Today we have PE. The children will not be changing into PE kits yet as they are continuing to find putting shoes on and off quite tricky, so we will continue to practise this. We will explain what PE is and that we need to visit another room in school - the hall. Once we are in the hall we will have a warm up and will ask the children to show us all the different ways they can walk around the space safely. We will encourage the children to walk, moving around each other, staying in a space etc. Next we will ask the children to move around the space using big movements. Adults will call out a body part, the children need to stop and touch that body part. We will encourage the children to move around without making contact with others. Next we will recite the rhyme 'Humpty Dumpty' (Ben was interested in this rhyme and told us that he'd heard it on the TV). We will encourage the children to move around the space exploring moving as characters in the rhyme: Humpty Dumpty, Kings Men and Kings Horses. The children will be encouraged to perform their actions ensuring that they are using large and exaggerated movements. We will explain that we will continue to explore this activity next week. We will cool down by playing the ‘roll a ball’ game to further develop knowledge of each others names. Finally the children will indeed to put on shoes and socks and return to the classroom.

 Today we will be talking about our three school rules. Be kind, be safe and be respectful. We will talk to the children about what these words mean and we will teach them the Makaton actions for each word. We will remind them of the book (Be Kind) that we read yesterday and will remind them about listening to each other and being respectful. Then we are going to play a game which focuses on the characteristics of each child. We will be talking about similarities and differences and again talking about the school rules. To play ‘Stand up if’, the children will sit round their group time table and adults will begin (children may suggest ideas later in the game) by suggesting a characteristic, these characteristics can be as general as hair colour, or as specific as a sport they play or a colour they like. The adult will say “Stand up if you …” Then, every child who fits that characteristic should stand up. The children will learn more and notice more about their peers. This activity also encourages active listening. 

Finally we will introduce name cards and ask the children to have a go at writing their names (Helen was interested in doing this last week and this encouraged other children to explore mark making). We will model pen grip and the ‘pinch and flick’ technique before the children have a go themselves.

We will begin by introducing the Compare Bear teddy resource. We will explain that everything has got in a bit of a muddle at reset time and we need to know how many bears have been spotted in different places. Adults have some photos of the bears for all to look at. As the children are shown each photo we will ask them how many there are - we will encourage them to do this without counting (by subitising - knowing how many without needing to count). We will repeat this with several different photos, also encouraging children to show how many using their fingers and listening to others’ ideas. Then we will move to our group tables and children will explore a similar activity with groups of bears. We will ask questions: How many? How did you know how many there were? Does this way make it easier to see how many there are? Can you tell me how you saw them? What did you notice? Did anyone see them differently?  Again we will ask the children to represent quantity using their fingers to show this. 

We also have our first Forest School session today. Fingers crossed for a dry day. 

 We will begin today by reading Leaf Man. We will talk about the leaf shapes and how they gather to form pictures., this is linked to Sebbie's interest in looking closely at the natural objects in the classroom using a magnifying glass. Once we have read and discussed the story we will explain that we are going to explore the outdoor area. The children are each going to have a piece of card with double sided tape. Firstly an adult will model how they go outside and select things that they are interested in  to stick on their picture. As the adult collects each stick, leaf or petal they will describe what they have found and where they find it. Then it will be the children ‘s turn - we will stay together as a large group and will explore each area of the outdoor environment together until each child has collected enough interesting items to fill their card. Throughout we will encourage them to talk about / describe what they have found and where they have found it. The finished collections / pictures will be on display in the classroom.

Friday

We will begin today by talking about one of the rhymes that we have sung this week (Teddy Bear Teddy Bear). We will explain that we need to have a play dough bear to help us with the song. We will give each child a piece of dough and then complete a warm up activity linked to a song - the children will need to use a variety of movements to change the shape of the dough (pinch, squeeze, roll, pat, ball) .(this builds on Jessica’s and Amira’s interest in the dough). Then the children are going to make their own bear - they can either model this freely or use rolling pins and a cutter (we will remind them about sharing and safe use of tools). Adults will help them to carry out their ideas. Once they all have their completed bear we will act out the Teddy Bear Teddy Bear song using their dough bears. Photos to be taken throughout and of the finished bears.