Kits News - 20th September 2024

It’s been another fun-filled, busy week for the Kits. There’s been lots of excitement in the lead up to the Harvest Festival, where we all practised singing the songs and doing the actions throughout the week and then performed on stage in front of all the Mummies, Daddies, Grandparents and Nannies. 

This week our Topic Story was Cows in the Kitchen illustrated by Airlie Anderson. The children loved this colourful book, where they joined in with the repeating phrases and actions. We have been focusing on our listening skills by recognising animal sounds and naming them accordingly in our Literacy Focus time. We have also been learning about baby animal names. During our Maths Focus Activity, we practised counting skills and counting to quantity with number recognition 1-3. We also practised scrunching small pieces of tissue paper to stick onto a cut-out pig to support our Fine Motor skills. 

During our Science Focus activity, we learnt about how we could rescue frozen animals by melting them. We used salt and warm water as well as cold water and then tried it without salt to conclude our experiment. We practised making predictions, learning that we can all make a guess! 

Our Art Project this week has involved working together to create a collaborative scene for the display. The children then decided what animals they wanted to make by using the appropriate materials. 

This week, the Role-Play Area was set up as a Veterinary Clinic, where the children continued to use their Kind Hearts to look after the patients by using various tools and learning their names.

The children have explored lots of animal themed activities throughout the week, such as making enclosures for the animals using Foam Blocks and Farm animals. They discussed what they needed to create their homes by focusing on shape recognition. They also enjoyed playing with the Farm and animals in the Small World area using lots of imagination. This sparked lots of conversations about what the Farmer was doing, such as milking the cow, collecting eggs, cleaning the Farm and feeding the animals. The children were keen to clean the muddy animals in the Messy tray using soapy water and toothbrushes. They explored gloop, pots, and spoons and found animals hidden inside foam. The children discussed the different textures and how they felt and smelt. 

We have also focused on developing our Fine Motor Skills by manipulating the playdough in various ways. The children practised squeezing, poking and patting it and continued to practise using the rolling pins and cutters to make pretend animal biscuits. The gel bags were popular this week, and the children used their index fingers to move the items from the bag by pushing them across. The children accessed the Montessori activities that are on offer, such as the Montessori knobbed Cylinders, transferring ice cubes using tongs, threading and pouring.  

During our Outdoor Learning Environment, the children have been practising many skills through a Mini Obstacle Course by balancing, throwing a beam bag into a hoop, jumping on spots, and then safely jumping from a step. The Kits have been learning what Harvest means by exploring the Tuff Tray with the Farm, animals, the Farmer and his wife, soil, and vegetables. We discussed where vegetables grow and when a crop has grown and is ready to eat, the Farmer collects it from his fields, which is called harvesting.

We are looking forward to another spectacular week next week at 345 Balham!