Beginning of the summer term.....

As usual we have been very busy getting involved in a variety of activities; some spontaneous activities and some which have been supporting the children's interests.

We have been exploring wet and dry textures through sensory play looking at the differences of how they look, feel and move...

"It's sticky"
"Its dried up"
"hard"
"soft"
"squish"

There has been wet sand, dry sand, corn flour gloop, cooked pasta, dried pasta, paint and jelly baff; exploring these sensory textures supports their fine motor skills with use of scoops and tools, they can explore how the textures move and how they can change. Its a great opportunity to develop their language skills, with the use of verbs and broadening their vocabulary describing what they are feeling and seeing.

 

This week we have had water play, this is always very popular with the children and is a great support of their mathematics with pouring, filling and calculating space and measure. You may have noticed extra bags of "wet/dirty" clothes in your child's bag as they tend to get very animated with the water; a sign of them having a good time at nursery!

 

At nursery we have a selection of animals to care for; the fish, Turbo the snail and our 3 guinea pigs Derek, Anna and Bella; it is part of our daily and weekly routine to ensure they are all fed, watered and clean which the children are really good at helping with.

 

 

The children showed a strong interest in caring for the animals and loved having the guinea pigs inside to see them closer; this has now been extended to having our role play area as a vets. At the vets there are a variety of soft toys to look after with fancy dress to get into character and a selection of implements to look after the animals. For some children they have now taken this into another direction and are doctors and nurses looking after each other.

 

 

There have been threading opportunities of teddy bears with string, wooden apples with a caterpillar who travels through the holes and wooden holey cheese. Threading supports their hand eye co-ordination, fine motor skills, maths skills and a good way to develop their attention skills.

 

Some of the children were using containers and using their imagination that they were drinking smoothies; this was supported this week by making fruit smoothies. They are involved in the whole process of making them from cutting the fruit, counting how much fruit needs to go in, pouring the milk/ yogurt, pressing the blender button and finally tasting the delicious smoothies!

 

The outdoors...
 
Out in the garden we have been making large marks with chalks on the ground, the development of gross motor skills is key to support the development of fine motor skills and early writing.

 

Some of us had the opportunity to visit Brunel woods; following a trail to see where we came out (where we started!!) and negotiating challenging hills and steps. The children looked at the array of different leaves and plants in the environment and enjoyed looking at and feeling the wooden statues. To focus on other senses we have we encouraged the children to close their eyes and listen to what sounds they can hear.