Exploring Cardboard Boxes

Things that Move

Last week the children were very interested in exploring things that move. Outside they used the blocks to make big cars and planes then planned trips to Hawaii and drew maps of how to get there! As they played they learnt about shape, weight and size while they explored the blocks, they learnt to work together and talk to each other about their ideas. The children used their imagination as they planned their trip (and had to have an emergency landing) and they developed their fine motor skills and understanding of size and space as they drew their maps.

Inside the children were busy making vehicles in the workshop, there were rockets, cars, trucks and buses. The children learnt about size and shape as they worked imaginatively to create their own vehicles. At the workbench the children used the saws to cut up pieces of wood and the hammers and screwdrivers to add wheels, doors and windows. Everybody is getting very good at remembering how to keep themselves safe when using the tools as well as building up their strength, control and coordination.

In the block area there were lots of different ideas. Some children brought over stools and used the blocks to create an ambulance then went to help people. Other children played with the cars and we made a car park matching the cars and recognising numbers.

How can you continue learning at home?

• Playing with blocks helps children to learn about shape, space and size
• Junk modelling with empty boxes and containers teaches children about shape, size and colour as well as creating imaginatively
• Acting things out and pretend play helps children to develop their speech and imagination
• Playing together gives children the chance to negotiate and problem solve
• Working with real tools develops children’s fine motor skills ready for writing as well as learning how to keep safe

Ambulance Visit

This morning was extra special in nursery we had a visit from a real Ambulance!

First Don came to talk to us about the ambulance. We learnt –

• all about his special uniform like his reflective jacket
• that paramedics carry lots of important things in their pockets like gloves and a torch
• that paramedics wear an upside watch hanging on their top in case they need to take someone’s pulse
• that paramedics are not allowed to wear anything on their arms in case of germs
• that we need to phone 999 in an emergency
• that ambulances weigh 4 tonnes!

After we had listened to Don we even got to try on the special uniform!

 

Then we went outside to see the ambulance. Yusuff noticed that the ambulance had the same ‘reflecting pattern’ as on Don’s jacket.

We got to go inside the ambulance and learnt about all the important things the paramedics use. At the end Don turned on the lights and sirens, it was very loud!

What a fun morning, thank you Don for coming to see us!

How can you continue learning at home? 

This week we are learning all about how to keep safe. You can have lots of conversations about things that keep us safe and things that might be dangerous.

Some of the children were a little bit mixed up between fire engines and ambulances, you can look out for them and talk to your children about the difference

Look on cbeebies for lots of videos about hospitals

Or click here to find out about other emergency services

 

 

Make a Car Competition

This week’s home learning in nursery has been to build a car and we have had some amazing ones!

Take a look at what we have been making at home…

If you have not finished yours yet don’t worry. Bring it back to nursery for Wednesday for a special prize!

The Magic Rainbow Bus

This week the children decided to make a ‘magic rainbow bus’

We worked together to stick different coloured pieces of card on it. Then we added special features like wheels, headlights, windows, a moving door and even a magnetic registration plate.

We are very proud of our bus and have already been on lots of adventures to the park for picnics, Monkey business and Asda!

 

Alien Adventures

After reading The Journey Home From Grandpas we thought about other journeys we might go on and decided to learn about space!

We read the stories Whatever Next by Jill Murphy and The Way Back Home by Oliver Jeffers.

We thought about what we might pack if we went on a journey to space. We made it extra tricky by only choosing what we thought were the three most important things, we didn’t alway agree!

Some of us tried to pack for an emergency and thought about how we would see if it was dark, what we would eat and how to keep ourselves warm. Some of us just wanted things to help us see the sights and some of us packed the things we would need for bedtime!

In the story The Way Back Home the martian and the boy get stuck on the moon. We thought about how we would rescue them. Can you see how we tried to rescue the martian?

 Then we put the martian in the block area and tried to build steps up to the martian.

We decided we could design a vehicle to get us to the moon. We worked with friends to draw a picture of what our vehicle would look like then labelled all the special parts.

We turned a box into a rocket like in the story Whatever Next. We added wheels and backpacks and material.

Some of the children then had the idea to add a door and a window and we decorated our box to look like a rocket.

We made green alien slime using our favourite recipe (recipe here) and added rockets, aliens and astronauts.

We made more rockets with the blocks and we all practised writing our name, cutting out the letters and turning them into rockets, some of us had very long rockets!

We made number rockets writing the numbers and making the marks to show how many it was. Then we put the numbers in order from 1 to 10.

 

We had lots of fun learning about space, how can you continue learning at home?

Encourage your child’s interest in space by; talking about what they have learnt, sharing stories about space or finding out more information on the internet (try using child-friendly search engine Kiddle)

Encourage your child to write their name by making your own name rocket at home, or how about a name train or even a name Olaf! (snowman)

When you’re on your way on a visit somewhere encourage children to pack a bag with the things they think might be important, what do they think they might need to pack for a trip to the park? Give children a limit e.g. pack 2 things for the park to encourage them to think about what they want and what they need (Their answers might surprise you!)

Give children a challenge when they play with their blocks or Lego at home, can they build a tower that is taller than they are? Can they build a bridge?

Make some alien slime or play dough or easy peasy moon sand (just flour and water). Click the link above to find our favourite recipes.

Use an old box to make your own rocket or let it be anything you want it to. Try adding spare bits of fabric/bed sheets or pillowcases to encourage the children to be whatever they want, the material in nursery is definitely the most popular for dress-up!

 

The Journey Home From Nursery

We have been reading one of our favourite stories … The Journey Home from Grandpas.

It is all about the things we see on the way home.

We learnt our colour names and the names of the different vehicles.

We thought about our own journeys and drew maps of the things we saw. We thought about the different directions we travelled in and the positions. We directed the cars and talked about how they travelled under, over, around and through. We followed directions moving them forwards, backwards and sideways.

Then we decided to make our own story… The Journey Home from Nursery!

We thought about how we got home, the things we saw, the sizes and the colours. Then we tried to make it fit with the rhythm of the first story, what do you think?

What do you see on your way home nursery?

Which way do you travel?

What do you go past?

Can you make up your own story?

Underpants, snails and compliments…when the children choose their learning

This year in nursery we have made a little change in the way we plan our learning. Everything we learn about is now chosen by the children.

Each week we sit down together and think about what we would like to learn about and how we could do it. The adults collect ideas of the things the children have been talking about when they have been playing or at news time. We think about special visits or trips the children have been on and take photos of things they have brought to school or in the Share Box.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We collect all our ideas together in our special floor book. On one page we collect our ideas for what and how we would like to learn. On the next page we save pictures of our learning and talk about what we have done. Here is our year so far…

Spiders and Building a Bug Hotel 

Birthdays and Football

Magic and Weather

Snails, Apples and Leaves 

Conkers and Bus Rides 

Vehicles 

Pumpkins and Fireworks 

Bones

Animals and Shadows

Animals 

Frozen and Letters to Santa 

Christmas and Transporting 

Santa and Polar Bears 

Stick Man 

Inside Out and compliments

Story Telling (Our Favourite Characters)

Story Telling (Acting out our own Stories)

Pancake Day and Chinese New Year 

Valentine’s Day

Underpants

Dinosaurs and World Book Day 

Dinosaurs and Hide and Seek

Come back soon to see what else we get up to. Don’t forget the floor book is out in the classroom everyday, you are always welcome to come and have a closer look at what we have been learning.

Next Stop Monkey Business!

 

 

After lots of talk about travelling and vehicles the children started making buses using the chairs around the classroom.

They went on lots of adventures so we decided to change our role-play area into a bus too.

We added money, steering wheels, phones, maps, bus tickets and seats. We also added bags and torches to pack for adventures.

 

Here is our learning story of one of our adventures on the bus: