Kits News - 22nd November 2024

The Kits have had a fantastic week. The children loved decorating our 345 Christmas tree with their friends in our Festive Home Corner and have enjoyed making delicious foods using the oven, cooker, and pots, sharing and socialising with one another.

During our Community Walk this week, the Kits looked for Christmas decorations around our local shops. We found wreaths, colourful baubles and Christmas trees. The children practised recognising different colours, and we named the different decorations together. 

The Kits have been strengthening their hand muscles through several activities throughout the week. In one activity with pine cones, they were given the challenge of placing small and medium-sized pom poms inside the cones, practising their pincer grip. The Kits also loved practising peeling Christmas-related stickers onto drawn lines on paper. They used good concentration and hand-eye coordination during the activity.

In our Cooking activity the Kits used playdough, rolling pins and Christmas cutters to make biscuits. The children rolled, squeezed and stretched out the dough before using the rolling pin to work on their hand muscles. The Kits loved using the Munching Balls for those who were hungry and needed feeding. The children fed the balls pom poms by squeezing the balls together for the mouth to open. Pegging the tree was also popular with the Kits, where they carefully placed pegs all around the trees. The children then practised counting the number of pegs placed on each tree.

In our Small World play, the children were excited to explore the Polar Express Train with its frosty scene as we discussed the cold weather changes around us. We talked about how we can stay warm by dressing up appropriately and moving around when we are outdoors. The children practised counting and spotting the different-coloured trains.

This week the children have been learning positional language by playing with cars and tunnels in the tuff tray. The Kits moved the cars in several ways: under, through, over, next to, and they practised recognising numbers.

The Kits were keen to explore the Fishing rods in the Messy tray, where they caught fish with letters. The children practised sounding out the letter sounds using the AnimaPhonics-associated actions. They also enjoyed using thier hands to explore the soft texture of flour before using different types of sieves to carefully shaking the flour into the Messy Tray.

During our Outdoor Learning Environment, the Kits were keen to decorate the tree in the tuff tray. Using their imagination, they used natural objects to place around and inside the tree. The Kits have been practising scooping sand using different-sized spoons to transfer into a variety of pots and pans. They added natural materials to their pretend yummy foods! The water spray bottles and cloths were popular with the Kits, and they strengthened their hand muscles by using the spray bottles to squirt water onto the windows. The children also pretended to be Bob the Builder, utilising various tools and the Work Bench. They fixed many things around the Outdoor Learning Environment, working with their friends to finish the job!

The Kits have been practising their 2D shape knowledge using the Magnatiles on the Maths table. They also loved using the fishing rods to catch magnetic numbers, where they practised recognising numbers and worked on their hand-eye coordination.

For our Maths Focus lesson, the Kits practised their knowledge of 2D shapes by exploring shapes and properties and decorated their Christmas tree using 2D-shaped baubles.

During our Literacy lesson, the Kits played a fun game called ‘Guess What’s in The Box’. The children placed their hands inside the box to have a feel and tried to guess the object. We discussed how the item felt using descriptive words. For our Fine Motor lesson, the children focused on their pincer grip by making ornaments using a variety of materials.

The Kits have been working hard to practise our Christmas songs and used musical instruments and props in preparation for our Christmas performance. During our Art this week and for the coming weeks, the Kits have been working on preparing special Christmas surprises. We look forward to more fun next week!