2023-2024
2023 - 2024
Week beginning 22nd July 2024
This week at nursery we visited forest school where we had a fire! We collected sticks and helped sort them into sizes. We spoke about fire safety and the importance of being sensible and following rules around fire. We watched with anticipation as the fire started and grew and enjoyed singing camp songs. We also had fun digging, riding on the swings, climbing and transporting and building using the natural resources.
Week beginning 15th July 2024
This week at nursery we had fun learning about looking after our teeth when a visitor from Hampshire Healthy Families cam to see us. We talked about healthy and unhealthy foods and how to brush and care for our teeth. We then used toothbrushes and toothpaste to clean giant sets of pretend teeth and played games about foods that are good and those that are bad for our teeth.
Week beginning 20th May
This week at nursery we have been enjoying being outside. We went on nature walks looking at the trees, flowers and plants, we smelt a bonfire which "was stinky" and talked about stinging nettles. We had lots of messy, muddy fun in the mud kitchen making mud cupcakes. We added water & petals to the mud before mixing it together and putting it in paper cases ready for cooking in the microwave. We enjoyed mixing lots of water to mud in the watering can and looking at the changes in consistency until we were able to pour it out. We explored shaving foam and talked about the the marks we could make with our fingers in it on black paper. We went on a bear hunt, joining in the story and doing the actions being very scared when we found him and ran away to hide! We enjoyed going on a pretend bus journey in the sunshine and had lots of fun chasing each other round the garden and swinging from the ropes on the climbing frame. We were very excited when we found a moth at Imagination Land and spent time looking closely at it, talking about what moths eat, where they live and how we needed to be careful as they are delicate.
Inside nursery we developed our creativity by painting on junk attached to the creative board and by designing and building houses out of the giant wooden blocks in the construction area. We practised our fine motor skills by threading laces through the wooden butterflies and we have enjoyed dressing up and finding out about occupations and the jobs people do - even pretending to be Miss Little by wearing her cardigan and lanyard!
Week beginning 13th May
This week at nursery we have been developing our creative skills. We explored a range of resources including tissue paper, pompoms and feathers using them to make beautiful collages which we were very proud of. In the construction area we used the big wooden blocks, the foam bricks, the Stickle Bricks and the planks of wood to create structures including tall towers, enclosures for the small world animals and dinosaurs and arm chairs for our friends to sit in! In the curiosity corner we enjoyed using the shoe shop, trying on shoes, slippers and welly boots of different sizes, talking about their size in relation to our feet and using toy money to pay for them. We worked on our gross motor skills by balancing along planks of wood and our fine motor skills by using tweezers to pick up pompoms. We have been carefully looking after our sunflower seeds by watering them and as they have grown so much we used rulers to measure their height, making comparisons and looking at the numbers we recognise.
In the garden we have been enjoying the sunshine and spending lots of time learning outside. In the mud kitchen we have been digging, filling up the toy construction trucks and then transferring the mud to other places and we have been scooping sand, filling gift bags and moving it to the scales where we used it to balance. We used pompoms to explore colour and what happens when we mix paint and used the chunky chalks to draw on the giant chalkboards, looking at and talking about the marks we made. We have continued to move in a variety of ways by crawling through tyres, hopping between equipment and stepping along the bridges climbing equipment as well as running around obstacles.
Week beginning 6th May
This week at nursery we have been enjoying the sunshine! In the nursery garden we have been moving our bodies in a variety of ways including climbing, stepping, jumping, crawling and swinging. We have explored the free standing climbing equipment, the bridge, climbing frame, bikes, space hoppers and hoops and investigated what happens when we move long pieces of foam back and forward in the air. We developed our creativity in the mud kitchen where we mixed mud, leaves, flowers and water to make chocolate cake and hot chocolate. We had fun playing in dens the teachers built for us and took the cooking equipment, blankets and pillows so we could camp out! We developed our mark-making skills and explored what happens when we mix colours when we painted on pieces of fabric netting and explored using our senses when we mixed shaving foam, paint and water. We examined plants and growing by looking at flowers, talking about what they need to grow and looking and naming the different parts including the stem, petals and leaves. We were very excited when we visited Forest School where we explored the wild areas, used the climbing and swinging equipment and went inside the Hobbit House where we snuggled up for stories.
Inside nursery we have been practising our threading skills, using laces to thread strings of beads. We developed our mathematical skills by matching the correct number of pompoms to numbered flowers and by copying simple repeating patterns using pegs and peg boards. We developed our role-play skills by playing in the garden centre buying and selling flowers, pots and gardening equipment. We enjoyed our mummies and daddies coming to our stay and play session again, sharing what we get up to in the garden and showing them all the exciting things we do.
Week beginning 29th April
This week at nursery we used scissors to cut straight, wavy and zig zag lines and developed our role-play skills, pretending to be nurses and doctors taking care of Mrs Bebbington who had a poorly throat and leg! We had lots of fun when some of our mummies came to play and we enjoyed sharing all the fun things we do in our nursery garden with them. We found out about growth and caring for living things when we planted peas in the window greenhouses and when we visited the school grounds to look at nature and drew what we could see. We went on nature walks and collected lots of natural materials including leaves, flowers and feathers which we then used to make nature collages. We have been developing our fine motor skills by sawing and hammering with real tools and using tweezers to pick up tiny pompoms, practising our maths by matching the amount to the numbers on caterpillars. We looked at the seeds we planted recently, talking about their roots and how they grow and then used rulers to measure them, comparing which was the tallest.
We practised our gross motor skills when we visited Imagination Land. We climbed, crawled up, scrambled, rolled down and jumped off the slope - taking turns and being careful of our friends. We developed this further in the nursery garden when we explored different ways of moving on the pieces of physical equipment. We enjoyed playing ice-cream shops in the role-play house, using sand and mud as ice-cream and developed our digging skills when searching for buried treasure in the mud pit. We had lots of fun on our Pirate dress up day where we spent the day looking for treasure, making pirate hats and maps, dancing and singing pirate songs and playing on the pretend pirate ship that we built together!
Week beginning 22nd April
This week in nursery, we were very excited when some of our mummies came to our stay and play session - they helped us with drawing and on the climbing frame, read us stories and shared snack time with us. We can't wait for them to come again next week! We practised our scissor skills by cutting natural resources including leaves, stems, herbs and flowers and talked about where they grow and what they looked and smelt like. We celebrated Earth day by making Earth crowns, colouring them in carefully and using scissors to cut them out and a stapler to make a band.
We developed our early writing skills, both inside and outside, by writing shopping lists for all the things we need to plants seeds and had fun when we went on nature walks looking at changes including leaves and flowers growing, smelling herbs we found and blowing dandelion clocks. We practised moving our bodies in a variety of ways by climbing, balancing and jumping on the garden climbing equipment and by joining some of the adults in using scarves to dance to different types of music, moving our bodies in time to the rhythm. We enjoyed using squirty bottles to spray water and make marks on various surfaces including the blackboards and the shed doors and planting sunflower seeds, talking about what they need into order to grow. We are looking forward to seeing which sunflower grows the tallest!
Week beginning 15th April
This week at nursery we have been finding out about how things grow. In the curiosity corner we explored gardening equipment, bugs and minibeasts, role-playing planting seeds and looking after them. We enjoyed sharing the Very Hungry Caterpillar story sack, using the props to help retell the story and enjoyed it when the caterpillar turned in to a beautiful butterfly. We have ben developing our hand -eye coordination and demonstrated our listening skills and ability to follow simple rules by using the real hammers to tap tacks into blocks of wood. We developed our creative and imaginative skills by going on holiday in the role-play area and using the telephone to phone the Police as well as pretending to make dinner with cornflakes, using a spoon to scoop and mix them in a pan. We enjoyed looking at books, sharing them with both the adults and our friends.
In the nursery garden we have been using our bodies to move bikes and scooters along and to make marks using our hands and fingers in sand. In the mud kitchen we had fun cooking with mud, leaves, fir cones and water mixing it all together to make mud soup! We have ben taking care of the babies, taking them for walks in the push chair and giving them baths. We had fun when we decided to turn the house into an ice-cream shop. designing and making our own posters which we then displayed on the front of our shop. When we realised we couldn't reach the top, we worked out that we could use the step ladder; we were very careful even putting on high vis jackets so we could keep safe!
Week beginning 25th March
This week at nursery we have enjoyed playing in the table top den that Mrs Bebbington made in the curiosity corner. We snuggled up with our friends in there, pretending to have sleepovers and camp out. We have been sharing books together and using our imaginative skills to design and build a house out of the wooden and foam blocks. We have been developing our fine motor skills by squeezing, squashing. rolling and cutting out shapes in playdough and by using the real tools to saw and tap tacks into pieces of wood using hammers. We investigated some keys that we found in nursery, trying them out in all the different locks and doors to see which ones worked.
In the garden we have been developing our early writing skills by mark-making on the large chalk boards and in the tuff tray, copying the lines on the roads the adults and drawn for the small world people. We have been practising pedalling the bikes and then washing them using soapy water and squeegees. We have been moving in a variety of ways at Imagination Land and using the garden adventure and climbing equipment to slide, climb and balance. In the mud pit we have been digging with spades.. scooping up the mud and examining it trying to find some minibeasts!
26th March - Easter activity morning
This morning we had special visitors at nursery when our relatives came to our Easter activity session. We made Easter cards and baskets for Easter chicks, coloured Easter pictures and best of all made, and ate, birds nest cakes! It was lovely sharing our nursery with everyone we love and we all had lots of fun together!
Week beginning 18th March
This week at nursery we had lots of fun when we visited forest school. We enjoyed trying out the climbing equipment and experimented with different ways of moving including scrambling, swinging, sliding, climbing and running. We developed our balancing skills and enjoyed jumping in big muddy puddles! We worked with each other to make the swings move and developed our friendships skills, helping each other with our wet suits and having chats. Back in the nursery garden, we developed our fine motor skills by using pipettes to transfer water from a pot to the window, watching and commenting on the coloured water as it made marks in the shaving foam. In the mud kitchen, we mixed water, food colouring, mud and sand to make cakes and soup. Over in Imagination Land, we collected lots of daisies and spent time talking about their colour, size and how they grow and were very excited when Mrs Bebbington found a worm which we enjoyed examining!
Inside nursery we have been looking after the babies in the curiosity corner and enjoyed using all the lovely equipment that our mummies and daddies donated - thank you! We have changed them, bathed them, dressed and undressed them, given them their bottles and taken them for walks in the buggy. In the creative area we explored paint and how we could make marks in it using materials such as ribbons and by printing with potatoes and by printing with potatoes and used feathers, tissue paper and some daisies we found at Imagination Land to create pictures which we were very proud of!
Week beginning 11th March
This week in nursery we had fun making our own sandwiches. We used knives to carefully spread the butter before choosing a filling like yummy jam. We then folded our sandwiches in half ready to take home and eat them. We looked after the dolls in the home corner, changing their nappies before putting their clothes on and in the construction area we used the tool kit to pretend to saw the long wooden planks, the cable reels and mend things. We had fun exploring movement when we rolled the large tyres around the classroom and enjoyed going on holiday where we then had a sleepover with our friends. We enjoyed using puppets to put on a puppet show for our friends, taking it in turns to perform and be in the audience.
In the garden we explored what happens when we paint on the blackboards with water and foam rollers, being very interested in the patterns they made. We developed our ball skills and our coordination by throwing balls into hoops - it was trickier than we thought but we kept trying! We explored what happens when we roll objects down the guttering into the water trough and used our imagination to mix paint, water, mud and small world insects to make our own witches brew. We used our imaginations to pretend that the long foam tubes were fire hoses and worked together to go round the garden putting out fires.
Mother's Day Stay and Play Morning 8th March
We had lots of fun today when our mummies and nannies came to play for the morning. We made Mother's Day cards with beautiful gems, sequins and stickers, iced biscuits and decorated them with sprinkles, had snacks and played inside and out in the nursery garden in the lovely Spring sunshine. It was lovely sharing our nursery and enjoying time together!
World Book Day - 7th March
Today we celebrated World Book day by dressing up as our favourite book characters. Don't we all look great!
Week beginning 4th March
In nursery this week we have been busy exploring technology including phones, cameras and laptops in the office role-play area and developing early writing skills by mark-making in notebooks on post it notes, on whiteboards with marker pens and by drawing round our friends with chalk on the floor. We enjoyed building towers and structures including rockets and bridges with the coloured wooden blocks, carefully selecting particular shapes for a purpose such as triangular block as the top of the rocket and enjoyed finding out what happens when we roll objects down ramps. We have been working hard on developing our fine motor skills practising cutting paper with scissors and threading cotton reels onto laces. We explored printing and shapes when we used a variety of shape cutters to print in paint and showed how kind and helpful we can be when we helped each other put our wetsuits on for the garden.
In the garden we have been jumping between and off equipment, and in muddy puddles and have been developing our balancing skills on the climbing frame ladders. We explored natural objects in the tuff tray including bark, pine cones, shells and sticks talking about what they feel and look like. We explored the water wall, using the stands and pipes to move the water from the wall into buckets and then to the sand and mud pits and had lots of fun filling and then emptying jugs, buckets and pans with water. We enjoyed the sunshine and spent time outside running, chasing and bouncing on the space hoppers.
Week beginning 26th February
This week at nursery we have enjoyed using the stage area set up in the curiosity corner where we have played musical instruments, used the CD player to play our favourite songs and performed dancing and singing to our friends who sat and watched us. In the home corner we continued our exploration of technology when we used the toy washing machine, switching it on and off using the buttons. We worked as a team with our friends to build giant structures and towers with the large wooden blocks in the construction area making a car with a door that could move to let the passengers out! We have been busy developing our fine motor skills by threading laces through the wooden lacing butterflies and by building with the Lego bricks. In the creative area we have been learning about numbers by painting dots with cotton buds on caterpillar pictures and have been using our imaginations to create beautiful collages with a range of creative resources including tissue paper, pom-poms, feathers and sequins.
In the garden we have been having lots of fun despite the cold and rain! We have been carefully transferring water from the tuff tray to the mud pit then mixing it with mud and cooking it in the mud kitchen microwave. We enjoyed digging in the soil looking for bugs and were very excited when we found a caterpillar which we examined with a magnifying glass. We developed our imaginative skills by making mud ice-cream and then serving it in the role-play ice-cream shop as well as going on a journey in an open top bus to visit a giant mountain. We worked hard to kindly give our friends rides around the garden in the bikes and had fun practising our ball skills by shooting them into hoops.
Week beginning 19th February
This week at nursery we have enjoyed playing the in the role-play hospital in the curiosity corner. We explored the equipment in the doctor's kit including the thermometer and stethoscope, looked at x-rays and found out about our bodies in books and by looking at a skeleton. We pretended to be nurses and doctors and cared for the poorly dolls, our friends and the teachers using the doctor's kit, giving injections and then writing out prescriptions in our note books. In the home corner we used a wok and made dinner using lots of healthy vegetables and in the construction area we used the foam bricks to build towers and then used a tape measure to see how tall it was. We have been busy developing our creativity using paper plates, paint and a range of creative resources to make our faces after looking at our features in a mirror and talking about them. We had lots of fun using roller paints on giant sheets of paper, showing lots of interest in the marks they made.
In the garden we have been busy developing our gross motor skills when we climbed, jumped, scrambled, balanced and slid on the garden climbing equipment. We continued to enjoy using the bikes, working hard to practise pedalling which proved tricky when our friends are passengers! We had fun exploring the sounds of the different instruments on the music wall, experimenting with fast, slow, loud and quiet. Despite the rain we enjoyed cooking dinner in the mud kitchen. We used a range of pots, pans and jugs to collect water from puddles, the tuff tray and the gravity table and then mix it with the mud to make hot chocolate, soup and cupcakes remembering to set the timer on the microwave and be careful when we took it out because it was hot!
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Week beginning 5th February
We have had a busy week at nursery exploring both inside and in the garden. Outside we enjoyed cooking in the mud kitchen using spoons, spades and scoops to dig up the mud and transfer it carefully to frying pans, pots and cake tins. We have spent lots of time in the sand pit digging, filling buckets, making sand castles and moving the sand around using the diggers and dumper trucks. We had lots of fun exploring the water wall. We moved the pipes and tubes to see how we could move the water and used lots of different containers to catch the water including watering cans, moulds, cones, bowls and jugs. We enjoyed the bikes and scooters, working hard to pedal and move them around especially when our friends were in the trailers and we gave them rides! We continued to develop our mark-making skills by chalking on the giant blackboards and explored what happens when we used water and squeegees to wipe off our drawings.
Inside nursery we enjoyed using the Very Hungry Caterpillar story sack to retell the story and developed our scissor skills by snipping paper and cutting pieces of playdough. In the curiosity corner we explored Chinese New Year, looking at and handling the resources, sharing books, trying on traditional Chinese clothes and tasting Chinese food. We developed our creative skills by using boxes, papers, pipe cleaners and glues to stick and join the materials to make models and practised our fine motor skills by using tweezers to pick up pom poms and cooked noodles.
Week beginning 29th January
This week at nursery we have been busy developing our creativity and imaginative skills. In the creative area we have been using a range of materials including boxes, cartons, glue, feathers, pom poms and sequins to make models including robots and monsters. We have explored colour mixing and texture by using tools and our hands to paint in cling film and in the construction area we used a selection of large boxes to make cars and houses.
We have enjoyed spending lots of time outside. In the nursery garden we have been digging in the sand pit, using spades and shovels to move the sand, fill buckets and to look for buried treasure. We played with the dinosaurs in the tuff tray, exploring the marks their feet made in the wet sand and mud and then comparing them to our own welly prints in the sand pit. We had fun mixing sand, mud, leave sand twigs to make strawberry cakes in the mud kitchen, using the microwave and setting the timer to cook them. We enjoyed exploring our voices and how they sounded and changed when we talked into giant tubes and used chalks to make marks and draw pictures on the giant chalkboard easels. We especially enjoyed water play this week: we splashed in our welly boots in trays of water and worked put how we could move water on the water wall using tubes, pipes and buckets. We experimented with different ways of moving in Imagination Land by rolling, scrambling, running and jumping and in the garden we climbed and balanced on the rope climbing frame.
Week beginning 15th January
This week at nursery we have had lots of fun exploring using our senses. In the creative area we took part in sensory play with cornflakes, enjoying how they felt and how they sounded when we scrunched them between our fingers. We made our own pizzas, being careful with knives when we cut up vegetables and developed our fine motor skills when we spread the tomato puree carefully over the base – we were very excited to take them home and see what they tasted like! We continued to practise our mark-making skills when we did finger painting, used roller paints to make marks on large sheets of paper inside and in the garden made marks with water and a range of tools on the giant chalkboards.
We have been busy developing our role-play and understanding of different occupations, playing in the home corner office using laptops and telephones and in the fruit and vegetable shop where we took it in turns to be the shopkeeper and the customer. We have been working hard on our sharing, turn-taking and listening skills by playing simple games, parachute play in a large group and circle time listening activities. In the garden we have been riding the bikes and using the pedals to move us along and enjoyed exploring the sea creatures which were frozen in the ice in the tuff tray.
Week beginning 8th January
We have spent lots of time outside at nursery this week despite the very cold weather. We have been developing our personal and social skills by role-playing shopping in the fruit and vegetable market taking it in turns to be the customer and the seller. We explored the sounds of the different instruments on the music wall, practising making loud and soft and quick and slow sounds. We developed our physical skills on the garden equipment by climbing and balancing on the frames, going over the bridge, pedalling the bikes and throwing, catching, rolling and patting balls. We worked on our creative and mark-making skills using brushes to paint on the windows and enjoyed then washing it off the next day. We especially enjoyed exploring ice which formed in various places and trying to work out ways of releasing the sea creatures frozen in ice in the tuff tray!
Inside nursery we have been spoons, scoops and containers to pour and move porridge oats and enjoyed sprinkling it, making patterns in it using our fingers and even using it in the home corner to cook dinner and feed the babies. We have been busy developing our scissor skills, exploring books and textures and using a range of boxes, tubes and bottles to make junk models. We talked about our pets and enjoyed playing with toy animals and pet cages. We have continued to explore large boxes and enclosures, working out how to fit ourselves in and using them as cars, boats and houses. We had fun mixing paints with rice crispies and then using spoons to carefully scoop the mixture into cake tins and then really enjoyed making and eating real chocolate crispie cakes the next day!
Week beginning 1st January
This week in nursery we have been busy exploring using or senses. We cut open lemons and limes, talking about what they look and feel like and then tasted them, although we weren't sure we liked them very much! We enjoyed fitting ourselves into different spaces including boxes, the clothes horse and even shelves and had fun trying to fit our friends in too. We have been exploring clothes in the curiosity corner and pretending to wash and iron them and enjoyed trying on a range of hats including cycle helmets. We have ben using props to support our role-play including using a banana as a telephone and worked together with foam blocks in the construction area using them to build towers and walls. We have been developing our fine motor skills by placing pegs into the peg boards and cutting resources to add to our pictures and junk models.
In the garden we were fascinated with how the wind blows and enjoyed running around with lengths of fabric, foil blankets and scarves watching how they move. We used various tools to make marks with water including pasting brushes, rollers and squeegees and practised moving in different ways by balancing on the climbing frame, walking over the bridge and jumping between the tyres.
Week beginning 11th December
This week we have been very busy having lots of Christmassy fun! We have been singing Christmas songs, making Christmas cards, decorating tree decorations, icing Christmas biscuits, dancing to Christmas music and dressing up in Christmas costumes. We had lots of fun when our mummies and daddies came into nursery to watch a Christmas film and make some Christmas crafts!
We have had a fun filled, but busy first term at nursery and are looking forward to the New Year and all the exciting activities we know we are going to be taking part in.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from everyone at nursery!
Week beginning 4th December
This week at nursery we have had lots of fun getting ready for Christmas! We enjoyed exploring baskets of decorations including baubles, beads and tinsel which we used to decorate the Christmas tree in the curiosity corner. In the creative area we wrapped junk boxes with Christmas wrapping paper and developed our fine motor skills using scissors to cut the paper and tape. We explored colour by mixing powder paints and then using them to paint our junk models and used our senses to explore the paint by painting with our hands and feet. We were interested in the numbers on the giant tape measure and how cameras work and continued to develop friendships, sharing books in the reading pod and dancing in groups.
In the garden we had lots of muddy fun experimenting what happens when we mix mud and water and jumping in muddy puddles. We used the trikes to move around the garden, enjoying what happened when we went through the puddles. We explored shaving foam with our hands and fingers before using paintbrushes to make marks in it on the giant blackboards and practised our balancing skills on the climbing frame.
Week beginning 27th November
This week in nursery we’ve had lots of fun exploring. In the curiosity corner we looked at technology, taking apart an old computer and examining what’s inside, finding out about cameras, explored how magnets work and using magnifying glasses to explore how things look close up. We built on our understanding of how things work by using a real food mixer to make cupcakes and showed how sensible we can be by operating the controls ourselves. In the construction area we demonstrated how we can follow rules for safety by using real tools including screwdrivers to undo screws on the giant wooden blocks and a drill to make holes in pieces of wood. We have practised our mark-making skills by drawing wavy and zig zag lines as well as writing on clipboards and in diaries. We have continued to be creative using fabric to make bear gloves, making models from junk and adding sparkles, building with Lego, cooking dinner in the home corner and using instruments to make music to dance to.
Outside we have had lots of fun despite the very cold weather. We have been riding trikes and bikes, played football in the Infant playground and climbed and balanced on the nursery garden climbing equipment. We explored ice that had formed in the tuff tray, using hammers and large sticks to break it up. In Imagination Land we moved our bodies in lots of ways including rolling, jumping, running, twisting and crawling. We enjoyed sliding down the slope on our tummies and when we needed a bit of help, our friends were happy to help!
Week beginning 20th November
This week at nursery we have been developing our fine and gross motor physical skills. In the big playground we have been kicking, throwing and catching balls of different sizes as well as being brave and jumping from a height including the slope in Imagination Land. We enjoyed balancing on the benches and swinging upside down as well as dancing on the stage and crawling through the tunnel.
Inside nursery we have been drawing round each other, including the nursery teacher sand even Mrs Searle, to reveal the shapes. We have been working on our pencil control by using stencils and developing the strength in our fingers and hands by taking part in dough disco. We have enjoyed looking at books with our friends, practising our number writing skills and seeing if we can build towers as tall as ourselves before they fall over! We have been sharing the Bear Hunt story and retelling the familiar parts by acting it out and have had lots of fun engaging in the camping enhancement in the curiosity corner. We have enjoyed playing in the home corner where we engaged in imaginary play, setting up beds for the sleepy babies.
Week beginning 13th November
This week we have been reading Julia Donaldson books and to build on our understanding of the Smartest Giant in Town story, we wrote letters to George the Giant and used card, scissors, glue and gems to make our own crowns just like George wears. We have been finding out about Diwali by exploring items in the curiosity corner including books, lamps and clothes and manipulating clay to make our own clay lamps decorating them with brightly coloured jewels.
We have been busy developing our early writing skills by writing shopping lists so that we can make pizzas next week, writing letters from our name and making marks in playdough using pencils as well as exploring alphabet puzzle books. We explored light by shining lamps onto the floor, found out what sounds musical instruments make and enjoyed transporting teddy around nursery on a trolley. We practised out turn-taking skills by playing the Dear Zoo matching game and developed friendships by pretending to go on a picnic, using playdough as our food. Outside we have made the most of the very wet weather by dressing in our splash suits and welly boots and splashing in muddy puddles!
Week beginning 6th November
This week we have been busy investigating. We’ve been folding paper aeroplanes and taking them onto the playground to test out their flying abilities as well as exploring rotational schemas by rolling objects. We have been exploring size and shape by squeezing ourselves into spaces which has developed our mathematical knowledge and interest in enclosing ourselves. We had lots of fun transporting objects as well as each other, especially in the nursery’s forest school trolley!
We have worked hard to develop our fine motor skills, using scissors to cut grass in the garden and boxes inside nursery and used our imagination to recreate our memories of Bonfire Night and fireworks using chalks and black paper. We have practised writing letters from our name and used tools including rolling pins, cutters and knives to ‘cook’ with the playdough in the home corner. We have been exploring occupations by using the Doctor’s kit equipment to make the poorly baby feel better and practised our dressing skills by putting on a selection of dressing up clothes. We have been very busy making friends and being kind, sharing and giving each other hugs.
Week beginning 30th October
We've had a fun week at nursery exploring spiders, minibeasts and pumpkins! We used magnifying glasses to examine pumpkins of all different sizes, shapes and even colours, using tools to cut them open and find out what's inside. We explored rotational schemas by rolling them to each other and found out about colour by using prime colours to paint pumpkins, having lots of fun finding out about the marks they made when we rolled them along sheets of plastic and after cutting them in half using them to make prints. We continued developing our mark-making skills using water and paintbrushes to paint on the playground and even laid down and let our friends paint around us to reveal our shape!
We developed our fine motor skills by using tweezers to pick up cereals and place them in cake tins. We used pens to draw and make marks to represent numbers in note books and recognised familiar letters from our names. We used hammers to knocks pegs into the pumpkins and screwed plastic nuts onto bolts. We matched the sorting bears by size and then counted them and explored the magnetic building blocks using them to balance and build structures. We enjoyed playing with water, filling containers and transporting it around the garden before using it to bath the babies.
Week beginning 16th October
This week at nursery we have loved making the most of the rainy weather. We played with the water wall and worked together to fill up buckets before tipping them out to make a puddle which really enjoyed jumping in. We used sticks to bang the drums on the music wall and found ice in the garden, exploring what happens when you throw it on the ground - it makes a noise!
Inside nursery we have been exploring lights and perspectives, used magnifying glasses to look at objects and print around the classroom and we had lots of fun trying on different hats and headwear. We used gloop and cocktail sticks to decorate potatoes and developed our knowledge of shapes by matching and sorting. We really enjoyed painting with water and exploring colour mixing by using our funky fingers to manipulate the prime colours to discover what happens when you combine them. To develop this learning further we read the story Mix It Up at mat time.
It’s been a very busy, fun half term and we can’t wait to see what the next one brings!
Week beginning 9th October
This week we have have been exploring how things move, making marks with pencils attached to cars, building with loose parts and developing simple role-play through having sleepovers and wearing our pyjamas to nursery, what sleepy heads! We have been finding out about vehicles in the curiosity corner, exploring attaching and sticking items together and printing with natural objects including conkers, pine cones and leaves. We have been using puppets and small world creatures to build up play and stories and enjoyed listening to a story about a monster called Boris. We built a see saw using wooden blocks and planks, made marks in paint using toy cars and recreated the story Whatever Next using props.
In the garden we have been using the trolley to transport sticks and had fun rolling natural objects down pipes and tubes. We used tweezers to pick the seeds out of the head of a giant sunflower and painted a tyre, looking at the prints it made when we rolled it along the pavement. We enjoyed using whiteboard pens to make marks on the garden whiteboards and riding around the Infant playground on the bikes. We have had fun exploring outside, looking and talking about the bark on trees and the signs of Autumn including conkers and the falling leaves.
Week beginning 2nd October
This week at nursery we have been busy developing our fine motor control. We used tweezers to pick up cereal, being very careful not to crush it – this was a bit tricky but we persevered! We enjoyed using marker pens to draw shapes and to write numbers on the whiteboards and this helped develop our mathematical knowledge too. We continued developing our maths skills by identifying patterns in books, completing inset puzzles and by representing numbers on our fingers when we were counting. We especially enjoyed exploring the shape resources in the maths area which we used to build, sort and match. We developed our building skills in the construction area by using a range of loose parts including offcuts of wood, small slices of bamboo and wooden discs to build towers.
Outside we had lots of fun exploring our voices sound when we’re talking in to tubes, experimenting with how we could change the sounds and laughing at the results. We explored cause and effect, blowing feathers out of our hands and finding out what happens when we roll things. We have continued to develop our physical skills when we practised throwing hoops over cones and used the bikes in the Infant playground. We enjoyed visiting Imagination land, especially playing hide and seek there – we found lots of places to hide and used our counting skills when we were the seeker. We had fun when it suddenly started raining and we all had to run and take cover under the nursery shelter and found it very funny when Miss McCoy and Mrs Bebbington came out in their umbrella hats!
Week beginning 25th September
This week at nursery we have been busy exploring and developing or physical skills. We have been using our bodies to crawl, run, balance, climb and slide on the nursery garden equipment and over in Imagination Land. We have had fun jumping through hoops, throwing and catching balls, squeezing ourselves in to spaces and playing hide and seek. We have been developing our fine motor skills by making marks on the giant chalkboards in the garden and using chubby chalks to draw on the nursery classroom floor. We enjoyed scooping cereal, mud and sand with spoons, shovels and cups and used the small world animals to make footprints in shaving foam in the tuff tray.
Now we are all getting used to being at nursery we are beginning to play alongside and with others. We took turns to drive the fire engine, racing to put out the fires, cooked dinner with conkers for our friends in the home corner and enjoyed sharing the creative resources when painting the junk models we created. We waited patiently to wash up our cups after snack time and worked with others to build towers and structures using Duplo, cubes and the giant foam bricks. While we are having lots of fun with the other children, we still enjoy relaxing by ourselves on a bean bag with a good book!
Week beginning 18th September
This week at nursery we have been busy developing our creative and fine motor skills. We have used paintbrushes, rollers and sponges to paint pictures and enjoyed mixing the paints to create new colours. In the mark-making area we used pencils and crayons to colour in pictures and worked hard to hold the pencils correctly helping to get us ready for when we later learn to write at school. In the home corner we have been recreating our experiences from home, cooking dinner, putting the babies to bed, having a chat on the telephone and making a lovely cup of tea! We have had lots of fun creating sounds with musical instruments as well as various objects in nursery including metal trays, saucepans and spoons. We particularly enjoyed exploring different household appliances including hoovers, irons, hairdryers and blenders and food mixers in the curiosity corner.
In the maths area we have been developing our mathematical knowledge by exploring, matching and sorting shapes and by completing inset and number puzzles. We have been exploring movement and transporting by rolling objects down tubes and pipes and moving them using vehicles and trolleys.
In the garden we have been mark-making with water using different sized paintbrushes on wood, the giant chalkboards and using bubbly water on the playground. We have enjoyed cooking in the mud kitchen using twigs, leaves and pine cones putting our recipes into the microwave before sharing them with our friends. The wet and rainy weather has given us lots of opportunities to splash in puddles and we are working hard to learn to put on our welly boots and wetsuits by ourselves!
Week beginning 11th September
This week at nursery we have been enjoying the Autumn sunshine and spending lots of time outside. In the nursery garden we have been finding out what sounds we can make on the music wall, especially the drums and xylophone and have had fun dancing to the different tunes we made. We have been busy using our bodies to climb, scramble and balance on the rope frame and to have ago at moving safely all by ourselves. We have been trying out different vehicles including bikes, trikes, giant diggers and even the role-play fire engine where we responded quickly to all emergencies! We used water, brushes and sponges to make marks on the walls, floors and giant blackboards and enjoyed investigating objects, plants and insects with the magnifying glasses. We enjoyed digging with spades, scoops and spoons in the mud pit and cooked dinner in the mud kitchen adding leaves, twigs and pinecones to our meals! We had lots of fun using blankets and pillows to build snuggly dens where we pretended to have sleepovers.
Inside nursery we have used chunky chalks to make marks and draw pictures on the floor, enjoying filling large spaces and making tracks to drive the toy cars along. We used our problem solving skills to work out how to open locks using some keys we found and had fun matching the right key up with the right lock. We also used magnifying glasses to investigate, looking at the nursery toys, furniture and even each our faces finding it very funny to see how big everyone’s eyes looked.
We had our first trips to Imagination Land and showed good listening skills by following the rules for keeping safe. We explored the slope, tunnel, stage, balancing beams and wigwam and enjoyed pretending the house was in ice-cream shop. We developed our physical skills by running, rolling, crawling, balancing, climbing and jumping and used our senses to explore the leaves that have started falling from the trees, enjoying the textures and sounds they made when we scrunched them up.
Week beginning 4th September
We’ve had a busy first week back at nursery. The children who remained with us from last year have quickly settled back into nursery life and have been very kind towards the new children who have been busy getting to know everyone and learning the nursery rules and routines. We are very proud of them all!
All the children have had great fun exploring the classroom, garden and all the exciting activities on offer. We are looking forward to having lots more adventures together!
