Kits News - 10th March 2023

This week our topic book was The Visitors by Clare Thompson. The book is about a group of fairies who go and visit a creature in its cave. They take good care of this creature, feeding it and making it a blanket before leaving. The illustrations in the book are made from pictures of natural objects and throughout the week we have been using ‘Loose Parts’ to make our own pictures and exploring natural objects.

We continued this focus in the Outdoor Learning Environment where we used natural objects such as flowers and twigs to make our own ‘Fairy Lands’ in the mud. While playing by the climbing frame we also played with feathers and learnt about speed by observing how they floated slowly down to the floor.   

In our Focus Time on Wednesday we engaged in a transient art project. The children used a section of loose parts including glass beads, pieces of wood and other natural materials to make their own pictures. The children developed their Communication and Language skills as they described what they were making and discussed their creations with their friends and their teachers. One child described their picture saying “It’s my face, look at my pink hair,” and another child said, “Mine’s a racing car, here are the wheels.” 

On Thursday we expanded our imagination further by making ‘potions’ in our Science Focus Time. The children mixed tea leaves, petals and other natural objects together to make their special mixtures and we discussed all the different colours, textures and smells. The activity kept the children engaged for a length of time and they described them as “smelly” and “spicy”. They also refined their fine motor skills as they picked up the small objects using their pincer grip and used spoons to stir. 

Our Art project this week was also inspired by the book and the children used water colours, sand and natural objects to make their own imaginary scenes.