Tree House Monthly Blog – October-November 2013
Pre-School
Over the past two months, we have been so busy with a multitude of different tasks and activities. As well as Halloween, bonfire night and carnival, we have been taking part in more focused activities, to gauge our knowledge of the prime areas
· Physical development – moving and handling
· Personal-social and emotional development – managing feelings and behaviour
· Communication and language – listening and attention
To start off the month, we made some spider cakes! Using a secret Shirley recipe we made cupcakes. After they cooled, we decorated them. Sticking the wobbly legs in was a challenge, but they looked great! Baking helps us with many aspects of our development, From physical development –where we develop our skills For using one handed tools and equipment, To understanding the world, where we learn About and join in with home routines.
We made these spider web plates, for Halloween decoration. It was a Great way to be creative, whilst working to a brief. Taking part in adult led activities is good in moderation as it allows children to develop their active learning.
This helps them to:
· Enjoy achieving what they set out to do
· Show satisfaction in meeting their own goals
· Be proud of how they accomplished something-
· Not just the end result.
· Enjoy meeting challenges for their own
· Sake rather than external reward or praise.
These aspects of active learning help us develop a healthy level of self confidence and self-esteem, which in Turn allow us to develop our other areas of development.
At Tree House, we are all for trying out and testing new ideas. One of the children told me “gunge is gross times, I like it”, so we decided to make some. Using the internet, we searched for the best recipe. Here is a link to the recipe we used http://www.funathomewithkids.com/2013/07/borax-free-slime-dough.html. It was cold, slimy, wet, runny, and perfect for a spooky Halloween and below is the result of our efforts!
October the 28th to November the 1st was Halloween week. The staff and children dressed up, and all week we played Halloween games, took part in special activities like apple bobbing, donut catching, and ate disgusting food like worm jelly! We carved pumpkins, made pumpkin soup and sweet pumpkin pie. We even had a Halloween party including spooky disco, nasty party food and petrifying pass the parcel! We had a fantastic week, and any photos we took will be in your children’s personal pathways.
Moving into November, we noticed a sudden chill in the air. The leaves are changing from lovely gold and red, to brown and crumply! Our winter hats, gloves and scarves have been brought out of retirement and we are all prepared for winter! To help keep us warm in these chilly months, we made our all time favourite tea…….our delicious homemade golden vegetable soup.
We made these bonfire pictures, using string, a tray and some fire coloured paint. We drag the paint through the colour we want, and then drag it across our page. As well as learning about bonfire night, and some of the simple history and tradition behind it, doing activities like this also teaches us other valuable aspects of our development. i.e. how to manipulate materials to achieve planned effects, distinguishing between the different marks we make, mixing colours, fine motor movements and many other aspects.
Finally we come to letter and sounds. We use this game, known as silly soup, to develop our knowledge and understanding of rhyming sounds, and alliteration. The children select an objects like “bat” and throe it into the soup. They then stir it in singing (to the tune of pop goes the weasel) were making lots of silly soup, were making soup that silly, were going to cook it in the fridge, and make it nice and chillily!.The next child has to select an item that rhymes with the previous. It worked on our co-operation, turn taking skills, and helps develop our cognitive recall.
Main areas of focus October/November were:
Prime areas
- Physical development – moving and handling
- Personal-social and emotional development – making relationships
- Communication and language – speaking
Specific areas
- Literacy – Reading
- Mathematics – shape, space and measure
- Understanding the world – people and communities
- Expressive arts and design – being imaginative.