As the weather gets colder and Christmas approaches…we’re keeping very busy at nursery and we’ve done some fabulous playing and learning again this week.

At the start of the week we all made some special lion decorations using painting and printing techniques,which Peter took to the Church in South Normanton to decorate their Christmas tree…what a lovely way to prepare for Christmas! We linked this learning with stories and singing about lions as well!

In our phonics sessions we have been listening for different sounds in the environment and reading stories that had rhyming words. We practised using our ears to do really good listening for sounds and the words that rhymed and repeated them to help us to get used to what a rhyme sounds like.

At the end of our sessions we have started to sing some winter songs in preparation for our Christmas concert. We also practised using our Tales Toolkit format; character, setting, problem and solution, to tell our own story…Bees and Ladybirds are getting to be experts at this! We did some important ECO learning this week. As it is 'Switch Off Fortnight'…we learned about electricity and how we can save it by switching off the lights… and how this makes our earth very happy...we even learnt a song to help to remind us! We also recapped our learning about online and computer safety with our Smarty the Penguin story and 'Think Before you Click' song.

Outside in the nursery garden it’s still been very wet…but we haven’t let that stop us! We’ve made a lion from leaves, explored the flow of water in garden using powder paint to show us the direction of the water….we’ve weaved some willow, printed with mud and when the grass was just too wet we solves the problem by creating our own barriers to remind friends to stop and keep safe.

Inside nursery we’ve had some new toys to explore in the mark making and creative area. We’ve been learning how to use them to extend our skills and make our own picture and artistic creations!

At the end of the week we had some new visitors to nursery. Our new friends what are starting in January came with their grown ups and all the children were fantastic role models…showing them the right things to do at nursery and how fantastic it is to play both inside and out. We now can't wait to see them again for another visit next week.