Investigation Hub and Discovery Hub at Deckham

This week some of the lavender from the sensory garden at the side of the nursery was harvested, and we were able to explore it using our senses, including looking at the colours, smelling the fragrance and seeing what it felt like. We have been using this beautiful natural resource within much of our play this week, as the children experienced playing with fragranced lavender water in our indoor water tray, crushing the flowers into play dough, and using it in their work with clay.

Clay has been the material which the children have worked with in our outdoor tray this week. The children used leaves, flowers and tools such as small wooden hammers. Some children discovered they could create prints and patterns within the clay. Others created representations of objects, for example, animals, pancakes and a snowman! However, importantly, clay is one of many resources we use which offer an opportunity for children to experience an open-ended material, without any expectation that they need to create an end product. The children can explore the texture, weight, smell and properties of the clay and develop their own ideas through hands-on, process-led investigation.

Clay is firmer, heavier and more resistant than playdough, meaning children need to use extra strength and control when shaping it. This gives children valuable opportunities to develop hand and finger strength, coordination and control.

We have enjoyed our core story, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, this week and have built upon our understanding of the story vocabulary through first-hand experiences, including playing with porridge oats and wooden bowls and spoons of different sizes, small world play with the characters, and making and tasting our own porridge.

We also made some more porridge for the Three Bears this week! The children listened carefully and followed the recipe together, helping to measure, mix and prepare the porridge. We talked about the ingredients and noticed how they changed as we cooked them.

At snack time, the children were invited to taste the porridge, with some choosing to try it with mashed banana. We were so impressed by how willing the children were to have a taste — nearly everyone gave it a try, and we even had some empty bowls!

Story of the week: Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Song of the week: Wind the Bobbin Up

Sign of the week: Bear

Parents as Partners

The Investigation Hub children have been playing games this week focussing upon identifying different environmental sounds, for example, the sound of someone drinking through a straw, or of an alarm clock. A nice and simple activity that you can do with all of your children is to have a ‘sound walk’. While you are out walking with your child, talk about all the different sounds you can hear (the wind rustling the leaves in the trees, car engines, birds singing, a baby babbling etc). What sounds can your child notice?

Have a wonderful weekend,

The Nursery Team