Week Ending 13th December

This week we have enjoyed learning about Dear Santa. We have identified objects and their properties, using words such as "big, small, noisy, messy, scary". We have developed our attention and resilience in our Elf Workshop with wrapping presents. This has supported us to maintain concentration and have determination to use scissors and tape to wrap presents, with teachers support.

We have developed our fine motor skills by decorate tree's with colourful pegs that resemble baubles. This has proven really popular with the children. Additionally, some children created their own ABAB patterns using the colourful pegs. We have also developed our ability to recognise numerals using our big baubles, as well as identifying colours and patterns.

Week Ending 6th December

This week in Gems we have continued with The Gingerbread Man.

During our carpet times, we have had opportunities to retell the story to our teachers who forgot how to story went and we also enjoyed our science experiment where we placed 3 little gingerbread men biscuits into three different types of liquid. We predicted what might happen and observed what happened immediately and after 24 hours.

"I think it will float"

"It will get soggy"

"It's got bigger"

We have also created our own gingerbread men in the playdough, strengthening our fine motor skills. As well as decorating our own gingerbread cardboard men with a range of tools and we also enjoyed decorating our own biscuits and having them as a yummy snack!

Week Ending 29th November

We have been learning about The Gingerbread Man this week as part of our Traditional Tales topic. We have enjoyed creating our own gingerbread men with the playdough and using a variety of mark making tools including pencils, pen and felt tips to add features to the Gingerbread Men, discussing eyes, nose, mouth and buttons. We have also developed our fine motor skills with using different patterned rollers in the ginger flour by pressing and rolling to observe the pattern, whilst doing this we also sequenced the story.

Outside, we enjoyed building a bridge for the Gingerbread Man using our big construction blocks. We also extended this to an obstacle course where we developed our gross motor skills including our core stability and upper body strength.

Week Ending 22nd November

This week we have thoroughly enjoyed learning about Goldilocks and The Three Bears as part of our Traditional Tales topic.

We have particularly enjoyed our sensory tray of oats where we practised scooping and emptying with differentiated bowls and spoons. We have had discussions of which bowl has more and which bowl has less.

 We have equally enjoyed our role play corner as we tried and tested a big chair, a medium sized chair and a small chair and made comments such as “too hard”, “too soft” and “this is perfect!”.

We had a great time at snack this week when our teachers pretended to be the bears when we were eating our porridge, there were lots of giggles! The porridge wasn’t too hot and wasn’t too lumpy, it was “just right”. We demonstrated independence skills by using a spoon to eat our porridge and enjoyed some jam on top.

We have also looked at comparing and grouping sizes of compare bears by grouping the big bears together, the medium sized bears together and the small bears together. We also thought of others ways to group the bears, such as in colours or in family groups that reflected our own families.

Week Ending 15th November

We have really enjoyed taking part in World Nursery Rhyme Week this week. We were part of the 531,590 children taking part across 85 countries! We have taken part in lots of singing and activities to support our communication and language development. 

On Monday we enjoyed: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Tuesday: Old MacDonald Had A Farm

Wednesday: Incy Wincy Spider

Thursday: The Big Ship Sails on the Ally Ally O

Friday: 5 Current Buns.

Communication and Language underpins our whole curriculum, emphasising the importance of rhymes and songs. We implement this into our daily routine, so it has been a great week focusing on the importance of rhymes and songs with the children at Gem's Nursery. 

Week Ending 8th November

This week, we have been exploring fireworks in relation to Diwali and Bonfire Night. We have used our fine and gross motor skills creating our own fireworks with chalks outside on our playground and inside with black paper, glitter and paint. We have also looked at recognising and creating our own patterns, as well as recognising patterns in our environment and especially on our clothes! We explored the Festival of Light (Diwali) and how it is celebrated, including Mehndi Patterns on our hands. The children had a go at creating their own.

Week Ending 25th October

This week we have been in the spooky spirit, exploring the book Funny Bones and 5 Little Ghosts of a Witches Broom Stick rhyme. The children have explored potion making in the water tray, developing skills of emptying, filling and gaining control in pouring water in and out of cauldrons of different sizes. The children have been challenged with their finger motor development by peeling sticker dots and placing them on pictures, as well as using their fingers to fill the dots.

During circle times, we have drawn around our bodies on big pieces of paper and discussed different bones in our body and how to look after ourselves.

Week Ending 18th October

We have been continuing our exploration in to Autumnal changes and we have been learning about The Leaf Man this week. Gems have had opportunities to develop their own leaf man inside and outside using leaves, sticks, lollipop sticks, pipe cleaners and googley eyes. We have also discussed different body parts and different emotions.

We have used our fine motor skills to create our own hedgehogs in the playdough by placing small sticks, pasta and googley eyes, along with developing our scissor skills and cutting spikes into the playdough. Gems had fun exploring the inside of a pumpkin which supported our language development. The children used works like "slimey" "gooey" "stringey" to describe the texture of the pumpkin.

Week Ending 11th October

We have been developing our fine motor skills by carefully using the wooden hammers to tap in golf tees into the pumpkins. This has also helped us develop our counting and turn taking skills.

During circle times, the children have shared their autumn treasure hunt bags that they done with their families, and we have used the items within our provision. One activity was printing and creating patterns with conkers, pinecones, leaves and conker shells. 

Lastly, we have been focusing on The Little Red Hen book and learning about wheat. We have tried a variety of breads for our snack this week including, rolls, bagels and batons and we even helped making out own bread rolls! We developed our upper body strength when we were "kneading" our bread, before leaving it to prove. 

Week Ending 4th October

This week in Gems we have been exploring the Autumnal changes in our outdoor environment. We collected a variety of red, yellow and brown leaves to organise into coloured collages and stuck them down with glue onto big pieces of paper. We have used a variety of leaves in the mud kitchen, making delicious soups, pies and stews. We have also explored different print to decorate a trees, using leaves, sponges and cutting and sticking materials. We have been exploring our senses with Ooblek too, discussing the changes in properties and expanding our language with different describing words.

Week Ending 27th September

This week, Gem's have been on a Listening Walk around the school grounds. We got our coats and wellingtons on, and we safely walked around the big field to find out what we could hear. We identified birds, a digger, noisy car, tree's and the train.

We have been looking at Kippers Toybox and discussing what toys we have at home, we even had a go at drawing our favourite toys! We have also explored glitter trays as a another way to make marks. Some children made circles, lines, zigzags and some children wanted to mark out some letters.

Week Ending 20th September

This week in Gem's we have really enjoyed sharing stories with friends especially Stickman and 10 Fat Sausages. Children have pointed out key characters and repeated key phrases from the stories.

This half term, our topic is All About Me and we have been creating out own Mr Potato Heads, supporting children with recognising body parts with the help of Head, Shoulders, Knee's and Toes too.

We have also enjoyed spending time on the stage exploring the musical instruments, differentiating between sounds and practising listening skills by playing our instruments really loud and playing our instruments really quietly.