Little Owls Class Blog
Welcome to the Little Owls Preschool Class Blog.
Week Beginning 15th May
We are at the end of another busy week. The children have been learning about sheep this week, looking at how wool is made from the shearing stage to what then happens at the mill. They have been using their 'funky fingers' to weave with wool which has been a little tricky but they all persevered.
The children have also been looking at sequencing over the past two weeks. They enjoyed giving Beebot instructions to reach a destination on a map, the children have used the story of Rosie's Walk and they have also looked at how to grow cress seeds by following a sequence of instructions - fingers crossed the cress will grow so they can see the final stage of the sequence!
Week Beginning 1st May
The children have had a busy Coronation themed week. They have enjoyed making crowns and finger print Union Jack flags. The weather was perfect for our Coronation picnic on Wednesday and the children loved eating outside with the rest of the school.
This week we had a special 'email' from the zoo offering us a chance to go into a prize draw to win an animal for the day! The children came up with lots of zoo animal choices and then painted their own animal. We have been really impressed with their artistic skills as the children used pictures on the iPad to help paint their pictures.
Week Beginning 24th April
Little Owls have had another busy week. They took part in their first PE lesson with Mr Roberts from Wollaston School. They worked on their circus skills, pretending to be clowns and also walk the tightrope! Then they worked on their ball skills and partner work. In Art, they continued their work on printing by using different junk materials to create their pictures.
In Maths the children have been exploring patterns; how to spot the repeating pattern & what comes next, how to continue a pattern & also create their own patterns.
Week Beginning 17th April
It has been great to see everybody back in school after the Easter break. We have had some new additions added to our outdoor area including some gravel pits. The children have enjoyed getting in the gravel, using their imagination and role play skills to create building themed games and dinosaur games.
The children have been using lots of positional language in their activities this week and have extended this into their own independent activities. They have also been learning about the life cycle of a hen and watched a film clip of a chick hatching.
Week Beginning 6th March
What an interesting week of weather we have had, despite the snow towards the end of the week, we did manage to go on a Signs of Spring walk! The children spotted blossom, daffodils, a birds nest, buds and the lambs in the field.
For our class story of Jack and the Beanstalk, the children were thinking about the giant and what he might look like. They worked together to create a picture of the giant and thought of words to describe him.
The children have been exploring capacity, investigating how much water different containers will hold.
The children worked collaboratively with Big Owls to create large paintings in the style of Miro, taking your pencil for a walk style.
Week Beginning 27th February
The children have had a busy week with lots of opportunities to engage with books and stories to celebrate World Book day. On Monday they watched a workshop run by the author Julia Donaldson and the illustrator Axel Scheffler who read some stories and also demonstrated how he draws some of the pictures. On Tuesday we had our weekly Book & Biscuit session with parents. We looked at the story How to Catch a Star on Wednesday and created some stars to hang from the ceiling and on Thursday we had Buddy Reading with Lions class.
The children have also been investigating length, using non-standard measures such as cubes to measure how long things were. The children have also been looking at things that are safe & unsafe to go in our bodies.
Week Beginning 6th February
We are at the end of another busy week! This week the children were learning about the different types of air travel & were then excited to see an aeroplane in the sky outside. They have continued with their number work in Maths, identifying numerals and counting the correct number of objects to match.
This week was Mental Health Awareness Week. We looked at The Dot story by Peter H Reynolds to think about being resilient and not giving up. We talked about the power of yet to help us when we doing something to promote a culture of not giving up. The children then enjoyed creating heir own dot pictures.
Enjoy the half term break and we look forward to seeing you on 20th February.
Week Beginning 30th January
The children have had an enjoyable week and it has been great to have some nice weather. They have enjoyed exploring floating and sinking, sorting different items into the correct boxes. They also enjoyed taking part in boat races, blowing on their boat to see who came 1st, 2nd and 3rd.
They have also been innovating our story of Mr Gumpy's Outing, changing the animals.
Week Beginning 16th January
We are at the end of another busy week. This week the children have made some bird feeders to hang outside during the cold weather. They put lard onto toilet roll tubes & then rolled them in some bird seed. The children have enjoyed watching the birds eat the seed and have learnt that they need to be still & quiet so the birds do not fly away.
We have had some interesting discussions around brushing teeth and the children have shown their understanding of when & how they need to brush their teeth. They have enjoyed putting toothpaste onto a brush to clean the 'teeth!'
Week Beginning 9th January
Welcome back to the first full week of the Spring Term. We have welcomed four new starters who have settled in nicely to our setting. This week the children have been thinking about where they live, we looked at Bozeat on a map & also found other places that children live in. They have been looking at their houses and have begun to make them out of boxes.
Some of the older children are beginning to build their names & have also started to write them. In Maths the children have been looking at the order of numbers and counting. Our new story is Mr Gumpy's Outing.
Week Beginning 5th December
The children have had an enjoyable week and the excitement of Christmas is beginning to build. They have been busy helping to decorate the Christmas trees and had a lovely Christmas dinner on Wednesday.
The children have continued to do lots of activities based around shape and we are really pleased with their ability to recognise and name shapes they see around the school.
To finish our work on The Enormous Turnip, the children also helped to make some soup with the rest of the class.
Week Beginning 28th November
The children have enjoyed another busy week in school. As a school we are taking part in the church Christmas tree festival and each class has a story focus. Our story is Stick Man, so the children have been busy making stick men decorations & you can visit the church this weekend to see all the different trees.
We have also continued our story of The Enormous Turnip and the children worked together to create a story map for their story of The Enormous Carrot. They have been doing lots of shape activities this week so that they can begin to name the shapes and identify how many sides and corners they have. We have also looked at the artist Kandinsky and the children started to create some splat pictures which is a little messy but lots of fun!
Week Beginning 14th November
This week we have been taking part in World Nursery Rhyme week. Each day we have focussed on a different nursery rhyme, singing the song & joining in linked craft & Maths activities. On Monday it was The Big Ship Sails; Tuesday was 1, 2, 3, 4, 5; Wednesday we looked at 5 Little Speckled Frogs; Thursday was B-I-N-G-O and Friday was Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Below are some links to the music we used.
The children have also been doing lots of Maths activities, looking at the numbers to 4, counting groups & hunting for the numbers in the environment. They have been talking the story of The Enormous Turnip & ordering the story.
Week Beginning 7th November
This week the children have been learning a little about Remembrance Day and why we wear poppies. They all made their own poppies which they carried into the hall today for our two-minute silence. The children also made tissue paper poppies which you can see on our windows.
In maths they have been looking at the number 3, playing games with the numbers 1, 2 and 3 and have also been listening out for drumbeats to count.
The children have continued with the story of The Enormous Turnip using puppets to role play and have also enjoyed working together to complete a jigsaw puzzle.
Week Beginning 31st October
It was great to see everybody back in school after the half term holiday. The children have been busy with lots of pumpkin, colour mixing and firework themed activities. After our Harvest discussions and learning we decided to set up a fruit and vegetable shop in our role play area so that the children were exposed to a range of different foods in a tactile way (this food will be used for further activities next week so that it won't be wasted). This has generated lots of discussions about the different types of vegetables as well as using vocabulary related to money. We have also been learning about how to stay safe around fireworks and bonfire night.
Week Beginning 17th October
This week the children have enjoyed lots of porridge activities! On Monday they followed instructions to make porridge and enjoyed eating it afterwards with honey. They used a non-fiction map to talk the instructions with actions and created their own walk- through map on the floor. The children have demonstrated their learning through role playing porridge making in the Tuff Spot and mud kitchen outside.
We have been thinking about how we grow and change, and the children created a timeline of stages from being a baby to an elderly person. They had lots of fun making footprints, looking at them and comparing the different sizes.
We hope everyone has a fun- filled and safe half term and look forward to welcoming them back to school on Monday 31st October.
Week Beginning 10th October
The children have continued to take an interest in Autumn and the changes they can see around them. They have used conkers to paint pictures by rolling them around a tray in paint and they have created their own leaf people by adding faces and goggly eyes to some collected leaves.
Our story this week has been The Magic Porridge Pot. The children have joined Big Owls to learn the story and tell it using actions. They remembered the key story phrases 'cook little pot cook' and 'stop little pot stop' and have been using them in their role play. Next week we are going to be making our own porridge!
Week Beginning 3rd October
We have had a very busy week! On Tuesday we all walked down to the church with the rest of the school for our Harvest Festival, where the children sang the song 'Tractor Tractor.'
Our story this week has been the Little Red Hen which has tied in quite nicely with Harvest & Autumn. I have been quite impressed with the children's story telling skills and I have added some videos onto Tapestry so have a look! The children enjoyed making their own bread just like the Little Red Hen and they discussed all the different changes they could see during this process. Afterwards they enjoyed eating their bread with some butter and the verdict was good!
The children have continued to collect the leaves from the playground and have been using them to create different pictures, rubbings & even threading them onto string.
Week beginning 26th September
This week the children have started to think about Harvest and those who were in on Tuesday enjoyed the time in church at the Experience Harvest event. We have been singing our Harvest song ready for the Harvest festival next week. They have also started to notice the changes in the leaves and trees so they collected some leaves and used them to do some printing.
The children have continued to develop their counting skills and 1-1 correspondence using dice games and five frames.
Our story this week has been The Gingerbread Man so the children have been using puppets to retell the story and have enjoyed making their own gingerbread men with playdough.
They have continued to talk about their families and drew pictures of their family to add to the houses they painted last week.
Week beginning 19th September
The children have had another busy week. They have been playing skittles and other games to encourage their counting skills and 1-1 correspondence as well as matching dots to numerals. Whilst playing skittles they were introduced to using a tally system to keep track of the scores.
The children have been talking about their families and looking at lots of different families. They painted pictures of their houses and explained what they looked like and who lives there.
They have also enjoyed bug hunting and have been carefully collecting them, using magnifying glasses to look at them and then carefully putting the bugs back where they found them.
Week beginning 12th September
This week the children have been enjoying our number puzzles and have shown lots of collaboration to help each other complete them. In PSHE they have been thinking about their bodies and using words to name the different body parts. The children continue to develop their gross motor and fine motor movements using up, down movements and side to side - they developed these to create crosses.
Week beginning 5th September
Welcome to the new school year! It has been great to see everybody back in school and to welcome our new starters. All the preschool children have quickly settled into the daily routine and are enjoying getting to know our new Nursery Nurse Mrs Nunn.
This week preschool have been building their fine motor skills during Funky Fingers and Dough Disco and have also been drawing lots of circles. They started to think about themselves and have painted their self-portraits. They went on a Primary Colour Hunt and used their collage skills to create a colour wheel. In our outdoor area, the children helped to plant some new herbs that they can use in the Mud Kitchen.
