Week commencing Monday 9th June

The Investigation Hub at Sidney Grove

Characteristics of Effective Learning- Playing and Exploring

As the children have been searching for ladybirds they have noticed lots of cobwebs on the fence. The children wondered why flies were caught in the cobwebs. Susan explained using a book called “The Very Busy Spider”. After sharing the story the children wanted to make their own spiderweb. They had to work together to wrap string around the gazebo to create a web. They used the book as a reference to see how to make the web! There was lots of collaboration and physical skills especially when it came to testing the spider web to see if it worked! They even created a game in which one child was the spider…the spider chased the flies and they were then trapped in the web! The game is called “spider web art… because spiders make beautiful webs with shiny string like web art!’ Next week, we will develop the idea of web art further in the studio.

Parents as Partners

We have been finding out about ladybirds this week! Through sharing core texts and our rhyme we have learned interesting facts. For example, did you know that ladybirds have two sets of wings, hard red wings and soft black wings underneath! We used ladybirds for a maths focus, counting the spots, recording our girls and boys totals with dots on ladybirds and partitioning numbers between the wings. We counted out dots onto ladybirds and then practised number recognition, rolling the dice and whoever matched the number to the total was the winner! These mathematical skills were then reinforced during play…the children used playdough and arts and crafts resources to make their own ladybirds. They counted out dots and legs and some children even began thinking about the symmetry of the wings!

”I have 5 spots on my ladybird!”

”there are 3 on one side and 2 more…it makes 5!”

‘I have two dots on both sides…it’s the same.’

Outside Learning

This week the children have shown interest in using large equipment to create ramps to roll balls, log slices and cars. This requires lots of concentration and problem-solving; it is early STEM in action! When all of the balls had disappeared over the fence the children then had to think of other objects which might roll. They decided to try log slices and cars instead!

In the warmer weather the children are enjoying using water outside. We have explored painting on a Perspex screen, then washing away the paint and using squeegees to clean the windows. This helps to develop both gross and fine-motor skills. Some children enjoyed using sticks to make marks in the paint, which requires even further fine-motor control! Later in the week the focus moved to a more imaginative use of the water with lots of filling and pouring using a variety of containers.

“we need some real life ingredients!”

”you can see the water there! It’s too much! It’s at the top”

“I made a honey milkshake!”

”it’s a water fountain! Tip it! Tip it that way!”

Staff Training

This week, Steven continued his ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant) training. This is a programme which allows teaching assistants to develop individualised support programmes to meet the emotional needs of children in their care.

Just a reminder that on Friday 20th June Nursery will be closed for staff training.

Wishing you a lovely weekend!