2-3 The Discovery Hub 

This week we were amazed to discover how much our cress and sunflower seeds had grown in just one week! 

Our cress was ready to harvest, which the children did using scissors. They also explored the cress through observing, touching and smelling it, and some children chose to taste the cress on a cracker at snack time. 

Some of the observations from the children were:

“Feels soft.”

“It’s like lettuce.”

“It’s got little leaves.”

“Looks like grass.”

“Green.”

Fantastic observations everyone!

Our sunflowers are also growing into very healthy looking plants. We have continued to care for them through watering them as needed using water sprays. The children are developing vocabulary through hearing and naming the parts that we can see including ‘plant’, ‘leaves’ and ‘stem’. We have also continued to use the Makaton sign for ‘grow’ alongside our discussions about the changes from seeds into plants. 

Characteristics of effective learning – playing and exploring 

We have continued to explore plants and flowers this week in different areas of our provision. We provided petals, and leaves for the children to explore at the studio. We noticed that some of the children showed a particular interest in using scissors last week, so we provided scissors at the studio, so that they could cut their own leaves from the branches to include in their creative work. The use of scissors helps to develop fine motor skills, hand strength and hand-eye coordination. 

We have also continued to enjoy lots of scooping, pouring, filling and emptying in the outdoor water tray with coloured water and flowers. The children have used tools and containers of different sizes, developing their awareness of size and capacity through their experimentation and play. This week we had the addition of cake cases, a teapot and jugs following an interest last week in imaginative play around making tea and cakes! 

Outdoor learning 

Outdoors, the children have been experimenting with how different objects slide or roll down a hill. We have used guttering to explore how far and how fast items travel down it, including cars, balls, and even a doll having a slide down! Some children raced their cars down tracks next to each other to see which went the furthest. In the hotter weather, they enjoyed using the guttering to transfer water from one container, down to another. The children also thoroughly enjoyed rolling tyres down a larger hill and noticing some of them went very fast. They even explored sliding down the hill themselves! It is wonderful to see how the children are exploring a concept in so many different ways and following their own fascinations.

We also enjoyed another lovely session of yoga with Fay, on Monday. This week the children tried to hold yoga poses linked to the story ‘We’re going on a Bear Hunt’, continuing to develop their strength, flexibility and balance. Fay finished with some calming bubble time as a familiar end to the session for the children. 

Parents as Partners 

The children are thoroughly enjoying water play at Nursery at the moment. The warmer weather provides an excellent opportunity for experimenting with water play outdoors. It can lead to many opportunities for imaginative play such as making pretend drinks or potions, as well as exploring transferring and transporting, and it can be done with any containers or other resources you happen to have available at home. 

A little reminder that nursery will be closed to all children on Friday 20th June, for staff training. 

Staffing 

We hope everyone has a lovely weekend.