On our first snowy day the children could not contain their excitement. We decided to bring the snow inside. The children collected bowls and bowls of snow to fill our water tray.

They then used coloured cold water to paint the snow. “Rainbow snow” “I’m mixing them”

There was a very civilised tea party with tea and biscuits. The children were very careful while pouring ,stirring and lifting the special China cups. The discussion mainly involved their favourite drinks and their Mummy, Daddy, Gran or Papa’s hot drink of choice.

Loose parts

Our new loose part station proved particularly popular. There was lots of construction in particular Castle building and canons. Child L noticed that 2 triangles put together make a diamond. She then recited the nursery rhyme “Twinkle twinkle little star”

Shape challenges

The children were challenged to jump on the correct colour and shape. This offered them an active physical way of remembering 2 dimensional shapes.

Learn to draw using technology 

The children used the promethean board to learn step by step how to draw. Today was a day for dinosaurs. They showed pride in their completed drawing. But also gave compliments to their friends. “That looks really good”

Thanks to donations and charity shop treasures we have began developing areas within the playroom to inspire a sense of wonder, imagination and curiosity in the children. There have been fancy tea parties, trips to work and college and even the odd pregnancy.

Boxes have been a hit in construction, there were cars, houses and beds. Child L spent a great deal of time inside the boxes for comfort and quiet. Enveloping is a lovely way to self regulate challenging emotions.

The children have helped to write signs for our make your own play dough station. When completed we will share the station in action.

This week the children have helped to develop a beautiful display focused on our emotions. We purchased an amazing poster with various faces displaying lots of different feelings. The children then had a photo shoot to portray the same emotions as the poster.

Each day the children have an opportunity to take part in an emotional check in. We have used the “Color monster” story and puppets as a visual aid to help the children identify how they are feeling each day. The mirror allows them the chance to look at their facial expressions.

We had a fun week in the chestnut room. We looked at pattern and worked very hard to create our own patterns. We planted lovely plants for our garden and learned what our plants needs to grow. We enjoyed playing ring games and enjoyed a walk to our local shop.

This week in the in the chestnut room we have enjoyed making a loose part discovery area. The children have enjoyed investigating the area and have loved making transient art.

The benefits of loose parts play:

* Stimulates sensory perception.
* Awakens a sense old discovery.
* Promotes a range of complex play.
* Ignites creativity and imagination.
* Develops language and vocabulary.
* Strengthens fine motor skills.
* Sparks children’s own ideas and theories.
* Develops numeracy skills.

The children in the Chestnut room have been enjoying learning about road safety.  We watched a video on road safety and the correct way to cross the road.

We also made traffic lights.

”Cars will hit us”

“We have to wait for the green man.”

“We don’t run”

” I found the green light”

We spoke about the ways  that we can cross the road safety with help from others.

”The lollipop man helps me in the morning when coming to nursery”

“I hold my mummy’s hand when crossing the road”

“ I press the button for the green man”

The children made a lollipop sign and enjoyed pretending to be a lollipop man/lady  We went into the car park at the zebra crossing and enjoyed helping our friends cross the road safety.

“ It’s black and white stripes”

”I’m the lollipop man”

”Don’t run “

We have had a busy week in the Chestnut room.

We enjoyed playing The  little orchard game. The children loved this game. The children were all very good at waiting their turn and they all worked together to help each other.

“ I love this game”

“I won! I won!”

“ I got the  Cherry 🍒 “

The children enjoyed exploring digital technology this week. We set up the laptop and the children looked at letter sounds and written numerals. We looked at letters within our name and we typed out our names on the laptop and printed them out.

“ look I did my name”

” I found my age 4”

“ I found A it’s in my name”

” Can I do my second name?”

While at nursery the weather changed and it got very dark and all of sudden the hailstones started. The children all watched from the windows and found it very interesting. We decided to go and collect some of the snow  from our garden. The children loved exploring and playing with the snow.

“It’s cold”

“ It feels soft”

“ It came from the sky”

” when the sun comes out it will melt and turn to water”

We have also been very busy this week taking part in doing our pictures for Dunelm, the theme is Love 💗 The children have all worked very hard and we can’t wait to see all our fantastic pictures on display.

“I love my mummy “

”I have 10  love heart s on my picture 💗 “

”My dad is going to love my picture”

Today we had a fun day celebrating Robert Burns Day.
Here are a few pictures of the fun things we done today.  🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

“I loved making shortbread”

“Can I put on the kilt”

“I have a big skirt on”

We are  beginning to put pictures on the wall within our room  and are looking for more frames to allow us to add more.

If you have any unused/old picture frames at home that we could have they would be gratefully received!

Also we have a few pictures of some of our families but if you would like to provide us with a family picture we can add this to our wall.

Thanks in advance all the chestnut ladies x

This week we have been having fun mixing colours.

“I made purple and green”  “ I love painting”  “ I made red”

We went a walk around our local community to see if we could recognise any letter sounds within our name and if we can identify any numerals.

“ I can see the letter A this is in my name”

“There are lots of letters and numbers at the bus stop”

“ I can see my age 4”

Today we enjoyed painting with forks. The children used lots of different mathematical language and we also looked at pattern.

“ I made a big, long line”

“ The lines are all the same”

“ My fork has four lines on it”

We enjoyed a tea party.

“This is fun”

”A wee cup of tea”

“My tea is yummy”

We made faces with our snack today.

”This is my sister”

”I made my dad”

“Look at my funny face”