Today we have two exciting experiences! First thing in the morning Eliza’s granddad is bringing in his camper van. The children will be able to ask questions about it.
Later on, we are really excited for the children to hear live music. We have a ukulele group coming in to lead an assembly. This is the first time that Voles will have been to a whole school assembly so this will be our Adult Directed activity today.

Henry suggested that we should listen to music so we are going to do that today as the children practise scissor skills and create a collage. We will begin by reminding the children of using an appropriate scissor grip. We will teach them this rhyme ‘Fingers on the bottom, thumb on the top, open the scissors and chop, chop, chop!’ Then we will introduce the range of materials that we have available , the children will need to decide which they would like to use, being mindful of sharing resources and then cut them into pieces in readiness to create a collage. Whilst they are cutting and snipping we will play a range of music, encouraging the children to listen rather than chat as they work. Once all the pieces are cut up we will look at work by the artists Geta Bratescu and Kurt Schwitters before encouraging the children to explore creating a collage. They will be using PVA glue as they work and we will remind them of how to use this one handed tool correctly to spread the glue. Again we will encourage the children to listen to music and not chat as they work.

Today the children will be having a go at composing music. First though we will listen to Dua Lipa at Arthur’s request - the children will be able to dance and move freely to this. Then the children will need to work in their groups to decide who is going to play which instrument - they will have twelve different instruments to choose from and adults will introduce these by name and demonstrate the sound. Once the children have chosen they will need to stick a picture of their chosen instrument onto a template. Then they will need to choose how many times they are going to play their instrument, they will need to record this with a numeral or marks on their template. As a group they will then need to decide the order in which they will play - adults will place their templates in order as a ‘score’ in readiness for them to perform their composition to the remainder of the class. Adults will remind each child how many times they decided that they were going to play their instrument, then they will play in turn (shaking or tapping their instrument for the correct number of beats). Each group will have a turn to play to the other groups who will listen carefully. At the end the children will work together as a band and parade around the classroom playing loudly and softly on request.

An exciting day today. We will have a Forest School session with Mrs Wells later in the morning, please ensure your child is dressed appropriately for this. 

Also today the children will have their fifth Balanceability session. They will be building on, developing and practising balance bike skills. Bikes and helmets are provided.

Friday

Today we have our Pasta Point treat. The children have worked really hard to achieve this. They have decided  that we should make some chocolate sweets so we are going to attempt to make some simple chocolate truffles. First of all they need to label and decorate the bags that they will use to bring their creations home. We will remind the children to use the pinch and flick technique to pick up their pen. Then adults will model and adjust grips as needed. The children will have their name cards to support name writing. Once they have added their name to their bag then they can decorate in their own way. Next we will introduce the ingredients for the truffles: chocolate, condensed milk and butter. The children will need to break up the chocolate ( we will use white and milk). We will use the following method: 

1. Pour the condensed milk and butter into a pan and mix well.
2. Heat gently stirring all the time until the mixture thickens. It is thick enough when stirring leaves deep tracks in the mixture and you can see the pan bottom clearly.
3. Remove from heat and stir in the broken chocolate until melted.
4. Set it to one side to cool.
5. Grease your hands with butter and take a teaspoon sized amount and roll it into a ball.
6. Toss it in the chosen coating and pop it in the mini case (pieces of baking paper).

Each child will have the opportunity to make one chocolate of each colour to bring home. They will need to manipulate the chocolate mixture with great care and use rolling skills to create their truffle shapes ( we will have practised the technique at a dough disco earlier in the week.