During the month of May, the children were focusing on ‘water’ during their S.E.S.E. lessons. They learned about Georgie Badiel who is a model, writer and activist working on the issue of the lack of potable drinking water in her West African homeland. She dreamed of bringing clean water to her people. They also examined where water goes once It has rained and looked at the cleaning process of water before it comes out of a tap. The children completed some experiments, investigating whether some materials change in water by dissolving. They investigated waterproof materials by making boots for teddy bears.
To link with our learning about water, we decided to base our play activities around ‘Pirates’. In Playdough, the children were busy making pirate ships, jolly rogers, mermaids, pirates and sea creatures. In Construction, they used the large polydrons to build a pirate ship and used smaller construction materials to make flags and pirate swords. Using materials in the writing trolley they made a map and used this map to find an imaginative treasure chest which they also built from wooden blocks. The children enjoyed some Water Play, using the nets and fishing rods to catch fish on their pirate ship. For Small World, the tuff tray was used. Blue tissue paper acted as water for the pirate ships, and the children used the blue pebbles to act as waves and a storm caused the waves to crash onto the decks. They played with small pirate figures, trying to find buried treasure. In Sensory Play, the tuff tray was filled with blue rice to act as water. Sea creatures were added, a ship, wooden dolls and stacking stones which acted as desert islands. Another day, the rice was swapped for water beads, which they also enjoyed. With the nice weather, we took play time outside one afternoon to complete some puzzle and fine motor activities. The children created their own pirates using their cutting and sticking skills, and they then presented their pirates to their class. They went on a treasure hunt to find some pirate themed pictures and had to use colours to complete the code. Role Play was lots of fun, with the Junior Room being transformed into a pirate ship. There were pirates dressed in their hats, bandanas, eye patches and medallions and they were sailing the seven seas, capturing treasure and having sword fights!
In Art, the children created a ship in a bottle, over a few sessions. They each used sponges to completely cover their page with blue paint using a light to dark transition. They coloured in outlines of pirate ships using crayons and added details to the sails and flags of their ships. In the following Art lesson, they children went back to their painted bottles and added large curling waves with toothbrushes to add texture to the waves, using light and dark blue paint and white to create sea spray. They added some glitter too. Their ships were cut out and then stuck onto their bottle backgrounds.
