What have we been doing in January and early February?

Welcome to my first post! It’s Katie McGraffin here and I am our new nursery blogger! Each month I will be writing about the wonderful events in our nursery to keep our families updated and also anyone else interested in the fun and ideas we have going on at our nursery. So, here goes…

Happy New Year and back to work for our families, and back to the fun at Working Mums. The words I would use to describe the month of January and early February for Working mums would be; chilly, inspiringly creative and bursting with culture!

All floors were exploring winter and cold weather related topics as their monthly focus.  The children have had a great opportunity to learn about winter from all the creative activities with the team. From making igloos, exploring winter animals and habitats to painting umbrella’s and making foot prints in the fake cotton wool snow. There have also been other opportunities to expand the children’s learning on different cultures, languages, new ideas for cooking and gross motor movements.

We are very lucky to have a lovely multicultural team in our nursery as it allows children to learn about a variety of different cultures, backgrounds and ethnicity. Children love music and nursery rhymes. As Gertrude is from Germany, she has been teaching the children on floor two some German songs and nursery rhymes. This has been a great experience for the children as well as the team to learn a new language. Seva and Marta are from Poland so they have also been teaching the children on floor two some Polish songs to help further the children’s learning on the Polish culture.

Recently, we have also had the opportunity to introduce multi-cultural meal dishes for the children to try at lunch time. This has been a fantastic experience so far and the children and staff have really enjoyed it. Tuhena, Su and Ian put together a lovely Bengali dish called Biryani. One contained rice with meat and one was plain rice with vegetables. Some of the children really enjoyed this dish and some of the children and team had second and third helpings! Margaret also put together a tasty Kenyan dish called Gigheri with various types of beans and vegetables. This has been a great way to introduce children to new tastes, flavours and textures.



Boomerang painting using cotton buds.



On the 26^th of January it was Australia day, and of course it was going to be celebrated as our lovely Josephine from floor one is a born and bred Aussie! Josephine decided to share with the Angels and Stars how to decorate a vanilla sponge cake with chocolate sauce and coconut sprinkles. These are called Lamingtons.  Josephine also provided the children with pictures of Australian animals such as possum’s and kangaroos. On floor one the children used cotton buds to paint some boomerang shapes using aboriginal colours.

Making lamingtons with the children.

 

The final works. Images of ourselves.

The children also had the opportunity to learn about each other’s differences; colour of skin, gender, hair colour and eye colour. On floor two, Lizzie drew around the children on a big sheet of paper and the children painted themselves how they wished. Some of the children painted themselves very alike to their actual appearance, whilst others really enjoyed the colour red so much they decided to paint themselves that colour! It was a lovely activity to show children that not everyone is the same and that we all are unique and special in our own way. Physical development is one of the prime areas we focus children’s development and we all know that children love to climb. On floor three we have a lovely new resource for the children to promote their physical development . We have a big climbing activity with ramps, steps and a bright orange bridge. The children on all floors are loving it and it’s a great way for them to express themselves physically on our lovely Roof Garden. On floor one, we have introduced some balancing beams that we connect together for the children to walk, step over and climb on indoors. The children love these and they

Holding still and not giggling!

will soon be moving to the roof garden. We feel that it is helping the children to understand about their spatial awareness as well as gross motor movements. This is also good for the new group of children that have just moved over from Cherubs on to the Angel’s side  as some of them have just got on to their feet.

Overall the children have had a lot of fun, and I am sure you are all aware of this due to all the lovely Facebook updates! We hope you have enjoyed these.

Floor one- Angels and Cherubs

The Angels and Cherubs have had a lovely time on floor one. We would like to welcome the children who have moved over to Angels side  at the beginning of the year from the Cherubs side. The children have really settled in and are really enjoying the play space and of course the home corner. We feel that their personalities are really shining through and it is so lovely to see!

Angels.

The nature area has been transformed into a weather theme. The children painted some lovely big umbrellas, rain drops and also created winter coloured pictures. We also have some laminated words and pictures relating to weather for the children to explore, we all know now how the children love laminated pictures!

Our umbrella collages.

The children loved painting the umbrellas and some of the children were fascinated with the umbrellas so much that Sophia picked up the umbrella shape and sung “Rain go away, come back another day”. The children are also really starting to enjoy glue and stick, especially with the cellophane, and they love looking through it to see all the different colours. The children are also developing their knowledge on colours through this.

This month we have also helped the children to learn about winter clothing such as hats, gloves, waterproofs and wellies. We regularly talk with the children about the importance of warm clothing and we have also been teaching the children how to put on wellies and hats themselves. The children love wearing their welly boots out on the roof garden and love to point out their own clothes when we are ready to go up on to the roof.

Jenny did a lovely activity to also support the knowledge and understanding of outer gear such as gloves, hats and scarfs. Jenny gave the children a cut out shape of gloves , hats and scarfs for the children to paint. The children really enjoyed this activity and as well as promoting their creativity skills, some of the children were also recognising the shapes and saying words such as ‘gloves’ and ‘hat’. This is displayed in our creative room.

 Cherubs

There are a few new little faces on our Cherubs side, and already they are having fun exploring their play spaces. The cherubs have a lovely little home corner now, along with cups, plates and a little cooker. The children love this area and enjoy looking at themselves in the mirror.

Our new home corner in the Cherubs

The room has also transformed in to laminate picture heaven and the children really enjoy pulling off all of the pictures and putting them back on again.

The Cherubs have also had a lot of creative experiences in their room. The Cherubs made some beautiful scarfs and hats that they painted using card and have done a lot of finger painting! A lot of our little ones have also started walking and are pulling themselves up on to their feet, so there are lots of walkers and small units for the children to promote this further. The cherubs have also had a lot of fun exploring our beautiful sensory room and playing in the water tray.

 

 

Floor two- Stars and Shooting Stars

Whenever I go up to floor two I always love listening to what the children have been up to during their nursery day and about their activities so I thought it would be a nice idea to talk to the children about their experiences, we all know how children love to talk and express themselves. I also spoke to the adults on their experiences on January and early February.

The igloos we made.

Katarina did a lovely activity making igloos out of cardboard, glitter and white paint. The children also made a chimney on the top and the little people were there for the children to place inside.  I asked Martha, Ayla and Daniel about their igloo. Martha said, “I put the people inside, the chimney fell over the igloo!”. Martha then began to sing, “When Santa got stuck up the chimney, he began to achoo!”. Ayla added “We done a chimney, the chimney got stuck!”. And Daniel said “ I made a house and a chimney”. Katarina then explained that whilst making the cardboard igloo, the igloo fell down. But this did not stop the fun, the children really enjoyed it and it was a great way for the children to learn about various habitats and the way people live in colder regions.

Cutting out things that keep us warm!

The children also had an insight on various winter sports, winter gear, winter animals as well as the texture of snow. The children created some lovely winter themed pictures, and some collage making with pictures of gloves and hats. The children cut the pictures out themselves and then stuck it on the paper using glue. Seva said “The children really enjoy cutting out, they are doing really well and are able to cut round the pictures nicely, the children also enjoy cutting play dough at the moment”.

Using scissors safely and supervised is a great way to promote children’s fine motor skills and hand and eye coordination, as well as preparing them for school! Laminated pictures of winter sports and animals were also on the wall for the children to explore.

Unfortunately the snow hadn’t arrived until February, but this didn’t stop our lovely Lizzie from letting the children walk on our fake cotton snow! Lizzie put down a long sheet of fake cotton wool snow for the children to walk on in bare foot. The children dipped their feet in to a variety of coloured paint and the children walked on top of it. Lizzie was talking to the children about how it felt on their feet, what colours they were making and the different textures. Lizzie asked Samuel how the paint felt on his feet on the cotton wool and he said, “It tickles”. Hector added, “It’s cold”, and Luke thought it would be fun to walk on the snow with his sunglasses on! Overall this activity was hit and the children loved their snowy cat walk!

Gertrude has been introducing her guitar and recorder to the children to promote the children’s learning on these instruments. Gertrude said “The children love copying how I play the guitar, they seem to really concentrate and love to pretend they are playing it”. Gertrude also added, “I have also been playing on the recorder with them, we did ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’ with them and the children really enjoyed it!”

Making our own pizzas

Not only have floor two been creative in the classroom, they have also had a lot of creative ideas in the kitchen! The children have been involved in creating their very own pizza toppings on top of their pizza’s for tea time. Some of the children enjoyed carefully placing their topping choices on to their pizza, whilst others enjoyed making faces!

 

 Preschoolers

Submerging our hands in ice cold water, protected by the lard.

In preschool, the children have done a variety of activities on winter related topics. Each week the children had the opportunity to focus on the Arctic theme. The children looked at various arctic animals such as penguins and polar bears and learnt about their habitats and how they survive in winter. The children also did an interesting science experiment with Avalon representing how penguins survive in cold temperatures. Avalon said, “We put some lard in a sandwich bag and put another bag inside of it and taped it up, this acted like a blubber”.  Avalon then added “We then put it in a bucket of water with ice to show the children that their hand will not feel the cold. The children loved the activity and we also learnt about Inuits, how they live and how they survive in cold temperatures”. I also spoke to some of the pre-schoolers on their thoughts on the arctic activities. Felicity told me about her igloo picture and said, “we made mittens using tissue paper and glue!”.  The children created some beautiful arctic art work that is displayed in the preschool room, such as penguins, blow painting, igloos  and polar bear art work.

Making paint move with your blow.

Avalon also told me about her penguin race activity. The children were given balloons and they put them between their knees and they did a race in the roof garden and inside. Felicity said ‘”We did a race outside and the balloon flown away”. The children really enjoyed this activity and it was an alternative, yet fun way to teach the children about penguins, as well as a bit of healthy competition!  

The Frozen party spread

Avalon asked the children what else they would like to do in preschool, the children said a party- of course! So the children threw their own Frozen party! I asked Felicity about the party and she said “We made muffins, drew pictures of Elsa and some of us had the Elsa dress on”. Felicity also talked about how they played musical statues. Avalon said, “They planned the party completely themselves. They wrote shopping lists, made invitations and decorated the pre-school room with buntings and balloons. They loved it!”.  I thought this was lovely, and the children certainly enjoyed themselves as well as learning about cooking, designing and organisation skills.

And finally, Preschool Outdoor Learning!

Penguin races!

We all know that the pre-schoolers thoroughly enjoy outdoor learning experiences. In January, the children were focusing on animal tracks, bark rubbing and stick collecting. “We investigated horse tracks, duck tracks and we also made prints in our welly boots”, said Avalon. Avalon also talked about how the children read the book, Stickman, by Julia Donaldson. The weather in January was perfect for the animal tracks to the muddy and wet weather, so the children were able to explore a wide range of patterns in the mud. The children were given paper and crayons so they could create marks from the tree bark.



We made wind catchers and ran with them in the park.

 

 

 



Whose footprint could this be??

 

 

 

 

 

Sitting around a tree stump is the perfect place for a snack while at Outdoor Learning.