Measuring fun!

AM Class Sports Day Album

AM Class Photos

PM Class Sports Day Album

PM Class Photos

The children never cease to amaze me, but in the past two weeks, they've truly blown me away. Their prior knowledge, along with their imagination, creativity, curiosity, problem-solving skills, and overall eagerness to learn, has been remarkable.

We have been looking into measurement skills. Children naturally apply measurement ideas in their everyday lives. They compare the size of their toys, determine which shopping bag is lighter, and see how long they can make an animal parade or a row of cars. These activities help them develop a strong understanding of measurement without even realising it. We have been having fun mixing in measuring tapes and rulers with some non-standard measuring resources, such as toilet rolls and paper clips!

In the classroom, the children are working on measurement skills that include: 

• Measuring height, length, and weight, 
• recognising quantities that are more or less.  
• Identifying the most and least in terms of quantity and volume
• Understanding size with terms like big, medium, small, bigger, and smaller

These foundational concepts are crucial as the children start to describe the world around them. They’ll start using terms like: longer, shorter, taller, bigger, smaller, heavier, lighter

Measurement encompasses much more than just size. As children grow, they will learn to compare and order items by size or weight, measure area, determine volume and capacity, tell time, and assess temperature. By providing opportunities for your child to use math vocabulary while describing, comparing, and observing, you are helping to build their foundational math knowledge.

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Ramp play is an exciting way for children to engage in physical activity while developing both fine and gross motor skills. As they build, roll, and push objects, they gain hands-on experience with essential concepts such as force, motion, gravity, and friction. This type of play not only fosters physical development but also supports learning in areas like physics, engineering, and math.

Exploring Movement Through Ramps

When children engage with ramps, they have the opportunity to freely explore how objects move. Whether they are investigating ramps of different steepness or observing what happens when objects leave the ramp or collide with others, they learn valuable lessons about motion and interaction.

Key Concepts to Explore:

• Rolling vs. Sliding: Children can experiment with the difference between rolling and sliding. For instance, they might notice how a ball rolls down a ramp compared to how a block slides down.

We even had time to predict where the vehicles would land after rolling off the ramp. We measured the distance, repeated the experiment, and compared our findings, exploring reasons for any differences or "randomness" in the results. This might be their first foray into the world of statistics!

Estimating and predicting are crucial skills for children that contribute to their cognitive development and problem-solving abilities. Estimating enhances their number sense, helping them understand the relationships between numbers. By estimating, children learn to devise strategies and evaluate possible outcomes, sharpening their analytical skills.

Additionally, engaging in estimation builds confidence. Children learn to assess risks and make informed guesses, fostering a sense of empowerment in their decision-making.

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   Sensory time

We have been looking into the properties of Oobleck.  This is a cool substance that offers a rich sensory experience. 

Its texture is intriguing, as it feels both solid and liquid depending on how you interact with it; when you apply pressure, it feels hard, but when you let it sit, it flows like a liquid, usually feeling quite cold. 

 Oobleck is typically made from cornstarch and water—very simple to cheap to replicate at home. Experimenting with its behaviour is engaging. As you can see in the pictures below, the children were very focused, almost transfixed by it; when they tried to pick it up quickly, it resisted, but when they scooped it slowly, it flowed through their fingers. 

Mixing different colours or scents can enhance the sensory experience, and experimenting with warm or cold water can alter its texture and feel. Activities like observing how it behaves when poured from different heights can make engaging and educational sensory explorations, perfect for hands-on learning. In the first picture below, Owen said, "It looks like it's melting," which led to a discussion about what melting means and why/how things melt. 

Oobleck is great for building hand strength because it requires the children to squeeze, pinch, and mold it, engaging their hand muscles. Playing with oobleck enhances fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination while providing a fun sensory experience.

Before diving into the alphabet and word formation, it's essential to develop the children's fine motor skills. These skills are the foundation of teaching writing because they involve the small muscle movements in the hands and fingers necessary for holding a pencil, drawing, and eventually, writing letters and words.

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Pressuring young children to write before their hands are developmentally ready can place undue emotional and physical stress on them

Forcing young children to write before they're ready can make them frustrated, lower their confidence, and even hurt their joints. It's important to let them do activities that help develop their motor skills until they are physically ready to write.

A child's scribbles are just as important as an older child's name writing; they are simply at different stages of learning. Remember, starting early doesn’t mean better.

Have a look at all the different ways we are using our hands at our classroom, all in preparation for writing later on!

So get out that playdough or make that Oobleck and work on strengthening those hands first!

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Please keep uploading your family activities to the albums below. This will help us encourage the children to share their experiences with friends. 

AM Class

PM Class

Again, still so much that I could tell you about, but hopefully, sharing the class albums with your child will give you an insight from their viewpoint.