Snakes and Ladders!

Leave a comment April 29, 2022 juicenursery

Hello everyone!

We’ve had a great week in Green Room this week climbing in the park, eating pizza and learning the ‘s’ sound. 

On Muddy morning we went to John Leigh Park and the children enjoyed playing on the large equipment, all great for the development of their gross motor skills and confidence. If you have been to the large equipment at the park, you will know that the ladder up to the slide and bridge are quite challenging, as there is quite a large space between each step. The children were supported as they tackled this and showed great determination, each time becoming more confident in climbing up themselves. The children also had fun playing ‘Three Billy Goats Gruff’, hiding under the bridge and saying “who’s trip trapping over my bridge?” After Muddy Morning we came back to nursery and the children enjoyed reading and joining in with the story that they had chosen, which was ‘Tiddler’ by Julia Donaldson. 

In Phonics this week we introduced the ‘s’ sound, which is like the noise a snake makes and which is different to the name of the letter ‘s’ (‘ess’). It is important that we teach the children the sounds and not the names of the letters at this point because when they are sounding out the words, they can hear the sounds to blend them together. First, we sang the jolly phonics song ‘the snake is in the grass’, which you can listen to here —> https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zwupro4AVsY Then, we looked at different things beginning with the ‘s’ sound, including a ‘sandcastle’, ‘snow’, ‘snake’, ‘seal’ and ‘strawberry’. The children also mentionned Sophie in Green Room and that Lucas had an ‘s’ in his name too. They also thought of Alice and that’s where we had to talk about the English language being a bit tricky at times! The children were then given one minute to go around the room and find anything they could that began with a ‘s’. They brought back a sausage, superman costume, soldier, a stegosaurus, scissors, a spider and many more things beginning with ‘s’. If you wanted to you could have a go at home too and put any pictures of the things they found on eyLog. 

Some of our children love learning about facts and have created their own fact books about different things including scorpions, electricity, mermaids and much more. This interest was supported further by using our Curiosity Cube and displaying a dragon and facts about dragons, inspired by Owen’s fact book about dragons. Lesley has brought in some model dragons from home, to enjoy looking at next week.

We were very excited this week as Gerardo got to choose our menu for our lunch. He chose pizza and ice cream which is no surprise, and went down a storm with the children. This then led to a discussion about our favourite pizza toppings, which we recorded as a tally chart. Cheese and tomato was the most popular topping. We look forward to hearing what Blake has chosen for us to eat next.

Next Wednesday we will hopefully be receiving a visit from our local fire fighters and they are bringing their fire truck too! The children are very excited so we got out two different fire fighter related books for the children to vote on, ‘Emergency’ was the book of choice.  The book contained lots of emergency vehicles which the children wanted to discuss in depth, talking about who they would rescue, how they would be rescued and the different coloured flashing lights too.

Enjoy the bank holiday weekend, let us know what you got up to on eyLog

The Green Room Team

Ahoy there!!

Leave a comment April 10, 2022 juicenursery

Hello Everyone!

We’ve had a great week this week playing pirates, looking after our chicks and blending and segmenting with Metal Mike.

Our children have been inspired by pirates this week so we made a pirate ship for our fort, complete with pirate hats and eyepatches. At Circle Time we sang the song ‘The Day I Went to Sea’ which they loved, especially when we jumped from side to side. You can have a go at home if you would like, just click on this link. 

We also gave the children an opportunity to make up their own rhyming words, to rhyme with the numbers 1-10. They also wanted to complete the challenge of a pirate jigsaw, looking very closely at the picture and working with their friends to find the correct pieces. The children used their fine motor skills to play pop up pirates at our Conversation Station, finding the correct sword to pop the pirate.

On Tuesday we brought our soft play in to our room and the children instantly start using their gross motor skills, moving their bodies in lots of different ways. They then decided to create their own pirate ships, adding telescopes and planks too. We love to collaborate here at Juice, so we covered the table with a huge piece of paper and drew a pirate ship on the sea to create an opportunity for curiosity. The children were very drawn to this, with their pens at the ready, and there was lots of conversation too, with the children wanting to add lots of detail including cannons, sea creatures, rainbows, treasure, treasure maps and much more.

We asked them whether they wanted to add any pirates but they decided that it was a deserted pirate ship. To support their interest further we read ‘The Pirates Next Door’ and the children were asked who to talk about who their favourite characters were, as well as which was their favourite part of the story. The children were then given the opportunity to listen to the story again in their own time, listening to the CD and following the story in the book, themselves. 

As Easter is fast approaching, we have introduced eggs to our reception area so all the children can keep an eye on the chicks as they pass through the nursery on the way to the garden. We were lucky that all our eggs have hatched and the children had an opportunity to hold the chicks too. We read a non-fiction book about how the egg hatches a chick then grows to a chicken, then lays an egg and the cycle starts all over again. In Stretch and Grow there was an Easter theme, with the children collecting eggs, balancing them on their heads and on their backs too. 

One of the children in Blue Room had brought in a snakeskin and they were very kind to let us have a look at it. The children held the skin very carefully describing it as delicate, bumpy and scary. We then put it in our Curiosity Cube so that they could continue to observe it later.

In Phonics we have been practicing our segmenting and blending skills. The children love Metal Mike so after we had had a go at clapping out the sounds in different words, we put him into the Conversation Station for the children to have a go themselves. They were really engrossed by this activity and came over many times, supported by an adult when they needed it. After Easter we will be introducing the children to the Phase 2 sounds, preparing them for when they start school.

We introduce the sounds by singing the JollyPhonics songs which you can listen to here. What you may notice is that the sounds are different to the names of the letters in the alphabet. It is important we learn the sounds so when the children are segmenting and blending they can hear what the word could be.

We hope that you have had a great weekend everyone, we’d love to see what you’ve been up to on eyLog so please feel free to upload your photos.

The Green Room Team