What are we doing in Sea Turtles March to April?

We’ve spent a month exploring this topic already and the children have really enjoyed making different faces and talking about expressions. They have also loved taking on some roles of nurturing, especially role playing bathing feeding, putting to bed, etc.

Also March to April involves Mothers day and Easter, two celebrations that involve families, caring about others and sharing of emotions and care.

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

KUW- Learning to anticipate or expect the reactions of others.  PSED- feeling good and sharing our emotions with each other. MD- Counting, comparing, etc through all activities. CLL using words and language to express feelings as well as gesture and sign language. PD Lots of dancing and activities to make us feel good and develop physical skills.  CD- exploring images of emotions and making collages and art work based around feelings and emotions.

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

·      The children will be involved in making beautiful treats for Mother’s Day and Easter, including talking about the special people in their lives.

·      Manjit will help the children make some magazine cut out faces collages and talking about the expressions seen.

·      The children will be involved in making Easter eggs pictures using shiny paper and magazine cut outs.

·      Ella will be helping the children to make some shredded wheat egg nests.

·      Sarah G will be making some face collages using different eyes, mouths, hair, etc.

·      Sarah Louise will be making some Easter Bunny’s with the children and also painting boiled eggs.

·      Sarah G will be organising some Easter Egg hunts with the children to search and find eggs and then take photos of the children’s surprised faces to display. 

Some ideas to support your children at home:

·         Take some time to role play caring with your child. Do some baby bathing, dressing up toys. Especially the older Sea Turtles love to pretend to be caring for others the way they have been cared for. It helps consolidate the role of caring and considering others.

·         Make some emotion faces for your child and name the faces you are doing.

·         Spend some time making a card for Mum and some treats for Easter. Talk about how being kind and doing nice things for others makes them feel.

What are we doing in Dolphins this month?

From March to April we will be continuing and developing our  enhanced focus on animals

The children became very interested in animals during Chinese New Year when we discussed all sorts of animals that represent the years of the Chinese calendar.  We explored lots about animals last month and the children continue to be fascinated with them. So, this month we are going to look a bit closer to home and start to think about pets and how to care for them.

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

KUW-Learning about the types of pets people have around the world and the differences in countries. PSED- caring for others (animals) considering their basic needs. PSRN- Looking at sizes and shapes of animals. Comparing the differences. CLL researching and reading about pets, learning new words. PD Using our bodies to care for animals. Learning appropriate ways to pick animals up.  CD Designing animal homes to meet their needs.

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

·         Jenny will be researching with the preschool children the basic needs of pets and how we care for them.

·         Laura W will be writing a book with the children on pets they know and love and what they love about them.

·         Christine H will be asking families to bring in photos of their pets from home to share on our family pet board.

·         Laura Z will be discussing and doing some activities around the differences in pets and wild animals.

·         Laura J will be making some masks with the children of pets.

·         Rachel G will be setting up some dramatic play pet corners in the outside area.

·         Christina will set up an animal sketching station where the children can copy animal images and make pencil drawings of them.

What you could do to support your children at home:

·         Bring in a photo of your family pet with a little bit of information to share with the nursery.

·         Go to the library and get a book out on pet care and talk with your child about caring for pets and the different types of pets there are.

·         Do some deeper exploration about breeds and what different breeds look like.

February to March Reflection

Sea Turtles

Sea Turtles have been really enjoying the exploration of emotions, caring, sharing and being kind to one another.

They have had about five puppet shows for the children to re-enact the incidents that have happened in Sea Turtles around sharing and being kind. The puppets play the children and the teachers step in and sort out the situations and role model gentle touching and being kind. The toddlers think it is hilarious watching events that they are familiar with being play acted out. The younger children watch the older children laugh and smile along enjoying their cheer. They clearly take it all in too, because a few days after a show we did another and got the name wrong for one of the characters and were corrected by one of the children!

The various dens that we have had had been really fun too. The children are loving hiding in them and hiding toys in them! If something is missing it can sure enough be found under a cushion in the den. We have introduced a lot of different scarves, fabrics and cushions into the dens and also in the sensory zone. The children love to feel the softness, textures and snuggle in. Peek-a-boo, hide and seek and throwing scarves, dress ups and hats over each other is a regular game right now.

We’ve also been working on making the sensory zone a more intimate space as well. We have been lowering the ceiling with fabric, mobiles and making it feel really special. As well as being a little quiet zone for babies, it has also been great for calming our speed demons too.

There have been lots of different sensory activities too this month and also last. Gelli (like Jelly but not food), water play, flour play, slime, gloop, clay, paint for just swirling have been enjoyed and are so relaxing and interesting for them.

Dolphins

Dolphins have loved exploring animals this month and we are in no way finished!

We set the home corner up as a vets and the children loved playing in there and taking on the roles of vet, nursery, receptionist and owner. Some of the operations were pretty serious!

The definite favourite was watching parents try to guess the unusual animals and then discussing it during the day together whose parent they thought was the best.  Just taking part with their parents was the biggest joy for them.

The children’s turn with the most unusual animal competition was really great fun too. It was so magic to see the children sharing what they had researched and making statements like “Yeah, that’s a really good one!” They loved trying to remember all the names and doing the voting and have constantly gone back to the animals with their friends to discuss them.

The preschool children have been putting together a book of what they have learned about their chosen animal to research further. Forest School has a new group enjoying exploring the outdoors and taking trips to the park to observe nature. And then there has been all the different things that we do in a month to ensure that all the children are able to take part in a range of activities that interest them.

The Friday children have also loved demolishing all the old shrubs  by the fence and preparing an area that we are going to be able to make a children’s flower garden with. Watch this space!