NURSERY
As you might have guessed, Maslenitsa is all about pancakes or blini (they are more like French crepes, rather than fluffy American pancakes). They are freshly made every day and supposedly symbolize the Sun, so by eating pancakes, people consume its warmth and energy. Russian people try to eat as many pancakes as possible, especially before the approaching seven weeks of the Great Lent.
The children enjoyed many games to mark our Maslenitsa festival. These included a sack race, pancake race, making a baranka necklace and dancing round the maypole to Russian music played by an accomplished musician.
The grand finale of the pancake week is burning the effigy of Maslenitsa, a straw stuffed doll, dressed in female clothes, which marks the imminent end of winter.
This week we read the story of ‘The Gingerbread man’. The children happily joined in the refrain ‘run, run, as fast as you can you can’t catch me I’m the Gingerbread Man’.
The children were able to sequence the story using pictures. They had some very creative ideas when it came to suggesting a different ending to the story.
The Nursery children effectively demonstrated cutting skills on both a curved and a zig zag line.
I was very impressed when they were able to order numbers 1-10 orally as well as their gingerbread men in numbers on a worksheet.
RECEPTION
This week our children have listened to different versions of the Gingerbread Man and have loved discussing the different animals and characters that he ran away from. A lot of our activities this week were according to the Gingerbread Man theme. These included cutting out and ordering 1-10. We also discussed different endings to the story, giving our own opinions.
I was amazed at the excellent cutting skills the children showed when cutting on curved and zigzag lines. Writing skills were further developed with concentrating on keeping on the line when tracing patterns.
The salt dough activities to strengthen fine motor muscles like, rolling, pinching, squeezing were great fun. The best part was the Gingerbread Men that were made, baked and painted. Great fun was had by all!
The Maslenitsa celebrations today were fabulous. The activities included a pancake race, dart competition, dancing around the Maypole to decorate it, drinking hot chocolate, crafts and the burning of the doll. Please ask your child to tell you all about this exciting day!
