changed the story. Goldilocks runs away back home in the book but you’ve decided that they are all going to have a tea party. What a great idea’.
Above all have fun!
Mindfulness
We continue to visit the children’s well-being with stories, discussions and yoga. We use the Indian bells to signal the start and finish of the session and concentrate on breathing and relaxing techniques. Please keep using the websites suggested last week as well as the following for more help with children’s mental health.
https://www.place2be.org.uk/our-services/parents-and-carers/supporting-your-child-s-mental-health/
Here’s Liz –
This week in Beech and Acorns we have had lots of fun learning how to cook a delicious stir fry. We chopped and tasted broccoli, mushrooms, courgettes and peppers as well as ginger.
We also did Yoga with Adriene from YouTube which was really good fun for everybody! Have a look if you want to get moving alongside your child.
At the end of the week we found out about ice and then had collected sticks and had a fire together in the garden.
The children have also practised junk modelling and spent a long time cutting the boxes using our scissors and then fixing them again using masking tape.
Have a look around and see if you have any spare boxes at home if you want to have a go.