What are we doing in Dolphins in March?
Particularly the older children have been showing an interest in their bodies and how they change and grow, what parts do what and showing an increase in confidence in what their bodies are capable of. Many of the younger children are toilet training at present so they also are taking more control of their bodies and pride in what they are achieving. So, this month we will be looking a little bit closer at bodies.

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

Prime areas:
PSED: To feel comfortable and confident in their bodies and what they can do. PD: Challenge their physical abilities and learn new ways of moving. C&L: Build their vocabulary of body parts, movement, think about and discover new words for describing physical sensations.

Specific areas:

L: Understanding and using books for reference and research to aid discovery and knowledge.  M: Using their bodies to count with, pairing. UW: learning about how bodies grow, develop and change.  EA&D: Move their bodies creatively with and without music.

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

·         Arranging body parts. Shilpi will be talking about the different parts of the body with the children and then getting them to arrange the body parts where they think they go.

·         Foot painting. Marie-Claire will be helping children to make large scale pictures with the children’s feet in the outdoor area.

·         Moving to music versus silence. Christine H will be supporting the children to move in different ways to music using ribbons, scarves and also comparing how different it feels when you move without music.

·         Fruits and vegetables. Laura Z will be making picture lists with the children of their five favourite fruits and vegetables and talking about how you need to eat at least five a day and more is better.

·         How does your body work? Jenny will be working with the preschool group on how their body works and how to keep them healthy with food and exercise.

·         Growth. Matt will be working with the children, families and team on gathering pictures of themselves as they have grown up to talk about how your body grows.

·         Life size drawings. Carole and Natty will be helping the children to make life size drawings of themselves and naming the different body parts.

What you could do to support your children at home:

·       Look through photo albums together of different family members and talk about how you have each grown.

·       Talk about and count the fruits and vegetables they have eaten in the day. Talk about how you need at least five fruits and vegetables a day to keep healthy and check off with them as they do it.

·       Go to the park and do some running together. Feel your pulses and talk about how exercise makes you feel. Use lots of describing words; puffed, happy, wobbly, beating.

·       Name body parts, sing songs (we all know Heads, Shoulders…), count body parts, repeat and remember.

What are we doing in Sea Turtles in March?

After a month of listening to sounds, the children have really tuned into the road and what they think they hear passing by. They have been finding pictures of different vehicles and talking about them, so this month we will support the children in discovering more about the different types of vehicles and what they are for.

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

Prime areas:

PSED: Learning alongside others, sharing discoveries and exploring new things supported by familiar key person or friend. PD: Using their body to move, pass, operate vehicles and walking to street to watch vehicles. C&L: imitating words and sounds. Making sounds to represent noises vehicles make.

Specific areas:

M: Recognising different sizes, matching, ordering vehicles. UW: Observing the different vehicles on the street, what they do, how they sound.  EA&D: Expressions of what they have learned through movement, sound, art.

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

·         Obstacle course. Sarah G will be supporting the use of their bodies as vehicles or using ride on toys, moving around cones, responding to signs and role modelling from what they see or know about the streets and vehicles.

·         Going on a boating journey. Laura W will support the children into role playing going on a boating journey in boxes with waving material as the sea for them to travel through.

·         Vehicle collages. Cristina will be helping the children to make collages of vehicles and talking about the different names, noises, activities of them as they go.

·         Making artistic tracks. Ella will be supporting the children in making art by painting with the wheels of the vehicles, making sounds and actions as they go.

·         Small world play. Sara will be supporting the children in setting up lots of small world play with all the different vehicles and playing sounds of the roads, sea, sky.

·         Excursions to the river, railway station and roads. All of the team will be taking the children on a range of excursions to look at different types of transport.

·         Excursion to the library for transport books. Chloe will be organising a group of children to go to the library to look for and take out books about transport.

Some ideas to support your children at home:

·         Take time to stop of and look at diggers, trucks, trains and cars. Children love it and find it fascinating. Talk about what they are doing.

·         Take a trip on some transport that you normally don’t for a change. Buses, trains, canal boats, river bus. Do you or a friend have a canoe or rowing boat they could have a little ride in?

·         Go for a walk to a Fire Station. Look at the fire engines through the doors or windows. You might even be lucky enough for one to come out all bells and speed.

·         Go to the library and get out some books on transport.

·         Walks along the Thames in the weekend are full of different boats. Have a walk, watch and chat about it.

What are we doing in Dolphins for  February?

More building!!!

The children are loving the building topic and so we are planning to continue and extend it this month.

The activities this month will be based around the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) areas of learning:
Prime areas:
C&L: Sharing ideas, what we know and asking questions to find out more.  PD: Using hand tools and different types of medial to piece together model buildings. PSED: Playing and working in groups, feeling good about taking on others ideas and confident in sharing own.

Specific areas:

UW: Showing curiosity and learning about other people around the world, their countries and their types of building. L: Showing an interest in different books; fact and fiction and using books as a resource in learning more about buildings. EA&D: Using different materials to construct, build, balance, join and collage. M: Learning about size, shape, positioning, height, etc of buildings.

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

·         The Wise Man Built His House Upon The Rocks. Marie Claire will be building two house with the children. One on a pile of sand and one on a bile of rocks. She’ll then be pouring water over them and getting the children to predict which house will remain standing.

·         Su will introduce the song of the Wise Man Built His House Upon The Rocks.

·         Making clay bricks. Christine H will be making some clay bricks with the children and then using them to make some structures.

·         Tepee making. Jenny will be showing the children how to make simple tepees in the car park with sticks and cloth.

·         Ginger bread house. Cristina will be making a ginger bread house with the children.

·         Iggy Peck Architect. We’ll be looking at this book and talking about the different ways we can build.

·         Street walk. Laura Z will be organising walks with children to look at the different types of buildings there are in our local area. Some of the children will take photographs of them and then print them out and laminate them to support discussions,

What you could do to support your children at home:

·      Make a den at home; inside, in your garden, etc.

·      Get out your blocks (or use boxes, rocks, bricks, if you don’t have any) and build a tower. Talk about the need for bigger ones at the bottom and smaller at the top for balancing.

·      Talk about the different houses of the people you know. How are they different? Are they a different style because of where they live?

·      Get an old box and make a house or a building of some sort. Make furniture to go in it with smaller boxes. Let you imagination and ideas flow with your child.

What are we doing in Sea Turtles in February?

The children have become very interested in sound in the environment. Particularly while in the outdoors, where they are hearing sounds that they can’t see and trying to guess what they are. So, this month we are going to extend on that and talk about what the sounds are, try to locate its source and then learn more about it.

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

Prime areas:

C&L: Listening to the noises that adults make when they tell stories. Recognising and responding to sounds.  PSED: Interactions with others. Exploring new situations when supported by a familiar adult. PD: Make connections between their movements and the sounds they make when moving.

Specific areas:

UW: Observing and making sense of what animals, people and vehicles do. EA&D: Dance and movement to different sounds and feeling the effect of the sounds on our bodies. M: Looking at shapes of the things we hear in silhouette and working out what they are.

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

·         Exploring the park. Laura W will be organising a series of excursions to the park to listen to sounds in the environment and then searching to find the source of the sounds.

·         City and animal sounds guessing. Sara will be setting up sessions where the children have the opportunity to listen to sounds of the city and sounds of animals and then guessing what they may be and reinforcing with pictures.

·         Movement to instruments. Sarah G will be using instruments to make sounds that reflect the movements of animals and getting the children to move like different animals.

·         Road role play. All of the team will be setting up road ways for the children role play riding cars, trucks, bikes, etc and making the noises the different vehicles make as they go.

·         Image collage. Chloe will be making collages with children using simple images of things that make noises and then making the noises they make with the children.

·         Movement of music. Ella will be supporting the children in moving to different music speeds. Loud, soft, quick, slow, etc.

Some ideas to support your children at home:

·         Take time to stop and listen to sounds in your environment. What sounds do you hear every day? Are there dogs, cats or birds that are regularly calling at a certain time?

·         Talk about different things and the sounds they make. Try to copy the sounds they make. E.g. the whir of the kettle boiling, the shower going, pets, alarms, phones, etc.

·         Try to track noises you hear. Listen for a noise, repeat it so you know you are listening to the same thing and then try to track it down.

 

 

What are we doing in Sea Turtles in January?

The children love nursery rhymes, puppets and stories and have (particularly recently) all really enjoyed, learning new actions to new rhymes. To further support this, we’ll be having a month focussed on nursery rhymes, story books and songs.

 

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

Prime areas:

C&L: Learning new words and actions to songs, extending their communication and language repertoire. PSED: Sharing new experiences and communication in learning new songs and actions with friends.  PD: Gross motor skills; moving with whole bodies and fine motor skills; finger plays and small actions.

Specific areas:

UW: Learning songs and finger plays from another language. EA&D: Creating art works, dressing up, dance. M: Learning rhymes with numbers. Counting and noticing when something has been taken away.

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

·         Making puppets. Laura will be helping the children to make simple puppets to use in their songs and rhymes.

·         Character guessing. Sarah G will be making some character shapes with the children and getting them to guess what the characters are and then reading the story, doing the actions and songs.

·         Collaging. Chloe will be setting up some collages on paper shaped with nursery rhyme characters to do with the children while singing nursery rhymes.

·         Puppet Shows. Sara and Ella will be setting up lots of nursery rhymes and story puppet shows for the children to watch and take part in.

·         Nursery rhyme cards. Sarah Louise will be making some nursery rhyme flash cards for the children to look at. She’ll also be making a display of nursery rhymes for everyone to add to.

 Some ideas to support your children at home:

·         Pull out all the old traditional nursery rhymes and start reading and singing them.

·         If your child has a particular favourite, share it with the team so we can make sure we focus on it for them at nursery too.

·         When you are out and about, point out nursery characters. You’ll see them on cots, in shop windows, bowls, etc. They are everywhere, you just have to notice. Point to them and sing or say the song/ rhyme.

·         Learn the rest of the words to the rhymes you only half remember. You can find lyrics and words to everything on the web.

·         http://www.rhymes.org.uk/ this one is a good start.

What are we doing in Dolphins for January?

Building!!!

A lot of fun has been going on recently with the construction toys; building houses, tracks, buildings, etc. So, we are going to do some extension work on this and look at a range of different types of building and materials.

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

Prime areas:
C&L: Sharing ideas, what we know and asking questions to find out more.  PD: Using hand tools and different types of medial to piece together model buildings. PSED: Playing and working in groups, feeling good about taking on others ideas and confident in sharing own.

Specific areas:

UW: Showing curiosity and learning about other people around the world, their countires and their types of building. L: Showing an interest in different books; fact and fiction and using books as a resource in learning more about buildings. EA&D: Using different materials to construct, build, balance, join and collage. M: Learning about size, shape, positioning, height, etc of buildings.

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

·         Woodwork. The children will be using different tools to make some model buildings with Jenny.

·         Making a castle. The children will be making a castle using all of the boxes that come in with deliveries this month.

·         Three Little Pigs. The children will be hearing the story, role playing and talking about why different materials work better and making some collages with Laura Z.

·         Bridge building. Christine H will be helping the children to improve their bridge building techniques with some different ideas on what we are doing.

·         Making mud huts. The children will be looking at a variety of images of different types of mud huts from around the world and then the children will have a go at making them.

·         Den making. Jenny will be helping the children to build dens using materials from around the nursery and Forest School supplies.

 

What you could do to support your children at home:

·      Stop off and look at a construction site. Talk about what is going on. Often there are vision panels where you can take a look.

·      Look at the different types of residential housing in your area and on outings. Talk about terraced houses, blocks of flats, apartment blocks, semi’s and detached houses.

·      Look at other types of buildings; office buildings, fire stations, hospitals. Talk about why they need to be bigger, who uses them, etc.

·      Go through central London and look at the gargoyles, griffins, different types of doors,  talk about the different decorations.

Christmas Time!!!

 
What are we doing in Dolphins and
Sea Turtles for December?

Well, it is the month of celebrations so there is no shortage of inspiration here!!

Christmas is the big one consuming our lives and also Hanukah and Santa Lucia we will be talking about too.

It’s going to be about fun, celebrations, festivities and being together with friends and family. Glitter, tinsel and lights will be shining bright this month!!

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

Prime areas:

C&L: Learning new words about festivals that are new. Using exciting language to describe all that we are seeing and feeling.  PD: Gross motor skills: Christmas dances, stretching and decorating trees, etc! Fine motor skills: detailed craft! PSED: Expressing how we feel about each other, love , excitement, sharing, giving and receiving.

Specific areas:

UW: Cultural learning. Joining in the Winter festivals and learning what they are all about. L: Learning that writing can communicate how we feel about each other and another way of making a connecting with friends and family. EA&D: Selecting, organising, positioning,  making a range of creative expressions of cultural festivals. M: The big count down!! Trees, cards, decorations; size, shape, positioning, etc. maths is endless!

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

·         Arts and crafts! All of the teachers and children will be having a blast of arts and crafts.  Making wintery scenes, festival icons, etc.

·         Singing! It started in November practicing for Carols by Candlelight and won’t stop on the 7^th!  We will be singing the whole of the nursery through to the New Year!!!

·         Stories! How many of these do you think there are for festivals!? We’ll be reading about Christmas from all sorts of angles. Funny stories and factual. Hanukah, Santa Lucia will also have a look in.

·         Dancing! There is nothing more fun that a good shake to some Christmas songs.

·         The big count down! It takes so long to get to the big day. We’ll be counting, talking about time and having our own advent calendar in Dolphins with works of art by the children.

·         Food! We’ll be baking and making delicious festive treats. Biscuits, cakes for decorating and hanging on the tree.

·         Sharing! We’ll be showing our mums and dads how much we care. Thinking about them, talking about how much we love them and why and making them some surprises for Christmas.

What you could do to support your children at home:

·      Share with us books about your cultural festivals and hat you will be doing for Christmas.

·      Come along to our Carols by Candlelight event and bring your children to the Christmas parties if they don’t normally come in on the day.

·      Take the opportunity to get creative with your children and make some great decorations at home too.

·      Help them to make, write or illustrate family Christmas cards. Talk about your family and go to the post box to send them off with them.

·      Never forget a maths opportunity.  Talk about presents under the tree and decorations; size language: big, small,  short, tall, smallest, biggest, etc. Positioning language: on, under, beside, behind, etc.

·      Join in with local community events that you never have before. It’s different and better with children!