This week we had a very big surprise when we arrived at school on Monday! Our dinosaur eggs had hatched and we discovered a baby triceratops and a baby diplodocus in our classroom. The children were extremely excited that we now had baby dinosaurs to look after. There was lots of careful watching, gentle caring and excited discussion as we welcomed our new arrivals into nursery.
With lots of new dinosaurs in our classroom, we knew we needed to learn more about them. We focused especially on the triceratops and explored this during our literacy sessions. We talked about different types of books and learned the difference between fiction and non fiction. We compared the covers of two books, Harry and the Dinosaurs at the Museum and First Dinosaur Encyclopaedia. The children decided that Harry and the Dinosaurs was a fiction book because the author used their imagination to write a fun story and drew illustrations to help tell it. When we looked at the encyclopaedia, the children noticed that it shared real information and facts, used photographs instead of drawings and included labels next to the pictures to give even more information.
To build on this learning, we worked together to label a large picture of a triceratops in our classroom. The children shared facts they had learned and helped to add labels so that visitors to our class could learn more about our dinosaur too.
This week we also started learning about letters (known as graphemes) and the sounds (known as phonemes), that they make. The children were very good at identifying the letter ‘s’ and listening carefully for its sound when we made up our silly alliteration sentences. There was lots of laughter as we thought of words starting with the same sound. The children were also keen to practise writing their graphemes on the magical whiteboard and loved watching their marks disappear before it was their friend’s turn. This activity helped them to develop confidence with early mark making and encouraged turn taking and patience as they waited.
In maths, we continued developing our number skills by practising number formation, matching numbers to numerals and ordering numbers from 1 to 5. The children showed great focus and enjoyed counting and checking their work together.
Even with the dreadful weather, we made the most of our outdoor learning. We carried out a simple experiment to see how long it took for rainwater to run down the gutters and fill up our sand buckets. The children were fascinated to watch the water flow and enjoyed talking about what they observed.
It has been such a busy and exciting week, and we hope the children have enjoyed all of their learning. We are very proud of their enthusiasm, curiosity and willingness to try new things.
How you can help at home:
Read a story book and an information book together and talk about the differences between the two, looking at pictures, photographs and facts.
Practise letter sounds, look for the letter s at home on signs, packaging or in books and say the sound together.
Count everyday objects like toys, steps or pieces of fruit and practise ordering numbers from 1 to 5.
Have a lovely, restful weekend! We are already looking forward to another week of learning together!
Lots of love,
The Nursery Team xxx