Minibeast madness!

Sunday 10 June 2018

Week 1 – Minibeast madness!

Welcome back to nursery. We hope that you all enjoyed the half term break. It was lovely to see everyone’s smiling faces on Monday morning; there was a real ‘buzz’ in nursery as children enjoyed chatting and playing with their friends again. This week, we enjoyed looking in the garden for minibeasts. Children spotted lots of different types of bugs. We made a list outside every time we found a new one and used the digital microscope to have a closer look.

Some children had remembered finding some tiny eggs and insects on the leaves before the holidays and went back to see if they could find them. They couldn’t see them, but they did find some ladybirds, including a black one, and lots of aphids. We talked about the lifecycle of a ladybird and how they change when they grow, just like the tadpoles did.

Week 2 – What are we learning this week?

Following on from our children’s interest in ladybirds, we will continue with this theme this week. In maths, we will count the spots on ladybirds and find ladybirds that have one more or one less number of spots. We’ll enjoy playing this ladybird counting game on the Smartboard.

Children have also been asking lots of questions about bees when they’ve seen them flying between flowers in the garden. We’ll enjoy finding out about how bees make honey; at snack time, we’re going to make toast and enjoy sampling some honey. If you don’t want your child to take part, please speak to a member of staff.  

 In the creative areas, we’ll experiment with different printing and drawing techniques to create spotty and stripy patterns. Can you make some spotty or stripy pictures at home? Please remember to encourage your child to mark make (draw) in lots of different ways.  Children will enjoy listening to ‘The Flight of the Bumblebee’ – we’ll talk about what the music reminds us of.

In literacy, we’re going to read ‘The Bad Tempered Ladybird’ and use pictures and props to re-tell the story. Please continue to play eye-spy games with your child to help them to hear the initial sounds in words. This week’s letter sound will be Ll’ for ladybirds. Click on the link to hear the Jolly Phonics song. What can you find around your house that begins with l?