We have had a busy week in the nursery with lots of different themes running, as our pupils have been encouraged, in all areas, to share their ideas for activities or projects that they would like to explore, this is helping to provide much greater autonomy for individual pupils directing their own learning.

OUTDOORS
Our outdoor area has become far more accessible for pupils due to the door being open from the start of each session and all children are free to learn and play outdoors as they choose. There are no restrictions on numbers unless required for specific health and safety reasons. We have enjoyed making a variety of sculptures in the wet sand and exploring why sand sticks together when it is wet and not when it is dry. We have been using the large connecting blocks for building different structures, this has encouraged our team work and problem solving skills as quite often we had to try different methods of building to ensure the structure was strong and served its purpose. We have been using our listening skills to play a pirate game. We had to listen to Miss Pattinson shouting out instructions and then act out the instruction e.g walk the plank, climb the rigging. On the 5th of November, we learned about the history of Bonfire Night. Some of us were really interested in Guy Fawkes and went away to find old clothes to build our very own Guy, it was fantastic! We also enjoyed getting out large rolls of paper and explored the effects of flicking paint onto the paper; it was a great way to make fireworks and we loved getting messy! We also had some holiday themed play with children using the rope bringe as an aeroplane.

TALKING AND THINKING TUB
We were really excited when Mrs Thomson brought out a very strange box… what was in it? If we chose to, we gathered around to investigate the contents, sharing our thoughts and listening to others as the discussion progressed. We came across pictures of fireworks, a candle, toy hedgehog, high vis vest, a broken torch, a star and lots of other interesting items. Through investigating different ideas, we were indicating our areas of interest and questions we might have about the world around us. This helps us to design and lead our learning. Later on in the week, leading on from the talking tub, we began to share our ideas around the concept of ‘dark’. We used a 3D mind-map, which will be on display in the cloakroom, to help us document our ideas, again helping to form the direction of our future learning. Lots of ideas came out around: the weather, the sky, outer-space, parties and celebrations and what we use to help us in the dark. We will continue to add to the mind-map and will look to parents to also help add ideas that you and your child may have discussed.

CREATIVE
We have spent a lot of time working together, with the support of Miss Green, to turn our role play area, into a pirate ship! We made pirate bunting, a large steering wheel, pirate hats, eye patches and you might have noticed our lovely window decoration that the children helped to design and paint. In our pirate ship we added some special treasure and have included some extra boxes for children to use within their imaginative play. As our contribution to the whole school Remembrance day assembly, we created individual finger painted poppies that then, with the morning and afternoon children, all formed one big poppy. Throughout the activity, we began to understand the significance of the poppy. Also, as part of our fireworks celebrations, we explored different ways to make a fireworks picture. We tried putting paper in a plastic tub, squirting in some paint and glitter then shaking it all up, we decided this wasn’t as effective to tried to splash paint over a dark piece of paper then blow with a straw, we had great fun with this. Some children then wanted to make their own rockets with cylinders and coloured foil. We then asked for some music to dance to with our rockets. The children were able to listen carefully to the orchestral music and move in time and beat.

SNACK
Our children have worked together, sharing ideas on what they like/dislike for snack. This will help the staff create the new menu. Some ideas we would like to include: tomato soup, cake and something spicy! As part of further developing personalisation and choice, we have been more active with helping to choose and prepare our fruit and vegetables every day.

All book bags were handed out this week.

Next week we will be continuing to lead our learning and further investigating some of the concepts that evolved from our talking tub and 3d mind-map. We will be participating in learning around Diwali which takes place on Wednesday 11th November.