From the moon to the stars…
It was lovely to meet with all parents and carers last week at our parents’ meetings. We hope you found them informative and reassuring. As ever, the door is always open and we absolutely value your feedback. We’re very proud of all the children who have settled in beautifully and amaze us every day with their increasing skills and independence.
Following on from our discussions, please remember to:
- Let us know when you have completed a Home Link activity. They are really important and help your child to make links between learning at home and nursery.
- Share those ‘Wow’ moments with us! Grab a WOW observation sheet or simply e-mail us if it’s easier. We love to hear about how your child is progressing at home, too, and we use the information to help us plan your child’s next steps.
- Have a look at the ‘What to expect, when’ document if you’d like to find out more about the Early Years Foundation Stage.
The children have really enjoyed all of the ‘Whatever Next’ activities and as usual, initiate their own learning opportunities as they play. There has been some fantastic collaborative play in the small world and large construction as the children became ‘Rocket fixers’ when their rockets broke down leaving baby bear stuck on the moon. We’ve been thinking about what might happen if we were on the moon and the other things we might see on our journeys. After using tin foil to make shiny moon rocks, we thought about other ‘shiny’ things we might see in the sky and, of course, we remembered the stars.
We found playing a selection of games and puzzles with key workers to be a real success in learning to take turns and share. Once the adults moved away, many children continued to play and organise the games and were sharing independently. Despite the changeable weather, we’ve had lots of fun outdoors. The grass can be especially muddy so we have been transporting wheel barrows full of bark chippings to the bottom of the garden to help create an extra, ‘mud free’, area where children can play. If your child has any waterproof trousers, these are a great idea for them to play out in. It saves several changes of clothes in one day!
With Christmas fast approaching we have begun to sing our Christmas songs in preparation for the ‘Sing-a-long’. Every child should have received a costume letter. Please let us know if you’re having difficulty sourcing any item of clothing.
What are we learning this week?
We’re going to use the story ‘Laura’s star’ as a stimulus for our learning and playing this week. The book has a lovely message about caring and friendship. Using the ‘star’ theme, there will be lots of opportunities to practise our counting as we find hidden stars in the areas of provision and fish for stars in the water. Each child will make a salt dough Christmas star to decorate at the ‘Stay and Decorate’ sessions. Please look in your child’s folder for further information. Each time we cook or bake, we do of course use it as an opportunity to talk about counting, measuring and weighing the ingredients. We’ll also be exploring the ‘cold’ by adding coloured ice cubes to the water tray and investigating what happens. How long will it take for our ice to melt and what might be hidden inside the ice?
If you’d like to listen to the story, you can watch it here.