Happy Lunar New Year!

This week we have been celebrating the Chinese New Year. At the beginning of the week, we introduced the children to the celebration through art activities. The children engaged in creating snake spirals to celebrate the year of the snake! They were able to choose which tool they used and what colours they wanted to paint their snake. The children focused very well and for a prolonged period of time; sharing with their peers and creating some beautiful artwork!

We continue our cooking sessions by making our very own spring rolls! The children each had their own rice paper wrap and the choice of, spring onion, carrot and cucumber as their filling. They also tried two different sauces – sweet and sour, and hoisin sauce. The children surprised us by preferring the ingredients with the strongest taste or smell – the spring onion and the hoisin sauce! We practised our skills in spreading the sauces on the wrap and choosing which fillings they wanted, using the objects of reference.

Our PE session this week allowed the children to immerse themselves in Chinese music and dancing. We used the beautiful silk materials to dance like dragons and explored Chinese drumming and cymbals.

On Friday we set up our very own Chinese Restaurant in the classroom! We decorated the table with a red table cloth and they each had their own menu for the meal. We started by trying fortune cookies, the adults helped the children unwrap them and read their fortunes. Next, the children tried prawn crackers! Most of the children loved these and kept asking for more! Well done for good communication!
For our main course, the children tried vegetable spring rolls and two different types of noodles – rice noodles and egg noodles!

Mufit and Renesmae loved the noodles the most! Whereas, the fortune cookie was Oliver’s favourite!

Last week, the children got stuck in with some of the topic activities for this term! We have really enjoyed exploring our new story, The very hungry caterpillar; focusing on pears this week! The children have been developing their skills in symbol recognition and comprehension of the story through matching tasks, symbol choice and ALD boards, also exploring chopping up and tasting pears!

This week we investigated mark making through making prints in paint, using lots of different tools. The children enjoyed exploring the different patterns they could make using, cars, rolling pins, stamps and cookie cutters!

The children are loving our weekly forest school trips over at Pelsall Lane! It is wonderful to see how confident the children have become at navigating their way off the bus and through the corridors with minimal physical support from an adult. They have been following verbal instructions very well and have been having so much fun running wild in nature!!

The first couple of weeks back after Christmas have been madness! The children have loved being back in school exploring familiar activities and experiencing new topics and lessons. It has been really exciting!

We’ve had some wonderful Gymnastics sessions during our PE lessons so far. The children have loved using the climbing frame and have even practised some forward rolls with some adult support.

Our topic for the Spring Term is ‘Food Glorious Food’ so we have started to explore learning skills in food preparation. The children have enjoyed sessions focusing on spreading butter on toast; working towards making sandwiches by the end of the half term.

Our story for this term is ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ and so we introduced the book to the children with some painting! Creating a giant caterpillar using green paint and paper plates! We intend to continue exploring the book page by page, focusing on the different fruit the caterpillar eats each day.

We have also continued our Identiplay interventions; working on our parallel play skills, communication and attention skills. The children love having this 1:1 time with an adult, engaging in play and intensive interaction.