Boots, chaps and cowboy hats!

On the Brambles ranch this week there has been some 'strapping' cowboys and 'cute as a cow's ear' cowgirls, who have dressed up and looked 'downright purty.'  They have been lots of these new expressions to learn through one of our stories this week; Bubba The Cowboy Prince - A Fractured Texas Tale by Helen Ketteman.  The children soon recognised the similarities between Bubba and Cinderella and thought the 'fairy godcow' was very amusing!  They also recognised Little Charley Bear from our other story this week who used his imagination to pretend to be a sheriff.

  

The art table this week has been popular as the children have made cowboy hats to wear by cutting around the edge and for the more confident cutters, the inside of the hat too. The Wanted Posters were also fun to watch the children draw as they had to draw themselves but instead of being wanted for something bad, they were wanted for positives.  Some of their responses were: 'wanted for beautiful singing', 'wanted for counting to 10' and 'wanted for looking like a beautiful cowgirl'. Free paining demonstrated how well the children were able to copy a variety of cowboy themed pictures from cowboys on horses to cactus' and sheriff badges to cowboy boots.  Designs were created  as the children had to make different patterns on their boots, choosing sequins to decorate their sheriff badges, colours were chosen to colour the song and rhyme of the week and some rather fabulous horses were made by using glue, paper and wool!

C is for cowboy
This weeks adult led activities were based on learning the Letter C and the sound c.  The lower case letter practice sheets were taken from Teachers Pet adapted to make a practice sheet and then laminated to they could be reused.  The first activity was to practice writing the letter C with their finger, before moving on to use a wipe clean pen.

 



String and playdough were also used to explore how to make the letter C using their fine motor skills to manipulate the string and dough.  These fine motor skills are really important to help support the development off writing.

 

Coloured sand (but salt would work just as well) on a baking tray was the other method used to help practice writing the letter C using a 'pointy finger'.

EYFS Links
Naming and writing the letter C comes under many areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage:

• Communication and Language

Focusing attention, follow direction, responds to simple instructions, maintains concentration and use vocabulary focused on objects and people that are of importance to them.

• Physical Development

Holds pencil between  thumb and two fingers, holds pencil near point between first two fingers and thumb with good control, can copy some letters, shows preference for a dominant hand, begins to form recognisable letters and uses a pencil and holds it effectively to form recognisable letters.

• Literacy

Hears and says the initial sound in words, links sounds to letters, naming and sounding the letters of the alphabet, sometimes / gives meaning to marks as they draw and paint, uses some clearly identifiable letters to communicate meaning and write own name or captions, labels.

FREE BOOK OFFER
Brambles staff purchase their beautiful classroom furniture from Community Play Things who are also generously sponsoring free copies of a beautifully written book.

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You put your claws in, your feet out, in, out, in, out and scratch them all about you do the dino pokey and you turn around, that's what next weeks all about!  Roar! The dino pokey.  Roar! The dino pokey. Roar! the dino pokey, teeth out, tail stretched, Roar! Roar! Roar!  I wonder what Miss Joan has planned for next week?!