Monday
Our focus this week was "becoming a good friend", with all the things that entailed. At circle time, the children had a good discussion about what it meant to be a good friend - being kind, sharing with others, taking turns. What thoughtful children we have at nursery! Some had a chance to practise their turn-taking when playing a Peter Rabbit interactive PC game; others learned about sharing when enjoying our small world fairy castle set up.
Tuesday
There was a spontaneous dressing-up session at nursery today, with two very different outcomes - on one hand, a re-enactment of the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs; on the other hand, a racing driver outfit brought out the car mat, traffic lights and cars. Elsewhere, the children were developing their mathematical knowledge of 3D shapes and number, using unifix cubes and magnetic shapes. At circle time, we continued our focus on what makes a good friend, and showed how the nursery's Golden Rules help us to be kind to others.
Wednesday
Evie and her family made bright green play dough at the weekend, and she brought some in to nursery for her friends to play with. Thank you Evie - what a great way of demonstrating sharing and kindness! There was some great turn-taking on show elsewhere, as some children used the giant meccano to build a bus. They took turns using the screwdriver and worked collaboratively to make their bus, which also created the opportunity to develop their communication skills. Great work, guys!
Thursday
During circle time today we played ring games with the children. Evangeline extended this by encouraging the children to observe the effect the movement was having on their bodies - their breathing got faster, their heartbeats increased. Evangeline then produced a real, working stethoscope so the children could listen to each other's hearts. They were fascinated! Later, there was an impromptu jamming session as some of the children got out the musical instruments and played together. What they lacked in rhythm they certainly made up for in enthusiasm!
Friday
The children are obviously in a musical mood, as there was another jamming session today - this time outside, on the pots and pans. The stethoscope continued to be a fascination, and led to a very involved game of doctors and nurses (with Becky as the willing patient). Elsewhere, the children were conducting a paper aeroplane investigation, trying different ways of folding the paper and seeing which could fly the furthest. They measured and recorded the different distances, as a way of developing their mathematical understanding.