The Den:

We have had another exciting week in The Den as we celebrate nursery rhyme week and explore themes of Diwali!

Characteristics of effective learning:

For nursery rhyme week this week, we decided to focus on 3 main songs that the children always enjoy during group times! These were incy wincy spider, old McDonald and driving in my car!

We decided to incorporate the light panel into the activity as the children are always fascinated by it! We added some magnetic road tiles to the panel and a variety of cars. The children were very keen to come over and explore! They used the road tiles to create mini roads and rolled the cars along them. As the tiles are magnetic, they clip together. The children found it really intriguing when they stuck together. As the children played, we sang a variety of vehicle related songs like ‘driving in my car’ , ‘wheels on the bus’ and ‘Thomas the train’. The children enjoyed joining in with some words and actions.

We also created a sensory tray around incy wincy spider! We added some blue rice, fake spiders and cardboard tubes to represent the water spout! The children loved this activity and enjoyed feeling the texture of the rice. We dropped it from a height to represent the ‘rain’, the children were fascinated by the sound it made when it landed in the tray. They also enjoyed filling the cardboard tubes with the rice!

As farm animals continue to be of interest to the children, we also decided to focus on ‘old McDonald’. We created an edible sensory farm, containing Weetabix (mud) crunchy cornflakes (hay) and water. The children thoroughly enjoyed feeling all of the different textures and exploring unique sounds like crunching the cornflakes.

Children in need:

The children had lots of fun helping to make yellow play-dough to celebrate Children In Need! They took it in turns to help pour the ingredients into the bowl and enjoyed mixing the mixture. Once it was ready, the children enjoyed manipulating the dough with their hands, using language like “squeeze, squash” and “roll”. We also added in some large coloured pom poms to signify the spots on Pudsey’s eye patch! The children enjoyed squeezing the pom poms and squashing them into the dough!

Staffing updates:

Chloe is on annual leave next week

Parents as partners:

On the door, we have a ‘dates for your diary’ sheet with all our festive upcoming events!

We also have a sign up sheet for our stay and play! It will be held on Monday 30th 9:15- 10:30 and we will be focusing on the theme of ‘belonging’. Would be great to see you there!