Wow what a fantastic month we have had exploring and extending our projects throughout the nursery. The children have had so much educational fun whilst learning through their indoor and outdoor play. The children have joined in with National story telling week, exploring some of their favourite stories in depth such as ‘Dinosaurs love underpants, A new house for mouse and We’re going on a Bear Hunt’, which the children then created their own bear masks and went on a bear hunt in the garden.
The children have also explored the story ‘Simon sock’, which helped support our mathematical understanding with matching colours and patterns and understanding the meaning of a ‘Pair’.
With the fabulous weather we have received this month it gave our children the perfect opportunity to enjoy more outdoor learning supporting our ethos. We have experienced all types of weather from snow to bright sunshine. The children have been out in the forest looking at the footprints and talking about what animals may have left behind.
The children have explored looking at their own footprints in the snow too and comparing sizes.
Supporting the children’s dinosaur project, the children melted the snow, learning that it needs to warm up to melt, establishing a way to defrost dinosaur eggs and trying to break the dinosaurs out. Following on from this the children then used their dinosaur interest to support with their own self-care skills, by give the dinosaurs baths, reading stories about keeping then clean, and practicing brushing the dinosaur’s teeth, understanding the dinosaurs have big sharp teeth.
EYFS link:
Physical development –Health and Self-Care – Shows a desire to help with dressing/undressing and hygiene routines (16 – 26 months)
Communication and Language – Listening and Attention – Listens to stories with increasing attention and recall (30 – 50 months)
Literacy – Reading – Listens to and joins in with stories and poems, one-to-one and also in small groups (30 – 50 months)
Mathematics – Numbers – Orders two or three items by length or height (40 – 60+)
Understanding the World – The world – Comments and asks questions about aspects of their familiar world such as the place where they live or the natural world. (30 – 50 months)
FUN FACT: Dinosaurs Weren’t the First Reptiles to Rule the Earth
Our Baby unit have been busy learning about Farm animals and the sounds they make, and they have learnt where they live. The children have enjoyed the story of Noisy Farm and they have explored different textured sensory trays with their farm animals using their fine and gross motor skills to make the animals stomp and jump in the trays. As a class they were excited to explore the snowy weather and they enjoyed a forest school session looking at the snowy landscape and searching for natural objects within the forest.
EYFS link:
Understanding the World – The World – Notices detailed features of objects in their environment. (22-36 months)
Communication and Language – Speaking – Uses different types of everyday words (nouns, verbs and adjectives, e.g. banana, go, sleep, hot). (16-26 months)
FUN FACT: A group of pigs is called a “sounder”
The Toddler unit have been extending their project of shapes through showing an increasing interest in the shapes within their environment. They have driven the toy cars to find the correctly matched shape and they have explored the shapes of the pancakes on Pancake day. The Toddler class enjoyed Numbers Day on Friday 5th identifying different numbers in mathematical activities leading into their number rhymes and practised copying some of the numbers. The Toddlers have also enjoyed lots of outdoor learning, taking part in Forest School sessions looking through magnifying glasses looking at insects that they discovered in the forest.
EYFS link:
Mathematics – Shape Space and Measure – Beginning to categorise objects according to properties such as shape or size (22-36 months)
Personal Social and Emotional Development – Making Relationships – Seeks out others to share experiences. (22-36 months)
FUN FACT: Butterflies can taste with the help of their feet – this is where their taste buds are located.
The Preschool unit have been extending and exploring their project of construction through looking at the different construction resources and problem solving, understanding how they could make them connect together making different types of models. The children have used the tools within the construction area to role model being builders, using the tape measures to recognise numbers and to see who had built the tallest or shortest sculpture.
The Preschool children have also enjoyed Pancake Day where they made some playdough pancakes and then they were able to practise flipping their own pancakes. They talked about how they celebrate the day with their family at home and what delicious fruit they like to add to their pancakes at home. Pancake day was a lot of fun for the children, they enjoyed pancake sensory trays exploring mixing all the ingredients together and practice flipping with the dough they made.
EYFS link:
Understanding the World – People and Communities – Recognises and describes special times or events for family or friends. (30-50 months)
Mathematics – Numbers – Shows an interest in numerals in the environment. (30-50 Months)
Expressive Arts and Design – Exploring and Using Media and Materials – Beginning to construct, stacking blocks vertically and horizontally, making enclosures and creating spaces (30-50 months)
FUN FACT: The largest pancake ever made and flipped was 15m’s wide.
We can’t wait to see what the month of March brings us; we are already planning World Book day on the 4th and Red Nose Day on the 19th.