Investigation Hub and Discovery Hub at Deckham

What a lovely week we have had exploring the sights, textures and colours of autumn! The children have been busy investigating natural materials and using their creativity when exploring these items in different ways.

We enjoyed exploring leaf printing with paint, experimenting with different leaves and noticing the shapes they created. The children also explored the patterns and textures of leaves in playdough, rolling and pressing the leaves into the dough to see the marks they made. This provided lots of opportunities for the children to develop their fine motor skills while investigating natural textures.

We also enjoyed making a delicious fruit crumble using autumn fruits — apples and pears. The children had the opportunity to use our new child-friendly wooden handheld chopping tools to carefully cut the fruit. They also enjoyed scooping and mixing the different ingredients together. We talked about the raw ingredients, noticing their different colours and textures, and then the children were able to observe how the fruits and other ingredients had changed after cooking, as they tasted the crumble. Cooking is a wonderful hands-on experience that encourages lots of sensory exploration, conversation and curiosity.

Outdoors, the children have been busy exploring the natural environment using magnifying glasses. They carefully looked at leaves, minibeasts, natural materials and other interesting things they discovered, noticing details. The mud kitchen was also very popular, with the children using natural materials alongside water to create their own imaginative recipes, mixtures and autumn-inspired creations.

Alongside our autumn explorations, the children have been busy developing their construction skills using our wooden blocks. They have been creating new and interesting models, working out how to balance and arrange the blocks. One of our fantastic creations was a castle!

It has been wonderful to see the children sharing experiences, experimenting with different materials and using their imaginations throughout the week.

Story of the week: Autumn by Ailie Busby

Song of the week: When Goldilocks went to the House of the Bears

Signs of the week: Look and listen

Parents as Partners

Here is a little reminder of which staff you can expect to see in each of our key groups throughout the week:

Red group (3-4 year olds):

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday – Hayley

Thursday & Friday – Terri

Blue group (3-4 year olds):

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday – Terri

Thursday & Friday – Laura

Yellow group (2-3 year olds):

Danielle

Green group (2-3 year olds):

Amy

Pink group (2-3 year olds):

Dianne

Orange group (2-4 year olds):

Monday, Wednesday, Friday – Jodie

Tuesday & Thursday – Lyneisha

Sakar also supports in orange group everyday.

We are also supported by Summaiya, Rob and Ethan.

Claire is our Deputy Childcare Manager and is available for any questions you might have.

Have a wonderful weekend,

The Nursery Team