Some of our children are now recognising letter sounds in their names and very shortly will be moving into Reception class where they will take part in daily phonic lessons. We thought this link would be helpful for you to use at home when they are ready for this. It ensures that we are all using the same sounds which can stop children becoming confused in the future.
I thought this following link would be useful for us all to read to ensure our children at Helen Gibson Nursery School stay safe whilst online or using ICT equipment.
https://help-for-early-years-providers.education.gov.uk/safeguarding-and-welfare/internet-safety
What an exciting time we all had in Panda Group this week celebrating Chinese New Year, the Year of the Tiger.
We explored a wide range of Chinese artifacts, we took part in a dragon dance and learned about the Chinese calendar. Following on from this the children were interested to see where China is located in relation to England. We looked at the world globe and seen there is a long distance between the two countries and that it would take a long time to travel there. From this discussion, the children learnt that in order to travel between countries a passport would be required and they even took turns to look at a real passport.
We learnt how to say Happy New Year in Chinese ‘’Kong Hay Fat Choy’’ and we tried some Chinese food too.
We all liked the Prawn Crackers and it was fascinating observing the changes in Chinese noodles. Firstly, we explored the dry noodles using our sense of touch and then we observed the changes, as a result of hot water. Next, using fine motor skills, we attempted to eat the cooked noodles using chopsticks and they all appeared to have fun with them.
Kong Hay Fat Choy!
What a busy time we have had this half term in the Penguin Group!
We have been learning all about Autumn and Harvest and talking about all of the things you can find in East Boldon Village. We made handprints using Autumn colours and found signs of Autumn when we worked in Forest School. Some of us even made chocolate soup as we did lots of filling and emptying! We also chopped vegetables to make real soup which some of us ate once it was cooked! At small group time, we made our very own map of East Boldon Village! We have also enjoyed some of our favourite story books which included the Rainbow Fish which is all about sharing and caring!
The children found two tins in the cupboard in our home corner and spent a long time discussing what they thought could be inside. Some guessed soup, spaghetti hoops and even apricots. We had a long talk about how we could find out and decided we needed to open the tin. We looked in the kitchen and found a range of tools to try. George tried the scissors but it would not open the lid. We then tried the tweezers but again it would not open. Eventually we tried the tin opener and we got a surprise at what we found inside…..
….CARROTS!
We talked about whether it would be safe to eat them and we all decided we did not know how old the carrots were so thought it would be best not to. Instead we decided to explore them along with a tin of hot dogs we also found.
.
We enjoyed chopping them so much that the next day we thought it would be a great idea to chop more vegetables.
We put the vegetables in a big pan and made delicious soup.
Yum yum
“The car has broken down. It had a flat tyre. It has to go to the garage to fix it!”
The detail that has gone into this picture is evident along with the thought process that has been needed to build the story. By sitting beside children and commenting on what we can see and what children are doing it gives them the confidence to be creative without us putting pressure on them. It gives them to freedom to put thoughts down on paper and build imaginative stories.
