Spring 1 -Space

Understanding the world -Chinese New Year

We talked about how different families prepare and celebrate Chinese New Year. We had the opportunity to taste some traditional Chinese snacks. We described how the food looks, tastes and smelt. 
Our key questions:
Chinese New Year is a colourful celebration. Do you know what colour means good luck?
Family and friends give each other red envelopes for Chinese New Year, do you know what they put inside them?
People celebrate Chinese New Year with lots of decorations, do you know what this decoration is called (share photograph of a lantern)?
A Chinese New Year parade is very exciting, do you know what two animals you will see at the parade?
In the Chinese calendar, 2024 was the Year of the dragon. Do you know what animal represents this year?

Expressive arts and design -moon buggies!

We constructed with a purpose using a variety of resources. We worked together to build a moon buggy. 

Understanding the world -magnetic forces

We explored forces and used the magnets to attract an object.

Mathematics -composition 

We used the double dice frames and pictures of Numberblock aliens for the children to re-enact their own alien stories. We explored 6 and 7 as numbers that are composed of '5 and a bit.' We could see that 5 and 1 make 6 and 5 and 2 make 7.

Expressive arts and design -choosing colours for a purpose

We choose colours for a purpose and painted planets.

Expressive arts and design -marble painting 

We used marbles to create swirly paint effects and mesmerizing patterns. We used a variety of colours to experiment and mix. We had some fantastic representations of planets.

Understanding the world -What planet do we live on?

We invited the children to tear, scrunch or layer the tissue paper to create different effects to show land and sea. We also sorted the animals into land and sea. 

Literacy -Look at our wonderful writing!

In provision, we have been segmenting the sounds in simple words. We also spelt words by identifying the sound and writing the sound with a letter.

Physical development -Bike ability balance

We developed our confidence, competence and understanding during bikeability balance. We used the balance bikes to develop our co-ordination, control and movement. 

Literacy -Whatever next 

Our talk for write text is 'Whatever next.' We enjoyed acting out the story using a range of story props. 

Mathematics -counting, ordinality and cardinality 

We built towers using cubes to match the numeral cards. Our key questions: Can you put them in order? Which tower comes first? What do you notice? Where can you see the '1 more' pattern?

Expressive arts and design -imaginative play

We've enjoyed playing with the spaceships, planets, rockets and astronauts. We've been creating space-themed stories and scenarios. 

Mathematics -problem solving 

We worked together to complete the space themed jigsaw puzzle. We had to observe and match puzzle pieces and decide which fit together correctly. When we had finished building the jigsaw puzzle we enjoyed talking about the different planets we could see. 

Expressive arts and design -painting on different surfaces

We painted onto tinfoil. We used paint and cotton buds and invited the children to create a wintery scene. 

Understanding the world -melting ice

The animals are frozen in the ice! We explored and observed the ice melting. We worked together to free the frozen animals. 

Understanding the world -Winter 

We talked about the changing season and discussed what happens during Winter. We went on a winter walk and looked for things that appear in winter outside. We looked all around, up in the sky and down on the ground. We took photographs of signs of winter and collected objects. We gathered together and discussed our findings.