Investigation Hub and Discovery Hub at Deckham

This week we have been reading stories about minibeasts. 

After looking at some photographs of minibeasts, the Investigation Hub children drew their own pictures, thinking about the patterns on their bodies, for example spotty ladybirds or stripy bees. 

They also used playdough to create worms and then compared the length of the worms they had created, including starting to use cubes to measure how long the worms were. We used comparative language such as ‘shorter’ and ‘longer’. 

The Discovery Hub children have enjoyed playing with instruments. They practised their listening skills by shaking instruments and stopping when an adult gave instructions. They explored different ways of using the instruments, for example shaking them slowly, quickly, quietly and loudly. They also played their instruments along to familiar nursery rhymes. 

On Wednesday, we had a visit from Joanne from Gateshead Libraries. Our older children enjoyed a story time with Joanne, and she brought Bookstart packs for all the children in Nursery to take home and enjoy with you. Shared reading is a lovely activity to do with your child. It can support their language and literacy development and help to promote a love of stories and books in our children from a young age. We hope that you all enjoy the Bookstart packs. 

One of our group times focussed on a guessing game where children listened carefully to clues about different minibeasts. There was lots of thoughtful “risk-taking” as children made predictions about which insect it might be. After careful observations, there were some excellent contributions including features such as the number of legs. “This one has 6 legs!” and “This one has 6 legs too!” The children also demonstrated excellent turn-taking skills and patience while waiting for their opportunity to share their thoughts.

We also explored subitising this week, which is the ability to recognise how many objects there are without counting them one by one. This is an important early maths skill as it supports children’s number sense, mental calculation and confidence with numbers. We explored this using a range of representations including dice, finger patterns and arrangements of natural objects. The children were encouraged to say how many they could see straight away. You could support this at home by playing simple games using dice, dominoes or everyday objects, encouraging your child to “see” the amount without counting.

We welcomed another teacher from our feeder school, who spent time in Nursery meeting some of our children who will be moving on in their educational journeys. This is a valuable way to help prepare children for transition and the next steps in their learning. We will continue to support and prepare all children as they move forward with confidence.

The Sensory Hub

This week in the Sensory Hub, the children have thoroughly enjoyed reading The Three Little Pigs. They demonstrated excellent listening skills and enthusiastically joined in with the story. We also used puppets to retell the traditional tale. The children were amazing!

Parents as partners 

Next week is our final week of this half term. Nursery will close from Monday 25th – Friday 29th May, and will reopen on Monday 1st June.

Have a wonderful weekend.