Investigation Hub and Discovery Hub at Deckham

Outdoor learning

The children have thoroughly enjoyed exploring the equipment in our outdoor area, including our new water tray and mud kitchen. At the mud kitchen the children have experimented with using mud, leaves and a range of natural resources, including log slices and pinecones, alongside kitchen utensils and other equipment. They have explored transporting the resources and developing their imaginative play and language, sometimes in collaboration with other children. We have observed the children representing familiar experiences through their play, for example, using resources imaginatively to represent other things such as pretending to cook a ‘pizza’ using leaves. 

A continuing favourite activity with many of the children is digging and hunting for minibeasts. The children have been searching underneath the logs and in our digging plot to see what they can discover. This week they have uncovered woodlice, centipedes and worms. In response to the interest of these children, Laura has been developing a wormery with them. The children helped to layer sand and soil. Now the worms have been put in, we will be able to observe and see if we can notice where the worms have been moving! 

The children have been supported to continue to develop skills at the creative area this week, such as selecting from materials, considering how they will join them, and using glue sticks and scissors. We have provided a range of materials to choose from, including some straw and sticks; objects which we learned about when listening to the story of ‘The Three Little Pigs’. 

When playing with props from ‘The Three Little Pigs’ story at the reading area, some of the Investigation Hub children were able to use phrases and actions from the story to recall key events. We observed some super storytelling!

In the sensory hub area, the children have explored mark making in different materials, enjoying the tactile experience of creating marks.

The children who joined nursery this term have been displaying their growing confidence in exploring different areas within the indoor and outdoor environment  and developing their relationships with staff and other children. Well done to you all! 

Investigation Hub story of the week: A Squash and a Squeeze

Discovery Hub story of the week: Dear Zoo /  Oh Dear 

Song of the week: Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes 

Signs of the week: ‘Look’ and ‘Listen’

Parents as Partners

The children have enjoyed carrying out the actions to our song of the week ‘Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’. They have had fun singing it a little bit faster and trying to carry out all the actions in the right order! Here is a link to a video of this song, if you would like to enjoy singing and dancing along to it together at home.

If you are able to, please can you bring a pair of wellies to nursery for your child, that they can keep here. Please can you put their name inside. We enjoy lots of outdoor play and currently it can be quite wet and muddy! Please don’t worry if you are not able to provide any, we do have a few pairs at nursery too.

We hope you have a wonderful weekend and look forward to seeing everyone next week.