This week the children have been looking at and talking about the different animals that are on a farm. The farm was set up in a big tray and different materials were added for example, hay, sand, foliage and other exciting textures for the children to explore with the different animals provided. The children have been comparing the different sizes of the cows and sheep and they have been sorting them into categories. They have had the opportunity to feel the different textures of the materials. Adults have been able to introduce lots of new words to the children for example, crunchy, hairy, smooth, rough and many more. This helps the children to build up a bank of words to use in further conversations. The children have also been watching video clips about the farm animals and they saw that different animals give us different produce e.g. sheep wool, cow’s milk and chicken eggs. They have also been learning the different sounds the animals make and have been singing some favourite rhymes about the farm.
The children have also been practicing their pencil control. It is important that children have control over their writing implements as they need this throughout their lives. The children needed to follow a path and stay within the lines, all of the children were happy to try this and some were very good but we need to remember “the more you practice the better you get”.
This week, after being shown how to use the paint the children had the opportunity to independently access it and most children were able to remember that they needed to put an apron on first. The children were very good at waiting for their turn and this allowed each child to do their own painting without others painting over what they had done. Well done all of you.
The children have had a cooking day this week and between us we made a lovely cheesy pasta. Most of this was done by the leading adults because we had to use the hot hob but the children were shown which ingredients we needed to make a sauce and how to do it, they were able to grate the cheese which was very tricky as you had to be very careful not to catch your fingers on the grater and we had lots of fun learning how to use this utensil. When the pasta cooled down and was ready to eat the children had it for their snack. We must always remember that sometimes we may need to adapt the recipe as some children have allergies and we don’t want them to miss out on the experience.
