All posts by Louise Gough

W/c 11th March – Things that grow/Beans & Seeds

  • Read stories about growing: Tiny Seed, Sam’s Sunflower, Small small seed, Jasper’s Beanstalk
  • Garden centre & cafe role play area
  • Make flowers using names for petals
  • Make collage flowers with different media
  • Mark making in wet mud
  • Draw flowers on playground
  • Garden tuff spot
  • Plant sunflower seeds
  • Growing in different conditions, eg glass jar, compost
  • Flower pattern puzzles
  • Use spray bottles to water seeds
  • Use tweezers to pick seeds from compost
  • Add drain pipes & gutters to sand pit
  • Find objects in sand, match initial sound
  • Make playdough flowers
  • Sequence flowers in numerical order
  • Use scarves/ribbons to move like butterflies, flowers or trees

W/c 4th March – Jack & The Beanstalk

  • Share the story
  • Order the story in sequence
  • Draw Beanstalks
  • Thread leaves onto straws to make beanstalks
  • Create castle from large junk modelling
  • Make beanstalks from playdough
  • Foam castle in the water tray
  • Sensory story with music and sounds
  • Build castles with different bricks
  • Make marks in crayon then paint over
  • Use tweezers to find beans in soil
  • Beanstalk hopscotch
  • Measure giant footprints with cubes
  • Make flowers with shapes
  • Play story CDs in small groups

W/c 5th February – Knights & dragons, Chinese New Year & Cinderella

  • Listen to stories about Chinese New Year
  • Learn new facts and information about the celebration
  • Chinese restaurant role play area
  • Read stories with puppets (props e.g. Cinderella)
  • Dig for jewels then count them
  • Treasure hunt – find all the gold
  • Make invitations and attend a ball
  • Build the Great Wall of China
  • Take part in knight obstacle course
  • Vinegar & bicarb experiment
  • Copy Chinese letters in glitter
  • Make a dragon together outside
  • Make recipes in the mud kitchen
  • Move cotton ball using chopsticks
  • Sort the shapes in the sand
  • Make castle out of shapes
  • Threading to make jewellery

W/c 29th January – Hot Weather/ Handa’s Surprise/Colour

  • Listen to Handa’s Surprise, consider the setting and characters
  • Look at the different colours of things
  • What animal is in the bag?
  • Use animal puppets to create stories
  • Fruit market role play area
  • Still life – fruit painting
  • Fruit printing
  • Dance with coloured scarves and ribbons
  • Weaving using ribbons
  • Environment colour hunt
  • Jungle tuff tray
  • Play traffic light game
  • Make fruit kebabs
  • Colour changing experiment with pipettes
  • Use scales for weighing and comparing
  • Playing musical instruments
  • Sort food by colour

W/c 15th January – Monkey Puzzle/ walking through the jungle

  • Share stories, Walking through the jungle, Monkey Puzzle, Dear Zoo
  • Talk about our favourite animals
  • Animal songs and number rhymes
  • Move like animals
  • Jungle tuff tray
  • Make marks in sand with animals
  • Sort animals by colour/size
  • Look at different patterns on animals
  • Thread pasta to make snakes
  • Paper plate lion cutting activity
  • Think about how we have changed since babies
  • Look at the butterfly life cycle
  • Paint animal pictures considering size, colour, texture, patterns

W/c 8th January – Stickman/Seasons

  • Read Stickman & look at the different seasons book
  • Listen to the story and think about the different times of year, can we remember the names of the seasons?
  • Use sticks to make shapes & write in the sand
  • Find natural resources outside to create our own Stickman
  • Thread leaves on sticks using hole punch
  • Cosy home corner – add scarves and gloves with mirror for trying things on
  • Stickman tuff spot with with animals and objects related to story
  • Move sticks in the water in different ways
  • Consider what natural resources sink and float
  • Collect different leaves to create men with sticks – notice the different shapes of the leaves
  • Pooh stick races – predict who will come first, second, third
  • Make letter using natural resources

W/c 4th/11th December – Christmas & Hanukkah

  • Talk about the meaning of Christmas
  • Read stories with Christmas theme
  • Hanukkah – play dreidel game
  • Christmas wrapping station
  • Festive home area
  • Christmas crafts
  • Make handprint menorah
  • Use tweezers to add pom poms to trees
  • Peppermint scented water tray
  • Use magnet wand to move magnetic objects in jug
  • Decorate dreidels using pipettes to colour mix
  • move like different festive items
  • Listen to rhythm stories
  • Make ABAB patterns with pony beads