Colours and Countries for August!

What are we doing in Sea Turtles in August?

Due to a keen interest of colours shown by both the young babies and the older children in the Sea Turtles we will be exploring colours through a variety of activities throughout August.

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

 

Prime areas:
PSED: Use pointing with eye gaze to make requests and share interests.  PD: Making connections between their movements and the marks they make. C&L Select familiar objects by name and will go and find objects when asked or identify from a group.
Specific areas:
M: Notice simple patterns & Shapes in pictures and activities UW: Explore objects by linking together different approaches: shaking, feeling, tasting, pulling, looking, turning and poking. EA&D Notice and is interested in the effect of making movements which leaves marks.  

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

·         Exploring colour bags. Laura will create some colour bags with a variety of everyday items for the children to explore.

·         Colour Den. Sarah will be making dens with the children using a variety of different coloured materials.

·         Coloured towers. Alice will help the children to use the building bricks to make towers in certain colours and then ask the children to knock the towers down by colour.

·         Colour Collage. Emma will help the children to make colourful collages using different coloured strips of paper.

·         Coloured gloop. Cristina will help the children explore mixing colours through messy play.

·         Printing with colour. Latoya will help the children create colourful pictures by printing with blocks and a variety of colours.

Some ideas to support your children at home:

·         Colour is all around us, draw attention to different coloured objects while out for a walk or on your way to or from nursery (look at the green grass, what colour are the leaves, can you see the blue car).

·         Make your own colour exploring bags, collect different coloured items from around the house for the children to explore and name.

·         Visit the library and look at books about colour

·         Sing songs that involve reciting colours such as I can sing a rainbow & five little crayons

·         Go on a colour hunt, have a colour hunt inside or outside. Help your children to find items that are different colours (Let’s find something blue…. Now can you find me something green…..).

·         Have coloured themed bath nights, add a little bit of food colouring and toys to match the colouring to the water on bath night.

  

What are we doing in Dolphins in August?

The children enjoyed learning about Africa so much that we thought we would broaden the topic and look at other countries particularly those that the children have family from.

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

Prime areas:
PSED: Show interest in others and what they have to say. PD: Move in a variety of ways with pleasure and rhythm to music from around the world. C&L Learning words from another countries through greetings, counting and hearing different languages used in the music.
Specific areas:
L: enjoy rhymes and songs from around the world M: Notice shapes and patterns in flags and other items from different countries. UW: Learn more about the countries their family and friends come from. EA&D: Imitate Movement in response to a variety of music from different countries and cultures.

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

·         Learning new greetings. Jenny will help the children to extend their vocabulary by teaching them how to say hello and good bye in a variety of Languages. 

·         Baking. Manjit will be baking traditional snacks and cakes from different countries and cultures.

·         Where we come from. Marie-Claire with the children will be marking out on a map where they have family from and talking about those countries.

·         Pattern Making. Matt will be looking at patterns, shapes and colours found in flags from around the world and recreating theses with a variety of materials.

·         All about Mexico. Laura Z will be sharing her knowledge and passion for her home country Mexico with the children through songs, dances and stories.

·         Trip to the library. Christine will organise trips to the library to collect books about different countries and cultures to bring back to nursery and share with the other children.

·         Indian dancing. Shilpi will help the children to learn simple dances from India  

What you could do to support your children at home:

 

·        Do you have family who come from a different country? You could share photos, stories or experiences from that country with your children

·        Do some research together, use books, the Internet, documentaries about different countries to talk to your child about the different ways of life, the animals and the food people eat in other countries.

·       Get down and boogie to some music from around the world. We’ll be doing a lot of this at nursery- share some moves together at home too!

·       Sing together. sing songs and rhymes with your child, see if you can find some simple songs in different languages such as Frère Jacques.

 

Sea Turtles go on Safari for July

What are we doing in Sea Turtles in June?

To get excited about our summer barbecue and prepare with decorations and associations of the colours, tastes, patterns, shapes, people and animals of Africa, we will be exploring some of the elements of Africa this month!

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

Prime areas:

PSED: Seeking to gain attention in others and drawing them in, in a variety of ways. E.g. dance, sharing a story, song.  PD: Making connections between their movements and the marks they make. C&L communicating using song and dance, also beats to make connections with others.

Specific areas:

M: identifying patterns, number, size, colour in small groups of up to three. UW: Discovery of the wider world; animals, people and places that look different to our own. EA&D Music and movement to African sounds, beats and music.

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

·         Musical instruments. Laura will be making some fun African inspired musical instruments with the children.

·         African animal shape art. Cristina will be using shapes of different animals for the children to paint, collage and decorate.

·         African costumes. Alice will be making some different African costumes with the children to dress up in.

·         African animal masks. Emma will be working with the children to make African animal masks and wear them in play.

·         Dance! Ella will be dancing with the children to different African music.

·         Books! Ella will be looking at different books and stories inspired by Africa.

·         Safari lodge. Sarah G will be setting up a safari lodge in the outdoor area for the children to rest in between role play trips out to look for animals.

·         Animals in the mud. Latoya will be setting up a small world safari in the water tray of African animals roaming about in the clay, grass, dirt and water pools.

Some ideas to support your children at home:

·         Children naturally love animals. Share books, toys, etc. of African animals, name them and play with them.

·         Print off a few African animal images for them to hold, look at and have around them. Name them.

·         Name the qualities of the animals; stripes, spots, patches, colours of fur and markings

·         Show them some YouTube footage of African animals. Talk about their size, shapes, sounds and actions.

·         Roar! Like a lion. Trumpet like an elephant! Make some animal sounds together.

·         Dance to some African music. There are so many different types.

·         Make some percussion instruments. Rain makers- rice and tissue paper in a bottle.  Bongo drums- plastic bucket upside down. Shakers- try rice, seeds, beans, beer bottle tops in a plastic jar or bottle.

·         The barbecue costume! Start thinking about your children’s costumes for the barbecue. It is a themed event. Team and children will be dressing up- parents can too!

 

Dolphins go to Africa for July...

What are we doing in Dolphins in July?

Well, this is our barbecue month and the theme this year is African Safari. So, we will be exploring the continent of Africa for July through taste, colours, patterns and music.

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

Prime areas:
PSED: Thinking about the similarities between their own and other cultures. PD: Gross and fine motor skill learning through a range of movements from being animals to some African style music and movement. C&L Learning words from another culture through greetings, counting and hearing different languages used in the music.

Specific areas:

L: Reading stories from other cultures, looking at different symbols and doing self-research from reading.  M: Identifying shapes and patterns from the African continent. EA&D: Exploring different designs and using ideas to build masks, shields, etc.

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

·         African patterned bunting. Jenny will be making bunting with the children looking at African designs and patterns.

·         African music and movement. Jenny will be exploring the different musical sounds of Africa and making dances with the children.

·         African flags. Manjit will be looking at a range of African flags, thinking about the colours in common and making a snap game for the children.

·         Handa’s surprise. Marie-Claire will be exploring the fruit from the story, Handa’s surprise with the children, tasting them and talking about their qualities and properties.

·         African shields. Matt will be making African Shields with the children, thinking about pattern, design and looking at images of African warriors.

·         African masks. Laura Z will be making African masks with the children and thinking about the expressions on the masks and what they say.

·         Rain makers. Christine H will be making rain makers with the children using rice, tissue and cups.

·         Counting to ten in Swahili. The children will learn a simple song and to count in Swahili, Kenya’s national language.

What you could do to support your children at home:

·        Do you have family who live in Africa? Is your familiy, or part of it, from any part of Africa? Can you share photos, stories or experiences of Africa with the nursery? Send in your child’s connections to Africa with them to share at circle times and small groups.

·       Do some thinking together about the animals of Africa. Do some research together in books , on the internet, documentaries about African animals and safaris. Take a pretend safari together- imagine all the animals you might see!

·       Share with your child images of children in different parts of Africa. Compare the differences and similarities to their own lives. For younger children, just have them available to look through.

·       Get down and boogie to some African music. We’ll be doing a lot of this at nursery- share some moves together at home too!

·       The barbecue costume! Start thinking about your children’s costumes for the barbecue. It is a themed event. Team and children will be dressing up- parents can too!

Gardening at Mortlake

June was a month of gardening at Mortlake. We were playing catch up on a spring that didn’t feel like spring, but June did and left us just wanting to be outside and mucking about with soil, seeds and water!

We love to garden at Mortlake. It is relaxing, smells good, looks good, it holds our children’s attention for long periods as we admire and discuss the colours, sizes, shapes, smells of the plants and the bugs around. And, the children have the opportunity to have some authorship over the way our outdoor area looks.

Gardening is an informal learning environment where children can learn many things about the world by watching and investigating. In gardening, children are surrounded by teaching moments; the life cycle of various plants, the importance of worms, ladybirds and other insects. We talk about caring for the plants and how what we do can impact on them, not just as we water them to help them grow, but in our play too, having respect for them and looking with our eyes, rather than our hands- and keeping balls out of flower beds!

For our smaller children, the smells and texture of the leaves and flowers are a fascination. It is hard to resist the urge to squash, squish and thoroughly investigate a piece of plant the way toddlers want to, so we harvest pieces they can look at and explore thoroughly on a sensory table. We also grow big trays of cress with them and then use them as the scene for small world play. They can romp animals about on real plants and smell the intense fragrance of cress and feel the stringy wet texture of it as they play.

Watching a seed grow into a plant is one of the miracles of life that our children are fascinated in. The lifecycles of the bugs in the garden amaze them and often we find things and we don’t know what they are. Once we found a pale tussock moth caterpillar in the garden and had no idea what it was, it was colourful and beautiful and we discussed at length what type of butterfly it would turn into and what colours it would have. Then we researched caterpillars with the children and discovered it was a very plain moth!

Gardening  also has a calming effect on children. It slows them down as they connect with nature and have to work slowly, carefully and thoughtfully as they bed seeds in, transfer seedlings from a small tub to a bigger one or just carefully lean forward to smell a flower or a tomato.

Gardening is also good exercise and great for developing their gross motor skills- bending, stepping, crouching, leaning, lunging, digging, stretching, lifting, pulling. And also fine motor skills; separating seeds, pinching and releasing, sprinkling and holding a flower delicately.

Dolphins gallery

 

 

 

Sea Turtles gallery



 

What are we doing in Sea Turtles in June?

It’s gardening in Sea Turtles this month. Developing the sensory garden last month has been so much fun and the children have loved play gardening and watching the planting of seeds and small plants. So let the good weather bring on some green fingers!

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

Prime areas:

PSED: Engaging others to achieve a common goal such as working together to get items out of reach.  PD: Making connections between their physical actions and the effects they can make. C&L Gesturing, facial expressions, demonstrations of emotion in sharing an interest.

Specific areas:

M: Recognising big things and small things in meaningful contexts. UW: Exploring objects by linking different approaches; shaking, hitting, looking, feeling, tasting, mouthing, etc. EA&D Imitating and improving actions they have observed, such as chapping, shaking, patting hands.

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

·         Gardening. Continuing to develop our gardening boxes with the children and sharing with them the process.

·         Cress growing with Ella to make grassy areas and green fields for the small world play environments.

·         Planting sunflower seeds with Laura. Watching them sprout and grow.

·         Finding flowers and learning names with Cristina. Collages out of magazine cuttings and flower spotting in books and magazines.

·         Role playing gardening flowers and seeds with Sarah. Using a range of tools to act out gardening.

·         Looking at images of insects and creating insect collages with Sarah.

·         Taking an excursion to Kew Gardens to look at flowers and the growing environment.

·         Visiting Dolphins gardening work to see what they have been doing.

Some ideas to support your children at home:

·         If you have a Kew membership, know someone with an allotment or garden, take an extra visit. Find a gardener and just take some time out to watch them gardening. Talk about what they are doing.

·         Invest in a children’s watering can. Small toddlers love watering gardens, window boxes, etc. If you have nothing for them to water, fill up a can and go for a walk down the street to water someone else’s plants. Weeds are good for watering too!

·         Do you have a small patch in your garden that you could give up for your little one to develop their green fingers and do some digging? Or, how about a tray you could put some soil or sand in, add some weeds, small seeds, sand and let them loose with a children’s gardening set.

·         Read some books together with a gardening topic. Let them point, communicate with gesture and share what they have been doing at nursery with you.

·         Language: dig, push, pull, turn, scratch, soft, hard, sharp, spikey, flat, bumpy, pour, tip, drizzle, drip, slosh, splash, splatter, any great descriptive words that explain what you are doing.