This week, our Ladybird Class has been reading the wonderful story Eat Up, Gemma. We explored different parts of the book through a variety of hands-on activities, helping the children develop their physical skills, creativity, imagination, understanding of the world, and Personal, Social, and Emotional Development (PSED). The children have also been using a wealth of new language and expanding their vocabularies.
The children thoroughly enjoyed an imaginative roleplay activity where they pretended to feed birds, which was designed to support their fine motor development. To feed the birds, they were challenged to pick up small pieces of fruit using tweezers, a task requiring precise hand-eye coordination and finger strength. While manipulating tweezers can be tricky for two-year-olds, the children demonstrated excellent problem-solving skills and great resilience.
There was also plenty of excitement as the children explored our soapy water tray. They were completely engaged while practising their dishwashing skills using plastic plates, bowls, cutlery, and sponges. One of the girls proudly announced, “We cleaning!”, and her friend enthusiastically copied both her words and actions. They stayed focused and deeply involved in the activity for a long time.
In our creative sessions, the children were given pots of red, yellow, orange, and green play dough to represent different fruits. Each child selected a colour and used their hands independently to roll and sculpt it. They did a fantastic job and were proudly able to name exactly which fruit they had made. They also had the opportunity to decorate paper sun hats using a selection of different fruit cut-outs. They really enjoyed learning how to use glue sticks, discovering that they needed to apply the glue first so the fruit would stick to the hat.
To top off a fantastic week, the children made their own fruit salad. They had a wide variety of different fruits to choose from. Once they selected their favourites, they practiced their chopping skills by cutting the fruit into small pieces. After adding them to a bowl with a splash of apple juice, they happily ate it all up, enjoying the delicious results of their hard work.
