Kits News - 31st January 2025
This week, the Kits learned about the Lunar New Year, a festival celebrated in many Asian countries, including China, South Korea, Vietnam and others. To support our learning we chose the Topic Story 'My First Chinese New Year' by Karen Katz which discusses how a girl and her family prepare for and celebrate the Lunar New Year.
During the week, the Kits explored our Role-Play Area, the 'Lunar New Year Home Corner' where they practised using chopsticks while eating pretend noodles with their friends and prepared other foods using the cooker.
For our Art project, the Kits made lanterns using scissors to make snips on red paper and then decorated them with a cotton bud dipped in gold paint and gold tissue paper. The children then painted red or orange paper, and once it dried, they observed Chinese writing and made their own brush strokes using black paint and a fine brush to make decorations.
The Kits have been practising their Fine Motor Skills by using playdough, the garlic crusher, knives and plates. The children made pretend noodles by pushing the dough through the garlic crusher and squeezing it out whilst strengthening their hand muscles. They made pretend vegetables by cutting the dough with a plastic knife. The Kits peeled and stuck stickers on a pre-drawn snake on paper and threaded colourful straws through loo rolls with holes in them. The children worked on their hand-eye coordination, colour recognition, strengthening their hand muscles, and counting how many straws they had used.
The children were keen to explore Plastic Construction this week, where they worked to connect the pieces together. On the Maths table, the Kits worked together to complete a puzzle, practising counting dots and then matching them to the corresponding number. The Kits practised counting using the Unifix cubes and the number tray. The children made towers, big and small, comparing sizes and practised colour recognition. They played with the castle and princesses and constructed the plastic ladder whilst working on colour recognition and counting the ladder steps. The Kits also explored playdough and gold coins, where they practised how many coins were inside the playdough.
In the Small World, the children explored animals of the zodiac and blue blocks on the tuff tray. The Kits made enclosures for the animals to keep them warm and dry and even made bridges for them to cross. The children played with the Doll's house with people and cars parked outside in the driveway. The Kits helped the people prepare for the big celebration by cooking in the kitchen and cleaning and decorating the house. The Farm and animals were also popular with the children, and they helped the farmer complete his chores. The children counted how many pigs and cows there were, compared sizes, and discussed baby animal names.
In the Messy tray, the children played with shaped ducks and shaped turtles, where they practised naming the 2D shapes and counted how many ducks and turtles there were. On the Mark Making table, the children practised tracing their names using felt pens and sounding out some letters. The Kits made marks in a tray with flour using chopsticks and used their finger. The ICT Board was popular with the Kits, where they pressed various buttons to change the screen colour and used a variety of coloured ICT board pens to make marks.
We discussed celebrating the Lunar New Year for our Communication and Language/Literacy Focus lesson. The children watched a short clip showing how this festival is celebrated, and then they tried on the Lion's head and danced with their peers whilst listening to Chinese music. In our Cookery Focus Lesson, the children chopped vegetables and named them, and then we made a stir fry in a wok. The children all tasted the noodles using chopsticks, which was great fun!
For our Fine Motor Focus lesson, the children ripped colourful tissue paper, scrunched it into small pieces and stuck it onto their activity sheet to create a Blossom Tree. In Maths, the children practised counting gold coins and then matched the quantity to the correct corresponding number.
During Write Dance, the children continued to practise the whole arm movements, using large brushes dipped into water and then brushing upwards and downwards on windows and walls to the music 'Beat the Drum'.
In the Outdoor Learning Environment, the Kits made delicious cuisines in the Mud Kitchen using natural materials and pots with utensils. They played with the sand, diggers and vehicles, and the children helped Bob the Builder fix broken roads by using various vehicles to get the job done. The Dinosaur World was popular with the Kits, where they used their imagination to take the dinosaurs on an adventure. The children practised naming the different dinosaurs, and we discussed that some like to eat plants, called 'Herbivores', and some eat meat, called 'Carnivores'.
They shared and took turns with their friends using the Ride On, driving to places like Pizza Express, Meghan's and others. The children were keen to participate in an Obstacle course where they practised balancing, jumping on spots and safely jumping off a small step. They have also used water spray bottles and cloths to strengthen their hand muscles.
The Kits at 345 Nursery School at Balham have all had a great week. We look forward to another fun-filled week ahead!