As we are learning about the rhyme Incy Wincy Spider this week, we have enhanced our provision linked to this theme, Our activities include:
-books and puppets of the rhyme to support children singing the rhyme with instruments in our music area.
-story and non-fiction books about spiders and other minibeasts.
-toy minibeasts added to our small world area with the children to create a minibeast garden.
-spiders, drainpipes and watering cans in our water area so they can re-enact the rhyme as they play.
-black playdough with pipe cleaners and googly eyes in the dough area.
-a focused activity to mix our own paint and try to create our own spider. 

 We are focusing our learning this week around the rhyme "Incy Wincy Spider." At group time today, we practised singing the song in different ways and we used our claves to tap out the beat as we sang, We sang the rhyme loud and quiet and we also tried to sing it fast and slow. We then learnt an alternative version of Incy Wincy Spider climbing up a tree and we learnt some Makaton signs to accompany our singing. Here are some photos of us in action:

On our welly walk today, we continued with our learning about shapes. We collected sticks of different lengths from all over the nature reserve and then we had a challenge to see what shapes we could make. There was so much Mathematical learning in this activity. The children talked about the names of their shapes and problem solved how to make them. Some children worked out that to make a triangle, they needed three sticks as a triangle has three sides. Some children were challenged to make bigger shapes and they had to work out that they could put sticks together to make them bigger. What a lot of learning- well done, Shooting Stars! 

For our "Feel Good Friday" activity today, we danced to the Tumble Tots. There were lots of different moves to practise to develop our physical skills and we changed our moves to match the music. 

We love our dough disco in the Shooting Stars and we have made so much progress with developing the strength in our hands and fingers! We have all learnt to take our own lid off our pot of dough which was challenging at first but we have persevered and developed the strength to pull it up with our fingers. Each time, we practise squeezing our dough really hard using one hand and then the other one using the words- squish, squash, squeeze! Then we make a pancake by flattening our dough. We hold it in one hand and splat it with the palm of our other hand to make it really flat. Then we make our fingers dance- pushing each finger in one at a time. This is quite tricky but we are trying really hard and our fingers are getting stronger every day. Finally we roll a ball and then a sausage by rolling the dough between the palm of our hands. 

In our painting area, we have been learning to mix colours using powder paints. The children have learnt to wet their brush and then mix the colours in their palette, remembering to wash their brush in between each colour. The children were fascinated by the different colours they have mixed and some children are able to recall how to mix some eg "red and yellow make orange." They have also learnt to wash up their own palette and leave it clean for the next person to use. We have some amazing artists in our nursery! 
Today we have had a focused activity to try to paint the troll from our story of the week. 

Our new story this week is "The Three Billy Goats Gruff." We have been reading and re-reading the story and the children are getting really good at joining in with the repeated phrases- "Who's that trip-trapping over MY bridge|?" and "trip-trap, trip-trap." In our construction area, we have been using the wooden blocks to build different bridges and there has been lots of Mathematical language such as long, short, tall, big, high, low. We have also been using puppets of the characters to act out the story using the bridges the we have built. The children have been developing their understanding of the words "under" and "over" as the troll lived under the bridge and the goats went over it. We also have a new construction kit which the children have been learning to fasten together in different ways. In the play dough area, we have some mats related to the story and the children have been learning to shape their dough to make the different items. 

The Shooting Stars made chocolate shredded wheat buns today linked to our story of The Three Little Pigs. Firstly they had the tricky job of breaking up the shredded wheat with a spoon which was great for developing their motor skills. Then they talked about how they could mix the chocolate and some children knew it needed to be melted first. They learnt that it needed to be heated in the microwave and used words such as hard and runny to describe how it changed. They carefully mixed the melted chocolate with the shredded wheat and spooned it into their bun case. Finally they added a pig sweet on top. 

To develop our understanding of the world, we enjoyed celebrating Chinese New Year today. The children were all invited to wear red and we learnt that this is the lucky colour. 

On entering nursery, we had a dragon dance parade playing on the screen and the children were fascinated by the sights and sounds! We answered the register by saying Ni Hao which we learnt means hello in Chinese. Following this, we watched a short clip where some children told us all about how they celebrate Chinese New Year. Then we had a go at our very own dragon dance! We played the music on the computer and the children moved in different ways with their ribbons to represent the dragon. Then we formed a long line and did our dragon dance up and down the school corridor. 

During provision time, the children all had a go at making their own paper dragon and they then made them dance to the music.

Whilst we were busy learning in our provision, we had a go at using tweezers to pick up noodles, some Chinese writing using black paint on red paper and making a Chinese meal in our home corner. 

Finally, we tasted some different food for our snack- noodles and prawn crackers with soy and sweet chili dipping sauces. Some children were surprised to find they liked the sauces and most children enjoyed the noodles and prawn crackers. 
​At home time, each child took home a fortune cookie!

We have been working in small teams in our creative area, learning lots of new skills. Each team had a challenge to make a house of bricks, sticks or straw from our story of the week. We learnt how to attach materials using pritt stick, pva glue and tape and we also learnt how to choose materials that looked like the real thing. We talked about what parts our houses needed and the children learnt how they could make a roof, windows and doors. We are hoping the children will now be able to use these new skills in our creative area when they are working independently. 
Here are some photos of us hard at work:

Once the houses were complete, we added them to our small world provision so the children could use them to re-tell the story with our puppets and props: