What a week we have had in Nursery! The weather has certainly kept us guessing, with some lovely sunny days followed by rainy and chilly ones. However, the changeable weather did not stop us from making the most of our time at school. When the sun was shining, we made sure to spend as much time as possible outside, enjoying our outdoor learning and play. On the colder and wetter days, we brought our learning indoors and had lots of fun exploring and playing together in the classroom.
We also made good use of our hall this week, developing our physical skills and learning how to move safely around a larger space. We practised being aware of the people around us, changing direction and moving carefully so that we did not bump into one another. This was a great opportunity to develop our coordination, balance and spatial awareness.
We had a fabulous time playing with the parachute too. This was a wonderful example of collaborative play as we worked together to make the parachute move. We also practised taking turns and listening carefully so that we knew when it was our turn to join in. It was lovely to see the children encouraging one another and enjoying being part of a team.
Our phonics learning this week has focused on listening carefully to the individual sounds we can hear in simple words. We have been practising hearing the first, second and last sounds in words. For example, when we hear the word fox, we can listen for the sounds f, o and x.
We then turned this around and practised hearing individual sounds and putting them together to make a word. For example, when we hear j, a, m, we can blend the sounds together to make jam. The children have really enjoyed this challenge and have been developing their listening skills and confidence with sounds.
Stories have provided lots of opportunities for us to practise too. We enjoyed listening for and joining in with the sounds made by different animals. We even had a go at acting out parts of some of our favourite stories. This gave us a lovely opportunity to combine our phonics learning with our imagination, communication and enjoyment of stories.
In maths, we have continued our number learning by singing a wide range of counting songs. Singing is such a fun way to practise the order of numbers and helps us to become more confident with counting.
We have also been exploring different ways to form and represent numbers. We played lots of games where we needed to count objects carefully, remembering to say one number name for each object. We have been practising stopping when we reach the final object and understanding that the last number we say tells us how many objects we have altogether.
This is an important part of developing our understanding of number, and it has been wonderful to see the children becoming increasingly confident as they count and represent quantities in different ways.
After spending time exploring Mondrian and his abstract artwork, we decided to take a little break from his abstract pieces and look at some of his observational art instead.
We looked carefully at paintings of flowers and thought about the colours that we could see. The children then had a go at creating their own still life paintings. We encouraged them to look closely at the flowers and choose colours that matched what they could see.
It was lovely to watch the children carefully observing the flowers and making thoughtful choices about the colours they wanted to use. This activity encouraged us to slow down, look carefully and represent what we could see through our own artwork.
Another busy and enjoyable week has come to an end, and we are so proud of the children’s enthusiasm, curiosity and willingness to learn. We are looking forward to seeing what next week brings!
How you can help at home:
Choose a simple word such as cat and say each sound slowly together: c, a, t. Then see if your child can blend the sounds together to say cat. You can also ask what sound they can hear at the beginning or end of a word.
Count everyday objects such as toys, socks, pieces of fruit or stairs. Encourage your child to touch each object as they say one number name and ask, “How many are there altogether?” Remember to celebrate careful counting rather than speed.
Choose an object, flower or toy and look at it carefully together. Talk about the colours, shapes and details you can see. Your child could then draw or paint what they have observed, just as we did with our still life pictures.
We hope you have a lovely weekend!
Lots of Love,
The Nursery Team