The nursery staff observe the children to determine their areas of interest.  This is often how a new topic begins.

Recently, the children had been talking about dinosaurs in their play.  These children had the opportunity to plan a dinosaur topic using the talking tub.  The talking tub is designed to give the children prompts when sharing what they already know and what they want to learn.  It also allows staff to find out misconceptions children might have about certain topics.

The children helped to choose activities and play resources that they would like to explore in the nursery.  Their key areas of interest were: bones (human and dinosaur), volcanoes and meat/plant eaters.  Activities in nursery have focused on these areas.  Please see our planning books for more information.