Xin nian kuai le! The Langley children have been celebrating Chinese New Year over the last week through a range of different experiences. We have practised our fine motor skills using chopsticks in the home corner, painted and decorated red and gold fire crackers using collage materials, read stories with Lao Shi and examined and recreated Chinese Dragons at the easel. As the children have created, they have discussed what they are painting.
“A dragon” explained Molly, “a dragon coming” she continued
“and two lions” added Felix as he painted on the other side of the easel, “two lions having fun” he expanded.
“I’m painting a tiger” Bruno said, “look, tiger” he added excitedly.
“It’s not a dog” said Sophia as she painted, “it’s orange” she added, “teef (teeth)” she continued as she added detail to her painting.Kind regards, Jess, Kerry and Jennifer
Mead
Dear Mead Room Parents,
We have been busy exploring making noises in the Mead Room this week.
"That's a drum. You have to bang on it really loud"! Jesse told us as he played his drum (a tambourine).
"That's the bangers" (cymbals) Jack O said, "They are a loud noise".
"I got a rake" (shakes it). "A quiet noise". "Got some prickles in it" Gabe described (pointing to the ball shaped shaker) .
"It's a bang, bang, bang" said Harry as he banged his instrument!
Henry and Jack J shook some bells. It reminded us of the classroom bell we ring for inside time, and of Santa and his reindeer coming through the sky.
Following our exploration of instruments and the noises they make, we all explored making loud and quiet noises. The loud noises the children made were definitely LOUD - possibly deafening!! The cymbals were the most popular noise makers in the room.
Best wishes,
Emma M, Susan and Emma G
Cooper
The Cooper children have been playing with the marble run construction set this week and this led them to experiment with the marbles. Ajeet placed several marbles in the bottom of a basket and began tipping it side to side. He discovered that the marbles rolled back and forth and made a rattling sound across the bottom of the basket. He repeated this movement over and over listening to the sound. Alex picked up two marbles and tapped them together, “Do you wanna hear my noise? Look. Hear this” he said to Mrs Blake. Harry found the tin pots from the home corner and put his marbles in one. He shook them round and round and found it made a loud metal shaking noise. The boys were excited by their discoveries and the noise level grew and grew. Mrs Blake suggested to the boys that they might try some different containers. “Can we try a box?” asked Ajeet. We found a collection of plastic bottles, boxes and ice cream containers and the boys tipped the marbles into these, trying out the different sounds. Hearing all the noise, Austin and Tom joined in too. Austin even tried putting the tins inside a plastic container and shaking them! The boys lined up next to each other, making music with all their different containers. They jumped up and down shaking them, shouting and singing along to their noisy sounds. This investigation was a great starting point for our Noiseworks unit and we hope to discover even more sounds next week!
Kind regards,
Ali and Susan
Chapple
This week we read 'There's a Sea in My Bedroom' by Margaret Wild and we decided to make a sea for our classroom. We talked about the things you can see and hear at the beach and used lots of different materials to make our own sea. It looks wonderful up on our wall! We were also interested in listening to sea shells. Some of us could hear waves and the ocean inside the shells and we had great ideas about how the sea got inside the shells! We also listened to each other's ideas about how our bodies hear sounds and noise and learnt a new song about a turtle. A big hit in our class this week was the keyboard that Nathaniel's family has lent us. The children have really enjoyed playing it and exploring the various sounds and beats that it makes - a big thank you to the Lindop family!! Looking forward to more fun next week.
Warm wishes,
Suria, Sinead, Ciara and Sue.
Edgerley
Dear Edgerley Mums and Dads,
Pop down to our classroom to see our music factory in action. We have been busy this week creating instruments for our marching band. We constructed mixing desks, pianos and keyboards (because they are not the same, see if you can spot the difference!), wiros, lots of guitars, shakers and claves. Next week we will perform for the other classes in the café and serenade them while they enjoy their snack.
Kind Regards
Mel and Rosalie 
