Kits News - 17th May 2024

The Kits topic book this week was Matisse's Magical Trail by Tim Hopgood and Sam Boughton and we have enjoyed spending the week exploring mark making in many different ways. Our Role-Play area has been set up as an ‘Art Studio’ and the children have had free rein to draw their own pictures on the easel or table. During Art we made pictures inspired by the illustrations in the book and used a mixture of watercolours, crayon and pen to build up our masterpieces. 

We have been drawing and leaving trails with the pens and cars and also using our fingers to make marks in the shaving foam. All these activities support the children’s literacy skills by developing their hand control and strength in preparation for writing. 

During our Literacy Focus Time, we engaged in a group ‘Write Dance’ session. Write Dance is a music and dance activity to develop the skills needed for writing. It provides movement opportunities so the children can develop the physical skills needed to develop their handwriting skills. The movement is driven by the music and the underlying principle is enjoyment to build confidence. The children lay on the floor for the activity and developed their gross and fine motor skills as they made big and small movements on the paper, moving in time to the music. They had great fun and were very good at sharing the space with each other. 

During our Science Focus Time, we created a ‘Magical Trail’ as we dribbled glue on our paper and then sprinkled salt on top. The children added food colouring using pipettes and their ‘Magical Trail’ turned colourful. The activity was great fun and also developed the children’s pincer grip as they squeezed the pipettes. The pictures looked amazing when finished and the children described them as being ‘sparkly’ and ‘like rainbows’.