Week 7

Christmas Party

Rainbow group had a wonderful party time eating tasty food and dancing our socks off! 🧦💃🪩

Christmas Stay and Play

A huge thank you to all of the grown ups who came along to our 'Stay and Play' Christmas session. The children enjoyed it very much and we hope you did too!

 Dizzy Whizzy!

We use our hands to twist and spin the centre wheel and quickly find ourselves spinning too. The faster you turn the wheel, the faster you spin!  Here is Scarlett and Theo enjoying this experience together!

 Christmas Crafts

Christmas crafts have been in full swing here in the Rainbow Room.  We particularly enjoyed shaking snow sprinkles - shake, shake! The children used their name jigsaws to copy from, when mark making our names inside the Christmas card.

 Letters and Numbers

Inset puzzles continue to be a popular choice this week. They help children to develop their fine motor and hand-eye coordination skills as they match, manipulate and rotate puzzle pieces. 

We have introduced letters and numbers to the children through jigsaw play.  Next term we will include a number rhyme song time and daily sensory story in our timetable.

Scarlett repeated the sound "t t t" as she problem solved.

 Advent Calendar

We have been enjoying a sweet countdown to Christmas as part of our 'welcome and hello' routine.

Santa's Treehouse Grotto 

We had a special visitor in our Bushcraft area.  Santa Claus came to visit and handed out treats and gifts to the children.  Rainbow Group were so excited to see Santa and enjoyed catching their gifts at the end of the slide.

Week 6

 Gingerbread Man

We made our own Gingerbread Man by rolling the dough, using a cutter and adding buttons.  Luckily, they didn't run away!

 It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Our sensory bin has had a festive makeover.  We also added Christmas stickers to our upcoming stay and play invites.  

Working Together

Theo has been practising pushing the pedals and let his friend help to push.  They swapped places.  He carefully watched the wheels spin and raced the bike across the yard.  Whoosh!

Week 4 

 Jigsaw Letters

We have been completing inset puzzles, looking closely at the shape of letters in the alphabet and our names.  Scarlett copied the sound “sssssss” at the beginning of her name.

Week 3

Play Time

During free play this week we explored a shape sorter, inset puzzle, stacking cups and a range of cause and effect toys.

Glitter Glue

Scarlett enjoyed using a paintbrush to drip and spread glue.  She looked closely at the patterns, before shaking on sparkly glitter.

Sensory Regulation

The children in Rainbow Group are supported to co-regulate.  Grown ups help children to calm by using the swing, bubbles and watching the changing coloured lights.

Wow Moment!

Rowan licked and chewed a carrot in class.

 Playdough

We have been patting, rolling and pressing shapes into the dough.  Manipulating dough helps to strengthen hand muscles.

 Rice Sensory Bin

Rainbow group have been using rice to scoop, fill, pour and empty to develop their fine motor skills.

Week 2

Children in Need

Rainbow group added spots to a cupcake snack and used their finger tips to paint spots on Pudsey Bear.

 Lest We Forget

On Remembrance Day we made poppy biscuits.  The children squeezed the tubes of red icing for their finger challenge, with some hand over help when needed.  

Play Time

The new rainbow activity wall and swing have been popular choices this week for free play.  Grown ups have been modelling the Makaton sign for more, to request more swinging.  

  More

This is the Makaton sign for more.  We model the action and say the word if the children request more by looking, making a noise or gesture.  

Mark Making

We have been using easy grip crayons for large scale mark making.

When children are moving they are learning! They are using their whole bodies and large pivotal movements, this will help with handwriting later.

Week 1

 Bonfire Night

We have enjoyed exploring the light up toys.  The sensory massage story this week was based on fireworks.  Click on the link below to try this at home.

 Edible Sparklers

Rainbow group made edible sparklers for snack.  We used chocolate, icing sugar, apple, breadsticks and finally sprinkles to make our designs.  They were delicious!

Adding the colourful sprinkles was a great way to strengthen our fine motor skills.