• Read stories about animals e.g Rumble in the Jungle
• Animal sound lotto
• Learn new words to describe animals
• Thread cereal onto laces to make snakes
• Sort animals by colour or size
• Move like different animals
• Mix sand and water and mould animals
• Noah’s Ark story
• How many animals will float on a boat
• Animal songs in the water tray e.g Tiny Turtle
• Notice details on animals coats/skins
• Learn about where different animals live
• Make animal picture, noticing pattern/texture
• Vet role play area
• Play Greedy Gorilla game

• Talk about Chinese New Year and various animals which the myth is based on
• Learn about the Great Wall of China
• Chinese restaurant home corner
• Make pater plate drums and lanterns
• Use ribbons and move to music
• Taste different Chinese food at snack time
• Build our own Great Walls
• Make a Chinese dragon together
• Use chopsticks to move cotton balls
• Create Chinese letters/numbers in glitter
• Write using fine brush and food dye
• Play pop up dragon game
• Chinese New Year Themed parachute games
• Retell the story with small puppets
• Gold coin hunt in red and yellow noodles
• Use tools in mud/water to whisk/mix/sieve

• Talk about the lost and found story
• How are characters feeling throughout?
• Make an igloo role play area inside
• Talk about what makes us feel lonely
• Create marks in glitter
• Copy names by piping glue and cover with glitter
• Measure polar bears using cubes
• Make lost and found small world scene
• Use large blocks to build a row boat/igloo
• Jump across the ice sheets on the playground
• Investigate frozen items
• Small world sea/ocean with water beads
• Introduce woodwork bench with tools
• Blubber experiment – how animals keep warm
• Create lolly stick snowflakes

• Discuss the signs of winter using picture cards
• Put on coats independently for outside
• Read winter themed books, e.g “First Snow” “The Snowman” “Gruffalo’s Child”
• Match the rhyming mittens
• Playdough Snowballs/Snowmen
• Measure how long ice melts using timer
• Winter wonderland themed tuff spot
• Build dens for animals using natural resources
• Paint with coloured ice
• Make recipes in mud kitchen
• Make winter sounds using instruments
• Find things on the winter hunt list
• Use magnetic letters to print in salt/glitter
• Investigate items frozen in ice
• Cut snowflakes with paper
• Make snowballs in cornflower gloop

This week we will:

• Talk about Christmas traditions
• Practice Nativity
• Christmas craft – envelopes, cards, wrapping paper, baubles
• Pin the nose on the snowman
• Decorate the tree with baubles
• Leap like a reindeer
• Use puppets to tell stories
• Build Christmas shapes using magnetic shapes
• Freeze Christmas natural objects
• Make gloop and roll into snowballs
• Christmas wrapping area: sellotape, string, scissors
• Use blocks to build a Christmas scene
• Put antler pegs on reindeer, matching colours
• Remove starts from foam using tweezers
• Match the shape envelopes to the post boxes

This week we will:

• Talk about the story of the gingerbread man
• Look at alternative stories
• Design & make gingerbread men
• Ginger spiced playdoh
• Cut people & join using split pins
• Put buttons on gingerbread men using tweezers
• Make a bridge across the river
• Practice nativity songs
• Use puppets to tell stories
• Make/bake things in the mud kitchen
• Draw around children on playground to make gingerbread men

This week we will:

• Learn new rhymes
• Read stories and look for rhyming words
• Paint using tea bags
• Make flowers for Mary Mary
• Make obstacles to jump over, e.g Hey Diddle Diddle
• Perform nursery rhymes on the stage
• Sing ring songs e.g Hokey Cokey
• Use big movements for action songs
• Introduce woodwork tools
• Draw stars in glitter
• Introduce rhyme sacks
• How can we look after ourselves?