2-3: The Discovery Hub and 3-4: The Investigation Hub at Deckham

We have had a lovely week reflecting on the holidays as the children talk about their experiences. This week the children have been exploring across many of their favourite areas such as the sticking area, painting, playdough and small world and of course the outdoors continues to be very popular.

Play and Exploring

The playdough area has been very popular this week and has been accessed by many children. The children have been exploring making cakes in the playdough and we explored using candles to develop the children’s ideas. It has been lovely to see the children making connections to their own birthdays as they join in singing Happy Birthday and blowing out the candles. Some of the children have used this opportunity to then discuss their own birthdays talking about the cakes they had. We added a range of candles including numerals and the children have been commenting “it’s 4” or “this is me” making connections to their own age. A great opportunity for the children to explore counting the number of candles they added and for number recognition.

Communication and Language

This week, our Investigators have been exploring representing their experiences in the holidays through mark making. The children show concentration as they create marks representing their ideas. As the children mark make they explained to each other the events of their week. Once finished, the children asked Miss Goodrick to scribe the events making sure to include all of the detail.

The children continue to enjoy looking through their learning journals reflecting on their own experiences at home and in nursery. We can see such progress with the children’s language developing during these interactions as the children label and describe what was occurring in the photos.

Outdoor Learning

The children continue to show an interest with observing the growth of the sunflowers and seeds we have previously planted. To help look after our plants we have added a greenhouse to the garden. The children helped Miss Goodrick to build the greenhouse, placing the poles into the slots and adding the cover. As we built the greenhouse, we looked at the instructions to find out each step. Some of the children began to use language to describe the poles we needed. “We need a long pole” “next we need a short one”. We then looked around the garden to find a space to place the greenhouse. The children were very keen to take the pots we had planted from inside to the new greenhouse. The children continue to care for the sunflowers as we discuss what they “need” to grow.

Active Learning

Some of the children have been investigators as they show curiosity using the large magnets. They experimented with items to test if they were metal or not. Our Investigators continued to explore this interest as we tested objects found around nursery to test and then created two groups, items which were magnetic and items which were not.

Parents as Partners

This week our song of the week has been Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. 

Over the next few weeks, we have teachers coming to meet our Investigators who will be moving on to Reception in September. This is a great opportunity for the new teachers to meet our Investigators in their nursery environment and to discuss with Miss Goodrick and Terri on their current progress and interests. We will let you know when your child’s teacher will be coming into nursery.

Just a reminder school will be closed on Friday 20th June for a staff training day.

The Nursery Team