Today we will be talking about healthy eating as we prepare foods for our visitors tomorrow. The children have decided that they would like to make apple and cheese toasties (this was a combination of Marsaili’s and Kai’s suggestions) and (not so healthy) iced rainbow biscuits (these were Luna’s and Marsaili’s idea). They will work in two groups to make these and they can choose which group that they would like to work in. We will have a discussion about why it is important to eat healthily and what might happen if you don’t. We will also ask the children to share their ideas of healthy and not so healthy foods. We will talk about the foods that we are making today and decide whether they would be OK to eat everyday or just to have sometimes.. Then the children will begin to cook - we will ask them to remind us about hygiene rules As they prepare the foods we will focus on tool skills and safety. We will also talk about what changes might happen to the ingredients as they cook.

Today we will welcome the children of Sunnyside preschool. They are coming to explore all the activities at Swing Gate and to share snack with us. We are looking forward to their visit. The children will be encouraged to support these younger children and help them access activities.

At the start of the day we will encourage Voles children to create Welcome banners using coloured pens on big paper, imitating hand writing patterns (we will remind them to use the pinch and flick technique and an appropriate grip throughout) to create a border and then imitating adult modelled letters - WELCOME.

Today we have our fifth Balanceability session. The children will be exploring balancing and moving carefully as well as riding the bikes.

We will begin to talk about axolotls and other unusual creatures today - this will be carried over to next week. Firstly we will talk about Sebbie’s question “Do axolotls come from shells?” We will show the children a picture of an axolotl and discuss their ideas  in response to his question. Then we will show them the life cycle poster and talk through each stage of the life cycle (egg, larva, adult). We will then explain that the children are going to have the opportunity to make an adult axolotl. We will remind them how they used tools very effectively last week to create their wooden cars. This week we are going to use different tools, staplers, hole punches, scissors, tape etc. We will show them the axolotl body templates and explain that they need to add the feathery external gills at the side (Kai wanted to know if this was hair!). They need to decide if they want to use paper, tissue paper, ribbon or wool to create the feathery effect. Adults will then model the tools and how they can use them safely to attach their external gills. Finally they will need to add eyes and draw on a mouth.

Friday

At drop off this morning we will invite parents to buy a plant prepared by the children. This is our enterprise activity for Number Day.

During the morning the children will have the opportunity to explore playing shops and buying goods. Items will be priced with single digit numbers and the children will each be given a few coins to ‘buy’ an item. They will need to recognise numerals and then count out the number of coins that they need, checking how many they have. Each child will have the opportunity to be a shopkeeper and a shopper. They can ask for support from a friend to check that they have the correct quantity of coins or have recognised the numerals correctly.

We will also have a fire engine visit today! What an exciting and busy day!