All posts by Louise Gough

W/c 9th January – Stars & Space

  • Think about our Christmas experiences
  • Make a wish upon a star – adult to scribe
  • Alien from another planet – consider how we would care for it
  • Sing themed songs – Twinkle Twinkle/ Star Light, Star Bright, 5 little Men in a Flying Saucer
  • Read themed stories – e.g Aliens love Underpants
  • Draw aliens and count their legs etc
  • Space rocket game with dice
  • Build a rocket using magnets
  • Write a story together using themed objects in the sack
  • Focus on collecting stars from gel with tweezers
  • Thread beads and cotton reels to make aliens
  • Free the aliens from green goop
  • Chalk rockets to do a rocket race
  • Set up a picnic area on the moon
  • Make different sounds to music and move like aliens
  • Freeze aliens in ice – consider how we can free them
  • Tuff spot with chalks to draw aliens
  • Hide themed objects in cardboard boxes using torches to find out what they are
  • Glitter writing/ writing in sand colour

W/c 5th & 12th December – Christmas!

  • Talk about Christmas and think about its meaning
  • Practice Nativity
  • Listen to Christmas themed stories
  • Use puppets to tell stories
  • Wrapping area – scissors, Sellotape, ribbon
  • Turn into Santa with fireplace
  • Sing Christmas songs
  • Christmas craft activities
  • Make snowballs with gloop
  • Use magnets to move items from a bottle
  • Nativity tuff spot
  • Build Christmas trees with blocks
  • Measure how tall we are with ribbon
  • Put baubles on the trees
  • Follow the number path to deliver presents

W/c 28th November – Gingerbread Man

  • Talk about the story and consider why he kept running away
  • Look at alternative stories e.g The Gingerbread Girl
  • Decorate the large Gingerbread Man on the playground
  • Make a Gingerbread Man and decorate
  • Put buttons on Gingerbread Man using tweezers
  • Write numbers in flour
  • Gingerbread Man tuff spot story
  • Make a bridge from construction resources
  • Scented ginger/cinnamon play dough
  • Order the Gingerbread Men by size
  • Hunt for numbered Gingermen using positional clues
  • Use gutters to make streams and boats
  • Have races using different ways of moving
  • Draw Gingerbread Men in the sand
  • Play a game with scents
  • Bakery/kitchen role play area

W/c 21st November – Goldilocks and the 3 Bears

  • Retell stories using props/puppets
  • Goldilocks and the 3 bears sensory story
  • Talk about the feelings of the characters
  • Would you talk to a stranger?
  • Three bears cottage role play area
  • Use different size bowls/spoons/chairs
  • Make marks in porridge
  • Make bears from clay in different sizes
  • Build houses using different resources
  • Use blocks/Duplo/stickle bricks to build beds and chairs for baby bear
  • Make bears from loose parts
  • Use small house to tell stories
  • Make food for the bears in the mud kitchen
  • Make homes using junk modelling
  • Find letters in the porridge tray and write some

W/c 14th November – Bear Hunt

  • Dark den: Investigate shadows with torches
  • Read Bear Hunt with Rhythmic knee patting
  • Put coats and shoes on independently
  • Make binoculars using coloured cellophane and investigate colour mixing
  • Order the story
  • Children re-enact the story using props
  • Make a Bear mask
  • Watch about different bears and their habitats
  • Sort the bears by colour/size/amount
  • Dinosaurs in mud tuff spot – Add Dinosaur Hunt Story
  • Hide bears and use positional language
  • Sing bear themed songs, e.g The Bear went over the mountain
  • Continue to talk about emotions
  • Think about descriptive vocabulary “A deep, cold river” “Thick, oozy mud”

W/c 7th November – The Gruffalo

  • Share experiences of fireworks from weekend
  • Sing songs about Bonfire night
  • Read The Gruffalo, talk about the setting and characters
  • Paint creatures from The Gruffalo
  • Make a shadow puppet theatre
  • Practice writing numerals on the Gruffalo pictures
  • Build a forest in a tuff spot with small creatures
  • Coloured water with leaves and conkers, pans, whisks and spoons to make soup
  • Owl ice cream playdoh
  • Forest cafe role play with scrambled snake and roasted fox
  • Explore shadows in the dark den
  • Use magnetic letters to match character names
  • Play build your own Gruffalo game
  • Practice moving like characters
  • Draw a picture of a terrible creature
  • Sequence pictures in order
  • Talk about Remembrance Day and create poppy craft

W/c 31st October – Halloween/Fireworks

  • Fireworks number songs
  • Make shape witches and rockets
  • Explore rhyming words
  • Listen to and share experiences of fireworks
  • Dark den: use torches to explore
  • Dance: moving like fireworks
  • Write letters from names in sand
  • Throw tea bags to make firework pictures
  • Talk about the need for warmer clothes
  • Read Room on the Broom and retell
  • Mix primary colours to paint pumpkin pictures
  • Hammer golf tees into pumpkins
  • Mould dough into pumpkins
  • Use musical instruments to make sounds like fireworks
  • Make spider webs in salt
  • Use tweezers to collect Halloween items from the web