Learning focus at the moment
This term our baby rooms have had more than one focus, they have been settling the new children in to nursery life and building strong key person relationships by creating nurturing environments for the children. And alongside this our older babies have continued to be given opportunities to develop their self help skills and independence, like feeding themselves and helping with dressing and undressing routines. There has also been lots of outdoor play so the children can enjoy the change in season and develop their gross motor skills and language as we explore new words and sing new songs relating to the season. This term our toddler room have focused on independence skills, so they have been practicing getting dressed and undressed. They have also explored the change in season and used the natural resources to give opportunities for early maths by counting, filling and emptying. In preschool they have been busy settling new children in to the group, and they have established a routine so the children know what to expect when. They have also given the children lots of opportunities to develop their independence skills. And have focused on school readiness for the older Preschool children, who have been practising recognising their names and joining in “letters & Sounds” focused sessions during circle time. Preschool In preschool the children have had a very busy term embracing all that Autumn has to offer. They have explored the garden and used the natural resources in engaging activities. The children gathered lots of leaves, talking about the colour and texture and then they worked as a team to stick these on to some clear sticky back to create a lovely piece of art. They have also enjoyed conker season, gathering as many as they could on their nature walk around the nursery. The conkers were then used to promote early maths, counting and sorting. We are really lucky to have apple trees in our garden so the children have watched as the apples grew and changed colour and when they dropped from the trees they gathered them up and used them to do some still life paintings and some printing. Of course Autumn is also Spooky Season and the children have had great fun eagerly listening to the stories “Winnie the Witch” and “Room on the Broom”. To extend this learning opportunity the children gathered sticks in the garden and made their own magic wands. Of course we always try to have a balance of indoor and outdoor play, so the children have joined in our science kitchen sessions following the recipes, weighing and measuring to bake some special treats. As well as joining in our weekly Spanish Sessions. Toddlers The toddler room children have also been focusing on the change of season. They have explored how the garden is changing and how the trees are now losing their leaves and looking bare. They have all so talked about the change in the weather, which has helped them improve their independence skills by working on putting on their own hats and coats which they didn’t need during the warmer weather. It has been a wonderful time to explore the natural resources in our garden, we found conkers, acorns, pinecones and lots of different shaped and coloured leaves. They have worked on their mathematical skills looking at shapes and sizes and counting the conkers. Babies The children in baby room have been learning all about Autumn. And it has been great to use the natural resources provided by this season in our learning and play. The fallen leaves created the opportunity for the older children to use their gross motor skills to kick and throw the piles of leaves, whilst the younger children enjoyed the simple pleasure of just sitting amongst the leaves using their hands to explore the texture and the noises that the leaves made. We also extended this activity by using sticky glue and some of the leaves so they could create their own unique art work, it was also good for encouraging the children to use their pincer grip. Autumn is also a time for celebrating Spooky Season and Diwali. So we created a huge spiders web in the garden encouraging the children to pick up the spiders and develop their hand eye coordination too. To extend this activity we used our Spider puppets and sang one of our favourite songs “ Incy, Wincy, Spider”. The children got creative by decorating their own Diva pots to celebrate Diwali using brightly coloured paints and Eco friendly glitter. We also listened to some calming Indian music dancing with scarves and enjoying the sensory lights.
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