Hello everyone, we hope you all have had a great week! Here is a quick look at what we have been up to in nursery…..

This week learning is… creativity, motor skills, team work, communication, balancing skills, hand/eye coordination, numeracy, literacy, self confidence, exploring, predicting, being curious, sharing, self-esteem, technology, outdoor learning and problem solving.

Monday 15th September

Today inside a group of children are beginning to show their good knowledge of personal hygiene routines as they independently washed their hands. 🧼 

Today inside a group of children have been creative in demonstrating different skills. They used fine motor skills and independently manipulated small tools by using the scissors to cut pictures. In the writing area a group of children used different colours to create a picture for family members. They drew around their hand and proceeded to use lots of colours to create a beautiful picture for their sister. Today a group of children got creative in the art area and painted some card. They used their imagination and said “it’s got a car inside for my party tomorrow.” They pretended that the card was wrapping paper and there was a present hidden inside. 🎨 

Today in the sand tray a group of children worked together to make an aeroplane landing, a rocket, a volcano and a Christmas tree that they were going to decorate. The children used sticks to create patterns in the sand to show where the rocket was landing. 🏖️ 

Today a group of children enjoyed a story called “Little Tiger’s Big Holiday” with Mrs Wilson. The group of children linked this story to their personal experiences as they discussed holidays they had went on with their families. They also had a discussion about items they would take on holiday and towards the end of the story they noticed the suitcase wouldn’t fit in the car which linked to problem solving how would they make it fit. “By taking things out.” 📖 

Tuesday 16th September

Today a group of children have been exploring shapes through games and puzzles. The group of children worked together to crest a dinosaur jigsaw and turned the pieces to fit if required. 🧩 

Today inside a group of children worked together to create their own stories using character cards. The group of children worked with Mrs Laing. They came up with the story and while Mrs Laing scribed for them. They had lots of characters and good imagination skills to come up with a good story line. 📖 

Today outside a group of children have been exploring the garden and discovered a Robin. They used their recall from last week and remembered there was 2 walking in the garden. The children came up with the idea to make a bird watching area and decorated a cardboard box. The group of children then put out bird seeds and watched from a far. 🐦

Wednesday 17th September

Today a group of children worked together to make an obstacle course. They were quite specific where the wheels had to go. They thought the obstacle course was good but said “I need a jump”. They placed another wheel down for the jump. They worked well together as a team . 🚲

After discussing a peers jumper which had an astronaut and the moon on it, we spoke about outer space and things that might be up in space. The conversation then turned to what animals have been to space and we researched on the iPad what animals had been, we made predictions on which the first one there. We found out the first animals were fruit flies. 🌌

Today, we went on a bird walk around the school grounds together 🐦 We made a chart for all the birds we predicted we would see which some of the children helped to cut and stick and all the children then put ticks next to them as we seen or heard them. All together we spotted 31 birds. The children were able to discuss which had the most and least and which were their favourites. After we returned, we made a bar graph to show everyone how much of each bird we found. We noticed that we had 19 crows and 9 pigeons. The children were able to point to which was the most popular. A peer also brought in a beautiful Magpie and Pigeon feather from home which they shared with their peers. A few children found a feather on our walk which we are going to research and see what bird it came from. We used our favourite Merlin bird app which identifies birds by their sound and shows you a picture of what they look like, the children looked at these pictures and shared if they knew it and what’s it name was. We had an extra little treat as we spotted a Stoat playing in the garden. We all watched carefully and stayed very quiet as it went back and forward playing right in front of us as it popped its head out from a plastic pipe 🐭 From this learning experience, we will create a more permanent bird watching area from inside the nursery and add appropriate resources to support this 🦅

Thursday 19th September

Continuing the interest of animals, the children requested to research animals trays. The children asked to do a zoo one “we haven’t done that before” and wanted to try something new. We worked together to collect resources from the nursery and took care of them by watching our spacial awareness to not drop them. The children discussed the importance of sharing and said “we all need a turn.” “Yeah it’s fair if we all have one each.” The children demonstrated good understanding of sharing. While putting the resources together the children started talking about their personal experiences and times they have gone to the zoo. They listened carefully to each other and waited their turn to reply. “The zoo makes me happy.” “It makes me excited.” “Me too.” “I went to the zoo for my birthday before.” “I went two times for my birthday.” “My mummy took me in the car to the zoo but I know you can get a bus.” The children discussed a range of feelings about how the zoo made them feel. They also discussed zookeepers and what zoo keepers do. “They give the animals food.””Like we fed the birds yesterday.” “They keep them healthy.” “They have to not walk by themselves.” “Do you know animals are living things and that’s why we have to feed them.” The children were able to discuss that a zookeeper looks after the animals which led to them discussing people who care for them. “My mummy looks after me and daddy.” “Sometimes my granny and grandad look after me.” While exploring the tray they used the animals to make footprints in the different materials. They continued role playing and discussed size, amount and lengths of the animals. “Look three sea lions.” “This one is bigger and that one is smaller.” “Yeah that one is longer too.” “We need one more sea lion to make four like the hippos.” “Do you know I had to pay to visit the zoo my mummy used pennies.” “Me too my granny used her card to pay.” The children discovered different ways we can pay for services. They continued to talk about different animals and times you might see them. “You never see sharks they are under the water.” “You see bats when it’s dark at night time and foxes too.” “I seen a bird today when it was morning.” After some of the children had finished with the tray they understood that they had to wash their hands. “I have to wash my hands with soap and water now because they are all muddy.” The children independently washed their hands after their play experience. 🐘🦒 

Following on from our interest in birds yesterday, An individual independently decided they wanted to look outside for birds using the tick chart they found. They used binoculars to look around and suggested we put seed out because that’s what would bring the birds to the nursery. They shared what their favourite bird on the chart was which they said “I like the robin”. We decided that it was just too windy for the birds to come out and we would try again later once the wind died down or even tomorrow 🐦

Today outside a group of children have decided to draw. They are discussing what they are drawing with each other and inspiring one another. They all drew different marks they drew JJ, Roblox and Minecraft. One drew a smiley face. One drew is a fireball. One drew their whole family and said “That’s me, that’s my mummy. I’m going to draw Harry” A peers said -“remember don’t forget your legs” (points to their peers drawing).😃

Friday 20th September

Today in the garden, a group of children worked with an adult to direct the making of a road for their car to travel and confidently shared his knowledge of directions. ‘We can go around the roundabout. ‘Go right now.’ ‘Go right then right.’ ‘That’s left (showing with arm).’ ‘The road needs to join…that way.’

Today inside a group of children decided to help prepare the morning snack. They decided they wanted grapes and crackers along with pineapple and blueberries. They watched and listened for the instructions and carefully cut the grapes into small pieces. We discussed that 1 grape can be cut in two, using the half language. They then cut these into 2 again learning about quarters, simple fractions. “That makes 4” they both shared.

Today inside a group of children used the iPad responsibly for the first time to create different pictures on doodle kids.

Our Cosy Time Library 📚 This will be available to families at drop off and pick up time every day for you and your child to choose a book to take home to read 🏡There is no time limit on our library books we would just ask that you ask a members of the team to help sign the book with your child’s name, the title of the book they have taken, the date it was taken and when it was returned ✍️There will be pens available for you to sign the books in and out. If your child has any special requests for a certain book please ask a member of staff or send a message on seesaw and we can help you 😃There will be a folder with your child’s name for them to put the book in for its journey to home and back 📁A tray will be available for you to put in your returned books so we can quarantine and clean them before putting them on display again, if you have any questions, any member of staff would be happy to help ☺️

Loose Parts.

We are always in need of replenishing our loose parts in nursery. If you are out and about on walks, or are planning to recycle items, can we ask that you think of us first please 😃

Here is some of the items we are looking for:

Conkers, stones, shells, tea cups, sticks, picture frames, plates, wood, drainpipes any old garden furniture such as chairs, tables or parasols, etc,  anything you think might be of used in nursery.

 

Reminders

• Can all parents label items of  your child’s clothing.

• Can all parents put in at least one full change of clothing for water play and accidents.

• Can all parents if your child has a packed lunch can we please ensure grapes and big fruits are cut to minimise the risk of choking.🍇

• Can we remind all parents\carers to park in a white space only as the yellow spaces are for staff only.

• If your child is going to be picked up by someone else, please let the ladies know or the office so we are aware.

• Can we ensure that your child is dressed appropriately for all the weather  conditions that may arise.

• Can we ensure when you are leaving the nursery that the gate is locked.

• Can all parents ensure your child has a set of waterproofs and wellies to enable play outside when it’s wet.

• Our nursery blog is sent out every week on a Friday afternoon.

 

We hope you have a lovely weekend and we will see you all on Monday for another great fun filled week!

Miss Nelson and the rest of the Nursery team. x