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!