This week the children learnt all about Diwali and the celebrations people take part in. We also discussed fireworks and lots of the children spoke about seeing fireworks out of their windows in the evening and many shared their excitement and anticipation of attending fireworks displays over the weekend.
We learned that Diwali is also known as 'the festival of light' and in Art, the children made salt dough Divas which are small little pots which can hold a tea light. They used their hands to shape and mould the dough into the correct shapes and once they hardened in the oven the children painted them in wonderful bright colours and added a touch of glitter for extra sparkle!
During our Write Dance session this week the children danced using the ribbon streamers to create an incredible fireworks display in the air, bending their bodies to the music and creating wonderful firework shapes with their arms. They also had a lot of fun mark-making, to create fireworks using flour and glitter. We extended our focus on fireworks in Cookery where we made vegetable fireworks. We threaded brightly coloured vegetables on skewers to create our own firework combinations and enjoyed eating them during Snack Time afterwards!
This week the Green Chicks went on a listening walk and we were so impressed with their ability to hear a range of sounds in the environment. We heard an ambulance, aeroplanes and a train near our nursery. However when we arrived at the common, we discovered that the sounds changed. Instead of vehicles we could hear birds, barking dogs and ‘crunchy’ leaves as we walked through them.
Back in the classroom we used Loose Parts materials to decorate and create our own Rangoli designs with gems, pebbles, conkers and pine cones. We focused on rhyming activities during Free Play and were pleased with the children’s interest in Anima Phonics. They are responding well to the illustrations and are starting to recognise some of the sounds as well as the letters from their names.
We have all been very excited to begin practicing for our Christmas concert in our Music sessions with Mr Alex, where we had a lot of fun starting to learn the different songs. We have been very impressed with all of the children's confidence and enthusiasm and can't wait to share the songs with you in December!
Our Role Play was turned into a bus who took us on a long journey to India where we were able to see all the different sights on the way. The children regularly hopped on the bus to join in with singing and storytelling and they loved taking turns to drive the bus and collect tickets.