As our expedition on “Be Kind – How can we show we care?” Draws to a close, Nursery have been thinking about how having a friend makes us feel? And what makes a good friend?
Here are there thoughts and ideas from our Crew sessions today….
Our expedition has really helped the children to understand kindness and given them a good start to showing kindness towards others. Well Done Nursery, Beautiful Work!
Last week we celebrated World Kindness day on Wednesday 13th November as part of our continuing expedition “Be Kind – How do we show we care?”
During our current and final case study “Where do we live in the world?” The children have began to explore differences between them and their home to that of others around the world, through our key text “My World, Your World” by Melanie Walsh. We have examined key vocabulary which helped us to understand some of our differences, such as “Sari”, “Snowboots”, “Chopsticks” and “Flats”.
Nursery practised thinking about differences between each other, staff and toys to help them understand what a difference is. We then celebrated these differences by making Kindness Wands, using breadsticks, icing and sprinkles to spread kindness everywhere.
At the end of the week the children were thinking about Children in Need and how the cause helps to bring happiness to children that are less fortunate or sick. We made a huge Pudsey Bear collage out of coloured papers, working collaboratively .
As part of our Remberance Day celebrations Nursery learned why we wear poppy’s around this time of year, as a mark of respect for the fallen and serving armed forces. The children explored remembrance through a simple story thinking of days we would like to remember and days we’d like to forget, titled Lest We Forget by Kerry Brown.
We learned some simple actions to help the children embed the story into their minds about what happened on the battle fields, imagining that the children were bunny rabbits at that time. The children pretended to be aeroplanes that flew over the bunnies and then bombs that dropped, exploding like fireworks. The children show empathy for the bunnies, understanding that they would “be hurt”, “die” or “be scared” and “frightened”.
The children then made poppies from creative materials, play dough and paint to show their thanks to our soldiers and service people. Wow!! Beautiful work in big moments.
Last week Nursery were learning all about the traditions around celebrations of light. The children focused on Bonfire Night and Guy Fawkes as part of our own heritage and traditions in England. They learnt who Guy Fawkes was and what him and his catholic friends were planning to do as part of the “Gunpowder Plot” against King James 1. The children sequenced the events in the story during a Crew session and then created their own Guy Fawkes sock puppets during time in provision. This activity took lots of fine and gross motor skills to draw on Guy Fawkes features but to also stuff the sock with straw and then use their cutting skills to make him a hat. Just look at the beautiful work the children produced.
The children thought of ways in which we celebrate bonfire night and created firework scenes in the play dough and also used their painting skills to paint fireworks, which they had experienced at bonfire celebrations that they had attended. We also learnt a fabulous firework song, using actions to mimic the fireworks and our voices to imitate the sounds that they make.
At the later stages of the week the children compared the Hindu celebration of Diwali with our own experiences of Bonfire Night. The children investigated the traditions of Diwali through the story of Rama and Sita. They learned how the community of Rama and Sita celebrated their return by lighting Diva Lamps to help guide the couple home. The children also compared the demon king Ravana (a ten headed and twenty armed monster) to Guy Fawkes as the children recognised that that they were both “unkind” and “baddies” with “moustaches” who had “nasty plans” (Guy Fawkes to blow up the Houses of Parliament and Ravana to kidnap the Sita, the beautiful wife of the Rama the renowned warrior).
The children used collage to recreate their own Ravana, observing his skin colour and traditional dress, along with his jewellery.
Nursery also attempted to make Rangoli patterns using loose parts, to decorate our space.
Today Nursery had a visit from an expert visitor of an unusual kind….. a therapy dog named Ralph! The children were so excited to meet Ralph and his carer Sarah, who came from the charity Pets are therapy, who kindly agreed to spare what little spare time they have to visit us, as part of our case study “How do people show they care?” Sarah explained about the important work that the pair do in the community and the important job Ralph has to make friends and bring people happiness.
The children looked at photos of different therapy dogs and the kinds of people that they help, including the elderly, children in schools, people in hospital and hospices, as well as adults with learning difficulties and even people in prison. The dogs bring healing to those who are feeling very low, poorly or suffer with anxiety or worry.
The children were so excited to stroke Ralph and ask questions about his job and about what he needs, to care for him, after looking after so many others…. “He likes sausages and cheese best”. They thought he was “very kind”.
Thank you for coming to visit Ralph and Sarah – we very much appreciate your time and kindness.
Last week Nursery and EYFS celebrated a Christian tradition, Harvest Festival by being thankful for the food we eat, grown by farmers from all around the world. Nursery children were excited to join in a whole school assembly hosted by an expert visitor, our local pastor and volunteer/coordinator at Askern Food Bank, Mr West. Some of our children were even brave enough to stand at the front of the assembly and participate in the activities!
In Nursery we explored a little further about what Harvest actually is, by watching a short video about the celebration. The children learned that Harvest is when crops and vegetables are collected and sold to supermarkets. They also learned that a christian tradition is to gather food and donate it to others that maybe in need, through their local church. This fits in perfectly with our case study, “How do people show they care?” We were very grateful to all of our families who donated food, as the children collected the food and have made care packages to send to the local food bank with Mr West.
Another part of our beautiful work last week was also to create a “Corn Dolly”.
The children learned that the Corn Dollies are made from the strands of corn left over in the fields after the Farmers have collected their corn with their combine harvesters. They are made into dollies and then taken to the local church to wish farmers good luck for the year ahead’s crop! Just look at how amazing our corn dollies are!
Last week Nursery were focusing on a text called “Kindess Makes Us Strong” by Sophie Beer as part of our continuing case study “What do stories tell us about being kind?”. Our Kindess Elves brought Nursery another present… but this time it wasn’t the story book! They brought “Kindness Juice” for us all to share! As we read through the story, we realised that “Kindness is a refreshing drink”. We all enjoyed our “fruity” juice together and were very thankful to the elves.
Nursery looked back over our mind maps and thought about what we have learned about ways in which we could be kind. We made our own Kindness Signs which shared our thoughts. Aren’t they beautiful…
We also had lots of fun creating friendship bracelets out of pipe cleaners and beads. We worked hard threading the beads on to the pipe cleaners, counting out up to 10 beads as we threaded them on. We were very kind and gave our bracelets to our friends or took them home for someone special. I wonder if you received one?
We really do have kind hands and hearts! Well Done Nursery.
Nursery this week have been thinking about the kind and right thing to do for others as a continuation of our current case study “What do stories tell us about being kind?” We had another visit from our Kindness Elves, who again brought us another story titled “The Bog Baby” by Jeanne Willis. Through this story the children have thought about what being kind really means as sometimes we all would like to take things “home” to look after or keep safe, as we think we can love them better. However is this always the right and kindest thing to do for that being? The girls in the story find out that this is not the case.
The children listened carefully to the story and thought hard about the kind of environment that the Bog Baby lives in. They explored what a pond and bog actually are. The children had lots of fun putting on their imaginary goggles and pretending to swim in a pond thorough the use of a real life video of under a ponds surface. As the children swam they thought about what they could see through the murky, green water such as mud, stones, plants and creatures that live in and under the pond. They thought about the smell of the pond and their clothes as they got out!
This weeks “Get Smart” tasks were to create a bog of their own in provision using materials and larger loose parts. The children also had lots of fun exploring the pond we had created in the water tray to enhance this weeks provision. The children loved investigating what pond creatures they could find amongst the stones and plants in the green water. As a separate active task the children were asked to observe two tanks of water, one taken from the sea and one from a pond. They were encouraged to go and stand by the tank which they thought the Bog Baby would prefer to live in, thinking about the creatures feelings. The majority of children choose correctly, stating “He likes the green, dirty water best”.
Our beautiful work this week was to create our own Bog Baby’s using salt dough. We closely observed and counted the features of the character and the children then used their wonderful imaginations to create a Bog Baby of their own. They had lots of fun squashing, squelching, moulding, rolling and marking the dough to shape and add details with a tool to their creations. They then enhanced their bog babies using small loose parts to decorate add features to their models. Just look how beautiful they are!
Finally we re-read the story and thought about whether the actions of the girls taking the Bog Baby home in a jam jar to live in their shed was the right and kind thing to do? We discussed this individually and these are some of the children’s responses.
Well done Nursery – another busy but wonderful week!
Nursery once again had a visit from our friends, “The Kindness Elves”, who brought with them a gift in the shape of a book titled “The Hugasaurus” by Rachel Bright. The story follows a little dinosaur who begins school and makes friends, but it’s not long before the young dinosaurs begin to squabble. The Hugasaurus shares a hug with her new friends in a bid to help them self regulate and be kinder. Nursery have thought of ways in which they can be kind and show kindness to each other throughout the week. We began a mind map and added to it as the week progressed.
We have shared Crews throughout the week where the children have played kindness games, focusing on sharing such as; “Bounce the teddy on your knee” (where the children bounce the teddy on their knee to a rhyme and then pass it along to the person next to them when its time “for someone new”) and “The Kit Kat Game” (every other child has a Kit Kat style biscuit and they have to open their biscuit and give one stick to a new friend and keep one for themselves).
We practised being Hugasauruses and gave all of our new friends a hug, which was so lovely!
Our task to get smart this week was to create our own Hugasauruses using coloured shapes. We have produced some beautiful work.
Fabulous week Nursery!! We are understanding what it means to become kind and making new friends.
As part of the close to an amazing hook week, last Friday the children came in their summer clothes and brought in their special soft toys and teddies to share a picnic with their new friends. The children and their families kindly donated food to show an example of how we are kind and share. We all had lots of fun and it was a special end to a very positive first week exploring our new autumn expedition “Be Kind – How do we show we care?”
