Date: 19/-09 – 23/09/2016
Monday
AM: Bobbie (away taken by Kim) – Where do these animals live?
Linked to the current topic “Our World” the children will identify where the animals most likely live:
In our homes, on a farm, in the jungle, in the forest. The children will identify which animals live in each habitat, we may extend this to talking about why they live there, and what country this is likely in (depending on level of understanding)
Lesson Planned
Print out of pictures of each habitat: Home, Farm, Jungle, Forest. The children will choose a plastic animal from the box and will be asked to identify where that animal lives (and why it lives there, depending on level of understanding).
Description of Learning – What did the children show interest in?
Both groups were interested in taking part in this activity that Bobbie had planned. Her pre printed pictures were able t be easily recognised as different environments so the children were able to take on the challenge with clear guidelines in mind. The younger group got through this faster( had quite a bit of discussion with the older group) so we had some songs as well with the younger group ” I went to visit a farm” and ” Old McDonald”, most of the group maintained interest in this as well. I also used the sound book resource so the younger group could ‘hear’ the environments too 
PM: Kim – 5 senses (Touch)
Link to current planning ‘Our World’ . I am continuing to take the children on a learning journey around their 5 senses, today I will unpack the sense of touch. I hope they learn that we don’t always need a eyes to figure out what something is, and also use their imaginations for this game.
Lesson Planned
I am going to provide a pillowcase with items in.. i’d like the children just to use their sense of touch to figure out what it in there, and tell the group what they think they have
Description of Learning – What did the children show interest in?
A game is something that always draws the children in, so I had full attention while I explained the rules. They were keen to begin and were able to follow the instructions about not looking, but using their hands to figure out what was in the pillowcase. It was valuable to be able to explore the concepts of soft..hard..flat..bumpy..square etc with a real life experience. The children also enjoy hearing about Pete the cat who wears glasses.. this was able to lead into a conversation about why people wear glasses..and briefly touching on blindness/impaired eye sight.
Tuesday
AM: Angela – Shapes, Maths
Linking to our current planning – Shapes in the world around us. I hope the children will recognise shapes and I can then extend on what they already know by introducing new shapes to them.
Lesson Planned
I will hold up shapes to see if they are able to recognise these. We will then go on a shapes hunt around the preschool to find different shaped objects that can then be recognised as the shape we are finding. We can then trace around our favourite shapes and talk about these at the table.
Description of Learning – What did the children show interest in?
The children took a great interest in this activity today showing me that they can name many of the shapes without any help. We learnt some new shapes today, Trapezoid and Parallelogram where the older children were able to tell me this shape without help once revisited at the end of our group time. They showed a lot of interest also in finding lots of different shapes around the preschool today showing me and telling me that shape that they had found.
PM: Zinzi – Baking
We got a lot of banana left over and I saved some of it in the freezer. The children can decide if they would like to make banana cake or muffins or pancakes!
Lesson Planned
Children will use the utensils and measure the ingredients in the bowl. They will also pour the batter in electric frying pan.
Description of Learning – What did the children show interest in?
Wow! We had so much fun! The children were really patient in adding the ingredients and mixing it. They all were very patient and watched everyone have a go at stirring and mixing the ingredients. They knew every ingredient that they added in except the rolled oats. One of the children thought it was honey puffs. It does look like that, but the learned that some porridge is made out of oats. We added it along with bananas. Mashing it together were fun! The best bit was when everyone got a turn to pour in the batter on the frying pan. We all watched it cook and I was able to help them flip it up side down. At afternoon kai time we all enjoyed our banana oatmeal pancake.YUM!
Wednesday
AM: Christine – Traffic Signs on the Road
Link to current planning and children’s interest. I hope children will learn to identify the meaning of traffic signs on the roads. Road safety and what to do when we come across a traffic light and zebra crossing.
Lesson Planned
We will practice how to cross the road (in the playground). I will draw a zebra crossing and what to do when we come across it. Pretend play: children driving cars, what to do if we want to cross the road next to a traffic light. Activity: Sticking activity using different colored milk caps to make a traffic lights.
Description of Learning – What did the children show interest in?
Children were interested on the topic today because there were back and forth discussions about what traffic signs they see on the road. I also showed them some of the signs that they’re not familiar with. The listened and paid attention to as I introduced some of the signs on the white board. They loved crossing the zebra crossing that I drew on the floor.
PM: Sarah – Star Wars and Disney fun!
Link to current topic – our world. So at the moment at the supermarket there is Star Wars cards that you can collect…I have some of these and want to share them with the children. I also have quite a few pictures from a desk sized 2016 year calendar that are Disney movie themed and I know the children will recognise these from what they have seen on DVD or at the Movies!
Lesson Planned
I will show the children the wide range of creative pictures that I have collected and see how many characters they can name, what’s their favourite and have the opportunity to share their ideas. Then we will go to the tables and make a collage pictures using a selection of pictures/cards that the children will individually get to choose to glue to paper.
Description of Learning – What did the children show interest in?
It was awesome that I had 2 groups of 4-6 children as there was less time for the children to wait for their turns to choose a card or picture. It was fun to see how excited some of the children were to see the cards and said they get some from the supermarket too! The children were able to name some of the characters/or the movie that was show in the small pictures. They did a wonderful job of being creative and gluing their cards/pictures that they chose to a big piece of coloured paper.
Thursday
AM: Sarah – Worms!
Link to current topic: Our world. The children showed an interest in the worms found in the Fundies garden when they were exploring alongside Hannah a couple of weeks ago. Let’s learn and explore more about them…what do they eat, how do they live under the dirt, what do they do… I know that the children will have different questions and ideas to contribute to the conversation too!
Lesson Planned
Have a print out and pictures from the internet with some fun worm facts. Then the children will have the opportunity to make worms out of play-dough. Including big, small and how many can they make out of their amount of play-dough that they are given!
Description of Learning – What did the children show interest in?
It was quite fascinating what we all learnt about worms today – that they have 5 hearts, breathe through their skin and that they don’t have ears, eyes or teeth! The children really liked having the opportunity to explore with the play-dough and make a range of pretend worms – a family of worms! I was able to make up a couple of worm songs to keep the younger children engaged and taking turns to choose a worm when I said their name.
PM: Christine – Emotions/Feelings
Link to current planning, I hope children will learn about the different emotions they go through during the day. How to manage emotions and how do we tell another person or teachers what we feel.
Lesson Planned
Printed feelings faces. I will use this to discuss what they feel at that time. Is there any point during day that children felt sad, angry etc?? Activity- whats your favourite emotion?
Description of Learning – What did the children show interest in?
The children identified most of the emotions that I stuck on the board. They also discussed with me their feelings when mum or dad drops them at preschool, their feelings when then play with their friends and as soon as they get picked up. They got involved in the activity and chose what colour represents their emotions, ex. red -angry, yellow-happy etc.
Friday
AM: Kim – Our 5 senses, Smell
Link to current planning our world. I’m continuing to unpack our 5 senses with experiences for the children. I hope they’ll learn that sometimes we are able to tell what something is just by using our sense of smell.
Lesson Planned
I will collect a selection of things from both around my centre and my home. I intend to blindfold children and get them to smell the items to see if they can figure out what is in front of them. Depending on how long this takes i’d like to take them outside to see what we can smell out there too.
Description of Learning – What did the children show interest in?
We started with an overview of talking about your nose..what we do with it, and the names for nose from several different countries, then into the activity. Most children in the younger group wanted to take part, and all from the older group. Sniffing was amusing and the children were quite creative in the ways the described what they were smelling, like with taste some associated it with things they liked to eat! There is a group story coming for this activity
PM: Angela – Numbers -Numeracy
Linking to the current planning – children use counting and numbers everyday and would like to continue this interest and use fun concepts for children to help in their learning of counting objects in order from zero to ten.
Lesson Planned
Numbers one to ten – on paper using fun pictures to tie in these numbers to help children visually learn these numbers. I will use fun pictures on paper for all of the children to colour to make a number train. I will also use board stories to add and subtract as I place these on and off the board.
Description of Learning – What did the children show interest in?
The children showed interest in the board stories today as I used a variety for all children to be included and participate in. They sustained their interest in this and some were able to recognise numbers when visually shown. They enjoyed the number train and were able to tell me what number they had chosen to colour.