The Kits topic book this week has been Pete the Cat and his Four Groovy Buttons by Eric Litwin. The book is about a cat called Pete who loves his groovy buttons. However, one by one he starts lose them! The book encourages us to try to stay positive no matter what happens. It is a great story to teach the children about resilience and also introduces rhyme and maths.
In our Outside Learning Environment we have developed our gross motor skills through jumping and stepping on the colourful spots. The Kits extended this activity by deciding to make their own paths, pretending that the floor was 'lava’. In Maths we practised our counting skills and made arrangements with the ‘loose parts’, making sure to count the parts one by one. When playing with the ‘loose parts’ the children are able to choose from a variety of gems, beads, nuts and bolts which they then lined up and counted.
We focused on listening and rhyme during the week, taking inspiration from the rhymes and sounds from our topic book. We decided to go on a ‘listening walk’ to try and discover the different sounds we could hear and recognise in our local area. The Kits listened very carefully on the walk and we managed to hear birds tweeting, cars, bikes and even the sound of our own footsteps!
In Science we explored the effect of mixing colours and different media together. The Kits used used pipettes to suck coloured water and squirt it onto a tray of flour. The children were highly engaged in the activity and the effects were were amazing! The activity was also a wonderful way to develop the children’s language and imagination as they described what they saw as “Lava”, “The moon” and “A slimy river”.
In Art the children made their own ‘Pete the Cat’ puppets with wooden spoons. They used paint, googly eyes and buttons to create their puppets and enjoyed using them to help them sing along to the rhyme which accompanies the book.
The home corner has been a ‘Shoe Shop’ this week to support the children’s independence and health and self-care. They have been practising taking their shoes on and off and have enjoyed choosing from a range of crocs, sandals and wellies to ‘purchase’ and then wear in the classroom.
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