Science Week March 2025
In nursery, as part of our topic on transport, we have been exploring speed. We have been exploring gradients and friction using vehicles, balls, tyres, sand and ramps.
We had lots of fun exploring the properties of slime and made predictions on whether we thought slime would speed up or slow down the speed of cars and balls travelling down a ramp.
Maths in play
In nursery we are involved in the ‘Planning for Potential’ project. We have been planning plenty of opportunities for counting, sorting and matching in children’s play.
Getting ready for writing
In nursery we have been working on the skills needed before we can start writing. We have been building up our arm and shoulder muscles by swinging, climbing, pulling and mark making on a large scale on a variety of surfaces. We have been developing our finger strength and practising our pincer grip by manipulating play dough, pouring and scooping with tiny scoops and containers, threading small beads, sticking dots onto patterns and copying early writing patterns. All the children have a name card and some children are beginning to copy some letters of their name.
Festivals
So far this year we have celebrated Christmas, Ramadan, Lunar New Year and Divali. We learn about all the different ways that our children and their families celebrate.
Family Drawings
In nursery we have been talking about our families and drawing pictures of them. We have been practising drawing simple figures.
Albert Irvin Artwork
In nursery we have been making abstract art in the style of Albert Irvin. We focused on primary colours and used different sized brushes and sponges to explore pattern and colour. We put all our pieces together to create a large scale collage.
Marble Art
Jungle room January 2024
Following the children’s interests, we set up a multi-sensory jungle room with sound effects! We learned all about jungle animals in the jungle book corner. We made up our own stories involving jungle animals with puppets and small world scenes. We incorporated our phonics learning and practised writing ‘s’ for snake. We created our Sharrow jungle gallery with our beautiful artwork.
Art week – Nursery Family Workshop
“Design a tee-shirt”
Exploring shape, pattern, colour and texture by designing and making our own tee-shirts with our parents/carers.
22/11/23
Published Author visit to Nursery February 2024
Dr Michelle Odudu came to visit to share her latest book “I love my daddy because”. Her books celebrate black families.
AUTUMN WALKS – Nursery October and November 2023
We went on Autumn walks with our families in Mount Pleasant Park and in our school orchard. We searched for signs of Autumn. We learnt new words for different types of trees and seeds. We collected leaves and compared the colours on our Autumn colour shade chart. We found apples and brought them back to nursery to explore and taste.
Diwali
To celebrate Diwali we made coloured rice and Divas. The families who celebrate Diwali showed us photographs and told us about how they celebrated at home. We had a Diwali party in nursery. We listened to children’s Diwali songs and danced along to the rhythm of the music.
Hairdressers and Black History Month October 2023
We set up a roleplay hairdressers. We talked about and celebrated all the different types of hair that we have in nursery. We read books about different hair types. We learned how to be kind and gentle when brushing and styling hair.
Roleplay Hospital Autumn Term 2023
We set up a roleplay hospital. Children have been taking on the roles of doctors, nursers, patients, receptionists and even surgeons! We have learned how to use lots of new words about our body. We have started to use writing in our play when making appointments and writing treatments.
Designing our vehicles September 2023
The children have been busy constructing their own vehicles using the spare parts outside. The teachers helped us to think about how to design our vehicles on paper before we start making them. We made an “Extra fast turbo racing car with turbo engines for extra speed”.
Designing Scarves
Following the children’s interest in wearing scarves we designed our own scarves using different fabrics. We explored shape, pattern, colour and texture. We talked about why women of different faiths wear scarves and children shared their own family experiences.
“Floor is Lava!” Autumn Term 2023
The children have been very interested in playing ‘Floor is Lava’ outside. They have been working together to use whatever they can find to make pathways and bridges to avoid stepping on the floor. They have show good cooperative kills and focus at a shared task.
Guitars
Following on from the children’s interests we made guitars. We experimented with different sounds using different sized rubber bands. Then we played along to the rhythm with a real guitar.
