Starfish have had a very busy January filled with lots of different activities and new children as some of the Seahorses have moved up to the ranks of Starfish. Starfish have been on an excursion to Mortlake Park to play in the playground and walk through the park, lots of daily play outside in the playground- even though it has been cold and wintry. And, artwork has been a very strong feature of the month as well. Take a look at our photo gallery at the end for some of the different things they have done.
There has been coloured sand artwork by using sand mixed with glue and applied with fingers, finger painting on textured paper, collages out of different shaped and textured paper, stamping with sponge stamps.
In messy play the children have been playing with wet sand, soap flakes gloop, black coloured water in different containers to look at shape and size, coloured sand in small trays usi
ng straws to draw pictures and shapes, corn flour gloop play.
ng straws to draw pictures and shapes, corn flour gloop play. ..and we have made fairy cakes to eat!
Seahorses
Seahorses have had new babies join the room to fill the absence of the friends that have moved on to Starfish. We have welcomed four new babies in the January weeks and it is really lovely getting to see their personalities emerge as we get to know them and they become more settled.
Seahorses have had new babies join the room to fill the absence of the friends that have moved on to Starfish. We have welcomed four new babies in the January weeks and it is really lovely getting to see their personalities emerge as we get to know them and they become more settled.
Our settled babies from last year have enjoyed their independence and the discovery of all the things that they can do in the room with a little bit of confidence through establishing a sense of belonging in the nursery. They have broken loose from the hesitation.
To help the babies to feel engaged with the different children and to get to know each other and the staff we have been having some little singing and games circles. The babies stay for as long as they want to sing songs or watch little puppet shows with the puppets. We also do ball rolling and throwing with the soft indoor balls.
There has been a lot of special one to one reading books with babies and enjoying time together to getting to know babies individually and building their confidence in the staff and assurance that they will be there to look after them and care for them.
Building towers with bricks has been a regular feature as well for the more settled babies as they love the drama of the bricks falling down and are more confident to exert some control over the environment with their force and watch the crash without fright.
All of the babies have had some fun putting their fingers in paint and spreading it around the paper. It is a new experience for a lot of them and a love it or hate it experience too. Feeling new textures in the baby room is all about learning to experience new things and ‘have a go’.
A lovely experience for the babies new and old is to explore the scarves box. The silky textures are relaxing and it is comforting to have fabric drapes around their bodies. The teachers enjoy the babies putting scarves on them too and sharing bits and piece of fabrics together.
Dolphins
Dolphins had a big focus on mail, post, letters, postcards, etc this month and have a lot of fun activities built around mail.
We have written letters to ourselves, put them in envelopes, addressed them and stamped them, walked them to the red post box close to the nursery and discovered that 1st Class Royal Mail actually takes one whole week to be delivered (well, it did on this occasion anyway). Still, the children were excited to get their letters back a week later and read them in circle time.
Dolphins had a big focus on mail, post, letters, postcards, etc this month and have a lot of fun activities built around mail.
We have written letters to ourselves, put them in envelopes, addressed them and stamped them, walked them to the red post box close to the nursery and discovered that 1st Class Royal Mail actually takes one whole week to be delivered (well, it did on this occasion anyway). Still, the children were excited to get their letters back a week later and read them in circle time.
Some of the children have made some red mail trucks through junk modelling and they have been displayed in the dolphins play room. Others have designed their own stamps that they might like to see on a letter and these have been displayed too.
We have had a lot of discussion about mail in story times and some stories about mail as well. Of course, Postman Pat has played a key role in all of this.
Dolphins home corner was transformed into a post office and the children
made letters and transported cards about, posting them in the letter box and delivering their mail with their delivery bags. They exchanged money for mail at the tills and had a little service depot going on for a few weeks.
made letters and transported cards about, posting them in the letter box and delivering their mail with their delivery bags. They exchanged money for mail at the tills and had a little service depot going on for a few weeks. When the Post Office expired its fascination and returned to a home corner, many of the children continued taking themselves off to the writing table to write little letters and put them in envelopes and then post them in the nursery mail box.
