Today the children in nursery really enjoyed baking their own gingerbread men and there was lots of learning involved. Firstly, some of the older children followed a recipe and were able to carefully weigh out and mix the ingredients into a dough. Then all the children learnt to roll the dough and cut out a gingerbread man shape. Finally they chose their own way to decorate them using currants and cherries. 

Today for our group time, we made music and sang together. Each child had their own musical instrument and learnt to play and stop in response to a signal, We also explored loud, soft, fast and slow through different songs and rhymes. We sang some familiar nursery rhymes and learnt some new songs too. We also danced in response to our music. Afterwards, the children enjoyed exploring the sounds of the different instruments with their friends. We were very impressed with how many children could remember the names of the different instruments we had learnt last term- maracas, bells, drums, tambourines, castanets and rain sticks. Today we also played a xylophone, triangle,  cabasa, guiro, wave drum and two tone block, The children loved exploring and talking about the different sounds they made. 

This week in our painting area, instead of brushes, the children have the opportunity to paint using cotton buds, This is great for developing their fine motor skills as they have to really concentrate and use smaller movements. The children have produced some lovely, detailed paintings using lots of different patterns. 

Our new book of the week is "The Gingerbread Man." Today we read the story and the children learnt to join in with the repeated phrase "Run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man."  
There are lots of creative opportunities this week including using different collage and mark making materials to design our own gingerbread man and using gingerbread play dough to pretend to bake and decorate  gingerbread men. 

This week we are focusing on number 4. We have watched the Numberblocks to help us find out about the number and we have been learning to represent it in different ways. 

We are starting our Magical Storyland journey this week with a focus on "Goldilocks and the Three Bears." Today we read the story and the children were encouraged to join in with the repeated phrases and change their voices to match the different bears. In our role play and small world areas, we have lots of puppets, props and books to help us to act out and tell the story with our friends. Here are some photos of us engaged in our provision today:

Happy New Year to everyone and we hope you enjoyed a lovely family Christmas time. 
Our new theme for learning this half term is Magical Storyland and we will be focusing our learning around a different traditional tale or nursery rhyme each week.  
We are looking forward to seeing everyone back in nursery tomorrow and also to welcoming some new children to our setting.