Today we will be exploring music and movement (the children do NOT need their PE kits) . The children can bring or email in a link to their favourite music. We will also be listening to clips from a variety of cultures and historical periods. We will be supporting the children to develop their listening skills through active listening. To some of the music the children will be encouraged to draw on whiteboards, responding to how the music sounds and how it makes them feel, to other music they will be encouraged to move freely and respond with their whole bodies. We will talk about whether the music has a strong rhythm, whether it is loud or quiet, fast or slow, also we will talk about high and low sounds. Lily suggested that we could have balloons to move to music so we’ll do this as well as having streamers to emphasise movement.

We talked to the children about the skills that they need to practice and we discussed some messy activities involving counting. The following is the one that the children decided we should do. Adults will hide small physical items (like plastic coins, small rocks, or sorting toys) inside a deep tray of shaving foam. As the children scoop and dig to find the hidden "treasures," we will ask them to count how many they have found, sort them, or group them by colour and talk about how many now… The children will take it in turns to hunt for treasure and others will count or record how many have been found. We will encourage the children to record in different ways and explain how they have recorded.

Today we will have a messy day. The children were keen to have water and paddling pools, mud and jelly to walk in. All the children will need a swimming costume or old clothes (shorts and t shirt to wear), they will also need a small towel. We will be using a sprinkler and the hose during the morning too. As the children explore we will encourage them to use their senses to describe how things feel, smell and sound. We will make sure that the ground is clear of sharp objects so that they are safe to have bare feet. The paddling pools etc will not have deep water and the children will be encouraged to remain upright rather than lying down. We are looking forward to a morning full of fun, descriptions and vocabulary!.

Last week we talked about healthy party foods and the children had a variety of suggestions, so in the end we had a vote  and agreed that we would make a pasta salad. The children were keen to include courgettes (Lily), peppers (Jamie) and carrots. We will discuss hygiene rules before we begin. We will revisit why this salad is healthy and discuss that it’s OK to have not so healthy foods sometimes but not all the time. The children will need to snip spring onions and peppers, using an appropriate and safe scissor grip,. They will need to spoon out some sweetcorn and chop carrots and courgettes. Once all the ingredients have been prepared we will add them to the precooked pasta before asking the children to stir them all together. The final dish will be shared at our party tomorrow.

The children will also be decorating place mats for tomorrow. They will need to remember to use an appropriate and firm pen grip as they work and then add their names using their name card for support.

Friday

Today we will be having a party to celebrate the year in Nursery and to celebrate Mrs Ray’s 16 years in Voles! Please see the party list and sign up for the foods that your child would like to bring in. The children can wear clothes of their choice today - there will be no painting or messy activities!