A particular interest this week has been our threading activity. The children have been learning how to feed the thread into the threading pens then make patterns on the boards.
This has been great for fine motor skill development, focus and concentration and threading helps develop fundamental finger dexterity. It also helps improve writing and drawing skills.

This week, the children took part in deep sea yoga, they learnt a starfish pose, crab pose, clownfish pose, a jellyfish pose, a seahorse pose and a penguin pose. We also learnt facts along the way about marine life and their adaptations such as starfish can grow back limbs if they lose them, a crab’s shell protects them and keeps them safe.

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This week, the children made pancakes 🥞 They were all amazing, waiting patiently for their turn and using their listening ears. The children enjoyed eating pancakes in the afternoon at snack time.

We have some very musical children in nursery 🎵 Instruments are great for fine motor skills and for sound development.

The children loved our obstacle course in the sunshine ☀️ They navigated the course using a variety of skills….weaving in and out of cones, balancing on stepping stones, crawling through a tunnel, climbing over the climbing walls and jumping and hopping through hoops. The children were absolute stars 🌟

This morning, our little explorers used their looking eyes (and magnifying glasses) and went searching for different types of print around our school. They found books, leaflets, their own name labels linked to their work, countries on a globe, logos, lettering on displays, a thank you card, we showed the children the our staff register – we write our name and the time we arrive at school each morning.

On our way back into the classroom, we talked about those who are vision impaired or blind and use braille – the children felt the braille print on our door which says ‘Early Years’.

The children were respectful walking around the school (whilst the older children were in their classrooms working), listening to the adults, making sure they walked with their partner and also took great care of their magnifying glass. Well done Acorns!

Yesterday afternoon, we talked about how stories have a beginning, middle and end then the children sat together and created their own simple story. The characters in the story were O——, W—— and F——, there was a sheep, a T Rex and a monkey.

With support, the children retold the story and we recorded it on talking tins (voice recording devices) which allow you to playback your own voice. The children then listened to their story – one talking tin had the beginning of the story, the next – the middle part and the third talking tin had the end of the story recorded.

The children were amazing during this adult led activity, they enjoyed sharing their own ideas, listening to their friends ideas and were so creative! There were endless possibilities of how the story could’ve developed which is what made it so much fun!

This afternoon, some of the children made Chinese lanterns as Chinese New Year begins on the 29th of January. They listened with interest when we talked about red decorations and lanterns being put up in peoples home to celebrate.

Earlier in the day we listened to a story read by an older child online called ‘Dim Sum for Everyone’ about a family who go to a dim sum restaurant and eat some of their favourite foods. They chose little dishes from trolleys filled with dumplings, cakes, buns – everyone shared and had a bit of everything (which is tradition).

This week, the children have really enjoyed the story of ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’. They acted out the story; starting out as a tiny egg, munching leaves – growing bigger and bigger, making a cocoon / chrysalis and changing into a beautiful butterfly. The children sequenced the story, learnt some new songs ‘There’s a tiny caterpillar on a leaf – wiggle wiggle’ and ‘Two little caterpillars sitting on a leaf’ and have been creative making caterpillars and leaves for our display.