Autumn changes

Our journey from September to December

 In the Day Nursery we have been embracing our new under two's and their families. The older children have demonstrated their understanding of respectful attention, through kindly and gentle  interactions, as they welcome the newer members of their 'nursery family.' 

From September to December we are looking at storytelling in different forms, beginning with sharing the stories Dear Zoo, Walking Through the Jungle and The Gingerbread Man; books rich in repetition and rhythm, that all ages enjoyed and found their own ways to participate in retelling. Moving onto performance, through a visit from a travelling pantomime troupe retelling Cinderella and our own Nativity in the last week of term.  

 Together we have been exploring the changes in our environment as the seasons moved from late Summer to Autumn and the weather became a daily source of interest. The end of the year has given us opportunities, not only to celebrate exciting events such as Halloween and Diwali, but to observe closely the natural world and think critically about what can be seen changing. Pumpkins and squashes provided an endless source of investigation, with new textures inside and the chance to practice skills with knives and spoons.

The older children demonstrated their abilities with rhyming strings, creating splatter Halloween monsters Meddie Weddie and Wigglie Gigglie to name but a few. Younger members of the nursery, explored sensory play with green slime full of spiders and green spaghetti.

We had a visit from Science Oxford who created spaces to explore STEM experiments that involved light and shadow, and testing properties of sinking and floating and magnetism.

In the forest field, we talked about taking care of our world, recognising the array of wild life that was present there. The children did some serious tree hugging in appreciation.

"I love this tree, it's growing just like me. I want it to always be here so I can squeeze it!"

Early Autumn there were still a lot of colourful flowers to explore.

Our value of curiosity has been evident in all areas of the children's learning. We have been noticing similarities and differences between plants, sensing textures and comparing sizes. Investigations led to discussions about life cycles, seed production, and the differences between life and decay in the natural world. There were late potatoes to harvest too.

Later in the term, as the weather turned cooler, the snow and ice provided more experiences of change to test our understanding of freezing and melting processes.

Budding scientists of all ages have delighted in the structure of crystals on frosty leaves and footprints, the ability of ice to trap air bubbles, cool skin temperatures and convert to flowing water. 

Cooking continues to fascinate, and we have had lots of opportunities to produce edibles, making Gingerbread teddies and cakes to raise money for Children in Need, and an interesting variety of bread rolls.   

Since September our maths focus has been on comparative language, looking at practical opportunities to compare height, length, capacity and weight. Looking forward, we are focusing on simple number operations, exploring one to one correspondence, one more one less,  and subitising by developing a sense of number in quantity without counting, through a range of practical activities.