This week our focus has been learning about Castles and Knights.
Activities we have enjoyed include, alongside other child initiated activities, have been:

Monday - Inset day

On Tuesday we learnt all about different castles, looking at pictures of them and using lots of describing words to talk about what we could see. There was an initial sounds activity based on knights and dragons and the children made fantastic crowns for themselves. We talked about what we would do if we were King or Queen for a day and we built a giant castle for the children to play in.

On Wednesday we learnt all about the different parts of a castle. The children designed and made their own tunic to take home and made pictures of castles using different shapes. They also enjoyed target practice outside and made a giant drawbridge. Inside they played with finger puppets and pretended what it was like to live in a castle.

On Thursday we designed our own shield, the children also made a castle den outside. They made their own castles using lots of different 2D shapes. They learnt all about the different parts of a knights armour and pretended to have a medieval feast at snack time.

On Friday there was junk model castles made, building castles out of wooden bricks and designing another crown. The children also learnt about the royal family and enjoyed role playing in the big castle as well as being imaginative with the small world castle and figures. We also enjoyed playing count the knight games and spotting letters and logos in the environment

Most activities are available throughout the week for all of the children to enjoy

During we week we also enjoyed lots of other activities including:

• Matching castle lotto
• Small world castle, knights and fairies
• tuff tray
• lots of mark making in various forms: water painting, wipe board marking, pencils, pens,
• tracing patterns
• guessing the objects game
• fine motor skill activities such as threading and using tweezers
• having fun in our role play castle
• lots of matching games
• learning about different 2d shapes and their properties
• lotto games and puzzles
• painting and creating some lovely artwork
• name writing practice and practice finding and recognising own name
• lots of listening games, songs and rhymes
• counting games, songs and rhymes
• listening to lots of stories
• matching numerals to quantity
• lots of fun phonological activities

Please see the links below for home learning ideas related to our curriculum.
For further home learning ideas you can look back through the previous weeks to find more ideas of things you can do at home.

Best wishes, Julia, Claire, Hannah, Lisa and Adam

Home Learning Activities
Castles, knights and dragons 01
Castles, knights and dragons 02