Summer 1 Week 5

Understanding the world – Programming beebots

We used Bee-Bots to explore simple programming. The children gave the Bee-Bots instructions to move forwards and backwards, learning how to press the buttons in the correct order to make them travel where they wanted. They enjoyed experimenting and giving verbal directions, beginning to understand sequencing and directional language through their play.

Physical development – Nuts and bolts

The children explored nuts, bolts, screws, and construction materials. They used tools and their hands to fit, twist, and join pieces together, experimenting with how the different parts could connect.

Summer 1 Week 4

Understanding the world – Forest learning 

On Friday afternoons, we love exploring our forest area. We enjoy getting muddy and making mud pies, swinging in the hammock, balancing along the ropes stretched between the trees, digging and swinging from the branches.

Understanding the world – Floating boats

The children explored floating boats in the water. They tested different toy boats to see which ones would float or move across the water, observing how shape and size affected their movement.

Expressive arts and design – Junk model boats 

The children explored designing and making boats. They designed their own boats on paper, thinking about how they might float and what materials to use. Using junk modelling materials, they then built their boats and tested them in water to see if they would float.

Understanding the world – Float or sink

We investigated which materials float or sink. The children tested a variety of objects in water and made predictions about what they thought would happen before placing them in the water. They carefully observed whether the objects floated on the surface or sank to the bottom. The children talked about what they noticed and began to explore the different properties of materials through their hands-on investigation.

Summer 1 Week 3

Expressive arts and design – Wheel painting 

We explored wheel pattern painting. The children rolled toy wheels through paint to make repeating patterns and tracks on paper. They experimented with different directions, colours, and wheel sizes, noticing how each change created a new pattern.

Understanding the world – Exploring trains and magnets 
We explored magnets using trains with magnetic carriages. The children investigated how the carriages connected together and sometimes pushed apart. They experimented with moving the carriages closer to see when they would join and when they would repel each other. The children enjoyed making predictions and observing what happened, beginning to understand how magnets can attract and repel.

Expressive arts and design – Car wash

The children explored a car wash activity using a water tray, toy cars, toothbrushes, and soapy water. They enjoyed washing the cars, scrubbing with the toothbrushes and watching the bubbles form as they cleaned.

Summer 1 Week 2

Understanding the world – Our town

We also explored our local community by looking at photographs of familiar places such as the school, small bus, local shop, park, library, and a wooden house. The children talked about places they recognised and shared their own experiences of visiting them. We discussed how we travel to these places, linking our learning about transport to real life in our local area. This helped the children make connections between their learning and the world around them.

Understanding the world – Moving vehicles 

We explored how vehicles move using ramps and different toy vehicles. The children rolled cars and other vehicles down the ramp to see which one travelled the fastest and which went the furthest. We tried different surfaces on the ramps and noticed that some vehicles moved faster depending on the surface and the type of wheels they had. The children enjoyed making predictions, watching carefully, and talking about what they noticed as the vehicles moved.

Summer 1 Week 1

Expressive arts and design – Garage role play

We created a garage role play area with toy cars, tools and tyres. The children explored the area and took on different roles such as mechanics and customers.

Understanding the world -Sorting vehicles 

We explored different types of transport and how they move. We looked at pictures of vehicles and talked about how some travel on land, in the air, or on water. The children worked together to sort the pictures into groups depending on where each vehicle travels. As we did this, the children noticed different features of the vehicles, such as wheels, wings, or propellers, and discussed why they help the vehicle move in certain places.

Expressive arts and design – Vehicle painting 

The children explored painting for a purpose by creating pictures of vehicles. Using photographs of a car, bus, plane, boat, and train as a stimulus, the children chose colours that matched each vehicle and painted their own versions.

Physical development – Finger gym

The children explored patterns and fine motor skills by placing balls onto a baseboard, using tweezers or spoons, to match different pattern cards. The children carefully looked at the pattern on the card and worked to recreate it on the board by placing the balls in the correct spaces.