From April to May we will be having an enhanced focus on how things grow and change.
Spring has inspired conversations about flowers, trees and leaves, weather, and nature. We introduced some painted Lady caterpillars into the nursery to watch the process of them changing into butterflies and this has inspired the children to talk about all sorts of lifecycles from people, trees, animals, frogs, etc.
Dolphins are two to three year olds and our preschoolers
Some of the activities we will be doing this month to support this concept will be:
Reading books about bugs, plants, insects and nature.
A trip to the library to get books about on lifecycles
A trip to Homebase or Sheen garden centre to collect materials for planting in our flower boxes.
Outings to the park to take photos of nature.
Clay modelling of bugs, plants, caterpillars.
Butterfly prints
Junk modelling caterpillars
Daily conversations about the development of our painted lady butterflies and then finally setting them free!
What you could do to support your children at home:
Take them on a bug hunt, talk about the bugs you saw, then draw pictures of them.
Go for a walk and count how many houses have gardens.
Set up a special gardening patch for your child.
Go to the library and get some books out about natures.
Read the Hungry Caterpillar (again!)
Look for tadpoles in ponds
Go to Kew Gardens
Show your child pictures of you when you were a baby, child, teenager and talk to them about growing up.
What are we doing in Starfish this month?
From April to May we will be having a focus on signing.
This is the age of significant communication building. The children understand a lot more than they can communicate to us in words and sometimes this is frustrating for the children. We are planning a focus on Makaton signing with the children. Signing does not replace language development, it supports language development and communication.
Starfish are our toddler group.
Some of the activities we will be doing this month will be:
Making a display of Makaton signs for parents to learn and staff to use as support for signing to children.
Encouraging children to sign as a way of communication with staff and each other.
Introducing children to Makaton symbols and using them to help support children in anticipating the routines of the group.
Supporting children in developing confidence in learning new skills and communication techniques through the symbols and signs by making them a part of our everyday activities.
What you could do to support your children at home:
Take a look at our display and learn some symbols and signs.
Take a book out on baby signing and start using them with your children.
Ask a team member for a sheet of symbols to take away and use.
Learn and sing songs with your child that involve signing (you know loads already; ‘Where is Thumbkin?’ ‘Two little dicky birds sitting on a wall, etc’.
Take a look at the Makaton website;
http://www.makaton.org/about/about.htm
What a
re we doing in Seahorses this month?
From April to May we will be having a focus on self help skills.
We have just introduced some new furniture to the room which will enable the babies to have better opportunities for exploring the ‘continuous curriculum’, making decisions for their own learning and allowing them to re-explore toys over and over until they have satisfied their curiosity fully.
Seahorses are our babies.
Some of the activities we will be doing this month to support this concept will be:
Placing photographs of the items that are in the new baskets and containers on them so children know what to find hidden away.
Encouraging children to pull out baskets and explore what is in them.
Role model placing the resources back into the baskets when they have finished with them.
Emphasise language such as ‘Where is it?’, ‘What’s in here?’, ‘What have you found’, ’Where does it go?’
What you could do to support your children at home:
Role model and encourage your babies to put their toys away when they have finished with them.
Involve them in the tidying up experience, rather than clearing it away after they have gone to bed.
Take your own pictures of their toys and put them on the toy box to show what goes in there.
Encourage the tidying up routine at other places you visit. E.g. the Doctors surgery, library, friend’s houses.
Emphasise language such as ‘Where is it?’, ‘What’s in here?’, ‘What have you found’, ’Where does it go?’
What you could do to support your children at home:
Role model and encourage your babies to put their toys away when they have finished with them.
Involve them in the tidying up experience, rather than clearing it away after they have gone to bed.
Take your own pictures of their toys and put them on the toy box to show what goes in there.
Encourage the tidying up routine at other places you visit. E.g. the Doctors surgery, library, friend’s houses.
Emphasise language such as ‘Where is it?’, ‘What’s in here?’, ‘What have you found’, ’Where does it go?’
