1. Do some yoga together based on favourite characters including Superheroes, Frozen, Trolls, Star wars and Minecraft. Search Cosmic kids yoga on Youtube for a range of different videos.

https://www.youtube.com/user/CosmicKidsYoga

 

2. Talk to your child about being responsible. This is one of our SHANARRI words. At nursery children are responsible for washing their own dishes. Encourage your child to help at home by washing the dishes or helping to do the washing.

3. When out for a walk or in the garden find different ways of travelling e.g. skipping, hopping, running and jumping.

4. Create a treasure hunt around the house. This may involve hiding children’s toys or hiding socks. You may wish to give your child clues along the way e.g. “it’s where we make food”, “it’s in the room you sleep in” or “It’s near to the window” etc.

5. Encourage your child to compare the size different objects around the house using the language of bigger and smaller e.g. “Is the Tv bigger or smaller than the pillow?” “Is the milk jug bigger or smaller than the juice bottle?” If your child understands the concept they could try and order a group of objects  lining them up from smallest to biggest.

1. Download the storytime from Cbeebies app or use stories of your own. Share stories together and talk about the characters and what happens in each of the stories. Try to make time to read with your child every day.

2. Create a den together using blankets or sheets. You could use the den for reading stories together.

3. Talk to your child about being active. Active is one of our SHANARRI words. Create an obstacle course with toys and chairs for your child to go over, under, through and around. Demonstrate and model language to your child using the words through, under, around and over.

4. Make musical instruments from anything you can find around the house e.g. pots, pans, wooden spoons, empty plastic bottles, yoghurt pots, milk jugs, rice and pasta.

5. Have a concert or talent show and get people at home and toys to watch.

1. Download the Bookbug app and explore some of the songs and rhymes together. Try and sing a song or rhyme with your child every day.

 

2. Talk to your child about being healthy. Healthy is one of our SHANARRI words. Encourage your child to help prepare a healthy snack or meal. Talk about the importance of hand washing and how to prepare foods.

3. Practise throwing and catching a ball or a pair of socks.

4. Play the instruction game Simon says together. For example: Simon says touch your head, Simon says touch your toes, Simon says Jump up and down and any other Simon says instructions you can think of.

5. Whilst bathing your child or doing the dishes with your child talk to them about what floats and what might sink demonstrating and modelling the language of float and sink. Encourage your child to find suitable things around the house that float and sink.

 

 

 

 

The children have been continuing to focus on the story Giraffes can’t dance in ABC and beyond. After learning about the word backwards some of the children have been activating this in and around the nursery.

Kacper was practising counting backwards whilst in the garden.

Deryn and Gill were walking backwards.

As the story was about Gerald the giraffe, for non-fiction week the children explored and discussed a non-fiction book about giraffes in their groups. They talked about the giraffes body parts, what giraffes eat, where giraffes live and how they protect themselves from other animals.

Marcel identified his favourite page in the book and described how he liked all of the trees in the picture he chose.

In Word Aware the children started learning about the word respected, one of our Shanarri indicators. They had pictures to sort out discussing with one another whether they thought the picture showed something or someone being respected or not respected. We talked about having respect for one another and respect for the nursery and the toys.

This week some of the children started to learn about recycling. We now have new recycling bags in the nursery which the children will use to put the recycling in and take turns to sort the recycling in to the correct colour of bin when the bags get full.

Sophie and Kacper have been matching the same shapes together. They have started to look at patterns identifying colours in each pattern and problem solving to work out the next part of the pattern.

In the garden, Harrison used the dominoes matching together quantities which were the same.

In the gym hall, the children have been developing their gross motor skills through participating in obstacle courses. they have also been developing their hand eye coordination through throwing different pieces of equipment towards different targets.

Marcel, Zac and Riley were playing football trying to kick the ball into the goal. They then decided to use the tyre as a goal to challenge themselves. Riley then moved the tyre to a higher height to make it even more challenging.

A number of the children have shown interest in writing letters and posting them. After a trip to the post office, they had a special visit from Riley’s Mum who told them all about her job as a post lady. The children had the opportunity to learn about the equipment she uses, where she puts the letters and ask any questions they have.

A couple of children have been using the carts in the garden to deliver books.

After seeing someone else has created a dice, Jorgie wanted to create a dice of her own. With support she made the shape of a dice using cardboard and then she counted out the dots as she drew them. She made a tower of dice then put the dice in order of size describing the size of each of them.

In the art studio, children have shown interest in writing.  Some children have been trying to write their name. They have started to explore letters matching letters together that look the same and trying to find the letters to make up their name. A number of children are starting to find the first letter of their name.

Some children have also been exploring letters in the water tray showing interest in spelling out their name.

A few children have shown interest in bathing the babies. This week they were washing clothes and developing their fine motor skills and pincer grip by pegging clothes on a washing line.

Harrison and Eva have been practising counting in sequence counting out objects and trying to find the matching numeral.

A few of the children have been developing their fine motor skills through doing threading.

They have been developing their gross motor skills through learning to ride on scooters.

Some of the children have also shown interest in developing their cutting skills.

A few children have also shown interest in mark making using chalk, paint and pencils.

Joshua has shown interested in creating his own balance and finding things that will roll. Tyler was keen to participate too.

Joshua has also shown interest in counting when reading stories.

Some of the children have been working together to create mix their own paint. Kane used recycled materials to create his own model then painted it.

In ABC and beyond the children started reading a new story.

Last week they were learning about the word whisper and this week they have been focusing on the word backwards.

To celebrate Burns day, the children learned about Robert Burns and got to look at a kilt. They learned some Scottish songs and did some Highland dancing. They also tried haggis and tatties at an altogether snack time.

A few children decided to set up their own shops. Some children have also shown interest in writing and posting letters.

Marcel decided he wanted to make a treasure map. Other children were interested in making treasure maps too. They used tea bags but needed some more.

They went on a walk to a local shop to buy some things for the nursery and pick up more tea bags for their treasure maps. They found what they needed and had the opportunity to use money to pay for the items. They also visited the post office to post some letters.

Some of the children have shown a real interest in playing with dinosaurs. they  discussed what they already know about dinosaurs and what they might like to find out about them. One of the children wanted to freeze the dinosaurs. Riley wanted to find out the name of a dinosaur.

They made their own dinosaurs fossils then investigated different tools they could use to dig out the fossils.

Taylor used a range of loose parts to create a dinosaur unicorn.

In the garden, some children have shown interest in developing ball skills and throwing and catching different objects.

This is being extended during gym time through participating in obstacle courses and developing throwing and catching in different ways.

Some children have been investigating how water travels connecting different containers to try and get water to flow through.

A few children have also been helping to look after the environment through planting, gardening and watering the plants.

This week we had our stay and share on Tuesday. The children got to try out some of the play along maths games which will be sent home with different children each week to try out at home.

In the garden, some children were focusing on recognising numbers and counting out quantities. They got a ticket to and had to go around the tree on a bike or scooter that number of times.

Other children rolled the dice and went on a hunt around the garden to see if they could find that number of natural materials in the garden. Some children tried to find stones whilst others collected leaves and sticks.

Deryn collected toy cars.

A few children chose to play what’s the time Mr wolf practising counting in sequence.

Here are some of the children learning to ride a bike at Play on pedals.

Brandon has been practising very hard and this week he learned to ride the pedal bike all by himself! Here he is with his certificate and key ring.

Some of the children have been developing their fine motor skills using tweezers.They have also been sorting objects by colour.

In the garden, Kane has been developing his ball skills using a bat and ball.

After watching Kane, some of his friends wanted to join in too.

The children are developing their self help skills washing their own dishes.

Some of the children noticed there was ice in the garden one morning. They explored it using their senses and investigated how to break it.

 

They continued to explore this inside creating their own ice. They investigated different ways of making the ice melt.

 

They added colour to make ice of different colours.

Children continue to develop their cutting skills cutting different materials.

Riley showed an interest in making slime. Some children mixed together shaving foam, glue and paint to create this. They explored the slime using their senses.

Amy stacked the cups placing them in order of size from the biggest to the smallest.

Kane and Ash worked together to problem solve how to fit different shapes into the boat.

Ash chose to revisit the story of the 3 little pigs which he had previously been read. He pointed out and named characters in the book and lifted the flaps to find out what happened.

In the garden, the children continue to develop their gross motor skills through riding bikes and pushing carts and prams.

The children have continued to learn about a new season each week their ABC and beyond book Tree.

In week one they learned about autumn. A few children were developing their fine motor skills using tweezers and tongs to pick up leaves and pinecones.

In week two they learned about winter. Some children participated in sensory play.

In week three they learned about spring. A few children were cutting and planting flowers.

In the fourth week they learned about summer. Some children looked at another seasons book and did a sorting activity where they matched pictures to the create season picture.

Some children have continued to explore the interactive whiteboard using the pen to create their own pictures.

A few children have been continuing to sequence numbers, count out quantities and identify numerals.

Some of the children used number fans to choose a number of different numbers of digits which someone else had to guess.

 

Here are the blue group on their trip to the library.

Some children participated in a game of animal bingo together taking turns to match pictures to those on their board.

A few children have been learning to use the bee bot. They have been learning language of direction and using the arrows to get the bee bot to go in a certain direction. They used the bee bot on the mat making it go to different numbers.

Taylor wanted to move the bee bot around the room. She then decided to make a track for the bee bot.

A few children chose to help decorate the Christmas tree.

Some children used a range of collage materials to create their own Christmas cards. Through this they have been developing their fine motor skills.

Here are some children helping to make reindeer hot chocolate gifts for the Christmas fayre.

When playing in the garden, Rowyn spotted a rainbow in the sky. The rainbow seemed to moved position and she kept looking to see how it was changing. Rowyn then looked at a book about the weather and found a rainbow on one of the pages.

Rowyn and Kane have been roleplaying “Doing work” through mark making. They have also been using their clipboards to take ice cream orders .

Some of the children explored sensory play through angel dough. The moulded it together making different shapes and models.

They have been using hoops as targets and developing their throwing skills using beanbags.

Joshua has been developing his ball skills through kicking a football.

A few children worked together using the construction blocks to create a castle.

Some children used large wooden blocks to create a game jumping from one place to another whilst staying on the blocks.

Kane ordered the rings by size going from the biggest to the smallest placing them onto the holder.

Remi-leigh was putting the cars in order matching the colour of car to the colour of number.

Remi-leigh was looking at the numbers on the wooden blocks. Some children started to use mark making to try and copy the numbers.

The children continue to develop their fine motor skills through using paintbrushes.

A few children have also been developing their fine motor skills through threading and using scissors.

As a few children had shown a real interest in stories, the morning children had a trip to the library where they got new stories to bring back to nursery and listened to some music. Some of the children were keen to dress up whilst they were there too.

In the construction area, a number of children have shown interest in building ramps and bridges.

They investigated ramps of different materials discussing what happened when they put a car down each ramp.

They then looked at different shaped ramps predicting which ramp would make their car go the fastest using stickers to record the number of ramp they thought would make the car go the fastest. When making their predictions they were encouraged to share why they thought that ramp would make the car go the fastest.

Emily-Mae was keen to see how far she could make her car travel trying out different ramps. She learned how to measure the distance using a measuring tape. When the car went further she realised she needed more than one measuring tape to measure how far it had gone and got more measuring tapes.

In the art studio there has been a real interest in sewing. Children have chosen different items they want to design and been developing their fine motor skills and how to use a needle safely.

Some of the children have made their own clothes using ready made clothes as a template to draw onto fabric.

Zac and Lacey chose to make cushions choosing a fabric and learning how to sew it together.

Some of the children have shown an interest in decorations sticking material around the nursery.

They threaded beads onto pipe cleaners and also used feathers to design their own tree decorations.

They then put some cardboard boxes together and painted them green to create a Christmas tree. They used lights and the decorations they made to decorate the tree.

Some of the children have also been doing some wrapping creating presents to go under the tree.

At the work bench, a number of children have been using the saw to cut pieces of wood. Taylor sanded down the wood afterwards to make it smooth. They worked together to hammer the pieces of wood together to create a Christmas tree decoration. Once it was stuck together they painted it to add some colour.