PJ’s for Pudsey…

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Hello everyone!

Last week was another great week in Green Room, when we learnt about about Greek mythological creatures, started to learn our Christmas songs  and raised money for Children in Need.

On Muddy Morning we went to John Leigh Park and the children enjoyed playing on the equipment, using their gross motor skills to spin themselves on the roundabout. They also had fun negotiating their own games and pretending to see a Gruffalo in the trees. So, when we got back to nursery, we enhanced their play, adding soft toys characters from the Gruffalo, which sparked really interest in the children, in retelling the story in their independent play.

There has been an interest in taking pictures and using the camera in our room, with the children exploring the buttons and finding different ways to take pictures of themselves, and each other including using a countdown timer for the odd selfie!

Is it too early to mention the ‘C’ word?! Well it’s too late, apologies! It has definitely been talked about in Green Room, as we have started to introduce the children to the Christmas songs from our Christmas play which we will be performing for you on the 7Th of December at 10 o’clock in the Town Hall, if you are free to join us.

There will be more information to follow in order to keep it as COVID safe as possible. The children have been trying really hard with their singing and we are in the process of deciding who will play the different parts and the costumes will be provided.

The children also wanted to make Christmas cards so we provided them with previously used Christmas cards to cut up and reimagine.

Well, in Kate’s 15+ years of teaching , she has never discussed Greek mythological creatures with children who are 3 and 4 years old, so last week was a first! After one of the children had made a snake out of paper we ended up talking about snakes and he mentioned the snakes on the head of Medusa. So, we then started talking about other mythological creatures and printed out some pictures and descriptions to discuss them further. This really captured the imagination of the children and so at Circle Time, we picked two animals from our basket that we would put together to make our own mythological creature. The children got very creative mixing a zebra’s body with a lizard’s head and a dinosaur with owl wings!

There are times throughout the week where the children read and share books on the carpet together and there was a lot of interest in the story, ‘Man on the Moon’ by Simon Bartram, especially as the children could see aliens hiding in the pictures (which Bob couldn’t see!). So we read the story at Circle Time, counting how many aliens we could see.

On Friday it was Children in Need and the children came dressed up pyjamas and fancy dress. We also used Pudsey are the inspiration for a fine motor skill activity, which saw the children pressing buttons in to playdough to make Pudsey playdough.

We have had a couple of new additions for the room this week including a full length mirror in our role play area and a bird in a cage (battery operated) which the children have been pretending is a pet, discussing what name we should give him or her. As you can see we had some great suggestions!

This week Muddy Morning will be on Tuesday.

Thanks

The Green Room Team

Celebrating Diwali…

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Hello Everyone!

Last week was another great one, which saw us splashing in puddles, making firework pictures and learning about Diwali!

On Muddy Morning, it was a dry day after a LOT of rain so we had our snack at the top of the hill in John Leigh Park, were we had a good view of the changing colours of the trees. We then had an opportunity to explore and we found a lovely squelchy spot that the children churned in to a big muddy spot. They loved using the muscles in their legs to squelch in the mud. After a lot of squelching, we went to the big puddle for a wash down.

Whilst we were there we found a tree that was dropping the most beautiful leaves, so we decided we would collect them up and when we brought them back to nursery we made a lovely autumn wreath, that we have put on our front door for you to see.

If you wanted to have a go at making one yourself, all you need is to shape a length of garden wire in to a circle, before piercing the leaves in the middle and pushing them around the circle. Then make a loop in the wire and hang it on your door for the world to see (and us if you don’t mind popping it on eyLog!).

In the children’s independent play we read a story called ‘How to catch a Dragon’, in which the character has a go at drawing a dragon, and so we thought we would try this ourselves. The children wanted to watch Kate have a go at drawing a dragon first, before trying themselves, with very impressive results!

As there was such a keen interest in dragons we read a story by Jackie Morris called ‘Tell me a Dragon’. The children were extremely engaged with the story and loved looking at the beautiful illustrations, deciding which one were their favourite. The children were then asked what dragon they would have. They had some great ideas, including a unicorn dragon, a Spiderman dragon and a dinosaur dragon. 

There has been a lot of conversation about fireworks and in Stretch-n-Grow, the children were pretending to be fire fighters putting out fires, collecting logs and being fireworks themselves. Caroline also taught the children what to do is they were ever on fire, Stop. Drop and Roll, which they all had a go at doing. Following on from this they used their creative skills to draw their own fireworks, using chalk and looking at photos for inspiration. The children used a technique, smudging the colours together to look like fireworks.

We also learnt about fireworks being used to celebrate Diwali and read a non fiction book about Diwali and how it is a celebration of light. We read and acted out the story of Rama and Sita, learning that Sita was stolen by the evil beast(with 10 heads) Ravana, and how Rama came to save her by shooting a golden arrow and killing the beast. Rama and Sita couldn’t find their way home in the dark, so the people of India lit candles and oil lamps and that is why Hindus celebrate Diwali.

The children loved acting out this story, and continued to do this themselves in their independent play, even making their own costumes, using a range of fabrics provided. One of the children in another room in nursery had a brought in a Diya lamp to show their friends, and shared this with the children of Green Room and we decided to have a go at making our own, using our fine motor skills to manipulate clay in to a bowl shape, before fitting a candle inside. If you light them at home we would love to see them on eyLog.

The children in Green Room are developing their skills in collaborative play, as mentioned before, acting out the story of Rama and Sita. They also like building things together, making dens and, after Kate had helped one of the children to use a scarf to carry a baby on their back, they also wanted to carry the babies of their backs too.

This week we will be going on Muddy Morning on Tuesday.

Here’s to another great week!

The Green Room Team