January 2021

Communication and Language

Learning about the weather is important for nursery yage children as it gives them an idea of repetitive natural occurrences, the passing of time, seasonal foods, clothing and celebrations. Children in nursery have been learning about weather and what to wear when it is cold. Nimrat dresses her doll in winter clothes, she is able to talk about all the different items of clothing ie hat, socks, gloves, coat. Children enjoyed taking part in the activity and talked about summer and winter clothes, and discussed what each garment is useful for. Children demonstrated a good understanding about dressing in layers to keep warm, and then take the layers off as you get too warm.

Expressive arts and design

Painting offers young children a world of opportunities for experimentation and expression.  Narayan has been very imaginative and created a master piece. He explores different colours, by mixing yellows and reds. He explains that he has 1 house, a yellow sun, fluffy clouds. Narayan demonstrates that he is able to freely express himself and develop his creativity. His painting shows that he is developing a good pincer grip and learning about colour mixing.

Literacy

Children have been creative and are beginning to give meaning to their marks. Gurnaaz drew a picture of her brother and herself in their garden. Gurnaaz went on to describe the blue sky with the white fluffy clouds in the background.

Alina has been busy learning her red tricky words, she can read them by sight and wrote them on different colours to embed her learning. Tricky words are not decodable using phonics alone as they have spellings that do not show grapheme-phoneme correspondence. They are called common exception words.

Mathematics

Young children are naturally curious about measuring, but they must understand its key concepts before they can apply them as they seek predictable results From an early age children show lots of interest in measuring. They often use tools such as tape measures, scales and timers in role play without fully realising their purpose. Children in nursery have been busy sorting objects according to colours, shapes and sizes. Children have been looking for things around the house they could arrange in size order.

Physical Development

Focusing on children’s health and well-being has been a priority within our nursery setting. Children have been very active and have been going on their daily walks. We have been fortunate this year to see soft white snow falling. We have had lots of fun outdoors making our snowmen with our family. The Joe Wicks workouts have been very popular with our families over lockdown – the children have been showing us some of their favourite moves. Physical activity in the early years not only contributes to healthy weight but improves bone health, cognitive function, motor skill development, muscle fitness and mental health.

PSED

Navigating friendships helps to support children’s emotional and social development. … Friendships help to increase a child’s capacity for empathy and altruism. Having friends boosts happiness, well-being and self-confidence, and promotes a positive outlook on life. In nursery children have been talking about the importance of friendship, we have looked at different scenario situations and discussed what a good friend would do. Some children said that they could be like superheros and help their friends when they are sad. They have created their own superhero masks for being brave during these difficult times and shared experiences where they have helped others around them. Children welcome praise for the work that they have been doing at home.

Understanding the World

In nursery we follow childrens interest, this month a Zorawar said he wanted to learn about the solar system. We read ‘how to catch a star’, by Oliver Jeffers and talked about where stars are and if it is possible for us to catch them. We looked at the different planets and the order in which they appear from the sun. Gurviraaj drew a picture of all the planets in the correct order. He uses different colours to differentiate them and even writes the ‘S’ sound for sun. This has encouraged children to mark make and give meaning to their marks.