Please note that in early years, many topics originate from the child’s interest and needs. Therefore, we must have room for flexibility and adaptability. This approach allows us to tailor our educational activities to better engage the children, fostering a more effective and responsive learning environment.
Topics
- Planting and growing
- Jack and the beanstalk
- The Gruffalo
Communication & Language
- Go for a walk around the school and talk about the plants, trees, and flowers you see
- Discuss the parts of the plants you can observe. Introduce vocabulary such as stems, petals, and leaves
- Model the use of new vocabulary, including roots, shoots, seeds, leaves, taller, and growing, and encourage children to share their observations
Literacy
- Geraldine Giraffe
- Let’s find something featuring with…
- Blend sounds into words/segmenting
- New Tricky words
- Sort and name the parts of the plants by reading cards, using the correct vocabulary
Mathematics
- Positioning:
- Use ten frames to visually show numbers and their positions.
- Adding and Taking Away:
- Use Numicon and ten frames to explore addition and subtraction.
- Reasoning:
- Encourage children to use Numicon shapes to represent numbers to develop their reasoning skills by understanding how numbers can be combined or broken apart.
Physical Development
- Create flower dancing ribbons by attaching colourful ribbons, artificial flowers, and lengths of artificial ivy to curtain ring hoops
- Children can move and dance through the outdoor space like flowers
- Children can use construction bricks to build a tall beanstalk
- Can they balance the blocks on top of each other?
- How tall can they make their plant?
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
- What do plants need to grow?
- Sunlight, water, soil, and love (care and attention)
- Experiment with Lentils:
- Plant lentils and observe their growth
- Plant Sunflower Seeds as a Group:
- Take turns planting seeds and using gardening tools
- Encourage sharing and patience as children wait their turn
- Encourage Independence:
- Let children fill and empty plant pots and handle gardening tools independently
Understanding the World
- Allow them to explore the seeds before placing one into their pot. They may also like to take a photo of their seeds.
- What do you notice about the sunflower seeds?
- Are they growing at the moment?
- What will help them to grow?
- Are they all the same? What is the same? What is different?
Expressive, Arts and Design
- Still Life Painting and Music Response:
- Set up a still life: Arrange a vase of flowers or a potted plant in the space for the children to observe.
- Provide materials: Give children paint, mixing palettes, and brushes so they can capture the flowers in their artwork.
- Music:
- Play ‘Waltz of the Flowers’ by Tchaikovsky in the background to inspire creativity.
- Encourage mark-making: Allow children to use a variety of colourful mark-making tools (such as crayons, markers, or paint brushes) to make marks in response to the music, expressing how the music makes them feel and the movements they imagine.
- Mark making activity:
- Encourage mark-making: Allow children to use a variety of colourful mark-making tools (such as crayons, markers, or paint brushes) to make marks in response to the music, expressing how the music makes them feel and the movements they imagine.