Wet Weather

The wet weather has never stopped the children in Reception wanting to use our outdoor area and this week and last has been no exception. The children have started to explore colour mixing and we decided to use the puddles as our palette. We added powder paint to change the colour of the puddles and the children predicted what colour the water would turn when we mixed the paints together.

 

Recently Mr Webb fixed some water butts to the drain pipes to try and improve the amount of flooding we have in the outdoor area. With the water butts filling up fast, the children were very helpful in emptying them regularly.

Lastly the water has been very useful for making potions! The boys decided to add mud to the water every time they cast a spell, resulting in a very muddy bowl!

Sometimes the best thing to do after it has been raining, is just to jump in muddy puddles!

From Mark Maker To Writer

Last week the teachers from all the Early Years classes were lucky enough to attend a really inspiring training course focusing on how to best support children on their journey from being a mark maker to a writer.

The course was led by Alistair Bryce Clegg who is a former Early Years teacher and Headteacher who now travels the country offering training and workshops.

We all came back enthusiastic and inspired. It was great to know that so many of the things we discussed during the course are things we already do at Hazelmere but as always there were plenty of new ideas to try especially to help engage some of the less eager writers in our classes.

We already have some time focusing on fine motor skills but we are looking forward to introducing a regular "Funky Fingers" slot alongside "Dough Gym." These sessions aim to improve both strength and dexterity and are planned to target the specific needs of the children involved so that they are working the right muscles for their stage of development.

I am sire there will be lots of exciting new activities and developments and after an unforgettable demonstration of "Jedi Writing" I suspect that might find it's way into the Reception approach to handwriting as well!

Space Activities in Nursery

Some of the children have shown a real interest in space and we decided to follow these interests and spend some time exploring this theme.

We used old bottles, packets, tubes and boxes to make rockets. The children tried lots of new ways to work on models joining pieces together using tape, glue sticks and wet glue as well as cutting pieces to change their shape or size.

When the models were finished they chose different colours to paint their rockets.

As a school we are celebrating our 50th anniversary and we wanted the corridors to reflect the events of the past 50 years. Knowing how interested the children were in space I asked if we could be involved in the display area covering the 1960s so we could link our space activities to the 1969 moon landing.

If our display was going to feature rockets on their way to the moon it seemed fairly important that we also have a moon to land on! Mr Webb helped us by cutting out a piece of MDF which we used to make our moon. The children used rolled up newspaper and masking tape to make craters on the moon. Rolling the paper was tricky but they soon got the hang of it.


Once the paper craters were stuck on the moon we covered it all in Mod Roc. Tia said "They are like bandages for when you hurt your finger!" We dipped the plater infused bandages in water and spread them on covering the surface of our moon. Finally we added white and grey paint to the moon surface.



In the garden the children enjoyed chalking rockets onto the pavement. Some of them lay down and asked Miss Marven to "draw a space suit on them" We took photos of this and printed them out on the colour copier to make astronauts on our moon.

Nicole and Charlie spent a long time making aliens out of some construction pieces. "These aliens live on the moon" said Nicole. Other children came to join them and soon we had a whole herd of aliens (I'm not really sure what you call a group of aliens!!)

The children had been using their imagination to come up with lots of interesting ideas but we thought it would be really exciting to watch footage of a rocket launch. Logan noticed that "the numbers go counting backwards" and we all joined in with 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0!

When we watched the footage of a space walk Tiffany laughed and said "They are bouncing!" In our role play children enjoyed dressing up ni the astronaut costume and bouncing around.

For our messy play we enjoyed lots of different activities including slime and glimmer sand. The slime had a really interesting texture, Alfie said it felt "cold and sticky and like a banana."

Using the shapes we were able to make rocket pictures by placing the shapes in different arrangements, Ruby added the moon and said "The moon is a yellow circle"

Our display looks really exciting. Last week some visitors came to look round our school and lots of them commented on how interesting and exciting the displays were. We are very proud of our space display as it shows people some of the fun things we do in Nursery.

Birthdays Week in Reception

This week we have been exploring birthdays. Children have been learning about how everyone has a birthday and which month they were born in. We have also looked at what might happen on our birthdays and the children were very keen to practise some of these traditions in the classroom.

Our Role Play Area has been turned into a birthday party, where children have been blowing out candles, singing songs and opening presents.

 
 One of the children talked about how when we have a birthday, we sometimes have special food and a special breakfast. Eggs were the children's favourite birthday breakfast food!

Children also felt that cakes were another important birthday food and this has become the main theme of our playdough activities.

 

Children have been grasping the concept that numbers represent a quantity, so one activity they took part in was filling the gift bags with the correct amount of sweets.

We wrapped presents which was a brilliant way to practise our fine motor skills.

Last but not at all the least, we made a birthday display where children could look to see which month they were born in. We learned a new skill of collaging, which children have been very eager to practise during their play.

If your children have talked about the birthday activities at home, please put their comments on the blog or Tapestry!

Messy Play Monday - Firework Fun

 Well this week is fireworks night and I wanted to share some firework messy play.

One of my favourite activities was an awesome suggestion from Miss Marven; creating fireworks sound effects in our messy tray by using popping candy with the water tray! This adds a different sensory element and really changes things up a little for the children encouraging them to listen and focus in on sounds they can hear which links in well with our Letters and Sounds phase 1 activities in Nursery.

This next idea is great for developing strength and dexterity and encouraging mark making. It is also the messy play that is not actually messy! Take a pot of supermarket own brand hair gel (I used one from Tesco which cost 15p but of course most supermarkets have their own branded goods which are equally good value)

Mix a little black paint into the gel in the pot then tip the whole lot into a zip lock bag (find these either in stationery shops or freezer bag aisle!) Zip the bag and tape it shut.

Lay some shiny or glittery paper underneath the bag and stick your bag to the table over the shiny paper (use masking tape or blu tac)

Smooth the gel out in the bag and you have a dark night sky. Now encourage your child to draw fireworks in the sky with their fingers. As they "draw" the paint and gel will be pushed aside and they will reveal the shiny glittery colours on the paper underneath. (The photo below didn't quite capture the glittery colours but you can get the general idea!)

In our Reception classes the children enjoyed a firework themed messy play which combined washing up liquid in a black tray which was then sprinkled with glitter.The glitter sticks to the washing up liquid and the children were able to create beautiful swirling patterns while developing some wonderful firework vocabulary using words like Explode, Whizz, Bang, Boom, Crash and Scream!