The Discovery Hub

The excitement around the ducklings has continued this week in The Discovery Hub!

Our very special song of the week – 5 Little ducks 🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆 was very popular as the children engaged with enjoyment and expressed their ideas using actions, signs and movement.

Mathematical concepts of counting 1-5/5-1 and changing quantities were supported as we counted the soft toy duck props and worked together to bounce them in different ways on the stretchy lycra material!

Making connections to first hand experiences has further enhanced the understanding of new experiences for the children in the special world around them.

As the children curiously observed the ducklings they communicated and shared their ideas by developing new vocabulary modelled by nursery staff…’soft’ ‘fluffy’ and ‘beak’….’quack quack’.

Characteristics of effective learning – creative thinking and making links in their experiences:

Inspired by our visiting feathered-friends, we provided feathers, as a provocation for learning in the playdough area, alongside other materials such as sticks and rocks. Photos of our ducklings were also displayed and the children talked about what they could see in the photos and recalled their own experiences of meeting and touching the ducklings.

Using these open ended resources led to exploration of how to get the feathers to join to the playdough, and for the children to develop ideas linked to their own interests, including making ducks, a chicken, a ‘Stickman’ family and “wings”, among many other ideas. It is super to see the children using the resources creatively to represent and explore their own ideas and fascinations!

We’ve discovered so much knowledge by observing the process of change and life cycle of growth from eggs within the incubator to beautiful ducklings! Lovely opportunities to discuss colour and size and how the ducklings looked very different were curiously explored.

The ducklings returned to the farm this week where they will be able to explore their new surroundings!

Outdoor Learning

Outdoors and Active – Our two year olds love to spend time outdoors everyday! The development of physical skills is a ‘prime area’ of development for young children and it’s so important that our children have daily opportunities so they can run, crawl, climb, slide, jump and spin and gain stronger muscles in the process! We have a wonderful outdoor learning environment to explore, children love repetition and by going back to familiar places and testing out favourite physical movements, they develop confidence and a positive attitude to personal safety and risk taking.

Outdoor learning makes a major contribution to children’s physical development.

The children have continued their interest in making marks in different ways. Within the outdoor learning environment our ‘young artists’ curiously experimented mixing powder paint and water together to create their own colours and as a result make exciting new discoveries!

Further investigation of experiences were explored using water and chalks to create marks and movements. The children experimented creating marks on different surfaces, this has also promoted the opportunity for the children to further develop their physical gross motor skills and hand eye co-ordination in various ways.

Following the children’s interests, we have been extending role play focussed around the care of our dolls. The children have used sponges and towels to bathe and dry the dolls in our water tray. They have also been using pushchairs outdoors to take the dolls for a walk. The children have told us where they are taking them, including such places as “the shop” and “the bank!”

They have had to consider how to carefully navigate around obstacles in their path, while steering the pushchairs. Through exploring how to care for the dolls, the children are representing familiar experiences and roles within their play.

Parents as Partners

Ideas to explore at home – Literacy mark making – explore outdoor water painting using brushes and water to experiment painting on different surfaces…. experimenting on the ground, wall or fence. The children are usually amazed as they make new discoveries and observe their marks disappear!

A walk in the local community – Enjoy a walk in the local area to look at the natural world – model vocabulary of the outdoor world about vehicles, buildings, the weather and seasonal change – encourage questioning by asking your child – what can you see? what can you hear?

Collections of Natural Materials

Do you have any of the following please to enhance our ‘loose parts’ nursery collections and curiosity in learning – conkers, pine cones, shells, pebbles, sticks & twigs, log slices, interesting textured stones, wooden curtain rings and wooden pegs

Developing Communication and Language Skills

Individual Family Books

We are also kindly asking parents to upload pictures via ‘observation’ on the ‘Famly app’ of special people, pets, interests and family events. We are currently creating individual family books for your child. As a teaching strategy this helps to promote ‘communication and language skills’ within nursery and the children can share their special books with others.

Staffing update – Laney and Holly are both settling in well within ‘The Den’ and enjoying developing relationships with the children and nursery team.

Cerys will be warmly welcomed back within ‘The Discovery Hub’ to work with nursery staff. It’s so lovely that she’ll be supporting a key group of children that are ready for transition into their new learning environment in the Discovery Hub.

Hayley works Monday to Wednesday and is enjoying working with the nursery team and sharing special experiences with our two year old ‘little discoverers’.

Annual Leave

Kelly is on Annual Leave Tuesday 27th May – Friday 30th May

Deborah is on Annual Leave Wednesday 28th May – June 6th

Nursery will be closed to all on Monday 26th May for the Bank Holiday.

Half Term Holiday – we are closed from Tuesday 27th May to Friday 30th May. We will return on Monday 2nd June. This doesn’t apply to children who attend nursery all year round.

School will also be closed on Friday 20th June for a staff training day.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend!

The Nursery Team