My Most Exciting Eid

Our book this week was My Most Exciting Eid

The book is based on a young girl called Safa. Safa can't wait for Eid al-Fitr! Pretty henna patterns, Eid decorations, delicious food.......the night before Eid al-Fitr, Safa can hardly sleep for excitement! And this year's Eid will prove to be extra special as Safa learns how to share and bring happiness to people.

We went on a trip to Maidstone Mosque this week and learnt about Eid and the Muslim community. The children explored the Mosque and visited areas where the prayers take place and there were also children's classrooms where some schooling takes place at certain times. In our learning environments, we had a sensory tuff tray with coloured cous cous glitter  gold coins for tipping and pouring. Coloured playdough with moon and star cutters. We also had a variety of activities. Such as sorting bears, telephones,  fresh flowers to create art work.

 

PE

PE this week  was gymnastics based on sea animals and our aim was to develop rocking and rolling techniques, squeezing your muscles to help keep your shape. We were turtles stuck on our backs having to rock to move over. We  were also an octopus standing on the spot floating in our arms side to side. Fishes swimming, seahorses galloping and a star fish holding our shape 

White Rose Maths 

In White Rose Maths this week, we looked at starting to puzzle and completed various puzzles and looked at shapes. We also read the Gruffalo.

Ridiculous! 

Week 2

This week we have continued to learn from our book, 'Ridiculous.' Activities we have explored are making an animal of our choice out of salt dough. We had some fantastic animals such as peacocks, lions and turtles. We worked alongside Peach Trees to go on a hunt around the building to find characters from the book. We also made our own caves for animals out of junk modelling, shredded paper and tissue paper.

In White Rose Maths, we looked at leading on from our own patterns, we explored a number of rhymes with repeated phrases, so we welcomed Peach Trees into the room to sit in a circle and take part in choosing an item from the golden sack. Once the item was chosen, we would work together to figure out what song it linked to. On the carpet, we also had activities to promote the development of leading patterns. We had a tea set out with 3 little pigs to promote the rhymes. Three little pigs and Polly put the kettle on. We also had multilink cubes out for the children to make their own colour patterns.

In P.e, we are continuing gymnastics by exploring movement as desert animals. The aim this week was to practise jumping and landing safely which the children did very well. 

During child initiated learning in Plum Trees this week, the children explored building with megablocks. They made cars, houses, trains and towers! The children sorted the small world sorting equipment into colour order using their fine motor skills to use tweezers to pick them up. They investigated the weighing scales with pasta, used junk modelling to cut, draw and tape. In the sand, they focused a lot on tipping and pouring, and we had the car mats and large wooden vehicles. 

Outside learning this week, the children investigated placing the balls into the pipes to see if they made it to the bottom. They made tea and coffee in the mud kitchen, testing their physical skills by climbing onto the reels and balancing across the obstacle course, and they made prints in the sand from the diggers.

Ridiculous!

This week, we introduced the story, 'Ridiculous', which is about a turtle who wanted to explore winter rather than hibernate. Along the way, he encounters animals who can survive the winter, and he realises the importance of hibernating. This book will enrich the children's learning of Science through exploring winter throughout the week.

Our adult-directed activities this week involved reading the book and discussing different parts of winter, including weather, what we wear to keep warm, etc. We also looked at different animals and categorised them into eithe land of sea habitat. We finished the week with a science experiment! We poured water into a jar, placed shaving foam on top to make a cloud, the children then used pipettes to drip blue colouring (rain) onto the 'cloud' and saw the 'rain' drip through the clouds into the water. We then looked outside at the rain and spoke about the rain coming through the clouds!

In p.e this week, we are continuing exploring gymnastics. The theme was Lakeland animals, where concentrated on baring weight onto different body parts. The children did very well and were able to remember which position linked with what animal.

In White Rose Maths, we looked at comparing and sorting. We placed two hoops onto the carpet and placed three megablocks into one hoop. We then tasked the children to see if they could match the same number of blocks into another hoop, which the children did very well. We also read Handras Surprise, which looks at groups of fruit going missing.

In Plum Trees learning environment this week, the children explored making houses, boats, trains and walls with Lego. They also used pipe cleaners to thread pasta, the children made marks on ceramic tiles using paint and pens. To support role play, the children explored old-fashioned phones, built and learnt with trains and tracks, wooden furniture and wooden people. 

 

Outside, learning this week consisted of mixing food colouring and shaving foam in the mud kitchen, which turned into the children selling ice cream! In the water area, the children focused on tipping and pouring with measuring jugs and jars, climbing up the pinwheels and jumping off safely, making marks with chalk and washing it off and making a train with the wheel and crates.

 

Be Brave Little Penguin 

Week 2

This week, we have continued learning about Pip Pip and his bravery, whilst also exploring the topic of Geography. We looked at videos of real life penguins and their habitats, looking at how they stay warm and what they eat. We explored a water tray which was filled with blue-coloured water, ice and penguin figures. The children used their imagination to recap the story.

In White Rose Maths, we looked at subsidising 3, we looked at how many dots we could count, and the children used the white board to draw the correct amount of dots. 

In P.E, we explored moving like woodland animals, using different equipment, we slithered on a bench like a snake, rolled the ball around our knees like a hedgehog, jumped over cones like rabbits and made a star shape and jumped like a turtle.

 

Be Brave Little Penguin

This week, we have been learning from the book, 'Be brave little penguin' which is linked to Geography, in which we concentrated on the frozen world. 

We have read the book, and have discussed what we have done to be brave, how we thought Pip had felt after he made his big jump and also what Pip's home looked like. We made our own penguin pictures using black card, cotton wool, card and eyes. We also explored moving around in our own spaces as a penguin!

In White Rose Maths this week, we investigated match, talk, push and pull by listening to the rhyme Humpty, Dumpty and using different shaped blocks, to make a wall for a small world figure to be able to balance on!

We encouraged the children to look for differences in the blocks, and to discuss if their figure was able to stay on the wall or if it fell!

   During our child initiated learning in Plum Tree's this week, we explored making marks on paper plates with both felt pens and crayons. The children also used scissors to cut their plates and different shapes on the paper. We had the large wooden vehicles out with wooden blocks and natural resources as the children would load their vehicles to drop off and collect! In the tuff tray we used tin foil, cotton wool and sea animals to create Antarctica.

 

What the Ladybird heard at Christmas.

For the last two weeks of term, we have been learning and exploring the book, 'What the ladybird heard at Christmas'. We read the story and discussed how all the animals helped save Christmas, we painted our very own ladybird rocks, we listened to different farm animal noises and tried to guess which animal made what sound. During White Rose Maths this week, we explored giving and taking away 1,2,3. We used a variety of wooden blocks to aid our counting, and we read the book The Three Little Bunnies. We also took part in a lot of Christmas activities and celebrations! We had the secret Santa shop, where children went up to buy their loved ones a gift, we made Christmas cards, we had the Christmas fair, where we also had a visit to Santa's grotto, and we finished the term with a party!

 

   

 

      

            

      

        

      

 

  

In the past two weeks, we have hosted our Christmas craft parental engagement, where the children sang, '5 little elves' to their parents, and explored all different craft activities. We also went on our school trip to our local church. The children learnt about the story of baby Jesus, they made crowns, decorated angles and explored a mystery sack of toys to find a toy suitable for a baby.

    

      

      

      

  Ready, Steady, Mo!

 This week, we have been learning how fun running can be, but as the book says "not in the classroom!" During our adult directed activities this week, we have been reading and answering questions from the story, all children learnt how to do the Mobot! We watched Mo Farah win an Olympic race, and we made our own medals using cardboard, pipe cleaners, paint and bottle caps. During P.E, we completed lots of different races, and as Mo ended up in space in the story we used paint and salt to create a night sky picture!
    

            

             

            

            

            

            

        

This week in White Rose Maths, we explored making our first patterns. We did this by reading the story the Three Billy's Goat's Gruff, then the children choose between big or small wooden blocks to make a bridge for the goat's to cross.

         

         

 This week, we have completed lots of different fine motor skills activities to strength and develop them which helps strengthen their ability to do things like eating, writing, manipulating objects and getting dressed. We have decorated our Christmas tree, had a dough disco, created towers with the muti link cubes, puzzles and peg and peg boards.

        

        

        

        

During our child initiated learning in Plum Trees this week, the children have explored the threading trees with pipe cleaners and ribbon, they had a teddy bears picnic, scooping and pouring in the sand with tea pots and sand, colour matching the mufti colour figures, riding the rocking horses and feeding them carrots! In the art area, we have been painting with water paints and chalk pictures, we also had playdough and scissors to snip and we had the moblo out as the children enjoyed making rockets, cars and towers!

         

                                  

                                            

         

The Christmas countdown has begun! We started the countdown with the Christmas bauble competition, then our own clothes day open Thursday and finally the Christmas treasure hunt on Friday, which the children listened to and completed really well!

       

       

The Night Pirates

The story is about girl pirates stealing the front of Tom's house to disguise their pirate ship in order to sneak up on the grown up pirates and steal their treasure. Tom is allowed to join their crew and goes on their adventure to return safely home very tired.

During our adult directed activities this week, the children used their physical skills to walk the plank, we stained paper using tea bags and once dry, the children drew their very own treasure maps to take on a treasure hunt. The children also took turns to find an object in the Golden sack and we sang the nursery rhymes which links to that object. We also explored pirate movement with the help of cosmic yoga.

In White Rose Math’s this week, our topic was move and label 1,2,3. We placed 3 hoops on the carpet with the numbers 1, 2 and 3 in. The children took it in turns to take a ball, name a number and throw the ball in. We also read Goldilocks and the Three Bears and sang 1,2,3,4,5, once I caught a fish alive and Goldilocks and the house of the bears to support our topic.

 

In P.E, we welcomed the fantastic Nina from Boogie Tot’s! The children explored movement through music, and they showed great listening when Nina explained what movement was next.

In Plum Tree’s child initiated learning this week, the children explored trains, ramps, car’s, blocks, Moblo, puzzles, role play accessories, cutting, pencils, paper, playdough and measuring water.

      

Outside this week, there was chopping and scooping in the mud kitchen, dinosaurs stuck in the ice and making footprints in sand in the water area. The children explored using crates to make a train and a pirate ship, a few children walked the plank!

 

The Magic Crayon

To continue the magic crayon, week two we recapped the story. The children were asked to create their own magic crayon experience using crayons and paper. We also did large-scale drawing in our outdoor area using chalk on the floor. We also used a large white board to draw different pictures related to the book. Remembrance day, we made poppy pictures using apples and paint to print a poppy.

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Our theme for PE this week was body parts. This consisted of moving at different speeds and directions, how to balance whilst moving using bean bags and how to balance whilst stationary. We also balanced walking along benches and to move around safely.

  

White Rose maths this week was "show me 1,2,3." We used the nursery rhymes: Tommy thumb, two  little dicky birds and three blind mice. We also looked at Three little bunnies by Beatrix Potter. We also did some funky finger activities to develop our fine motor skills to help support them by being able to hold up individual fingers or groups of fingers.

  

In child initiated this week, we created poppy pictures using tissue paper. We had an indoor obstacle course for the children to navigate around safely. We also had lots of other activities, such as lolly sticks and paper clips, threading pipe cleaners, trucks, tunnels and ramps, and the dolls house with wild animals was a big hit.

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The Magic Crayon

The magic crayon is a rhyming book by Amy Sparkes. It's about a girl called Chloe whose creativity comes to life!

During our adult directed activities this week, we introduced the book, we made animal plates, each child picked what animal they would like to create. We played animal noises and the children guessed which animal the sound came from, we made a house using the wooden blocks and we introduced the golden sack which has different props in which link to a nursery rhyme. In our white rose maths session, we explored positions and space, we used different shaped cardboard boxes and we had a range of items, then the children decided which item would fit in which box. 

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During our child initiated time in Plum Trees, we explored the role play equipment alongside our small world figures and wooden people, we also used water and then cereal to investigated with measuring jugs and scoops, the train track was out all week and the children developed different learning opportunities when working together. In the sand pit, the children choose the buckets and spades and they added small world items in to dig, such as shells, cars and wooden people. 

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During child initiated in our outside area, we explored role play in the mud kitchen, painting with water colours, making potions, making marks with chalk and exploring the dinosaurs.

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No matter what

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This week, we have been learning from the book, 'No matter what'. The key message behind this simple and beautiful book for small children is that the love a parent feels for a child is constant and never dies, no matter what happens. In our child initiated activities this week, we passed around a teddy to cuddle and say who we loved, decorated mini hearts with cardboard and ribbon, we sang songs around feelings and we openly spoke about our feelings.

  

    

         

      In P.e this week we looked at moving around with enough safe space to ensure we don't run/walk into others. The children listened beautifully and enjoyed making their safe space. We also asked the children to find a partner and move around safely with them which they also managed to do well.

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During our child ininated learning outside and in Plum Tree class this week, we made shapes in jelly, explored painting perspex material, strengthened our balancing with an obstacle course, used scoops to pour into windmills, and we made rocket ships out of the star links. This encouraged us to count backwards from 3! In Plum Tree class, we explored how many pegs go onto the number ladybirds, created marks on black paper using chalk, decorated pumpkins, and tried to find the spiders in the green pasta!

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My Daddies!

​For our final book this term, we read "My Daddies!" Plum Tree's explored lot's of different activities surrounding families. We made saltdough faces and painted faces on them, we all worked together using the white board to draw our families and we looked at the family pictures that were sent in and described how our families looked, names of family members and how not all families look the same. In white rose math's, we looked into number names. We sang nursery rhymes which had repeating patterns and numbers, we also read the three little pigs.

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  ​          In P.E this week, our them was Superhero's! We played a game called Mrs Freeze, we would run around and when Mrs Freeze would say "Freeze" we had to stop and stay still. The children worked well listening and using their physical skills to stop and go. The parachute came out this week, the children explored how to wave it up and down, move underneath and on top and run to the colour we named.

      

During our learning time this week, the children have shown a real interest in our magnetic learning resources which include Manga tiles, puzzle and an old fashioned fishing game. We also had puzzles, water with different measuring equipment, chalk boards, chalk, train track, wooden cars and blocks and sticklebricks. Outside the children used the safety knifes and peelers to cut vegetables. In the water area, the children made lemonade, and the obstacle course was still being explored!

    

                      ​     ​    ​We also welcomed parent's into the nursery for our parent engagement. They made sandwiches with their little one's and read them some stories. 

    

    

    Percy the park keeper

Our book of the week was Percy the park keeper. We looked at the book together and discussed what we might find in the park, along with what wildlife could live there and changes in the trees going into Autumn and some animals going into hibernation. Then we went on a trip to a local park to explore and see what we could find.

 

 

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In maths this week, we did lots of singing to hear and say number names: 1,2,3,4,5. Once I caught a fish alive,5 little ducks, 5 speckled frogs are just some that we covered.

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PE this week was monster-themed. We were following pathways using benches and role-playing being monsters. We demonstrated great balancing and navigation between being big and small monsters.

                   In child initiated, the children did lots of exploring, looking for bugs and spiders. We made walls from building blocks ,had woodland soup in the mud kitchen. We got our fine motor skills working and had a dough disco which involved manipulating playdough whilst singing.

 

Barbara has a Wobbler week 2

This week in Plum Trees, we have continued to explore activities around Barbara throws a Wobbler. As the book is about emotions, we introduced the colour monster teddies in the form of a colour monster hunt. The children needed to look carefully around the room to spot them. Once they found them, we asked the children to let us know if the colour monster is sad, happy, angry, tec to promote expressive language. Another activity to encourage expressive language was drawing ourselves. The children looked at their reflection and once they had drawn their picture, we asked them what their emotions were in the picture. In White rose maths this week, we looked at exploring repeats through song such as the grand old Duke of York and creating patterns with the coloured blocks.   

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  In P. E this week we transformed into mythical creatures. Using bean bags, we worked on our co-ordination, imagination and gross motor skills by moving around like fairies, unicorns and dragons.  ​ ​

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   During our learning time this week, the children explored a range of books, puzzles, sticklebricks, using the white board to make marks, created Autumn pictures and cut our own fruit for snack. Whilst outside there was lots of singing, climbing, jumping, making dinner, painting, driving a bus!

      

   

Barbara throws a wobbler

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During the first week of Barbara throws a wobbler, we looked at the story and discussed Barbara's emotions and how she was feeling. For our adult-directed activities, the children made their own wobblers using coloured dabbers and googly eyes. We also used different coloured bean bags to represent emotions and threw them into hoops. The children also began to learn about autumn and the changes it brings.

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  In maths this week we looked at comparisons: more than, fewer than and the same as. We demonstrated this using multiline cubes.

​     For PE this week it was monster-themed. We concentrated on social, emotional and thinking skills.

We were happy monsters, angry monsters and scared monsters navigating our way around the pe equipment.

  

  

The children had a busy week this week in child-initiated, exploring the playdough, working on their scissor skills, cutting fresh herbs, spotting autumn changes to the room and exploring the outdoor area making their own assault course. 

   

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Meg and Mog

This week, we have been exploring the book Meg and Mog in Plum Tree's. During our adult directed activities this week, we went on a spell hunt, created a sensory witch hat where we closed our eyes and felt what was in the hat and in P.E, we put on our witches hat's and explored moving around whilst being careful to create enough space and to listen to instructions, we sang hop little witches, witch statues and completed an obstacle course. 

  

  

  

  

During our child initiated time, the children explored placing pipe cleaners into wooden discs, using scissors to cut paper, dinosaurs digging through the sand, lot's of role play in the mud kitchen and using wood to make ramps for the trucks.

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 Three Little Pigs

During this week's adult-directed activities, we have been looking at The Three Little Pigs. We used puppets to retell the story, looked at the differences between real pigs, we also made houses from different materials. In our White Rose maths sessions, we looked at recognising 1,2,3. We ensured this was in our environment, planning to continue supporting their learning.

In P.E, we became pirates, walking the plank, listening to instructions and moving around safely in our own space.

 

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  Settling in week

This week, we have welcomed lots of new faces into Plum Trees. The children have done incredibly well, settling into their new classroom and exploring all the changes to our environment and our new routine. 

During our adult-directed activities this week, we had a dough disco. The children listened beautifully to the directions and were focused throughout. We took part in lots of music and movement this week, including a number of songs from BBC sounds and the children independently choosing their own songs with our singing spoons.

This week we have been focusing on getting to know the children, working on our fine motor skills with activities such as, puzzles, multilink cubes, linking keys and making prints in playdough. In our learning environment, the children explored cutting, sticking and creating pictures using paint dabbers. We had sticklebricks, which were used to make houses, castles and towers! Whilst exploring our outdoor learning environment this week, we practised our balancing, creating meals in our kitchen area, and digging with dinosaurs in the sand.