What are we doing in Sea Turtles in January

The children have shown a real interest in the refurbishment that has been happening next door in the Dolphin room. The children have listen to the noises the workmen have been making during the build and enjoyed going around to see them and what is happening.

So this month we will be looking at people at work and at what people use in their jobs.
Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) areas of learning:
Prime areas:

PSED: Explore new toys and environments but checks in with a familiar adult. PD: show a desire to help with dressing and undressing and hygiene routines. C&L Begin to ask simple questions.

Specific areas:

L: Handle books and printed material with interest. M: begin to organise and categorise objects e.g. putting all the blocks together and putting all the trucks and cars in separate piles. UW: Is curious about people and shows interest in stories about people at work.  EA&D: pretends that one object represents another especially when it has objects has characteristics in common. 

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

·         Making Vehicles that people use for work. Sarah will help the children to create vehicles such as police cars, ambulances, dump trucks and cranes.

·         Small world play. Alice will encourage the children to participate in small word play with police cars, fire engines & ambulances and get the children to organise them in to categories to match flash cards, and encourage them to make noises that match the vehicles.

·         People at work collages. Cristina C will support the children in creating collages of people at work and the equipment that they use in they jobs.

·         Junk modelling. Laura will support the children in creating junk modelling vehicles that are linked to jobs in transport i.e. Buses & Trains

·         Role play. Afia will set up a dressing up corner where children can dress up as people from different professions i.e. doctor, fireman, builder.

·         Sand play. The sand tray will be set up with diggers, police cars, ambulances and small world play people from different job roles.

What you could do to support your children at home: 

·         Take a trip to the library with your little ones. Look at books together and read stories about people in different professions.

·         Make flash cards. Print off some pictures of people from different job roles and items they use for that job and make matching game to play with your little one.

·         Encourage your little ones to repeats the sound they hear around them. For example the sound of a train or police car.

 

What are we doing in Dolphins in January?

We have moved back into the newly refurbished Dolphin rooms and the children have seen some final touches being done. The children have continued to show an interest in building and DIY, and are still talking about Haydon and Dennis and how they built Dolphins new rooms.

We will also be celebrating Chinese New Year.

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

Prime areas:
PSED: begin to express own interests and preferences  PD: gain new skills in doing things for themselves such as putting pictures on the pin board. C&L Learn new words associated with DIY i.e. decorating, sanding, Plumber,

Specific areas:

L:ascibe meaning to marks they see in different places. M: Gaining an awareness of different shapes and sizing of items in their environment UW: Show an awareness of change around us & the impact change has on our immediate environment EA&D: Explore new materials

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

·         Looking at Chinese letters and Symbols. Manjit will support the pre-school children in understanding that words and letters can be represented in different ways, by looking at Chinese letters and symbols.

·         Chinese New Year lanterns. Shilpi will be assisting the children to create and decorate Chinese New Year Lanterns.   

·         DIY role play. Christine will be supporting the children into role play around DIY and decorating

·         Looking at different professions. During circle time Matt will be looking at the different professions in the building industry such as decorators, plumbers and brick layers.

·         DIY Pyramids. Marie Claire will be helping the children to construct and decorate their own pyramid shapes.

·         Exploring textures. Manjit will support the children in exploring textures through activities such as painting on different Medias such as wood, sand paper and cloth.

What you could do to support your children at home:

·         Talk with your children about what is happening in Dolphins. Go through the photo library on the Facebook Group with your child to aid discussion. If you are not a Facebook user, bring in a memory stick for us to send home building works images.

·         Get the children involved. If you are planning any decorating get the children involved take a trip to a DIY store look at colour charts, look at decorating catalogues.

·         Discuss with your children how different cultures celebrate different celebrations. Take a visit to the library and look at books about celebrations all over the world.

Fun in Sea Turtles and Dolphins for December '13

Sea turtles

 This month we got right into the festivities the children have been involved with lots of music and movement, learning words and actions to new songs and enjoying the old ones. Dressing up has been a fun activity for the children and they have all taken to the Santa hats.

Making Christmas presents is always fun, lots of glitter & sparkles to make beautiful baubles for the tree and using salt dough to create Christmas shapes for them to paint.

Tinsel play has been different for the children; feeling new materials and exploring all the shiny objects. The children have also been enjoying lots of colouring with pencils, pens and chalk.

It’s been a good festive month for the children to enjoy.

Dolphins

This month we have had a fun filled festive month with lots of singing, dancing and making festive goodies along with talking and reading stories about other cultures and religions and what they do at this time of year.

The children have been busy making cards, Christmas pudding, stockings, trees and an array of other decorations. The children have really enjoyed singing to themselves and the rest of the group on the karaoke machine in preparation for our carols by candle light evening.

The children have also still shown a great interest in the building works next door and have been popping around to chat to Haydon and Dennis through the fence as they work and then role play at being Haydon and Dennis using a variety of materials such as Lego, wooden blocks and cardboard boxes to build their own nursery.

What we have been doing in November in Dolphins

We’ve had a very busy and fun filled month in Dolphins with lots of new things going on as we’ve settled into our temporary space.

After finding the demolition of our much loved nursery quite disturbing, once the delivery trucks of building equipment, the concrete mixers to watch, sawing to listen to and getting used to the idea that we will be getting a new refreshed nursery space in 2014, the children really got into the building spirit. Watching the goings on through the fence is great fun! And, we love to joke about the toilets in the garden!

The under 3’s have spent the month constructing a large model of the nursery as the building works continue, every day they are adding more pieces to the model and we will be continuing with the construction into next month as they are having so much fun with it!

The pre-schoolers have also enjoyed discussions about the building works and they’ve been doing lots of role playing, pretending to be ‘Hayden’ and ‘Dennis’ the builders!  They helped put together a photo album of the real construction site.

All the children have really enjoyed coming out of the rooms and playing in the large hall.  We’ve played the parachute game on several occasions, ‘move like a…..’ animal game, and our weekly dance sessions have been particularly fun in the larger space.

Towards the end of the month we’ve got into the Christmas spirit of things as some of you may have already heard, by practising our songs for our Carols by Candlelight evening!  Our bells have been jingling several times a day and we’ve even started making and putting up some decorations!

In November Sea Turtles kicked off festivals!!

We welcomed a big new pram. So after fitting it together, we have taken turns to go on walks and we have especially enjoyed our walks to the river. We have been spotting ducks and boats and collecting leaves on are way back to nursery.  We enjoy pointing and looking out for animals on our journey along the river, especially finding Mr Squirrel!

Festivals started off with looking at fireworks for Guy Fawkes. We explored a range of mark-marking activities and making bang sound effects to go with our marks.   Children have been experimenting with a range of sounds and words to communicate different sounds fireworks make and using lots of different media, such us chalk, pencils, glitter and paint to create the sparkle effect.

We welcomed the start of Christmas by making Christmas crackers and a Christmas tree together. We spread a lot of merry cheer with lots of glitter! We spoke about snow and started to make snow pictures and snowman. We have been playing a lot with shredded paper, to create a snow scene in sea-turtles and have a really great lot of fun throwing and exploring the texture, lightness and shagginess of lots of shredded paper.

We have also been making Christmas decorations for the Christmas tree out of salt-dough. We’ve creating many different shapes and the children are so interested in them and we can’t wait for them to dry so we can get painting.

We have been sharing pictures, songs, books, images and talking about different ways to celebrate Christmas. In our activities, we have been talking about sharing and turn-taking with our friends, as it’s the season of joy, care and being together! We have had a lot of fun By wrapping up presents and pretending to exchange Christmas gifts with each other.

The big musical fun this month has been the Christmas Carol practice. We have been practicing our Christmas carols and introducing actions and gestures to go with each of the songs. Sea Turtles favourite song at the moment is Christmas pudding, especially calling out ‘….Hot”’ and ‘sprinkle on the sugar!’.  We have been repeating the Christmas songs to model and build on the children’s language. Children have been picking up the songs and the beat of the music by exploring musical instruments and having a LOT OF FUN! 

 

What are we doing in Dolphins in November?

Change and coping with it is the big topic this month!

All of the Dolphins (children, practitioners and families) have managed a huge change through relocation this month. For the children, it has meant new routines, varied rules, new practices, a loss of indoor/ outdoor flow and working in a split group- so a change of peers and access to some practitioners too.

And, then there is the weather. It is rapidly getting darker and colder and we will be talking about the changes in our environment as we head towards Christmas.

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

Prime areas:

PSED: Realising that the rules, boundaries and practices in some settings may be different to those in others. PD: Using gross motor skills to role play building. C&L Learning some new language associated with building.

Specific areas:

L: Using books to discover more about building  and appreciating them as a tool to learn more. Talking about the signs related to construction, what they mean and why they are needed. M: Size, shapes and measures in building. UW: Observing the world around, the changes within it and relating it to their world beyond the nursery.  EA&D: using a range of media to build structures, draw plans, and represent what they are seeing.

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

·         Making a book on the building works in Dolphins. Manjit and Jenny will be working with the preschool children to make a book on the development and progress of the building works.

·         Building role play. Jenny and Manjit will be supporting the children into role play around building and construction.

·         Weather charts. The pre-schoolers will be making individual weather charts to track the changes in weather on a daily basis to use as discussion and reflection on the weather.

·         Matt will be working with the group on making a group weather chart that records the daily weather and what the children have observed about the weather on their way to or at nursery. E.g. frozen windscreens, etc.

·         2D buildings. Christine H will be working with the children on designing buildings by collaging shapes together.

·         Building works model. Marie Claire will be making a model of the building works as they progress and getting children to add to it as the building progresses to aid discussion.

·         Excursion to the library. Shilpi will be organising an excursion to the local library to take out books on construction and building and bringing them back to the nursery with the children to aid discussion.

What you could do to support your children at home:

·         Talk with your children about what is happening in Dolphins. Go through the photo library on the Facebook Group with your child to aid discussion. If you are not a Facebook user, bring in a memory stick for us to send home building works images.

·         If you pass a construction site, take the time to look at it. Talk about what they are doing.

·         Discuss the signs around construction sites and what they say. Talk about safety and why children and the public are not allowed on construction sites.

·         Sometimes construction sites have plans on them. Talk about the plans and what they are for.

·         Discuss with your children what has been happening at nursery. Talk about how they feel about it. What they like or don’t like about the new space they are working in.

 What are we doing in Sea Turtles in November

and December?

Festivities, fireworks, Christmas Carols, Diwali and Christmas season. Celebrating and exploring all of the bright lights, fun and festivities of the exciting season that is new to our little ones. We are going to take our time over this delightful season and spend a good six weeks enjoying it and bringing it to the children with enough time to really let the children have lots of festive fun!

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

Prime areas:

PSED: Exploring all of the bright lights and new experiences with the security of those they are familiar with. PD: Using their fine motor skills to explore and manipulate textures and items new to them.  C&L Enjoying rhymes and songs, listening and trying to join in with actions and vocalisations.

Specific areas:

L: Using books to see messages, items, ideas. M: Gaining the understanding that some things exist, even when they are out of sight. UW: Observing change as the festive world starts to emerge around them.  EA&D: Using a range of media to create festive works of art and decoration.

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

·         Making Christmas crackers, trees, fireworks pictures with Sarah and seeing them displayed.

·         Learning new songs. Christmas Carol practice for Carols by Candlelight.

·         Festive collages. Alice will be making collages with the children representing all the images of the festive season.

·         Divali shapes and colours. Alice will be sharing Diwali shapes and colours with the children to explore.

·         Christmas decorations. Cristina will be making some Christmas decorations with the children using salt dough.

·         Christmas surprises. We can’t share this one yet. It is a surprise, but what we can say, is the children will be having some fun with Laura for your benefit!

·         Sensory tent. Latoya will be setting the sensory tent up for the children with lots of light equipment and interesting discoveries.

·         Christmas Treasure Baskets. All of the team will be creating some Christmas treasure baskets for children to explore tinsel, baubles, decorations, etc.

What you could do to support your children at home:

·         Take your little one on a festive walk. Slow down and go past the shops, lit up houses, etc and take the time to stop and look in the windows with them while they are in their stroller. Imagine how it is for them, fleeting past all of these new things as you pace past fast and they never get to stop and look. So, give them a treat and make special time to do this.

·         Set up a treasure basket for them of Christmassy things. Let them touch, feel and enjoy being able to really investigate them.

·         Practice those Carols and come to Carols by Candle light! It will be great fun.