Our final term of the 2016/17 academic year. We had a lot of fun adventures as the blossoms on the fruit trees turned into fruit and as the heat started to build we cooled off in the school pool and did activities and read stories under the shade of the trees. Soon the fruit ripened and the children helped to harvest loquats, apricots, peaches and plums. Here are some photos of the final 10 weeks of this school year, starting with our Reggio inspired discovery tables:
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| Creating patterns - buttons & mirrors |
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| Play dough work table - we take pictures of the children's work and then the children view the photos and comment on the process, their ideas and what they would like to explore making next time |
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| Exploring magnets and motor skills |
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| Large white board, magnetic shapes and pens - the children created images and stories on the whiteboard |
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| Flowers from around the garden were added to the materials the children used to create pictures and stories |
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| Pipettes, water colours and paper towel were the materials the children experimented with allowing them to appreciate how the paper towel changed as it absorbed more and more liquid. The children began to use words like 'absorb', 'saturated' and 'blend'. |
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| A box filled with water, pompoms and feathers - the children were given long straws to engage with the water box in whatever way they chose |
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| At first they chose to use the straws as sticks, then to used them to blow air into the box to create bubbles and then to blow air to move objects across the water |
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| One of the children then began to use the water box to test which objects she found around the school would float or sink - which later turned into an exercise about volume and capacity! |
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| A moment of quiet focused creation |
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A table of boxes, wire, Sellotape and scissors to get the children exploring design and engineering An artistic discovery table - stamps, ink, pens, paper, ribbons and doilies all ready and waiting for unique creations |
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| A pristine and untouched discovery table featuring lentils, beans, coloured rice, pans and funnels |
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| Lentils on a mirror to add another aspect to exploration |
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| Soon the mixing and pouring began |
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| The aftermath of exploration - chaos and mess are evidence of thorough explorations and important discoveries made! |
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| Tower building - enhancing number recognition, counting and understanding value |
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| Activity sheets are optional but all the children enjoy sitting down and focusing on writing, reading, colouring and drawing after a good run around the playground or splash in the pool |
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| Each child is shown activity sheets appropriate for their level and they choose which ones they would like to do. Learning through art is a really important tool for us: 
Matching colours using different materials - tissue paper, card, felt, crepe paper
 
Painting & decorating straw hats
  
Painting with different shaped cardboard combs
   
Ramadan calendars - the children glued on the pre-made pockets to their free painted card underneath and then glued on the numbers in order. These calendars helped the children mark the month of Ramadan with a treat in each pocket for each day of the month.
Ramadan decorations
A three-way easel: the children painted together while listening to different genres of music commenting on how the music made them feel and how this affected their painting
 
Rainbow hand printing
We began to explore time this term. We sang songs about clocks, we used practice clocks to explore the hands on a clock, timers to understand second and minutes, alarms to demonstrate hours, art projects to show the school day at given times and we drew chalk clocks on the floor and used our bodies to learn how to tell the time:
    
Making a flower clock
Sticking on the numbers helped the children to understand the positioning of the numbers 1-12 on a clock
 
One of the children took the cardboard from a toilet roll to help her draw circles and began creating her own clocks and choosing the time she wanted to communicate on them. This was a completely self motivated and self directed activity.
At the beginning of the year we explored the topic of Morocco, now towards the end of the school year we decided to look at the other places around the world the children come from. Each week we focused on one of the countries the children had an affiliation with and we learned about where the country was, the language, the food, traditions and costumes and the flag. Each week one of the parents came to introduce their country to the children and brought photos, food and clothing and taught us how to say some simple things from their language.
Painting the Czech flag
Tredelnik made by the kids for their afternoon snack
Italy flag with pictures chosen by the kids during our discussion group
Kid-friendly tiramisu
South Korean flags
Korean peanut cookies - Matdongsan- the children made for their snack
One of the parents shows a picture of a her family from Korea
The children learn about the pictures they have chosen from South Korea
Poster representing Great Britain with pictures chosen by the children
And lastly a quick snapshot of some of the food we made this term:
Peanut butter jammy dodgers
Aubergine cannelloni
The children love spreading on the pesto and rolling up the slices of aubergine
Almond-berry cupcakes
Cherry tomato & thyme tarte tatin
Orange flapjacks, vanilla frozen yoghurt with apple and melon juice
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