What's been happening in our play???

There is still lots of engagement around Willow the Worser Bay Witch and children are regularly writing her letters asking a variety of questions.  Most of the questions are asking for things that they can make in class, but some include getting to know more about the witch like, Dear Witch, are you real??? and Dear Witch, what do you eat??

The best part about this writing is that it is totally self motivated and chosen! There is no pressure to write the witch a letter.  As the writing is happening there is lots of consolidating of what letters need and lots of word practise and letter/sound practise.  

After asking the witch for materials to make a doll, here she is making a doll's house for that doll. 

These girls are making their own magic wands and dolls

After receiving their replies many children get materials they need to make what they've asked for.  Some come back to these over and over again to refine them, add to them, and play with them.

What else is going on?

As you know, Tuesday is "Toy Tuesday" where kids can bring a toy to school with them.  Here a nest was being made for all of the class's toys to be in while we were doing other things.  There was a lot of thinking about what animals need to stay safe.  We can see an enclosure happening here. 

After assembling these beetles and talking about all the parts of a beetle, these two decided that they needed to be fed.  So they went on a search to find what they could feed the beetles with.  There was lots of scientific thinking going on here.  What living things need to survive? Food, water, and shelter.  

There has been lots of mathematical thinking going on. We have been exploring measurement and capacity.  How many can fit? How do we balance it? What is heavy? What is light? 

 We also created "challenges" for each other where we could only use the tweezers to move things.  This is very good fine motor skill practise.

 You can see lots of sorting and organising going on here.  There is sorting by different shape, colour and material.

 Here the scale became a dump truck and the mechanism was being explored.  Can I get these tops into this container? Again, this is looking closely at capacity.  Will they all fit from this container to this other one?

Here there is some creating going on. The bottle tops have become bottle top jelly-fish in the sea.  There is a lot of discussion around the living world and the environment.  Where do these jelly fish live? What else is in the sea? What do they eat? 

Another awesome week full of discovery in Autahi!
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