Week Commencing 13th September 2021

Emotions and Our Senses

This week we have been exploring emotions and our senses. We have shared the story of the Colour Monster; it helps to explain emotions and label them with colours. Understanding how they feel is a huge step when building self-regulation skills. First children need to understand it is ok to feel a certain way and be able to talk about emotions, they then begin to control their own emotions and develop an understanding of other people’s feelings.

The children have enjoyed activities to support the story, such as colouring and painting their own monsters and using the sorting jars. These activities help build fine motor skills and support maths development such as shape, pattern, counting and colour identification.

On the rainy day in the week the children enjoyed making their own puddles, catching the rain water and of course lots of cooking in the mud kitchen.

The children managed to work together to identify the five senses and together we have played games to help us remember.

A favourite game was the blindfold game, in which the children bravely allowed their eyes to be covered and then tried to identify the item in front of them without the use of their eyes. Even Mrs Spencer had to have turn! The game helped the children to build communication skills, mathematical language, trust, wellbeing, and good relationships.

On our Friday walk the children noticed a bonfire and we used our noses to smell the smoke and our eyes to see the smoke/fire. The children all said, “we don’t touch it will burn and be hot”.

Once we arrived in the woods, we took turns to move away from the group whilst the rest of the children listened for noises and worked out what they could hear. Lily was a Cat, Tytus was a Dog and Mrs Voller was an Owl.

We had some quiet time and enjoyed using all our senses to identify our surroundings. The children then stuck pictures into their nature journals.

“I can feel a leaf”

“I can hear the birds”

“I can see people”

“I can see the trees”

"I can hear the wind"

Thank you so much for covering the journals so beautifully. We hope they will be a success and a much-loved addition to your child’s time at The Acorns. The journals will stay at Westmeston but are available for you to view.

Next week we are learning about recycling and our home, please can I ask you to bring in any spare bottle tops for an art project and other recycling for making houses. Thank you and have a lovely weekend, Mrs Spencer.