Investigation Hub and Discovery Hub at Deckham

We have had a lovely first week back after the half-term break! It has been wonderful to welcome everyone back and hear all about the children’s experiences during the holiday. Some children told us about their Halloween celebrations, costumes and trick-or-treating. Thank you to everyone who sent in photographs for us to share with the children and their peers. The photographs provided a lovely opportunity to talk, remember and share special experiences together.

This week, our focus has been on Bonfire Night and fireworks. We have been exploring the colours, patterns, shapes and movements of fireworks through a range of creative materials and techniques.

The children have been busy creating their own representations of fireworks in lots of different ways. At the painting table, we used tubes and printing brushes to make bright, colourful prints on black paper, before adding glitter to create some extra sparkle!

At the playdough table, the children explored a variety of resources, including sparkly pipe cleaners and lolly sticks, using these to create their own imaginative firework designs.

Some children also enjoyed exploring the light box, experimenting with shaped objects and lolly sticks to create interesting firework patterns and arrangements.

This week, we made and explored gloop. During welcome time, the children helped to prepare this material using cornflour and water. Gloop has some fascinating properties as it behaves like both a liquid and a solid, providing lots of opportunities for curiosity and discovery.

We added powder paints to our large tray of gloop, and the children explored its properties using both their hands and a variety of tools.

There were lots of interesting observations and discoveries along the way. The children noticed that the gloop could be challenging to scrape from the tray, yet when lifted, it created wonderful drips as it slowly fell back down. Some children were particularly interested in making large drips and stood up to try to create the longest drips they could!

Others explored the gloop through large, sweeping movements, moving their whole bodies backwards and forwards to create long marks and patterns across the tray.

This was a great opportunity for hands-on exploration. The children were able to investigate texture, movement and change, develop their physical coordination and explore cause and effect through their play.

We have continued to develop the children’s physical skills through firework-inspired scarf movements to ‘Firework’ by Katy Perry. The children explored up-and-down movements, side-to-side sweeps, diagonal lines, big and small circles, and rainbow arches, developing coordination and control to support early mark-making. We also used the scarves and movements to act out our core song, ‘5 Little Fireworks’, counting the fireworks one at a time and matching quantities to numerals.

Sharing our floorbooks is now a regular part of our week, and the children love looking back through them together. Through photographs, their words and examples of their work, the books celebrate the children’s experiences and learning journeys. The children take real pride in spotting their contributions and sharing these with their friends. These conversations support communication and language as the children recall experiences, explain their ideas and reflect on their learning.

Story of the week: The Enormous Turnip

Song of the week: 5 Little Fireworks

Sign of the week: Coat

Parents as Partners

A big thank you to everyone who attended our parent consultations. It was lovely to have the opportunity to share your child’s learning, development and achievements, both at nursery and at home. These conversations are so valuable in helping us celebrate each child’s progress, share observations and work together to identify their next steps for learning and development. We really appreciate your continued support and partnership.

Next week is Nursery Rhyme Week, and we are looking forward to sharing lots of our favourite rhymes together! Nursery rhymes provide wonderful opportunities for developing language, listening skills, rhythm and early literacy, as well as being lots of fun! If your child has a favourite nursery rhyme, please do let their key person know so that we can include it in our group times and enjoy singing it together.

Lastly, we are missing a black Berghaus hat. Please could you check if your child has accidentally brought it home.

With many thanks,

The Nursery Team