This week we started off by learning about World Earth day. We used blue and green paint to make a hand collage of the Earth, with the title 'Small hands can change the world'. This statement is so true, we talk with the children regularly about helping one another and other animals/ insects we come across. We talk about recycling and making sure we do not drop rubbish on the floor and we plant seeds and tend to plants, all of which support our planet. 

We have also continued our interest in The Hungry Caterpillar. We have been watching our caterpillars carefully and they have really grown in size! We have been looking at the words caterpillar and butterfly and the amazing changes they go through in the cocoon. The children have been very interested in making dens this week and the idea of enclosure so we have made plenty of hiding spaces in nursery. We would love to see any dens made at home and share them at circle times. Please email the office with any pictures. 

This week we have started our new story, The Hungry Caterpillar. As many of the children already know this story well we have already been making our story maps and thinking about the life cycle of the butterfly. Our caterpillars have also arrived and we are very excited to watch them grow, ask your child about them that are very exciting!

We have also been exploring our fruit and veg stall role play area, looking at shopping lists and what we like to buy when we are out with our mummy's and daddy's. 

We got the opportunity to visit the pond this week. We used the nets to scoop in the water and see what creatures we could find. Unfortunately we were unsuccessful this time but we will keep popping back to see if we can find any frogs or frogspawn. 

This week we have been exploring Easter. We have been down on the field finding some different spring time flowers and grass to use to make decorated eggs. We have also been using different tools to make marks, we used forks in paint to make makes on card for Easter cards - we hope you liked them!

We have also been getting messy with paint, soil/sand and shaving foam. This opened up lots of opportunity for exploration, discussions and experimenting with different media and textures. 

Have a lovely Easter holiday and we will see you on 15th April. 

This week has been about exploring the festival of Holi. We have looked at what the festival is about and had a go at the tradition of throwing powder paint down on the school field. We have listened to music and had a go at the dances too. 

We have been practising our scissor skills on card, paper and playdough. 

We have also been embracing the spring sunshine with lots of water play, gardening,  and parachute games. 

This week is STEM week at school, we have been doing our own experiments linked to time, our focus story and seasons. 

We have been experimenting with shaving foam, water and food colouring to see how clouds work and watching the 'rain' falling through to the water. We have also been experimenting with ice. We used bowls of warm water, cold water, salt and nothing to test if our hypotheses were correct. The children thought that warm water and salt would melt the fastest as they put salt on the roads when it is cold. We were half right the warm water did melt it fastest but we noticed the water got cold very quickly! 

This week we have been exploring a range of different interests. We have found ice in the garden that sparked discussions about its formation, the feel of it and what shapes are made when it breaks. "I found a triangle". 

We have also been down to the school field and found lots of different plants starting to grow. Kirsty then provided us with some fresh cut flowers to explore further. We used scissors to cut them, wax crayons to make marks through paper, soil to make arrangements and paper and glue to make some pictures. What a lot of learning! 

This week we have been using our knowlege of our story to act it out and make story maps. The children are so good at retelling the story now why not ask your child what their favourite part is?

We have also been exploring the water and the children made their own puddles on the floor to splash in. 

The children have been getting into role play this week with the home corner now transformed from a hair dressers to a cafe. The children have been looking at recipe books and 'Cooking' delicious treats for their friends. 

This week we have introduced a new story for this term which is 'We're going on a bear hunt' by Micheal Rosen. We have started to act out the book and we have been exploring some sensory activities linked to the book. We have had some squelchy mud made out of cornflour, paint and water and the rain has helped us make a river to splash in, in our garden. 

We have also been out exploring the start of spring both on site and walking out and about. We have found some daffodils, snowdrops and some buds on the trees. We also found some puddles to splash in and some mud to stomp in as well. 

This week have been exploring the colour red and the links it has to festivals and celebration days. We have look at Valentines day, mixing colours red and white to make pink water, exploring petals and shapes making a big shared piece of artwork. 

We have also been looking at Chinese new year or Lunar New Year. The colour red is considered lucky so we have explored red coloured rice, chop sticks and noodles as well as the Dragon/Lion dances. We have made our own Lion costume and had a go at dancing to the music. 

This week we have been thinking about the troll and trying to look at the story from a different perspective. We visited a near by bridge that we could walk underneath. We thought of some good describing words such as: "dark, wet and cold". We have been thinking about how this would make the troll feel to live somewhere like that. We thought about our own homes and how they are warm and light. We also thought about how the Billy Goats could help the troll and show kindness to make him happier and what makes us happy. 

We have also been using the blocks to make a home for the troll that would be nicer than under the bridge. 

This week we have exploring loose parts and prepositions. We have explored under, over and through using the gutters and frames and made dens, hideaways and even made an aeroplane! 

We have used the playdough with out tools using shells instead to make marks and expand our creativity. 

On Thursday we went down to the nest to have some outdoor learning, we used our bodies to climb and slide and toasted crumpets on the fire. 

Friday we joined in with Eco week. We used the litter pickers squeezing with our hands to pick up the recycling and sort it out. We spoke about how we can keep our planet clean and tidy as well as what can be recycled. 

This week we have continued our exploration of the Billy Goats Gruff. We have practiced our scissor skills and made masks using string to make beards for our goats, been out on a walk to find some bridges which was very exciting although we didn't find any trolls! We did find bridges made out of different materials, some were made out of wood, some out of stone and the biggest one of all was made out of metal and had cars instead of water underneath it. 

We have also been excited to see ice again this week; we have made ice sun catchers by leaving water and other natural materials in plates of water and hanging them up in the garden, we have used sticks and our hands to make marks on different surfaces in the school grounds and found some very crunchy grass on the school field that had changed from green to white it was so frosty. 

This week we have started looking at our new focus story of The Billy Goats Gruff. We have listened to the story and made our own story maps to re tell the story. The children have loved exploring the concept of bridges and already brought the theme to their small world play and their role play outside, taking it in turns to be the troll. 

We have also explored some ice that we had to use hammers and tools to free the dinosaurs as well as hair dressers restlying the hair in the tuff tray. 

This week we have been following the children's interests in small world. The children showed an interest in the Train track in particular so we extended that interest by adding a sensory element with snow made from cornflour. There has also been plenty of christmas activities from jar lanterns to mince pie making. 

If your child will be using the 30 hour funding from January please make sure your code is valid and been applied for by the 31st December 2023. We will need your code by the 3rd January to process it.  For more information please look at www.childcarechoices.gov.uk and to check availability. ( Opens 1st January 2024). 

This week we have been exploring loose parts for construction. The children have embraced the open ended resources and used their imagination and ingenuity to  make all sorts of things from music shakers to binoculars and goggles!

After exploring the frost outside last week we made some ice for inside. We froze some paint in ice cube trays with sticks and used them to make marks on different paper and ourselves. It was great fun to use the ice and opened up area for discussion such as the colours mixing together and changing to why and how the ice was melting and changing.  Using phrases such as "I wonder why or I wonder how" can really help children with deeper thinking and enhance discussions. 

This week we have started our Christmas exploration. We have been wrapping boxes in our role play elf workshop and decorated our Christmas tree with loose parts - it looks beautiful! We have also been looking at rhyming words that we have been finding in our focus book Stickman. The frost was an amazing learning opportunity. We examined closely the form it makes on leaves, the feel of it and how we can make it change back into water using our breath. 

 This week we have been exploring fireworks and bonfires. We explored the sounds and look of fireworks and recalled if we have seen them recently. We have been out an about a couple of times this week. Monday we went to find sticks to create our bonfire pictures and then on Thursday we went out and found some amazing puddles in the fields. We also compared different natural objects that we found on the way and used our mathematical language to describe them. "My stick is bigger than me!" , "my stick is little". 

Friday we have been looking and learning about Remembrance Day. We watched a cartoon that is very good for young children to help them understand the importance of the poppy. 

Ask your nursery child if they can remember why we wear them. 

This week we have been exploring Dia De Los Muertos otherwise known as the day of the dead. We have spoken about people we do not see anymore and made a brightly coloured collage using different materials to celebrate. 

We have also been making potions, mixing different media and seeing what happens. We mixed colours to see changes and added some smelly herbs to add to the sensory experience.  

The children have been really into making marks this week so we have set up an area where they could paint on a vertical surface which helps to build shoulder strength in preparation for early writing. 

This week we have been exploring some autumn themed books Room on the Broom and Pumpkin soup. We have enjoyed the sensory experience of mixing the different media such as noodles and rice and scooping out the pumpkins. 

We have been testing out our fine motor skills too by using scissors to cut playdough and tweezers to save the bugs from a big spider web. As well as enjoying the changing weather - we do love a bit of rain!!