What are Dolphins doing in January 2015

The children in Dolphins have been showing an interest in the extremes of weather we have had over the last few months, and now that the festive season is over, we can focus and extend this interest.  This month Dolphins will be looking at a range of different “opposites”. 

The activities this month will be based around

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) areas of learning:

Prime areas:

PSED: Can play in a group, extending and elaborating play ideas. PD:  Show control in holding and using jugs to pour, hammers, books and mark making tools. C&L Developing an understanding of simple concepts (eg. Big/little).

Specific areas:

L: Ascribe meaning to marks that they see in different places. M: Beginning to categorise objects according to properties such as shape or size. UW: Talk about why things happen and how things work; notices detailed features of objects in their environment.  EA&D: Experiments with blocks, colours and marks.

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

·         Experiments to explain different opposites. Marie Claire will be conducting a range of different experiments with the children such as sink or float, heavy or light, noisy or quiet, short or long.

·         Opposites in the weather. Abongi will support children to make weather pictures using a variety of materials.  She will also be introducing the children to a new ‘opposites’ song.

·         Big Vs. Small opposites. Victoria will be explaining things that vary in size within their groups, such as big vehicles vs. small vehicles, big buildings vs. small buildings, big animals vs. small animals.

·         Body Opposites.  Emma will be looking at the differences in our appearances.  She will provide a range of materials so that children will be able to make ‘people’.  She will then encourage children to notice the differences in eye colour, hair length and colour and differences in the body shapes.

·         Weight. Christine will be using scales to weigh items and talk about things being heavy or light.  She will be looking at the numbers on the scales and encourage children to learn the meaning of the numbers in relation to weight, eg. 5kg is heavier than 1kg etc.

·         Length. Matthew will be taking children outside to use the tape measure to measure the height of things in our outside environment such as trees, fences, cars and talk about how short/ tall things are.

·         How tall. The team will be measuring the height of all the children and will make a large display to visualise the variances between all their heights and ages.

What you could do to support your children at home:

·         Get the scales out! Get the weighing scales out and get everyone on.  Ask your child to call out the number the needle’s pointing to, write it down and compare the numbers.  You can do the same when baking, or even when un-packing the shopping, weigh the different sized packets.

·         Using measurement words, such as heavy, light, big, small etc. when out and about. Ask your child if they think the bus is heavier or lighter than the car, if the tree is taller or smaller than the bus.

What are we doing in Sea Turtles in January 2015

A lot of the children have been attempting  to hold their fingers out when singing counting songs such as 5 Speckled Frogs, and some are attempting to say a few counting words. To encourage this further and help the children develop their mathematical awareness this month’s topic will be based around Numbers, shapes, space and measures.

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

Prime areas:

PSED: Show interest in the activities of others and respond differently to children and adults (e.g. more interested in watching children than adults and pay more attention when children talk to them. PD: Use different body parts to help act out action number rhymes.  C&L: Use single words.

Specific areas:

L: Handles books and printed materials with interest. M: Say some counting words randomly.  EA&D: Move their whole bodies to sounds they enjoy, such as music or regular beats. UW: Become absorbed in combining objects (e.g. banging two objects or placing objects into containers.)

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

·         Number puppets. Using socks and other materials Hannah will assist the children to make number puppets to use alongside songs and rhymes.

·         Play dough shapes. Afia will help the children to recognise different shapes by helping them to create different shapes with the play dough using cutters and simple tools.

·         Water & Sand play. Using a variety of resources such as bottles, cups and small containers, Christina will support the children to transport, fill and empty, measure and compare sizes. Christina will also be introducing new words.

·         Categorising objects. Alice will be supporting the children to fill balloons, bags and other containers and help the children to categorise them by size and weight and count them.

·         Physical play. Amina will help the children to explore shapes and space through physical play. Amina will set up different physical activities both indoors and outside and introduce new words as she encourages the children to climb, crawl, jump, count and recognise different shapes as they use the equipment.

·         Treasure Baskets. Manjit will be supporting the children to explore shape, space and measures using treasure baskets containing hard and soft objects and heavy and light objects.

Some ideas to support your children at home:

·         Bath time. Bath time is a great time to experiment with quantities and measures. Put a variety of bottles and containers of different sizes and shapes in the bath and let your child play with them using key words with your child such as big, small, empty, full, heavy and light. Encourage your child to repeat these words.

·         Puzzles. Puzzles are great way to help children learn about space. Spend a quiet 10 minutes with your child completing puzzles together, puzzles with large pieces and knobs or handles are ideal for small hands and help support success in fitting shapes into spaces.

November and December in Dolphins

For November and December Dolphins focused on the topic of Christmas and other celebrations.

In November Dolphins have begun looking at different celebrations.

We began the month celebrating Fireworks Night by using a variety of materials and methods to make fireworks pictures.

Remembrance Day was commemorated with paper poppies and poppy wreaths.

On November 27^th we celebrated Thanksgiving. The children made cornbread, finger print turkeys and story bracelets.

At the end of the month the children made Scottish flags and tartan pictures and had their faces painted for St Andrew’s Day.

As December arrived, Dolphins began to look more closely at the celebration of Christmas. We started the month by decorating the large Christmas tree!

The preschoolers began the month by making an Advent calendar to count down to Christmas, and enjoyed removing one window a day.

Boxes were used to decorate with Christmas paper ready for to put presents in.

In December we also celebrated Hannukah by making a large Menorah and putting a candle on to it every day of the celebration from 17^th – 24^th December.

On the 13^th December we celebrated St Lucia, a Scandinavian festival of light, by learning a song and dressing up in white capes and crowns of paper candles.

During December we also had our Christmas dinner together as whole nursery, and had our Christmas parties for the children where Dolphins enjoyed a show and we even had a special visit from Father Christmas!

What Sea Turtles did in November and December

To follow on from October's topic of changes around us, we decided to look at the big change of the year, which was all things Christmas; with decorations, carols, presents, a total change in the environment. We also took a look at some of the other celebrations that go on around at the same time of the year such as Thanksgiving and Hanukkah. 

We had a lot of creative hands over the last two months as there is an endless amount of creative activities that centre around Christmas that involve glue and all things sparkly and glittery!  

Children are making a nighttime backdrop for our nativity scene. 

Children used clay to make models of animals and characters to go in our Christmas Nativity.

We made a Pumpkin Pie in Celebration of American Thanksgiving.

Children had lots of fun exploring our Christmas treasure basket.  We had decorations and ornaments hidden in and amongst the tinsel!

 We collaborated on making and decorating Santa's Sleigh, and then had lots of fun going on little rides around the room in it! 

The highlight of December was our Christmas Party.  We had face painting, balloons, a ball pit, bouncy castle, dancing, and a special visit from Father Christmas!