Today the children will be having the opportunity to explore ‘how’ they can act out segments of the Nativity story (they have chosen which characters they would like to be). We are encouraging them to recap the story independently so that they can tell us what and how they want to act out their role. We will film it so they can review it and say whether they are happy with their performance. This is in readiness for our performance on 11th December - we look forward to seeing you all in the audience!

As Monday, the children will be having the opportunity to explore ‘how’ they can act out segments of the Nativity story. We are encouraging them to recap the story independently so that they can tell us what and how they want to act out their role. Again we will film it so they can review it and say whether they are happy with their performance. This is in readiness for our performance on 11th Dec - we look forward to seeing you all in the audience! We will also be practising our songs all week.

Ellie asked “How can we make a snuggly blankie?” We will show the children some examples of blankets online. Then we will explain that we are going to explore using one of the oldest techniques for creating textiles - wet felting. This would have been a method used possibly around the times that the bible says that Jesus was born, a long time ago. Maybe our blanket could be for Jesus? We will talk about why they would have used this method in the past and that it is used as a hobby in the present. We will be using alpaca wool. First the children will need to prepare the materials - they will work in their groups. They will need wool roving, soapy water, a spray bottle, and a bubble wrap or bamboo mat. Adults will model how to place thin layers of wool on the mat, with the second layer placed in the opposite direction to the first. We will add more layers until we reach the desired thickness. Then we will wet the wool, using a spray bottle to generously moisten the wool with soapy water. We will remind the children about how to do this safely. Then the children will take it in turns to gently rub the wool with their hands (which should be wet and soapy) to start the felting process. They will also take it in turns to roll the wool inside the bubble wrap or bamboo mat.until the fibres start to bind together. Later we will rinse the ‘blankies’ and leave them to dry.

Today we have our fifth gymnastics PE lesson led by Game On. The children will still be changing for this so all PE kits need to be in school. 

Later we will explore ‘how’ we can do giant mark making later in the morning - writing names in chalk in the playground (using name cards for support).

Friday

Luna asked - “How could you make biscuits? Today we are going to make Easy Cheesy biscuits - focusing on shapes as we work. Easy cheesy biscuits | Good Food Adults will weigh ingredients and the children will need to mix them, first with a spoon and then their hands. Once the dough is ready we will put it to one side as we explore shapes. We will show the children a ‘feely’ bag and ask them, in turn, to put their hands inside and select a shaped biscuit cutter. Before they pull it out of the bag we will ask them to describe how it feels. Does it have straight sides? Does it have pointy corners? Is it a curved shape? How many sides? How many corners? Once they have each selected a shape they will cut their biscuit from the prepared and rolled dough. We will also talk about shape names throughout (square, circle, triangle, rectangle, oval, star). The children will be able to eat their cooked biscuit, if they would like to, at snack time