Spring 1
When we returned back after the Christmas holidays, we welcomed some new friends into REY. They settled well into our routines and were able to join in with the fun!
We spent some time exploring print and logos’s, having a look around our nursery building at different signs and what some of them mean. We talked about the different words and letters that we might see every day and the information they give us. On some of our front doors we have a number. The children have also been enjoying completing inset puzzles and some of these were very tricky!
We have been developing our counting at small group times by counting out some of our construction sets. To develop our rote counting we played hide and seek in the garden.
As the weather has been changing, when we have been going outside we have been risk assessing – looking to see if the ground is slippy or safe. We have also found some ice in our garden, trying to melt it in different ways. We have been exploring ice and some different materials in the water tray.
The children have been developing their mark making skills in icing sugar, flour and gloop. This looks just like snow! The children have been learning about some of the animals that live in the Arctic like polar bears and penguins. These animals have been playing in our playdough, shaving foam and gloop with us!
As our talk 4 writing text was Polly put the Kettle On, we have been learning this rhyme in a variety of ways. We used our puppets to help us learn and retell the story and been developing an understanding of the words “on” and “off”. We tried some tea as this is what Polly makes!
During our literacy small group times, the children have been developing their listening skills through different games. We have played some sound lotto games, listening to familiar sounds our friends voices and going outside to listen to the noises of the garden.
To celebrate the Youth Winter Olympics, we had a week of trying some winter sports. We watched some videos of a bobsleigh race and then used our own bobsleigh’s to go down the hill in the back garden. We moved our bodies like we were figure skaters in the front garden with ribbons and used “Olympic coloured rings” to throw beanbags into.
We developed our gross motor skills by playing on the bikes and scooters. We have been really enjoying playing in the front garden too. Here we can move our bodies up the climbing frame. The children have really grown in confidence doing this and balancing on the logs.
At morning check in we have been using some Makatan signs to show as well as tell how we are feeling.
It has been a very busy first half term for 2024! Lots of learning and most of all fun 😊!
Autumn 2
As we returned from our October break on the 31st October, the children were excited about Halloween. We added some dressing up costumes to our house corner and encouraged the children to try to put them on independently.
As there had been some fireworks going off for Halloween and Guy Fawkes night, we began discussing these events. We watched some videos of the fireworks and listened to the sounds they made – “BOOM!” “BANG!”. The children developed their mark making skills in glitter creating their own swirling firework shapes with their fingers.
Outdoors, we made our own bonfire role play area and had discussions about creating a real fire. (Hopefully we will be able to do this one day soon)
As one of our spine reading book this term is Red Rockets & Rainbow Jelly we have been talking about rockets! Every day at the beginning of the session we have been “Blasting off” from the carpet. This has been developing the children’s numeracy skills, counting by rote. The children have been choosing a number between 1 and 10, then talking about the number being higher or lower than the other, choosing then to count up or down to blast off! This has been a great way for the children to be able to develop their rote counting, not always starting from 1.
Within this half term there have been lots of celebrations which involved lots of learning! – Remembrance Day, Diwali, odd socks day, Children in Need, Road Safety week and the dentist’s also came to visit.
On the run up to Christmas we have been very busy!
The children have developed their mark making skills by writing letters to Santa and cutting out images from catalogues to send to Santa. We have made our own Christmas cards by painting and printing to give to our families.
For the Christmas Fayre in school, the children made some salt dough decorations and glittered lots of pinecones to sell. The children had been exploring reindeer dust which then we also sold at the Christmas Fayre too!
For our sing along celebration, the children learned some new songs and have been great at practicing these. The children enjoyed their singalong and all did great at joining in. The children have really enjoyed using the bells and other instruments while practicing on the run up to our sing-along and right up until the last day. At times, we have been singing that loud outside Santa may have heard us from the North Pole!
We hope everyone had a great Christmas break and are looking forward to being back at Early Years. We are looking forward to welcoming some new friends to REY in January!
Happy New Year!
