March 2021

Communication and Language

This term children enjoyed using the food technology room with Mrs Matharu and Mrs Panesar. As part of our healthy eating programme children have been discussing healthy food choices. They talked about all the fruits that they liked. Children have had fun naming all the different fruits and vegetables and enjoyed cutting their own fruit for their fruit kebabs.

Children demonstrate a good understanding of what things are used for, they were able to talk about how to hold the knife and cut the fruit. Children were able to listen to each other as they shared their thoughts on what is healthy.

Expressive arts and design

As part of encouraging our children to be creative and imaginative, in nursery we have worked together as a team and build a fire pit in the garden area. When we were building our campfire, the children helped, we talked about where to put things and looked around the garden for some things we could use. We talked about the importance of wood, and where we might find it. Children were very excited to look for sticks around the garden. Once we had built the fire pit, we role –played how to light the campfire.  We used a make believe fire steel and the children loved making the spark to light the fire.

Literacy

In nursery we encourage children to make their mark! Young children have a natural desire to explore and experiment. They relish in the sensory and physical experience of mark making – enjoying the sensation of paint brushes gliding across a wall and making all the marks and patterns they desire. Children are beginning to show control over the marks they make, singing nursery rhymes, ‘here we go around the mulberry bush, as they move their brush in round circles. Children enjoy making patterns, lines, textures and shapes on the wall in the garden area.

This term children have been focusing on the story, ‘the little red hen’. In nursery we have used puppets to retell the story.

Mathematics

Children in nursery listened to the story of Harry and his bucketful of dinosaurs and then had lots of fun completing the counting activities. Children learn about maths through play and their daily experiences. And the more meaningful to them and hands on it is, the better.

Our kids love these fun, hands-on dinosaur theme activities and games that will help them develop number sense and build important math skills like counting, one-to-one correspondence, numeral recognition and more! Children in nursery have been counting the number of dinosaurs and matching them to the correct number.

Physical Development

Children have enjoyed being in the outdoor garden area. Gardening with children provides them with skills to help childrens’ development. … For example, gardening is a great physical development activity. Young children can practice locomotor skills, body management skills and object control skills while they move from one place to the other carrying tools, soil and water. They show a good understanding of how things work by using the gardening equipment appropriately. Children have been growing their own herbs in the outdoor nursery area. Before lockdown we also planted some bulbs (tulips, hyacinths and chrysanthemums), children have been very excited to see them sprout and grow!

PSED

Children in nursery have been so excited to play with their friends in the sand pit. Children have been busy burying treasure and then looking for it with their buckets and spades. As children hide the treasure they listen to each other and respond in appropriate ways, telling their friends that the treasure is next to the bucket. They demonstrate a good understanding of mathematical language and also show good team work as they work together to achieve a desired goal. Sand play is great for developing children’s language skills as they learn new words relating to the names of objects in the sand tray as well as talking to their peers during their play. In nursery we have been using the sandpit to talk about science concepts.

Understanding the World

To boost childrens’ confidence and concentration in nursery we encourage the children to take part in gardening activities. Children are able to talk about the things we need to grow plants, they are able to talk about some of the herbs and flowers that we are growing in the garden area in nursery.

We live in a fast paced tech-driven world, children enjoy using different technology in school. In nursery children enjoy using the whiteboard to make marks and draw pictures. Children have also started to engage in child friendly technological games. Children are playing a mathematical game, whereby they count the number of dots on the ladybird and match it to the correct numeral. Children are able to operate the game independently. Children show their understanding by touching the screen and manoeuvring the objects to where they want them to be.