The children have been baking with Bernie all week, and today we set up our bakery in the classroom!
We had porridge bread, banana bread muffins and banana cookies for sale. The children learned about how butter was made in the past and we churned our own butter to put on our porridge bread too!
We have learned loads about castles so far this term, and we are doing a Fairytale and Castles themed playtime this week.
Table 1 were completing patterns with different castle pictures, e.g. knight, drawbridge, moat, shield, etc. As well as following a pattern, the children also got to work on their fine motor skills by cutting and gluing.
Table 2 were designing and decorating an outfit for the Emperor, as we did the story The Emperor's New Clothes last week! The children got a chance to explore different materials, think creatively, work collaboratively and build up fine motor skills.
Table 3 were building castles in the construction area. Before they could begin building, the children had to draw and label their castle and follow their design for the build. There was a lot of collaborative work at this table too!
Table 4 was the drama table, and the children got into role as kings, queens, princesses, knights, good fairies and evil wizards! One day the castle was under attack from an army and the portcullis had to be lowered, another day an evil wizard broke in and caused chaos in the great hall!There was loads of imagination used at this station, as well as great opportunities for oral language development.
We have some very exciting news! A fairy has moved into our classroom!!! Her name is Sióg. We have been writing letters to her during English stations to let her know more about us. Bernie baked fairy cakes with the children and we also made fairy castles during playtime.
Because of Sióg we are going to learn about fairytales and castles during January! We began by looking at features of castles, such as a curtain wall, battlements, arrow slits, drawbridges etc. and then we went for walk down to Trim Castle to see if we could find these features. We did some sketching of the castle too.
Before we went home today, we had a very exciting visitor in the classroom! Ms. Keane's Grandma came in to talk to us about what it was like to be in school in the past. Grandma was also a primary school teacher and she told us a bit about that too! We did some coin rubbings with old money, used an old-fashioned weighing scales and saw how they used to make toys from potatoes and sticks in the past! Grandma also told us stories about school in the past, even about times when she was a little bit bold and got into trouble! We had loads of questions for her and learned a lot!
She even left some surprises in the classroom for everyone tomorrow...
Our theme for the month of April was 'Houses and Homes'. Here are some of the learning activities we did over the past few weeks....
In History we discussed what our homes looked like and what was used to build them. Everyone got a sheet of paper and drew their home on one half of it. Then the children looked at pictures of homes from the past in pairs. They had to find things that were different to their homes and circle them. Some children came up and explained the differences they found to the rest of the class. The children then drew a house from long ago on the other half of their page.
For Geography the children learned the names of different types of homes, and actions for each type to help everyone to remember them! We learned about detached, semi-detached and terraced houses, flats or apartments, bungalows, igloos, caravans and tepees. Everyone completed a writing activity about the type of house they lived in. During playtime the children were in role as builders and made different types of homes and buildings using the pictures below and others as stimulus.
As part of playtime the children were also given shoe boxes and assorted furniture and characters in their groups. They created different rooms and engaged in free play. This helped develop social skills, oral language and teamwork, as well as building on their vocabulary about homes and different rooms.
In English we read the story of The Three Little Pigs and discussed which house we would have built. The children then made whichever house they liked using straw, match sticks or red ribbon for bricks.
We then heard another version of the Three Little Pigs, this time told from the wolf's point of view!
We then came up with our own version of another fairy tale-Little Red Riding Hood orally as a whole class. Once we had the story written, the children had to become the illustrators and read their page and draw an appropriate picture. Now we have a very interesting class book!
We also looked at a story called Town Mouse and Country Mouse. We talked about where we would rather live, the town or the country, and why. The children then did some writing about their reasons and for art they were given lots of materials, e.g. lollipop sticks, coloured paper, ribbon, matchsticks, etc., and allowed to create their town or country house.
Hopefully everyone is enjoying the well earned week off after a busy April :)
