Good afternoon everyone and welcome to our Thursday blog. The classroom is becoming busy pace again and the children are finding lots of new and creative ways to have fun and learn at the same time. Outdoors we had lots of active games such and tennis, hoop jumping and skipping rope games. These are great for challenging the children’s hand-eye coordination and whole body coordination. After a rainy couple of days we thought we would make the most of the outdoors and sun so we had morning tea outside as well in the tree house. Today we welcomed back Narla who has been away for most of the year, she settled in really nicely and we did lots of name games to get her familiar with everyone and vice-versa.
Our focus today was our names! We explored lots of different ways to print them as you can see in the photos. We used packing peanuts, felt pens, playdough, flashcards and chalk. Knowing how to recognise and spell your own name increases children’s sense of identity and confidence. It is a great skill to know and essential for preparing for school. The children have improved a lot at this skill and in the afternoon we did some glitter creations making our own name.
Just before lunch we headed outdoors again for some teamwork games. The children had to try and pass the ball around the circle before another child could run around the circle. Each children managed to get 5-7 laps in before we got the ball around the circle so we will try and practice that one a lot more to see if we can get it faster. We finished off with a game of candlesticks which the children asked for and absolutely loved.
The children are showing a big fascination with puzzles and books at the moment and I think that is because these are the activities we use when we settle into quiet time. The children are forming little groups and working together to complete the puzzles or discuss what they see in the books, It is a really positive social time and is showing respect to their peers that sleep at this time as well.
In the afternoon we will have some more group time activities and music before heading outside again for some more active play. The children enjoyed our short video session about space yesterday so we might make that a regular daily activity where we watch a short video about a different topic each day.
Thanks for reading our blog today and enjoy the rest of your day.
Mr Andrew and Miss Jess
