Bumblebees room news Bumblebees topic has been under the sea and with this they have also looked at ice. They froze some water mixed with food colouring. Bumblebees used their hands and paintbrushes to make marks, this encouraged their sensory exploration and strengthened hand grasps, especially with slippery pieces of ice! Bumblebees have used their sensory skills through physical development, expressive arts and design, whilst spending more time in the garden whilst enjoying the beautiful weather. Bumblebees have been socialising, using key words, laughter and gestures to show self confidence and pride of what they have done A great easy activity to do outside is pots or containers of water with different sized paintbrushes. Simple shops like pound shops sell decorating brushes so the effect is bigger and the marks and movements are greater. The children have ‘painted’ the fences, chalkboards, activity boards and surfaces. This is a great activity to do at home. Exploring key words together, talking about the pictures you are creating together. ‘Scribble’ is the best mark making of all as the children build up their muscles in their arms and wrists which makes movements more fluid, building up for school and their writing skills.
Butterflies room news Butterflies have had fun creating different pictures using various tools and paint. They painted rockets for a new birthday board with pictures of themselves in the window of the rocket with their birthdays written on them. Butterflies have also used blocks, bricks, cars etc putting them into different colours of paint, talking about the different marks they make and naming the colours they were using. Butterflies have been talking about the beach and what they would do and find there. They said dinosaurs, swimming, crabs, sand castles, fishies and spider man. (Even superheroes need a break!) They watched a video of the sea and repeated and made their own wave noises with their imaginative and communication skills. After this the Butterflies created a picture of the sea using paint and bubble wrap. Thy also decorated their own fish using various collage materials. Butterflies have been expanding and encouraging their personal and social skills, turn taking, waiting for their turn, naming their peers. The turn taking also encourages communication skills as when you have a conversation you take turns to add your ideas and thoughts. They were playing a fish lotto game, finding the pieces that they needed, matching them to the shapes that were on their card. This encouraged their math’s skills, solving problems, identifying shapes and matching the correct shapes.
Ladybirds room news Ladybirds put their physical, personal and social skills to use during sports day. They competed against each other, having fun and cheering each other on like great sports professionals do! Their hand eye co-ordination skills were put to the test in the sack race and egg & spoon race. A great easy idea and activity that can be done at home is nuts and bolts. Use a permanent marker to write different numbers on the end of each bolt. The children gain confidence with recognising and naming numbers, counting the correct number of nuts they need to put on the bolt. Another added skill to this activity is fine motor skills, with their physical development twisting the nuts on the bolts. A great fun activity is blowing bubbles. Why not involve expressive arts and design to physical and personal, social and emotional development too? Add washing up liquid and water to paint, put the straw in the paint and blow. There’s so many ways to communicate even through eye contact, expressions and laughter. The bubbles can spill over the pot onto the paper. Or, put paper on top of the bubbles to capture the prints of the bubbles. Use food colouring if you don’t have paint, but it may not be as effective. 
