Atlas Summer 2

Week 1 & 2

Happy Summer Term!

We have begun our Under the Sea topic this fortnight where we have explored fish and fishing. We have enjoyed using magnets to catch some fish, singing fishy counting songs, decorated colourful fish with pom poms and loving other fishy crafts.

In bucket time, we loved watching Jenny pop the fish uncovering the coloured water which was hidden inside, making big bubbles for our foil fish to swim around in, singing slippery fish and then acting out our fish splashing into the water. We have had a great time learning about fish in the water and have been able to learn some new vocabulary as a result.

In phonics this term, we are beginning to blend our initial phonics together to create words. In week 1, we learnt to blend ‘tap’ which was lots of fun. We enjoyed tapping on the drum, made our word with magnetic letters and wrote our word using sand, highlighters and on whiteboards. In week 2, we blended the word ‘dig’ where we loved digging in kinetic sand to find our sounds, pressing magnetic letters into playdough and finding the sounds using pebbles. We are loving blending our sounds and can’t wait to blend more throughout the term.

We have decided to bring back maths bucket this term, to help us understand and explore our mathematical concepts. Our focus this fortnight has been on shape where we have made tangram shapes, drawn around numicon and played a game of matching the shapes. We also read the story ‘big box of shapes’ and practiced copying the shapes that appeared in the book.

On Wednesday, our core word bucket focused on the words ‘help’ and ‘want’. We practiced our Makaton sign and then played a ‘can you help me’ activity as well as an ‘I want…’ activity.

In life skills this term, our focus is fruit. We had great fun making a delicious fruit salad in week 1 where we peeled and chopped different fruits then added them to a bowl with some squash which was very tasty. In week 2, we had a great time cutting shapes in melon slices. We all had a turn and then got to eat our yummy designs.

Week 3 & 4

This fortnight, our learning has been all about oceans and seas. We enjoyed singing songs such as ‘Under the sea’ and the ‘A-Z creatures song’. Our stories have underpinned our learning and we have enjoyed listening to ‘Life beneath the waves’ and ‘Commotion in the ocean’. We loved creating underwater scenes choosing and using different materials to personalise our work. We also had lots of time over the past two weeks playing in the Atlas outdoor area in our paddling pools where we made lots of waves and enjoyed splashing around.

In bucket time recently, we have enjoyed watching swimming fish by cutting out foam and adding a drop of dish soap to their fins. We also had great fun making our own jellyfish, adding googly eyes and long strips of paper for tentacles.

In phonics learning, we focused on the words ‘sad’ and ‘run’. We used Makaton to sign the words then used a series of activities such as blending the sounds with large phonics cards, making our words with magnetic letters, overwriting our words with highlighters and using playdough to stamp our words.

In our maths learning, we have been exploring making patterns. We used 2D shapes to make simple AB patterns and lots of us enjoyed using the circles and triangles to do so.

In our music sessions this fortnight, we have enjoyed creating and playing our own musical instruments. We made maracas using plastic bottles and rice, castanets using cardboard and milk bottle tops and drums from tins and balloons.

On Wednesday, we enjoy our core bucket sessions where we focused on the words ‘I’ and ‘Drink’. We signed and recognised the symbols. We found our pictures to identify ourselves and used jugs to pour water into our cups to drink.

Week 5 & 6

This fortnight, our learning has been all about mermaids and pirates. We enjoyed singing songs such as ‘A pirate you shall be’ and the ‘Five little mermaids’. Our stories have underpinned our learning and we have enjoyed listening to ‘The Singing Mermaid’ and ‘Pirates love underpants’. We loved creating our own lollypop stick mermaid tails choosing colouring pens to decorate, sticking on gold fins and making them pretty with glitter. We have loved getting dressed up in pirate costumes and finding gold treasure around Atlas.

In bucket time recently, we enjoyed mermaid glitter reveal and mermaid tail design for stage 2 activities. In stage 3, we loved making our own ‘X marks the spot’ using masking tape to make an X, then dipping a sponge into paint and pressing onto our paper. We then had to peel away the tape revealing our special map.

In phonics learning, we focused on the words ‘mud’ and ‘dog’. We used a series of activities such as blending the sounds with large phonics cards, making our words with magnetic letters, overwriting our words with highlighters and using playdough to stamp our words. In week 5, we loved making gloopy, dirty mud and using a lollypop stick to mark make our word in it. In week 6, we read a special dog story which told us all about different breeds of dogs and what we would need to look after a dog of our own.

In our maths learning, we used our pirate theme to make and count our own gold coins, rolling out golden playdough, pressing our treasure into the dough creating a stamp and then peeling our coins off the tray and counting our own treasure. We then discovered golden treasure in a special treasure chest and used counting frames to match the coins to the number on the sheet.

In our music sessions this fortnight, we have enjoyed call and respond songs such as ‘When I was one…’. We moved our bodies forwards, backwards, ‘this way’ (left) and ‘that way’ (right) as well as jumping on our ship and miming sailing ‘over the sea’.

On Wednesday, we enjoy our core bucket sessions where we focused on the word ‘brush’. We signed our word first and watched a short brushing our teeth video then we were given our very own toothbrushes which we used to practice brushing our teeth 😊.

In life skills, we made banana bread muffins. We mixed flour, butter, sugar, our own chicken's eggs and ripened bananas in a bowl. We then used spoons to share out our batter in cupcake cases and baked them to create fluffy delicious muffins. On Friday, we added icing sugar on top and took them home to enjoy.

Week 7 & 8