This morning we celebrated all of our learning in Early Years throughout the week. It was lovely to share our community meeting with our Nursery children and it was great to hear how hard they are all working for Mrs Winkley and Mrs Mortimer. We also shared Arthurâs amazing achievements at karate and he even showed us some of his moves!!
Here are our certificate winners for the week:
Nursery have had a wonderful time over the past week celebrating Easter. We began the week with a puppet show telling the traditional easter story of Jesus. The children listened carefully and were encouraged to ask questions after the show or explain their feelings or opinions about the story. Some of which were; âI think itâs sad because Jesus diedâ and âIt was mean, because they made him carry that cross up the big hillâ.
During their free play we captured some of the children creating their own puppet shows about Jesus, showing they were embedding their learning in their play.
The children baked and decorated their own easter themed biscuits, using flour, sugar, butter and an egg. They carefully took turns to weigh out ingredients with support and followed instructions to mix, beat, roll and cut out their dough. The children each chose their own easter time shape cutter and colour icing along with decorations to make their biscuits extra yummy!
We also had an egg-stra special visit from the Easter Bunny himself, who had heard about how hard we have been working and how kind we have all been, so decided to bring some of our treats early! He brought us an Easter Egg and we all had cuddles or high fives! There were some very excited children and grown upsâŚ.
At home we have been working hard and collaboratively with our parents to design and create a decorated boiled egg. Some entries were a single egg whilst others were a whole scene of egg themed characters. They were all absolutely amazing, so much effort and time had been spent working together. The winners of our EYFS competition in Nursery were chosen by the Reception children, who judged and voted for all of the entries (an extremely tough job). The winners were Willow from Am Nursery for her egg filled bonnet and Jenny from Pm Nursery for her Leonardo, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. Well done girls! However a huge thank you and well done to everyone, as all of the entries were outstanding, such beautiful work and the children were so proud. Here they areâŚ
We finished our week with lots of fun in the sunshine including an Easter Egg Hunt, the children had lots of fun.
This week Nursery have been Scientists whilst investigating how humans grow and change, driven by our key text âWhen I Was a Babyâ by Deborah Niland. We have been introduced to our new science characters, who will help us to navigate investigations. We have focused on âPredicting Pipâ, helping the children to understand how to make predictions or reasonable guesses about what may happen before experimenting.
To activate our learning and hook the children into the week we played a game of âGuess the Baby?â Looking at photos of the children as babies and guessing which baby was each child. We then sorted activities or tasks that babies Can or Canât do, explaining why – thinking about how undeveloped new babies are.
Our first practical experiment this week was âGrowing Gummy Bearsâ. This linked to what humans need to grow. We investigated which of four different liquids; salt water, sugar water, white vinegar or plain water were the best conditions to grow the bear. The children made predictions of what they thought may happen to the bears as we dropped them into the ramekins.
We then observed how the bears changed and grew in the different solutions over 24 hours. The results revealed that the bear in the salt water turned white from absorbing the salt particles and stayed very small, the bear in the vinegar began to melt and fall to pieces (one of the children explained this process as âdissolvedâ), the bear in the sugar water grew bigger but was very sticky and slimy because of all of the sugar in the water. Finally the bear in the regular water grew the most and was perfectly in one piece, showing that clean water was essential to growing.
Our second experiment linked to what we need to help us grow. The children had previously looked at what we needed to grow during our Tranquil Tuesday Crew, using picture prompts to help scaffold their understanding.
Then today Nursery observed how humans need oxygen to breathe, grow and survive. The children made predictions about the experiment from a diagram shown during our Wise Wednesday Crew. They thought about what would happen to the candle if a jar was placed over the top? Some of our answers included; âThe glass will breakâ, âIt will burnâ, âIt will go off fireâ, âIt will make a big lightâ and âIt will run out of breathâ.
They then observed as I modelled the experiment, fixing a candle into play dough, placing three sets of coins around a bowl and filling the base of the bowl with coloured water. Then I lit the candle and placed a jar over the top of the flame, resting on the coins. The children observed as the oxygen was used up in the jar and the flame was suffocated, causing the water to rise up the glass – taking the place of the oxygen. They watched in awe as the flame went out and listened carefully to the sound of the vacuum made by the water. One of the children likened the experiment to âWhen to go to bed and pull the covers over your head, if you stay like that, you could suffocate because thereâs no air.â
We have had lots of fun and excitement in Nursery this week experimenting and are looking forward to the rest of the week. Great learning Nursery!
On Friday Nursery took part in the World Book Day celebrations happening across campus. We had a visit from the Mad Hatter and Alice who came to tell us an exciting story, âAlice in Wonderlandâ by Lewis Carroll. They also gave us a special invitation to a tea party, with strict instructions not to be late! The children looked amazing in their host of costumes, dressed as their favourite storybook characters and had lots of fun partying and sharing their stories with their friends.
Morning Nursery.
Afternoon Nursery
This week Nursery have been Artists as they have continued to explore case study two of our expedition; âHow do plants grow and change?â The stimulus has been the life cycle of a sunflower. We have been looking at artists who paint flowers, in particular Vincent Van Goghâs famous sunflower paintings. However Nursery have compared these during a gallery walk to the works of Georgia OâKeefe (Green and White Lilly close up) , Claude Monet (Water lilies) and Maria Van Oosterwijck (Wilting flowers with black background). As the children began the week by looking at the colours used in paintings, for the purpose of light and dark and how this made them feel?
We practised painting using light and dark shades and talked about what kind of colours make us think of different feelings. The children likened the lighter colours to âsunshineâ, âthe skyâ and happy events. Whilst they thought of darker colours as âdirtâ, âshadowsâ or ânight-timeâ. When they looked closely at the wilting flowers they realised that the flowers in the painting were dying and that the artist had captured them as they had started to âWiltâ, âdroopâ and âflopâ. This made the children feel sad that the flowers had passed their best and they then associated the darker colours with sadness.
The children were challenged to think about; âIf the artist was listening to music whilst they were painting – do you think it would make a difference to how they painted? Would it cheer them up or make them feel sad? Make them angry or excited? The only way to find out was to test the idea. Nursery closed their eyes and carefully listened to four specifically chosen music tracks to see if they could hear a difference in the tunes and move in a way that responded to the music? The tracks were; âHappyâ by Pharrell Williams, âProud Maryâ (a slowed version) by Tina Turner, âFire Starterâ by Prodigy and âAxel Fâ by Crazy Frog.
They then captured there response to the music in drawingâŚ..
Finally Nursery have used all of their new knowledge and experience to paint their own Van Gogh Sunflowers from a choice of two designs, using either a palette of either angry or sad colours whilst listening to their choice of âFire Starterâ or âProud Maryâ. The efforts made by the children for these paintings and the results have been outstandingly beautiful and such a relevant and purposeful experience. They have had lots of fun and have been exposed and challenged into thinking further about their feelings and responses to music and art.
Over the past few weeks Nursery have been working hard as âArtistsâ to create a petal each or as a duo, in preparation to be used as part of their final product for this expedition. Through our stories âLittle Sunflowerâ by Igloo Books and âSam Plants a Sunflowerâ by Kate Petty the children gained inspiration for their artwork as they learnt how a sunflower grows and blooms. They have been investigating and exploring techniques using both paint and collage. The children have grappled with the effects that they could create using ready mixed paint and different brush strokes or manipulations of their paint brush. Some children chose either medium of paint or collage, whilst others chose to create with both. Here are some wonderful examples;
Upon completion of this beautiful artwork, the children worked collaboratively to first build their own sunflower for each nursery group, and then as a collective of Nursery as a whole merging both groups petals (later to be revealed on their final product at our celebrations of learning). Just look at the childrenâs beautiful work!
To hook Nursery back into our current expedition âHow do things grow and change?â Today we took a nature walk as part of our second case study âWhat happens as a plant growsâ to see if the children could spot any signs of growth in our environment. The children donned their finest pair of imaginary magnifying goggles and used all of their senses to investigate the signs of spring around our campus. Here is the evidence that we foundâŚ
The children found a variety of springtime flowers beginning to grow including daffodils, crocus, daisies and snowdrops. They also heard the sound of âbirds tweetingâ and felt the âwarm sunshineâ on our faces âmaking us feel hotâ. The children also found some mini beasts waking up to start their springtime journey.
Also the children payed tribute to a past member of staff whilst examining her memory garden, by laying daisies that theyâd picked, on the special pebbles. A beautiful thought and act of kindness. A wonderful and purposeful Mindful Monday.
This week Nursery have been enjoying their outdoor learning/play at the same time as one or both of the Reception classes in EYFS. For younger children this can be daunting, having to share their space and equipment with older children and finding the courage and confidence to ask others for turns with toys. With support and modelling the children have began working collaboratively, beginning to resolve minor conflicts and starting to work co-operatively with each other ready for the summer term. The reception children were welcoming and kind, showing compassion to our youngest children. Thank you, beautiful work guys.
Nursery have been very âhoppyâ this week as they moved on to exploring the life cycle of a frog, continuing our âWe are scientistsâ agenda of our expedition. We began our investigations with a very engaging and funny rhyming text by Kes Gray titled âOi Frog!â The children immediately fell in love with the comedic main character Frog, who explored what a host of animals sit on, as he didnât want to sit on a log, as Cat demanded he should. Nursery enjoyed matching animals to their rhyming seated objects and have practised independently over the week, even sharing their rhyming with their parents in our family stay and play session on Friday.
On Tuesday after the children were hooked into frogs, we investigated how a frog begins its life revisiting some of our prior learning from both caterpillar and chick life cycles. We placed toy models of the varying stages of frog into our cycle. The children connected that the caterpillars eggs and frogs were similar in more of a bubble kind of egg, rather than a shell. As we moved through the stages, the children suggested their own movements of how we could represent the cycle. We then played a game of âFroggy saysâŚâ called out the stages and the children demonstrated their moves to embed their learning.
During Tranquil Tuesday and Thoughtful Thursday crew the children followed models of how to draw a tadpole and a frog. They independently had a go with fantastic results! Such beautiful work.
The children used their scientific knowledge, construction and creative skills to create an egg box tadpole or frog, as a choice in provision. They copied examples and produced some amazing models!
Even our Maths work was frog themed, as we have been getting better at counting to three, using careful counting (touch counting to check our thoughts). We sang three little speckled frogs and acted out the song, supporting each other to count in sequence. Next we considered if we had three frogs, how many lily pads would they need to have one each? How many tadpoles if each had one baby? And how many flies they would need to feed the mummy frog? Of course I threw a few too many tadpoles and flies in the mix to check the childrenâs understanding, but there were âno flies on themâ – the children could âtoad-allyâ see through my trickery.
Nursery then demonstrated and consolidated their understanding by counting out three frogs from a pond to a lily pad.
As a lovely end to our week we shared our learning with our families, playing in the provision during a family play and stay session. Mums, Dads, brothers and sisters, Grandmas, Grandads and Uncles all had lots of fun spending time and playing with their special little people. Thank you to all who attended and for all of your support, they were two beautiful sessions and we even squeezed in a demonstration of our daily Nursery Rhyme singing as part of our phonics!
This week is Childrenâs Mental Health Week, so to advocate for this Nursery have been taking part in some mindful and relaxing activities to help them understand how it feels to feel calm and relaxed but more importantly how they can achieve this in times of upset, sadness or anger.
In our Mindful Monday Crew the children took part in animal yoga. They worked hard and had lots of fun recreating the modelled poses and practising yogi breathing.
During our Wise Wednesday Crew the children talked around what they noticed about the faces of some characters on a feeling thermometer as we checked in. Some children said that the characters from 3-5 on the scale looked; âSadâ, âScaredâ, âFrightenedâ, âWorriedâ or were âCryingâ. The children then pop corned, what they could do to cheer themselves up? Some of our ideas were fantastic, the children said âGo for a scooter rideâ, âGet a hugâ, âPlay with toysâ, âBounce on my trampolineâ, âStroke my doggyâ, âRead a bookâ, âBakeâ, âWatch Blueyâ and âSingâ.
Nursery then took part in a carousel of four different activities, each lasting 3/4 minutes which taught them strategies of what they can also do in school and at home to help them calm, relax and self regulate. These activities were;
Dancing to guided movement songs.
Completing a jigsaw.
Guided breathing patterns including; Balloon breath, Bumblebee Breath, Snake breath and Finger breathing.
And mindful colouring.
At the end of the session we all checked back in to share how the children thought the characters on the feeling thermometer would feel now, if they had taken part in the activities we had? The children said âhappy and calmâ, âexcitedâ or ârelaxedâ. The children then suggested which was their favourite activity – lots of fun and relaxing had by all. Great, powerful work Nursery!
