Summer
Summer 1 - How do things change?
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We have had a very short week this week but we have still been very busy. We continued our under the sea theme by following the story of Mimi the mermaid through yoga poses. The children listened very carefully and were able to move their bodies in lots of different ways. We then went to the creative table to make our own representations of mermaids and merboys.
Our butterflies have hatched out of their cocoons and the children were very enthusiastic with looking at them. When we let them go some of the butterflies were happy to sit on some of the children's hands which really excited them.
The highlight of our week was Sports Day. Thank you to all the mum's and dads who came to support. The children had great fun and got to try out some different equipment with the help of some very helpful Year 6 children. The bubbles and parachute games at the end were a big hit.
This week we have been learning the names and some facts about animals that live in the ocean. We have been playing with the small world sea creatures and making our own representations at the creative table. We have made a giant octopus with long tentacles and some wobbly jellyfish. Outside we drew under the sea animals on large paper.
Outside during free play we have been creating our own theatre and performing songs and dances for our friends and some of us pretended to plant trees in the sandpit remembering that they would also need some water to grow. At the manipulative table we have been making our own sea creatures with the dough.
This week we have been thinking about what happens to the creatures under the sea if the ocean is filled with plastic. The children were very enthusiastic about joining in with the discussion and all eager to tell us they put their rubbish in the bin at the seaside or bring it home. We decided to use lots of our waste plastic and boxes to make musical instruments for our music lesson on Wednesday. The children had their own ideas about which instrument they wanted to make and repeated the activity the next day independently. They were very eager to show Charlotte, our music teacher, their instruments and used them in the lesson with her.
On Thursday we decided to make one of our Manor Memories and go barefoot in the sand. We pretended we were at the seaside and had great fun building towers to drop sand and balls down, burying our feet and and making footprints in the sand.
During free play we have been role playing 'office' which has encouraged many of our reluctant talkers to start speaking with their peers on the telephones. We have made lots of models outside with the construction and we have been playing pairs to help us recognise our numbers. We have also had a delivery of caterpillars which we are going to watch turn into butterflies after reading the story of The Hungry caterpillar' by Eric Carle.
This week we continued our work around the book 'Sharing a shell' by Julia Donaldson. After reading the story several times we had a go at sequencing the story during group time. We also looked at paintings by Gergia O'Keefe and painted our own shell pictures.
As the weather has beeen so hot we have had lots of water play outside in the garden. Watching the water flow down the guttering, washing the taxi and playing at with the water wheels in the water tray.
As part of our physical development we have been doing 'Cosmic Yoga' and learning to move our bodies in lots of different ways.
The year has gone past very quickly and we are now in our last term for this year. This term our topic is 'Under the rockpool' and we have begun by reading the book 'Sharing a shell' by Julia Donaldson. On the creative table we have made our own rockpools by painting paper plates and then scrunching paper to make rocks around the edge. Then we cut out some sea creatures and seaweed to put into out rockpools. We have been praticing our numbers by using the fishing rods to catch numbered fish and put them into dishes. We used the non fiction books to find out more information about creatures that live under the sea.
As our story was about a shell we have practiced our fine motor skills by cutting out shell pictures and creating our own pictures. We also exlored a selection of differnt shells. We talked about how they look and feel and ordered them according to size. We then put them into different groups and then explained why we had grouped them that way. The children were very talkative and eager to explain their thinking.
On Wednesday we had 'Open Day'. Parents had the opportunity to see some of the lessons the children do as well as having the opportunity to play and read with them.
Our sunflowers and tomatoes are growing well so we have decided to move them outside into the garden. We had to be very careful when transfering them from the small pots into the larger ones.
In cooking this week stuck with our under the sea theme and made Tuna pasties. We developed our fine motor skills by rolling out our pastry, filling it and folding it over.
The highlight of our week was Math's day. We came to school in clothes with numbers and patterns and had great fun parading with the rest of the school. We have been learning to write our numbers and some of us even tried adding numbers together. Outside we went on a number hunt and practiced our counting and number recognition. During group time we used puppets to help us sing number songs .
Our sunflowers are growing up and we are taking good care of them. We also planted some seeds from the tomatoes on the snack table and they are also beginning to grow.
This week we comtinued our work around the story 'The very hungry caterpillar' by Eric Carle. The children sequenced the story onto a caterpillar template and then we filmed using their work to retell the story. Their confidence in front of the camera has greatly improved since we last did an activity like this.
In maths we have been counting butterflies and matching quantities to leaves with numerals on.
We have been developing our fine motor skills by using peg boards and mats inside and outside we have been ussing scissors to snip and cut stalks and leaves.
During free play the boys decided they wanted to do exercises so we put on Joe Wicks and they followed his exercise routine. We were also fascinated by a snail found in the garden. A group of children very carefully put him into a tuff tray and stayed for a long time watching him slither around leaving his trail behind him. After finding out that snails like tomatoes one of the children ran inside to fetch a tomato from the snack table .
This week we have been learning about the life cycle of a butterfly. We began by reading the story 'The very hungry caterpillar' by Eric Carle and the children were very eager to join in with the repetitive text. In maths we have been looking at shapes and we decided to make a caterpillar by stapling circle sheets of paper together and filling it with newspaper to make ' a big fat caterpillar'. We made caterpillars out of playdough and paper and in cooking this week we used the fruit from the story to make fruit kebabs. Very tasty!
The rain at the weekend meant that the sand was a bit waterlogged but that did not stop us having a great time playing with the water in there. We have been looking for shapes outside and found a cylinder in the form of the barrel which is great for rolling your friends in and pretending it is a train. We have also been drawing caterpillars on the ground with chalk.
We have had a royal feel to this week learning about the coronation. The children made union jacks using their finger prints. They had to listen to the instructions and print their fingerprints in the correct place. Outside we have been working together to make the golden carriage to take the King to Westminster Abbey.
On the carpet we have been playing with the small world castle and making up our own stories about kings and queens and of course you can't have a coronation without a crown, so we have all made one to wear at the ball.
On Friday we role played the coronation and all had the chance to be crowned King or Queen. We baked crown shaped biscuits and in the afternoon we put on our crowns and went to coronation ball.
This week we have beeen learning about the life cycle of a plant. We began by exploring pots, trowels and soil before planting our own sunflower seeds. Let's see who can grow the biggest sunflower.
As we have been learning about plants we decided to change our role area into a flower shop. The children have been lining up to buy their flowers and taking it in turns to be the shopkeeper.
During free play we have been finding out what happens to balls when you add water to the guttering. The children stayed at this activity for long periods of time repeating the game over and over. We have also been practicing our number recognition and counting by throwing a dice and finding the correct domino. some of the girls have been creating their own bridges to walk over with the large construction blocks.
We have begun our new term by learning about the festival of Eid. Many of the children who celebrate Eid were very enthusiastic about sharing how their families celebrate. We invited our parents in to come and design prayer mats and make mendhi patterns on hand templates.
We also made mobiles of the moon and star which is the symbol of Islam.
'Look it is the same' one child said after finishing their mobile.
As we have been learning about celebrations we decided to make our own glace icing and decorate biscuits with sprinkles. We had to be very careful not to add too much water to our icing sugar. They were delicious. Afterwards we washed up our utensils ready for next time.
The children really enjoy reading in the nursery and are often sitting with their friends sharing a story.
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