Colours and Countries for August!

What are we doing in Sea Turtles in August?

Due to a keen interest of colours shown by both the young babies and the older children in the Sea Turtles we will be exploring colours through a variety of activities throughout August.

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

 

Prime areas:
PSED: Use pointing with eye gaze to make requests and share interests.  PD: Making connections between their movements and the marks they make. C&L Select familiar objects by name and will go and find objects when asked or identify from a group.
Specific areas:
M: Notice simple patterns & Shapes in pictures and activities UW: Explore objects by linking together different approaches: shaking, feeling, tasting, pulling, looking, turning and poking. EA&D Notice and is interested in the effect of making movements which leaves marks.  

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

·         Exploring colour bags. Laura will create some colour bags with a variety of everyday items for the children to explore.

·         Colour Den. Sarah will be making dens with the children using a variety of different coloured materials.

·         Coloured towers. Alice will help the children to use the building bricks to make towers in certain colours and then ask the children to knock the towers down by colour.

·         Colour Collage. Emma will help the children to make colourful collages using different coloured strips of paper.

·         Coloured gloop. Cristina will help the children explore mixing colours through messy play.

·         Printing with colour. Latoya will help the children create colourful pictures by printing with blocks and a variety of colours.

Some ideas to support your children at home:

·         Colour is all around us, draw attention to different coloured objects while out for a walk or on your way to or from nursery (look at the green grass, what colour are the leaves, can you see the blue car).

·         Make your own colour exploring bags, collect different coloured items from around the house for the children to explore and name.

·         Visit the library and look at books about colour

·         Sing songs that involve reciting colours such as I can sing a rainbow & five little crayons

·         Go on a colour hunt, have a colour hunt inside or outside. Help your children to find items that are different colours (Let’s find something blue…. Now can you find me something green…..).

·         Have coloured themed bath nights, add a little bit of food colouring and toys to match the colouring to the water on bath night.

  

What are we doing in Dolphins in August?

The children enjoyed learning about Africa so much that we thought we would broaden the topic and look at other countries particularly those that the children have family from.

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

Prime areas:
PSED: Show interest in others and what they have to say. PD: Move in a variety of ways with pleasure and rhythm to music from around the world. C&L Learning words from another countries through greetings, counting and hearing different languages used in the music.
Specific areas:
L: enjoy rhymes and songs from around the world M: Notice shapes and patterns in flags and other items from different countries. UW: Learn more about the countries their family and friends come from. EA&D: Imitate Movement in response to a variety of music from different countries and cultures.

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

·         Learning new greetings. Jenny will help the children to extend their vocabulary by teaching them how to say hello and good bye in a variety of Languages. 

·         Baking. Manjit will be baking traditional snacks and cakes from different countries and cultures.

·         Where we come from. Marie-Claire with the children will be marking out on a map where they have family from and talking about those countries.

·         Pattern Making. Matt will be looking at patterns, shapes and colours found in flags from around the world and recreating theses with a variety of materials.

·         All about Mexico. Laura Z will be sharing her knowledge and passion for her home country Mexico with the children through songs, dances and stories.

·         Trip to the library. Christine will organise trips to the library to collect books about different countries and cultures to bring back to nursery and share with the other children.

·         Indian dancing. Shilpi will help the children to learn simple dances from India  

What you could do to support your children at home:

 

·        Do you have family who come from a different country? You could share photos, stories or experiences from that country with your children

·        Do some research together, use books, the Internet, documentaries about different countries to talk to your child about the different ways of life, the animals and the food people eat in other countries.

·       Get down and boogie to some music from around the world. We’ll be doing a lot of this at nursery- share some moves together at home too!

·       Sing together. sing songs and rhymes with your child, see if you can find some simple songs in different languages such as Frère Jacques.