Week beginning 9th March 2026

The Investigation Hub at Sidney Grove

Characteristics of Effective Learning-

As we were focusing on some scientific thinking this week in the Investigation Hub the children explored a new malleable material: Kinetic sand! First the children noticed that the sand felt different to their expectations…it’s so slimy! It’s like snow! It feels funny! It gets all crumbly! Then they started to notice that the sand behaved differently to normal sand. The children began raising their arms and letting the sand trickle from a height… one of the children then began to sing ‘rain, rain, go away!’ and we talked about the sand trickling down just like the rain outside! Finally the children began to link this experience with their prior knowledge and use their pre-existing skills… (from playdough and clay) They rolled balls, used cutters to make biscuits and even moulded with their hands to make a volcano.

Parents as Partners

This week we explored a question the children often ask in Nursery ‘Why do Rainbows happen?’ The Investigators already had some amazing prior knowledge of rainbows and shared their ideas in group times…

‘rainbows are made of cloud’

‘rainbows are when it’s a bit sunny and a bit rainy!’

‘Rainbows can be in a cake!’

We explored some multi-sensory activities this week. For physical development the children used a salad spinner to mix paint colours into a rainbow effect! (This is so much fun and helps to develop gross motor skills) We used these colourful pieces of artwork to make some special cards for some special people! The children also mixed chalk and water to make chalk paint- looking at how the texture of the chalk changes when it gets wet. As part of our maths exploration this week the children spread out all of the wooden pieces of the rainbows in our small world area and looked closely at them…’They are all different sizes!’ ‘Some are big and some are small!’ Some children were able to put two pieces of the rainbow together and to compare which pieces were longer and which were shorter.

Outside Learning

Outside the children have been looking for colours and matching them to the colours on the rainbow! This linked back to our springtime investigation last week as the children remembered where to find the purple bluebells and yellow daffodils!

In their plan-do-review sessions the children have been using large loose parts to make an aeroplane after a child shared she was going on holiday next week. They made up a dinosaur tag game using dino-tails sellotaped to their backs and practised some crawling and sliding under the net!

On Friday Quay was so kind as to share some information with the children about Ramadan and Eid. She told us how her family typically celebrate Eid together and shared some special photos and items with the children. Thank you Quay!

That wraps up another fun week of learning together!

Wishing you all a lovely weekend with your families!