Under The Sea

Our theme for the coming couple of weeks is under the sea, for detailed EYFS planning please do scroll to the bottom of the page.

We have read and enjoyed the story Secret Seahorse more than once today. we then painted a sea picture with different shades of blue, then coloured in various sea creatures from the story and then covered them with seaweed (crepe paper) so we had our own secret sea pictures.

We spent some time later finding lots of things that are blue and realising between all of us we were all wearing blue cardigans of various shades.

I've put together all the sea creatures from the story Secret Seahorse and added some other pros, found a boat from the water tray to be used as our ship wreck. I love putting together story boxes, as the children get so much joy from retelling and making up their own stories with all the props. Added some activity and matching cards for later.

These cards are from from Twinkl and go very well with the Secret seahorse story.

These activity cards are from Toddler Approved and they are brilliant, I've used them more than once over the last couple of years and they always go down well.

You can find more of our under the sea ideas here and an undersea adventure that I we had fun doing a couple of years ago and will do again with the children.

Making jelly fish with paper plates and crepe paper.

Maths ideas, ordering, comparing and counting and some lovely pictures using stencils here

We loved exploring bubble wrap and printing with it to create some lovely under the sea pictures

I used lolly pop sticks to make a fish outline and then kite paper to decorate some fish to go on our patio door.

Wet felting starfish children really appreciated the whole process of wet felting.

We had a giggle when I attempted to make a jelly fish in a bottle and paper plate seahorses.

Polar Theme

We had fun last year exploring the Polar regions. As well as the books listed below we also enjoyed reading Polar Bears Past Bedtime and the fact book that went with it. The children enjoyed creating paper plate caves and walrus, had lots of fun with shaving foam, painting it, freezing it to name a couple. the shaving foam was used for pretend snow. We had a pretend trip the the polar regions as well. If you want the planning linked into all the areas of the EYFS, you will find this at the bottom of this post.

The children made the polar bears cave out of a paper plate, cut and glued into shape and then the fun of gluing cotton wool on it, to make it look like it was all covered in snow.

These are some of the books we enjoyed. 

They also had great fun with puffy paint (a mixture of shaving foam and pva glue) to paint polar bears and snowy scenes. I cut out some polar stencils, from a cardboard box. I added a small amount of sand to some of the puffy paint to add a different texture. The children really enjoyed this activity and the pictures turned out brilliantly even if I do say so myself.

Followed by a game of hibernating polar bears (sleeping lions by another name).

                                

                               

                           

When we read Mama Do You Love Me? which got the children really thinking about how Mum's love them even if they are sometimes cross. Afterwards we made some paper plate walruses and then measured out the size of real walrus. they were amazed at how big they were.

                                 

We also talked about how the sea animals keep warm in they icy sea and they had fun experimenting, with our home made blubber, two plastic bags put together with some oil poured in between, to make a glove and another bag with no oil in. I then filled a bowl with ice cubes and water and the children tried the 2 different bags to see if their hand stayed warmer with 'blubber' or not.

Well a trip to both the Arctic and the Antarctic as I put all those animals out to be played with. I think I might have to do an activity so the children can learn about both the Arctic and the Antarctic and the different animals you find there.

As the weather was very hot, to try and keep the children cool, happy and learning something, I froze various blocks of ice and a tub of shaving foam to use in my builders tray, shaving foam freezes really well. They were very interested in the way the ice melted and the different shapes formed. Later on when all the ice melted they had fun jumping in the water pretending it was snowing with all the shaving foam :)

                                 

                                       

Words for Polar Bear, Polar Bear, Twirl Around

Polar bear, polar bear,

Twirl around.
Polar bear, polar bear,
Make no sound.
Polar bear, polar bear,
Dance on your toes.
Polar bear, polar bear,
Touch your nose.
Polar bear, Polar bear,
Show your paws.
Polar bear, Polar bear,
Hide your claws.
Polar bear, Polar bear,
Reach up high
Polar bear, Polar bear,
Wink one eye.
Polar bear, Polar bear,
Say good-night,
Polar bear, Polar bear,
Shut your eyes tight.
Polar bear, Polar bear,
Wake up now,
Polar bear, Polar bear,
Take a bow.

Now What To Do With All That Rice

Having had lots of fun with all that rice play, I decided to create a fairy land for the children to play with, especially as I have a couple of little girls who love fairies.

Their reaction in the morning was lovely and they enjoyed playing with it. My eldest daughter then set it up again for the next day, adding some of her dolls to the land.

Now one of Mums asked what would happen if I cooked the rice would the food colouring stay put or leach out. So that got us thinking and we decided to cook some of the dyed rice. Not that I would want to eat it after they had been playing with it and all that colouring on it as well! Anyway the answer to the question is the dye leaches out during cooking and you end up with white rice again, or at least we did with the food colouring we used.

Leaf and Flower Pictures

We have been discovering how much fun can be had with just a spray bottle of water and leaves, flowers, twigs etc that they found in the garden. Unfortunately limited flowers at the moment as my rabbit loves to eat them, I think he thinks I've planted them especially for him! We've made pictures before from natural materials and they love doing this but they were a bit dubious when I then explained we would wet their designs and see what pattern was left behind! Anyway after a quick demonstration from me away they went, these are some of their pictures, they created.

To start with we collected up lots of leaves, flowers, twigs etc They then created patterns/pictures and with the water bottle on mist, they gently, or sometimes not so gently, sprayed their picture with water.