July reflection

Dolphins

It has been a bit of a Mexican Fiesta in dolphins during July and especially the end of the month as we gear up for our summer barbecue- Mexican Beach Party.

We have made..... Aztec temples out of boxes, glue and paint and also built lots of temples with the large wood blocks and lego, we’ve made a fantastic piñata to have a crack at during the barbecue, we have made Mexican fans, flags, paper chains, and we have even turned our hand at lino cutting Mexican patterns and pictures. Colour, paint, glue, boxes and paper have been prolific this month!

We have also learned our manners and greetings in Spanish, and a new Spanish song called 'Dale, Dale La Pinata'- this is to sing when we try to get the sweets from the piñata. We have been listening to some Mexican music as well.

And then, beyond ‘little Mexico’, we have been on some excursions to the library, the park and our school leavers went on a fantastic excursion to the London Zoo. They walked from the nursery, to Mortlake station, transferred at Waterloo to the underground to Camden, walked to the bus stop, to the Zoo, around the Zoo and back again. They are amazing! No complaints, no giving up, just wonderful excited children (and very exhausted teachers) arrived back at the end of the day.

There was still a bit of energy left for the school leavers concert the next week, where the school leavers performed for their parents a little play from the 'Dear Zoo' book and some songs as well, then were graduated with their leaving certificates.

Starfish

Starfish have had a fun month with all sorts of activities. We have been on a number of little excursions to our local park where we had a walk in the grass, play in the play ground and had a picnic tea too.

We have also had loads art activities going on as we prepare for our Mexican Barbecue. We’ve been stamping, using paintbrushes and sponges to apply paint and lots of sticking. We have made cacti, Aztec suns, maracas, mosaics, Mexican flags and sombreros.

Our cosy corner arch has been set up with lots of different materials everyday and we have been playing with dress ups under the arch as well as trying different fabrics on, experimenting with different clothes, textures and how we feel in them.

Lots of very special circle times have also been going on too. We have a lot of new sensory and tactile toys and so we have been playing with them , watching them change and trying them out on our skin and putting them on our teachers as well.

We also had a continued focus on colours and our art work for the Mexican barbecue gave us loads of opportunities to talk about colour. Many of us are getting the hang of differentiating through colour and enjoying pointing colours out, guessing what they are and the claps for getting it right!

Seahorses

The Seahorses have been doing lots of additional activities around fruit in July. They have been trying all sorts of different fruits during their tea times; peaches, grapes, apricots and strawberries. Summer is such a great time to try all the lovely flavoursome fruits around.

We have also been doing a lot of playing with the play fruits and vegetables- putting them in pots and pans and hiding them with lids, passing them back and forth to each other and listening to the names of them, absorbing and storing the learning to surprise you with when we get older and can get the words out.

We have been doing a lot of art work on fruit shapes too as well as some great communal pieces of artwork using brushes, sponges and reading a lot of books with pictures of fruit and vegetables.

A highlight of the month has been setting up lots of little cosy corners for the babies with different cushions, textured mats, things that dangle from the ceiling, like ribbons, canopies, etc.

And, we have also welcomed in three new babies to our group. They have all settled in perfectly and it is like they have always been with us!