TOPIC: Opposites – Light and Dark
Baby Acorns will introduce the idea of light and dark through playing in their new imaginative play area, where they have a dark cave which they can make light with fairy lights and torches. The teachers will encourage the children to see that darkness is not something to be afraid of, but simply what happens when we don’t have light and that they can change this by switching on a torch or light switch; they will make dark tunnels from mattresses which the children will investigate travelling through both with and without torches. They will read the story Owl Babies, sing songs associated with the sun, moon or stars. In messy and creative, they will play with black and white dough as they practice the signs for these colours, they will paint with black and yellow paint on aluminium foil and create their own group collage by painting with star and moon shaped biscuit cutters, plastic knives and straws on a large piece of black paper.
Shiny Stars will talk about things that they like to do when it is light outside, they will cover the windows so that it is dark inside, pretend to be asleep and then ‚wake up’ in the morning, they will investigate a torch, candle and lantern as being sources of light and experiement with dropping small amounts of food colouring into a glass of water, watching as the colour turns from light to dark. The will paint using only black and white, make a group collage of a sun and a moon and draw with chalk on a black background, observing the contrast in colour between dark and light.
Rainbows will talk about natural sources of light and how darkness and light affect our daily activities. They will also play with torches and investigate how they work and watch BBC Scienceclips website about different sources of light. They will read the story of The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark and discuss whether they are afraid of the dark and why, how darkness can be a wonderful thing and its importance. In creative activities Rainbows will look at a clip about a starry night and learn about Van Gogh’s Starry Night painting, which they will then try to create their own version of. They will also make their own owl craft, to accompany the story and learn about how to draw and count star shapes, that each one has a different number of points and how to count them.
Early Explorers will talk about activities that people can do in the day/night time and the sequence of daily events which take place in the morning, afternoon, evening or night; they will learn about different sources of light and how they work, whether they are natural or man made. They will also watch a demonstration of how the earth moves around the sun and the different stages of the moon that we see from a crescent to a full circle.In creative they will make their own black dough, draw with chalk on black paper as they design their own night sky and create their own version of Van Gogh’s Starry Night.