We read the story Owl Babies and then used our creativity and fine motor skills to make our own owls. The children explored colour mixing by experimenting with different combinations of paint to create a variety of feather shades. We also enhanced our continuous provision with soft owl toys, feathers, sticks, and lollipop sticks to encourage open-ended learning opportunities.
The children confidently shared their knowledge about owls, saying, “They make nests out of sticks,” “They live in trees,” and “They sleep in the day.” They also practised making owl sounds and learned that a baby owl is called an owlet.

Today’s music session began with our “Hello Song.” The children used different body parts to say hello – winking, waving and smiling while Mrs White played the ukulele. Afterwards, they had the opportunity to explore the strings and experiment with the sounds themselves.

Next, the children moved their hands from left to right to the beat as they sang “Good Morning Everyone,” exploring high and low pitch by moving their hands up high and down low with the words.

The focus of today’s session was understanding ABA structure through Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. We identified:

A – “Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are”

B – “Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky”

A – “Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are”

The children used side-to-side hand movements for the A sections and up-and-down movements for the B section to help them recognise the different parts of the song.

We then sang “Shakers Dancing Everywhere”— near the ground and in the air. The children responded enthusiastically to instructions such as quiet, loud, fast and slow, adjusting how they shook their instruments.

Finally, the children listened to Run, Run!, a piece of music about a cat and mouse. They imagined the mouse waking and dancing around, nibbling and scurrying, before the cat woke, stretched and drifted back to sleep. Then acted out the mouse and the cat by tuning in to the music as it changed from the mouse to the cat.

We had bubble and balloon fun this afternoon. The children used their gross motor skills to reach high or low to pop the bubbles, which helps to develop core strength and balance.
We played balloon keepy uppy, keeping the balloon in the air which is great for hand-eye coordination, overhead reaching and spatial awareness. Then finally a game of pass the balloon (overhead) really stretching our core and testing our balance.

This afternoon, we explored floating and sinking. The children all chose objects they wanted to test to see if they would float or sink. They had a go at making predictions, which items would float and which would sink. Well done to all the children.

Some of the children explored mark making by texture using forks to paint a polar bear. They experimented with different strokes and patterns, developing fine motor skills and control.  Then added the polar bears facial features using newspaper shapes and black card. 

A lovely activity using a combination of paint and collage.

Thank you all so much for coming to watch nursery’s Christmas performance. We are incredibly proud of the children, they were all absolutely amazing.
A big thank you for all your support at home learning and practising the songs.
Have a wonderful weekend 🎄✨

A big thank you to Chris who ran our Forest School Session this afternoon. The children loved exploring the area, learning about rainwater harvesting (with the parachute tarp and water butt), den building and observed how to safely light a fire. At the end of the session, the children enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate and a biscuit.

Just to add, the children are a credit to the parents – they showed exceptional listening skills and followed adult instructions at all times. They really demonstrated how adaptable they are and what fantastic outdoor learners they are. We are very proud of them 🍁

Exploring clay – patting to flatten, rolling, manipulating to create something special ⭐