Blog 5 - 11th October

Hello Apples,

 

Lets get straight down to it...

 

 

 
This week we were very excited to have a go at recreating Vincent Van Gogh's painting "The Mulberry Tree". First we talked about what an artist is and lots of children were able to reflect upon the paintings they have created recently. Excellent reflective learning Apple Class! Next, we discussed how we knew the picture was painted in Autumn time. Most of us could spot the yellow leaves on the tree. We also thought carefully about why the artist may have created "wavy" leaves on the tree. Some of their ideas were: "the leaves are falling off", "it is really windy" and "the tree is wobbling in the wind". We had some super thoughtful discussions, well done! Afterwards the children enjoyed recreating their own paintings just like an artist. 
 
 
In our mathematical work, we continued with our Autumn theme. The children were very excited to play Nutty Numbers game (a great one from Santa this year!)  The children had to roll the dice and build a woodland path and colunt the acorns along the way, ready for the squirrels to eat. Whoever had the most acorns at the end was the winner. As you can imagine, we had lots of competitive children! This game involves lots of important mathematical skills- rote counting (counting in order), counting out set amounts, counting objects 1.1 and subitizing (recognising the amount of spots on the dice without counting them). Lots of children were able to rote count but they struggled to subitize and count 1.1 (counting how many acrons they had at the end). We will continue to practice these skills as the year progresses. As well as maths skills, this game allowed the children to practice their attention and concentration, turn taking and listening skills. 
 
Remember, maths doesn't need to be boring! Maths should be exciting! This week staff followed the children's interests in conker rolling. We decided to turn this into a maths opportunity and create a number track to see how far they could roll their conkers. The children instantly became competitive and wanted to reach the biggest number! They then experimented using trains, cars, fur cones and so much more. We found the cars travelled the furthest.
 
In our outdoor learning, this week we had a look at different coloured leaves. The children had to match the leaves to the correct colours on their worksheet. We really enjoyed this activity.
  
As well as all of this, the children have been developing their fine motor skills by using tweezers to move conkers and crab apples into egg boxes, they have been using key vocabulary (empty, half full, nearly full, full) when measuring conkers in jugs and measuring cylinders, they have been colouring and mark making and developing their imaginative play. 
 
 
I hope you all have a restful and happy weekend
Ms Farrar