Wow! The Robins have enjoyed such a busy week. The children liked choosing their resources/ materials to make their Chinese dragon. Lots of sparkles were used and the Robins used glue to attach the head and tail. We spoke about Chinese New Year and the colour red as this colour symbolises good fortune and joy. The children were super excited with their lucky red envelopes. Some of the children recognised Percy the Pig on the pink coins. They each counted 3 coins and carefully placed them inside their envelopes/ wallets.

Following on with our topic, we spoke about chopsticks and I must say a special thank you to Wagamamas at Bluewater for kindly donating some chopsticks for all the children in Pre-Prep. The Robins enjoyed adding these to their special bags, along with a fortune cookie and red envelope.

Lots of fun was had exploring the noodle (wool) tray. The Robins persevered with using tweezers to transfer noodles to the Chinese takeaway boxes. Whilst on the subject of takeaways, we made a pizza delivery to Mrs Tickner, Miss Norford, Mrs Parker and Mr McCarthy. They were all overjoyed with their yummy pizzas. The children enjoyed kneading their pizza dough to make it fluffy and stretchy. Tomato puree was added to the children’s pizzas and they used their spoons to spread it around so all the dough was covered. Lastly, the Robins sprinkled mozzarella cheese on top and we spoke about popping them in the oven to cook.

On Wednesday, there was a special snack time treat…noodles. These were enjoyed by all and the children enjoyed dipping bread and butter in their sauce. Continuing with our Chinese New Year topic, we made a colourful dragon cake. We used our imaginations and made a dragon using an upside down gingerbread man cake tin. Raspberry buttercream and sprinkles were added to make it colourful.

There have been lots of visitors at our feeding station this week and also a cheeky magpie and lots of bluetits. Continuing with the bird theme, in our music session with Miss Norford we enjoyed singing a variety of bird songs. Afterwards, we sang Pop a Little Pancake into the Pan. The Robins took turns to choose which toppings they would like on their pancakes. Back in class, the children helped to make their own pancakes. The Robins regularly take part in weighing the ingredients so this time we opted for something a bit more fun! Rather than weighing the ingredients, we shook them. It was great fun shaking our ingredients and we had even more fun with the toppings. The children had the choice of jam, lemon, orange and sugar. Lots of fun was had squeezing the lemons and oranges and it worked our muscles extremely well.

The Robins thoroughly enjoyed exploring our sensory-themed trays. They liked looking at the different shiny resources and they enjoyed feeling the materials. Some were soft and smooth and some were prickly. Heart pasta was used on the playdough table, along with heart cutters.

Scrimbling is a fun pre-writing activity that supports children’s fine motor and gross motor control. The Robins had lots of fun scrimbling to music whilst using their teeny tiny bean-shaped crayons.

The children liked watching a garden bird camera as part of our mindfulness moment. We all sat and watched the birds on the feeder and it was lovely and peaceful. As part of Children’s Mental Health Week we have enjoyed quiet moments where we can be still and listen to nature. We were extremely pleased with our special stickers from Places 2 Be as they sent us a special activity pack. 

There were lots of clean plates on Thursday as we enjoyed yummy heart-shaped crumpets. The children carefully used knives to spread butter and jam on top. Afterwards, we watched Big Cook, Little Cook on the CTOUCH and the Robins enjoyed learning how jam is made.

We hope you enjoyed the Pre-Prep Coffee Morning. The Robins did a great job with their super fast running. We like to do things a little bit different in Robins and make it more meaningful and fun for the children whilst incorporating their interests. We therefore passed Marshall (instead of a baton) to the next person to run around the circle. At the end, we all worked together to tidy away. Well done, Team Robins!

I hope you have a lovely half term break and I look forward to hearing all about your exciting news on our return. Don’t forget, you can also upload your half term news to Tapestry.