Sensory Day
Even though it was messy, and oh the clean-up was a delight, the toddlers thoroughly enjoyed every minute of exploring the colourful spaghetti, the mushy sago and the sticky rice. They were able to hop out of the ‘clean class’ box and just enjoy making a mess.
Sensory play is an important part of childhood and there are really no limits to what you can use in your sensory activities. However, nature and food can often be your best friend when it comes to sensory play.
To help you keep your youngster busy during the holidays, here are a few great sensory play ideas for home:
- For keeping their hands busy:
- Soapy Jars: Fill a plastic peanut butter jar halfway with water, a pinch of dish soap and food colouring. Seal it tightly, and let your toddler roll it/shake it around outside.
- To explore their sense of smell (ages 4-6):
- Smell it and guess: Blend up six different fruits/vegetables in small quantities and pour them into separate dishes. Allow your little one to taste and guess.
- For co-ordination and organisation:
- Alphabet scoop and transfer: You will need alphabet magnets or water-safe letters, a storage container, a wooden spoon, two dish buckets and water. Pour enough water into your container to allow the letters to float and allow your child to scoop each letter out individually. You can practice various beginner literacy activities with them!
- To assist with emotions, and to keep them calm:
- Place beach sand or regular sand into a big container and hide small toys in the sand. Make sure the toys are all of the same themes. Once they have been able to scoop out each toy, engage with them to create a fantasyland on the sand. It’s like a zen garden for kids.
Jo-Anne Dickason
Nursery Teacher
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Assessments And Amphibians
Over the last two weeks, Foundation stage have been doing their end of term assessments. Every day the students are learning new things and continue to approach each challenge with a positive attitude. The assessments have given each student an opportunity to show their teachers how much they have learnt this term and we are so proud of them.
Recently, Foundation stage have been learning all about amphibians. The students asked, what is an amphibian? What is the difference between a reptile and an amphibian? And what is the difference between a frog and a toad? They have learnt so many interesting facts, especially what makes a frog different from a toad.
Did you know that…
- Frogs are smaller and slimmer than toads and have a more pointed nose.
- Toads are much bigger and broader than toads and have a wider nose.
- A frog’s skin is smoother than a toad. Therefore, they need to live near water because they need to keep their skin moist.
- Toads have a hard, dry skin and don’t need to stay near water.
- A toad’s eye shape is also different from a frog’s. Frogs usually have big bulging eyes, as opposed to a toad’s, that is a bit more subtle in appearance.
- Frogs have long legs made for hopping and they can jump up to 20 times the length of their own body.
- Toads have shorter legs and prefer to crawl instead of hop.
The foundation stage students enjoyed learning about these interesting facts. We are confident that the next time they see an amphibian, they’ll be able to tell us whether it’s a frog or a toad.
Lauren Bloem
Reception Teacher
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Bugs, Bugs, Bugs Everywhere…
Learning about bugs is so much fun for our Foundation Stage students. Isn’t it funny how young students are just curious about everything and don’t have the grossed out reaction that we have as adults.
During the past two weeks we have been learning about all sorts of bugs and insects through hands-on learning activities.
Some of the activities we have done includes:
- Butterfly life cycle sequencing: The students practised sequencing the cards in the correct life cycle order.
- Bug or not sorting: Is everything that crawls a bug? Is everything with wings a bug? With a container full of toys the students had to investigate what it takes to be called a bug. This sorting game helps them learn to scientifically classify and observe.
- Butterfly Symmetry Smash: We cut the butterfly out of card. The students then squirted paint onto one side of each butterfly. We folded the butterflies in half and smashed the paint.
- Which bugs can fly: The students learned which bugs could fly and which could not.
The students enjoyed looking at books about bugs and learning interesting facts about bugs by watching Blippi Wonders.
On Friday, 27 May, the Pre-Reception and Reception students went on an educational Outing to the Exotic Animal World. The students saw different types of insects, spiders, reptiles and animals like: birds, iguanas, tortoises and meerkats to name a few. The students enjoyed an interesting and informative lesson about reptiles. It was an amazing experience for the students to end off our theme.
Martie van Dyk
Pre-Reception Teacher
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High Frequency Words
In term 2, our Reception students have been introduced to High Frequency Words. High Frequency Words otherwise known as sight words, Dolch words, refer to a set of words that most commonly are found on any page of text. Readers need to instantly recognize these words in a text and often the words cannot be sounded out. Readers therefore need to memorise these words in order to read more confidently and fluently. Learning High Frequency Words is an important skill that is incorporated into reading homework. It is therefore essential to learn High Frequency Words in fun ways. Listed below are some ideas for flash card games:
Flash Cards Games
- Can you find? Lay cards on a table. Ask the student to find a given word. If they find it, they keep it. Keep going until all the cards are picked up.
- Who has more? Show the cards to the student. If they read the word within 5 seconds, they keep the cards – if not the parent keeps the cards, the goal is that the student has more cards at the end.
- Concentration – Using double copies of words take turns turning over 2 cards at a time, trying to make a match. The player must read the words correctly to get the match.
- Go fish – Use double copies of cards, pass out all by 5-6 of the words. Put these in a stack face down on the table. Look for matches in your set of cards. (each player must be able to read the word or the set goes in the stack on the table. Take turns asking each other for cards to make matches. The person with the most matches at the end is the winner.
- Slap Jack – Draw a star on a blank flashcard. Place this star card and the other flashcards face down on the table. Take turns turning over a card and reading a word. When the star card is turned over, the first player to slap it wins.
Bronwen Nuthall
Reception Year Teacher
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