Our topic for the final half term is

WATER, WATER, EVERYWHERE!

This half term we are going underwater into the deep ocean world, exploring the natural world and the creatures who live there. Our sensory story are "The Blue Abyss" and "Off to The Beach" and we will bring them to life with different sights, sounds, feelings and actions. We will continue to develop our fine motor skills, mark-making and counting skills as well as communication, interactions and exploration. 

We will be enjoying the songs, 'Row, row, row your boat', 'A sailor went to sea, sea, sea' and other ocean songs too.

Week 6 - Open and Shut!

As we continue explore all things under the sea, we've also been thinking about the core word 'Open!' (and its partners 'Shut' or 'Close.') We loved the Baby Shark game with the mouths that opened and shut. We explored opening and closing lots of different containers with different things inside. We've also investigated lots of ways of making marks and being creative - blowing and printing with paint bubbles, flicking paint, printing and collaging and of course with pens and pencils. Threading pasta also helped our fine motor skills. 

Week 5 - Here we are!

This week we have been thinking about the words and concepts of here and there. Some of us stayed 'here' in school and some of us went 'there' on our Sherwood Pines trip! We've made the most of the gorgeous sunshine with lots of water play and have carried on with our fantastic maths work. Our cooking sessions making cheesecakes and iced biscuits was lots of fun - we are getting so good at using different tools and techniques. Look at us in our PE sessions too. We can use our bodies and equipment in lots of ways to stay active. 

Week 4 - STOP! Sharks, shells and 'sand'wiches

Our core word this week has been 'STOP!' following last week's, 'GO!' so we have been using this word lots in Bucket Time. "Stop squirting me" made us laugh! We made STOP/GO signs using our scissors skills and also finished our beautiful jellyfish. We used printing and cutting skills to make our scary sharp-teeth sharks. 

The underwater theme has been great for practicing our counting skills. We've put the right number of shells on the fish, matched the correct hoops to the starfish patterns and completed dot-to-dot and number line puzzles. Burying, retrieving and washing the shells made for a fun sensory activity too. We had fun making shell and starfish shaped sandwiches in our cooking session. What wonderful spreading skills we practised!

Week 3 - Go, go, go and get wet!

Wow! What a hot week! We've been so glad of water trays, our shady outside area and a paddling pool. Sensory play with sea creatures hiding in ice was another good way to stay cool.

Our core word this week has been 'GO!' so we've had lots of fun with ready, steady, go games, and also playing games where we have to take turns and wait for our 'go'. We've continued our Under the Sea theme with jellyfish making and fishing maths activities. Our recent 'Tuna Crunch' cooking activity was a fun way to develop our cutting, crumbling and mixing skills.

Week 2 - Fish and Foam!

We've begun our Water, Water, Everywhere topic this week and begun exploring our sensory story. We have decorated some beautiful fish using tools carefully to apply paint and we've enjoyed whisked up frothy sea foam for our sensory tray. We used playdough and beads to make mermaid tails whilst developing our finger strength. Thursday was a very busy morning with all the class photographs! Our core word this week has been 'don't' and we enjoyed a silly morning based on the book, '"Don't Put Your Finger in The Jelly, Nelly!" which allowed us to investigate rhyming words and different food textures. 

Storms and Shipwrecks, Monsters and Magic!

Wow! What a fantastic time we had exploring The Tempest for Shakespeare Week. We began by exploring a huge thunderstorm and a shipwreck. We used the instruments in different ways to make a terrifying noise and used 2D shapes to make boats. 

We loved making our own desert island in the tuffspot and learned about Caliban, the monster who lived on the island. We made Caliban masks and used playdough to make our own island monsters. We met Ariel, the fairy, and made magic wands and our own magic potions. 

We celebrated with Iris, the rainbow spirit making our own wonderful rainbows and then finally celebrated Ferdinand granting freedom from the island with our Freedom flags. 
 

Thank you to the Royal Shakespeare Company for really inspiring Old Basford again!

The Willow celebrates World Culture Day

We had a wonderful time celebrating our cultural heritage in The Willow. It was so lovely to see everyone in their special clothes and we enjoyed trying lots of different foods. We made flags and waved them to celebrate our unique and wonderful backgrounds, families and cultures. 

This half term our learning is based on:

Goldilocks and the Three Bears!

This half term we are exploring mathematical and scientific concepts inspired by Goldilocks and the Three Bears through a sensory story with different sights, sounds, feelings and actions. We will continue to focus on mark-making and counting skills as well as communication, interactions and exploration. 

We will also be learning the song, 'When Goldilocks went to the house of the bears' and others songs reinforcing counting skills such as 'Ten in the bed' and '1-2-Buckle My Shoe.'

Bears and Porridge!

These first two weeks have been all about the three bears - big, medium and small, and their porridge - too hot, too cold and just right! Our core words have been is/are and some. 

We've used the sensory story to inspire our learning about the world, exploring bears of different sizes and different temperatures. In maths, we have also focused on counting and  comparing. It was fun in mark making to create our own bear masks and giving Goldilocks her printed hair. We've enjoyed lots of sensory exploration in water, glitter, porridge oats, kinetic sand and playdough. Our first cooking session was bear bread when we mixed and spread a chocolate paste and sliced bananas to make bear faces. We have also made warm porridge and ice lollies. What a great start to the Summer term.

The Willow celebrates VE Day!

A wonderful day of exploring and remembering making paper chains, bunting, coloured rice and cake-decorating.

Soft and hard chairs and beds! 

We have continued exploring Goldilocks and the Three Bears.      We have been focusing on the chairs and the beds which were too hard, too soft or just right! The children have been loving the sensory story and have joined in well exploring using all their senses. We've investigated hard things by threading dry pasta and hammering into potatoes, and explored soft items like sand, soil and playdough. We've developed our fine motor skills with cut-out puppets and patchwork bears, and used forks, paintbrushes, crayons and pencils for mark-making. We've continued counting bears and exploring 3D shapes too. 

Our word of the week has been 'put' and we had a great time putting blocks and jigsaw pieces in the correct places, putting blankets on us, putting blocks together to build towers. 

In our cooking session, we 'put' lots of different ingredients into our chocolate snack. Some were hard like biscuits, some were soft like marshmallows.