This week we have been extremely excited to welcome the Kits back to school. Our returning children have settled back into the nursery routine with ease and we have loved meeting and getting to know our new joiners. It has been a short but fun-filled first week back and the children have been busy developing their fine and gross motor skills with the diggers, tools and water in the Outdoor Learning Environment. The new Kits have also been familiarising themselves with the climbing frame and we have loved sharing in their excitement at successfully climbing to the top for the first time.
During our Focus Times this week we have been discussing the children’s holiday news and it has been lovely finding out about everyones summer adventures. The children’s have also been looking at their ‘Emotion Mats’ and using these to spark conversations about the people close to them. ‘Emotion Mats’ contain photos of their friends and family members and they have loved talking about them with their teachers and peers. The children have also enjoyed helping plant the new plants in the Outdoor Learning Environment, using spades to transfer the soil and learning that the they need water and sunshine to grow.
We have been very excited to welcome Miss Leisa back for Music. We all loved listening to her play the guitar and the children joined in with singing some of their favourite nursery rhymes including ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’, ‘The Wheels on the Bus’ and ‘Wind the Bobbin up’. The children also had a chance to play their own instruments which they loved. They used these to experiment with rhythm, playing slowly and quickly and following a beat. They were also able to develop their listening skills, following Miss Leisa’s instructions to play the instruments loudly and softly.
The children had great fun during Sports this week as they kicked, and threw the balls through the hoops. They extended their play and developed their Maths skills by running around picking up the coloured cones and sorting them into piles by colour.
Our class pet ‘Mr Hamster’ has also returned from the school holidays and the children were very excited to see him again. They have helped to feed him and have been fascinated watching him in his cage. We used the children's fascination to develop their language skills by encouraging them to use describing words about the hamster's appearance and characteristics. They have decided that he looks very "soft and fluffy", "runs quickly" and is "very cheeky".