Planes, boats and pirates!
Children are loving the new pirate themed enhancements in Nursery this week. We’ve been talking about boats, investigating floating and sinking and drawing pirate maps to hunt for hidden treasure.
In the dough area, we’ve been practising some of our dough disco moves; we pushed our thumbs into the dough to make ‘thumb pot’ boats.
In the Sunshine room, we’ve been making dens and toasting marshmallows in our new camping role play area.
Outside, we spotted some ladybird lavae on our willow tree; we even saw one that was beginning to pupate. We’re going to keep checking it regularly to watch what happens next.
Vehicles
Our current ‘transport’ theme is very popular and has inspired lots of role play this week. We’ve been on bus and train rides and floated across the sea in our box boats!
Children enjoyed having using the stencils in the mark making area. It was quite tricky to carefully trace the pen around the edge of the stencil, but they persevered.
In the book corner, we’ve listened to lots of stories about The Little Red Train and we looked closely at the detailed illustrations. We talked about the different places that the Duffy driver visited. Was it the city, countryside or seaside? How did they know?
Outside, children made ramps for the cars, talked about visits to the fair in the small world fairground and made mud ‘chocolate’ cakes. Yum!
A highlight at the end of the week was most definitely watching children enjoy some very messy play!
Transport
We can’t believe that we’re now entering our final half term of this academic year! Over the next few weeks, we’re going to be learning about different types of transport. We’ll be looking at whether something travels by land on a track or the road, or if it travels by air or sea.
To start our transport theme, this week, we’ve listened to some stories from ‘The Little Red Train’ series of books. Children enjoyed hearing about Duffy Driver and his adventures on The Little Red Train.
In group time, our maths focus has been talking about our daily activities and using words to describe when things happen such as during the day, night or in the morning or afternoon. We looked at our daily routines and tried to sequence the events. Try to use some of this language at home, too. What happens in your house in the morning? What do you do as part of your bedtime routine? What comes first, next, last? What day is it today? Do you go to Nursery tomorrow?
In phonics, we’re learning to orally blend words. We’ll be doing lots of ‘sound talking’ over this half term to give children plenty of opportunities to develop their oral blending before they move into Reception. For example, when giving instructions, we may segment the last word into separate phonemes and then immediately blend the sounds together to say the word (e.g. It’s time to get your c-oa-t, coat!). Have a go at home. Whilst setting the table, you could say…Can you put the c-u-p, cup on the table, please. Where is the f-or-k, fork? To begin with, try to keep it simple, with one syllable words.
Outside, children were amazed at how much our plants have grown in the vegetable planter over the holidays. We could even see some radishes poking out of the soil. Children enjoyed picking the biggest ones and we washed them to eat at snack time. There were very mixed reactions; some children loved the ‘crunch’ of the radishes and others weren’t too keen on the flavour! Well done, Nursery. It’s always good to try something new – especially when you have grown it yourself!
Next week, we’ll be looking at different types of vehicles with wheels. If you, or any of your family, have any toy cars, trucks, monster trucks etc. that you no longer use at home, Nursery would be grateful for any donations. Thank you.
Reminders
- Our Nursery registration closes at 9.10am. Please ensure that you arrive to Nursery between 9-9.10am to allow us to begin our learning activities on time. Thank you.
- Please send your child with a rain coat to Nursery everyday; the weather is very changeable at the moment.
- We have lots of water bottles that don’t have children’s names on – remember to check that your child’s hasn’t worn off. You may also want to check cardigans and jumpers, too.
Platinum Jubilee celebrations
We had a fun-filled day today. All the children and staff shared a picnic lunch on the field, listening to some 50s music. We then all congregated on the field again, sang the national anthem and each class showcased a Wake Up Shake Up (WUSU) dance through the decades that the Queen has been on the throne. We went from 1950s (Mambo No 5/Lou Bega) all the way to 2020s (Blinding Lights/The Weeknd). It was so much fun! We hope that everyone has a happy and healthy half term.
Jubilee celebrations
This week, as well as learning about minibeasts and butterflies, we’ve also talked about the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. We counted jewels, made crowns and listened to a funny story all about the Queen’s knickers! In the sensory area, we had great fun icing cakes for a Royal tea party.
Here are a few photos of some of the activities we enjoyed as part of our Jubilee celebrations.
We hope that you have a great half term holiday and look forward to seeing you on Monday 06 June.
Butterflies
We had a lovely surprise on Monday morning when we returned to Nursery; we had a butterfly that had emerged from its chrysalis. There was a lot of interest in the butterfly house; we talked about the life cycle of a butterfly and what we needed to do next to look after the butterflies. Children helped to feed the butterflies with some strawberries and left over fruit from snack time.
Children noticed the beautiful pattern on the wings of the butterflies and we talked about their symmetry. In the creative area, children had a go at creating their own butterflies. We folded our paper in half and pressed down to make a print. It was the same on both sides!
We’re waiting for a sunny day to release the butterflies into our garden. Watch this space!
Animal ranger visit
On Tuesday morning, we had a very special visitor to Nursery. In fact, we had lots of little visitors, too! Children were very excited to find out what was hiding underneath all of the covers that the animal ranger, Amy, had brought.
We were very proud of how well Nursery behaved; they sat still and very quietly so that they didn’t scare all of the creatures. Children listened really carefully and found out lots of fascinating facts about millipedes, bearded dragons and giant African land snails.
At the end, Amy brought a snake to show us. Some children were a little bit wary of touching it but once they’d seen some of their friends have a turn, they were brave and stroked it, too. A couple of children were chosen to hold it- well done!
Thank you for all of your contributions towards the cost of our animal visitors.
B for bee!
This week, we’ve been finding out about bees and sampling some yummy honey at snack time. Children really enjoyed tasting both set and runny honey on their toast. There were a few surprised children that really liked the honey, even though they didn’t think they would.
In maths, we noticed a pattern in the honeycomb that we saw in the book about bees. We investigated using hexagons and other shapes to see if we could recreate the honeycomb pattern. There were also lots of opportunities to practise our counting skills, using the tiny wooden bees and flowers. At the dough table, we made bees and counted out 6 legs and 2 wings and in the creative area, we used yellow and black paint to make a repeating pattern of stripes on our bee pictures.
During group time, we continued to develop our phonological awareness by listening for initial sounds in words. We tried to find objects that started with the same initial sound. See if you can make a collection of items at home that start with the same sound. We also played a game where we had to spot the ‘odd one out’ from a group of pictures. The ‘odd one’ was the object that started with a different sound. You could have a go at this game at home. Collect 3 objects, for example, a spoon, a sock and a cup. Which one is the odd one out? Why?
Outside, we’ve been looking for minibeasts and learning about their habitats, watering our new plants and trying to identify different birds that we spot in the garden. We also have a new painting area which has been very popular, too.
Next week, we’re looking forward to a few exciting events including a visit from an animal ranger and some celebrations for the Queen’s Jubilee. If your child doesn’t attend Nursery on Friday afternoon for the School’s Jubilee celebrations, don’t worry, they won’t miss out. We’re going to have a mini Jubilee celebration in Nursery for those children that can’t attend.
Animal rangers – visit to Nursery
On Tuesday 24 May, the animal rangers will be visiting Nursery. They will be bringing along a wide range of animal species that will include a bearded dragon, rabbits, white tree frogs and many more.
This will be a great opportunity to learn interesting facts about different animals and their habitat. There will also be the opportunity to hold or touch some of the animals. Please alert your class teacher if your child has any allergies which may prevent them being around or touching any of the animals.
We are asking for a voluntary contribution per child towards the cost of the visit. This can be paid on the app. Please refer to your email for more details.
Unfortunately, on this occasion, we’re unable to invite those children that do not usually attend Nursery on Tuesday.
What the Ladybird Heard
We’ve enjoyed reading ‘What the Ladybird Heard‘ this week. It’s written by one of our favourite authors, Julia Donaldson. In the story corner, children enjoyed playing with the story props to re-tell the story and they were especially interested in the map that the burglars used to try and steal the fine prize cow.
Children made their own maps and took them outside to locate the prize/treasure that they’d hidden.
In group time, we played I Spy using the animals from the story. We had to listen very carefully to the sound. Some children noticed that some animals started with the same sound, such as ‘h’ for horse and hog. We’re working really hard to help children identify the initial sound in words at the moment. Have a go at playing I Spy at home this week to help reinforce this learning at home.
Here are a few other activities from this week:
- Exploring the texture of moon dough in the sensory area. It was very crumbly but you could also mould it in to mini sandcastles.
- Subitising spots on a ladybird
- Counting out the correct number of legs for our paper plate ladybirds
- Matching the number of spots on the ladybird to the numeral
We were also very excited to find a chrysalis on Tuesday morning! We have one caterpillar left and it’s getting bigger and bigger.
Finally, thank you to everyone that attended our drop-in session on Monday to look at your child’s Learning Journal. It was great to see parents and carers back in Nursery after such a long time of restrictions due to Covid-19. Our final drop-in session is on Wednesday 18 May from 4.15pm until 5pm, please call in if you can to have a look at what your child has been learning in Nursery this year.
Don’t forget – ‘Walk to school’ week!