Investigation Hub and Discovery Hub at Deckham 

We have had an exciting week continuing to learn about autumn, with a particular focus upon Harvest this week.

Characteristics of effective learning – Playing and exploring

Outdoors, the children have been using our soil digging tray to search for potatoes and miniature carrots. They used scoops, spoons and their hands to uncover and ‘harvest’ the vegetables and to transfer them into plant pots. Many of the children chose to cover their potatoes with more soil to “plant” them. We observed some wonderful discussions, mathematical vocabulary and cooperative play during this activity. Among some of the many interactions the children had, they shared:

“I’ve got 1, 2, 3 potatoes. One is a little, tiny one.”

“You’ve got lots.” 

“Mammy gets potatoes from the shop next to my nursery.”

“Make chips from the potatoes.”

“Do you like mash potato?” 

“Look at this long carrot!”

“It’s made a sandcastle but not with sand. It’s a mud castle!” 

“You can have this spoon if you want it.”

The new wheelbarrows have continued to be very popular this week and the children are developing their skills in steering them around obstacles in their path and in turning corners. 

Indoors, some of the children have enjoyed playing with the small world farm animals, and they have shown good imagination in some of the stories they have developed using the animals. 

We have continued to explore using leaves and other natural objects creatively, this week having them available to print with at the painting area. It required a lot of concentration to paint onto the whole leaf before creating a print with it. 

We have looked at different vegetables, touched them described them, and named them, and our Investigation Hub children learned the rhyme ‘Chop, Chop, Choppity Chop’, as they chose vegetables and pretended to add them to our ‘pot’. 

At the end of the week we used the vegetables to make soup. We talked about why it is important to wash the vegetables and where they come from. The children washed and helped to chop some of the vegetables, developing their careful handling and use of one-handed tools. We added them to the soup maker and were intrigued by the noises it made as the soup was prepared! Many of the children tried the soup and some even enjoyed three servings of it! 

Some of the children asked if we could chop up some fruit to add to the soup. We decided together that the fruit might be nicer to eat in something different, so next week we are going to make fruit salad to taste, and to continue to develop the use of tools from this week. 

Investigation Hub

Story of the week: Pumpkin Soup 

Song of the week: 5 Currant Buns 

Discovery Hub

Story of the week: Noisy Farm

Song of the week: Old MacDonald had a Farm 

Parents as partners:

Being involved in helping prepare for mealtimes is a lovely learning experience for young children, and one that can be done at nursery and home.

Setting the table with plates, bowls or spoons can involve counting. 

Children might scoop the dry cereal into their bowl ready for breakfast, or perhaps separate the segments of a satsuma for a snack. 

At nursery, children are encouraged to put any uneaten food from snack time and lunch time into the rubbish pot, and to tidy away their cup and bowl into our snack time basket once they have finished. They show pride in being able to achieve these tasks independently. 

Please note, the nursery at Deckham will be closed for the half term holiday during the week of Monday 27th October – Friday 31st October.  

We wish you all a wonderful weekend and look forward to seeing everyone next week.