Our Oceans
Week One: Shells and Pebbles
This week, we decorated rocks and shells from UK shores – some children made beautiful patterns and others turned their rocks into whales, starfish, sharks and penguins! Shell templates were also painted, embellished and threaded. One of our tuff trays became a rock pool with crabs, fish, mermaids and mini seahorses to wash, scoop, pincer and hide. Sand play was the activity in our other tuff tray with sand castles galore and mermaid tails to find! We shared stories and songs about the sea and the creatures found in it.
Week Two: Fish and Jellyfish
This week, we wrapped string around fish bodies then covered them with foil to make wonderfully scaly fish. The scales were then decorated with brightly coloured pens to make a shoal of shimmery rainbow fish. Paint sticks, bubble wrap, googly eyes and ribbons were also used to create jellyfish with long tentacles. Fish were ‘caught’ with lines and nets in one tuff tray. Other marine life, including mini jellyfish, could be found hiding in blue jelly in our other tuff tray.
Week Three: Seahorses
Seahorse collages were created using multi-coloured tissue paper then a dotty sea background added using paint pens…ferocious dotting noises filled the room! ‘Seaweed’ was then attached to complete the under-water pictures. Seahorses, shells, whales and mermaids were made using marbled blue playdough and embellished with sea gems and wavy patterns. Green seaweed spaghetti hid marine life lurking in one tuff tray and seashores were ‘rescued’ from ice in the other. We shared lots of facts about seahorses and sang songs about the sea.
Week Four: Starfish
In week four, we learnt all about starfish and the children made their very own star wands. They also created dotty, speckled starfish shapes using a variety of utensils to create a range of patterns. Stars of all shapes and sizes were found hidden in black gloop in one tuff tray and mini starfish could be scooped out from a sea of blue rice in the other.
Week Five: Turtles
A bale of turtles took over our Goldfinch room this week…mini turtles were scooped out from turtle beans in one tuff tray and larger turtles swum happily amongst the fish in our other tuff tray. Large turtle collages were made using a variety of recycled materials on hexagonal paper plates, and smaller, glittery 3D turtles were created on our other making table. We read ‘Commotion in the Ocean’ and learnt about where turtles lay their eggs and we sang a song about a tiny turtle!
Week Six: Owls
As the autumn weather started to commence, we thought about animals you often see at this time of year. Autumn is a great time for owl spotting as our waking hours increasingly overlap with theirs! We learnt about owls in our local environment and made mini, moveable hand puppet owls and handprint owls resting on trees. Children could also mix up some owl soup, complete with mini beasts, mice, birds and crabs, and use colourful feathers, sequins and ribbons to decorate their own owls!
Week Seven: Crickets and Grasshoppers
This week saw a celebration of autumn fruit and vegetables. We talked about the seasons and the different food that grows at different times of the year. The children then painted halved apples to make mini pumpkins and they also experimented with mixing the paint colours and making multi-coloured handprints! Mini-pumpkin bunting was also created, using orange circles, star stampers, pipe cleaners and golden thread. Pumpkins could be scrubbed and washed in one tuff tray, and decorated, hammered and turned into new creations (using rubber bands to create geoboards, for example) in our second tuff tray. We sang songs about the beautiful colours that you can see in nature in the autumn.
Week Eight: Bats
Week eight was all about bats! We talked about nocturnal animals and animals that hibernate. Mini bats were camouflaged in our black rice and had to be found, scooped, pincered and sieved! Bat silhouettes were created using chalk and bat templates against a silver moon, and colourful playdough bats were created and decorated with Halloween pasta shapes. Halloween objects, pumpkins, bats and bones were hidden in black oobleck to be found and rescued!
Now taking bookings for next term
Preschool and Baby Art Classes now open for booking – November/December
Create and Play: Mon & Wed 11am, Tues & Fri 9 30am and 11am
Baby Sensory Play and Move: Thur at 11am
Music and Move: Thur at 9 30am
Please click here to see the class timetable for more details.
