Children’s Learning in King’s Park Early Years

During this week the children have had a great interest in the garden and planting for the spring. A group of us have tidied the pots and prepared them for more planning. We have looked at our space and how we can make the best of it. Once of the children asked if we could plant potatoes, carrots, beans and flowers. So we have planted Heritage carrots so the children can see the difference between modern species and traditional. The boys helped to weed and dig and the girls moved and split the primroses so hopefully we will have a lovely big pot filled with them in a few weeks.

 

 

 

 

Growing our own food is a great way for the children to learn our food comes from other sources than the supermarkets or the delivery man from Tesco. There was a great amount of discussion about what we can make with the carrots when they grow, soup and cake was very popular! One of the children also brought in Peas and onions so we will be planting these also to add to our soup!

We also built a bird table and placed this in the garden. This then sparked a lot of conversations about the birds we see at King’s Park. So in order for us to be bird detectives we built a bird hide so we could watch the birds through our binoculars. So far we have seen  magpies, sparrows and a pied wagtail. We are going to do our own garden bird watch and monitor haw many visitors we have!

 

 

 

Other learning has been about our bodies, how they work and our body parts. The children have been creating their versions of people with lolly sticks and lots of in depth conversations have taken place around the art table. Designing, supporting and helping each other to make these people.

 

 

 

 

In Literacy there has been great excitement about the Gingerbread man story.  We have read this to the children and it will be our continuing story of the Month after the holiday. The next plan is for us including the children to tell the story without using the book. Recalling from memory and acting out.

Also in Literacy the children have experienced the Gruffalo’s Child . They read the story then used chalks and paper to recreate it in the nursery room. Such a fun time was had by them all and stories retold in this way can have such a great impact on children and make them part of the whole process.

 

 

 

In numeracy, we have been using cereal hoops and spaghetti for counting skills adding counting and taking away; we have used measurement in construction and weight in baking. Experimentation in the baking area when we burnt the Gingerbread, this is an experience for the children to learn not everything is a success.

Forest Schools learning has been amazing this week. The children have supported each other, made discoveries, understood their limitations and experimented with their confidence and boundaries. Some of the children were finding it difficult to climb and use their bodies to get to the top of the hill. Without any prompting form the adults, totally child led, the others wasted no time in taking hands, using encouraging words and praising each other when they achieved their goal. Seeing relationships and such responsibility Building their resilience in the forest is something that will be of great benefit to them later in the classroom. Using their bodies for large motor skills will give them a great start to all sorts of other skills in the class, early writing and being able to sit at the table for may children can be a challenge these Forest sessions will give them a good start.

 

 

 

Finally we would like to wish Miss Drummond and Mrs Westwood the very best of wishes as they leave us to continue on their training journey to becoming the amazing Early Years Practitioners we know they will be. I’m sure the children and families will miss them as much as the staff will.

Wishing you all a lovely half term break. Nursery will reopen to all on Monday 17th February