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Forest Schools

Last week we began our Forest School approach.  The children will all have the opportunity to enjoy Forest School with their group on a weekly basis.

The thinking behind Forest School

Forest School is an inspirational process, that offers ALL learners regular opportunities to achieve and develop confidence and self-esteem through hands-on learning experiences in a woodland or natural environment with trees.

Forest School is a specialised learning approach that sits within and compliments the wider context of outdoor and woodland education.

The ethos is shared by thousands of trained practitioners across the UK and beyond. Its roots reach back to early years pioneers in outdoor learning and across the sea to Scandinavia.

At Forest School all participants are viewed as:

  • equal, unique and valuable
  • competent to explore & discover
  • entitled to experience appropriate risk and challenge
  • entitled to choose, and to initiate and drive their own learning and development
  • entitled to experience regular success
  • entitled to develop positive relationships with themselves and other people
  • entitled to develop a strong, positive relationship with their natural world

This learner-centred approach interweaves with the ever-changing moods and marvels, potential and challenges of the natural world through the seasons to fill every Forest School session and programme with discovery and difference. Yet each programme does also share a common set of principles, aimed at ensuring that all learners experience the cumulative and lasting benefits that quality Forest School offers.

  • FS is a long-term process of regular sessions, rather than a one-off or infrequent visits; the cycle of planning, observation, adaptation and review links each session.
  • FS takes place in a woodland or natural environment to support the development of a relationship between the learner and the natural world.
  • FS uses a range of learner-centred processes to create a community for being, development and learning.
  • FS aims to promote the holistic development of all those involved, fostering resilient, confident, independent and creative learners.
  • FS offers learners the opportunity to take supported risks appropriate to the environment and to themselves.
Trying to make fire rubbing two sticks together

Our bonfire inspired by Bonfire Night the previous night
Warm juice and biscuits time

Whittling tree branches with vegetable peelers

 

 

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Autumn Time Fun

The children have been noticing the autumn leaves changing on the trees and falling on the ground.  We decided to explore this at nursery this term as well as enjoying some Halloween activities.

Room on the Broom Playdough fun – using kitchen tools to explore patterns in green sparkly playdough
Teamwork to complete the Room on the Broom jigsaw
Role play with characters from the ‘Room on the Broom’ bookbag. How many people can we fit on a broomstick?
Making potions in the orange water

In the reading corner this week, the children read the story ‘The Rollaway Pumpkin’ which they watched on the ipad.  They enjoyed retelling the story using mini-figures and drawing the main events on a large roll of paper.

The Rollaway Pumpkin by Junia Wonders
Using the mini-figures to retell the story
The children had the idea to use a real pumpkin and roll it down a ‘hill’ from the construction area.
Cosy tent reading area lit up with fairy lights

Great news – the roof has been fixed and the climbing frame and sandpit are open again! They have been much enjoyed by the children especially since the weather has not been so nice for playing outside.

Lost Property

The lost property basket is filling up again. Please take a minute to have a rummage through it and claim back anything that is yours! 🙂

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Off to a great start!

Hello! Welcome to our old families and new! We’re off to a great start so far, with children settling well and new friendships being made already. 😊

After some consultation with the children about what and how they would like to learn, the nursery is starting to really take shape. Here’s a few photos to see what we’ve been up to the first few weeks back.

Our new sign in area. Please remember to sign your child in and out of nursery every day. Look out for relevant notices and information on this wall.
Over the Summer our garden really began to bloom with the flowers the children planted before the break.
Yvonne created this beautiful fairy scene on a cable drum for the children to enjoy some imaginative play.
Taking literacy outdoors thanks to Stephanie and Louise.

 

The children are going to be looking at a different artist each week. This week the focus was on Van Gough. After looking at the sunflowers growing in our garden, the children created this stunning collage in response to the painting ‘Sunflowers’.

Look at these lovely paintings of sunflowers created on tinfoil. So effective!

The children had some great ideas for the maths and numeracy area. They have decided to look at counting to ten and beyond, as well as sorting and matching.

We started a display of numbers 0 – 10. We’ve been busy counting different items that we’ve found around the nursery.
Some problem solving. The children have to find the key that unlocks the padlock by counting the number of dots on the key tag and finding the correctly numbered padlock.
The children have been matching and sorting colours and natural resources.
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Literacy and mathematics fun!

 Over the last few weeks the children have been exploring the letters of the alphabet, mark making and practising writing their names. They came up with all sorts of different ways that they would like to learn, from using magnetic letters to writing upside down! The children love mark making with lots of different materials and many of them can now write their first names, with some children now working on their surnames.

In the mathematics and numeracy area, the children have been exploring symmetry in nature and in the environment around them.   They have been having a go at creating their own symmetrical pictures.  What do you think? Great job boys and girls! 👍

 

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Our Poetree

This week the nursery children have been learning about poetry. They have explored a selection of different poems and have even written some of their own poems to be hung on the poetree! Enjoy!

Come and read some more when you pop in to the nursery 😁

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Spring Poem

In the nursery this week we have been talking about the signs of Spring that we can see around us.  Some of the girls helped to write a poem about Spring to explain what they love about this season.

Spring

I love Spring.                                                                                                                              I love the flowers.                                                                                                                      They look beautiful.                                                                                                                 They smell nice.

I love Spring.                                                                                                                             The baby chicks are born.                                                                                                   They are yellow.                                                                                                               They feel like fluff.

I love Spring.                                                                                                                               The leaves come back on the trees.                                                                                 The birds sit in the tree                                                                                                          and say ‘Tweet tweet’.

by Maisie, Nina, Emily S, Philipa and Humnah

Image result for spring

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Making Marvellous Music

Music with AnneMarie

Anne Marie has been in the nursery this week helping us to enjoy a variety of musical experiences taken from the ABC Musicality music programme.  This is a multi-platform musical resource for children aged 3-6 years old that is designed to be in tune with a child-centred approach to Early Years education, engaging all areas of child development including literacy and numeracy.  Anne Marie works with groups of children playing musical games such as ‘Musical Statues’, which encourage the children to listen to the music and respond appropriately.

They spend time listening to a selection of musical instruments and are given the opportunity to try them out.

They have loved responding to movement instructions from the musical activities on the whiteboard and are always very engaged in the learning.  Find out more about the music programme here: http://www.abccreativemusic.com/local-authoritymusic-hubmusic-service/

 

 

 

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Cold Days and Creativity

The cold weather this week has led to some fun times outside. When we went outside on Tuesday morning, the ground was covered in a thick frost and everything was frozen solid. The children loved driving toy cars through the frost to see tyre tracks and lying down on the ground to make Snow Angels.

Many of the children were fascinated with the huge ice cube that had formed in the Mud Kitchen and were desperately trying to break it or melt it. Some of them suggested hitting it with garden trowels to smash it up but we didn’t get very far with that idea! Then Steven suggested trying to melt the ice with hot water. We managed to release the giant ice cube from the bowl using hot water and the children tried to stamp on it to break it. They loved watching it melt and chipping away at it!

Desperately trying to break up the giant ice cube formed in the mud kitchen basin


Finlay had the great idea of using grit to make the ice in the plant pot melt, the same way the lorries throw grit on the roads when it’s icy.  We used salt from the kitchen as our grit. The ice quickly  began to melt and made a funny crackling noise as it did.

Using salt as grit to melt the ice.

When the garden was considered a little too slippery to play in, we decided to go over to the football pitch and practise our ball skills.  It was great fun and exciting to go somewhere new in the school.

 

Loose Parts

The children are encouraged to use Loose Parts in many different areas of the nursery.  It encourages creativity and allows the children to take ownership of the materials they have.  Here is an example of some transient art the children created using loose parts.

   

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