What are we doing in Dolphins for  February?

More building!!!

The children are loving the building topic and so we are planning to continue and extend it this month.

The activities this month will be based around the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) areas of learning:
Prime areas:
C&L: Sharing ideas, what we know and asking questions to find out more.  PD: Using hand tools and different types of medial to piece together model buildings. PSED: Playing and working in groups, feeling good about taking on others ideas and confident in sharing own.

Specific areas:

UW: Showing curiosity and learning about other people around the world, their countries and their types of building. L: Showing an interest in different books; fact and fiction and using books as a resource in learning more about buildings. EA&D: Using different materials to construct, build, balance, join and collage. M: Learning about size, shape, positioning, height, etc of buildings.

Some of the activities we will be doing this month to support this will be:

·         The Wise Man Built His House Upon The Rocks. Marie Claire will be building two house with the children. One on a pile of sand and one on a bile of rocks. She’ll then be pouring water over them and getting the children to predict which house will remain standing.

·         Su will introduce the song of the Wise Man Built His House Upon The Rocks.

·         Making clay bricks. Christine H will be making some clay bricks with the children and then using them to make some structures.

·         Tepee making. Jenny will be showing the children how to make simple tepees in the car park with sticks and cloth.

·         Ginger bread house. Cristina will be making a ginger bread house with the children.

·         Iggy Peck Architect. We’ll be looking at this book and talking about the different ways we can build.

·         Street walk. Laura Z will be organising walks with children to look at the different types of buildings there are in our local area. Some of the children will take photographs of them and then print them out and laminate them to support discussions,

What you could do to support your children at home:

·      Make a den at home; inside, in your garden, etc.

·      Get out your blocks (or use boxes, rocks, bricks, if you don’t have any) and build a tower. Talk about the need for bigger ones at the bottom and smaller at the top for balancing.

·      Talk about the different houses of the people you know. How are they different? Are they a different style because of where they live?

·      Get an old box and make a house or a building of some sort. Make furniture to go in it with smaller boxes. Let you imagination and ideas flow with your child.

What are we doing in Sea Turtles in February?

The children have become very interested in sound in the environment. Particularly while in the outdoors, where they are hearing sounds that they can’t see and trying to guess what they are. So, this month we are going to extend on that and talk about what the sounds are, try to locate its source and then learn more about it.

 The activities this month will be based around the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) areas of learning:

Prime areas:

C&L: Listening to the noises that adults make when they tell stories. Recognising and responding to sounds.  PSED: Interactions with others. Exploring new situations when supported by a familiar adult. PD: Make connections between their movements and the sounds they make when moving.

Specific areas:

UW: Observing and making sense of what animals, people and vehicles do. EA&D: Dance and movement to different sounds and feeling the effect of the sounds on our bodies. M: Looking at shapes of the things we hear in silhouette and working out what they are.

Some of the activities we will be doing this month will involve:

·         Exploring the park. Laura W will be organising a series of excursions to the park to listen to sounds in the environment and then searching to find the source of the sounds.

·         City and animal sounds guessing. Sara will be setting up sessions where the children have the opportunity to listen to sounds of the city and sounds of animals and then guessing what they may be and reinforcing with pictures.

·         Movement to instruments. Sarah G will be using instruments to make sounds that reflect the movements of animals and getting the children to move like different animals.

·         Road role play. All of the team will be setting up road ways for the children role play riding cars, trucks, bikes, etc and making the noises the different vehicles make as they go.

·         Image collage. Chloe will be making collages with children using simple images of things that make noises and then making the noises they make with the children.

·         Movement of music. Ella will be supporting the children in moving to different music speeds. Loud, soft, quick, slow, etc.

Some ideas to support your children at home:

·         Take time to stop and listen to sounds in your environment. What sounds do you hear every day? Are there dogs, cats or birds that are regularly calling at a certain time?

·         Talk about different things and the sounds they make. Try to copy the sounds they make. E.g. the whir of the kettle boiling, the shower going, pets, alarms, phones, etc.

·         Try to track noises you hear. Listen for a noise, repeat it so you know you are listening to the same thing and then try to track it down.