Last week the children had a great week before Half term. We continued with the autumn theme.
Sorry this is a late observation I won’t make it too long for you!

On the messy table we made some sensory bags for the children to explore, these bags had different coloured water inside with leaves and conkers and pine cones. The children enjoyed squishing, and squeezing, pushing and even pinching to feel around in the bags. The bags had different pressures inside them some of them you had to push down quite hard and got resistance and some where completely squishy.
These were transported into piles, to explore or onto the floor to use their whole body weight. We encourage the children to explore these any way they want and use their whole Body to move around. Throughout the entire week only one bag was split open 😅

At the table we continued with the pegs, this has proven to be very popular for all of the children and every single child has had a turn at putting the pegs into the holes. This has even becoming a calming activity for them. Some children preferred to play in their buggy, others on a separate table and others using all of the pegs to fill all of the holes.

On the floor we had a farm set up and on other days we had cause and effect toys.
We mixed between the two activities throughout the week.

Group time we decided to make water rainbows with coloured water and watering cans. The weathers been so up and down with sunshine and rain and the children love water so we thought this activity would be perfect to end the last week.

You will all have had an update on tapestry called ‘ autumn term’ these are all of the photos of your child from this half term enjoying and learning through the weekly activities we set up.
Please take a look, like or comment on them so we know you’ve seen!

We are extremely proud of all of the grasshoppers and how they’re settling.

Enjoy the rest of the half term and we will see you all soon!

The Grasshopper Team 💚

Week beginning 2nd October

Last week we had another fantastic week in Grasshoppers.

In the messy area, we filled the tuff tray with paint, paper, rollers, sponges and brushes. Some of the children enjoyed using their hands to rub and squish the paint over the tray and the paper. This allowed to to experiment with the texture and the colour of the paint. Painting with your hands is a great tactile experience and helps stimulate your child’s senses like touch/feel, sight and Smell. Not all of the children liked using their hands in the paint they prefer using the tool provided.
Using paint brushes, sponges and rollers helps with hand eye coordination and fine motor skills.
We did have to do a lot of encouraging to keep the paint in the tray 😅.

Children use all of their senses to explore the world around them, and sensory play gives them the perfect environment to do just that. Playing with playdough is just one of the many ways to get the benefits of sensory play. The children enjoyed manipulated the dough, rolling, squeezing, pushing and pulling. We used a variety of different shape cutters as the children have shown a lot of interest in shapes throughout the room.

In the garden we filled the water tray and used the pouring bowls that were used for group time the week before so the children could re-enact what they had learnt and watched from the previous week.
The children have all been interested in the building bricks inside so we used the large foam bricks in the garden. Some of the children enjoyed building large towers, bouncing the bricks, watching them fall and just explore the texture of them.

For group time last week we were shaking flour into a sensory tray then drawing shapes, and different pictures seeing if the children were able to recognise the pictures. The children all really enjoy our stage 2 activity and attend really well.
Our Songs last week were 'Wind the bobbin' ' Wheels on the bus' and 'clap and clap and stop'.

In Grasshoppers we use visuals to support any verbal instruction given, this helps support your child's understanding. We use individual timetables, Key rings, Now and Next strips, and white boards. These help to be clear and consistent in what we are asking while also reducing our language. If any of you would like any visuals made for home please let us know and we can make you some.

Week ending 27th January 2023

What a jam packed week it has been! This week we have had a Chinese New Year theme as it marks the year of the rabbit! 🐇

In our sensory tray this week we have had some rabbit figures hidden in shredded paper. The shredded paper went down a hit!! The children loved throwing it into the air and watching it fall slowly like rain. This was a great opportunity to practice counting skills as the children uncovered the hidden rabbits. It was also an opportunity for them to practice their imaginary play skills as some of them hopped the rabbits through the paper!

On the floor this week we have had out a Chinese New Year themed role play, with bowls and chopsticks. We also had wool cut up as pretend noodles. Some of the children enjoyed filling the bowls with the noodles and carried out cooking play sequences. Interestingly a lot of the children enjoyed using the chopsticks as drum sticks and explored the different sounds they could make tapping the chopsticks on different surfaces.🍝🍜

On the table we had out some posting activities, a lot of the children are working on posting activities in the targeted table time so we decided to extend this by bringing it into the classroom too. We have had some butter pots with holes in and the children were encouraged to post milk bottle lids into the pot (a bit like a money bank!!) this is fantastic for their fine motor skills as they navigate picking up the lids and manipulating them into the hoes. For some children we extended this further by providing them with shape sorting posting activities to challenge them to find the correct shape for the correct hole!

At messy this week we began the week mark making Chinese symbols with paintbrushes and black paint. We gave the children pictures to copy and supported them, making fine lines but we also let them add their own flare, as you can see some of the children really enjoyed getting stuck into the paints…literally! This is good experience for those children who do not like to get messy as there is no expectation for them to get it on their hands with different options of tools to use to support them accessing that activities. For those that love getting messy they enjoyed the sensory experience of their hands in the cold wet paint!

This week we continued the theme of Chinese New Year into group time. For stage two we poured coloured rice onto the xylophone. All of the children were so calm as they watched the rice drop and listened to the lovely sound it made dropping onto the xylophone, we have never seen them so still and quiet (The adults too!!!) For stage three we have been using the body board and the children lay on their tummies as we sang a song and pushed them along on it! This is a great exercise for children to build up strength in their arms and shoulders as they pull themselves along.

Food explorers this week consisted of raw noodles and prawn crackers… we discovered a lot of our grasshoppers enjoy prawn crackers!!! They used their hands and a variety of utensils to fill the bowls up with noodles and pour them back out!

In the garden we have been using the bikes and scooters, here we have been working on their gross motor skills and building up strength in their core and their legs, which will support their overall physical development.

Well done grasshoppers!!

From the Grasshopper team, Ellie, Helen, Amy and Angie😆