Panda Class AM & PM Blog - Wednesday 8th January

Dear Panda Class Families,

Happy New Year! 

We hope you have enjoyed the festive holiday and we warmly welcome you to Term 2 here in Panda Class!

Thank you very much for adding your holiday photos to our shared Google photo albums. We are allocating time to this each day so that your child can have a turn to share their memories with us.  It is important to us that every child gets a turn to share. Some children prefer to sit down and speak to the class, while others like to stand up in front of the class. Either way, we are so happy to hear about what they've seen and done in the last couple of weeks. 

We are looking forward to learning about the Lunar New Year very soon and hope to make some lovely artwork which the children will take home in due course!

As we settle back into school, we'll be focussing on our year-long Unit of Inquiry, 'Who We Are' for the next two weeks, and then we'll start a brand new Unit, 'How The World Works.' 

The Pandas have been enjoying painting using their fingers during our arrival time. We are very impressed with how much control they now have, and how much their fine motor skills have strengthened since starting in August!

Shaving foam and cupcake cases in our sensory tray is very popular and we've seen some great creations being made using their fabulous imaginations!

The children are looking after our dolls very carefully in the class and have been feeding them fruit (from our mathematical fruit pie toys). We discussed the importance of mashing the fruit up first for the babies!

During open play, the Monkey Class has turned into a Chinese New Year-themed role play station, offering chances to cook and order food as well as take turns. The Sandpit is filled with toy trucks and traffic signs for the children to explore, and the Frog class is a creation station once again. The Panda Class is hosting a snack, and afterwards, the children are invited to have a go at weaving material on our looms!

Outdoors, the children are honing their gross motor skills by going on our slide, taking turns on the see-saw, and constructing using wooden blocks. 

The mud kitchen is filled with wood chips and it has been wonderful seeing the children make dishes with these using cups, plates and bowls. They've even been setting up the table in the outdoor house and serving their meals to others! 

We'll be visiting Bradbury's Teletubbyland again soon, so please keep an eye out for our class photo albums, as the dates and times may vary between classes and are dependent on Bradbury's availability. We're also going to be learning how to balance on balance bikes and use scooters in the Bradbury undercover area sometimes too! 

Once a week, we'll be merging with the K2s (each K1 class has an assigned day). This is in preparation for our joint K1 and K2 open play model which we do every year. It is a great way for the K1s and K2s to play alongside each other during Open Play and also help each other during tidy-up time. 

Next week, our activities will be changing in the classroom once again. We'll be making playdough dumplings, building with boxes, painting Chinese New Year-inspired artwork and continuing our number recognition through play. Fine motor activities will also be available as always!

Here are our class photo albums for you to view:

                                            Panda Class AM & Panda Class PM

And our Spotify Album is Here. 

We hope you have a good rest of the week!

Best regards,

The Panda Team