The start of august saw a lot of Mexican activities in preparation for our nursery Mexican barbecue. We made cacti, hats, fans, flags- red, green and white dominated our days and we got through a lot of paint!!
We have also been able to go on lots of little trips to the local parks and library too. With many children on holiday, we have had more staff and less children making excursions easy and a really fun part of our weeks.
A spell of rain got in the way of our outdoor play later in the month and a part from the breaks racing outside to splash in puddles, we got trapped inside on more than a few occasions. Rain became a regular topic of conversation and looking at clouds and rain became an activity in itself. We even painted our own little rain clouds with textured paper, grey and silver paint and silver glitter.Also on the art front, we have made some little mobiles from halved kitchen rolls decorated with paint and with pipe cleaners to hang them, sponge paintings and the general drawing and mark making that goes on in the room on a daily basis involved us all.
Makaton signing was a focus for the month and we practiced and have mastered a number of Makaton signs that are helpful for expressing ourselves. We are fluent in please and thank you and continue to practice some other supportive gestures as well.
And, we have been really focusing on self help skills and especially supporting our new Starfish into getting their own shoes for teachers to put them on and putting them away by themselves when the come back inside. Also we have been taking coats, jackets and jumpers off by ourselves and with help, putting them away. We are getting pretty good at this and some of us even really love taking part in the process.
Jumping has been a feature of August too with an extra bouncy castle in the car park for us all to jump on and we have had our little indoor bouncy castle up in the room too- this makes rainy days almost something to look forward to!
Dolphins Dolphins children have had a fun month looking at animals, creatures and lifecycles. We have had the model animals in the sand, water, wet sand and on plastic grass. Dinosaurs have also joined in to create little small world wonderlands. The mini stadium steps in the outdoor playground have been fantastic for putting the grass over and making grassy mountains for the animals and dinosaurs to roam over.
Children have enjoyed looking at lifecycles and have enjoyed our book about the lifecycle of a frog. We have a well enjoyed and used story sack of the lifecycle of a frog that the children have enjoyed in circle time and also in small group activities. Some children made their own little 3D frogs on lily pads with the help of the staff too. Lots of discussions have taken place about the dangers to frogs and other animals in the environment. Our planting earlier in the year has finally started to do exciting things. Our strawberries have been berrying their way along with children (perhaps staff) pinching them as soon as they get a blush, but we are now finaly starting to see our tomatoes plump up and hopefully get to red! Sunflowers are also ready to bloom after so long waiting!
'Babies' are still a big main feature in dolphins too. With so many baby siblings of children and friends having babies, the baby dolls, buggies, beds, boxes, clothes in the home corner, in the outside area and on excursions all around the nursery are continuously taking place. We have a core baby mad group of children and even getting the babies slipped out for half a day to get them clean is a tricky quiet manoeuvre for the teachers!
Arts and crafts are always a strong feature of Dolphins and this month has been no exception with lots of sticking and cutting. Some of our quite young 2 ½ to three year olds have started to become really engaged in cutting pictures and shapes out and sticking them on paper.
We have also bought a lot of new role play dress ups and they have breathed new life into the home corner. We have two police outfits complete with radios and messagers, vets uniform, nurse, paramedic, construction worker, etc. So role play in the community has started to become a regular feature in the play during the day and the home corner in turning into more of an emergency station!
Seahorses The biggest feature in Seahorses over the last month has been the introduction of all the different cosy corners. The team have been enjoying creating little spaces for the children to enjoy beyond the cube and the story cushions and have been using new textures of fabrics, cushions and boxes to to create little zones of relaxation.
A wet month meant lots of jumping in puddles, playing with lovely heavy wet sand, putting toys in and out of the sand buckets and also joining in with Starfish to bounce on the indoor bouncy castle.
We have also welcomed new friends into seahorses which is always nice showing them the ropes and having the established children enjoying taking toys up to them, especially when they are sad, which is pretty sweet to watch.
We have practiced each other’s names so that they become familiar with them and encouraging the children to share, tidy up and join in with little group singing sessions and looking at books together.
And, we have been doing some painting, play dough, corn flour finger play too. Messiness and exploring textures has been a hit with our more established children and our newer children have had a go and been surprised by the new exploration!
