Castle Room News

Over the next two weeks we will be focusing on the key area of Physical Development as we continue to build our independence in looking after ourselves and look closely at keeping ourselves healthy with what we eat and what we do to keep ourselves healthy!

In the Water Tray we will be talking about making fresh juice from apples, with the addition of apples sliced in different ways, small apples from the garden, chunks of apples, around apple slices and more. We will include coloured water to make it look like apple juice and add apple tea bags to make the water smell like apple juice!

On the Mark Making Table we will be encouraging the children to think about the fruit they like to eat and where they get it. We will have a fruit bowl in the centre of the table to encourage the children to talk about the different fruits and think about what they look like. There will be a pair of pears, five connected apples from the trees, and individual fruit to encourage the children to consider how they might group the fruit and talk about similarities and differences.

We will also be following our technology focus from the last two weeks into this fortnight as we code our own dance routines. We will set out a series of images depicting different dance moves and have symbols in the corner of each image to represent them. We will then sequence our own routines using the coded symbols to represent what to do and help us recall the steps. Please watch the attached video for an example.

Our first Book of the Week will be Troll Stinks. This is a twist on the story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff. In this story, the Billy Goats find a phone and decide to do some silly things like send pictures and call people they don't know. When they realise they have the troll's number, they decide to say some mean things. What will happen when they meet the real troll behind the screen that they have never seen? This is a story all about online safety and how we should use devices safely.

Our Song of the Week is a rhyme called I Keep My Information Safe. It is a rhyme that teaches children some top tips that keep us safe while we are online.

Our second book of the week will be The Very Hungry Caterpillar, a well-known story in which we explore the life cycle and 'Metamorphosis' of a caterpillar into a butterfly. In the classroom we will have caterpillars which we will be observing as we have been with the changes of our tadpoles in the Forest School. The keywords for this story are: Metamorphosis, chrysalis, cocoon, healthy and unhealthy.

Our Second Song of the Week is There's a Tiny Caterpillar on a Leaf, a step-by-step song that teaches us the stages of the life cycle of a butterfly and their specific names. The keywords for this song are; caterpillar, munch, cocoon, butterfly.

In the malleable area, Mrs Thompson is providing clay for the children to create some healthy food. We have started by discussing "How to keep our body healthy". So far we have comments in regard to eating fruit, vegetables, exercising and drinking water. Some comments have been furthered with some explanations, such as water keeps us hydrated or, when climbing, I am bending my knees, squeezing my fingers to hold on to the bar, etc. With the clay, the children will be manipulating, e.g. squeezing, moulding, rolling, flattening etc, which strengthens their muscles. Once dried, the children will paint their items and be able to bring them home.