Tag Archives: Gross motor skills

Fun this week and a sad farewell to Mrs Fraser

Some of our learning in week 2 looked like this….

Team work and tall towers!
Building at height
Creating complex structures
Off we go in our boat!


BLOCK PLAY

How many different ways can a block be used?

“Lets make a campfire”
Cooking on the campfire

 

“Can I go inside?”

S A N D

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

W A T E R

 

Mrs Fraser donated a trampoline to Nursery!

 

Bonfire and fireworks

Messy, messaging, mark making and…

M A P S!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Following our interest last term of treasure hunting and maps some of us decided to make our own treasure maps! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We followed them to see if we could find X marks the spot…

T R E A S U R E !

 

Treasure!

 

Exploring the early concepts of coding

 

 

 

 

 

We are very sad to say goodbye to Mrs Fraser!

We wish her all the best in her new post. The bairns gave her a good send off…

 

Queen for the day!

They made her a crown and declared her Queen for the day!

She chose to listen to country music which everyone loved dancing too, we had cake for snack, played with bubbles and the bairns helped her follow clues on her treasure hunt in the afternoon.

 

A Lovely relaxing hand massage to finish off the day!

 

Thank you Mrs Fraser, we will miss you!

Week 8 & 9

We rounded off our Super Senses learning with some taste and touch activities and an end of term Fire Pit.  It was particularly special as it was the last day at Nursery for one of our bairns.

What better way to experience our senses than the smell of an open fire, marshmallows toasting and fresh air, the sound of the birds in the trees and bairns’ laughter, the sight of blue skies and such happy faces from bairns and staff, the most delicious taste of smores and beans on toast and staying cosy from the heat of the fire!

The taste test – what can you taste when you hold your nose – apple or tottie?……….

 

Valentine’s and Outdoor play

We love role play in Nursery and like to pretend we are Elsa and Anna from Frozen, who can freeze things.  We froze hearts and explored different ways to melt or break them to find what was inside…..

………Some of us preferred using warm water in syringes and droppers to melt holes in the hearts.

….some of us preferred using tools to break the ice instead

But when the ice melted – it was even more fun!……

 

….floating petals to make patterns

 

 

 

 

 

….sucking and squirting water with syringes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…..making perfume and love potions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Squirting water made everything wet inside, so there was nothing for it but to go outside for a WATER FIGHT!  Which was EVEN MORE FUN!……

It was a good job we had waterproofs on.  We  drew pictures with the water – it was hard to control it sometimes.  We did lots of target practice and the bairns drew their own targets to practice on when we were all too wet.  Some bairns squirted water to wash the windows.  Mrs Bishop said we could wash her car if we wanted…….SO WE DID……………….

We must have done a good job as Mrs Bishop sent us a Thank You card for all our hard work!

Outdoor play

We love to be outdoors.  This week we have been focusing on the shape “circles” and what fun we’ve had.

Archie and Indie made up their own game by making circles for stepping stones and numbering them to make a path to follow.

We played some circle games where everyone’s favourite was Duck Duck Goose. It was a bit chilly so the bairns thought some races would help warm them up.  Following our circle theme we used tyres to roll across the playground and race each other.  The tyres made great use of the bairns motor skills and coordination while they lifted, pushed and rolled them across the playground with such amazing control.

 

 

Outdoor Play and Forest Fun!

We love going to our forest to play.  There are so many things to discover in the forest and we find something new to do each time we go. It’s our favourite outdoor classroom!

We hold hands with a partner and practise crossing the carpark safely on our way to the forest.

The boys and girls in Nursery have been particularly interested lately in the signs they have found in the forest.  They have been using their sounds and letter skills that they have been learning in Nursery, to try to read the signs and discover what they say.

These barrels and trees make great shelters for animals and creatures in the forest, but they also provide great climbing and balancing fun.  Risky play really helps to develop our gross motor skills and allows our children to test and affirm their capabilities, as well as problem solve every day activities.

There are lots of exciting places to explore and hide, but some children have already begun to ponder……

” What will happen when the leaves grow? (Rory)”

“How will we get through the forest? (Owen)”

We found some more signs and worked together to find out what they said.  Anri and Maximus wondered why there were no signs to show us how to get to the forest and thought about ideas of what signs we might need and what they would say.

There are lots of amazing things to discover and find in the forest.  “What is this?  Where did it come from?” Lottie-Mae wanted to take what she had found back to Nursery to look at it a little more closely.

 

 

 

 

 

MUD…glorious mud!!!

 

 

 

 

 

We were having too much fun to leave the forest so we stopped for a quick picnic snack.

“Look what I found!  Is it a pine cone?  It’s very small. (Archie)”

Look at us climb!

“I’m the highest! (Johanne).”

“I’m like a monkey. (Anri).”

“I got up!  This tree must be very strong. (Lucille)”

Peek-a-boo!

“You have to put your head down low to get through.  I nearly got stuck. (Elsie).”

We loooove a muddy puddle….

1….2….3…juuuummmmppp!

“Squelch”……”splat”….”sticky”…

We visited our nature pond to see if the Frog spawn has hatched yet.  We hope to take some tadpoles to Nursery to look at more closely and see how they change into frogs.

Who will be first to spot a frog?

We found lots of frog spawn but still no tadpoles….

It’s hard work to walk through long grass and heather.  Sometimes we find it tricky and fall over but we are getting better at it and our legs are getting stronger.

Yay – we caught a frog!  It was great to take a closer look at the frogs.  They look tiny but when the frog was trying to jump out of the bucket, we saw it had really really long back legs.

“That’s so they can jump high” (Maximus).

“I can see another frog!” (Honor)

We also took a closer look at some frog spawn.  Some had black dots in the middle but some were beginning to uncurl into tiny tadpoles, getting ready to hatch.

Owen found a tiny caterpillar on the ground.  He carefully and kindly picked it up so as everyone cold have a closer look.

We love getting outdoors to play.  Even better when the sun is shining!

The bairns are really enjoying building their own obstacle courses.  It is fantastic to see them working together to build the obstacles and helping each other as they build their confidence with balancing.

“If you put your arms out like this, it helps you balance.” (Anri)

“I’m rocking!” (Anri)

“It looks like you’re surfing.” (Maximus)

“If we both go on we can do it like a see-saw.” (Lucille)

“Let’s see if we can all balance on it.” (Lucille)

A-hoy!!!

 

Learning without stabilisers…..

Sandpit fun…..

Mark making with chalk…..

Drawing around each other and our shadows.  Who is the biggest?

Building a house…..

Cardboard box creativity

What fun we’ve had exploring our creativity with these cardboard boxes.  Open-ended and free exploration plays a really important role in our Nursery, allowing the children to create, fail, reassess and engage problem solving to help them make sense of the world around them.

We had such fun with the boxes inside, we decided to take them outside.  The children were very mindful of the environment and then animals and living things within the environment.  They engaged in some great discussions as to how to look after their environment and use the boxes and equipment safely and appropriately.