This week’s activities

Marble effect painting

The teacher added shaving foam and paint into trays. The children then used lolly sticks to mix the paint into the shaving foam, making swirling patterns. Next they placed paper over the top and gently pressed down. As they lifted the paper they noticed that some of the shaving foam was stuck to the paper. They used the lolly sticks to scrape off the shaving foam and then looked at the marbling effect that had been created on the paper. Once they had finished creating their paper, they explored the properties of the shaving foam, noticing how it squished through their fingers and the strong smell of the shaving foam as they explored.

Exploring pumpkins

With the autumn comes different produce. Not only do we associate certain foods with events that happen at this time of year, we also change/adapt what we can eat and what is seasonal. Whilst many children will be familiar with pumpkins (or squashes) because they have seen them in the shops, they may not have really explored their properties. First of all the teacher asked the children to look at the pumpkins, noticing their shape, colours, texture, smell. They felt the pumpkins and lifted them, noticing that they were heavy and smotth in some places but bumpy in others. They discussed the different colours and went on to mix paints to match those colours, which they then used in their artwork. The next day, the children were invited to explore the inside of the pumpkins. They used different tools to try and break through the flesh, noticing that it was hard and not easy to do. In the end, they found that the children’s safety knives were able to do the job. Once they had opened up the pumpkins, they noticed the different textures inside, one child commented that it was slimy, whilst another stated “it smells like Jamaica”, They felt the flesh attached to the shell, noticing that it was hard but not as hard as the shell. In the middle they found the stringy part which had lots of pale yellow seeds attached. Having explored the inside, they separated the seeds from the stringy flesh until the seeds were smooth and clean. These seeds will now be left to dry over half term before we plant some in pots on our return. They may grow to produce new pumpkin plants, they may not, but everything is a learning opportunity. If they grow, we can continue to explore how they develop, if they don’t we can learn about why that may have happened. As these pumpkins were brought for decorative purposes, we were not able to use the flesh in our cooking, but the flesh will not go to waste as we compost our leftover fruit and vegetables to make compost for our allotment garden.

There are photos on our Facebook page
Thank you and have a great half term.

The Pre-school Team