‘Slowly, Slowly, Slowly,’ Said the Sloth, by Eric Carle, was our chosen book this week. We discovered it was about a sloth and his friends, who all live in the rainforest. The animals ask the sloth lots of questions, so we took their lead and have been learning how to ask a question. Some children took part in a ‘show and tell’ session, using questions to ask and learn.
We enjoyed colour mixing and using our fine motor fingers to squash paint under clear plastic, to reveal the animal picture underneath. We have enjoyed many mark-making opportunities, including using chalks, and paintbrushes dipped in water (in the outside classroom). Our younger children loved our ‘Squiggle While You Wiggle’ activity, and enjoyed making marks in shaving foam.
Learning about the rainforest lead us to making our own rain-sticks. It was exciting to use our ears to guess what was inside different pots, before choosing some items to make our own.
Our maths activities helped us learn different aspects of counting. We practiced counting out from a group, keeping the number in our heads. We used counters to make crocodile teeth, looking at how we placed them in crocodile 10-frame mouths, then using one to one correspondence to check how many were there. Maths language is so important, and our children are practising talking about what they see. They also drew shapes around counters after subitising.
It has been a busy time looking after our class fish and plants. The children enjoy the responsibility of helping clean and feed the fish, and making sure the plants have lots of water.
Wow! Another very busy week in Hopscotch.
