What are we doing in Dolphins in April?

Many children started to go on ‘bear hunts’ in March and it caught on. Interest was sparked with animals, including making dens for them, talking about their homes, etc. So this month we will be having a focus on the different habitats of animals.

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

Prime areas:
PSED: Working collaboratively on recreating different habitats. PD: Using different tools to make model habitats. C&L. Talking and discussing where animals live, learning new words to go with what they have learned.
Specific areas:

L: Understanding that by reading print, we can research and learn new information on what we are interested in. M: Counting, sorting, labelling animals and linking to their habitats. UW: Learning about the different types of homes and animals make homes too. EA&D: Learning how to use a variety of different equipment to make model homes.

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

·         Birds nests. Matt will be working with the children on building their own birds nests, while talking about different bird nests, how they are made, etc.

·         Making habitats. Jenny will be working with the Forest School groups to set up ‘habitats’ for the children to play in and role play the animals.

·         Dolphins and whale habitats. Manjit will be setting up environments for our toy dolphins and whales to live in and be played with, including the additional sea creatures to live there too.

·         Sorting animals to their habitats. Laura will be creating model habitats and getting the children to sort out who lives where.

·         Library trip for research. Marie-Claire will be organising an excursion to the local library to get out some books on animals and their habitats.

·         Local walk. Marie-Claire will be organising a walk in the local community to look for different animals and their habitats.

·         Making books. Shilpi will be working with the children on making books that talk about habitats and how they can change with the seasons.

What you could do to support your children at home:

·       Ask your child what their favourite animal is and what they know about it. Do some research together to confirm their knowledge and learn a little more. Library, internet, locals walks are all good for this.

·       Think about all the animals in your local community, Talk about why they think the animals might live there.

·       Introduce and use vocabulary such as; habitat, home, safety, protection, food sources, prey, environment, space, hiding, searching, cave, den, burrow, etc.

·       Think about the language of animal groups. E.g. pod, flock, pack, shoal.

What are we doing in Sea Turtles in April?

The children always enjoy sensory play and have recently been focussed on adding things to the various sensory play activities we have been doing with them, changing the textures and opportunities for learning. This month we will be encouraging this more and asking the children what they think would make the activities more interesting…

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

Prime areas:
PSED: Exploring activities in new ways with the support and encouragement of others.  PD: Making connections between their movements and the marks they make. C&L Learning new words to accompany new actions and experiences.
Specific areas:
M: Filling and emptying containers UW: Exploring using materials in a variety of ways- shaking, cutting, feeling, tasting, mouthing, pulling turning, poking.  EA&D Exploring and experimenting with a range of media through sensory exploration and using their whole body.

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

·         Textured sound makers. Sarah G will be using a variety of different textured pieces with the children to explore and then using them to make sound makers and listen out for the different sounds the piece make.

·         Changes and stages of mixtures. Laura will be working with the children on the different textures, feeling and stages of making a lot of the sensory activities we use, such as gloop, play dough, cold cornflour. She’ll introduce new and challenging words to describe the changes

·         Mixing and transporting natural materials. Sara will be setting up messy areas where children can explore, transport, combine and mix a variety of pourable natural resources, such as sand, soil, flour, water, etc.

·         Touch and feel trays. Chloe will be setting up some trays each with different textures to explore, such as oil, leaves, rice, noodles and focussing on the language to describe the textures, such as crunchy, dry, hard, slippery.

·         Soap mud. Cristina will be making and using soap mud with the children and adding fragrances, glitters.

·         Coloured and ice cube shapes. Ella will be making a lot of ice cubes of different shapes and colours to feel, play with, combine with other resources; talking about the way it feels and how cold and different it is to other items.

Some ideas to support your children at home:

·         Children love sensory play. It encourages the exploration impulse, cause/ effect, understanding of textures and so many opportunities for language through the changes in state, ways to manipulate it, etc. It does require you to combine the language with the actions and to be ready for a bit of sensory play too. It is so much fun. For some great ideas on sensory activities, the web is full of them and we have gathered some on our Pinterest page to get you started.

http://pinterest.com/workingmumsfun/

·         Language: soft, sticky, squashy, dribbly, crunchy, wet, dry, pull, poke, prod, twist, stretch, tacky, squeeze, push, crack………