2021/22

Sports Week!!

What a busy week we have had for Sports week.  We have been lucky to try out all kinds of sports from running races, rugby, ball skills, yoga, dancing and much more.  We enjoyed using our physical skills to run, jump, balance, throw and catch.  

We were lucky to have some of the older children in KS1 design and build obstacle courses for us too, this was really fun!!

Emergency and Construction

Over the last 2 weeks we have been looking at Emergency vehicles and Construction vehicles. It's been very busy!

First we discussed what Emergency vehicles we knew, the children were very lively throughout this.  They spoke about Police, Ambulance and Fire as well as the life boats and a recovery truck.  Some knew who drove these and what they might do to help us.

We made a junk modelling fire truck and built a Fire truck in the garden.  We had dress up Drs to, who worked very hard to help the poorly children get better and even managed to make some sick dinosaurs feel better!!

During construction week we have discussed what the large construction vehicles are used for, how they managed to move such heavy loads and roughly how big they are! The children were amazed about how big the wheels were, some where bigger than ourselves!! We have had diggers in the sand, had a digger wash in the water tray an had workmen in the playdough

We have done lots of singing and music too, read some lovely stories and been enjoying the sunshine in the outside areas around nursery.  

Well done Peach Trees 

Up, up and away...All about Air Travel

This week the children have enjoyed learning all about air transport.  We have had lots of discussions about aeroplanes, rockets, hot air balloons and helicopters.  The children enjoyed watched videos of hot air balloons and loved seeing all the characters and colours of them all.  They also couldn't believe how high up the went or how big they were.  Whilst out in the garden the children were very excited to spot planes and helicopters flying over and guessing where they were going.  Some of the children were very confident in telling us they had been on a plane to go on holiday and were able to share their expierences of this. 

As the weather has been so lovely the children have spent a lot of time in the outdoor areas around nursery.  We have had lots of water exploring to keep cool, there has been tipping, pouring and transporting the water.  We made meals in the mud kitchen, chalked on the floors, made a rocket and plane out of the large construction blocks.  

Mr. Andrews also popped in to try our obstacle course, he did very well!

We tested our physical skills on the play park, the children are challenging themselves all the time with the climbing, balancing and swinging.

We created some lovely art work for our display, collaged hot air balloons, finger painted planes, made streamer rockets.

Another exciting experience this week was that we got to see a real life production of The Gingerbread Man!!  The children (and the adults!) found this so funny, they sat beautifully and joined in with the singing and clapping along!

Transport - Jubilee and Roads

Welcome back everyone, we hope you have had a lovely half term.  This term we are looking at Transport and celebrating the Queens Jubilee.

Over the last 2 weeks we have been very busy.  We focused on the Jubilee and all things Royal for the first week back.  We decorated biscuits in red, white and blue icing, these were eaten very quickly!  There was a large Union Jack to decorate and we made some crown jewels using bright paints and cardboard tubes. We even had a Royal tea party on the play dough table.  All the children looked beautiful in their Red, White and Blue clothes and we all enjoyed spending time together for a shared picnic and play.  It was lovely to have you all here with us. 

This week we have been looking at Road Transport.  The children told me all about the various vehicles they see on the roads, we had them all, from lorries to bikes and cars to super fast motorbikes!  Some children shared what colour cars they have at home and even told us that that some Daddy's have motorbikes, it was all very exciting! 

We looked at traffic lights and what the colours meant before making our own to go on our display board. The children have enjoyed having lots on transport in the environment too, we have rescued cars from ice, boats whizzing down the ramps into the water tray, built a lovely train track and done some beautiful sharing with the trains.  There has been cars in the paint to make tracks on the road too. 

As it was so warm on Friday, we cooled down with a lolly in the shaded wooded area, what a wonderful start to the term! 

Under the Sea Week!

For a last week of term we focused on all things under the sea!  

We started by talking about what lives under the sea, lots of answers here, from crabs to sea horses, dolphins to mermaids and of course good old baby sharks!  We obviously had to have a dance along to the song.

The children played a game of "Guess the sea animal", they were, of course, amazing.  Some of them got the answers before the adults! 

The books we read this week were "Sharing a Shell", "The boy who unplugged the Sea" and we sung songs such as "1,2,3,4,5...", "Baby shark"

We had real seaweed in the water tray, which the children loved, although it did get a bit stinky, they didn't care, they loved finding what was hiding in there. 

The rain certainly added to the watery theme, the children had a wonderful time jumping in the puddles and splashing about, so much fun!

When the sun finally came out we were about to continue the construction, imaginative play, building friendships, finding the sea creatures and cooking up a storm in the mud kitchen.

The children made jelly fish and even pretended to be jellyfish and other sea creatures in an under the sea themed PE lesson!

Such a fun and busy term, we hope you have a lovely half term break and we look forward to welcoming you back in Term 6!

Reptile week

So this week was a very exciting week, we learnt all about retiles and were lucky enough to have Rivers Reptiles and Rodents in to show us some of his lovely animals.  The children learnt how to look after them, some interesting facts, like a Rat controls its temperature through its tale and a tortoise loves a bath!  We had a reptile themed puppet show, which the children adored and it was a sell out everyday! 

The children learnt the song "I had a Tiny Turtle" and really enjoyed it when we changed up the rhyme to feature their own names.

During their child initiated learning the children collaged a giant chameleon, they learnt that they change their colour depending on their environment.  On the investigation table we had "lizards" in their natural environment and the children loved using the magnifying glasses to explore and take a closer look. 

Some of the books we have read and songs we have enjoyed this week are Superworm, Alans Big scary Teeth,  "Down in the jungle" and "5  little speckled Frogs" 

Discovering Dinosaurs 

What a fun week Peach Trees have had!  The focus has been dinosaurs and the children have loved it.  We discussed a few of the more popular dinosaurs and looked at pictures, spoke about how big they were and what they ate, when they lived and looked at their bones.  The children enjoyed a very fun PE session where they had to do different Dino poses and pretend they were various dinosaurs, the grown ups were impressed!  The children made some dinosaur skeleton pictures, decorated dinosaur eggs, made a stomping dinosaur picture using paints and dinosaur footprints. They also enjoyed an very noisy music session, where they demonstrated fantastic listening and played along to the directions given, we of course, di some free style too, which was so much fun!  

During child initiated we have had muddy dinosaur rescue, amazing construction, bike fixing, playing in the woods, cake and biscuit making with the playdough, singing and stories.  

Well done Peach Tree class, you are all amzing!

Arctic and Antarctic Animals

Although a short week, we have had fun learning all about the animals that live in the colder parts of the world.  The children enjoyed looking at pictures of polar bears, arctic foxes and hares, penguins, whales, seals, walruses and reindeers.  

They noticed very quickly that they were all white and we spoke about it was because then they could hide in the snow. 

We had a look at Igloo's and we even had a go at building towers and homes with sugar cubes to represent the ice blocks.  

During child initiated the children had a great time in the outdoor area, making a shiny cave and blowing bubbles, inside they had fun with the sea creatures in the water tray, with hidden shells at the bottom of the ocean and building towers.  The children had a go at using scissors and snipping paper, this is a skill they are developing well. 

They enjoyed the shady area of the woods and made daisy chains and enjoyed snack outside too!

Fun on the farm and Pets

This week we have been learning all about Farmyard Animals and Pets.  We focused on the book "What the Ladybird Heard" and the children loved joining in with the animal sounds and thought it was very funny when the thieves fell into the duck pond with a big splosh! 

The children enjoyed the sensory exploring of a shaving foam sheep, this got very messy! They have collaged chickens using feathers and card, rescued animals from the muddy playdough, been on a farm and pet animal hunt around the garden, having to match up pictures and see if they could name the animals as they went, they were very good at this.  

We had a very exciting visit from Ted, the school dog.  The children told me all about how to look after a dog, if they had a dog at home, what they like to eat and drink and also how soft Ted felt.  They all listened very well and were very sensible around him. We hope he comes to visit us again soon.

The children had fun with tractors in the sand, hand painted goldfish, chalked around each other and Mrs. Randall!  We also used the woodland play area too, the children enjoy this area and finding sticks and using all their energy running through the trees and over the bridges and it's great for a game of hide and seek!

Such a fun filled week of learning and exploring  

Welcome to Term 5 - Animals

A very warm welcome back to our class and to the new children who have started and settled so well this week, it's lovely to have you all.  

This term we are looking at Animals and have focused this week on Zoo and Jungle Animals.  We have learnt what Animals we might see living in the zoo or jungle, we have discovered what sounds they might make, the monkey and elephant sounds being very popular! We made lion faces on paper plates, paper chain snakes and learnt the 'Down in the jungle' song. 

Lots of child initiated learning this week, to help the new children settle into the environment.  We have had exploring in water and sand areas, dinner making in the home corner (which was delicious!), exploring the playdough, using different techniques, such as rolling and cutting and squeezing.  Outside we have had some fantastic construction, the children built a fort and had a great time hiding from each other, in the water they used the rods to catch the fish and had a guess at the colour and number on them, there was tipping and pouring too, a firm favourtite!

The children enjoyed exploring the new playground this week too.  The climbed, swung, balanced and a great time pushing their physical skills to see what they could do.

What a brilliant week we have all had!  

Well done Peach Trees 

Animals and Easter

For the final week of the term we looked briefly at animals, something we are focusing on next term.  The children had a go at matching up the baby animal with its parent and did some size comparisons too.  We played a "Guess the animal" sound game, the children blew us away with the sounds they knew, some of them were really tricky, but they guessed them! 

We had some Easter Fun too, making head bands and Easter nests too, very yummy and great fun. 

For our last PE lesson, Mr Borg got the parachute out, always exciting!  The children listened really well and enjoyed it very much. 

During child initiated we had a farm in the sand pit, hidden chicks to find, fun in the garden and lots more!

Have a lovely Easter break and we look forward to welcoming you all back for Term 5!

How We Grow...

This week for our topic we have been looking at how we grow as people.  We have spoken about what we might be when we grow up, how much we have grown already since we were babies, tried on a range of bigger clothes and shoes to see how big we might grow and compared how we differ in size from each other. 

There was a very exciting trip to Little Street in Maidstone!  Here the children were able to dress up and try out all different roles, including chef's, Dr's, builders, firemen, shopkeepers, policemen.  The children were very excited to go on the minibuses and were so beautifully behaved 

During our child initiated learning there was much fun to be had.  There was lots of fun outdoors in the sunshine, we visited the wooded play area, enjoyed snacks in the sunshine, read books and built dens.  The children's imagination for construction as been fantastic, they have built cars, rockets, planes!  Indoors we had a very chilly water tray, threading and we cut the cress for the play dough and made some delicious cakes with it.

What a week!!

Spring is Here!

We have been looking at all things Springtime this week in Peach Tree class.  We have used our creative skills to make some fluffy sheep and beautiful daffodil pictures, created some blossom trees using finger painting, everyone enjoyed a walk in within the school grounds to see if we could spot some early signs of spring, including mini beasts!  

The children have really enjoyed being out in the sunshine this week and took full advantage of the warmer weather!  There was lots of water play, we have the gazebo moved into the garden and the children have loved helping to clean it up and it's been the home for lots of imaginative play, including a house for Spiderman!  We even enjoyed snack time outside this week, which was a real treat!

There has been ramp building in the construction area and colour mixing in the indoor and outdoor art areas.

Our very own growing area is in full bloom too and our cress is nearly ready to be cut and used in the mud kitchen! 

Seeds

This week in Peach Trees we have been looking at seeds.  We  had a look at some real seeds, the children were amazed about how small they were!  We look at seeds inside some foods, seeds from packets, what the seeds may grow into and who could eat seeds.  The children helped to make a cosy place for our cress seeds, using cotton wool, we then carefully watered it and sprinkled the seeds on it.  The children have enjoyed checking in on the cress each day and helping to look after them, they are starting to sprout now.  We spoke abt birds eating and enjoying seeds, so we made some bird feeders, using a cardboard tube spread with lard and then rolled in the seeds.  We had so much fun getting sticky!!  We are going to hang these over in the woods this coming week and hopefully the birds will enjoy them.  

During Child Initiated we had such a busy time.  There was painting, building, bubble wand making and bubble blowing, jumping in puddles, tea and coffee making, fairy wand making, music and story reading! 

Another busy, wonderful week in Peach Tree Class