This week the Kits topic book has been the famous fairy taleThe Magic Porridge Pot and we have used the story as a platform to focus on the children’s listening and rhyming skills. We had lots of fun reading this book aloud and loved discovering what happened to the town when the magic pot wouldn't stop cooking porridge. The children have been very engaged with the story during Circle Time and have joined in with saying the lines to the book, “Cook pot, cook!” and “Stop pot, stop!”
It was also a great story to begin our preparations for our ‘Porridge Party’ on Friday in aid of ‘Mary’s Meals’. For the ‘Porridge Party’ the children used fruit to decorate their bowl of porridge and then we ate them together at snack time. We discussed why we were having the party with the children and what the money raised would be used for. The porridge bowls tasted delicious and we were all really proud to raise money for such an important cause.
We have been continuing to focus on our listening skills during Focus Time and have enjoyed playing ‘Follow the Leader’ and ‘Simon Says’, where we have practiced carefully following the teacher’s instructions. The children loved extending their listening skills by making their own shakers. We used paper cups and salt or gravel and compared the different sounds that they made as well as playing them quietly and loudly.
We have continued to teach the children our Classroom Principles; ‘Walking Feet’, ‘Kind Hearts’, ‘Gentle Hands’, ‘Taking Turns’ and ‘Listening Ears’. and this week we made soft toys to represent the principles. The children had a turn at helping Miss Vicky use the sewing machine to sew the material together and then pushed stuffing into them to make them nice and soft. The new toys will live in the classroom for the children to play with and to develop their understanding of the principles.
Our Role Play area this week has been set up as a Fire Station and the children have been busy calling 999 and rushing to the rescue to put out the fires! The children enjoyed making props for the Fire Station in Art and they have loved sitting in the cardboard Fire Engines and putting out fires on the walls with their tube hoses.