What a fantastic month the children have had welcoming back our existing families from their Christmas break and we are delighted to have welcomed many new families to our Nursery. The children have been provided with a variety of learning opportunities to enhance and extend their educational journey.
The children have enjoyed the changes in the season and have had lots of educational fun exploring the world around them and looking at the weather. The children have also enjoyed planting our spring flower bulbs in the forest and the children have been excited to see how they will grow and what the flowers will look like.
The children have had a fantastic month exploring their topic Winter and Winter Animals. We have looked at the different animals that live or hibernate in the winter months and we have learnt new words to describe the animals and the habitats where they live. The children have been making their own versions of worms using mud, playdough and paint. The children enjoyed going on worm hunts around the garden, to see how many we could find and discovering their habitats. The children have loved reading the story and talking about what happened in the story.
Physical Development
Show a preference for a dominant hand (3 – 4 years)
Personal, Social and Emotional
Develop their sense of responsibilities and membership of a community (3-4 years)
Literacy
Enjoys sharing books with an adult (birth – 3)
Baby Unit
Our Baby Units has explored the outdoor environment and developed their motor skills through crawling and taking their first steps. The Babies have been using their senses to develop their sensory experiences using a range of different textures through activities. They have enjoyed making marks in shaving foam and feeling the different textures of gloop and developing their motor skills whilst having fun exploring. The Babies have also been supported to develop their communication and language learning new words whilst playing and having fun.
The babies have become very independent at looking at their stories, taking themselves to the story corner and looking through their books, lifting the flaps and babbling away to each other as they do so.
Communication and Language
Constantly babble and use single words during play. (Birth to 3 years)
Physical Development
Explore different materials and tools (Birth to 3 years)
Expressive Arts and Design
Start to make marks intentionally (Birth to 3 years)
Physical Development
Reach out for objects as co-ordination develops (Birth to 3 years)
Personal, Social and Emotional
Establish their sense of self (Birth to 3 years)
Toddler Unit
Our Toddler Units have been having lots of fun with their current topic of winter and Arctic Animals. The children have been learning the names of the animals and looking at their appearance, playing with them in a range of different textured activities. The toddlers have explored sensory-based activities using their senses to explore different textures through their play. The children have looked at pictures of winter animals and how they move in different ways, and we have incorporated this into a music and movement session. The Toddlers have also incorporated mathematics within their topic and have begun to count to five.
Our Toddlers have explored the outdoors, enjoying the frost and listening to what sounds the frost makes. The children were crunching in their boots across the grass. Using their fingers to create marks in the frost. The children then continued this activity by exploring the ice inside watching it melt the more we played with it and the artic animals. We created paintings of hats and used our handprints to make gloves for our Winter displays. Toddlers have also been focusing more on their Arctic animals, exploring what an Arctic animal is, their features, their habitats and what is it like in the Arctic. The children enjoyed playing in the frost over the last few weeks exploring and feeling the frost beneath their feet, listening to it crunch and trying to make marks in the frost as they discuss the seasonal changes which are happening around them.
Throughout January our Forest school book has been Stick Man, and all children have been outside on a stick hunt to create their very own Stick man. The children enjoyed hot chocolates in the garden while listening to the Stick man story under the heater to keep them warm. The children have shown so much interest we made stick men throughout the week. Our staff member Emily also created us a Stick man display in the window which the children always look at and talk about when inside.
Understanding the World
Use all their senses in hands-on exploration of natural materials. (3-4 years)
Communication and Language
Listen to simple stories and understand what is happening, with the help of the pictures. (Birth to 3 years)
Mathematics
Develop counting-like behaviour, such as making sounds, pointing or saying some numbers in sequence. (Birth to 3 years)
Literacy
Enjoys sharing books with an adult (Birth to 3 years)
Physical Development
Explore different materials and tools (Birth to 3 years)
Communication and Language
Copy your gestures and words (Birth to 3 years)
Pre-School Unit
Our Pre-School Units have been looking into pictures of polar bears, and penguins where they drew portraits of them and talked about what they could see. They were fascinated to discover that polar bears aren’t really white, it is just the reflection of the snow that makes them look as though they have white fur. The pre-schoolers also used ice to make igloos and they were really excited to feel the ice and problem-solve how it could be kept cold as it kept melting in the tray.
The Pre-School children used a range of different construction resources to build their own igloos and they used their mathematical skills to count the bricks and estimate how many bricks they would need to make one. Our Pre-School groups were really excited to come into the nursery and see the snow and the ice still scattered outside in the garden. The children began to explore the different textures and they carried out scientific experiments to see how they could melt the ice to free the frogs.
The children have also explored a snow writing activity using their name templates to practise copying letters from their names.
The children have been learning about Chinese New Year and understanding why they celebrate for the whole week. We explored different tuff trays with bright colours and also had a taste-testing morning which we all enjoyed. The children have shown great literacy skills showing pencil control to form the Chinese numbers coping these from the display board.
The children have been reading the story of 10 little penguins and pretending to be the penguins as they use the characters on the lollipop sticks. We have begun our letter of the week which has supported the children in their school readiness programme, we have been doing this during our morning circle times as we find different items that begin with the letter – A, B, C and D.
Mathematics
Link numerals and amounts: for example, showing the right number of objects to match the numeral, up to 5. (3-4 years)
Personal, Social and Emotional
Play with one or more other children, extending and elaborating play ideas. (3-4 years)
Communication and Language
Understand a question or instruction that has two parts, such as: “Get your coat and wait at the door”. (3-4 years)
Literacy
Write some letters accurately. (3-4 Years)
