Cygnets Nursery 23-24
Recently we have a farm visit from a company called farms2ewe, they came to see us during the school day and set up on part of the school field. We saw a variety of farm animals including goats, chicken, ducks, a cow, a pony and mice. The children loved this experience and were so patient while waiting for their turns to visit the animals. All children were gentle and caring towards the animals and some of us were lucky enough to hold the chicks and brush the pony using their special brushes. One of our favourite animals were the goats and one of the children were lucky enough to have a kid (baby goat) named after them!!
This week we have finished looking at our focus book ‘The very hungry caterpillar’, we are still watching our caterpillars grow in class which are getting bigger and bigger by the day! For sensory play we explored playing with green spaghetti which was shaped into a caterpillar, we then used this to work on our fine motor skills by using tweezers to pick up pieces of spaghetti and then scissors to cut it. We have created our own butterfly’s by using different coloured tissue paper, the children could choose what colours they would like and then using glue stuck it onto the paper. As a class we have discussed the foods the caterpillar ate and then decided which ones were good for us and not so good for us.
As part of spring season we planted sunflower seed on Wednesday morning too, the children loved taking part in this activity and focused well with the instructions that were given. We talked about what the seeds would need to help them grow - sunlight and water. We shall be watering them in class and begin to watch them grow. Once they have sprouted we shall send them home with the children. Wonder who’s will grow the tallest??
Recently in cygnets we took part in world book day, the children came in dressed up as their favourite book characters. We read lots of stories that day, decorated our own book marks and also had a visit from a year 3 class who read to us too.
we have been reading ‘The Gingerbread Man’ story, it’s a firm favourite of ours! We enjoyed creating our own gingerbread men in the garden, we did this by taking turns drawing around ourselves using chalk. We explored printing using cutters and paint. The children were able to join in with their favourite part of the story “run, run as fast as you can, you can’t catch me I’m the gingerbread man!”
1/03/24
We have spent some time strengthening our fine and gross motor skills recently inside and out - climbing and balancing and squeezing and cutting. We have started looking at the book “We’re going on a bear hunt, we explored the texture of the gloopy mud with our feet which was cold, squelchy and sticky and also snow which was cold, soft and fluffy.
9/02/24
We have been very busy in cygnets exploring mixing colours, we chose two colours and painted each hand a different colour and then rubbed our hands together to see what colour they created. We then printed our handprints onto paper. With all the rain recently we have enjoyed jumping in puddles and practising using our gross motor skills by putting our own wellies on.
Exploring the elements - 19/01/24
This week we have been settling new cygnets into class, our older children have been so kind and caring in making them feel happy and welcome.
With the weather turning colder this week, we went and explored the effects the weather had on the garden. The children noticed lots of ice around and some of our toys had become frozen inside the ice and we had to work out different ways to set them free.
Miss Davies kindly donated new toys to cygnets, we have been exploring, sharing and learning new vocabulary while playing with these.
We used different types of media such as paintbrushes, crunched up tin foil and bubble wrap to make our night time pictures.
Recently in Cygnets we have been focusing on Christmas, we were lucky to off had a visit from Father Christmas which the children loved. We have explored lots of different Christmas activities including experimenting and finding out what happens when we added different coloured vinegar using pipettes, we soon found out that it fizzed up like a volcano and changed the colour of the snowman to rainbow colour! We could hear it making a noise when it fizzed up with the children trying to copy the sound of this.
This week in Cygnets we have been focusing on the book ‘Handa’s Surprise’, learning new vocabulary as we go. We have explored many activities linked in with this book such as fruit printing, creating our own fruit baskets practising our scissor skills and also investigating the fruits included in the book such as pineapples, avocados, passion fruit and bananas. We used lots of describing words to explain how they looked, smelt and even tasted such as ‘prickly’, ‘spicy’ and ‘smooth’.
During maths we have been looking at ABAB patterns using compare bears, the children were very focused and proud when they could complete these patterns independently.
We have been looking at the celebration Diwali, we looked at all different patterns we could make using coloured stones and gems and how they were called rangoli patterns and how they use fireworks to celebrate.
During our outside provision we have explored jumping in muddy puddles with our welly boots on, this has been lots of fun! We have also been using our gross motor skills by helping to tidy up the leaves, the children used the small brooms to help. We swept the leaves into a big pile and then scooped them up using our hands to put in the bin.
Superworm
One of our focus books this term has been superworm, with this book we discussed worms habitats. In maths we measured worms using a variety of different objects. We made our own worm habitat to explore using soil and spaghetti worms, we practised our fine motor skills using tweezers to pick the spaghetti worms up.
We have learnt new vocabulary about the worm moves such as slink, twist, wiggle and weave.
Starting Cygnets
So far this term in Cygnets we have welcomed new children to the class who are settling in well. We have enjoyed exploring our environment and getting to know the routine and expectations of the class. We have begun learning how to work together to achieve our goals. During the summer holidays we had a new role play home corner arrive so we have enjoyed exploring this and using our imaginative and creative skills to create a story.