Forest School 21st April 2022

We had our last session with the Forever Green Forest School teachers last week.  What a lovely last day we had. The weather was perfect, and the children were lovely. Their enthusiasm and excitement are always a joy.

Nursery enjoyed the theme of dragons. Instead of cooking with this group we gave them an opportunity to use the mallets to tap tent pegs into the ground. This really supports the development of their concentration and hand eye coordination. I noticed that their teacher also used it as an opportunity to practice counting.

Nursery also really enjoyed making ‘Dragon soup’ in our mud kitchen, adding lots of different ingredients including a large dose of imagination.

At the end of the session we sang our goodbye song, and the children then ate their pop-it-in apple doughnuts back in class.

 Enjoy looking at the photos from the session.

 

World Book Day 2022

World Book Day was great fun.  Children enjoyed coming into school dressed up as characters from books

 and rhymes we have read in Nursery or at home.  

We had a special assembly and saw all the children in other classes dressed up too.  We listened to stories in class, sang some nursery rhymes and enjoyed reading books in the book corner.  

Enjoy looking at some pictures of us wearing our costumes!

Forest School Afternoon and All Day Nursery

 

Forest Schools

First the children relayed their names with an action. They are getting increasingly confident at doing this. They are now settled and familiar with the routine. Children like patterns and routines which help make them feel safe.

We introduced the game Creeping Comanchi by showing the children how to creep like a dear, silently so they can hide. We explored how to use our hands to make ‘dear ears’ which can change how we hear things. Alicia then became the guardian of the magic eggs (egg shakers). The children sat around her in a big circle. Each child had a turn to try to creep into the circle and steal an egg without being heard. Alicia, who was blindfolded, had to listen carefully and point towards the child if she detected them. This game develops the children’s awareness of each other, their concentration as well as the physical skills of moving silently. They will also have been developing strategies to transport the egg silently, so developing problem-solving skills.

Once the game was over the children could choose from a selection of activities to develop their fine motor skills, imagination and creativity. These included cutting circles from leaves, rolling clay into long sausages and making them into circles, either by joining the ends or by winding it into a spiral and making circles from willow which they could decorate. We also had a den, digging for treasure and an obstacle course.

We closed the session by asking the children to tell us who they had played with in Forest School, again increasing their awareness of each other.

Base Camp

Digging for treasure

Exploring natural materials

Playing Creeping Comanchi

Taking a 'log dog' for a walk

PE in Nursery

This term in Nursery children have been learning to balance during our PE lessons.  

We have been playing games to warm up our bodies before we start. The game we like the best is a traffic light game where we move slowly for the amber light and fast for the green light.  The red light means stop!

For the main part of our lesson we have been balancing and trying hard to keep steady.  We have balanced and walked across benches and have even tried hard to link two movements together.  We show a stretched up pose before we start and say "Gymnast ready" and then after jumping and landing safely we stretch up again and say "Gymnast finished!" 

Enjoy these photos from our lessons.