Whats been happening in May?

A little bit of everything has been going on over the last month and a bit.

We had Upsy Daisy visit the nursery at the end of April and in May, Tigger came to see us for our Teddy Bears picnic. Our sister nursery at St Mary’s also came and had a teddy bears picnic with us, played on the Bouncy Castle, had their faces painted and shared some time together. It was busy, but very fun.

In Dolphins, the main group focus for the month of May has been vehicles, following on from the previous month looking at the emergency services. The children have really been enjoying playing with all sorts of vehicles as we have moved them round the nursery, putting them in sand, water, the art tables, making vehicles of our own, reading books and looking at pictures of vehicles.

The children have been putting together a variety of boxes and chairs to make buses and trains and to go on imaginary journeys with their friends. They have also painted boxes to decorate the trains.

The older dolphins have had lots of discussions about why we travel on the different sorts of transport we do, shared with each other information about how we personally travel to nursery, how we travel to friends places, grandparents and family who live overseas. We have also played a game listening to noises that the different types of transport make and guessing what they are.

The lovely May weather and odd heat wave has also excited us into talking a lot about beaches, painting summery things, such as flowers and lady birds and a lot of play outside under the gazebos.

Many of us have started going on holidays and so we have enjoyed sharing stories of those and discussing the anticipation of our next holiday, or the types of things we can do if we have a holiday at home.

In the starfish room the children have really enjoyed the different shapes that they have been playing with of transport images, making vehicle collages and naming types of transport and playing with them in the paint, sand, water, etc. Some of the older children have learned the names of different vehicle types too.

Starfish children have also been reading books about transport, singing songs about them and making their own trains out of furniture to go on journeys together. They have also made motorbikes out of egg cartons.

As the sun has been out and we have been enjoying it so much, we have all learned that to play in the sun we need our hats on. The children are very particular about this and if you go outside into their garden without your hat on- expect a child to remind you of your responsibilities!!

Another big feature of our month has been hanging saris on the line and playing under them as they blow in the wind. The children have loved watching the colours of the fabric as they twist and turn and flap. It made the play ground feel really special.

In the Seahorses room we have been talking about animals a lot. Naming and looking at images of animals that we see in our everyday environment- on the street or at home and friends and families places. Lots of pointing at animals in books and pictures, singing about animals- ‘Old MacDonald Had a Farm’, etc.

We have introduced the animals into the water and sand and we have been playing hiding games where we hide the animals in boxes so the babies can knock them over and find them.

Some of the babies are becoming quite mobile and are enjoying being able to cruise around the room and pull themselves up on the equipment and chasing the beads around the bead frame, the play cooker and furniture.

We have also been experimenting with using the musical instruments to sing with. The team sing songs to the children and the children interject words and hum where they feel enthused and join in with the musical instruments- shaking shakers and ringing bells.

Many of the children are also really enjoying taking themselves into the story corner at present to have some quiet reading time. They often have their favourite books that they go back to time and time again.