Investigation Hub and Discovery Hub at Deckham

We have been so impressed with how well the children are settling into their new key groups and engaging in group activities alongside their peers this week!

As part of our daily routine, the children enjoy a ‘Welcome Time’, where they are greeted by their key person and the other children in their group. They have the opportunity to self-register by finding their disc with their name and photo and adding it to our board. This supports the children’s awareness of themselves as unique individuals, while beginning to understand that writing carries meaning – in this case, their name.

The children then have the opportunity to engage in an open-ended play experience while sharing any news from home. Once we have tidied away, we sing our hello song together. In the Investigation Hub, we also count how many children are present and talk about the day of the week and the weather. In the Discovery Hub, the children enjoy songs, a story or another activity together.

Lastly, the children take part in ‘Planning Time’, choosing where they would like to spend time at nursery that day. Our older children may also begin to plan what they would like to do in their chosen area and which resources they might use.

Welcome Time is a special part of our day, when we gather and enjoy time together as a group. Thank you for ensuring your child arrives on time so they can join us for this valuable part of their nursery day.

This week, the children have continued to have lots of fun exploring the different areas of nursery and becoming increasingly confident in choosing and using the resources available. Some of our group times have focused on exploring what we can do in different areas. The children experimented with using glue sticks to join a range of materials and worked together to create a lovely collaborative piece of art. Our junk-modelling resources have also inspired some wonderfully creative ideas – we were particularly impressed by an amazing robot!

We love seeing how the children’s own ideas and imaginations can take their learning in unexpected directions. While chalking outdoors, a suggestion to ‘draw around my feet’ quickly developed into a trail of footprints. This sparked lots of curiosity – Whose footprints are these? Where do they go? Soon the children were following the trail, jumping, balancing and developing their own ideas through play.

The home corner has also been particularly popular, with children exploring the resources and role-playing familiar experiences, such as caring for babies and preparing food. This imaginative play provides lots of opportunities to develop language and communication.

Outdoors, many of the children have enjoyed digging with spades and trowels. Our digging area provides compost, tools and containers for the children to explore, following their interests while developing their physical skills. The children also love peeking under the artificial grass to see which minibeasts they can find. There was lots of excitement when we discovered plenty of worms there this week!

We have also discovered some new talents over the summer! The children loved singing along to our Song of the Week, Incy Wincy Spider, while Laura accompanied them on the ukulele. As well as being lots of fun, it is lovely for children to see that adults are learners too – we can all practise, develop new skills and enjoy learning something new, whatever our age!

Song of the Week: Incy Wincy Spider

Sign of the Week: Hello

Parents as Partners

Please can we ask all parents and carers to check that all sections of their child’s Famly profile have been fully completed.

Please also remember to check Famly regularly, where we share news, important dates and observations of your child’s learning. You can also add your own observations to show us what your child has been doing and learning outside of nursery. We will share a photo below explaining how to add an observation.

Lastly, if you are messaging on Famly to report an absence or lateness, please send your message to your child’s room (Discovery Hub or Investigation Hub) so that all staff in the room can see and respond. Alternatively, you can add the absence directly on Famly or phone the nursery.

Have a wonderful weekend,

The Nursery Team