Music with Morning and All Day Nursery

Music with Morning and All Day Nursery

This term Morning and All Day Nursery have enjoyed a weekly music lesson where we have been learning new songs, clapping in time with the music and exploring a lot of different instruments.  This week we all used instruments that you shake to make a sound including wrist bells, egg shakers and maracas.  We had lots of fun making music and practised stopping so we could listen to the instructions between songs.  The children are getting very good at saying their name in spaces when we sing our warm up song.

Can you think of  an instrument which you need to bang or tap to make a sound?  What about one you need to blow?

Forest School Week 6 Afternoon and All Day Nursery

It was a very cold day, which gave us the extra challenge of looking after our bodies and keeping ourselves warm. The children made sure to wear their hats and gloves, keep their hoods up, move their bodies and warm their hands by tucking them into their armpits! We talked about wearing more layers next term to keep us even warmer.

After our welcome song, count and rules we played our name game. The children's confidence has grown so much since September and they enjoyed showing their individuality through their actions. 

Getting in the Christmas spirit, we played a calm game involving a jingle stick. The children needed to pass the jingle stick around the circle without it making a noise - it was so tricky! Activities like this help the development of the children's concentration and focus skills while creating a sense of community as we all work together to reach a common goal. Once we'd had a go moving it silently we passed it round again, this time giving it a good jingle as we passed.

For the rest of the session, some children had a go at making a jingle stick, using the pipe cleaners to twist round a Y stick and threading bells on.  Other children enjoyed decorating 'wood cookies' using brightly coloured pens to make tree decorations.  

We also had some children enjoying digging in the mud and running round the site with the forest friends in order to keep warm.

We finished our session gathered back at the log circle with a warming hot chocolate. We observed the steam rising and thought about how to stay safe when drinking hot drinks. As we waited for the drinks to cool down we shared our ideas for keeping warm in the cold. And finally we enjoyed a rendition of Jingle Bells accompanied by our newly created Jingle sticks :)

 

Forest School Week 5

 

The children were even more excited than usual about Forest School today after hearing rumours we were toasting marshmallows!

We began the sessions with our usual welcome song, counting and name game. The children continue to grow in confidence as they join in these activities. As it was a cold December day, we returned to our game of Forest Fire and warmed ourselves up as we ran to avoid the 'fire'. 

After this we introduced the children to fire lighting. First we learnt about the fire triangle and the three things you need for fire: heat, fuel and oxygen. We then thought about the ways we keep safe whilst around a fire. 

For the rest of the session the children explored in their own ways. As well as our keen diggers, Forest Friend adventurers and hill rollers, we had children exploring with clay. Some children chose to use pine cones, grass and leaves to create Winter Gnomes, protectors of the forest. They enjoyed manipulating the cold clay with their hands to create their creatures. 

 

Throughout the session small groups of children washed their hands and joined us around the fire to toast a marshmallow. They knelt in the respect position and showed great concentration as they toasted. 

We ended the session gathered back around the log circle and shared a word that would describe our marshmallow. Contributions included sweet, yummy, sticky and soft.