Weekly Bulletin – Week 3 6th – 9th July
This week’s topic is ‘The Forest’ and all the wonderful things you can find there. When walking in the forest remember to keep a safe distance from the animals and don’t feed them. A very important thing to remember when going anywhere is to take all your rubbish home and only leave footprints behind.
Activity 1: Nature cutting activity and Necklace making
What you will need:
- Leaves / flowers / twigs etc.
- Scissors
- Elastic or easily breakable wool
- Hole punch / pencil to create holes
The Method:
- Collect leaves, flowers twigs and anything that you can cut or put onto a necklace.
Nature cutting activity:
- Select some things to cut
- Look at the patterns on the leaves, can you cut along the lines? Can you cut across the lines? Which way is easier/harder?
- If you like after cutting the leaves you could create a picture or use these pieces to make a nature necklace.
Nature necklaces:
- Cut a piece of elastic or easily breakable wool to the length of a necklace (making sure that you can get it on and off easily)
- Make holes in the things you would like to thread onto the elastic / wool
- Have fun creating your necklace; can you create a pattern?
Things to talk about whilst creating
- Textures of the leaves and flowers (Expressive Arts and Design – Exploring and using media and materials).
- Counting the leaves / flowers (Mathematics – Numbers).
- Looking at the different shapes of the leaves and also the pieces you cut (Mathematics – Shape, space and measure).
- Talk about the ways in which you can create your necklace, talk through problems and think of different ways to do things (Characteristics of Effective Learning).
Extending the activity:
- Making potions, perfume and mud pies.
- Making your own ‘stickman’ or nature family from natural resources.
- Make a non-permanent nature collage and photograph it.
Activity 2: Forest animal footprints (messy play)
What you will need:
- A selection of forest or farm animals (plastic ones!)
- Potatoes or old sponges
- A selection of paints
- Large pieces of paper
- Newspaper and an apron / old clothes (for keeping everything else clean!)
The Method:
- Set up the newspaper and large paper
- Collect different animals
- If you are using potatoes or sponges – an adult will need to cut them out into different footprints – talk together about the different footprints of animals.
- Have fun creating the tracks on the paper, maybe you could create a story about the animals as you go along?
Things to talk about whilst creating
- The different types of animals and where you might find them? (Understanding the World – The World).
- Research together the different animal prints (Understanding the World – Technology; The World).
- Sizes of the footprints (Mathematics – shape, space and measure).
Extending the activity:
- Draw out real life animal footprints with chalk on the floor and measure / compare them.
- Make tracks with your own feet / shoes out of water outside.
- Forest animal small world play.
- Explore some different animal games on:
Cbeebies: https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/games/learning-area/understanding-the-world#filter
Nick Jr: http://www.nickjr.co.uk/games/
Disney Jr: http://disneyjunior.disney.com.au/
Activity 3: Bark rubbing
What you will need:
- Paper
- Wax crayons
- Trees or pieces of bark
The Method:
- Take some paper or a notebook and some wax crayons on a walk (in the forest / park)
- Find some trees
- Hold up the paper to the tree
- Use a wax crayon and colour over the paper pressing down on the tree (don’t colour too hard or you will break the paper)
- If you know what tree it is – write a label (or ask a grown up to write it)
- After you have finished your walk, count up the total number of trees you have found.
Things to talk about whilst creating
- Texture of the bark (Expressive Arts and Design – Exploring and using media and materials).
- Patterns (Characteristics of Effective Learning; Understanding the World – The World).
- Types of trees you can see (Understanding the World – The World).
- Counting the trees, leaves etc. (Mathematics – Numbers).
Extending the activity:
- Leaf rubbing.
- Tree / leaf hunt.
Activity 4: Making birds
What you will need:
- paper plate
- googly eyes
- craft feathers (or tissue paper)
- yellow cardstock or construction paper for beak
- strips of coloured paper
- paint and glue mixed together
- stapler
The Method:
- Began by folding the paper plate in half.
- Paint your "birds" in vibrant colours. You only need to paint and decorate one side of the plate, but if you want to paint both, go for it!
- Glued the feathers, eyes and beaks on. If you don't have any craft feathers you can use colourful tissue paper or strips of coloured
- For the last step, fold several narrow strips of colourful paper in half and stapled them to the tail end of the bird.
Things to talk about whilst creating
- Techniques of using the materials and tools (Physical development – Health and self-care; Expressive Arts and Design – Exploring and using media and materials).
- Different types of birds you have seen (Understanding the World – The World).
- The bird’s habitat (Understanding the World – The World).
Extending the activity:
- Create other paper plate creatures.
- Bird hunt.
- Make a bird mask.
Some extra ideas and activities:
- Story of the week – The New Forest Pride Stories
- Some more stories to support this week:
- Owl Babies - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeFoSXg3Gf4
- We’re going on a bear hunt - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gyI6ykDwds
- A tale of two feather – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGH1sZkG1_s&t=4s
- Song of the week – 10 little squirrels (Jill’s song)
- Some others songs to support this week:
- Two little dickie birds - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apIwz06C5DY
- Old Mac Donald - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJvEwjK0lSQ
- Learn some woodland animal Makaton signs - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d01s4zgCq7g
- Nature walk.
- A selection of scavenger hunts (Leaf, garden birds, nature, mini-beast) – please see attachment.
- Match the tracks – please see attachment.
- Making binoculars - https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/toilet-paper-roll-binoculars-4164742
- Forest and Woodlands colouring – please see attachment.
- Build a den.
- Teddy Bears Picnic.
We hope you enjoy exploring these activities!