Our topic this week was 'Octopants' by Suzy Senior. In the story a young octopus is feeling a little embarrassed that he doesn't have any pants to wear! The children had fun joining this octopus on a shopping trip where he went searching for octopants for his eight legs. After visiting a number of shops he finally managed to find some in the Under-Sea Emporium only to realise that he didn’t need octopants but an octovest instead! This book was a great stimulus for the children and provided us with a multitude of learning opportunities including counting, learning about the different animals which live under the sea and practising how to put our socks on independently.
During Art each group chose one of the animals from the book that they would like to create. The Pink Chicks selected a pufferfish. The Yellow and Orange chicks created a seahorse and the Green Chicks painted a lovely octopus. Each group shared a range of interesting facts about their chosen animal and we had lots of fun sharing these with everyone including Coach Pedro who was shocked to find out that octopuses have nine brains! All the children designed their own individual pants. Some created spotty or stripy patterns, whilst others decorated them with a range of materials creating beautiful textured collages.
The Yellow, Orange and Green Chicks focused on comparing sizes during Maths. We learned about the difference between ‘big’ and ‘small’ and introduced the concept of ‘medium’ as well. The Pink Chicks focused on counting, number recognition and some of the children completed a number line with numbered socks. We also learnt how to play Bingo, where the children listened carefully and marked animals on a sheet when their teachers announced them.The older children were introduced to the concept of the ‘odd one out’ and their task was to try and spot the farm animals amongst the sea creatures on their Bingo sheet. In Cookery we made octopus shaped bread and everyone had fun rolling the dough into sausage shapes to make tentacles for the octopus.
We continued to discuss emotions in our group discussions this week, focusing our conversation around why and and how our emotions change from time to time and what causes them. We made a kindness jar for the classroom and it was lovely to watch how this had already begun to fill up by the end of the week. We also explored a range of self-regulating or calming techniques, such as mountain breathing. This easy exercise helps the children learn how to calm down by themselves, teaching them to synchronise their breathing while tracing the open fingers on one hand and tracing it with an index finger from the other hand. We linked these activities to the acknowledgement of Children’s Mental Health 2021.