Book of the week: Walter's Wonderful Web by Tim Hopgood.
Synopsis: Why make an ordinary web when you can make one that's extraordinary?
Meet a determined little spider who can't seem to spin a perfect web. Whoosh goes the wind as it blows each web away! But one thing Walter can spin is spectacular shapes and one day he spins the most spectacular shape of all! It's better than perfect - it's a truly wonderful web.
A charming story ... This is fun just to read and enjoy but it also includes an introduction to basic shapes.
Weekly Activity: Using our book of the week (Walters Wonderful Web) we discussed different 2D shapes with the children and talked about weaving and sewing, what it is and how to do it. We encouraged them to look at what they are wearing that might be woven or sewn together. We encourage them to look around site at different shapes to see if they could identify any of the same shapes from the book.
We encouraged each child to talk about how they were going to do their weaving,
what shape they had chosen to weave and why. For the older ones we also
introduced the concept of 3D shapes. We supported children who showed an interest in making their own disk by encouraging them to decide on a shape and to go looking for where the environment might have the same shape e.g. a round stone like a circle or a triangular shaped leaf.
This activity gave us many opportunities to observe, assess and promote the following: forming good relationships with familiar adults; help build self-confidence; sharing resources and turn-taking; focussing attention and perseverance; building up
vocabulary, using a variety of tools; tying knots; improving fine motor skills; discuss tool safety; identify basic shapes; making observations about nature; using technology (such a digital camera to take photos of their creations).
Home Activity: Leaf Weaving
Required Materials:
Wool
Scissors
Large (non-brittle) leaves
Masking tape
Hole punch
Method:
Use the hole punch to make lots of holes in a leaf
Cut a long length of wool
Tape one end of the wool to the back of the leaf
Use a small piece of tape to tape the other end of the wool into a point used for threading
Start sewing your leaf!
Cut any excess wool when you've finished threading
Tape the end of the wool to the back of the leaf
Upload your woven leaves onto Tapestry
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