This week in our outdoor area, the children had great fun exploring outdoors through active and sensory play. They showed confidence and excitement as they slid down a gentle slope on small boards, developing their balance, coordination, and core strength while also learning to assess and manage small risks in a safe environment. This type of play supports resilience and builds physical confidence in a joyful way. Alongside this, the children enjoyed experimenting with water and bubbles, mixing, pouring, and observing how bubbles form and float. These experiences encourage curiosity, early scientific thinking, and language development as they describe what they see and feel.

This week in the discovery area we have been exploring different ways to use technology. We have been coding on the ipads and using digital cameras to take pictures of things that interest us around the nursery. 

In our coding games, we’re becoming master problem-solvers! We’ve been practicing computational thinking by designing step-by-step paths to guide our animals safely to the other side.

This week, the children have continued to explore their interest in using digital technology to create Crookfur Characters! They have discussed what a character is and their role in films, tv and stories. The children used a wide variety of descriptive language to create their own characters. 

DM – “She likes to cook chocolate pancakes! Can we make her yellow instead?”

AP – “I’m going to make a pencil! It’s rainbow coloured, sharp, with a happy face. When the rain comes down, he disappears.”

AS(purple) – “A character is maybe like a actor. I see that on the ipad. I’m going to make a green dinosaur”

LD – “My tiger likes to eat cheese pizza. He wears a tshirt with tigers in it and he isn’t happy when the humans come.”

BS – “She wears light orange shoes that glows when she stomps.”

CS – “Super Lafferty! She’s a superhero. She has peach skin, she is so nice. She wears a belt with red and yellow stripes and she has a shield. She can shoot webs too you know.”

ES – “Maybe a character in Scotland! She’s teeny, she’s a baby elephant. She’s silly!”

FMcG – “He’s called Fluffy the giaraffe. He likes to kick a ball and he eats leaves and trees. I think he’s wearing a purple and orange sun hat!”

The children have also continued to explore, predict and generate rhyme using a range of games. 

SRC – “snake and cake!” 

SS – “That’s got the same letters at the end, that rhymes. Money and honey.”

We have also enjoyed exploring alliteration.

OH – “O for octopus. F, that’s frog!”

In the sand pit this week, the children became curious problem-solvers as they explored using pulleys to lift buckets of sand and other objects. They worked together to figure out how to attach and operate the equipment, showing great perseverance and teamwork as they tested different ideas. Learning how to use the carabiner clips encouraged them to develop their fine motor skills and hand strength, while also learning about how things connect and come apart. This type of play supports early engineering thinking, as the children experiment with cause and effect, and builds important skills such as communication, cooperation, and resilience. It was fantastic to see their determination and creativity in action.

Spring is here….

At the Art table this week we have been busy making flowers with paper plates, as we are now moving into a new season – Spring. The children have worked hard and designed their own using various craft resources, including, tissue paper, glue, and glitter. Fine motor skills, creativity, patience and concentration skills were all used. Lots of discussion was promoted about this time of year, and how flowers will start to bloom in gardens and fields, different types of flowers the children have seen in the supermarkets for sale, and how bees can collect ‘the sweet nectar’ for food from flowers.

AC – ‘I feel like a flower artist just now’.

BS – ‘I like how flowers smell’.

ML – ‘My favourite flowers are’.

YK – ‘I am going to make my flower sparkle’.

We had a wonderful time at the end of the week heading up to the field in the glorious sunshine for our Easter Bonnet Parade. The children proudly showed off their colourful bonnets, decorated with flowers, chicks, eggs, dinosaurs and lots of other creative ideas. We walked together around the field as everyone admired the fantastic hats. It was lovely to celebrate together outdoors, enjoying the fresh air and bright sunshine.