This week our topic was I Really Want To Win by Simon Philip. We used this lovely book to introduce our upcoming Sports Day to the children and to instigate a discussion around competitions and our different strengths. In the book we learn that Sports Day races and competitions are fun. However, we also learnt that winning every race is not the most important thing. The book encouraged the children to build a positive view of losing a race and to reflect on their own strengths. Some children might be better at running and some children might be better at balancing. The children really enjoyed this book and they actively reflected on the sports they liked doing and why.
In the spirit of sports, this week we spent lots of time practising our Sports Day races on our Outdoor Learning Day. We also discussed healthy eating and the positive effects of exercise on our body. We extended our healthy eating discussions to our Free Play where the children cut food items out of food magazines and independently categorised them into healthy and unhealthy groups.
In our Weekend News we focused on sports, and the children shared the different sport activities they had done over the weekend. On Tuesday we held our Maths lesson outside and used sticks and stones to recap on our knowledge of addition and subtraction.
In Art, the children used pastel crayons to draw pictures of their favourite sports and we had a group discussion about which sports we like and why. On Thursday the children extended these conversations by creating wonderful stories related to different sports.They showed an incredible understanding of working as a team and including others in team sports.
On Friday we combined our Focused activity with Snack Time where we created delicious 'fruit kebabs'. We discussed the importance of using the pointy bamboo sticks safely and enjoyed discussing the different tastes and textures of the fruits. The children showed a good understanding of a balanced diet and its effect on our body.
This week our messy play activities have been extremely popular where the children have enjoyed experimenting with textures. In one tray we experimented with ice and hammers to explore melting and in another activity we explored what happens when you mix cornflour with paint. The children in the Fledglings enjoy all forms of tactile activities and it is always a lot of fun getting messy.
Based on the children’s interest of helping to sweep and clean around the classroom we set up our role play area as a ‘Spring Cleaning’ corner. All week the children have been busy washing and hanging clothes, sweeping and hoovering the floor!