2-3: The Discovery Hub

The children have been very engaged within the nursery explorations this week as we continued learning and observing the growth from seeds to flowers.

Playing and Exploring

Throughout the week the children have explored creating their own flowers. In the playdough the children have explore manipulating the playdough with their hands to make a ball before proceeding to add their decorations. The children explored using sticks for the “stem” and added the “leaves”.

In the sticking area, the children had the opportunity to use the doilies to create a flower. They explored selecting different colour tissue paper to use as “petals”. Some of the children noticed they needed to add something so their flower could stand up. As we added pipe cleaners, the children tested out ways to join the materials as the glue would not work. With support from staff, the children explored using tape to join the materials.

In the painting area, the children explored using the flowers in the paint and then printed the flowers onto the paper. The children explored mixing the colours together to create “rainbow” flowers.

Communication and Language

Our core book this week has been ‘Sam plants a Sunflower’ and the children have explored many opportunities linked with flowers. While reading the book the children have been able to describe the changes of the flower’s growth. We explored introducing language such as “seeds” “soil” and “sunflower”. Looking at the images the children have begun to describe what they could see such as “wiggly worm”, “ladybird”, “dig a hole” and “growing bigger”.

Outdoor Learning

During outdoor play, the children discovered a small centipede crawling along the pavement. The centipede was carefully placed in a bowl so that the children could observe it safely. The children showed curiosity and interest. They maintained distance while following its movements around the bowl and discussing what they could see. We then carefully placed the centipede in the bushes to keep safe. We will be continuing to explore minibeasts further over the next few weeks.

Mark making in the garden continues to be a large interest with the children. We explored creating marks on the chalkboards and tuff trays. The children created exploratory marks and showed great pride in their achievements commenting “tah dah”. Some of the children are beginning to copy staff’s language as they mark marks such as “cross” and “up and down” and “round and round”. These exploratory marks have a huge part in children’s mark making development as these serve as the foundational stepping stones for early writing, develops fine and gross motor skills.

Parents as Partners

It has been lovely to see the children growing with their independence this week as they explore getting themselves dressed with aprons, jumpers, waterproofs and coats! We have some items of lost property in the room. Please feel free to have a look, any unclaimed items by next week will be washed and placed into the spare clothes boxes.

Next week we will be continuing our focus on the way we all ‘Belong’ at Bensham Grove Nursery School in support of Refugee Week 2026 and we have a very special visitor coming. Thank you to all parents who have completed and returned their ‘Belong at Bensham ‘ posters. If you would like to bring yours back to be added to the collection, please can you make sure you sign the back of the poster. 

Our next Stay and Play will be on Thursday 2nd July 10.30-11.30am & 1-2pm. There will be a sign-up sheet to follow.

We have a staff training day Friday 26th June 2026, nursery will be closed to all children.

Many thanks

Nursery Team