Getting ready for BIG school!

Leave a comment June 27, 2023 juicenursery

Hello Everyone!

Last week was a great week and lots of our children have started to visit their schools they will be attending in September!

You may have heard the term ‘school ready’ a few times this year and might be wondering if your child is ready and what you can do at home to support them in this transition.

The main characteristics your child’s teacher will be looking for are;

·         having strong social skills

·         can cope emotionally with being separated from their parents

·         are relatively independent in their own personal care

·         have a curiosity about the world and a desire to learn.

These characteristics are important for using as a foundation to build on their knowledge in other areas of the curriculum. 

Here is a map of all the skills the children will need to be ‘School Ready’ 

http://www.moatfarm-inf.sandwell.sch.uk/reception-2022-intake/#pgcSgb-sl-0_sl_2533  

You may be wondering about the Literacy and Numeracy element of what they should know before going to Big School. On the map you will see that if they have an interest in numbers, like singing number songs and can recognise some numbers in the environment then that is a great start. Many of our children can count to 10 securely and some need a little support to count to 20. We recommend a fun way to reinforce counting to 20 is by playing hide and seek in the park and a lot of our children count to 20 when they are washing their hands too.

You may also be thinking about where they should be with their reading and writing too? Again, on the map you can see that the expectation is that they have an interest in stories, can recognise their own name, can follow instructions and enjoy making marks. In Green Room, the children enjoy time sharing books in groups and independently, when the children come in in the morning, they find their name on their peg and when they sit down for lunch. Throughout the nursery and Green Room we have been working through their Phase 1 Phonics skills which include;

·         Environmental sounds

·         Instrumental sounds

·         Body percussion

·         Rhythm and rhyme in speech and song

·         Alliteration

·         Voice sounds

·         Oral blending and segmenting

We also introduce the children to the start of Phase 2 sounds to give them a basic foundation and therefore confidence when they start Phonics in their new setting. Some children will start to be able to read basic CV and CVC words too. We always introduce phonics through fun games and there are apps and games online to support this too.

Independence is a very important aspect of the children’s learning and being ‘school ready’ and we are always supporting this in Green Room and you can support independence at home too. You can do this by encouraging you child to open wrappers by themselves, using a knife and fork, getting themselves dressed, managing buttons and zips, putting on shoes, going to the toilet by themselves and looking after their own things.

We can’t stress enough how important a good sleep routine is aswell, making sure they get enough sleep to be able to enjoy their time at school and be ready to learn.

If you would like some more information on School Readiness then we recommend this website https://www.pacey.org.uk/working-in-childcare/spotlight-on/being-school-ready/ and we also recommend watching Time for School on CBeebies together to help you child with any questions they may have about starting at their new school https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/time-for-school  At nursery we have been reading stories about starting school and we have added different types of school uniform to the role play area to help them practice those independent skills.

We hope that this is helpful, but if you have any questions or concerns please let us know.

The Green Room Team

Celebrating Father’s Day

Leave a comment June 16, 2023 juicenursery

Hello Everyone!,

We hope you’ve been enjoying the sunshine, although a little too warm at times! We’ve had a great week in Green Room keeping cool in the pool, practicing our mark making skills and celebrating Father’s Day!

It was a little warm on Tuesday, and we thought it was a little too far to walk to and from the park in the heat, so we opted to paddle in the garden instead. The children used the cold water as a cooling station and then turned it in to a pirate ship and had to walk the plank! 

In PE the children have been practicing their egg and spoon balancing skills which will help them on our Muddy Morning Sports Day, which we will be inviting you to come along to, in July. When we have confirmed dates we will let you know. 

On the Conversation Station this week we added whiteboard pens and names of the different children and staff in our room and the children had a go at writing them. As you can see there is a lot of ‘writing’ on there and this great that they are confident at making different shapes, strengthening their fingers and they will turn in to more recognisable letters as they develop. But right now, ‘having a go’ which is one of our Characteristics of Effective learning, is what we are encouraging them to do. 

We have enjoyed reading a couple of books this week, written by the same author and illustrator ‘Emergency’ and ‘Choo Choo Clickity-Clack’. We discussed in great detail the different vehicles and their job in an emergency. We also discussed what we do in an emergency, if we needed one of these vehicles, using the phone from the roleplay area we dialed 999 and roleplayed the discussion we would have with the operator. 

As a lot of the children have had or been getting chicken pox, they wanted to discuss this at length, even asking to see what chicken pox virus looks like in our bodies!! So we had to Google that one, and found what it looks like under the microscope in our blood stream, discussing red blood cells and white blood cells.

We were very happy to have so many Daddies join us for our Father’s Day Stay and Play. The children had a lovely time and always love showing you all around the room! The children have been busy making you a little gift (which we hope you like) and a card, to show how special you are to them. We also read ‘ My Dad Is Brilliant’ by Nick Butterworth and talked about the reasons that they think their Dad is brilliant too. 

Jo went on holiday and saw lots of sea creatures and took some pictures of them and showed them to the children. They then had a go at drawing their own sea creatures and playing on our exploratory under the sea tray with different textures.

We have started to practice our songs for Graduation which is only a matter of weeks away now. If you haven’t already, please add Wednesday 12^th July at 10am to your diary for our Graduation Ceremony in the Town Hall. There will be songs, photos, certificates, laughter and most likely a few tears! It’s a great way for us to send off our little ones on their way to Big School!! We do appreciate that this date won’t work for everyone, so we are thinking of how we ensure that all our graduating children (and parents) get to celebrate their achievements this year, so will be back to you on this.

Have a great weekend!

The Green Room Team

Let’s Stay and Play…

Leave a comment May 26, 2023 juicenursery

Hello Everyone!

We’ve had a great week going on this week learning about symmetry, keeping our oceans clean and the ‘p’ sound.

On Monday, we introduced the children to the concept of symmetry. We used this webpage for the children match the other side of the picture and shape. You can have a go at home too following this link https://www.topmarks.co.uk/symmetry/symmetry-matching We then investigated symmetry further by using mirrors, to see the other half of the butterfly in the mirror. They were then each given half a butterfly and had to find the other half. We got out our butterfly wings, to add to our roleplay area and enhanced our Curiosity Cube with butterfly related items including ‘The Hungry Caterpillar’ and the life cycle of a butterfly.

There has been a keen interest in all this football recently so we added this to our Conversation Station. We added different team emblems, shirts and players. We also enhanced it through the week, to include the Lionesses too. The children have been having lots of conversations about their favorite teams and players.

In the Water Tray we added some sea creatures, rubbish and nets to help the children understand the concept of keeping our oceans clean to help protect the animals and the importance of recycling. We watched a short animation which helped understand this further https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1P3ZgLOy-w8 Although there were challenging issues within it, as a little turtle had got stuck in some rubbish, it is important for the children to understand the impact they can have in a positive way for the future and what they can do to help. We then used the items in our recycling basket to make different models, using cellotape and glue to combine shapes together.

The planting area at the front has been extended slightly, so the children have been busy planting more seeds with Jo.

In the Dough Area the children have enjoyed using their fine motor skills to make a range of different things, including insects and cakes.

There has been a keen interest in Dinosaurs too this week and the children have been interested in the dino facts in our Dinosaur encyclopedia. Next Thursday, is Dinosaur Day so we will be investigating dinosaurs further in our different areas of provision.

In Phonics we recapped the ‘s’,’a’,’t’ sounds we have learnt so far and introduced the ‘p’ sound. We played Bertha’s Bus and thought of all the animals that begin with a ‘p’.

Thank you to all the parents and grandparents that came to our Stay and Play, it was lovely to have you in and the children always love it too.

Have a lovely Bank Holiday weekend.

The Green Room Team

Bugs, Bees and Buses…

Leave a comment May 19, 2023 juicenursery

We’ve had a great week going on a bug hunt, writing our own bus story and making honey biscuits.

On Muddy Morning we went to Stamford Park on a bug hunt, armed with clipboards and magnifying glasses. We looked under logs and in holes in trees to see what we could find! The children were able to tick off worms, beetles, earwigs, millipedes, spiders and bees. When we got back to nursery we read ‘Superworm’ and talked about all the bugs we had seen.

While we were at the park we also went to the pond as we spotted a heron as we were passing and then we got to see ducks, geese and goslings too. We were also were passing the most beautiful blossom trees so we decided to pick up the fallen petals and take them back with us. so we could add them to the water tray and make blossom pictures too.

The children have been continuing to help with the allotment. Watering the plants has been essential in the warm weather and they are enjoying watching everything starting to grow.

Last week we added Bees to our Curiosity Cube and this week we extended on that learning using the Conversation Station. Kate asked the children what they already knew about bees and we were impressed with their facts. We then shared with them some new facts about bees that we had added to the Conversation Station. Developing the idea of bees further we made honey biscuits, which you could have a go at making at home too. We measured out the ingredients and all helped with mixing it together using our shoulder strength. Then everybody got a chance to roll the dough in to a ball and add it to the baking tray. We got to enjoy their yumminess with berries and cream at lunch time.

As the children enjoyed reading ‘The Naughty Bus’ so much we decided to write the sequel to the story, as at the end of the story it says in the story “Do you know I’m a night bus?” so we decided to write ‘The Night Bus’. The children discussed their ideas in pairs and then we collaborated the ideas to write the story, thinking about animals that come out at night. At no point did I think we would end up with Batman riding a fox, but it was their story so that’s what we went with! We hope you enjoy that story too.

There have been many creative enhancements added to the environment this week including giving the children a long piece of paper to create a collaborative piece of art. We love the children using their fine motor skills to develop their mark making skills but we also love the conversations that the children were having whilst they were creating.  We also provided the children with playdough to manipulate and we gave them pasta to add to it and scissors too, to practice their cutting skills.

As it has been lovely weather, we took Circle Time outside to play phonics bingo. The children worked in teams to play ‘s’,’a’,’t’,’p’,’i’,’n’ bingo. The children were reinforcing the sounds they’ve been taught so far and introducing them to new ones matching sounds to pictures.

Have a great weekend.

The Green Room Team

From Coronations to Car Parks…

Leave a comment May 12, 2023 juicenursery

Hello Everyone!

We had a great time in Green Room this week drawing King Charles, playing car parks and adding to our allotment.

At Circle Time, the children were keen to talk about the King’s Coronation, their observations and the celebrations they took part in over the weekend to commemorate it. As lots of our children love creating art, we decided to challenge them by giving them half a picture of King Charles. First, Kate modelled to them how they could go about creating the other side of his face and body, making observations about his facial features and the colours on his suit and medals. We gave them the option of what they wanted to use to make their picture including felt tips, crayons and water colours. As you can see the children took lots of different approaches, abstract and realism, for their portraits.

Cars have been a very popular choice of play with our children, so we have added a few more cars and trucks to the collection. We decided to enhance the Conversation Station with a numbered car park, cars and registration plates too. The children have enjoyed taking their cars on different journeys around the town and parking in the different car parking spaces.

To further the children’s interest in transport, we read a story called ‘The Naughty Bus’, which the children were fascinated by the adventures of the bus around the house and falling in the pond. The illustrations are very engaging as they are photographs and the text is also written in a pictorial way too, eg, the word bed as a bed.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get out on Muddy Morning this week but instead we worked on our allotment, as the potatoes needed more soil adding as the leaves had started to grow through. The children helped water the plants too and took some chalk to to drawn pictures of the insects you might find in the allotment.

In the Curiosity Cube this week we added some information about Bees as World Bee Day is on the 20^th May this year, and we wanted to share the importance of Bees and their pollination of our food crops with the children. We talked about the fact that without bees, the availability and diversity of fresh produce would decline substantially, and human nutrition would likely suffer.

In our Role Play area we have added school uniforms, so that the children can practice putting on and taking off various items of clothing, which is all part of developing their independence for starting Big School. They are using their gross motor skills to put the uniform on, but also their fine motor skills to do up the buttons. Some schools have started contacting us for information about the children attending their schools and we will be talking to the children about the schools they are going to very soon.

The children have also expressed an interest in flags this week, and so, as Eurovision is a hot topic at the moment we set up a lucky dip for them to pull out a flag for a country that is in the Eurovision song contest. The children then each had a go at drawing their flag.

To reinforce the sounds we have learnt so far and add a couple more sounds to the children’s knowledge, we played I Spy with different objects from our Phonics tubs. Very simple to play at home too, choosing objects beginning with ‘s’,’a’,’t’,’p’,’i’,’n’. Having the objects in front of the children helps them zone in on a limited amount of options rather than looking round a whole room might be quite overwhelming.

And finally, to support the children’s understanding of the number system and counting to 20, we have added numbered dino feet down our corridor, so every time they go to the bathroom area they are practicing their numbers going there and counting backwards coming back to the room.

Have a great weekend.

The Green Room Team

Celebrating the King’s Coronation…

Leave a comment May 5, 2023 juicenursery

Hello everyone!

We’ve had a wonderful week learning about the King’s Coronation and even designing him some pants!

At Circle Time we read ‘The King’s Pants’, which is a sequel to ‘The Queen’s Knickers’. Arlo was able to tell us that the Queen had died so we explained that is why the king is getting his crown. In the ‘King’s Pants’ story, he has a lot of different pants for different occasions so we gave the children a pants template to design their own pants for the King and we hung them up with our bunting. Not only was it a great opportunity for the children to use their creativity but to also practice holding their pens, in a tripod grip, which we have some ‘writing socks’ with holes cut out to support them to do this effectively.

On the Conversation Station, we added pictures of the Royal Family with key names. The children were curious to know who they were and their relationship to the King. They also used their observational skills to make flags, using their knowledge of shape and fine motor skills to recreate the Union Jack.

On The ICT table, we gave the children cameras and set up a royal-themed photo booth. They enjoyed taking photos of each other and learning how to use the different buttons and filters. Also on the ICT table we added, as a surprise for the children, a recording of the story ‘Tiddler’, read by one of our parents. Isabel was able to guess it was her Daddy reading it. The children loved it and we can’t wait for them to listen to the next story so please keep sending them in!

We added some Union Jack sensory play to the environment too, adding different coloured rice, measuring cylinders, funnels and containers to a tray. The children used their fine and gross motor skills to fill and empty the different sized containers, exploring capacity as they went.  In addition to this, the children enjoyed painting some Union Jacks too.

In preparation for our Coronation Party, the children used their design and cutting skills again to make a crown to wear for the party. As you can see, we were able to enjoy our Coronation party in the garden with delicious party food. Hopefully the children will remember this special event in history for years to come.

On Muddy Morning we went to Stamford Park and played on the equipment. It was amazing to see how much the children’s confidence has grown, climbing on the larger equipment saying “Kate, watch me!”, “Look what I can do!” We also spent time practicing getting on and off the roundabout safely. They found a puddle to jump in, organised their own games and found it hilarious sliding down the slide to Kate’s echoey voice too. There has been lots of outside play this week, children enjoying the outside space playing football, making obstacle courses, drawing and chatting in the sunshine.

Jo (Mrs Bloom!) has been doing some more planting with the children this time growing cress seeds in a cup with their picture on it and giving the children funky cress hair.  She has also helped create a special ‘Ready, Steady, GROW‘ Blog, which you might like to read, to find out more about the children’s Allotment and Bug Hotel.

In Phonics we recapped the sounds we’ve learnt so far ‘s’ and ‘a’, singing the Jolly Phonics songs and sorting different objects and pictures on to the different sounds. It is important we recap these sounds on different days as some children are not in the same days and we want to make sure everyone has the opportunity to develop their Phonics skills. We also introduced the ‘t’ sound and we sang the song ‘when I play the tennis game’ which you can listen to here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rg4t5cUeZZo We then played Bertha the Bus to see what animals she could see beginning with ‘t’. Maybe you could have a go at home too, send us some pictures on eyLog!

Have a great Coronation weekend!

The Green Room Team

Ready… Steady…GROW!

1 Comment May 3, 2023 juicenursery

As we celebrate National Gardening Week, we wanted to invite you to join us on our allotment journey, to watch us grow into mini gardeners and become crop experts!

This month, throughout the nursery, we have been exploring the art of growing the best veggies in town including developing an allotment space to plant crunchy carrots, perfect potatoes, succulent strawberries, lush lettuces, plump peppers and tasty tomatoes!

We started our green finger mission by clearing our VERY over grown planter. This involved lots of heavy lifting developing our gross motor muscles, working together as a team and good communication. (We were all a bit sore the next day!) 

Once we moved the planter, this gave us a great blank canvas to start our Bug Hotel. Building a Bug Hotel in your garden is brilliant for a number of reasons. Not only can it provide a safe hideaway for wildlife but it can also help make use of any garden waste. A well-built Bug Hotel can shelter anything from hedgehogs to toads, solitary bees to bumble bees and ladybirds to wood lice. Creating this gave us a great opportunity to talk about showing care and concern for our environment and what different insects would like in their new home.

To get our creative ‘Juices’ flowing, the children set to work designing their own allotments, drawing flowers and delicious fruit and vegetables, as well as decorating stones and pebbles to add to the area. These pictures can be found hanging in our allotment area outside the front of the nursery. 

Now the exciting part begins… 

The children got down to business building our very own Greenhouse! Listening carefully to instructions and working together as a team, it was ready! We talked about all the things we wanted to grow inside the greenhouse and on the allotment, which led to discussion about healthy eating and looking after our planet, and we couldn’t wait to fill it with all our delicious fruit and vegetables.

Let the planting commence! As we planted our seeds, we talked about how best to care for them, as well as how important the sun is to grow our plants and how we must water them every day. 

We have also been getting creative, planting some flowers in wellies, which we have also added to our outside area.

The children have been using their gardening skills at home in their own gardens. It has been great to hear all about what they have achieved and what fun they have been having with their families. The fresh air is great  for our physical and mental well-being, as well as a great opportunity to promote a healthy lifestyle and to take care of our environment.

We have been given some amazing tips from the children on how to take care of your garden, here are a few :-

“Sprinkle egg shells to stop the slugs eating the flowers “ … Ida 

“You can use special seeds (slug pellets) to keep the slugs and snails away “…Amelia 

“Sprinkle the water on your plants with a watering can or a hose “…Phoebe 

“Keep rabbits away from strawberries plants” …Ted

“Some plants like lots of sun but some do not “…Isabel 

“Worms are good for your soil “ …Anaya 

Now our allotment is full steam ahead! We cannot wait to watch all our crops grow. We are going to be measuring our sunflowers using rulers, using our numbers to practice our amazing maths skills. We wonder how big they will get?????

Our allotment has been a fantastic addition to our nursery. There is so much to learn, explore and so much more fun to come … so watch this space!

Whether your garden is big, small or not really a garden at all, there are so many ways you can have a great gardening experience, whilst having fun in the great outdoors!

So, READY, STEADY ,GROW… and don’t forget to send us your pictures if you try this at home.

Let’s play… hopscotch!

Leave a comment April 28, 2023 juicenursery

Hello Everyone!

We’ve a great week in Green Room exploring vegetables, visiting the market and planting too.

In PE, we took the skipping ropes, the hoops, different sized balls and scatch pads to the Town Hall. The children had a go at skipping with a rope by flipping the rope over their head and jumping over it and repeating this sequence. Not only great for their co-ordination but great for their gross motor skills too. They also practiced their throwing and catching skills with a Velcro pad and a ball, coordinating their bodies, negotiating space and working together.

As we have been talking lots about vegetables, we read ‘Oliver’s Vegetables’ and discussed the vegetables Oliver’s Grandpa was growing and what we were growing. On Muddy Morning we had two groups, one who went to the market to buy vegetables and one group went to the shops to buy flowers for planting.

At the market we talked about the colour, shape and texture of the different vegetables and counted how many we were buying in to the baskets. We then handed over the money to Donna, on the market stall, and took them back to nursery.

The children who went to buy plants stopped by the flower market stall and smelled the different flowers including eucalyptus and lavender. Then they headed to Wilkos to buy some flower seeds and bedding plants and whilst they were there, had a look at the potatoes and sprouts too. As there was time after the trip to the market, we squeezed in a quick trip to the park too.

At Circle Time we showed the other children the vegetables we had bought at the market and we even smelt them! We then added them to the provision for the children to explore further and created artwork with them, exploring texture too.

When the children came back to nursery from the shops they got busy planting them in to an unusual plant pots, wellies! Don’t they look fabulous! You may even want to do the same if you have any wellies that have been outgrown at home?

After reading the story ‘The Friendship Bench’ the children were very curious about playing hopscotch. So, after the story, Kate made one out of masking tape and the children spent lots of time, taking turns to jump from one leg to two legs and back to one. We made it more challenging by throwing a beanbag on to a number and trying to jump over it.

Joey got to take Boris home for the weekend at his house. We showed the children the pictures of Boris’ adventure’s and Joey told us all about it. Another child will be chosen this weekend and they will get to share their adventures with the class next week.

In Phonics this week we reinforced the ‘a’ sound, by putting ‘a’ objects in the Curiosity Cube with some that don’t start with an ‘a’. The children had to work out which ones did and which didn’t. At Circle Time we introduced the ‘s’ sound by singing the jolly phonics song ‘the snake is in the grass’ which you can listen to here and sing at home too https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwupro4AVsY 

We also played ‘Bertha the Bus’, where she goes to the zoo and sees lots of animals beginning with ‘s’ including a seal, snake, starfish, snail and a spider. We also played another game with other things beginning with ‘s’, each time Kate taking one away and the children having a guess at which one it was. We then went on to play ‘I hear with my little ear….’ where Kate clapped out the sounds and the children blended them together. In the children’s independent play, they were keen to play a bingo phonics game with Kate with the sounds ‘s’,’a’,’t’,’p’,’i’,’n’. Although we haven’t taught the children all the sounds yet, Kate used it as an opportunity to assess who knew which sounds in order to support them further in their phonics development. They were matching sounds to pictures, starting in pairs and when they became more confident they wanted to do it by themselves. We have been exploring lots of different phonics games this week that the children have wanted to play.

We hope that you have a lovely Bank Holiday weekend.

The Green Room Team

Green Room’s Vegetables…

Leave a comment April 21, 2023 juicenursery

Hello Everyone!

We’ve had a great week here in Green Room learning sounds, drawing self portraits and adding to our allotment.

On Muddy Morning we went to John Leigh park in the gorgeous sunshine. The children were very keen to get playing, making up their own games, playing hide and seek, balancing, digging, swinging, chatting and laughing.

In their independent play the children have been playing with a Phonics game in our room, ‘Match and Spell’, and have been showing an interest in building the words with the different sounds. So, we have started introducing the Phase 2 sounds that they will begin to learn when they start at Big School. We started with the ‘a’ sound and we sang the Jolly Phonics song ‘ants on my arm’ which you can find here if you would like to sing along at home too https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3GhsRH5Q5Y.

We then looked at different objects that begin with an ‘a’ sound and also names, as we do have a lot of children in the room that have names beginning with the ‘a’ sounds. We discussed that sometimes the ‘a’ can make different sounds such as antelope and apron. But we also have a child with an ‘ar’ sound at the beginning of their name so we discussed how that was a different sound although it begins with an ‘a’ like aardvark.

In our Curiosity Cube we had added some number blocks as the children have shown an interest in them and where sticking them together and counting how many were there. So at Circle Time Kate reinforced this learning by introducing the children to the concept of adding numbers together. She drew 3 boxes on a whiteboard (two for adding and one for ‘altogether’) The children put different amounts of cubes in each box and then in the last box, clicked them together to show the combined total.

The children were supported to count each block accurately with their finger by touching each block. Some children enjoyed this so much they went away and drew their own boxes on whiteboards and were doing their own addition sums using the multilink. To challenge the children further, we gave them a laminated sheet with pre-drawn boxes so they could put their cubes in each box and write the numbers on too before wiping them off and trying another addition.

On the wall above the sand we have been updated our self-portraits, which not only look beautiful, but also show off the mark making progress that the children have made throughout the year so far. Next time you are in, see if you can spot your child’s masterpiece!

You may also have seen our allotment area, which is located at the front of nursery, and which has kindly been organised by Jo. The children have also used their threading skills, with painted pasta, to make windchimes and have added their own pictures too. We read a story called ‘Oliver’s Vegetables’ and discussed all the vegetables that Oliver’s Grandpa was growing in his garden including carrots, potatoes, spinach, cabbage, beetroot, peas and rhubarb. The children shared their likes and dislikes about the vegetables and next week they may even get to sample some of them too!

Have a great weekend.

The Green Room Team

The Great Pet Sale…

Leave a comment March 24, 2023 juicenursery

Hello Everyone!

We’ve had a very exciting week in Green Room talking about everything to do with pets!

On Wednesday, we were all very excited to be heading off to the bus stop to go to Timperley Village Aquatics, affectionally referred to locally as Timperley Zoo. The children were looking at all the numbers on the buses trying to spot the number 11, as well as discussing how big they thought the bus might be.

When we got on, the children were talking about all the things we were passing on the way to the pet shop and discussing when they usually take this route eg, going swimming, going to their friend’s house etc. When we got to the pet shop we first saw lots of birds, some guinea pigs and walked passed Baby, the parrot, to see all the fish. The children were using lots of different language to talk about what they could see including shape, size and colour.

The gentlemen that worked there were very kind and offered to bring out a python snake for us to have closer look at. The children were very brave stroking and even holding the snake, describing how it felt (soft and smooth) deconstructing misconceptions that snakes are slimy. He also brought out a bearded dragon for us to touch as well. The children were fascinated by the animals they saw and were curious to learn more about them.

As it was a beautiful day, we then went to the local park to have a play and a climb, all great for building confidence.

At Circle Time the following day, we recalled the events of our day out in our Big Book, using different time connectives to organise the events such as ‘first’, ‘then’, ‘next’ and ‘after’.  The children then wanted to decorate it with the animals they had see there.

When we got back to nursery we read the story ‘The Great Pet Sale’ by Mick Inkpen and we talked about the animals we had seen at the pet shop compared to the animals in the story. We love this story as it also incorporates numbers for the prices of the animals and some phonics too.

During the week the children and staff had sent pictures to the room of their own pets. The children and staff loved talking about their own pets and how they look after them. So we organised for Kim to bring her puppy, Harley, in to meet the children (and staff!) and to talk to us about how she looks after him, tell us about his favourite toys and teaching him commands such as ‘paw’, ‘sit’ and ‘lie down’, using treats as a reward. We loved having Harley in Green Room and some children who were feeling a bit unsure about being around a dog, built up confidence to be more at ease. We also enjoyed reading the book ‘Dogs’ by Emily Gravett, talking about all the different types of dogs there are and which were our favourites. Following on from this we played a matching pairs memory game with the dogs from the story.

We have also very much enjoyed the fact that it feels very much like Spring is on the way. In Stretch-n-Grow, the children were using their whole bodies to explore Spring, pretending to be buds growing on the trees and different flowers growing in the ground.

You may also have seen pots of soil around the room, Jo has started planting with the children and seedlings are starting to shoot through which we are excited to see grow!

Have a great weekend.

The Green Room Team