Today we made our own healthy snack- fruit kebabs! We had to carefully thread different fruits onto a skewer which was a great activity for developing our fine motor skills. Once they were ready, we enjoyed eating them for our snack. Some children thought all the fruits were delicious and everyone tried the different types. 

Today we were so excited to notice that one of our butterflies had emerged from the chrysalis!! We watched it dry it's wings and begin to fly around in the net. As the session progressed we were lucky enough to see some of the others emerge! By the end of the afternoon, we had five butterflies in our net. We will observe them over the next couple of days and then release them so they can fly away outside. 

Today we have been mathematicians! We went around nursery with a clipboard asking our friends and the grown-ups the question "What is your favourite fruit?" We learnt to record a tally mark next to the fruit they chose and then we counted how many children liked each type of fruit and wrote the number. Super Maths, Shooting Stars! 

We have done a brilliant job growing our very own bean plants in nursery. The children have learnt about how to plant the seed and how to care for it while it is growing. Lots of them have grown really tall now so today we decided to work in groups to look at our own and compare them with some of our friends. The children used words such as big, huge, tall, little, short, small, taller, bigger, biggest while they were comparing. 
Today the children took their bean plants home. We hope they will continue to water and care for them and maybe you will have some beans to cook for dinner! Please let us know how they grow and share your photos with us. 

This week we have had lots of changes to observe with our caterpillars! Firstly we noticed that they were beginning to hang off the lid and when we watched closely we could see that they were swinging about. Then we noticed that they were all hanging very still and we realised they had formed a cocoon or chrysalis just like in the books we have been reading. 
The children have been fascinated watching them and we are now waiting patiently to see the next stage of the life cycle! 

This week we are reading the story of Oliver's Vegetables and learning how vegetables grow in the ground. We will be talking about healthy choices and the children's favourite vegetables. We will also be finding out about the differences between fruit and vegetables and the children will be sorting them into groups. 
We have moved our fruit and vegetable shop inside this week so the children can extend their learning from outdoors last week. In our sensory tray we have some chia seeds for the children to explore. 
See if your child can tell you what they are enjoying learning the most this week. 

Today in the nature reserve we have been developing our skills using a bat and ball. We played together and learnt to take turns. 

Today we have made our own healthy fruit salad like Oliver did in our book of the week. Firstly we spent time looking at the different fruits, talking about their beginning sounds and describing what they looked, smelt and felt like. Then all the children had a turn at chopping the different fruits. They learnt about how knifes are dangerous and how to use a knife safely to chop the fruit. Lots of the children found it was harder than they thought to cut through it and it was a great activity for developing their motor skills. 
Once all the fruit was chopped and mixed together in a bowl, we shared it out and the children ate it for snack. Some of the children found that they liked some fruits that they thought they didn't. The fruits we included in our fruit salad were apples. bananas, pears, pineapple, plums and strawberries. See if your child can tell you what they thought about the fruit salad. 

The children have enjoyed spotting the letter sounds we have been learning around nursery. We have found letters everywhere and the children have enjoyed pointing them out and saying the sounds. 
Perhaps you and your child could spot letters when you are out and about or maybe around your house. 

This week we are learning about how fruit grows with the book "Oliver's Fruit Salad." We will be talking about where different fruits come from and the children will have the opportunity to talk about their favourite fruits. We will also be discussing healthy eating and sorting fruit and vegetables. 
In the outdoor area, we have a fruit and vegetable shop role play area. The children will learn how to take on the different roles of shop keeper and customer. There will be lots of opportunities for sharing and turn taking with the till and we will learn about money too. In the mark making and creative areas, we will be creating our own bowls of fruit with different materials. 
Here are some photos of us engaged in our learning so far this week:
​