We Love Drawing
Making marks is so important.
Literacy learning must be engaging, purposeful, creative.
“Scribbles are products of systematic investigation, rather than haphazard actions” says John Matthews.
We have been using…
Charcoal
Paint
Pens
Oil Pastels
Cotton Buds
We have been making observational drawing of the tadpoles.
Our brilliant beautiful marks have been full of
Round
Curved
Straight
Zigzag
Wavy
…lines
Our St. Paul’s Promise “I use marks to communicate meaning” helps us think about valuing and celebrating the incredible unique marks children make.
Our Literacy Curriculum helps children give meaning to their marks, helps children make signs, write letters and messages, recognise and write their names, create their own stories, draw and make illustrations.
Making marks is so important.
Pattern is Everywhere!
Our Maths Curriculum helps children to see patterns and make connections… to know that patterns can be visual or made sound, time, number, movement and dance!
We are helping children see the underlying rules and structures of patterns, recognising repetition, regularity and relationships.
Did you know that research says that pattern play and working with shape and measures directly supports children’s later success in mathematics?
So, we have been talking about pattern, about tessellation and about symmetry.
Pattern blocks open up limitless possibilities for pattern creation.
And helping children make links between these pattern blocks and the Block Play learning we have been doing with Michael ( from Bristol University ).
Our Maths curriculum helps children develop mathematical noticing, mathematical talk, mathematical thinking and a positive attitude towards mathematics.
We have been supporting children continue, copy and create patterns using all sorts of materials and resources…
Pattern Blocks, painting, printing…
Pegs, beads, laces, buttons, mosaic tiles, magnetic tiles…
Blocks, shapes, numicon, unifix, Mobilo…
Cutters, straws, lollipop sticks, conkers, cones, corks…
And much much more!
Pattern really is everywhere!
We wonder what patterns you can see or hear?
“I Wonder…?”
Our St. Paul’s Promise “I use all my senses to engage in scientific enquiry” means children have been making observations of Tadpoles and plants and explaining their theories on change and growth.
We want children to talk about themselves as scientists!
“I wonder…?” is a question that invites curiosity and reflection, hypothesis and prediction.
Our Science Curriculum helps children look closely at similarities and differences, patterns and changes in nature and the world around them.
Have you carefully observed frogspawn?
Have you watched the eggs turn to tadpoles, racing around the pond or tank?
Have you seen legs appear and tails disappear as they become froglets?
We have been discovering the Frog Life Cycle and predicting what will change and hypothesising why these things happen to a frog.
“I wonder…?” is a good question to ask when cooking and growing too.
We have been digging and planting, talking and testing, questioning and observing what happens to seeds and plants.
Have you come along to our Friday Gardening Club yet?
Would you like to come in at anytime and help children grow?
It’s a Wrap!
Weaving and wrapping
Enclosing and enveloping
Creating shapes and patterns
… are all involved in
We have been using
Tape
String
Yarn
Fabric
To cover and wrap objects… sometimes even ourselves!
This fascination with covering, wrapping, hiding, enveloping could be called a schema and involves space, measure, capacity, pattern as well as an exploration of feeling safe, secure, contained.
We also offer children sheets, tents, tunnels, blankets, cushions to cover themselves.
We also offer nesting dolls and nesting boxes, bags, purses, gift boxes for children to enclose and envelope objects in.
This is a way for children to investigate, learn and discover concepts and ideas around spatial reasoning.
Tuning in Our Ears!
“There’s a sock and a block in my little bed
My little bed
My little bed
There’s a sock and a block in my little bed
But not-a-lot-of-room for me!”
We have been using song and rhyme in Big Circle to help children tune their ears to rhythm, rhyme and alliteration.
Our St. Paul’s Promise “I am Ready-to-Read, playing with words and sounds and songs and rhymes” helps children tune in to words that sound the same – rhyming words – and words that start with the same initial sound or phoneme – alliteration. These are important parts of reading.
Singing songs, making up our own alliterative jingles, chanting rhymes all support children’s foundations in reading.
We are Ready-to-Read!
Watch out for our St. Paul’s Song Book coming soon!
