As this year comes to an end we would like to thank our families for their continued support and the trust you place in us. Your children are full of wonder, curiosity, imagination and fun; we are lucky to play a part in their learning and development.
In 2021 we will continue to use our newsletter (via e-mail) and Team as the main channels of communication and we encourage you to share your child’s experiences or achievements on our Team at any time.
We are looking forward to working together with you in the new year.
Many families have been in touch to tell us how they welcome our weekly newsletter. If you have not been receiving this or other communications from us please let us know. The newsletter is our main channel to communicate with you and to share some of the children’s learning and experiences.
Please remember that our MS Team is still up and running for you to share Maths Week or any other interests or learning with us in our little online community.
This will be our final home learning post before we return to nursery on Monday; we can’t wait to see you all playing in the gardens and playroom again.
The blog and our MS Team will continue to be maintained though not with such frequent posts, given our return to nursery. Weekly nursery newsletters will continue to be our main means of communication with you.
In the next few days some people will be celebrating a special time. Rosh Hashanah is when Jewish people reflect on the year that has gone and share hopes and wishes for a sweet and happy new year to come. Today’s activities are inspired by this event.
A. Ask your parent if they know anything about Rosh Hashanah. Find out a little bit more in these videos:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/29363650
Look and listen again. Did you learn any new words? What do you think they mean? Which foods did the children eat in the videos? Have you ever tasted any of these? Which ones sound yummy? What other special things do the children do to celebrate Rosh Hashanah?
B. Think about a special celebration in your family and the things you like to do together. Maybe you could draw a picture of your last birthday or another special time. Talk about what you did and about how you felt. Who are all the special people that you like to celebrate with? Can you get in touch with them today by calling or sending a message?
C. Some of you have shown us fantastic printing ideas on Teams. Why don’t you use cut apples to print, creating a picture, card, gift wrap or wallpaper for a dolls’ house?
D. During Rosh Hashanah a shofar, traditionally made from a ram’s horn, is blown. For this craft, you’ll need a paper towel roll, tape, paint, a hole punch and some wool.
First, cut the paper towel roll from top to bottom lengthwise. Wrap the tube into a cone shape and tape in place. Paint the outside of the cone with lots of different designs, then dry. Then punch a hole in the top and bottom of the shofar and attach a piece of wool for easy carrying.
What sound does it make when you blow into it? Can you make other musical instruments using everyday items?
E. Create a family/friends tree inspired by an apple tree. On a large piece of paper, trace your child’s arm, hand and fingers. Colour in the arm “trunk” and finger “branches” with brown paint, pens or crayons. Have your child, or each member of the family, dip their thumbs or fingers into red, yellow and green paints to represent different kinds of apples, and dab away until your tree is full of fruit. You can add family members’ names to the branches to make the tree even more personal, or paint or draw larger apples to represent individual family members. This may help you talk about special people you and your child have missed spending time with these last few months and how that makes them feel.
F. We learned that one of the special sweet foods eaten at Rosh Hashanah is honey. Why don’t you develop measuring and motor skills by making some honey playdough?
This recipe is very easy and you do not have to cook it! Here is what you need for the recipe:
2 – 1/2 cups flour (plus 1/4 cup for later)
1/2 cup salt
2 tablespoons cream of tartar
1 – 1/2 cups of boiling water
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoons honey
Start by mixing the dry ingredients. Then mix the wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry, while stirring. If the mixture looks too wet, add in the extra 1/4 cup of flour. Then knead the dough on a cutting board with flour.
Keep kneading the dough until it is soft and easy to mould with your hands. If it seems too dry, you can add a teaspoon or two of oil and knead it in. Then have fun with the dough! (When you are done with the dough, store it in an air-tight container so you can use it for months!)
Use lots of loose parts toys, rollers/cutters or just play with it on its own exploring texture and smell. Maybe add other oils or scents for another sensory activity!
G. Find a recipe to make your own challah bread. Here are some you might try:
H. Do some more making and tasting with apples, carrots or honey. It may be as simple as apples dipped in honey or honey drizzled on porridge or toast or it could be following a new recipe.
I. The next idea takes inspiration from a delicious apple pie! If you have a large bowl or tray you could help your child to explore their five senses and understanding of volume and capacity by providing dried oats, chopped apples, cinnamon sticks, scoops and bowls and letting the play flow. Lots of opportunities to describe texture, sights, sounds and smells!
J. Take a closer look at the apples (or any other fruit) in the fruit bowl. How many are there? Can you organise them in size order? How do they smell/feel? How do they compare to the other fruits in the bowl? What colour are they? Could you look really closely and draw or paint what you see?
K. Enjoy this story. Remember that when things don’t work out as you has hoped that the people around you can help you to overcome problems and feel better.
A. Vehicles are used to move people and things from one place to another. Sometimes slowly, like on ships in the sea and other times really fast, like in police cars! A story which has lots of different vehicles in it is Dig, Dig, Digging by Margaret Mayo. It describes how different vehicles move and what their purpose is. You can listen to the story and song on the link below:
What did you think? Thumbs up? How many different vehicles did you count? Which was your favourite? Can you think of any other types of vehicles which weren’t in the story?
B. Find out more about diggers and excavators in this video. Could you do your own excavating in the garden or sand pit?
C. Why don’t you look through your books and count how many are about different forms of transport and vehicles? Perhaps you could sort them into groups like fiction/non-fiction (stories/information) or about cars/not about cars.
D. Continue the sorting and grouping using different criteria. Try to encourage your child to sort them in their own way and then discuss different criteria they might consider.
Provide a large assortment of transportation themed items and some bowls/trays. Encourage your child to sort by the different features of the vehicles. Some ideas are to sort by:
Land, Sky and Water vehicles
Items with wheels and without wheels
With wings and without wings
By colour or size
E. What do you know about hot air balloons? Watch this video to find out more, listening for interesting words.
Would you like to see a hot air balloon up close or even travel in one? How do you think it would feel, rising into the sky?
F. Here is a balloon experiment you might like to try.
Materials needed: Small plastic bottle, 1 tablespoon of sugar, water, 1 packet of yeast, one small round balloon.
Put sugar into bottle.
Fill 1/3 of the way with water.
Add the packet of yeast.
Mix (lightly shake until mixed).
Cover bottle with the balloon.
Watch bottle over the next 1/2 hour.
Note: The yeast consumes the sugar and then creates carbon dioxide gas which fills the balloon!
G. Why don’t you take all your toy vehicles outside and give them a wash? Perhaps you could tidy/sort/wash some other toys too.
H. Take some of your toy cars and stick numbers on top of them from 1-10.
See if you can recognise them and put them in order. Can you start form a number other than 1? Can you line then up counting BACKWARDS? Can you hide one and work out what the missing number is? Maybe you could make a cardboard box garage and park them all in the correct space.
I. Do some painting with your cars and other vehicles!
Dzien dobry! Today is Wednesday and we have play and learning ideas based on some of the children’s recent interests in transport and vehicles.
We have thoroughly enjoyed connecting with some of you on our Team and would be delighted to see more of what you are all doing in our time apart. The adults in nursery miss reading you stories and there are some story videos they have made on our Team too.
Here are today’s suggestions:
A. Leading on from pirate ships, here are other vehicles that travel on water and have a very important job. Lifeboats and Hovercrafts.
What do they do? How do they travel? Have you seen a lifeboat at sea? What facts can you find by watching and listening carefully?
B. Why don’t you take a closer look at the family car? Can you name and identify the different parts? What shapes do you see when you look at the wheels, for example? Can you identify any letters or numbers on the licence plate? Maybe your adult can open the bonnet and let you look inside. What interesting things are under there that make the car move and do other jobs like keep the windscreen clean? Have you learned any new words for parts of a car an what they do?
C. Why don’t you help an adult by tidying inside and washing the outside of the car?
D. Look at the tyres on different cars. Are they the same or different? If you are out walking, or maybe from your window or front garden, how many different cars can you spot? How many red/silver/blue? How many vans or lorries? Maybe you could find a way to record what you see.
E. What about trains? Can you identify and continue shape patterns on this game?
F. While spending time in the little garden the boys and girls were learning how to make paper aeroplanes. ✈
We talked about planes and other kinds of transport that can fly through the air.
Airplanes ✈ & Space Rockets 🚀 were very popular!
Here is a song about rocket ships:
Zoom, zoom, zoom,
We’re going to the moon!
Zoom, zoom, zoom,
We’ll be there very soon.
If you want to take a trip,
Climb on board my rocket ship.
Zoom, zoom, zoom,
We’re going to the moon!
5-4-3-2-1-BLAST OFF
G. Why don’t you use your imagination and materials of your choice – paper, card, Lego, recycling items, playdough – to create a fantastic vehicle? It might be a plane, rocket, ship, car, helicopter or a hybrid that can do a few really cool things…
H. Where will your vehicle travel? Can you build a road or track for them? Maybe you could make a ramp using a cardboard box or other junk materials and test out how toy cars and trucks make it down. Does the speed change if you make the ramp higher or lower?
Maybe you could create a whole landscape like a lunar one for the rockets to launch from. You could use some bubbles, shaving foam, rice or sand to make an interesting landscape.
I. Here’s a story to finish today. Can you spot the pairs of rhyming words?
What did you find on your bug-tastic day yesterday? Can we develop the theme a little further today?
A. Do you know this rhyme about a spider and a little girl? Can you spot the pairs of rhyming words?
B. Join Jaime for some Spidey Power poses.
C. Make some marks by using lines to create a spider’s web. Maybe you could do it outdoors with some chalk. If you need an an idea to get started why don’t you look here?
D. Have you ever heard of plants called spider plants?! Do you have one at home? The correct scientific name for these plants is chlorophytum comosum but how do you think they got the name ‘spider plant’?
E. Did you know that there are a group of monkeys called spider monkeys? Look at some of them here and try to describe them to your adult:
Do you have any ideas as to how they got their name? Maybe you will find out more in this video or you could look in a book or search online.
Did you enjoy looking at these monkeys? Would do you think is the best thing about them? Would YOU like to be a spider monkey? Why?
F. Can you count back from 5 with this song about monkeys jumping on the bed? Can you start from another number and sing the song?
G. Many of you know that spiders use their webs to catch flies and other things. Some of you were also interested in building traps to capture the adults in nursery. Why don’t you use blocks, cushions, furniture, string or anything else you like to create a trap of your own in the house or garden?
Have you noticed spiders crawling about your house? The adults have definitely spotted them at home and in nursery. Did you see the huge one on the way to lunch recently? These interesting creatures are the focus of today’s blog.
A. Draw, paint or make your own spider or other bug.
How many legs?
Spiders are AMAZING! Did you know that most spiders are not harmful to humans (no matter what Mrs Gentile thinks!). They spin webs to catch other bugs to eat, live EVERYWHERE except Antarctica (must be too cold for them there), and have 8 legs!! Eight legs, that’s a lot. I wonder how many legs other creatures have? Can you do some investigating? Use a book, go to Google, or even ask Alexa. A grown up can help but it is best that they don’t just give you the answer if they know it. Here’s your challenge – how many legs do the following have:
·butterfly
·crab
·snake
·dog
·starfish
·horse
·bee
·kangaroo
·centipede
·swan ?
You can check your answers on our Team. Happy investigating!
B. Sing along with Incy Wincy. Do you notice that the spider doesn’t give up? It perseveres. The next time you find something difficult or tricky, try to persevere and you will get there eventually.
C. Try some weaving like a spider creating a web. If you would like to provide extra challenge for your child you could number holes or write the letters of their name and have them thread their string/wool through in sequence.
E. What do you know about spiders? Tell your adult. What else would you like to know about them? Where can you find out? You could look in a book, search online or watch a video.
F. Go on your own minibeast adventure in the garden (or house!) and try to find some spiders or insects.
G. Use this chart to identify spiders the next time you come across them. They are all different yet all have some things in common. Why don’t you discuss their similarities and differences?
It has been wonderful to see some of your learning on our nursery Team 🙂
Today the adults want to use a continued interest in the brave and resourceful Supertato to share some ideas for play and learning.
A. Read one of the Supertato stories together if you have any of the books from the series at home. If you don’t you could follow one of the stories on a YouTube video or perhaps read another book you have about a vegetables/fruits/superheroes.
Here is the author, Sue Hendra, reading the first of many Supertato tales:
B. Why don’t you make your own potato character? Add as many details as you can and give it an interesting name.
C. Discuss and describe different vegetables you have at home. Use your five senses and do a fun taste test.
D. Help to prepare some vegetables for dinner or a snack. Try to include as many different coloured vegetables as you can. Why not try something new or something that you didn’t like before but haven’t tasted for a while?
E. Use potatoes or other fruit and veg to do some printing.
F. On a clean surface, group and sort different vegetables. Your child could choose criteria or you might provide ideas to get started. Think about size, shape, colour, likes/dislikes etc.
G. Sing and dance along with some vegetables! Do you recognise every vegetable here?
H. Create your own villain!
In Supertato, and other great hero stories, there is always a villain. Evil pea has a black mask and a cape, up-to-mischief eyes and a mean grin!
Can you create your own villain?
– what do they look like?
– what super powers do they have?
– who is their enemy or the hero they are battling with?
-what mischief do they get up to?
You could draw a picture of your villain and then ask a grown up to write down the words you say when you tell the story of their adventure.
I. Count along with the potato song. Maybe your parent can show you actions to do with your hands too. The song counts as far as seven. Do you know which numbers would come next if you kept going?
J. Why don’t you look online at lots of different vegetables and help to make a shopping list or online order together. Can you try to find a vegetable that starts with the same letter as your name? Or maybe one in your favourite colour? Why don’t you pick at least one vegetable you haven’t tried before that looks or sounds interesting?
K. Why don’t you continue yesterday’s science investigation and find out which vegetables float/sink? Does it make a difference if you cut them in different ways..?
L. Who are the real life superheroes that help people every day? Talk together and maybe make something nice for one or your own superheroes.
(It may make us think of seafaring pirates but that is how people in the Czech Republic say ‘hi’)
Today’s theme is inspired by recent play observed by the adults in the Little Garden and in the playroom – boats, pirates and the treasures of the sea!
A. Make your own treasure box
Find an old box, tub or container and decorate it anyway you like – maybe using paper, drawings, paint, glitter or stickers.
Once finished, you will need to fill it with treasure. Here’s some things to go hunting for to get you started:-
* a leaf
*a superhero
*a few stones
*a key
* a piece of ribbon or string
* a few coins
*a pen
Maybe you could share photos of your treasure chests and boxes on our Team.
B. Play this counting game that many of you enjoy. Keep going to find the treasure!
C. Create a treasure map! Mix tea bags and coffee into a bowl of warm water then soak some paper for a little while. Remove and leave to dry, rubbing in some extra coffee grains.Once dry, your paper will look old and dirty – perfect for a pirate map! …Time to design your map! Use lines, dots, letters, numbers, symbols and picture to show the different locations. Talk to your adult about all the place on your map and try to use lots of descriptive vocabulary e.g. There’s a mountain >> There’s a tall, jaggy mountain; Here is some quicksand >> Here is some smelly, sticky quicksand etc.
D. Go on a science journey and explore the properties of different materials. Fill a basin/bucket/container/bath with water and then collect a variety of items from the house and garden. Make predictions about which objects/materials will float and which will sink. Try to say justify your ideas. Place them in the water and see what happens. Now that you have made some findings, why not choose the best materials to create a boat or ship that will stay afloat?
E. Listen to this story together and share your ideas about who sank the boat.
F. Why don’t you become a pirate? Use paper, card or other items to make a hat, telescope, eye patch or flag. Can you come up with a funny pirate name? Maybe you could try to use alliteration – two or more words close together with the same starting sound. For example: Jolly Jacob, Friendly Freya, Silly Sam… Or you may decide to create a nonsense name or one based on physical characteristics.
G. Create a treasure hunt for someone in your family. Decide on a number of items to hide in a room or in your garden then ask them to find them. Maybe you could give clues by saying hot/cold etc or using directional words to help them. Take turns.
H. Move your body in different ways with this pirate song
I. Look at your books and try to find stories or information books about pirates, boats or the sea. Read together and try to look closely to find interesting details in the pictures or to learn new words.
J. Place some coins on a tray with different containers and mark making tools. Allow your time child to explore. They may be interested in the shape, colour or value of each coin. They may want to know how they are made or more about the country they came from. Your child may choose to role play shops/cafe or use the coins to create 2D art or build interesting towers.
K. Do you recognise some of the coins in this song? Can you shout out the number on each coin?
L. Join Jaime on her pirate yoga adventure. Namaste!
M. If you were going on a sea adventure what would you pack in your bag? Can you draw some of your ideas? Who would you miss if you had to spend a long time away from them? Who are the people that are really special to you? Why don’t you call them or draw or make something to give to them the next time you are together?
N. Join in with this story which incorporates rhyme and counting backwards from ten.
As we are all spending some extended time at home at the moment, today’s post encourages you to look more closely at what’s around you.
I took five minutes this morning to spot lots of patterns around my house. Can you look for patterns where shapes, lines or colours repeat? How many different patterns can you find? Why don’t you take photos of some of them? Here are some of my patterns:
davmdemdedavcofmdemdedav
Can you use everyday objects to create your own repeating pattern? With two/three/four items such as cutlery, different coloured crisp packets or socks, toy cars of different sizes, blocks…
Why don’t you create veggie or fruit kebabs with interesting patterns?
Go outside. What patterns can you see in flowers, plants or fences, paving and walls? Can you collect items and make a repeating or symmetrical pattern?
Maybe you use lines to make interesting patterns in the mud, gravel or sand just as people do in a zen garden.
Can you make up a fun movement routine or dance where you repeat moves a certain number of times? Three spins? Five star jumps? Choose your favourite music and get moving!
Patterns appear in language too. Lots of stories have a rhyming pattern. The rhyming words usually come in pairs. Can you spot the rhyming words in this story or another you have at home?
https://youtu.be/YmT0jhFlh5I
The Scottish Book Trust’s Bookbug website and app have lots of rhymes to enjoy together:
Numbers come in a sequential pattern. As you play games, tidy or do household jobs together you can reinforce these sequences by simply counting forwards or backwards with your child. You could also say alternate numbers or you give three numbers in a row and your child the next three, taking turns to extend the number range.
Keep moving and pattern hunting and creating today! 🙂
