The children were very excited to discover that the Easter Bunny had visited nursery and left eggs hidden all around the classroom for us to find. There was so much mathematical language as we went exploring and found lots of hidden eggs. The language used included: high, low, up, down, behind, in front, underneath, under, on top, next to.

Once we had found them all, we sat together and sorted and counted them. We spoke about the different colours and worked together to sort them so that all the ones of the same colour were in the same basket. Then we counted them and found out that the most was the yellow chicks because that had 23. The fewest was purple because we only found 1. We talked about lining them up to count them easily and how to point carefully at each one so none were missed out. We have some budding Mathematicians in the Shooting Stars! 

Once we had counted and sorted all the eggs, we received a special delivery from the Easter Bunny- a basket with lots of chocolate treats and a note saying thank you for all your hard work. The children enjoyed eating their treats at snack time- yummy! 

We have come to the end of our Amazing Animals theme where there has been so much learning, exciting books shared and new language learned. Below is a photo of our learning journey display which showcases our learning journey week by week. This will now be added to our class floor book so the children can revisit and recall their previous learning with their friends. 

Today we have added some new resources to our role play area- a coat stand with hats, scarves and a coat. The children loved these new additions and it certainly added value and changed their play today. In the afternoon, the children decided they were going out as they put on their hats and scarves. They worked together to line up chairs to make their own aeroplane. The imagination and language used was wonderful as they developed their play together. A wooden pan as well as a key ring was used to steer the plane and they even stopped for re-fueling part way through their journey! There was also lots of purposeful technology use as the children were making phone calls, taking photos and playing games on the flight! (Using their role play phones and cameras). We also had some note taking and even an inflight meal was delivered. 

Today was our Easter Bonnet Parade and the children were very excited to show off their wonderful creations! Every child got involved and created their own wonderful Easter bonnet at home. They came to school wearing them and we had a lovely speaking and listening session where every child was given the chance to show and tell us about their bonnet. 
​Morning Nursery:

Afternoon nursery:

Then we went on a parade all around the school. The children were very brave to walk in and out of every classroom, showing off their creations. We received some lovely comments and some of the older children even gave the little ones fist bumps and high fives, which they thought was wonderful! 
THANK YOU to all the parents and other family members for getting involved and helping your child to be creative. 

We learnt a new song today:

Hot cross buns,
Hot cross buns,
One a penny, two a penny,
Hot cross buns.
If you have no daughters,
Give them to your sons,
One a penny, two a penny,
Hot cross buns. 

We sang it together and then used our claves to tap the beat. We sang it fast and slow and then loud and quiet. 

For snack we had hot cross buns! Most of us had never tasted them before but lots enjoyed them and gave a thumbs up! 

This week we will be learning about Easter in nursery. We will be talking about how Christians celebrate Easter and we will be relating this to growth, new life and Spring time. Here is our Easter display which is ready for the children to explore tomorrow! 

We have been developing our physical skills in our outdoor area. Some of us have been carefully balancing and trying to walk using our stilts and some of us have been balancing bean bags on our heads! We have also been practising our throwing and catching skills using balls and bean bags and we have been learning to play bat and ball with our friends. We are trying really hard to use our hand-eye coordination to try to hit the ball with the bat. Great job, Shooting Stars! 

Thank you to all the parents and other family members who were able to join us today for our Easter themed Stay and Play. The children loved showing their special grown-ups around nursery and having a go at lots of activities together. Some of our activities included:
-using cotton buds and paint to create patterns on Easter eggs
-decorating Easter shapes using different collage materials
-exploring chocolate dough and different Easter shaped cutters
-using our mark making skills to decorate Easter eggs
There was also lots of opportunities to explore all our continuous provision throughout the classroom. 

This week our Amazing Animals theme has moved onto farm animals. We began on Monday by talking about the children's own experiences of visiting a farm and talked about the kind of animals we would find there. We learnt Makaton signs for lots of different farm animals and we practised saying their names, clapping out the syllables to support our speech. 
Our book of the week is "I Love Animals" by Flora McDonnell and the children are learning to join in with the repeated words as I read the book. In our small world and construction area, we have been using our wooden blocks and other loose parts to build a farm and then add
animals to it. We are great at working as a team in this area! 
We are also learning the names of the baby animals and have been completing a puzzle to match up the adult and baby animals. We have learnt the words piglet, calf, lamb, foal, duckling and kid and have been able to match them up with their adult. 
Our song of the week is "Old Macdonald had a Farm" and we have enjoyed singing it together and adding our Makaton signs. 

This week we have been creating our own Easter bags- we will have to wait and see if the Easter bunny visits us next week!
We used a paper plate and firstly we learnt how to hold our scissors carefully and cut it in half. Then we decorated it by printing using sponge and paint. Our focus words during this activity were: Easter, print, press and dab.