“How do bats fly?” asked Helen. We will discuss this and how bats use sound to help locate objects and obstacles. Then we will explain our maths activity for today, two people are going to be the counting bat. They will need to wear a blindfold or cover their eyes and pretend to be like a bat on a dark night. They will need to count the number of times their friend claps their hands. We will show the clappers (two other children) a card with dots on it, they will need to use subitising skills to work out how many dots there are before they begin clapping. The bats will need to say how many claps they heard, counting with fingers as they hear the sound. We will check whether they heard the same number of claps (the children who are not bats or clappers will be able to record the number of claps using marks on whiteboards). We will ask the children: Did they count all of the claps? How can you be sure? Did anyone count a different number? How can we count each clap carefully? When should we stop counting? We will repeat this, making sure each child has a turn at being a clapper or a bat.

Luna asked “How do spiders climb webs?” we will begin today by watching a video which answers this question Beautiful Spider Web Build Time-lapse | BBC Earth Then we will explain that the children are going to pretend to be spiders and that they are going to make webs. Each child will be given a paper plate. First we will explain that they need to use ‘hole punches’ (a one handed tool) to create some holes round the edge (we will remind them about how they used this tool when creating their axolotls (SMSC)). Next they will need to select some wool to be their spider thread. Adults will model how to stick the end down before threading it (using a pincer grip) between the holes to create a web. The children will then need to select another piece of wool and add some more to their web (we will remind them about sharing resources and that each web will be different but equally good !

We finished our Balanceability sessions before half term. Today, for PE,  we will have a recap lesson where the children will be using our balance bikes outside. We will revisit all the skills learnt so that the children begin to use them independently during ‘playing and learning’ sessions.

Today we are going to revisit ‘helicopter stories’. We will begin by rereading a couple of the stories that children created recently. We will explain that the children used their imagination. We will remind the children that Marsaili asked “How do unicorns have magical horns and change rainbows?” - maybe elements of this will be incorporated into the stories that the children tell. Then we will explain that the rest of the children are each going to have the opportunity to create their own stories using their imagination. We will encourage the children (in their small groups) to tell / dictate their stories – these will be written down verbatim, exactly as they are told, by the adults. Each child will have a whiteboard and will be encouraged to record (using the pinch and flick technique) illustrations to match the story as it is told. The groups will each then gather around a taped out stage and act out their story (without an audience and in their own way - the adult delivering the activity doesn’t need to join in or lead how the story is acted out as the children will do this). We want to develop the children’s ‘imaginings’ during both the telling and the acting out of their stories.

Friday

Teddy asked how do skeletons swim?” So today we will begin by watching a video about a skeleton swimming When the children have watched and talked about it, we will highlight the accompanying music. We will ask the children to show us how the music makes them feel. How does it make them want to move? Then we will explain that we are going to create some music for a skeleton dance. We will gather the instruments, reminding children of their names. Each child will be able to choose an instrument (a drum, tambourine, shaker or claves). The children will then be in four groups, each related to one of the instruments. We will each group in turn to play their instruments so that we can all hear what the instrument sounds like. Then we will introduce a symbol to represent each instrument  - each group of children will only need to play when we show their symbol. Finally we will move on to the Skeleton dance video. We will model how the instruments should be played (linked to the symbols) to create an accompaniment for the video.