Our topic this week was ‘Please Don’t Chat to the Bus Driver’ by Shen Roddie. In the story, the bus is running late and a long queue has formed where all the animals are waiting. When the bus arrives everyone is told, "please don't chat to the bus driver" but none of the animals can resist and before the bus driver knows it, he is so busy listening to all of the animals that he is running even later than before! This was a great book to introduce new words around transport to the children and to discuss all the journeys we had been on where we had travelled on then bus, what we had seen out the window and who we had been on our journeys with.
In Art we continued our theme around our topic book by each group working together to make a large double decker bus. They began by working together to collectively paint large sheets of paper red. We used thick brushes, sponges and rollers. The children then painted the individual animals depicted in the story and were encouraged to describe their artwork to their teachers and peers.
During our Drama session we re-enacted a bus journey where the children took turns to be the driver and collecting the tickets. Everyone came up with lots of imaginative ideas of where they wanted to go. We travelled to Flip Out, the fire station and some shops. In keeping with our theme, the ‘Wheels On the Bus’ and a ‘Big Red Bus’ songs dominated our Circle Time. A range of buses, vehicles and transport also featured in many of our mark-making and messy activities and small world play.
During Maths, the children focused on counting and number recognition. They used glue sticks to attach a corresponding number of animals onto the bus which had numerals written on it. When exploring mark-making the children followed a map to help them find their way around a zoo. They listened carefully, found the different animals and marked the path out for their teachers so they would know how to get to the animals. The exercise encouraged the refinement of the children’s fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination and their listening skills.
Following on from this and in response the children's interest, we decided to extend the activity by exploring more maps, learning to differentiate between the roads, parks and water depicted in the street atlas. We also used a large map drawn on the table and drove small cars around it. After studying the real maps, we coloured our large map in too.
During Cookery, the children made sandwiches. We focused on the correct and safe use of knives and discussed the different ingredients, describing their taste and textures. To the children’s delight we had the sandwiches for our snack and it was lovely to observe the children enjoying themselves whilst having a meal together. We discussed their favourite foods and what they like to eat for lunch at home.
The children continue to complete a range of daily challenges and we have been focusing on refining their fine motor skills. Some of the activities this week included pouring ice cubes, spooning fine gravel, threading and transferring cotton wool balls with tweezers. The Yellow and Orange Chicks were very busy learning how to master a range of different fastenings including Velcro, poppers, buttons and zips. As well as supporting the children's fine motor skills these activities are important in developing their independence when putting on their own coats or getting dressed.
On Friday, the Pink Chicks had lots of fun dipping the cars in paint and making tracks on our messy table. All the cars got very messy and needed a bubble bath and proper scrub afterwards! They used toothbrushes to clean the cars which they all enjoyed and the cars were sparkling clean at the end. The children loved this activity with many of them recalling one of our previous topic books, 'The Naughty Bus' by Jan Oke which was a story about a bus who needed a bath after falling into a pond!