Investigation Hub and Discovery Hub at Deckham

Important Dates – Next week is our final week before the half term break. Nursery will close on Friday 23rd October and will reopen on Monday 2nd November.

This week, we’ve been sharing stories about pumpkins and giving the children lots of opportunities to explore real pumpkins in their play.

Using magnifying glasses, spoons and cake tins, the children have been busy investigating these fascinating autumn vegetables. They made an exciting discovery when they realised they could use their spoons to chop and break up the pumpkins!

The pumpkin fun continued in the water tray, where the children used one-handled brushes and sponges to scrub them clean. These activities encouraged them to investigate, experiment with tools, and develop their hand strength and coordination.

Building on this interest, we continued our cooking experiences by making delicious vegetable soup using ingredients kindly provided by The Bread and Butter Thing. The children explored a selection of vegetables, including peppers, carrots, celery, leeks and tomatoes.

As they helped prepare the ingredients, they had the opportunity to further develop their use of our wooden chopping tools. They also had a try at using scissors to snip the peppers and leeks into smaller pieces.

Once our soup was ready, the children had the opportunity to taste their creation. Lots of children enjoyed trying the soup, and some were so enthusiastic that they had two bowlfuls!

There were more vegetable discoveries to be made as the children explored what different vegetables looked and felt like inside. They also experimented with printing using a range of vegetables, including a celeriac, discovering the different shapes and marks they could make.

Alongside these autumn explorations, an everyday delivery sparked a whole new adventure. One child was keen to explore the large box it came in and, with imagination and a covering of foil, it became a rocket ship! There is something magical about a child’s imagination. Following this interest, we introduced lots more large boxes, giving the children opportunities to fly to the moon, drive cars and create their own adventures. They were also particularly interested in joining parts together with masking tape, developing their coordination and problem-solving skills as they brought their ideas to life.

That same sense of curiosity continued through our Box of Wonder, which we introduced last week. It encouraged the children to look closely, ask questions and share their ideas, supporting their speaking and listening skills and helping them grow in confidence as communicators.

Our shared stories also gave us opportunities to explore feelings and friendships. After reading our core text, Pumpkin Soup, we thought about how one of the characters felt when his friends said unkind words. We then explored how it feels to hear kind words from others. As we passed wool around the group to make a kindness web, the children chose someone to say something kind about and explained why. “She is kind because she makes me pictures” and “He is my bestest friend because he plays with me” were just some of their lovely comments. It was a special moment, with everyone beaming as they heard the kind things their friends had to say! Our kindness web even ended up looking like a star — which made us smile, as everyone had been a star at making their friends feel special!

Outdoors, there was just as much curiosity and discovery as conkers sparked lots of interest. The children investigated how they rolled through tubes of different lengths and from different heights, experimenting with their arrangements and watching what happened.

With autumn all around us, the fallen leaves provided plenty of opportunities for play, too. Sweeping them helped the children develop strength in their arms and shoulders and coordinate their movements. We also had lots of fun sprinkling the leaves down as we sang Autumn Leaves!

We’re looking forward to more autumn adventures next week in our final week of this half term.

Investigation Hub story: Pumpkin Soup

Discovery Hub story: Stickman – The Pumpkin Hunt

Song of the week: Hickory Dickory Dock

Signs of the week: Please / Thank you

Parents as Partners

If you are able to, please send in a named pair of wellies for your child to leave at nursery. This will help us make the most of our outdoor adventures, whatever the weather!

We are collecting harvest donations for Peace of Mind. If you would like to contribute, please send in any dried or tinned food donations by the end of next week. Thank you for your kindness and support.

Parent Consultations

During the first week back after half term (week commencing 2nd November), we will be holding parent conferences to discuss your child’s progress and development.

Sign-up sheets showing the available appointment dates and times will be displayed on the noticeboard next week for you to book an appointment with your child’s key worker.

Supervised Toothbrushing Programme

After half term, we will be introducing the Supervised Toothbrushing Programme for our preschool children in the Investigation Hub who access 30 hours.

The programme aims to promote good oral hygiene and help children develop healthy toothbrushing habits from an early age.

Children will brush their teeth once a day at nursery, supported and supervised by staff. Toothbrushes and fluoride toothpaste will be provided.

This is in addition to, not instead of, brushing teeth twice daily at home.

We will be in touch with further information soon.

Have a lovely weekend, everyone.