This week our focus was on writing. We found plenty of outdoor mark making opportunities, such as writing on the chalkboard, drawing on the car park area, colouring in the sunshine and writing with sticks in the tray of rainbow rice. The children had just as much fun washing the chalk off the car park as they did drawing it on! Throughout the week we have been looking at the book 'Beautiful Opps' by Barney Saltzberg. This is a wonderful book that allows children to see mistak

Welcome to our blog. This week our focus has been on Literacy – Writing. We have been observing … *Can the children distinguish between the marks they make as they draw, paint or write? *Do they give meaning to their marks? *Can they continue a rhyming string? *Do they hear and say the initial sound in words? *Are they beginning to blend sounds together to make words? *Can they link sounds to letters? *Can they write their own name? When we arrived at The Acorns on Monday mor

This week our focus was on health and self-care. On Tuesday, after reading the book Oliver's Vegetables, we tasted different vegetables and fruit - some that were quite unusual and some that the children had tried before. The sweet potato wedges, corn on the cob and sugar snap peas were very popular, but nobody like the celery! All the children were amazed to see the jewel-like seeds inside the pomegranate, but they tasted a bit too sharp for some. We found that the left ov

Welcome to our blog post. This week our focus has been on Physical Development – Health and Self-Care. We have been observing … *Do the children show an awareness of bladder/bowel urges? *Can they communicate their toileting needs? *Can they drink from an open cup without spilling? *Can they feed themselves and do they use cutlery effectively? *Do they recognise danger and can they assess risk? *Are they co-operative at dressing time or can they dress themselves? *Can they wa

This week our focus has been on communication and language, specifically listening. We played some fun listening games which help the children to identify letter sounds when they start practising phonics. We had a lot of creative projects going on this week which required the children to listen carefully to instructions. We made cards for Mothers' Day using coloured tape - we hope all the mums have had a lovely day! . Friday was a very windy day, so we made kites. The childre

Our focus for the week is Communication and Language – Listening and attention. We observed … * Do the children show interest in playing with and exploring sounds? * Do they listen to our stories and can they join in with repeated refrains? * Do they recall key characters and events from stories we have previously told? * Can they follow directions? * Can they focus their attention? * Can they sit quietly and maintain focus during age appropriate activities? If you have any q

This week our focus was Expressive Art and Design – being imaginative. The children certainly used some great imagination with their dressing up this week. We saw a wonderful range of fancy dress outfits and lots of excellent book characters for World Book Day on Thursday. Junk modelling is a good way for children to express their creativity and they often make models that the teachers would never think to make. In addition to their imagination, they also use a variety of pra

The focus for the week is Expressive Arts and Design – Being imaginative. We have included this into our continuous play provision by providing many opportunities for the children to express themselves and to use their imagination. We have been observing … How the children pretend that one object represents another, especially when the objects have characteristics in common. (Using a remote control as a telephone.) How they begin to use representation to communicate, e.g. dra