Investigation Hub and Discovery Hub at Deckham

This week in Nursery, we have been immersed in our core text, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. The children thoroughly enjoyed listening to the story and using puppets, props and story resources to retell key events, developing their communication and language skills as well as their understanding of story structure. We were fascinated to discover that a butterfly’s babies look nothing like their mother and enjoyed exploring the life cycle of a butterfly together.

Our learning linked to the story inspired lots of thought-provoking activities. The children demonstrated excellent problem-solving skills while exploring repeated patterns and enjoyed a range of mark-making opportunities inspired by the characters and events in the story. It has been wonderful to see their confidence growing as they begin to represent their ideas through marks, symbols and drawings.

Wellbeing and mindfulness have been a particular focus this week. We began our week with a calming yoga session, helping the children develop body awareness, balance and concentration. We have also spent time exploring emotions, discussing the many different feelings we can experience throughout the day. Using mirrors, the children observed their own facial expressions and practised making faces to represent different emotions, supporting their emotional literacy and self-awareness.

As we know, young children often experience very big feelings, so we have begun exploring a range of strategies to help manage these emotions independently. The children particularly enjoyed spending time in our Jungle Room, where they listened to calming music and practised simple breathing techniques. “Candle breaths” and “hot chocolate breaths” proved especially popular! These experiences helped the children feel settled, regulated and ready to return to their learning.

There continues to be a strong interest in role play and recreating familiar experiences from home. In recent weeks, the washing-up station has been a huge success, but the children’s focus has now shifted towards caring for babies. Building on this interest, we introduced a baby bath station complete with sponges, flannels and warm water. The children showed great care and responsibility as they washed, bathed and looked after the dolls, demonstrating nurturing behaviours and developing their understanding of the world through imaginative play. We certainly have some very clean babies in Nursery!

We extended this interest into our malleable area by providing playdough alongside knives and forks. The children enjoyed using the cutlery to cut, hold and manipulate the playdough, giving them valuable opportunities to practise an important everyday life skill through play. As well as developing their independence, these experiences helped to strengthen hand muscles, refine fine motor control and build the coordination needed for future self-care and writing tasks. We were incredibly impressed by the children’s concentration and determination as they persevered with this challenge.

As our provision continues to evolve in response to the children’s interests, we remain focused on creating an enabling environment that encourages curiosity, independence and creativity. Through open-ended resources and invitations to play, the children are able to explore their own ideas, take appropriate risks, solve problems and become active participants in their learning. It is always a pleasure to listen to their imaginative conversations and hear the increasingly complex language they use to explain their plans, ideas and discoveries.

We ended a wonderful week of exploration and learning with some very special visitors. The Very Hungry Caterpillar has sent lots of friends to stay with us! Although they are very small at the moment, we have been making sure they have plenty to eat and are well cared for. We are excited to observe them closely over the coming weeks and wonder whether they will follow the same incredible journey as the Very Hungry Caterpillar and transform into beautiful butterflies. We cannot wait to find out!

Story of the Week: The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Song of the Week: There’s a Tiny Caterpillar on a Leaf

Sign of the Week: Hungry Caterpillar

The Sensory Hub

It was lovely to welcome our children back this week. They have settled back into their routine, after the break, with ease. The children have continued to enjoy the Sensory Room and a variety of mark-making activities. We have continued to explore The Very Hungry Caterpillar during group times and have shown lots of curiosity in our very own Nursery caterpillars! Some children have also enjoyed looking for mini beasts in the garden- ladybirds were a firm favourite!

Parents as Partners

Please be reminded that Nursery will be closed on Friday 26th June for a staff training day.

Thank you for your continued support

The Nursery Team