What Dolphins are doing in October 2014

With Autumn finally here and the environment changing, this has started a lot of interest and questions from the children, so our topic for October will be Autumn, the children will be looking at the change in the weather, the change in our surrounding environment and how the days are getting shorter and the night longer.

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

Prime areas:

PSED: Adapt behaviour to different events, social situations and changes in routines. PD: Handle tools, objects, construction and malleable materials safely and with control. C&L Develop an understanding of simple concepts, lean new words and is able to use them in communication.

Specific areas:

L: Show an interest in illustrations and print in books and print in the environment. M: Notice simple shapes and patterns. UW: Develop an understanding of growth decay and changes over time. EA&D: Explore colour and how colour can be changed, Begin to be interested in and describe the texture of things.

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

·         Conker Streamers. Marie Claire will be supporting the preschool children to make conker streamers and then see how far they can make them fly.

·         Autumn tree.  Matthew will be assisting the children to make a large autumn tree that will change as the trees outside change.

·         Salt Dough Leaves.  Emma will be helping the children to create salt dough leaves using leaves collected on walks and looking at patterns as they use them to make prints on the salt dough.

·         Autumn walk and collage. Abongi will organise trips to the park to collect autumn items to take back to the centre and create autumn collages with them.

·         Autumn sensory feely bags.  Christine will create some sensory bags using a variety of materials for the children to explore.

·         Conker and acorn people. Victoria will be assisting the children to create little people using Conkers, Acorns and other autumn item that the children collect.

·         Hand print tree. Marie Claire and the children will be using their hand prints to make a large autumn tree display.

What you could do to support your children at home:

·         Autumn treasure hunt. Take to the woods with your child on an autumn treasure hunt ask your child to find items by colour, shape and size, Encourage them to really explore and look under logs and stones, around the bottom of a tree and look up into the tree.

·         Leaf mobiles. Collect leaves of different colour and sizes and hang them in arrangements using string and tape, try and see how many different types of leaves you can find.

·          Here is a link to a website that has a lot of different activities for children to do. http://www.naturedetectives.org.uk/

What are we doing in Sea Turtles in October 2014

With the weather and season changing, new children starting, and the sun setting earlier, we have decided that this month our topic will be changes around us. We will be exploring colours, shapes, textures and sound, through a range of activities both indoors and outdoors.

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

Prime areas:

PSED: Explore new toys & environments but checks in regularly with a familiar adult as and when needed. PD: makes connections between their movement and marks they make. 

C&L: Have a strong exploratory impulse.

Specific areas:

L: Handles books and printed materials with interest. M: Say some counting words randomly.  EA&D: Express self through physical action and movement. UW: Explore & experiment with a range of media through sensory exploration & using the whole body.

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

·         Autumn food. The children will explore pumpkins, butternut squashes and other seasonal fruit & vegetables with Manjit. The children will then help to make a pumpkin cake.

·         Autumn walk. Afia be organising walks to collect leaves to bring back to the centre and create a collage with.

·         Weather pictures. Using a variety of materials such as tissue paper rice and cotton wool Christina will be helping the children to create weather pictures.

·         What we wear collages. Alice will be supporting the children in making collages using clothes shapes cut out of different textured materials.

·         Sounds like. Using musical instruments Amina will help the children to explore the sounds of the weather such as rain drops dropping, the wind howling and thunder crashing.

·         Day and night portrait. Hannah will work with small groups to create a day and night display and will be talking about the colours we can see during the day and at night.

Some ideas to support your children at home:

·         Leaf collecting. Collect leaves of different shapes and sizes to explore with your child.

·         On the way to nursery. Whilst walking or driving to or from nursery, talk to your child about what they can see in their surrounding environment, talk about the change in the weather, the colours of the leaves on the trees and how they will begin to fall from the tree.

·         Have fun in the rain. Explore the rain by putting on your wellies and rain coats and go and splash in some puddle with your child, extend their vocabulary by using lots of descriptive words. 

What did Dolphins do in August

In Dolphins in August we have been focusing on People Who Help Us, focusing on the emergency services and other people who help us in the community.

The children made split-pin characters using their fine motor skills by drawing and cutting out their people who help us characters and then pinning them back together.

 

We have enjoyed various different role plays this month, including a doctor’s surgery, a police station and a lollipop person helping the children to cross the road.

 

We made a fire engine out of junk modelling and enjoyed role playing driving the engine and being fire fighters in the garden.

 

Children used their cutting, painting and sticking skills to make police officer hats.

 

What we did in August- Sea Turtles

This month we have been looking at different modes of transport and exploring colours and materials by linking them into different types of transport.

We started of the month by enjoying a visit from some animals, they ranged from some animals, they ranged from spiders to snakes and rates! All the children in the nursert got the opportunity to get up close to the animals.

 

We explored different materials to make a range of emergency vehicles such as police cars, fire engines and ambulances.

   Children used their fine and gross motor skills by pushing along different types of vehicles through paint to make marks and prints.

Children got to enjoy role playing using a road system with traffic lights and zebra crossings, they used ride on toys and buggies.

 



The most exciting part of the month was when we got a visit from the London Fire Brigade with a real Fire Engine!  The children were able to climb aboard the fire engine and use the fire hose!

 

 

 

What Dolphins will be doing in September 2014

Over the last few weeks a lot of the children have been using a variety of construction materials to build rockets, and talking about going to the moon, to extend the children’s interest in Space, our topic for September will be Outer Space.

 

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

Prime areas:

PSED: Begin to accept the needs of others and can take turns and share resources. PD: Show control in holding and using jugs to pour, hammers books and mark making tools, and to use simple tools to effect changes to materials. C&L Show an interest in playing with sounds, songs and rhymes, developing an understanding of simple concepts

Specific areas:

L: Listens to and joins in with stories and poems. M: Use shapes appropriately for tasks. UW: talk about why things happen and how things work. EA&D: Use available resources to create props to support play.

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

·         Bottle rocket experiments. Marie Claire will be supporting the preschool children as they experiment with building and testing bottle rockets.

·         Looking at the night sky.  Using the projector Matthew will be showing the children the sky at night looking at the solar system and star constellations.

·         Paper Mache Planets.  Emma will be helping to make planets out of Paper Mache and setting up a space display in the sensory room.

·         Paper plate spaceships. Abongi will support the children in making 3D spaceships using paper plates and other materials.

·         Junk Model rocket.  Christine will work with the children to make a rocket using large boxes and junk modelling and then use this in a role play session.

·         Songs and stories. The children will enjoy listening to stories about space and learn new songs about the planets and outer space.

 

What you could do to support your children at home:

·         Science Museum. Take a visit to the science museum with your child to have a look at the space display, use lots of descriptive words as you walk around the museum,  get your child to talk about what their favourite thing was about the trip,   

·         Make rockets. Use tubes, boxes, tape and card to create rockets, alien and planets with your child, the internet has lots of ideas on how to create space themed items.

·         Learn some new songs. There are lots of space themed songs that you could learn with your child.

What Sea Turtles will be doing in September 2014

During our transport topic last month, the children started to notice the colour of the flashing lights on emergency vehicles and the colours of the cars, buses and lorries as they went past the nursery. So for September we will be having a colour month, looking at a different colour every week.

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

Prime areas:

PSED: To play alongside others, sharing discoveries and exploring colours supported by a familiar key person or friend. PD: To hold pencils or crayons using the whole hand (palm) grasp and to make random marks using different strokes C&L: To enjoy rhymes and demonstrate listening by trying to join in with actions or vocalisation.

Specific areas:

M: Begin to organise and categorise objects by colour. UW: Notice and is interested in the effects of making movements which leave marks.  EA&D: Explores objects by linking together different approaches, shaking, feeling, looking and turning.

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

·         Colour Interest table. Manjit will be focussing on one colour a week and will be setting up interest table with objects of that colour. Manjit will also be encouraging the children to explore colour through arts and crafts such as mark making with pencils, crayons and chalk, sticking and painting.

·         Traffic Lights. Afia will support the children to learn the colours of traffic lights and their meaning using paint and key words such as Stop and Go.

·         Mixing colours. Christina will be helping the children to mix colours and develop their fine motor skills by placing paint under cling film and encouraging the children to use their fingers to mix them together.

·         Hand & Foot print rainbow. Alice will be supporting the children in making a large rainbow display for the room using prints of their hands and feet.

·         Primary colours. Amina will be focusing on the primary colours as she talks to the children about the colours they are wearing and singing songs about colour during circle time.

·         Elmer the elephant.  Elena will be using books such as Elmer the elephant and who painted a blue horse along with colour boxes and flashcards to help the children to explore and link colours together.

·         Colour walks. Whilst out on walks the team will point out different colours found in the world around us to the children.

Some ideas to support your children at home:

·         Take time to stop and point out the different colours of everyday objects found in our homes and the world around us.

·         Support your child during a mark making activity at home, talk about the colours they are using and where those colours can be found around us. e.g. that’s red like a big red bus, that’s yellow like the sun.

·         Go to the library and get out some books on colour to share with your child.