In the art area this week the children have been making some winter pictures. We discussed the recent change in the weather and looked at some books about weather. We learned how colours can often reflect different weather types (e.g blue and grey for rainy and stormy, and yellow for the sun) and we considered this when making our pictures.

Leading on from our discussion of colours we also mixed some paint together to make some new colours that we could use in our pictures. The children also experimented with how to make their colours lighter or darker.

This week in the block area we have been using our creative and imaginative skills, we have been exploring interior designs. We have created living spaces in our dolls house and designed each room. We have also been moving our design process with the bigger blocks to create our own wardrobes and bedrooms and even added small details, such as where we put our shoes at night. 

We have explored space with our rocketship, working on our fine and gross motor skills by moving the parts of the spaceship and adding in different loose parts to decorate their spaceship. 

The children have been exploring the ice that they found in the outdoor area due to our recent cold spell. The children spoke about how it was water and that due to it being very cold it became ice. The children then tried cold water to melt it and then used warm water and found it melted quicker with warm water.

In the hall we had some football sessions with the children playing the warm up bean game and then doing some control with the ball. The children dribbled round some cones controlling the football and then shot the ball into the goal.

This week in discovery one of the children discovered that the magnetic tiles ‘stick’ to the metal tins. This sparked an interest in finding what else is made of metal in nursery. We carried out a ‘metal hunt’ around nursery with a magnetic tile, finding lots of different objects. This started conversations about what things are made of. It also prompted queries about why something looks like metal but the magnet wouldn’t ‘stick’. Google came in handy!!
Some children used this new knowledge to create models such as “a metal birthday cake” and “a big castle with turrets”. 

We will continue to explore this topic to support developing early understanding of forces, sorting and matching, language and vocabulary, imagination, creativity and design. 

Over the past few days we have been making trips out into the woodlands and into our local park. The children have been exploring ice and telling stories of ice skating. We spoke about how ice comes to be on the ground and on surfaces of different things and then how it goes away! There were also discussions around food for the birds as they couldn’t get into the frozen soil to get the worms out. The children also recalled past visits to the woodlands and things that had changed in the environment, such as the mushrooms disappearing/changing appearance.

Simoa came to the park and there were lots of discussions around how to keep themselves safe, such as around dogs, around water, sticky feet and staying with a trusted adult.

‘Not touch the doggies as they might bite you’ – YK

‘Guys do this if you see a doggy’ – JW

‘We no walk out the gate as you might get lost forever’ AP

‘Not run or you fall and you bleed and ambulance come out’ – KN

‘We could hold hands because you have to hold hands when you’re walking on the pavement, you might slip on ice and your bottom will get all ice’ -AL

‘Look to see there were no cars and it was safe to cross’ -BF

Why is a zebra crossing called a zebra crossing? ‘Because it’s black and white stripes like a zebra’ -BF

‘Look the mushroom, it burned’ – MB

‘Miss Goldie do you remember that was a hill and I put an X there’ -JW

‘Oh no it makes noisy cracks and I can see the water’ – JW

‘We’ve found a plain bit of water, let’s try and crack it’ – JW