What are we doing in Sea Turtles in May?

The children are loving being outside and exploring all of the different things happening around them. They have enjoyed all the sensory play and started adding in pieces that they have found naturally such as the buds falling from the over hanging tree. So we will be extending our sensory and textural play to welcome in the discoveries of the changing natural environment.

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

Prime areas:

PSED: Interacting with children and adults to share an interest.  PD: Fine motor skills, picking up, selecting, separating different pieces to investigate. C&L Gesturing, facial expressions, demonstrations of emotion in sharing an interest.
Specific areas:
M: Identifying same materials, gathering lots, little, etc. UW: Noticing detailed features in their environment.  EA&D exploring and experimenting with a range of materials.

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

·         Exploring natural materials used to create a real insect home. Sarah G will be leading the children in finding different materials from their environment. Holding them, feeling them, looking at them and then using them to make an environment for them to rehome insects they have found in their garden.

·         Play small world environments. Laura will be using mud, soil, water, sand, stones, ice, etc to create little worlds for the children to play with their toy animals while having a multi sensory experience.

·         Close up investigation of insects and other interesting discoveries with Ella. Ella will be taking children on little exploration walks to look at different textures, corners of interest, insects, plant life, etc.

·         Feeling different seed types, shapes, quantities. Picking them up with fingers, separating them, moving them, placing them in different trays. Planting some real seeds to grow with Sara.

·         Exploring fragrances of different flowers and leaves. Cristina will be setting up with a variety of different flowers and leaves to look at, feel, smell, and ‘fiddle with’! And discuss.

Some ideas to support your children at home:

·         Take some time out and sit in your garden or a park to look at the ground. Touch the grass with them, show them how to poke a hole in the ground. Pick up stones and roll them around in your hands, pick up insects and watch them run on your skin and put them on your child’s, rub soils between your fingers.

·         If you have a child in the real ‘everything in the mouth stage and you feel anxious about exploring the natural world, collect some safe sized rocks and sterilise them, add some leafy greens, use flour instead of soil, salt in different textures. Use similar textures with materials that you know are safe and you feel more relaxed with. 

·         Language: smooth, rough, sharp, soft, scratchy, wet, slippery, slimy, sticky, etc. Use a lot of descriptive words, even when they can’t use them yet, it builds up language experience and underpins forming communication and literacy.

What are we doing in Dolphins in May?
Animals are still a hot topic of interest and the children have taken questioning into many avenues of interest. So this month animals are going to be investigated in more depth, including covering lifecycles and following any special animal interests as they emerge.

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

Prime areas:
PSED: Talking about and sharing what they know with a group. PD: Music and movement to animal songs and pretending to move like different animals. C&L Learning new language to describe the different qualities of animals and what we have learned.

Specific areas:

L: Using books as a method of research. Understanding that the text has meaning and is a source of learning. M: Counting stages in a lifecycle, talking about size, sorting, comparing.  EA&D: Using media and materials to create animals. Being expressive in music and movement.

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

·         Lifecycles. Jenny will be focussing on lifecycles. Looking at metamorphosis, growing, changing and tracking the growth and changes in the butterflies we will be rearing.

·         Predators and prey. Matt will be making a story book with the children on predators and prey. Involving them in writing and illustrating the book.

·         Food. Shipli will be researching with the children the different types of food that animals eat. Categorising animals into herbivores, carnivores, etc.

·         Pet gallery. Marie-Claire will be setting up a pet gallery of the different pets that children have at home. Naming them and encouraging the children to talk about them.

·         Farm animals. Manjit will be working with the younger children on farm animals, recognising sounds, images, furs and bringing them together to make art work as a way of representing what they have learned.

·         Flying animals. Laura will be using paper to create collages of animals that fly, while talking about all the different types of flying animals.

·         Dance. Christine H will be leading some dance sessions where the children can break out some animal moves to music.

What you could do to support your children at home:

·       Share with the nursery any animal research you have done with your child. Send them in with some pictures as props so they can talk to a small group about what they have found out.

·       Bring in or email a picture of your family pet with some information about it. Breed? Name? Age? Special stories, what s/he eats, etc.

·       Do you have any visitors to your garden that your child could share with us at nursery? Birds? Foxes? The neighbour’s cat? Tell us a story.

·       Do you come from another country with a special animal you are fond of? Share a story with us. Send in photos, etc.

·       Notice animals in your environment. Point out squirrels, cats, dogs, foxes, badgers, etc to your children. Name them. Talk about them and find out more about them.

·       Name animals correctly. Avoid nick naming things like birdies, doggies, catys, etc. Use the correct names, Children are learning the language and we need to arm them with correct labels.