The dental nurses then taught us that as children, we each have 20 baby teeth, and we must brush each tooth in a circular motion, for 2 minutes. The children loved watching the timer go down as we practised brushing the model teeth, trying to brush in those circular motions. Everyone had a go, and because the children did such a super job, everyone got their own special tube of toothpaste to take home, and of course, no trip to the dentist is complete without a special sticker! The children played a special game with the nurses too, sorting out food onto happy or sad teeth. The children thought hard about which foods go on which tooth, discussing that sugary foods should just be a special treat, otherwise our teeth will get holes in! 

We have also had lots of fun colour mixing this week. The children were given a special mission to see how many colours they could make by mixing together other colours. We used paint, water, playdough and oobleck, getting messy and having lots of fun! In the process, we practised printing, squeezing, pouring, squashing – one of the children even used their colours to make a magical rainbow potion that makes big bad wolves disappear! 

On Thursday, we were very busy celebrating different countries as part of the School’s Modern Foreign Languages Day. We decorated the classroom with lots of flags, maps and the globe, and we explored some of the different cultures celebrated throughout the school. During carpet time, we had a look at the world map, and the children were very quick to tell me where we lived. We discussed some of the other counties the children had visited, and then watched a video about a little girl from India, who told us all about her life. Throughout the morning, we went on an exciting journey around the World, collecting stamps for our passports. It was lovely to see the children so inquisitive as we explored activities from different cultures, including creating Niagara Falls in the water tray; decorating Brazilian carnival masks with collage materials; tasting Chinese noodles and lots of other activities. One of our favourites was creating Indian rangoli patterns using salt and pipettes. We had to draw our picture first with PVA glue, then dip it in salt to cover the glue, before using the pipettes to add coloured water to the salt. I think we will need a rest before we go on any more travels!

In maths this week, we have been learning all about shapes. The children arrived at school on Wednesday morning to a disaster - someone had scattered shapes all over the classroom! We decided that Shrek must have snuck in during the night using his strong muscles, trying to steal our shapes, but he dropped them everywhere in his hurry to get out! Luckily, the children helped me find them all and sort them into the correct pile of either square, circle, triangle, rectangle or hexagon. We managed to find all the shapes and put them back where they belong. Great work Transition! 

We made the most of the sunshine this week and took our beanbags out to the paddock to practise our ball skills. Working in two teams, we had to throw our beanbags into the hoop, using a controlled underarm throw. It took a little bit of practice, but by the end, almost every beanbag from each team was in the hoop! We then enjoyed using our strength and balance as we practised climbing on the adventure trail. Mrs Nelson and I have also been amazed by the children's scissor skills this week. We each chose a pattern and a pair of scissors, then sat down to concentrate on cutting along our pattern all the way to our vehicle. The children persevered so well, even though some of the patterns were a little tricky, and some of the children even had a go at designing their own tricky patterns to cut. We love a challenge and they smashed it!