Rockpool Explorers!

10th May 2024Rebecca Kendrew-Jones

Last week the children had a wonderful opportunity to explore a real life rock pool. They were able to touch a starfish, hold three types of crab and stroke an anemone. We also learned some amazing facts, the children’s favourite being that the whole in the middle of the starfish is both its mouth and bottom!

How can we save our seas? ♻️

10th May 2024Rebecca Kendrew-Jones

In our first expedition case study, children in the EYFS have been answering the question ‘How can we save our seas?’. To hook the children into this we completed a gallery walk looking at a range of images showing how plastic pollution is damaging our planet and endangering the creatures that live there.

I was amazed at how well the children reflected upon the images, articulated what they saw and how this made them feel. This was the start of a fantastic case study that prompted our children to become activists and make a stand against plastic pollution! Look at some of their amazing posters sharing the message to use our recycling bins to help save the seas!

We are Rockpool Experts!

1st May 2024Sarah Winkley

Yesterday the whole of EYFS had the most amazing expert visitors come into school to share and show us what a rock pool is and what species of creatures can be found inside them. The children were thrilled to get up close and personal with Shore Crabs, Spider Crabs, Hermit Crabs, Purple Sunshine Starfish, Regular Starfish, Sea anemones, Sea Urchin’s, Mussels and Barnacles. They learnt many interest facts about the creatures from Mike and James from Aqua Explorers provided by Aqualease.

The children were very receptive to the creatures and many pushed themselves out of their comfort zone to explore and experience the creatures either by touching them or holding them. Nursery asked some interesting questions to the visitors and also shared their existing knowledge that they have learnt so far with the expert visitors.

It was an amazing learning experience to really engage and enthral our children, as most will have never experienced these creatures in real life before and it has helped the children to have a better knowledge, understanding and compassion for the creatures we are learning about in our current expedition “What happens where the sea meets the shore?” Such beautiful work!

Immersed in Plastic Pollution.

29th April 2024Sarah Winkley

Last week Nursery began the week by being literally immersed in plastic pollution. They came into Nursery to litter scattered all over their beautiful environment, (inspired by our primary text “Harry Saves the Ocean” by NGK) which they had helped to decorate during the hook week of our latest expedition “ What happens where the sea meets the shore?”

The children sat for register and Crew amongst the rubbish, as planned for them to understand how the sea creatures must feel in our oceans. A few of the children commented during their crew session (whilst being asked about their feelings) about; “Feeling sad because of all of the trash”, “It’s like a bomb’s hit!”, “All of this plastic makes me feel sad” and “I feel angry, because of all of this rubbish- Who’s made this mess?”

We talked about how we could help to make this better and the children suggested “Put it in the bin” and “Recycle it”. So we did… the children helped to recycle the pretend rubbish into various recycling boxes.

Later in the week the children explored freeing see creatures that had been caught in plastic and trapped in ice. The elation the children felt after they had freed the creatures was a joy to see, as they were so empowered to help. They enjoyed the activity immensely.

Nursery ended the week on a high by pretending to be sea creatures during a physical activity session with Coach Ellie who kindly came to visit us. The children had to move in a variety of ways like sea creatures and work collaboratively in teams to win games and collect “food” for their group. They all had lots of fun and there was lots of laughter.

Beautiful work! Well Done Nursery – We certainly understand what the problem is in our oceans.