2-3 The Discovery Hub

The children have continued to notice different bugs, or ‘minibeasts’, in the outdoor area in the last few weeks, including a lot of ladybirds in a tree and spiders in the story area in our side garden. 

This year, the 23rd-29th June is ‘Insect Week’, so a perfect time for us to further build upon the children’s continuing interest in minibeasts! 

We shared the book ‘Butterfly, Butterfly’ together, naming the different minibeasts and noticing what colours they were. 

We provided paint and lots of circle shaped items as a provocation inspired by the ladybirds in the story, which the children have explored printing with. Key vocabulary that has been introduced included; round, dot, spot and circle, as well as language comparing size.

Our sunflower plants are outgrowing their pots, so this week some of the children followed instructions to repot the plants into larger pots. We will continue to observe them as they grow and change. 

Following the children’s interest in scooping pouring, transferring and transporting, this week dried rice was introduced, to develop these skills using a different material. The children enjoyed using scoops, containers, tubes and their hands to explore the rice, demonstrating wonder in the sensory experience of the noise and texture of the rice.

Outdoor learning 

We have been using large chalks to mark make on different surfaces outdoors. Many of the children were ascribing meaning to their marks, and what they chose to draw was often closely linked to their own experiences and interests, for example, “the butterfly from the book”, “a ladybird”, “a rainbow”, “my mam”, “a spider”. 

When the children had finished drawing they had the option to use water with a paintbrush or in a spray bottle to wash away their marks if they wished. The use of the chalks, brushes and spray bottle all help to develop important fine motor skills. 

Characteristics of effective learning – Active learning 

On Wednesday some of our older children enjoyed the new experience of a forest school session. 

The children looked around the forest school area (which is located at nursery) familiarising themselves with the new surroundings and exploring the environment using their senses.

We looked for minibeasts, using spades and rakes to move the leaves and soil on the ground. The children discovered that carefully turning over stones and logs, revealed lots of creatures below! 

“It’s twisting”, observing a worm.

“Spider!”

“A worm…that bit is pink.”

“It’s wiggling.”

“Incy wincy spider.”

They gained first hand experiences in nature, for example, stroking the petals of a flower, and noticing that the cleavers plant (‘sticky jack’) was sticking to our clothes and we had to shake it off! 

Some of the children explored the physical challenge of climbing in the low branches of a tree, demonstrating fantastic confidence. 

We look forward to visiting the forest school area again soon!

Thank you to Fay for delivering another excellent session of yoga for the children on Monday. This week the children explored new movements linked to songs about animals, particularly elephants. The children are becoming familiar with the songs and movements that Fay uses as key songs each week and we can see their confidence in joining in with these songs growing with each session of yoga.

Story of the week: Butterfly, Butterfly

Song of the week: Incy, Wincy Spider 

Sign of the week: Spider 

Parents as partners

‘Sharing a love of books’ – your child has a plastic wallet in which you can take home one of the wonderful books in our basket at the entrance to the room. If you have not yet received your wallet, you will do soon. The books are for you and your child to enjoy together as they turn the pages, talk about the illustrations, learn new vocabulary, share special moments with you and overall develop their love of books! 

Please feel free to swap the book for another, as often as you would like. 

We love to hear about your children’s enjoyment of books and their developing literacy journey. Please share comments with us about any aspects of the experience of sharing a book with you, that your child particularly enjoyed, using the feedback slip of paper in your plastic wallet pack. 

As it is ’Insect Week’, you might like to spend some time together with your child looking for insects in the outdoors, for example, under stones. If you make any discoveries we would love for you to add some photos as a parent observation on Famly, so we can share in your children’s learning experiences outside of nursery! 

Have a lovely weekend.