Nursery Planning Archives - Page 7 of 9

November 04, 2016November 04, 2016 by riverside

Babies and Toddlers enjoy all things Autumn!

The Babies and Toddlers have been learning all about the magical season, Autumn.

Over the last few weeks, our youngest members have been discovering Autumn trees, plants and insects. The children spent time outdoors in the nursery garden finding different colours and shapes of leaves to make into a fantastic leaf display. They also got acquainted with some Autumn creepy crawlies by making ladybird paper plates, butterfly handprints and cotton wool caterpillars. The little ones also put their culinary skills in action by making some scrumptious ‘cheesey worms’ (with a little help!).

Of course, it was Halloween on Monday and the babies and toddlers had some especially spooky sensory activities lined up, including pasta play with Halloween shapes and some squishy jelly with spiders, which they loved!

Pop in and see the Babies and Toddlers’ leaf and bug artwork anytime.

The Babies’ Autumn Artwork

September 29, 2016September 29, 2016 by riverside

African Adventures for our Pre-schoolers

Our pre-schoolers have been learning all about Africa.

Our pre-schoolers have helped transform the pre-school room into an African village.

Nestled in one corner is a vibrantly coloured African hut, whilst outside African animals, such as lions, cheetahs, giraffes and elephants roam the savannah – ok, the reading corner!

The children have created wonderful artwork of African scenes for the art board. In the last few days, they’ve been busy making coloured African pots out of papier-mâché.

The children have really enjoyed hearing imaginative stories about native creatures such as ’Milly the Meerkat’, however, one book that has had them all absolutely hooked is a large encyclopaedia all about African animals – bursting with images and animal facts.

As well as playing adding and subtraction games to help the children develop early maths skills, Mary has been working closely with the children on literacy and language.

Alongside matching sounds to words, they’ve been practising writing words beginning with the letter ‘N’.

Next stop on our pre-schoolers’ world tour is Australia, which will start at the end of October.

Our African scenes artwork

Layla and Hendrix hard at work

Drying out time – Our colourful African pots

September 29, 2016September 29, 2016 by riverside

Babies and Toddlers turn Space Rangers!

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No! It’s our super babies and toddlers!

Over the past few weeks, the babies and toddlers have been learning all about outer space.

They’ve made space rockets with their names on, alien head bands – complete with googly eyes on pipe cleaners – and paper plate flying saucers.

The toddler and baby room is brimming with fun space-themed toys to play with, including a large rocket ship with resident green alien. They’ve also been practising their space culinary skills and cooked up some delicious cupcakes decorated with white icing and chocolate stars.
To see the babies’ and toddlers’ fab name rockets and ‘free art’ display – where they have free rein to paint what they like – just ask!

Our space rocket- can you spot the alien?

Our name rockets

A space-tastic flying saucer by Harry S

in Latest News / Nursery Planning 0 comments

September 29, 2016September 29, 2016 by riverside

Boosting our Pre-schoolers’ Literacy Skills

Learn about the work we do with our pre-schoolers to prepare them for school

To prepare our pre-schoolers that will start school in September 2017, Mary spends time each week playing games with the children to develop their phonics and literacy skills. The children also focus on a letter of the week and are asked to sound out and write down (with help) items beginning with that particular letter.

Additionally, if your child starts school next year, you’ll receive a wallet in January with a reading book or puzzle sheet to look at with your child at home.

The idea is to help your little one become familiar with taking books home to read when they start school. Also in the wallet is a reading record. This is so you can write feedback about your child’s reading, for example, what they enjoyed or what they found tricky.

Mary ran the scheme earlier this year with our pre-schoolers and feedback was extremely positive. One parent said how much their daughter’s listening and language skills had improved in the months before starting school.

Examples of the children’s writing skills

in Latest News / Nursery Planning 0 comments

August 15, 2016 by riverside

Caribbean Capers for our Pre-schoolers

Feeling hot, hot, hot! Our pre-schoolers have been exploring the Caribbean ocean and islands.

The pre-schoolers have been having ‘a totally tropical time’ learning all about the Caribbean.
As well as doing crafty activities, such as, making jellyfish, beach scenes, seahorses and octopi, we’ve been learning about what lives in the deep depths of the ocean. The children have also got stuck into making a big art display about the children’s story The Rainbow Fish.

To begin building the children’s maths skills, we’ve been playing the adding and subtraction fish game. Whilst to aid literacy and language development, we’ve been looking at the letters that make up the days of the week, matching sounds to words with phonics games and writing words beginning with the letter ‘O’, such as, ‘Octopus’.

Our pre-schoolers have also been playing simple, fun games such as searching for fish in sparkly water (which involved plenty of splashing!) and a sandcastle building competition in our lovely indoor sandpit.

Continuing our Caribbean theme, we‘re about to start learning about sea-fairing pirates. Watch out for our pirate ship art, treasure maps and sensory trays full of gold! Ahaaaaarr!

: Our under the sea display including our big sparkly rainbow fish and smiley octopus

Our ‘under the sea’ display including big sparkly rainbow fish and smiley octopus

in Latest News / Nursery Planning 0 comments