Another week of outdoor enthusiasm as our interest in the signs of Spring continues to grow.

This week we discovered frogspawn in the pond. “Dir going to turn into tadpoles!”…”yeah and dan get leegs and be frogs!”. Learning about lifecycles, and observing these in real contexts, is important as it teaches us about growth and change in nature and helps us to become respectful and caring towards living things. On our way back from the pond we checked if any baby lambs have arrived yet and had time to count steps and creep through tunnels.

We have continued to find flowers peeping through the soil this week and were keen to plant our own bulbs. We selected shovels and worked hard to make small deep holes in the ground. We talked about the features of bulbs and used words like roots and petals. Some of us knew that “we need to dig a hole and pit dem in the ground and dan it will rain and sun and dan they will grow big and bigger.” We compared the depth and width of holes which helped develop our mathematical understanding. Digging holes is also great for strengthening our bodies and developing shoulder stability which we need for writing.

While planting bulbs we found some worms! All different sizes, some were long and fat, some were small and thin. We compared them, learning new adjectives and mathematical language such as “slimy”, “sticky”, “thick” and “shorter than/longer than”. We were very kind to the worms and handled them carefully. We collected them in a bucket. We counted 8 worms. We added them to our wormery. “Eat the leaves and chew chew”, “mak the soil good.”

 

There’s been lots of opportunities for us to be active and take part in different kinds of energetic play outdoors this week. This is important for our health and wellbeing. Managing and controlling our bodies and finding out how to use and share different space develops our physical and cognitive abilities which we need for formal learning later on. We flew a kite on the old pitch. We watched how high it went, “It’s going to the moon!”, “Wow it will touch the cloods!”. We took turns flying it and felt how strong the wind pulled it in our hands. We developed ball skills, kicking, throwing and catching throughout the week. We practised our balance skills in the playpark and in the play area behind the school. And of course we were on the look out for nature. We spotted starlings in the bushes and a friendly cat called Mittens.

During our walks we noticed a lot of litter lying about. We are very aware of this and understand that litter is ugly, unsafe, hurts animals and “seals and whales eat plastic and dan it’s bad for dem”. Some of us were very keen to pick up litter so on Wednesday we went on a litter pick.

Not only do we become responsible citizens through litter-picking, it also supports our scientific learning and understanding as we investigate and notice the properties of different pieces we collect, from sweetie wrappers, to cans to plastic. We used our numeracy skills to count the different pieces of litter and discussed the weight of the bags. At the end of the litter pick we had a play on the big steps and felt proud that all around the school looked clean. “The birds will be happy noo”, “no more litter!”, “sheep winoo eat it” “no sore belly”.

Within the nursery grounds we have been very busy working together, sharing ideas, listening and talking and problem solving. We used the sand to make “cement” and to build  sand structures which we then poured water over to see what would happen. “oooh it’s melting”, “it’s disappearing”, “the water is made it go”. We learned new words such as “disintegrate” and “erosion” as we experimented with sand and water. We created “quarries” where materials were transported to and from and where vehicles got “bugged in” and needed towed. We used the long planks of wood as roads for our small vehicles. During this small world play we used our imaginations to make up stories, characters and plots and shared our thoughts and ideas with each other, “Doo is in yun car and I’m in dis car going to the dentist.” “I’m going to get the shopping but I need to park” “Doo parked ahint me ok?”, “stop we need to fix the road, it’s broken”…

We hope to see more of our friends return to nursery next week and hope everyone feels better soon.