Week Commencing 2nd November 2026

The Nest

This week our main focus has been around Bonfire Night, as we have focused on colour, and sound, providing mark making opportunities around this as well as enhancing our provision with a colourful tray to explore, colourful sensory tiles, a Bonfire Night Treasure basket, an edible Bonfire and a new firework song that we have shared!

Physical Development:

We provided some tin foil and paint brushes for the children to explore and create marks. The children approached the tray, looking at it intently before picking up the paintbrushes in a palmar grasp and moving it to create different brush strokes. Good fine motor control were displayed when the children were dipping their paintbrushes in and out of the paint palettes, before they then purposefully transferred the paint onto the foil, creating a variety of lovely marks and patterns on the reflective surface. In addition to their brushwork, the children engaged in sensory exploration. At several points during the activity, they investigated the texture of the paint by putting it in their mouths. Some of our children chose to use their hands and fingers to explore the paint, actively moving it across the tinfoil. During this sensory experience, they noticed the highly reflective surface of the foil and were immediately drawn to it, examining their reflections through the layers of paint. The children were all so engrossed on what they were doing demonstrating high levels of concentration. This activity provided an excellent opportunity for the children to engage in sensory play, develop their fine motor skills, and explore the concepts of cause, effect, and light reflection.

The children had a lovely time in creating their very own fireworks picture, by using forks and paint. Some children were curious about feeling the paint, which they demonstrated by placing their hands into the paint to feel the texture and then moving their hands around the paper. The children smiled at the marks they created. When holding the forks, the children used a palmer grasp to hold the fork and carefully placed it into the tray noticing the marks they had created. Lots of babble sounds were created to show their contentment during the exploration of the paint.

The children greatly enjoyed our bonfire night themed sensory tray! The tray contained a variety of edible sensory materials such as cooked orange spaghetti to represent the fire and dry Weetabix with some non edible materials like sticks and leaves to link the theme of autumn and bonfire night. Immediately showing curiosity and their eagerness to involve themselves, the children picked up the sticks and Weetabix, taking the Weetabix to their mouths to taste which they really enjoyed as they repeatedly carried out this action – showing their happiness through smile and sounds! While holding the stick in their hands, the children used it to poke and move the spaghetti and to crush up another Weetabix. The slimy texture of the spaghetti proved unpopular with the children with them showing their dislike through facial expression and showing a preference for the crunchy dry weetabix!

Communication and Language:

Following using the tinfoil to paint on, to add another sensory experience, we added coloured pasta stars and paintbrushes to the tray for the children to investigate. This tray sparked lots of curiosity from the children as they watched an adult demonstrate using the paintbrush to move the stars around the foil. With an eagerness to join in, the children each reached out to touch the stars which they felt the texture of beneath their hands or between their fingers. Some children chose to sit in the tray to further explore where they used his hands and the brush to move around the stars. The adults then sprinkled the stars onto the children’s bare foot and spoke “sprinkle, sprinkle, sprinkle” This allowed the children to be experience this texture through their feet, which they were very interested in this, as they stopped what they were doing and looked at the stars being sprinkled on their feet. As the children held the paintbrushes in a palmar grasp and used this to move the stars around the tray, they observed the effects this had on the stars, as they watched them move around. The children then opted to explore moving the stars with their hands, again watching how they moved around as they felt the texture of the hard stars between their hands as well as feeling the cold, painty tinfoil in the bottom of the tray. The children showed great enjoyment from exploring this activity, showing their pleasure through happy babble, eye contact with adults, reaching out towards the adults and big smiles!

Within our environment this week, we have added some light-up sensory shakers which the children have enjoyed exploring – doing so in a range of ways! The children were fascinated by these shakers – even more so when after they saw the lights flash and change colour! The children grasped the shaker with both hands and started shaking it to create different sounds, as well as experimenting with rolling and spinning the shakers, observing how each action produced a sound from the shaker.

We have also added some colourful sensory tiles to our environment this week, that are filled with colourful liquid and feature a range of different bumpy textures for the children to explore with their hands, feet and some children even choosing to add vehicles to push along to explore the texture further.

Parent Partnerships

It has been so lovely to begin our parent consultations with you this week, it is so beneficial to us all to share how well our children are doing at nursery and all the fantastic milestones they achieve.

We have attached the words to our “Sparkly firework” song that we have been sharing with the children this week so that you can share it at home too.

Next week we will be celebrating National Nursery Rhyme week. We really enjoy sharing familiar nursery rhymes within the Nest and we are looking forward to sharing what we get up to next week with you all. Please let us know if your child has any favourite nursery rhymes at home too.

Wishing you a lovely weekend!