Measuring and counting are a big part of making playdough and some of the children have been learning to follow instructions to make their own dough. It’s much more fun to play with dough that you have made yourself and the children were keen to follow the recipe and choose their own colour. Here is our little group of chefs busy at their work.
To help the children understand symmetry, we provided a range of experiences to encourage them to make their own symmetrical pictures. As you can see, they began to understand this concept once they created their own work.
As we looked after our little caterpillars we talked about what they might look like when they became butterflies and took the opportunity to develop the children’s understanding of symmetry. Lots of children enjoyed creating their own symmetrical pictures in the art area and produced some beautiful butterflies which are all different. Can you spot your butterfly here?
Just like the children in the Rainbow Room, those in the Raindrop Room have been focussing on symmetry and they have made some beautiful, symmetrical butterflies to display in their room. We would like to share a selection here but have a look in the Nursery to see lots more.
As we have been learning about life cycles and are caring for our caterpillars, we took the opportunity to learn about symmetry which can be seen on the wings of butterflies. The children have been creating symmetrical patterns in the art area and experimenting with playdough to make their own symmetrical patterns. ‘Symmetry’ is a tricky word to remember but the children have certainly shown us that they understand what it is.
The children in the Rainbow Room have been looking very closely at their faces in the mirror as they talk about what they can see and try to draw their own faces. As part of their close observation, the children decided what colour their eyes were and added a tally mark on the chart to record their findings. They found that, in their room, blue was the most common eye colour. As well as producing great drawings of their faces, we loved some of the children’s comments so would like to share them with you too.
Tiana-Rose: I have two eyes, eyes blink. Our eyes are to see. I have a tongue and teeth inside my mouth. I’ve got baby teeth. You blow noses.
Jackson: I see two eyes, a nose, a mouth, a finger, two eyebrows. I see with my eyes.
Lewis: my eyes are blue on the inside. I’ve added yellow around my eyes as it looks like skin. You close your eyes to sleep. I have two nostrils. Some people have different coloured eyes.
Euan: I eat with my mouth. My tongue is in my mouth. I see with my eyes. I listen with my ears. Look at my big enormous head.
Jake: I’ve got a big head now, a huge head. My eyes are big, mouth, teeth big, my hair’s big … big blue eyes.
Emily M: I’m making a big smiley face. I’ve got brown eyes and another colour in my eyes.
Filip: I’m bigger now … brown eyes … one, two eyes. I’m not sad, I’m happy.
In the Rainbow Room “Word of the Week” is ‘symmetry’, as they experiment to make symmetrical pictures, and the Raindrop Room has “life cycle” as their focus as they are beginning to look after their caterpillars.
We have some enthusiastic little scientists in our Nursery who are always keen to try out experiments, making predictions about what might happen and observing the results of their experiments.
Here some of the children were making plastic. They warmed milk in the microwave, added vinegar and stirred the ingredients until they started to clump together. The children then strained their material and used paper towels to press the liquid out and discovered that they had made plastic. This experiment caused great excitement and was tried out several times to check that it worked each time. The children even moulded the plastic into different shapes which successfully held together. As well as developing their understanding of science, the children developed their numeracy skills as they measured ingredients and read numbers to set the dial on the microwave. Everyone loved this fun learning experience.
Just as the children in the Rainbow Room learned about the food triangle and which type of foods help to keep us healthy, those in the Raindrop Room investigated how much sugar was in different types of foods. They found out about checking packaging to check which ingredients are in food and they then measured the amount of sugar there was in each example that they looked at. Once the sugar was on the scales, the children seemed quite surprised at the amount each item had and they were able to compare different foods. Hopefully the children are now beginning to develop an understanding that sugar is not only in sweets as they tended to believe initially.
Weather watching is very popular in both rooms in our Nursery. Wind socks, thermometers and rain gauges are checked on a daily basis and the children’s findings are recorded. The children have used the camera to record evidence on their equipment and have begun to record temperatures on charts, developing independence, taking on responsibilities and developing their numeracy skills.
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