What a fantastic month we have had welcoming new families to our settings and providing the children with a variety of learning opportunities to enhance and extend their educational journey.
We have made the most of the beautiful winter sunshine and spent lots of time outside. The children have enjoyed the changes in the season exploring the world around them looking at the weather and the spring bulbs beginning to flower. They have also been drawing pictures in the frost and observing the changes to our natural environment. We have been discussing what we do to keep warm during the winter months and practised our cutting skills cutting out hats and scarves.
Communication and Language
Copy gestures or words
Physical Development
Use large and small motor skills to do things independently, for example manage buttons and zips.
Our Babies have been busy exploring using their senses utilising a range of different textures through activities. They have had fun mark making in shaving foam, feeling the different textures of gloop, mashed potato and developing their motor skills while having fun. The babies have also been supported to develop their communication and language learning new words whilst playing and having fun.
They have also had great fun building with different materials and looking at different machinery such as cement mixers, diggers, and bull dozers. Babies even made their own cement mix from clay and water.
The babies have enjoyed experiencing the cold weather and have been wrapping up warm in their snowsuits whilst exploring the mud, grass, different textures, and opportunities throughout.
Communication and Language
Constantly babble and use single words during play
Physical Development
Explore using different materials and tools.
Mathematics
Compare amounts, saying ‘lots’ ‘more’ or ‘some’
Our Toddlers have been exploring different animals, such as those on the farm and arctic animals. They have learnt the names of the animals along with looking at and describing their appearances and colours. They have made their own animals using different resources.
Clingfilm painting seemed to be very popular, engaging the children and promoting clear words when communicating the colour paint and what it feels like. The words used were ‘cold’, ‘messy’, ‘red’, ‘blue’.
They have read stories such as ‘The Snow Bear’ and went on to draw their own bears, looking at the pictures within the story. Mathematics has been incorporated and the children have begun to count to five and had lots of fun using large scale numbers to jump on just like the bears in the story.
Some of the children have also been looking at the book ‘The Three Little Pigs’. They have drawn and painted their own version of the pigs, building towers using blocks and exploring the hay as they find the pigs beneath.
Literacy
Enjoys sharing books with an adult
Expressive Arts and Design
Start to make marks intentionally
Understanding the World
Use all their senses in hands-on exploration of natural materials
Communication and Language
Develop counting-like behaviour, such as making sounds, pointing, or saying some number in sequence.
Mathematics
Develop counting-like behaviour, such as making sounds, pointing, or saying some number in sequence.
This term the Pre-Schoolers have been busy looking at Winter. They have loved making their own snow and building snowmen. Ice play fun has been had and freeing the animals from the ice using hammers, whilst practicing their co -ordination skills.
They have also been busy recognising numbers and having a go at copying the numbers using a range of different mark making opportunities to extend their knowledge. They used their fine motor skills and tweezers to match pom poms and shape sorting fruits to the numerals. The children have also enjoyed drawing shapes and numbers on the ground outside.
As a group the children have been discussing numbers within their outdoor and indoor environments and have collected natural resources to use within their activity, counting them and sorting them into size order.
Some of the children have also been looking at our community and the range of shops the children may visit. Using the till gave the children a chance to play with some money and buy pretend food to take back to enjoy a tea party. A range of painting techniques were explored included block painting to create houses and stamping to develop hand eye co-ordination.
Personal, Social and Emotional
Play with one or more children, extending and elaborating paly ideas.
Physical Development
Develop manipulation and control
Communication and Language
Understand a question or instruction that has two parts, such as: ‘get your coat and wait at the door’.
