Phonics:
Our initial sound in phonics this week has been ‘b’. Whilst playing the game ‘What’s in the box?’, the children were able to identify the words; bird, bear, ball, and bus all beginning with the initial sound. We later moved on to ‘blend from the box’. We looked at blending phonemes to make the words; book, bird, bus, and bag. The children were asked to find objects around the nursery environment to add to our phonics table beginning with the same initial sound. One child suggested putting their friend on the table as their name begins with the sound ‘b’ to which many children replied by laughing. Throughout the week, the table has grown with bags from our role play area as well as books and the colour blue.
Literacy:
We introduced the theme of Easter this week with a story called ‘We’re Going on an Egg Hunt’ written by Martha Mumford and Laura Hughes. The class has found this book enjoyable, getting excited when opening the flaps in the book to reveal an Easter egg. After introducing the book, Easter eggs were hidden around our outside area for the children to find and they found them really quickly! Looking up high, under, and behind the equipment, they managed to find all 20 eggs in less than a few minutes! As the week continued the children have been engaging in repeated refrains with the story, joining in with the words as it is being read, as well as creating actions to join in too. Everyone found it funny when they were asked to act out characters from the book including; ‘lambs’, ‘bees, ‘chicks’, and ‘ducks’, either waddling, chirping, or buzzing around the room. Our tuff tray this week has been influenced by our story of the week, using Easter shredded paper to hide Easter Eggs, straw with chicks and nests, and the opportunity to decorate our own Easter egg template.
Maths:
This week we have looked at patterns. We started the carpet sessions by talking about a variety of different patterns and what they could look like. The children were exposed to new vocabulary such as ‘polka dot’, ‘stripey’, and ‘zig-zag’. This week’s favourite session was when we carried out our maths session outside. Using resources around us, we created many other patterns including coloured hoops and tyres. The children loved participating in this and learning how to correct the pattern if it was in the wrong order. Towards the end of the week, the sessions continued inside as we used the interactive whiteboard to finish a pattern on an Easter egg template and took turns creating our patterns using actions. One child suggested ‘How about clap, stamp, clap, stamp’ as well as ‘We could stamp and jump’. Everyone got involved in the actions and learned that a pattern is when the sequence is repeated.
Enhanced provision:
Forest School this week was a spring hunt! The children were given checklists and taken on a tour towards Forest School, around and beyond to see if they could tick off the signs of spring. Many daffodils were seen on our hunt, as well as flowers but the trickiest was finding a tree with blossom. After looking all around, we found the tree covered in blossoms in the school orchard.
The week has ended with making Easter chocolate nests! As much fun as it was, the activity was an opportunity to talk about changes in properties. We spoke about having to melt chocolate and how we could do this. Watching the chocolate change in front of our eyes, the children were exposed to descriptive language such as ‘gloppy’, ‘runny’, ‘smooth’, and ‘shiny’. Taking it in turns to mix and stir the cereal to cover it in the chocolate, the children carefully spooned the mixture into their case to set in the fridge before the best part – eating them!
Easter cards were created this week, featuring a bunny which the children were encouraged to do independently, looking at an example to see if they could make marks that resembled and represented their interpretation of a bunny. Lots of effort was shown, adding whiskers and a smile to their card as well as attempting to write their names inside.
Child’s voice:
‘This week I have enjoyed’…
“Making chocolate nests” – B.F
Update:
Nursery will be getting a makeover during the Easter holidays and therefore may look a little different when returning on Wednesday 23rd April. However, the welcoming faces will still be here to hear all about your break and all the fun everyone has had.
We wish all our families a very happy Easter.
