April was definitely another great month with lots going on. The weather FINALLY warmed up, although we still keep getting hail showers (annoying when it’s warm enough for a t-shirt a few minutes before!). At least we are getting outside with less layers and have had lots of fun joining in with the rock finding craze. Halfway through the month we had a fantastic weekend in Paris, which has been on my son’s list of places to visit for 2 years. So clearly we had lots of learning there too!
Here’s what we’ve been learning about in April (at least the bits I can remember!).
The 6 Year Old
- Art & Design
- Rock painting for hiding around our local area (must have painted around 30 by now!)
- Folding his own paper airplanes with some instruction
- Creating photo tins at craft group
- Designing cardboard buildings and creating them with just scissors and tape
- Learning about artwork at Jupiter Artland, including an amethyst cave and spooky faceless girls
- Colouring Paris pictures
- Science
- Learning about pH of different household items using red cabbage indicator
- Creating aerodynamic planes, helicopters and other items.
- Practising coding using robotic machines, board games and Lego Boost
- Using Tech Will Save Us Avengers kit to learn about circuits in parallel and series
- Watching and learning how car windscreens are replaced and what adhesives are used to keep it in place.
- Learning about Eider ducks and seals
- Sports
- He attended his multi sport class weekly and has been increasing his abilities, including hand-eye coordination.
- Cycling around the town and to the next.
- Continuing swimming lessons weekly
- Playing at the park with friends
- Engineering
- Creating a Cardboard city
- Creating structures using marshmallows and toothpicks
- Making a pier and ferry out of Lego for the Katy Morag unit study.
- Maths
- Using the Orchard Toys Magic Maths game
- Playing the Pop To The Shops game
- Handling money in the shop.
- Reading & Writing
- Beginning to read words more easily when asked.
- Pointing out words he knows.
- Writing out a recipe book.
- Writing words associated with seals and Eider ducks.
- Reading books together.
- History
- Talking about the history of the Eiffel Tower
- Exploring the Egyptian artefacts in the Louvre Musuem
- Learning about the history of chocolate and testing how it tasted over the years at Paris’ Chocolate Experience
- Visiting Doune Castle
- Visiting the Wallace monument and learning more about the Battle of Stirling Bridge and William Wallace
- Exploring Blackness Castle
- Geography
- Reading about what to expect in Paris with the ‘A Walk in Paris‘ children’s book
- Looking at maps of Paris and of Wallace Monument sculpture trail
- Exploring Paris over two days both on foot and using the Metro
- Learning about the famous Parisian landmarks
- Learning about the French flag and order of colours
- Language – Learning French words and phrases
- Drama Class – continuing to grow confidence at the weekly drama class
- Beavers – Enjoying Beavers and is working towards his next badge
- Baking/Cooking
- Made porridgies with only a tiny bit of help
- Team work
- Playing games with friends outdoors and at Doune Castle, both chase/tig and imaginary games that they created themselves
Aside all this there has been plenty of fun with family friends and play at home!
The 4 Year Old
As mentioned before he’s not of schooling age, but I feel I need to include his progress too!
- Art & design
- Painting rocks to hide for the rock craze
- Creating a cardboard Wallace Monument
- Learning about the sculptures at Jupiter Artland
- Exercise
- Multi Sport – Continuing to enjoy the class and praised for his throwing and catching abilities.
- Weekly gymnastics class
- Cycled from our town to the next on his pedal bike, around 3.5 miles
- Practising swimming at the local pool with some help
- Ballet/tap – They are still learning steps for a ballet show in early summer. Enjoying spending time with his friends and dancing.
- Superhero academy (jumping off things in a cape!)
- Reading – Reading stories and magazines with us, including beginning some shorter chapter books.
- Maths – Playing board games and counting/simple adding
- Science
- Continuing discussions of how babies are made.
- Discussions on death and what happens to our bodies when we die.
- Learning about what makes a good paper airplane
- Beginner coding with robotic coding machines
- Using red cabbage juice as an indicator for pH of household items
- Planted seeds and watched them grow into seedlings
- Baking
- Creating chocolate pizzas
- History
- Learning about the history of the cocoa bean and chocolate
- Listening to the history of Doune castle on audio headphones
- Exploring Blackness Castle
- Learning about the Battle of Stirling bridge and Wallace Monument
- Looking at Egyptian antiquities in the Louvre
- Team work
- Playing games with friends outdoors, both chase/tig and imaginary games that they created themselves
Of course there’s also lots of playing with each other and friends in the garden and at the park too!
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