It has been lovely to welcome the Chicks back to the Nursery this week and everyone was very excited to share all their half term news with their teachers and friends!
Our topic book for the week was You Can’t Take An Elephant On A Bus by Patricia Cleveland- Peck. In this delightful story we learn about all the problems animals would have if they tried to travel on public transport. This included finding out why you can’t take an elephant on a bus, why a tiger should not travel by train and why you should absolutely never let a bear near an ice cream van! The picture book is filled with funny rhymes which matched with illustrations and we all loved trying to guess what would happen next. The Chicks found the elephant very funny especially when they found out that his bottom was too big for the seat! The book also offered a brilliant platform to extend our knowledge and learning about animals and which habitats they live in.
We continued to explore animals in different ways throughout the week and the Chicks had great fun exploring the 4D animals cards. The children were able to do this through the use of the iPad and animal flash cards. It didn’t take us long to explain how to work the iPad with the animals cards and the Chicks were amazed to see the whale, elephant, monkey and giraffe come to life.
We have continued to extend the children’s learning in our Write Dance sessions and this week the children were given the challenge of becoming different types of vehicles, moving their arms in circular movements to music. Before making marks in paint and flour with cars, the children chose different animals to ride inside their vehicles. We had tigers, flamingos, bunny’s and elephants.
Before the holidays we asked the Chicks what they would like in the Role Play Area. Most of the children said they would like something with animals and cars so on Monday they were all excited to see our new Jungle Den! The children have loved hiding in the den and playing with the different animals, dressing up and listening to jungle music.
In the Outdoor Learning Environment the Chicks developed their gross motor skills during our outdoor Music and Movement session. We focused on using a range of movements and enjoyed jumping, skipping, walking sideways and galloping. During some of the songs the children needed to listen carefully to the instructions to follow a sequence of moves. We were really impressed by how well they listened to the instructions and it has been great to see their physical and cognitive skills continue to develop.