Hello everyone
I have attached some activities for you to look into during half term.
Just a reminder we come back to nursery TUESDAY 4th MARCH
At small group time, the children listened carefully for clues to which ingredients to add to make our silly soup. The clues included a description of the nursery object. For example, it has a stripy pattern. Sometimes the children listened for the initial letter sound of the object, for example, this begins with a ‘c’ sound. One by one, the children then helped to stir the silly soup ingredients as we sang the silly soup rhyme…
We’re making lots of silly soup
We’re making soup that’s silly
We’re going to put it in the fridge
To make it nice and chilly!
This is a fun letters and sounds game that you could play at home.
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.
Use different objects from around the home and place in front of you and your child. Take turns to describe an item and encourage your child to find it. Use different descriptive language, for example if it was a toy tiger and you say ‘This object have 4 legs, they can run very fast, he is orange and black and make a roar noise’.
As the children have enjoyed learning and exploring ice at home, you could make some coloured ice cubes. Fill an ice cube tray up with water and add some food colouring or paint and then pop them in the freezer – if you have lollipop sticks you could place these in too if not just use your hands to get messy! Once they have frozen, explore the ice on paper, looking at the colours it makes, mix the colours together and notice the change in the ice.
Activity of the Day – Letter or Number Reaction!
If you have an alphabet or number puzzle you could use pieces from that, if not you could write letters or numbers onto individual pieces of paper and stick them to a wall or spread them out on the floor. Call out a letter/number depending on what you are using (you might want to use the letters from your child’s name, or numbers 1-5, 1-10, depending on what you want them to work on) and using a spatula/fly swat/anything you have to hand, your child has to find that letter/number and hit it! Set a timer for 30 seconds, keep score of the amount they managed to hit and count the score at the end, then you could swap and your child could call out while you hit!
Links to the EYFS –
Personal, Social and Emotional Development – making relationships; self-confidence and self-awareness Communication and Language – listening and attention; understanding; speaking Physical Development – moving and handling Literacy – reading Mathematics – numbers
Mindfulness Activity of the Day – Heartbeat Exercise!
Set a timer for one minute and ask your child to either jump and down or do some star jumps until the timer runs out – join in too if you want to! At the end of the minute, ask your child to place their hand on their heart and pay attention to how their heartbeat and breathing feels.
Daily Walk Challenge of the Day – Be a Sound Detective!
Can you be a sound detective today?! Listen really hard, maybe even stand still and close your eyes – what sounds can you hear outdoors? Birds singing, dogs barking, crunching leaves, your grown ups talking to you, cars or buses driving by? Any other sounds? When you get home can you draw what made the sounds you heard?
Movement of the Day – Fitness Friday – Sticky Kids!
We love moving to Sticky Kids songs at Large Group Time – here are some of our favourites for you to share with your grown up!
Introduction and End song – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Fs6E8GuAtI
Let’s Go Walking – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj-ouBZXd00&list=PLfcTZEc_3M1NMtEdx8uF-W2XnfP5c5PiR&index=2
Stand Up, Sit Down – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adj0Dy0sETU
Funky Monkey – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9aBYLRhFW8&list=PLfcTZEc_3M1NMtEdx8uF-W2XnfP5c5PiR&index=3
Link of the Day – Sleepy Time Games
You’ve had a busy week and it is Friday, why not end the week by relaxing with these sleepy time games!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/tiny-happy-people/sleepy-time-games/zn86xyc
Activity of the Day – Scavenger Hunt
Why not send your child on a scavenger hunt around your home/garden? Can they find something round, something soft, something blue, a teddy or a doll, one shoe, something they wear etc. You could give them a list to tick off or paper and pen for them to make their own list. Once they have found all the items and counted how many things they have collected, why not play ‘Kim’s Game’ like we sometimes do in nursery. Ask your child to memorise what is there, before covering the items with a towel. Ask your child to close their eyes (NO PEEKING!) and take one item away. Can your child tell you what is missing? Make it trickier by taking more than one thing away, or maybe even double check they are paying attention by taking nothing away! Did they notice?! Now swap over and you close your eyes while your child hides something – can you remember what is missing?! Talk about the items – are they big, small, hard, soft etc.
Links to the EYFS –
Personal, Social and Emotional Development – making relationships; self-confidence and self-awareness Communication and Language – listening and attention; understanding; speaking Physical Development – moving and handling Literacy – writing Mathematics – numbers; shape, space and number Understanding the World
Mindfulness Activity of the Day – 5,4,3,2,1
This is a useful activity for grounding if you or your child are feeling anxious, or for just stopping and really taking in your surroundings for a moment. Look around – can you find:
- 5 things you can see
- 4 things you can touch
- 3 things you can hear
- 2 things you can smell
- 1 thing you can taste
Daily Walk Challenge of the Day – Car Colour Hunt
How many of each colour car can you spot on your daily walk today – can you draw a tally chart to show how many blue cars, red cars etc you have spotted? What is your favourite colour and how many of that colour car did you spot?
Movement of the Day – Goldilocks and the Three Bears Yoga
Miss Wadey is reading ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’ today – why not give this yoga a go! –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5jwPguqHnc
Links of the Day – CBeebies Creative App & Word Waves
Lots of open-ended fun including painting, making toys, building blocks, making music, and putting on a show with your child’s favourite CBeebies characters – https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/watch/cbeebies-get-creative-app
Some stories and poems to listen to, with an animated wave helping to tell the story -https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zvyc7nb
Activity of the Day – Puzzle Wrap
Do you have any old wooden board puzzles (like the alphabet/number/character ones) lying at the back of the cupboard your child is no longer interested in? Why not breathe new life into them! Here are two ideas for doing this –
- Wrap each individual puzzle piece up – you could use scrap wrapping paper, tin foil, newspaper, packaging from deliveries, anything you have lying around! Ask your child to either leave the room or close their eyes (NO PEEKING!) and hide each piece in a different place around the room. Challenge your child to find the pieces, unwrap them and put them in the correct places – set a timer to make it harder! Treasure maps are always a big hit in nursery, if you are feeling arty why not draw a map of your room, X marks the spot of each puzzle piece!
- Wrap each puzzle piece as above, then why not put on some music and play pass the (puzzle piece) parcel! Play as you usually would, unwrapping a piece each time the music stops, taking turns, then put it in the correct place. Once you have finished why not keep the music on and play rounds of musical bumps and musical statues!
Mindfulness Activity of the Day – More Music!
Play some music! Music is proven to be relaxing, why not close your eyes and see how many different instruments you can hear in the song. Is there singing or just music? Music can spark creativity, maybe you could draw or colour while listening to the music.
Daily Walk Challenge of the Day – Go on a Bear Hunt!
Did you join in with Miss Wadey’s ‘We’re Going On A Bear Hunt’ yoga today? On your daily walk today why don’t you go on your very own bear hunt?! You could take a teddy bear of your own along! Make sure to wear your welly boots and waterproofs!! Can you find any long, wavy grass to swish through? It has been raining this week, are there any puddles to splish splosh in? What about thick, oozy mud to squelch in? Do you live near some trees that could be your forest – be careful not to stumble or trip! I wonder if we will get any snow – hoooo wooooo! You might not see any caves but what about tunnels?! UH OH A BEAR!!!
Movement of the Day – Pete The Cat Dance!
Pete the Cat is a favourite in nursery – he loves his white shoes and four groovy buttons! When you have finished The Cool Cat Boogie why not ask your grown up to search for some Pete the Cat stories on YouTube, snuggle up and relax while listening to the stories together!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKX-ar3pAS4
Link of the day – Making Music
We love to make music in nursery – why not play this game where you can experiment with all different elements of music making!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/bring-the-noise/eyfs-ks1-music-play-it-bring-the-noise/z4sq92p
Activity of the Day – Giant Tweezer Pick Up!
We love to use tweezers in nursery to pick up various items and place them in various containers – pom poms, pasta, small figures etc. It is a great way to practice fine motor skills and hand to eye coordination, which are vital skills for later handwriting! Placing the items into different containers is also good for mathematical development – making patterns, counting how many items are in each pile, 1:1 number correspondence. If you do not have tweezers you could put your own spin on this activity by gathering a range of items from around your house – big, small, long, short etc and giving your child two spoons to pick the items up with – one spoon in each hand like a pair of giant tweezers! Can your child pick the items up? Which shape items are the trickiest to pick up? Take it in turns, see who can pick up the most items and keep score (you could ask your child to do this!) – why not also set a timer to make it more of a challenge!
Links to the EYFS –
Personal, Social and Emotional Development – making relationships; self confidence and self awareness Communication and Language – listening and attention; understanding; speaking Physical Development – moving and handling (fine motor skills, gross motor skills, hand to eye co-ordination) Literacy – writing Mathematics – numbers; shape, space and measure Understanding the World
Mindfulness Activity of the Day – Sending good wishes
Ask your child to think of 5 people they would like to send good wishes to – you might even want to write them a letter or draw them a picture which you could post on your daily walk!
Daily Walk Challenge of the Day – Tree spotting
How many trees can you see on your walk? Are they big or small? Do they have leaves or have they all fallen off? If they have fallen off is there a big pile of leaves for you to walk in? How do they feel when you walk on them? Are they wet or dry, crunchy or soft?
Movement of the Day – Yoga
The Very Hungry Caterpillar yoga https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhWDiQRrC1Y
Link of the Day – 5 Little Ducks
At Large Group Time, we love to sing number rhymes, such as Five Little Ducks. Why not follow this link, which has a listening activity, the 5 little ducks song and a story about Zack who has lost his quack! https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/eyfs-listen-and-play-five-little-ducks/z7j9382
