We have been spending as much time outside as possible while the weather is still nice!
There have been so many beautiful moments of crew: sharing, working as a team, positive communication, and words of encouragement and support. We have been collecting leaves, creating assault courses, helping each other to tidy… we even found a twig that looked like a spider so sang ‘Incy Wincy Spider’!
We have been looking at the story ‘The Gruffalo’ in our writing sessions this week. We have talked about the features he has and how we can show them using different shapes and colours. We then used a step-by-step guide to help us. Once we were finished, we then told Miss McGlone everything we had included in our drawings to create The Gruffalo.
We have been looking at the story ‘The Everywhere Bear’ during our writing lessons, and it has inspired us to draw our own bears. We followed a step-by-step guide to help us use the correct shapes, and when we were done we told Miss McGlone all about the features of our bear, which she then added on as labels.
On Friday, we were delighted to welcome M + M Productions to our school to perform the classic story The Railway Children.
The performance was fantastic, and the whole school thoroughly enjoyed it. The actors brought the story to life and encouraged lots of audience participation. Our Hub children especially loved getting involved, singing, dancing, and joining in with the fun.
Thank you to M + M Productions for such an enjoyable and memorable experience!
One day each week in Crew Frost, we spend time focusing on developing our fine motor skills through activities such as using scissors to cut along lines and around shapes. Cutting is an excellent skill to master in the Early Years, as it supports so many of the important skills children need as they begin their writing journey.
The children are learning how to separate and strengthen the muscles in their fingers and hands whilst carefully controlling the scissors. They are also developing their hand-eye coordination and problem-solving skills as they work out how to move the paper and scissors together whilst trying to stay on the lines. This takes a huge amount of concentration, control, and perseverance.
Alongside this, we have been practising our “ready to write” positioning by sitting with our tummy to the table and all six chair legs on the floor. Developing core strength, balance, and posture is a very important part of early writing development, helping children to gain the stability needed for mark making and pencil control in the future.
Although cutting may look simple, it is actually a very tricky skill that requires children to coordinate many different movements at the same time. We are so proud of the resilience, determination, and focus Crew Frost have shown whilst practising these important skills. Well done, Crew Frost — it is much harder than it looks!
During our expedition “When the Sea Meets the Shore,” we have been exploring the story The Singing Mermaid. The children began by sharing their ideas and predictions, thinking carefully about where the mermaid might travel next and what adventures she might have along the way. This gave them the opportunity to express their own thoughts and build on each other’s ideas.
We then used these suggestions to create visual prompts, which were taken to the water tray to enhance our play. The children used these prompts to guide their storytelling, developing their vocabulary and deepening their understanding of “who,” “what,” and “where.” Through this, they created imaginative and detailed narratives, bringing the mermaid’s journey to life in their own unique ways.
This activity supported their communication and language development, as well as encouraging creativity and collaboration. It was also a lovely way to engage in meaningful, hands-on learning, especially in the warm weather.
Well done for working so hard, Crew Frost!
During our expedition “When the Sea Meets the Shore,” the children have been learning all about coral reefs and how this environment differs from their own. They explored the wide range of colours and textures found in coral reef habitats and then applied this knowledge in our playdough area, where they created their own reef-inspired models.
This activity provided a great opportunity to develop fine motor skills, while also supporting language development as the children described their creations and shared ideas. It also helped build their understanding of boundaries, particularly when using food-based resources for creative purposes rather than for eating.
Well done, Crew Frost!
During our expedition “When the Sea Meets the Shore,” the children thoroughly enjoyed learning about lighthouses and understanding the important role they play in keeping boats safe.
Inspired by this, Crew Frost used their imagination during provision time to create their own seaside scene. They built a pier using wooden blocks, added large diamond bricks as rocks, and carefully chose the perfect spot for their lighthouse. Their creativity didn’t stop there—The Snail and the Whale even made an appearance, swimming alongside mermaids in their imaginative world!
This was a wonderful opportunity for the children to develop their communication and understanding, as well as build on their storytelling skills. They worked collaboratively, sharing ideas and bringing their stories to life, supporting their next steps in developing rich and meaningful language.
Well done, Crew Frost!
This week, Crew McGlone have been focusing on the story of ‘Storm Dragon’ by Dianne Hofmeyr. We have really enjoyed taking part in a sensory story to help support us with the structure and sequencing of events in the story.
Our writing this week saw us create ‘I can see’ sentences using a stimulus of a depiction of the storm dragon. We talked about the different parts of the storm dragon we could see, some of us even challenged ourselves by adding in some detail to our sentences to give a clearer description. We even used our sentence building knowledge in provision when drawing our own pictures.
We have also absolutely LOVED using our imagination and leading our own learning when accessing provision – we have created shelters to protect us from the storm, large scale models of the storm dragon, small world scenes of the story, created our own role play sensory story, made a collaborative collage dragon, made models out of playdough, made our own spyglasses to search for storm dragons, and lots of things in between!
A selection of beautiful work and provision from Crew McGlone this week, including name writing, sentence writing, expedition and independent learning in provision.
