- 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
All posts by Louise Gough
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