Investigation Hub and Discovery Hub at Deckham

Last week some of the Investigation Hub children initiated imaginative role-play around the theme of “treasure”, so this week we explored this further during group time and within play. We read and enjoyed the story, ‘The Night Pirates’. We then looked at the symbols, words and pictures on a treasure map and tried to decipher what they could mean. We followed the map to find a little chest of treasure. Some of the children chose to make their own maps, and others asked to make pirate hats. 

The children shared ideas and used vocabulary that showed the breadth of their prior experiences around this theme. 

“Pirates say, arr shiver me timbers.”

“That is X marks the spot. That’s where the treasure will be.”

“That’s a pirate ship.” 

With the start of Spring, we brought some of the outdoors in! At the painting area the children enjoyed having some beautiful daffodils as their inspiration this week and explored creating marks and pictures using colours inspired by the flowers. 

This week the children have been enjoying our story of the week, ‘The Three Billy Goats Gruff’. They loved joining in with the repeated phrases and bringing the story to life, using a range of props including puppets. It was wonderful to see the children becoming so engaged and confident in retelling parts of the story. 

We explored the story a little deeper by investigating the key vocabulary, ‘big, medium and small’. The children were incredibly independent when sorting their own sets of three different objects according to their size. The children gave some great answers when asked, “Why have you put that there?”, showing they were thinking carefully about size and comparing objects. We heard lots of lovely mathematical language as the children talked about which objects were bigger or smaller.

During group time, the children also continued to build their early literacy skills by exploring alliteration – this is when words start with the same sound, such as silly snake or busy bee. With the help of some of our special friends, Danny Dinosaur and Bella Bear, the children had great fun practising lots of tongue twisters and listening carefully for the repeating sounds in words.

Sensory Hub

In the Sensory Hub, we have been looking at developing our fine motor skills by exploring different resources. The children have been mark making with chalk and using the squeezy bottles to squeeze the water out. They have also been transferring water into different containers by filling, emptying and pouring, as well as using spoons and their hands to move the water between containers.

This has also given the children an opportunity to develop their imaginative play, with some lovely language being used such as “making dinner” and “cup of tea”.

Investigation Hub story of the week: The Three Billy Goats Gruff 

Discovery Hub story of the week: The Gruffalo 

Song of the week: Row, row, row your boat 

Sign of the week: Walk 

Parents as Partners 

Diary dates:

-Spring consultation meetings will be held the week commencing 23rd March. Please look out for sign up sheets and choose a time for an appointment. 

-Our spring ‘Stay and Play’ sessions will be held on Wednesday 1st April. There will be one in the morning from 11am-12pm and one in the afternoon from 1pm-2pm. Parents of children who attend nursery all day may come to either one. This will be a lovely opportunity for you to enjoy some activities with your child in nursery. Sign up sheets for these will be available soon.