Monday
The new soft seating for our reading corner is modular and extremely portable, which is why it found its way outside today into our "reading tent". Of course, if you have a tent then you have to have a campfire too... The children enjoyed pretending to be out camping in the wild, reading campfire stories and "cooking" on the open (cardboard) fire. Inside, our practitioners had created a multi-sensory dinosaur world, with plants, water, sand and interesting textures for the children (and the dinosaurs!) to explore.
Tuesday
We celebrated Jaxon's birthday today, with party games and a very delicious Paw Patrol birthday cake. Yum! Elsewhere in the nursery, the children were exploring the concepts of big and little in a new sensory set-up, the centrepiece of which was a tall plant which many found fascinating. On another table, a simple set-up of coloured see-through shapes on a sparkly cloth provided multiple possibilities for learning - what would the children focus on? Counting? Sorting? The colours? The shapes? The textures? So many ways to play!
Wednesday
The children enjoyed playing with our big/little set-up yesterday, and have adapted it by adding toys and items from elsewhere in the nursery (including the pirate ship from last week's sensory table). We've left it as it is, to see how the children develop it further. What will it change into today, we wonder? Other children had a go at our new vertical puzzles. These are more challenging for the children than a regular puzzle, and help to develop their dexterity and concentration as well as their spatial awareness and the words associated with it (does this piece go above or below? On the left or on the right?).
Thursday
Our big/little set-up continued to evolve today, with an exploration of sand and water and an invasion of dinosaurs! We've loved seeing how the children have developed this according to their own interests. We also focused on fine motor control today (this is the term used to describe small movements, usually of the hand and fingers) and developing the children's pencil control through colouring and mark-making. Colouring is such a simple activity, but it is the precursor to developing writing and encourages creativity.
Friday
Today our focus has been on shape and numbers. Inside the nursery (where it was nice and dry!) we had a selection of resources set up to encourage the children to develop their awareness of numeracy. At the Hexi-snaps table, the children enjoyed slotting together the brightly-coloured hexagonal pieces to make 2D patterns and pictures. Another table had giant money; a further set-up had tactile numbers and peg boards. All these activities encouraged the children to discuss different aspects of numeracy (whilst also being a lot of fun!).
