Ahoy Mateys! This term our learning journey has been called ‘Under the Deep Blue Sea’, and we have discovered all sorts of sea animals, seaside sights, and summer activities. The children particularly enjoyed our ‘Pirates and Mermaids’ week, where we learned to talk like a pirate, walked the plank, and found treasure.
The children have enjoyed playing with the sand and water, particularly during our ‘at the beach’ week, where they created their own sand moulds and the Butterfly Room turned into a beach area for the baby dolls.
We made our own ice cream using cloud dough, which the children helped make. We created Vanilla, Chocolate, and Strawberry ‘ice cream’. There were great scooping and serving skills on display, and the children enjoyed making and giving out ice cream to each other.
The children have continued to work on their fine motor skills this term. The Butterflies in particular have started learning how to trace and write their names, working on pen grip and using one-handed tools.
In Maths, we have been working on representing numbers by giving the correct amount of legs to the jellyfish: “Give the jellyfish 1, 2, or 3 legs.” We have also been shadow matching, doing puzzles, creating repeating patterns, looking at groups that have ‘more/many’, and recognizing and sorting shapes into their correct properties by checking if they are the same.
For creative activities, the children have enjoyed making parrots, pirate hats, swords, rainbow fish, and shells.
We had a ‘get ready for school’ week where the children could pretend to be teachers and get themselves ready for school by practicing how to do things for themselves—such as getting dressed, pouring our drinks, putting our shoes on, and cutting our own fruit. We’ve talked about how we feel and have read stories in preparation for school using the Colour Monster and Worry Monster emotions to anticipate the transition. The Butterflies have also been learning their first phonics.
The Caterpillars, who will turn into Butterflies in September, have also been preparing themselves for the Butterfly Room by taking part in more structured carpet time activities and learning the initial sounds of each other's names.
The children took part in Sports Day, which was a great effort by all. Thank you to everyone who joined in and to the parents and carers for coming to cheer them on. We worked hard this term to practice for our sports day by working on turn-taking, listening, and responding to instructions.
We finished off the term by saying goodbye to our Butterflies as they move on to big school. There was a big celebration with music, bubbles, and balloons, and the children helped to make pizzas and cakes. The Butterflies were able to wear a graduation gown and cap for photos and signed out of nursery with a handprint on our graduation sign.
We will miss you, Butterflies. Good luck at big school!
This term our learning journey has been called ‘Garden Detectives!’, and we have discovered all sorts of Spring activities: pets, animals and their young and minibeasts. The children have loved looking at and talking about their pet pictures on the wall and the different insects we have spotted outside.
Water play is always a favourite. The children have been making flower soup using food colouring, petals, bowls and spoons. We drew flowers on the playground using chalk and practiced watering them using syringes. We have also created our own pretend frogspawn for our toy frogs and lily pads for them to jump on.
Children sent in pictures of all of their lovely pets and some great artwork of a pet they would like to have. We spent some time looking at and discussing them all, from cats to dogs and fish to tortoises!
In the forest area, the children planted cress seeds and we anticipate them growing soon.
The children have been creative this term developing their fine motor skills. They have made their own Cheerio superworms and wrapped cardboard worms. They have created their own flowers, dot Spring pictures and learnt how to colour by number. The children created butterfly patterns by painting only one side of the wings, folding and pushing down to see the mirror effect that had been achieved.
Finally, we have been practicing our ball skills for PE and also pretending to be different minibeasts. This has involved our first introduction to playground games such as Stuck in the Mud through ‘Spiders and Flies’, where the spiders had to catch the flies in their web.
It’s been a short half-term but we have been so busy. We are looking forward to another busy term ahead with sports day and getting our Butterflies ready for their graduation.
In Term 4, we focused on the themes of Transport and People Who Help Us. The children immersed themselves in the roles of firefighters, police officers, doctors, dentists, builders, librarians and recycling and shop workers. Through various books and stories, we explored these professions and the vehicles or tools associated with them. Practical play was a highlight, with the children practicing wrapping one another in bandages and cleaning the teeth of baby dolls. We even created self-portrait wanted posters for our walls, which the children used to track robbers while taking turns playing the police.
Acorns also worked on their physical coordination by using spray bottles and syringes. We created pretend fires using shaving foam and food coloring, taking turns to extinguish the flames. Our creative sessions were equally engaging; the children enjoyed painting on tin foil and experimenting with mark-making through line tracing, finger printing, fire-themed tissue paper sticking and tractor straw art.
World Book Day brought plenty of excitement as we donned costumes of our favorite characters. Our focus was on We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, and we staged our own hunt by navigating garden obstacles such as grass, mud and sand-eventually finding a bear and running back to safety! In Mathematics, we explored the concepts of more and less, sinking and floating and counting and recognizing numbers. We used fingers and dots to represent quantities and investigated various patterns, positions, and routes.
Physical activity and safety went hand-in-hand this term as we learned that red means stop and green means go. We applied these road safety rules in PE to sharpen freezing and running skills, while also acting out morning routines and school journeys. Specifically, the Caterpillars worked hard on their focus during carpet time through activities that challenged their listening and fine motor skills. Meanwhile, the Butterflies focused on rhyming sounds, understanding opposites, and recognizing their own names and those of their peers. We concluded the term with a wonderful Easter craft event, where parents and carers joined us for chocolate nest making, card creating and bunny ear fun. We also held our very first cake sale and the children did a fantastic job helping to bake the goods we sold.
Term 3 has been all about Fairytales. The stories that have been shared this term were: Goldilocks and The Three Bears, The Three Little Pigs, The Gingerbread Man, Jack and The Beanstalk and The Three Billy Goats Gruff. The Children have used masks, props and small world role play to act out our stories.
Our Maths emphasis has been on the number 3 and counting, as well as comparing sizes from big to small. There has been bridge designing for the troll and to help the billy goats cross.
We used PE to move in different ways as different animals based on our stories, as well as how to cross the bridge through crawling, jumping, hopping and tiptoeing! This led to experimenting with loud sounds to wake up the giant or troll. We used quiet sounds to put the giant back to sleep or to make sure the troll didn’t hear us.
Scissor control has been practiced with using different shapes to create images of our favourite characters.
We celebrated Chinese New Year. The children had a go at Dragon and Lion dancing. We watched how they celebrated and copied. The discussion of the Chinese New Year story was about how the rat was not kind to the cat by pushing them in to win and that we should think about how our actions affect others and beginning to understand feelings.
The children experimented with fireworks in a glass, using food colouring, oil and water, enjoying watching the effects when we put them all together.
With Valentines Day at the end of term, we have spent time talking about what we love about Nursery. A popular answer was their friends! We have been using Key Worker Time to create a space during the busy day to do something in a group with our key worker and continue bonding with fellow peers.
Term 2 has been another lovely chance for the children to explore, learn through play and create friendships with one another. We are working on consolidating routines, encouraging them to join in and concentrate for short amounts of time during group time and in activities throughout the day. We have also been learning the ‘Days of the Week Song’, noticing the weather and singing hello to one another every day.
Throughout this term, we have been exploring celebrations including: Bonfire Night, Diwali, Eid, Hanukkah and Christmas to widen perspectives on differences and similarities between families and people. Through the lens of celebrations, the children have loved exploring cooking latkes for Hanukkah and coconut ladoo for Diwali, which have been a chance for them to look at cause and effect; work on their fine-motor skills in pouring, mixing and mashing; follow a recipe and use their mathematical knowledge to fill containers or recognise numbers on the digital scales.
The children have also enjoyed creating artwork in different forms. We have been exploring using different tools to make marks including potato, hand and fern printing. The children have also worked collaboratively on floor drawings and painting, which are on display in nursery. Through music, nursery rhymes have been an enjoyable way to practice counting and encourage turn-taking, manage patience and disappointment, but also experience the joy in singing all together.
Independence is an area the children have worked hard on, through cutting their own fruit, pouring their own milk, clearing up after themselves and spreading their own butter during snack. They have also been working on putting on their coats independently using the flip-flap method.
During our Forest sessions children have thoroughly enjoyed climbing, searching for leaves and other curiosities, as well as painting wooden poppies for Remembrance Day. Their physical development has thrived through use of the trikes and balance bikes, especially on the large playground, as well as our PE sessions.
Our Literacy highlights have been reading Stick Man for Christmas, which has been a firm favourite and the children creating their own books and stories. They have also found cosying up and looking through books independently thoroughly enjoyable in the reading corner.
We are excited to see how they will continue their learning and creativity in Term 3!
Term 1 at Acorns Nursery has been a fantastic journey of learning, discovery and fun! Our children have settled in beautifully, getting to know nursery routines, exploring their surroundings, and building confidence with their key workers.
From the very beginning, children have enjoyed exploring all areas of the nursery. The mud kitchens, sand pit and nursery garden have been lively spaces for imaginative and sensory play, while train tracks and the car mat have encouraged collaborative play and problem-solving skills. Children have loved taking part in activities that help them recognise their names, follow one- and two-step instructions and develop early maths skills such as patterns, shapes and number recognition up to 3.
Autumn has brought exciting opportunities for outdoor learning. In the forest, children have enjoyed conker snakes, pumpkin hunts, conker drilling, climbing and playing on the tyre swing. These experiences have helped develop both physical skills and confidence, while fostering a love of nature and curiosity about the world around them. Back in the nursery, children have engaged in creative activities such as conker rolling to create art masterpieces, cutting and sticking to make Handa’s fruit baskets, playing with playdough, and exploring storytelling through books and nursery rhymes.
Term 1 also celebrated Black History Month, with children learning about different cultures and traditions through stories such as Handa’s Surprise. These activities have encouraged curiosity, discussion, and understanding of diversity from an early age.
Cooking and practical life experiences have been a highlight, with children making fruit kebabs and pumpkin bread. These sessions have encouraged healthy eating habits, independence, and teamwork. Fine motor skills have been developed through a wide variety of activities, including cutting, sticking, and playdough play.
Overall, Term 1 has been full of exploration, creativity and growth. Children have thrived in their learning, developed new skills and enjoyed meaningful play experiences every day. We are so proud of all their achievements and are excited to continue this journey in Term 2!