Week Ending 24 March 2023
We had a lovely Easter themed visit to Crawcrook Library this week. We listened to stories, had an Easter hunt and then played a game to find the Easter treats. Thank you to the parents that came along. Newcastle class, you were so well behaved and enthusiastic…fab-u-lous!!
Week Ending:- Friday 17th March 2023
On Wednesday this week, we went to the Tyne Theatre and Opera House to watch Room on the Broom!
The children really enjoyed the journeys in the coach, being in a real theatre and watching the show. We all helped the broom to take off when we joined in with the magic spell and we used our good listening ears to help us to follow instructions from our adults. Well done everyone!
As part of Neurodiversity week we have enjoyed keeping an eye on the Sunflower seeds that we planted when we took part in the Sunflower Challenge for Down Syndrome UK. As part of a countdown to World Down Syndrome Day on March 21st, we planted Sunflower Seeds. We will be watching them take root and grow. Each child, just like our Sunflowers, grows and blooms in different ways. Children will then be able to take their Sunflower home to continue to watch it grow. The suggested donation is £1 which goes to supporting Down Syndrome UK. Down Syndrome UK works hard to raise public awareness, advocating for the rights and inclusion of people with Down syndrome. So as well as having some fun growing sunflowers, it is a wonderful opportunity for us to raise funds for this amazing charity, helping them to continue to empower, enlighten and educate families and professionals involved in all children’s care and education.
Week Ending:- Friday 10 March 2023
We loved our dance workshop this week!
We added actions while listening to the story How to Catch a Star.
Next we warmed our bodies up.
After that we added movements to describe parts of the story.
We used slow and fast movements. We worked on our own, with a partner and as a whole class to create a dance!
We listened to changes in the music and thought about what happened next in the story and how the boy in the story felt.
We imagined what our costumes might look like.
Week Ending:- Friday 3rd March 2023
Happy World Book Day from Newcastle class. The children have loved their special dressing up day. We have listened to lots of stories and had a go at lots of different book related activities
Week Ending Friday 17th February 2023
In small groups, we often use 'Theraplay' activities with the children. The purpose of Theraplay activities are organised around 4 dimensions that are considered necessary for child development and for lifelong resilience:
structure, engagement, nurture, and challenge.
In each session, we use different activities that help develop some or all of these skills.
In this session, the children enjoyed the structure and engagement that was involved in group games with the stretchy lycra...it was also great fun! The children then enjoyed a challenging game whereby they had to work out who in the circle had the tambourine whilst they had their eyes closed. We finished with some calming, nurturing activities - 'face painting' with a partner and a breathing exercise.
Week Ending Friday 10th February 2023
This week in maths we have started our first look at 'calculations' in maths. We used lots of practical apparatus to start combining two amounts - the start of addition. The children used their skills in subitising to identify how many they had in their first 'pile' - of cubes, numicon, counters, dolls, spots on a dice, etc...The children were encouraged to count on from this number when combining their second pile, rather than counting everything again from the beginning.
Week Ending Friday 3rd February 2023
On Friday, we enjoyed a workshop from The Bigfoot Theatre Company.
As this coming Tuesday is Safer Internet Day, this was the focus of the workshop.
First, the children talked about what they knew about the term 'online' and what devices they may use online.
Then, the children were introduced to Boo the Rabbit. He needed the children's help with several 'missions' - the children used the Online Safety Rules to help them solve the missions. The workshop emphasised some basic 'Early Years' friendly online concepts and rules, such as not giving anyone your details, telling a grown-up if anything you see makes you feel uncomfortable, and listening to grown-ups about time limits online.
Week Ending Friday 27th January 2023
This week, we joined in with the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch.
The children learned all about British Garden Bird, using a non-fiction bird book, then took to the outside area to complete their bird spotting. We saw lots of Blackbirds, Pigeons, Sparrows, and even a Red Kite circled high above us at one point. Every child completed their own data collection sheet; marking down each bird that they saw.
We also made some fabulous bird feeders to take home to entice the birds into our own outside spaces this weekend.
Week Ending Friday 20th January 2023
We ended this week with the fabulous treat of a visit from author Adam Bushnell. Adam led two workshops with the children and he certainly sparked their enthusiasm and imagination.
In the first session, Adam told the story of Stone Soup and the children enjoyed joining in with actions and funny voices! The children then had to create a scary monster mask to scare the wolf in the story away.
In the afternoon session, Adam told the story of the Lambton Worm. The children then had to draw their own dragon, similar to the one that featured in the story.
Week Ending Friday 13th January 2023
On Friday morning the children took part in a carousel of activities all about the traditional tale, Little Red Riding Hood.
One of the activities introduced the concept of 'hot seating'. Some of the children took turns pretending to be either the Wolf or Little Red Riding Hood. The rest of the group had to think of questions to ask them. We looked at the kind of words that we would start a question with. The 'Wolf' or 'Little Red Riding Hood' then had to try to answer the question whilst staying in character...we had some fabulous actors/actresses!