World Porridge Day was an enormous success. As parents can see on the Tapestry system the children created amazing porridge smiles. We recapped the importance of eating breakfast and the many benefits of a nutritious diet. Thank you for your generous donations.
“How Do You Feel” and “The Magic Porridge Pot” were thoroughly embraced by the Chicks as they listened attentively and with anticipation to the stories. No surprises that feelings and emotions were heavily threaded throughout the activities. Mirrors were also central to many of our discussions. The children were encouraged to paint a self-portrait from their reflection and also took selfies on the iPads of themselves depicting various emotions. A range of feelings were discussed and the triggers which evoked such emotions. On our Community Walk the children collected conkers which they subsequently used in loose parts play to create faces displaying different expressions. Painting to different music genres with rollers, big brushes, sponges and hands led to further conversations regarding how the change in tempo can impact the way we feel. During Drama the Chicks found it extremely amusing forming facial expressions as their peers were asked to guess which emotion they were representing. Spreading and creative skills were put to the test when making faces with rice cakes, butter, olives, cucumber and peppers. Shape exploration continued as the Pink, Green and Yellow Chicks looked at the properties of 2D shapes whilst Pink Group also arranged squares to make rectangles and triangles into diamonds.
Joining in the refrain “cook pot cook” and “stop pot stop” from “The Magic Porridge Pot” certainly caused much excitement and animation amongst the Chicks as they used the wand to create magic!. Re-enacting the story with puppets and various props was popular and it is always lovely to see the Chicks using their imagination in such scenarios. The story also led to discussions about sharing, kindness, greed and overeating. This week’s Community Walk took us to Wandsworth Common where everyone participated in listening games and sung and performed actions to songs. Yellow and Green Group focused on hand eye co-ordination and fine motor skill refinement as they engaged with the Practical Life spooning and pouring activities, whilst the Pink Chicks used cotton buds to personalise a magic porridge pot. Language and capacity were developed whilst various quantities of water were poured from one container to another.