Our vehicles theme continued into the beginning of March. We played the popular game 'Peili' with the vehicles, the children got to choose the vehicle that they liked best and many found a favourite. The 'peili' in our game was the traffic lights that directed the traffic by telling how many steps which vehicles could take. 'Traffic jam' meant that all of the vehicles could move.
Helicopter 5! Truck 3! Car 6! Train 2! Bus 7! Traffic jam! The children had to listen out for their own vehicle and concentrate to hear the number that was given. 
There are many traditional games that are popular with children year after year. Many of these games can be played in English too.




Then we moved on to directions. Forward and back! Right, left! Forward, back, right and left! Go! Stop! The children picked up the directions very quickly through imitation - following Emma's lead and repeating the words.
We found the same directions on Bee-Bot. Our task was simple: to get Bee-bot to the destination (a vehicle) of our choice by coding it. While the Bee-Bot moved, we said the directions out loud and counted the number of squares it moved. 


Where do you want to go? To the aeroplane? Which way? First press x. Forward 1,2,3, stop. Right 1. 
We continued in this way, programming the Bee-Bot to get it to our chosen destination. The children concentrated really well and learnt how to use the Bee-Bots very quickly. 

The following week we went through directions again by moving the direction that was said; forward, back, right, left! At first, the children followed Emma's lead, but after they showed they recognised the words, Emma stepped back and only gave the directions while the children moved. Forward and back were easy to remember, right and left are a little harder. Then we moved on to our task: program the Bee-Bot to the vehicle of your choice, pick it up and take it to the garage! When we are programming, we have to use many skills - we have to plan and decide on the best route, think about whether we need to turn right or left, count how many squares we need to go forward or back, remember to first clear the Bee-Bot's memory with 'x', then press all of the correct buttons to give the commands we want. As we worked, we said the directions and distance in numbers aloud, all in English! We did it as teamwork, working together and helping each other to achieve our goal. It has to be said that the 5 and 6 year olds in the enkku groups are excellent coders! Well done everyone!



In the last week of March our Captain took us to Enkkumaa to learn about sports.
Let's play dodgeball!
Let's play football!
Let's play basketball!
Let's run!
Let's jump!
Let's bike!
Let's climb!