As we’re starting to wind down for the Summer holidays we have been having more child led activities such as; the children choosing their favourite music they would like to dance to.

We have also been talking about our families, who lives with us and pets. The children having busy drawing and painting their family.

To end a lovely week the children have been practicing some comic yoga 🧘‍♀️🧘.

Have a great weekend 😀

This week, we have been enjoying another week of lovely weather and this has presented us with some opportunities for extended outdoor play, whilst discussing how to keep safe in the sun.  We try to include water play and more focused experiences that limit the physical exertion normally used during this time. The children have continued access to water throughout the day, both inside and out and this is encouraged by staff.
We have mainly worked in small groups this week, working together to build creations, explore the water run with pots and pans and participating in some sensory experiences with shaving foam, play dough and paints.

It was really lovely to see so many of our parents/carers joining us for our Summer stay and play. This was a great opportunity for both children and their families to enjoy some time together and from the feedback, we are confident that this was a positive experience for all. Below are just a few of the photographs capturing some lovely interactions.

This week the children have been exploring shape recognition, pattern of shapes and numbers. Some children were investigating continuing a pattern using loose parts.

Having fun in the sun, children developing imaginative skills role playing going on the bus to the seashore and cooking paste and mud pies in the kitchen. Children where learning to be responsible citizens caring for our plants discovering what they need to grow.

The children loved playing with the water and tubs outside. They enjoyed playing schematically filling and emptying the tubes. The children experimented with different amounts of water to discuss quantity and speed which is great for developing their numeracy skills. We also had some shaving foam out to develop our senses through touch and smell. Some children copied shapes, letters and some drew different pictures.

As we have had a shorter week there is less to add to our weekly blog.
The children have been making full use of the weather and utilising our garden for outdoor learning.
Painting with squirty bottles onto the large vertical sheet provided children with an alternative art experience. They had to consider the best way to do this, preventing themselves from getting painted and watching the paint run down the material. We talked about the time it would take to dry in the sunshine. 🌞🌞🌞🌞

Together times are important for collaboration and working together and we have been participating in games to develop this. Ring games after lunch are always a positive experience, developing team work, relationships and physical capabilities.

Finally for this week, some of the children have been discussing emotions through the use of our colour monsters and drawing pictures of how they feel. These have been added to our wall above the children’s pegs for them to see. The colour monsters are very good. For discussing what makes us feel a certain way and we promote the acceptance of all emotions, supporting the children in understanding these.

The children have been making their own hand prints for outdoors to measure the plants with. They are learning to measure them in hands🤲 and feet🦶.

A fire engine came to visit the school so the children were exploring what they could see on it. They mentioned a hose, ladders, the colours on it, the siren and what you would need a fire engine for🚒🧯🔥.

Expressing ourselves through sensory play, the children were using shaving foam as a way to encourage language and communication amongst the group. Some children were talking about what they were doing and some liked to write/mark make what they were making/writing🪒.

We have been developing our fine motor skills whilst cutting some vegetables. The children have been learning what the different vegetables were and how they help us stay healthy.

The children have been doing lots of numeracy activities from counting on the promethean board, coping some patterns and copying some numbers using tracing paper.

We have been working on our planning which is to recognise some similarities and differences between each other. The children played a game which required them to roll the ball and say something that was the same/different to one another. This encouraged the children to recognise that we all differ and that is perfectly normal.

The children have had a busy week learning all about how we change from being a baby, to how we look just now. Some have brought in their photographs and these have been displayed on our window alongside staff when they were younger. That has elicited a lot of conversation! And guessing games 😂

Some of the children have had their second visit to the woods and this has been successful for developing skills in climbing and balancing, risk assessments and developing an understanding of dangers and keeping ourselves safe.

Finally for this week it has been a pleasure to see the children participate in some fun party experiences to honour the coronation of King Charles III. This focus has been tailored to the children’s stage of development and understanding and has involved, discussions about the King being crowned on Saturday, making some special biscuits to have for our party snack and some storytelling and dancing. A few of the children have also decorated some plates and these have been displayed in our playroom. Well done everyone. We hope you all have a lovely long weekend whether celebrating the coronation or simply enjoying an extra day with your family.👑👑 🇬🇧🇬🇧

Week beginning 24th April

What a busy week we have had in the Oak Room!

This week we have been introducing discussions on our families and how families differ. The children have been discussing who is in their family and drawing these people onto paper. We now have a lovely display of these on our playroom wall. Well done everyone who has done this so far, there should also be evidence on your Learning Journals. This will continue throughout the next few weeks discussing similarities and differences.

Some of the children have had their turn at visiting the woods with the staff. This is a great experience for the children and covers topics such as looking out for dangers, keeping ourselves safe and the importance of listening to the ladies, to ensure we have the best experience possible.

Some of the children have been developing skills in identifying and carrying on a simple pattern. The Prometheon board has been a good resource for this for the children showing an interest and this will be carried on for those who wish to extend their skills.

We have also made the most of our outdoor space this week and when the weather has been a bit kinder, we drew some chalk games on the ground and had lots of fun playing Hopscotch and even a game of Twister! The children enjoyed watching Vivianne and some of the other ladies try this as well!

This week has seen the children participate in some Easter experiences, through crafts and songs. Singing develops great communication and language in the children and they respond well to the repetition and consistency of the songs. We had a great response to our Easter bonnets and they were all very creative, well done to all who participated. Your Easter bonnet photograph should now be on your learning journal. Easter creations were made using a variety of collage materials.

The children visited the Residents at Princess Court on Thursday to deliver the cards they had made and a small Easter egg donated by the staff of the ECC. All of the residents enjoy these visits and chatting to the children, it encourages the children to develop an understanding of different generations and shows a caring attitude towards others.

The children have also been experiencing gradients and size with the balls and ramps and pipes, working out which balls will roll or go faster. There have been experiences around size and volume with scoops and materials to estimate how many?

The children have had an extremely busy week. We wish everyone who is off a lovely Easter break, and look forward to spending time with those who will be in over the next 2 weeks. 🐣🐣🐣

The week began with our children making the most of our construction materials that are out in the room. They got very creative making all kinds of structures, working together and independently.

With school transitions approaching we went to the school grounds to explore the playground and the different environment. When we were here we played some attention and listening games as this is a skill that the room can find challenging, is remembering our “listening ears”.

Floating and sinking💧

This activity was interesting as the children mentioned that the larger items were floating because they were bigger and the smaller ones sunk because they were small. This encouraged conversations with the children about weights and why things that are bigger don’t always mean they are heavier etc and the same with smaller items. This allowed us to then introduce scales where we can further the learning of this into next month👍🏽

On Friday some of our PM children were doing an activity to see what ball will roll and what kinds of balls won’t. They created a ramp from our construction materials to use. They had a discussion about what the ball looked like and had a guess as to what one would get to the bottom first and go ‘faster’.