The theme of Room on the Broom continued this week and the children started by learning how to make a story map, retelling the story using pictures and key words. During this week’s English adult-led task the children were challenged to independently draw pictures and write simple words and sentences about the Room on the Broom story.
During Monday’s Maths input the children made a potion where they had to add together how many objects had been put in the cauldron. The children learnt how to record an addition number sentence and how to use a numberline to count on to find the answer to an addition.
On Tuesday the children made their own potion and were amazed to see the potion fizz up when they added baking soda. The children were supported to write a list of ingredients they had used to make their potion, the children learnt that each object needs to start on a new line when they are writing a list and they continued to develop their blending and segmenting skills. During their Maths input the children re-visited the concept of addition and recapped how to record an addition number sentence. The children learnt that they had to count how many altogether to find the total of two groups and developed their 1:1 counting correspondence.
On Wednesday the children retold the story Room on the Broom using Pie Corbett’s ‘Talk for writing’ approach where the children put actions to the story which helped them to become more familiar with the storyline. During their Maths input the children used the characters from Room on the Broom to complete additions, they counted how many animals were on the broomstick to start with, then they added some more characters and counted how many characters were on the broomstick altogether. During this week’s adult-led Maths activity the children have demonstrated their mathematical skills through a range of activities such as recognising numbers, ordering numbers, matching numerals to a quantity, naming 2D shapes and describing their properties, sequencing events and identifying one more or one less than a given number.
On Thursday the children thought of a spell they would make or what magic they would do if they were a witch. While passing a witches hat around the circle the children recited the rhyme “If you were a witch and you were going to make a spell, what would it be? Put on the hat and tell.” Whoever the hat stopped at shared their ideas. During their Maths input the children role-played going on a bus, a number of children started on the bus and then the bus stopped and some more children got on. The children were then asked a problem-solving question (e.g. There were 4 on the bus and then 3 more got on. How many children are on the bus now?)
On Friday the children consolidated this week’s Maths learning by developing their use of mathematical vocabulary linked to addition and then recording additions using marks they could interpret and explain. The children laid out a 1-20 numberline on the carpet and a child rolled a dice. The child stood on the corresponding number on the number line and then another child rolled the dice. The child on the numberline then jumped that amount along the number line. Another child was asked to record an addition number sentence to correspond with what the child on the numberline had done e.g. 5+4=10.
Throughout the week the children have engaged in a variety of activities linked to the Room on the Broom theme, such as making potions, making witches hat biscuits, writing lists of ingredients to go in a potion, using bugs and cauldrons to make additions, role-playing in the witches cave and using different sized bowl and spoons in the sand to make potions. During PE this week the children played a variety of parachute games. This week’s PSHE focused on the children thinking about how it feels when people are unkind to them and if it is ok to be unkind with their words and actions. The children thought about how their unkind words and actions affect others and discussed what they could do to resolve conflicts with their friends, whilst emphasizing what a good friend is.
To end the week the children participated in an assembly where their achievements for the week were celebrated and proud clouds were shared.
It has been wonderful to see so many parents uploading observations to show what their child has been doing at home, this helps the Foundation Stage staff to gain an insight into children’s interests which we then include in our future planning. It would be great to see if the children’s interests in witches, making potions and the Room on the Broom story have continued at home.
