The Nest/ The Den:

We have had a busy, fun filled week as we explore a wide range of activities related to Halloween!

Characteristics of effective learning:

This week, our sensory exploration featured a vibrant tray of orange shredded paper, filled with hidden pumpkins and spiders. The children eagerly dived in, immersing their hands and arms beneath the paper to explore the texture between their fingers. As they dug deeper, their curiosity was sparked by the discovery of the hidden spiders and pumpkins, which they proudly held out to share with the adults.

Our children demonstrate a curiosity around posting and placing objects through holes, tunnels, and tubes. This week we carved some round holes into a pumpkin and provided some balls alongside to encourage the children to post the balls through the holes in the pumpkin. The children watched as the staff demonstrated posting the ball through the holes. “In there” an adult spoke as they posted their ball. Upon watching, the children then lean forward to post their own balls through the hole. Further curiosity and interest was shown as the children touch the top of the pumpkin, feeling it with their hands and some of them taking it to their mouths to taste, the children demonstrated their uncertainty around this texture through facial expressions.

As many of our children have been to the pumpkin patch with their families this autumn, we have created our own taste safe pumpkin patch, where the children have enjoyed exploring soil and pumpkins. The soil was totally edible made out of cocoa powder, flour and oil to create a mud like texture.

The children used both hands to explore the soil and placed it into their mouths. “Mmmm” they spoke enjoying the taste and texture. The children grasped handfuls of the soil and placed it on top of the pumpkins, then spent some time squeezing the soil between his fingers, watching it sprinkle back into the tray. “Wow” was spoken by another children who was so engrossed in the texture, running their hands through it. As adults sprinkled the soil, back into the tray, the children reached up to grasp the soil, showing a great sense of achievement as they grabbed some. This activity had the children fully engaged as they spent a considerable amount of time exploring the soil and pumpkins. There was some lovely interactions observed between the children with lots of excitable babble sounds and sharing of the resources.

We have explored edible paint using yoghurt and food colouring with pumpkins and squashes. The children thoroughly enjoyed getting involved. They showed no hesitation and curiosity took over. The children grasped the paint brush using their whole hand grasp and looked at in so intently. Also they experiment with dipping the paint brush into the yoghurt which they took to their mouth to taste. The children showed good control in creating marks on the pumpkin, moving the paint brush to create different strokes. The children were incredibly engaged throughout this activity, showing lots of focus, movements and exploration. The children showed awareness of one another as they looked to each other while exploring, inviting each other into their exploration as they babbled together and exchanged facial expressions.

We also created a gloop sensory tray containing a range of bugs! The children were really excited to come over and explore. The placed their hands into tray and began feeling the texture if the gloop, picking up handfuls and looking at it closely in their hands. We added some metal spoons so the children could use them to scoop the gloop and watch it fall from a height. They were very intrigued by the bugs, looking at them curiously in the tray. We labelled the bugs and some of the children made attempts to repeat the language.

Staffing updates:

It is Emily’s last day at Bensham Grove today. She has made such an impact throughout her 5 years here, working across all age ranges. We wish her all the best in her new role as a SEN TA at Ceaders Academy.

Laney is on annual leave Monday, Chloe is on annual leave Thursday.

From next week, Rachel will be working on a Thursday as well as her usual 3 days.

Parent partnerships:

In the upcoming weeks, staff will be in touch to arrange parent consultations. This will be a short meeting with your child’s key person, discussing how your child is doing at nursery and their amazing progress. We will be in touch to discuss a time that is most convenient to you.