The Enormous Turnip
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We began our new topic All Creatures Great and Small with the Russian folk tale The Enormous Turnip. In role play, we have shopped and worked in a farm shop, learning about vegetables and farm shop products while developing our concept of money, creating price labels and working a cash till. On small world we recreated a farm scene with the story characters, and the Bears were encouraged to use time language when retelling the story.
In our writing area, we used our phonics to label a picture of the characters pulling up the turnip. We listened to different versions of the story, and noticed exclamation marks in all the stories when the characters were speaking. We learnt that exclamation marks are a way to show a rise in volume or expression in spoken language. So we chose a story character and wrote a speech bubble of what they would say, having a go at using an exclamation mark in our speech bubble writing.
We explored lots of different vegetables with our senses, and we learnt the names of the vegetables that were new to us. Then we washed, peeled and chopped vegetables to make soup. Everyone tried the soup. I know have said this before, but we really are so proud of our Bears and their amazing progress in giving things a go. Lots of us are discovering new foods we enjoy.
In our creative area we printed using different vegetables, dipping our vegetables in the correct colour paints and trying to make repeated patterns. We also created vegetable garden art through a process of different steps. First, we painted a watercolour blue sky, then brown painted soil. Next, we drew three root vegetables onto coloured paper with pastels. We cut out the vegetables and stuck them onto our background, and added coloured leaves. Finally, we added string roots.
Pulling an enormous turnip from the ground (it was actually a radish as I couldn't buy a turnip anywhere) and moving it is a challenge, so we used our construction materials to build models to help the characters.
What a healthy week! Lots of vegetables and an afternoon of exercise too. We loved sharing our sports day afternoon with so many supporters. What a fantastic first sports day! The Bears showed great sportsmanship, tried really hard, and their behaviour was excellent. We are really proud of them all.
Next time, a colourful but very hungry caterpillar.