Plans for March

What are we doing in Dolphins in March?
We have started growing caterpillars and will be watching them transform into cocoons and butterflies over the next month. The children are really excited by this and fascinated by the current tiny caterpillars. We will be having a focus on lifecycles of a range of living things this month.
This month will also see St David’s Day, St Patricks Day, Shrove Tuesday and red nose day. March will be busy!

The activities this month will be based around the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) areas of learning:
KUW-discovery, PSED- looking at how we change, MD- size, shape, pattern. CLL naming, discussing, PD- moving our bodies like caterpillars and butterflies, CD- arts and crafts.

What are we doing at the nursery to support this:
• Laura Jeffrey will be having circle times to monitor the progress of the caterpillars and reading about lifecycles.
• Christine and Lan will be doing some arts and crafts around The Hungry Caterpillar story.
• Lan will be making pancakes with the children for pancake day.
• Laura Z is going to be making some different bugs with the children.
• Laura W is planning on allowing children to create and improvise with their own artwork based on what they have seen.
• Jenny is going to be recording the development of the butterflies with the children by taking photos and making a progress display.
• Jenny will be taking the children on a bug hunt to see what bugs and mini beasts they can find in our nursery garden and beyond.
• Emily will be leading the children in some creative dancing being butterflies and caterpillars.

What could you do to support the children and reinforce what they have experienced at the nursery?
• Take them on a bug hunt, talk about the bugs you saw, then draw pictures of them.
• Do some research on different bugs with them. Try to find a really unusual bug and bring it to nursery to share with their friends.
• Go to the library and get some books out about lifecycles.
• Read the Hungry Caterpillar (again!)
• Show your child pictures of you when you were a baby, child, teenager and talk to them about growing up and human lifecycles.


What are we doing in Starfish for March?
This month, we will be having a focus on food. Fruit, vegetables, different food types, etc. Food is really motivating for children and a great way to include lots of repetition of language, learning words for different things they enjoy and are important to them.

The activities this month will be based around the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) areas of learning:
KUW-discovery, PSED- how we feel about food, MD- size, shape, pattern. CLL naming, discussing, PD- looking after our health, CD- arts and crafts.

Some of the activities we will be doing this month will involve:
• Lily will be making some smell pots for the children to smell different food smells and try to name a few.
• Sarah will be setting up art with different food types for the children to explore colour, images and shapes.
• Sarah will be introducing some new books with food in them to talk about different foods, point and name.
• Manjit will be introducing the children to different fruits that we don’t normally eat like dragon fruit, papaya, passion fruit and lychees.
• The team will display photos of different foods in the home corner. E.g. fruit stands, supermarket displays, food types, etc.
• The team will use some food catalogues and magazines to use the pictures to make food collages. • The team will introduce some new food toys into the home corner to extend the play already taking place.

Some ideas to support your children at home:
• Let your child help you to unpack your groceries. It takes longer, but they love helping and you can name the different foods as you unpack them
• Play language repetition games like ‘I like…’ You say ‘I like strawberries, you like strawberries’. Continue with all sorts of food types and eventually they will start to join in- great for language.
• Look through some cookery books with them and point out foods you like and they like. Get them to choose a dish and make it for them or with them.
• Use language such as favourite, best, more, etc when talking about food. E.g. ‘My favourite food is roast chicken, Daddy’s favourite food is ice cream, your favourite food is grapes’.


What are we doing in Seahorses in March?
This month we will continue to introduce the babies to experiences that expose them to different types of textures and experiences. We will set up some activities that are new to the current babies such as playdough, cornflour play and some bigger soft play equipment to challenge their confidence to explore in new ways.

The activities this month will be based around the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) areas of learning:
KUW-discovery, PSED- trying new things, MD- feeling different sizes and shapes CLL hearing new words PD- moving around the activities and obstacles, CD- exploring in self-initiated creative ways

What are we doing at the nursery to support this:
• Making playdough for the babies.
• Setting up some painting and sticking of different textures.
• Water play using rubber toys such as ducks, crabs, boats, etc.
• Explorer boxes
• Wood and soft blocks, bottles and balls.
• Sensory toys and stacking rings.
• Soft play climbing equipment
• Setting up the toys and equipment in new and interesting ways to challenge their senses and expectations.

What could you do to support the children and reinforce what they have experienced at the nursery?
• Rearrange their toys at home. Set them up in new ways, make them look different.
• Hide toys in boxes so they have to search for them.
• Set them up inside with some towels and a bowl of water to splash around in by leaning into, to experience water in new ways other than the bath..
• Very messy, but wonderfully fun; set them up with a bowl of flour to play in. It is really soft and powdery and they love the texture. – Possibly better in summer in the garden!

February reflection

Dolphins have had a lot of fun exploring a range of activities around the topic of fruit.

They have tasted all kinds of fruit and enjoyed trying out new flavours and types of fruit. Some of the more exotic ones have been dragon fruit and lychees. And some of the more usual ones were still new to some of the children. They liked describing the fruit and giggling over the sensations. These are some of the things they have said:

• “Pineapple makes my tongue tingle”. When tasting.
• “Grapefruit makes my eyes blink”. When tasting.
• “My kiwi has many seeds”. When drawing a kiwifruit.
• “I like strawberries, my mummy gives me strawberries”. When choosing favourites.

The children have also played exotic fruit lotto, which was made by Laura Z. The children thought the fruit names were very funny and the shapes were even funnier.

They have painted their favourite fruits and in different colours. Who needs rules? A banana has been blue in the nursery before now for sure.

The pre-schoolers made a 3D fruit tree and painted and cut oranges to go on it.
All the children listened to stories about growing fruit and different types of plants that fruit grows on.

They also made some orange juice by squeezing oranges and enjoyed tasting it, with some funny faces as fresh juice is quite strong for them.

As well as fruit, there have been plenty of other things going on too as we help and support the ideas that come into their minds. We have had a bike and scoot day on Monday 21st March. Some of the children brought in their bikes and scooters and rode around the car park learning about direction, overtaking carefully, helmets and being a safe rider.

The starfish group have had a great colourful month and the room is looking vibrant to say the least.

They have made a fabulous colour display. All of the children chose a colour and made a colour painting to pull together to make a display.

Each week, the teachers chose a different colour and really explored it with a big emphasis on noticing and saying that colour. They had a basket of toys of one colour collected together to play with, used colour flash cards, the children cruised the room looking for certain toys of certain colours following instructions, they have had play dough each week of a different colour, used coloured sand to make art and in trays to mark-make using straws.

The toddlers really like the colour book because it has so many little pictures of toys and bits and pieces in each colour to look though that are attractive and enticing to children.

The water play has been enjoyed and each week it has been a certain colour. Colourful water also makes it interesting when filling and pouring because the quantities are so easy to see and enjoy.

Lego is always a favourite toy and a great opportunity to talk about colours too.

There has also been a lot of multi-coloured drawing, sticking and painting happening. A lot of discussion and name repetition goes on during these activities and it is really exciting to see such young children make big attempts to say the names of the colours and be able to pick colours out of a collection, attempt and/ or be successful at naming them.



The Seahorses have been introducing babies to a wide variety of colours and textures and supporting the new babies in trying new things by encouraging the confidence to explore.

The babies have had a good time exploring hats. We have hats of different shapes, sizes and textures. Some are hard and some are soft. They find amusement in putting them on and seeing them on others as well. Some of the hats cover their whole heads and faces and there is particular amusement from some of the babies in those hats. They also get a lot of enjoyment out of seeing the teachers put different hats on their heads.

One of the teachers pasted sandpaper on some cardboard cylinders. These were a great hit with the babies. They like touching the rough surface, but it also makes them really easy for the babies to pick up and grip, so they really enjoyed carrying them and moving them about.

Material treasure is always loved by babies. There are loads of silky fabrics that they love to drape around their bodies and put on each other. Again, seeing teachers with scarves draped around them is so amusing to babies!

The fabric books and books with different textures are always available and enjoyed by babies, however this month, we can tell that they are relating all the extra textures and activities to the regular activities as they have. They have been taking books out of the books areas and showing them to the teachers that have fluffy bits in them and nice textures. It is a really great feeling to see the connections between special activities and regular activities and sharing them with the people they are familiar with and share interests with.

plans for February

What are we doing in Dolphins in February?
The Dolphins group love helping the teachers set up morning snack in the room. Lots of discussion is emerging about the different fruits they enjoy and don’t, different ones they know about, which ones they eat at home, and so on. We plan to extend the discussions and learning by talking about different fruits grown in different countries, where fruit comes from, favourites, preferences, etc.

The activities this month will be based around the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) areas of learning:
KUW-discovery, PSED- preferences, MD- size, shape, sorting, CLL naming, discussing, PD- cutting, peeling, CD- role playing cooking & shopping, painting, modelling fruit.

What are we doing at the nursery to support this:
• Laura W will be reading and doing some extension work around the stories: The Hungry Caterpillar and Handa’s Surprise.
• Laura Z will be making and playing some lotto g ames with the children to learn about and recognise different types of fruit and stimulate discussion.
• Laura J will be doing some fruit painting with the children. Looking at pictures of fruits and painting them.
• Christine will be setting up some searching (in magazines) cutting and sticking pictures of fruit.
• Jenny will be exploring what types of plants or trees fruit grow on.
• Lan will be making a fruit mobile with the children.
• Other activities will include flash cards, role play, fruit puzzles, Fruity Park game on the computer, sampling different fruits, and following and supporting the children’s interests and discussions to help them explore down their own paths.

What could you do to support the children and reinforce what they have experienced at the nursery?
• Take them shopping to the local fruit shop or stall. Allow them to chose some fruits to take home and make a fruit salad for your families pudding with them.
• Go to the library and get some books out on fruit.
• Do some research on the computer together and try to find some very unusual fruit to bring to the nursery to share with the group. Or, find out an interesting fact- like why watermelon sold in Japan is square.
• Talk about where fruit comes from. Which countries produce certain fruit.

What are we doing in Starfish for February?
Following on from all the texture exploration, the children are noticing and pointing to different colours and trying to name them so for the month of February we will be having a focus on colours and exploring different colours, making colours and naming colours.

The activities this month will be based around the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) areas of learning:
Knowledge and Understanding of the World (KUW) and Communication Language and Literacy (CLL).

Some of the activities we will be doing this month will involve: - Sarah will be setting up a variety of painting activities using different contrasting colours to explore and discuss.
- Manjit will be making different coloured play dough to play with and discuss colours and blending colours.
- Sarah will be setting up a variety of building activities using different coloured lego blocks and experiences with the same colours blocks too.
- Manjit will be setting up water play using different coloured water for the children to enjoy and discuss.
- Sarah will be using coloured sand in tray to explore zen like gareden designs and colours.
- Lily will be doing some baking with the children, making different coloured icing and icing biscuits.
Some ideas to support your children at home:
-Go to the library and get out a book on colours
-Talk about colours in your everyday conversations.
-Watch vehicles go past and talk about the colours of the cars, buses, etc.
-Name the colours of your children’s clothes as they get ready.
-Do some painting at home and talk about colours.
-Take a walk around your garden or go to a park and talk about the colours of the flowers, trees, plants, etc.


What are we doing in Seahorses in February?
The new babies are starting to feel more confident with the team and the environment so we are going to start introduce them to new experiences and sensations to help them to feel confident in exploring different textures and equipment, many of which they may not have experienced before.

The activities this month will be based around the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) areas of learning:
Physical Development (PD) and Knowledge and Understanding of the World (KUW)

What are we doing at the nursery to support this:
• Beata is planning to set up some hat wearing activities of different shapes sizes and styles, supporting them in sharing and being playful.
• Dawn is planning to set up some activities using different textured rollers.
• Chanpreet is planning to set up some fabric and board books with different textures on them to explore.
• Beata is planning to set up some water play activities with soft and rough textures in it.
• Beata is planning to set some corn flour messy play activities.
• Chanpreet is going to be having some group times with the babies all together exploring textures. • Dawn in planning on setting up some sand play experiences both indoors and outdoors for the babies to explore.

What could you do to support the children and reinforce what they have experienced at the nursery?
• Build babies experiences of different textures by running your and their hands over different textures at home; wall paper, smooth paint, bricks, wood, carpet, etc.
• Allow them to explore some messy play (in their highchairs is a great place to reduce mess) corn flour play- see a team member on how to do it, jelly- using gelatine, but not the flavoured variety so they don’t think it is food, children’s no- toxic paint, etc.
• Make a treasure basket for you babies filled with a variety of different textured pieces. E.g. sandpaper, wood, rubber, metal, silk, wool, fabrics, things you can squeeze, things you can pull, scourers, brushes etc. Babies find anything interesting because it is all new to them. Your junk is their treasure.

January reflections

Starfish
Starfish have had a very busy January filled with lots of different activities and new children as some of the Seahorses have moved up to the ranks of Starfish.

Starfish have been on an excursion to Mortlake Park to play in the playground and walk through the park, lots of daily play outside in the playground- even though it has been cold and wintry. And, artwork has been a very strong feature of the month as well. Take a look at our photo gallery at the end for some of the different things they have done.

There has been coloured sand artwork by using sand mixed with glue and applied with fingers, finger painting on textured paper, collages out of different shaped and textured paper, stamping with sponge stamps.

In messy play the children have been playing with wet sand, soap flakes gloop, black coloured water in different containers to look at shape and size, coloured sand in small trays using straws to draw pictures and shapes, corn flour gloop play.

..and we have made fairy cakes to eat!

Seahorses
Seahorses have had new babies join the room to fill the absence of the friends that have moved on to Starfish. We have welcomed four new babies in the January weeks and it is really lovely getting to see their personalities emerge as we get to know them and they become more settled.

Our settled babies from last year have enjoyed their independence and the discovery of all the things that they can do in the room with a little bit of confidence through establishing a sense of belonging in the nursery. They have broken loose from the hesitation.

To help the babies to feel engaged with the different children and to get to know each other and the staff we have been having some little singing and games circles. The babies stay for as long as they want to sing songs or watch little puppet shows with the puppets. We also do ball rolling and throwing with the soft indoor balls.

There has been a lot of special one to one reading books with babies and enjoying time together to getting to know babies individually and building their confidence in the staff and assurance that they will be there to look after them and care for them.

Building towers with bricks has been a regular feature as well for the more settled babies as they love the drama of the bricks falling down and are more confident to exert some control over the environment with their force and watch the crash without fright.

All of the babies have had some fun putting their fingers in paint and spreading it around the paper. It is a new experience for a lot of them and a love it or hate it experience too. Feeling new textures in the baby room is all about learning to experience new things and ‘have a go’.

A lovely experience for the babies new and old is to explore the scarves box. The silky textures are relaxing and it is comforting to have fabric drapes around their bodies. The teachers enjoy the babies putting scarves on them too and sharing bits and piece of fabrics together.

Dolphins
Dolphins had a big focus on mail, post, letters, postcards, etc this month and have a lot of fun activities built around mail.

We have written letters to ourselves, put them in envelopes, addressed them and stamped them, walked them to the red post box close to the nursery and discovered that 1st Class Royal Mail actually takes one whole week to be delivered (well, it did on this occasion anyway). Still, the children were excited to get their letters back a week later and read them in circle time.

Some of the children have made some red mail trucks through junk modelling and they have been displayed in the dolphins play room. Others have designed their own stamps that they might like to see on a letter and these have been displayed too.

We have had a lot of discussion about mail in story times and some stories about mail as well. Of course, Postman Pat has played a key role in all of this.

Dolphins home corner was transformed into a post office and the children made letters and transported cards about, posting them in the letter box and delivering their mail with their delivery bags. They exchanged money for mail at the tills and had a little service depot going on for a few weeks.

When the Post Office expired its fascination and returned to a home corner, many of the children continued taking themselves off to the writing table to write little letters and put them in envelopes and then post them in the nursery mail box.

January

What are we doing in Dolphins in January?
The Dolphins group have continued to be interested in Christmas cards and been talking about cards coming through their letter boxes, etc. So we plan to extend this interest in to writing cards and letters and posting them, talking about the postal service and how it works and giving the children the opportunity to take part in the process.

What are we doing at the nursery to support this:
• Setting up a post office in the nursery where children can write letters and cards, put them in envelopes and post them in a post box.
• Making 3D postal vans out of boxes and talking about what the postal vans are for.
• Making cards using stencils.
• During circle times we will be reading Postman Pat stories and talking about how the post service works.
• Taking some of the children on an excursion to the Post Office.
• Designing our own stamps.

What could you do to support the children and reinforce what they have experienced at the nursery?
• Write some letter with your children to family and friends. Pop it in the post box and ask them to call your child when it arrives.
• Take letters to the post box to post with them. Talk about where they are going and how they will get there and how long it will take.
• Take your children on a trip to the Post Office and talk about what you are using the services for.
• Point out the postal service in action when you pass it. Post deliverers, post trucks, post vans collecting from the post boxes etc.
• Talk about the colour of the post service being red and how it can be recognised.
• Talk about the colours of stamps and what they mean. E.g. gold for a fast delivery, blue for a slower, big stamps for big letters, etc.


What are we doing in Starfish in January?
The Starfish group have been taking an interest in the sensory experiences such as water play, the sensory bag and tactile bags and so we will be extending and supporting on this.

What are we doing at the nursery to support this:
• We will be using words to explain properties of things, such as soft, hard, warm, cold, rough, furry, etc, with the children to build on their word repertoire.
• Manjit will be setting up some cooked corn flour play.
• Bea will be setting up some clay experiences.
• Sarah will be setting up some whipped and set soap flakes play.
• Sarah will be setting up a range of wet sand activities.
• Bea will be setting up some clay activities.
• Manjit will be making play dough and using it with the children while it is warm.

What could you do to support the children and reinforce what they have experienced at the nursery?
• Explore textures with children and talk about the properties of them. Help them run their hands over bricks, wood, grass, trees, fur, etc.
• Use describing words to build their repertoire of language and using it to relate to the experiences they are having.
• Have a go of doing some finger painting at home, use play dough, set up some bubbly water play, etc.


What are we doing in Seahorses in January?
The start of each year always means welcoming new babies into the seahorses room, getting the settled and supporting them in learning about the room, their neighbours in Starfish and the different faces in the nursery.

What are we doing at the nursery to support this:
• Making a display of children’s pets so that they can feel that important and familiar parts of their home can give them comfort at the nursery as well.
• Asking parents to bring in pictures of the babies families so that they can see them during the nursery day.
• Lots of use of names so that the babies can become familiar with who is in the room with them and start to become aware of their peers.
• Introducing children to explore sensory activities like feeling paint, corn flour and water, water play, etc that they may not have had a lot of experience of at home, but that is and will become very important parts of their nursery experience.
• Introducing the new babies to a range of other activities to encourage the impulse to explore.

What could you do to support the children and reinforce what they have experienced at the nursery?
• Use the names of the staff and the other children in the group when you are at home to keep the links between nursery and home active.
• Sing songs with your baby and use the names of people s/he is familiar with at nursery.
• Talk a lot about nursery while you are at home in a positive and relaxed tone to demonstrate that it is a special place in their lives and that you acknowledge what is important to them beyond your home and family.
• You could even try to extend some of the activities we do at nursery into your home if you are game enough. Finger painting (with non-toxic paint of course), corn flour and water are great at home too. Just as a team member for a recipe if you are keen to create a bit of mess and explore.

Working Mums Christmas art gallery~ at the Fromer Mortlake Green School

A Dolphins Christmas

The nursery wreath
A big welcome to all our families each day through the front door with the Christmas wreath that the Dolphin children contributed to with their hand prints.

Decorated Christmas tree collages with glitter pom poms, tinsel, sequins, glitter, little colourful bits and pieces and white paint for snow. The chlidren love to position pieces in places that satisfy them.

Wreaths to take home for the children's own doors.
Paper plates with holes cut were provided and different types of green paper pieces were available to collage the rings with gold stars to put at the top.







The children cut snowflakes with help and stuck them onto paperplates for a great snowflake effect.

Abstract Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer compositions.
A range of different reindeer pieces were available for children to choose and stick them where they think they should go.








Santa's boot collages.
Free choice collages with lots of different coloured and textured paper pieces to add to boot shaped pieces.





Snowmen
Snow man compositions. Children made their own snowmen using pre cut pieces. They watched an example one being makde then had a go themselves.





Children's drawings
The children's Christmas drawings. Draw what you like about Christmas.....









Christmas icon paint stamping.
Dipping playdough cutters into paint and staming out the prints onto paper.







Children's free choice Christmas collages.
Children love quiet time gluing and sticking pieces in different places. It is relaxing, fun and rewarding.

The Working Mums~ Mortlake Christmas Art Gallery

A Starfish Christmas

Starfish children made Christmas Elves hats to wear to their Christmas Party. Mother Claus came to the party and gave out little gifts for all the children. They had music, singing, dancing, art, party food and a really great time.

They have also made Santa's boots and snowy days art.

The children have loved the Christmas stampers and they always love glitter on top.

They painted Christmas tree, with glitter too...of course.

And, snowmen of cotton wool and googly eyes.