It's October! We're well and truly into autumn now, but the mild weather means there's still been plenty of outdoor fun at the nursery. Read on, to hear what your children have been up to this week...
Monday
The children had the opportunity to make play dough from scratch today. Such an easy thing to do, just mix together flour, water, some food colouring and glitter, a bit of salt and cream of tartar and voila! The children loved the sensation of using their hands to squish together the ingredients, and then had the pleasure of using "their" dough in their play. Outside, our practitioners had set up a cake shop (with some very pretty cake stands) and the children enjoyed using rice, pasta and play dough to create cakes of all shapes and sizes. At story time, the books focused on counting and number recognition - reading stories like this are a fun way of supporting your child's mathematical development.
Tuesday
It was all aboard the Jolly Roger today, as the children had fun playing with an exploratory set up of a pirate ship and castle, with real sand and shaving foam waves on the sea! Elsewhere in the playroom, there was an autumn display with leaves, pinecones, logs and sticks which the children could examine up-close using the magnifying glasses.
Wednesday
The children discovered a big block of ice at nursery today. What could possibly be frozen inside? By dripping warm water on it the children made the ice slowly melt to reveal... AN OCTOPUS! The children had a wild time exploring this fascinating creature (even if it did make the nursery smell a bit like a fishmongers). We also did some experimenting with colours and textures, with the children painting with glue and sticking on various objects to bring different textures to their pictures.
Thursday
We tried out a brand-new board game at nursery today. "Pop to the Shops" is a fun shopping game that helps children learn about handling money and giving change. They move around the board from shop to shop, using pretend money to buy lots of different items. Each child takes on the role of both shopper and shopkeeper, helping them to practise turn-taking, role play and polite conversation as they say 'Please' and 'Thank You' once they have bought or sold their items. There was also excitement when the new sofa for our book corner was delivered. This has been purchased using some of the proceeds from the nursery Sports Day, and will make the book corner a much more comfortable and welcoming area for the children to enjoy. We are only able to buy things like this for the nursery thanks to the generosity of our parents and carers, so thank you very much!
Friday
It was a beautiful, sunny autumn day so we spent a lot of time in the garden, developing the children's gross motor skills - running, jumping, climbing and balancing. There was more excitement today as we awaited the arrival of our brand-new mud kitchen! Again, this was purchased as a result of your fantastic fundraising efforts. A mud kitchen is a great resource for the nursery, as it will help the children to reach many learning objectives from the Early Years curriculum. Mud kitchens encourage role play, sharing and turn-taking, which helps to develop the children's social skills and emotional understanding. Mud play also brings children closer to nature while at the same time stimulating their imagination, developing their language and communication skills and teaching scientific concepts. We can't wait to start playing with it!
