by Debbie Cook
18. September 2009 11:11
This week we covered physical development, the three activities we planned were looking at children using the climbing frame, riding the bikes and food tasting. We chose to use the climbing frame to show increasing control of their climbing, scrambling, sliding and swinging. The children always show a lot of interest in the climbing frame, but it was productive to step back and observe how they used it to develop thier physical skills. The younger children liked to repeat their pattern of play and climb the steps, go down the slide and back up the steps, where as the older children used their imagination, climbing onto the back of the climbing frame and sitting in the tunnel, where they explained it was thier rocket. Some of the children climbed up the sides using the outside of the climbing frame to perr into the tunnel, when doing this we talked to the children about taking risks and how to assess where they were climbing to ensure that they were safe when doing so and that they understood the importance of safety and holding on tightly.
Our second activity was riding the bikes in the garden to see if the children could control thier bikes and make them stop when asked to do so. The children always have access to the bikes, so this activity was designed to educate the children on using the bikes safely and talking about the awareness of other around them. The older children did really well with this stopping when there was an obstruction in thier way, they also supported the younger children by encouraging them to stop by standing infront of thier bikes and shouting stop. This was quite effective and luckily the younger ones were able to stop in time, unfrotunatly some of the younger children were still coliding with static objects int eh garden, to help improve this we will encourage them to be aware of our surroundings.
The third activity was food tasting, to develop thier own likes and dislikes in food and drinks. The activity was changed slightly to coinside with the Jewish New Year "Rosh Hashanah". To celebrate this Jewish families eat apples dipped in honey, not many of the children knew what the honey was when asked so eating it was a whole new experience. All of the children particitpated and tried some honey, with the older children describing it as being sticky. They all liked the taste and wanted more. Afterwards we had a story called Apples and honey, a story about Rosh Hashanah to help the children understand why we had eaten the apples with honey, explaining that they were a symbol of sweet times ahead.
Hope you have a good weekend.
Debbie, Julie and Jodie
