Christmas Time!!!

 
What are we doing in Dolphins and
Sea Turtles for December?

Well, it is the month of celebrations so there is no shortage of inspiration here!!

Christmas is the big one consuming our lives and also Hanukah and Santa Lucia we will be talking about too.

It’s going to be about fun, celebrations, festivities and being together with friends and family. Glitter, tinsel and lights will be shining bright this month!!

The activities this month will be based around the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) areas of learning:

Prime areas:

C&L: Learning new words about festivals that are new. Using exciting language to describe all that we are seeing and feeling.  PD: Gross motor skills: Christmas dances, stretching and decorating trees, etc! Fine motor skills: detailed craft! PSED: Expressing how we feel about each other, love , excitement, sharing, giving and receiving.

Specific areas:

UW: Cultural learning. Joining in the Winter festivals and learning what they are all about. L: Learning that writing can communicate how we feel about each other and another way of making a connecting with friends and family. EA&D: Selecting, organising, positioning,  making a range of creative expressions of cultural festivals. M: The big count down!! Trees, cards, decorations; size, shape, positioning, etc. maths is endless!

 
Some of the activities we will be doing this month to support this will be:

·         Arts and crafts! All of the teachers and children will be having a blast of arts and crafts.  Making wintery scenes, festival icons, etc.

·         Singing! It started in November practicing for Carols by Candlelight and won’t stop on the 7^th!  We will be singing the whole of the nursery through to the New Year!!!

·         Stories! How many of these do you think there are for festivals!? We’ll be reading about Christmas from all sorts of angles. Funny stories and factual. Hanukah, Santa Lucia will also have a look in.

·         Dancing! There is nothing more fun that a good shake to some Christmas songs.

·         The big count down! It takes so long to get to the big day. We’ll be counting, talking about time and having our own advent calendar in Dolphins with works of art by the children.

·         Food! We’ll be baking and making delicious festive treats. Biscuits, cakes for decorating and hanging on the tree.

·         Sharing! We’ll be showing our mums and dads how much we care. Thinking about them, talking about how much we love them and why and making them some surprises for Christmas.

What you could do to support your children at home:

·      Share with us books about your cultural festivals and hat you will be doing for Christmas.

·      Come along to our Carols by Candlelight event and bring your children to the Christmas parties if they don’t normally come in on the day.

·      Take the opportunity to get creative with your children and make some great decorations at home too.

·      Help them to make, write or illustrate family Christmas cards. Talk about your family and go to the post box to send them off with them.

·      Never forget a maths opportunity.  Talk about presents under the tree and decorations; size language: big, small,  short, tall, smallest, biggest, etc. Positioning language: on, under, beside, behind, etc.

·      Join in with local community events that you never have before. It’s different and better with children!

What are we doing in Sea Turtles in November.

We are still loving Autumn and exploring different festivals. We are loving the textures that autumn has brought, smells and colours.

 The activities this month will be based around the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) areas of learning:
Prime areas:
C&L: Looking at and discussing different pictures about different cultures and festivals. PSED: We’re beginning to learn about some festivals new to us.  PD: Dancing to different styles of music from different cultures and their festivals.

Specific areas:

UW: Beginning to understand that everyone is unique. EA&D: Exploring different materials, textures and interesting resources. M: Simple counting, sorting, grouping different natural materials.

 Some of the activities we will be doing this month will involve:

·      Laura Williams will be creating areas of interesting images of natural materials in autumn both in the indoor areas and outdoors.

·      Laura  will be organising a trip to the local park to explore autumn tree fall.

·      Sarah Louise will be exploring light with the children for Diwali. Children will enjoy tea lights.

·      Ella will be creating some fireworks art work with the children.

·      Sarah G will be exploring autumnal colours and resources with leaf play, art work with browns and oranges, looking at interesting picture of autumn.

·      Sara will be sharing different sounds with children of rain, wind, waterfall, leaves crunching, etc.

·      Sara will also be doing some collages with leaves.

·      Chloe will be making pictures of animals in the autumn time with the children. Exploring red breasted robins, squirrels, foxes, badgers, hedgehogs.

Some ideas to support your children at home:

·         Although not very environmentally friendly, occasional use of glow sticks is so much fun and filled with wonderment for small children, especially in dark autumn months.

·         Run through drifts of autumn leaves. It is the ultimate in childhood fun.

·         Make little collections of leaves and bring them into the nursery. Children love to talk about and share their beautiful finds.

·         Put on warm clothes and have an autumn picnic on the common. They will love it. Pack some warm milk or even a warm chocolate milk in a flask to share.

 

What are we doing in Dolphins for November?

During November we will be focussing on respecting toys, equipment and each other.

Now that the new group of children are settled and pre-schoolers have established their confidence in taking a more responsible approach to their nursery, it’s time for some refocus and thought on respecting resources, expectations and each other.

The activities this month will be based around the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) areas of learning:

Prime areas:

C&L: Being able to verbalise and share with others the nursery rules. PSED: Caring for one another, supporting each other in following rules.  PD: Using bodies appropriately for the space, activity and environment.

Specific areas:

UW: Thinking about how rules may differ in different environments such as home or nursery L: Writing a set of rules together and referring to them. EA&D: Learning how to be expressive and creative, while considering the needs of others and the environment. M: Numbering key rules and organising priority.

 

Some of the activities we will be doing this month to support this will be:

·         Su will be working with the children on establishing a set of ‘Golden Rules’ and talking about our different resources and how to use them sensibly.

·         Carole will be reading a range of books about expectations, respecting other children, toy and sharing.

·         Jenny will be working on turn taking and sharing. Talking and listening to others in group times, playing games, using books, etc.

·         All of the team will be consistently reinforcing the ‘Golden Rules’  and nursery expectations.

·         Cristina will be using expressions faces with dough to model and talk about how the each other’s actions make each other feel.

·         Marie-Claire will be making place mats for the children to use at dinner time to find their name or picture and sit in the right place.

·         Christine H will be making a collage with the children of happy faces and sad faces and then talking about different situations  and which way they make the children feel.

 

What you could do to support your children at home:

·      Parents will have a set of the nursery ‘Golden Rules’ to take home. Please read them with your child and reinforce the expectations at nursery.

·      Talk about how nursery rules may be different from home and rules in other situation may be different again. E.g. at granny’s place or a restaurant.

What are we doing in Sea Turtles September to October?

There has been much interest in music, dance and instruments in Sea Turtles, so we will be extending our focus inside and out and exploring a wide range of percussion instruments and making instruments too.

 The activities this month will be based around the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) areas of learning:

Prime areas:
C&L: Encourage young children to explore and imitate sound. PSED: Engaging in playful interactions that encourages the children to mimic and respond to adults.  PD: Using music of different styles to represent feelings such as happiness and sadness.
Specific areas:
UW: Demonstrate and value cultural and religious music. EA&D: Play alongside children who are experimenting with music. M: Use finger plays, rhymes and familiar songs.

Some of the activities we will be doing this month will involve:

·      Sarah Louise will be helping the children to make some musical instruments with plastic bottles and materials of different textures and sounds.

·      Laura will be making a movement bag with different materials and textures and also experimenting with moving finger paint and sensory activities to music.

·      Sarah Louise will be introducing a range of different music from different culture alongside related colours and materials.

·      Sara will be setting up an obstacle course and playing music at different speeds to explore the way the children react to tempo and movement.

·      Chloe will be setting up some disco sessions for the children to move to music and light and also to combine bending, stretching and reaching for bubbles as they dance.

·      Sarah G will be exploring quiet and loud sounds and the different sounds instruments make in different environments such and in tents or in the outdoors.

·      Sarah G will also be creating some new movements with the children to favourite nursery rhymes.

Some ideas to support your children at home:

·         If you play a musical instrument, please offer to come into the nursery and play it for the children. Guitars are especially good to strum along to our songs.

·         You probably have a range of music in your archives from different cultures. Sort some of it out and play it for your child to dance to and just potter around the house to.

·         When you hear buskers on the street, stop and have a listen. Talk about it.

What are we doing in Dolphins September to October?

Collectively the children have been on a lot of holidays over the summer and lots of discussion has taken place around ways to travel. So we will be having a month focussing on the different ways we can travel.

The activities this month will be based around the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) areas of learning:

Prime areas:
C&L: Listening to others talk. PSED: Demonstrating friendly behaviour, initiating conversations and forming good relationships  PD: Experimenting with different ways of moving.

Specific areas:

UW: Finding out about different places. L: Ascribing meaning to marks they see in different places EA&D: Bringing a story line into their play. M: Showing an interest in space and shapes.

 Some of the activities we will be doing this month to support this will be:

·         Cristina will be focussing on creating vehicles through junk modelling and paint.

·         Christine H will be role playing modes of transport with the children and going on trips.

·         Jenny will be looking at different ways of travelling and creating a scrap book of photos, pictures and comments from children.

·         Laura will be focussing on moving in different ways as different vehicles to music.

·         Carole will be reading a variety of stories from around the world and different ways to travel to various destinations.

·         Rachel will be making collages of a variety of different transport modes.

What you could do to support your children at home:

·      When out and about take note and talk about the different types of transport you can see.

·      Talk to your child about the different types of transport they have been on, what they like best and why.

·      Get into details of the different types of trucks, what they are called and what they are for.

 

Summer 2012

Summer 2012

We took a break from formal planning over the summer as we transitioned from the 'old EYFS' to the Revised Early Years Foundations Stage 2012 practice guidance.

The day to day didn't slow down. We had a great summer and eventually the rain stopped and we had lots of fun in the sunshine. We also spent an awful lot of time in the rain too!

Here is a little photo stream of some of the fun and games we had during summer 2012....

 Sea Turtles had lots of investigation of creepy crawlies.

 And fun rolling balls

 and mixing cornflour and water, then swirling it around

 and pouring water all over it for cloudy water play.

 They poured and mixed paint colours, then swirled it with their fingers

 they played with straight and bendy straws, pipecleaners in sand and glitter

 and also worked out how to open santa shapes, stamp and put the two pieces back together.

 They also found a snail and closely investigated it

and they helped to decorate a giant box and turn it into a wall for ten green bottles.

 Brrr... hot day, and cold ice melting, silky and cold.

 Fabulous foot stamping

and collage in the sunshine

 Peaceful time inside with things what spin, whir, clack, bang, rattle. 

 Water play with two colours; filling, pouring, mixing

 and a quiet read in the sunshine.

 

 Dolphins children drew, cut, sanded and painted their own blackboards.

 They explored a local woodland

 and found a snail to inspect closely

 they made a teepee using branches and string

 and wrapped it in a tarp and hid in it

 We did weaving with paper

 and quietly worked on our own to make objects that interest us

 we mixed, squelched, slapped and slid powder paint and water with absorbant materials 

 We read, discussed and then acted out Little Red Riding Hood.

Pre-schoolers found an amazing new playground at London, Waterloo

and we stretched, climbed, pullled

 and hoisted ourselves up and over, through, swung and dropped.

  We went into London Aquarium and saw small fish.

 We touched sea anemones and they clung to our fingers andvwe stroked starfish

 we peeped through deep water spy holes 

 and back in our nursery we inspected our flower beds to see how our gardening handywork was progressing

we made designs when thinking about shapes

 Some of Dolphins went on a little excursion to Janet's allotment. We found a Turkey!!!

and we found a lot of other vegetables too. We picked raspberries and strawberries and brought them back to nursery for tea.

Sea Turtles and Dolphins were amazed at all of the animals from the Tropical Zoo that visited our nursery. Snakes, spiders, hissing cockroaches, lizards, dragons and more.

 

We did other trips too; to the Wetlands, the local park, library. And we played and played and played.

Saying farewell to our school leavers was very sad. And we enjoyed our circle times reflecting on when they started nursery- most as babies and how much we had enjoyed seeing them grow.

Thanks for all the farewell cake and chocolates. It's good energy in the afternoons when we need that extra kick to carry on!