This term we have concentrated on two popular authors, Colin McNaughton and Jill Murphy. Colin McNaughton has provided us with some hilarious picture books featuring Preston Pig and the hapless Mr Wolf – Suddenly, Oomph, S.W.A.L.K. Oops and our favourite story about aliens ‘We’re Off To Look For Aliens’
Jill Murphy has also been very popular as her stories deal with familiar situations in a different way. We enjoy joining in with all the noises poor father bear has to put up with in ‘Peace at Last’ and, along with the adults, appreciate the antics ‘The Large Family’ children get up to in their various stories. Whenever someone falls over on the way to or from school we read ‘On The Way Home’ by Jill Murphy. This produces great discussions and imaginative drawings.
We chose ‘The Last Noo-Noo’ to make into a wall picture. Marlon was painted sucking on his favourite noo-noo. Design and technology was used to make the noo-noo snatcher with everyday objects and a great deal of string. The blue noo-noo was planted and only took a week to grow into a Noo-Noo Tree!
With all the interest in aliens and monsters it has been decided to expand this topic next half term when everyone will be going to the Barbican Concert Hall to hear a concert by the L.S.O. entitled ‘Let’s Dance’ based on the book Two Left Feet by Adam Stower about Rufus, a monster, who can’t dance.

guiding

During the term we have been refining various skills through a variety of activities. On the investigative table the children made a display of photographs showing themselves practising these in everyday situations and displaying some of the games used, Magnetic Marble Maze being the most popular. This involves guiding metal marbles with a magnetic wand through a wooden maze to match the time on the clock. This helps with prewriting skills as it needs a steady hand and an ability to guide a small wand through a small space with great concentration.
Tearing pages from a magazine into strips and screwing them into small balls before throwing them into a waste bin, or using them during a construction, is great fun and helps to ensure the arm and elbow are in the correct position for writing.
Pouring, whether in the water tray, or the milk at snack time is excellent for hand /eye coordination as well as learning control and when to stop! After all, you don’t want the tail on your ‘y’ going to the bottom of the page, in the same way as you don’t want the milk flowing over the top of the cup all over the table and floor!
To improve auditory skills we have been listening to the BBC schools radio programme Listen and Play as well as using computer programs such as Clicker Phonics.