Construction
The children have been creating towers and structures using bricks whilst learning new words like ‘construction’, ‘demolition’, and ‘structures’. They have been imaginative and problem-solving when creating, showing resilience when our towers fall or something does not go to plan, developing perseverance and understanding that mistakes are part of learning.
Transport
We have been exploring different vehicles and their purposes through fiction and non-fiction books like “Duck in the Truck” by Jez Alborough and “Emergency! (Awesome Engines)” by Margaret Mayo. The children have been learning new words like ‘transport’, ‘vehicle’, and ’emergency’ whilst using different vehicles to print with paint, looking at the lines and marks they make.
We have been learning concepts like ‘fast/slow’, ‘long/short’, and ‘heavy/light’ by comparing vehicles and different ways of transportation, developing mathematical language and comparative thinking. The children have been singing ‘Wheels on the Bus’, ‘Five Little Trains’, ‘Row Your Boat’, and ‘Zoom, Zoom, Zoom’, building vocabulary and rhythm through music.
Names
We have been singing the ‘Hicklety, Picklety Bumblebee’ song to learn our friends’ names whilst clapping and counting the syllables in our names, developing phonological awareness. The children have been looking at how our names look when written and beginning to trace and copy some of the letters from our names, building early writing skills and name recognition.
Lunar New Year
The children have been reading non-fiction texts about how Lunar New Year is celebrated and reading a fictional story about the Zodiac and the tale of The Great Race. We used props and drawings to recall the story of the order of animals for the Zodiac calendar, developing narrative and sequencing skills.
We have been using the animals of the Zodiac to make prints on long paper whilst looking at Chinese writing and copying the symbol for ‘horse’ because this year is the Year of the Horse. The children used pens and paint when copying, exploring mark-making in a new cultural context.
The children have been decorating red money pockets, which are traditionally given to children to bring good luck at Lunar New Year. They tried to write their names on the money pocket and were given one lucky penny to take home.
We have been exploring noodles and soy sauce, feeling the differences between cooked and dry noodles, tasting how the sauce changes their flavour, and using our fine motor skills to use chopsticks and tweezers to eat them. This sensory and cultural experience introduced new foods whilst developing coordination.
