Ducklings Nursery: 2 years 9 months - 4 years

Ducklings have made a fantastic start to the year and we are all thoroughly enjoying getting to know each other even better through our topic ‘Marvellous Me’. Activities have been focused around the children’s current interests and have provided lots of opportunities for sharing thoughts and ideas through Small World and Role Play. The children have been able to tell us how old they are and select the correct numeral to represent this, as well as make marks to represent the number. They have also been identifying the first letter of their name and created some beautiful collages as a result. They used mirrors to look at themselves and talk about what makes them similar and unique from their friends, before going on to paint some amazing self-portraits!

We have made the most of the outdoors, using the play equipment to explore different ways to move our bodies and the effects that physical activity has on us. We also talked about the local area and have been exploring Haynes with trips to the park and woods.

The children have found all the mini-beasts in the garden a real thrill and have been taking care of a family of snails by feeding then and making sure they have enough leaves and sticks to “keep them warm and cosy!” They were also delighted to find pears growing on the trees in the garden and after tasting them, decided they were the “best pears ever!”

The children have settled in really well and been a real pleasure to be around, the Nursery has been filled with fun and laughter. We are very much looking forward to supporting their learning and watching them grow and develop over the coming year!

Mrs Jordan and the Nursery Team.

World Book Day & Bedtime Stories Day

        (7th & 8th March 2019).

Spring 1, 2019.

Happy New Year to you all and we hope that you have had a fantastic festive break! We are very happy to welcome some new children into our class, they have settled in really well and have made a fantastic start at Haynes. This is also true for our two new staff members, Mrs Atkin and Miss Brownlee, the children have been wonderful and made this transition very easy for everyone, I am so proud of them all! 

We are now only a couple of weeks into the Spring Term and though our topic ‘Exploring’, we have kept ourselves extremely busy! We have discovered different methods for melting ice, ways of improving our fine motor skills through ‘busy fingers’ activities, moving in different ways and managing our own risks. We have been turn taking and managing our own feelings and behaviours, exploring different textures through messy play, counting and measuring objects as well as developing our own preferences and interests and sharing them with our friends through play.

With such a wonderful start to the year, I cannot wait for the rest of the Spring Term and all the exciting things we have planned based on the children’s current interests!

Wow! What a very busy term we've had in Ducklings but it's been so much fun and the children have learnt so much! We have been looking at the Topic, 'People Who Help Us'. Throughout this term, the children have expressed their personal interests and decided on how they would like their role-play area to be set up. This has inspired a lot of interactive learning and really developed the children's imaginative skills, with the children taking on different roles and acting out a variety of occupations and scenarios with their friends. They have shared their experiences, knowledge and understanding while taking on the role of Vet, Firefighter, Doctor, Nurse, Mechanic, Builder and Postal Worker. The children have been exposed to all areas of the EYFS through doing this with mark making, listening to stories and learning new songs, exposure to numbers, shapes and mathematical language, creating their own props to support role play, communication and language skills, turn taking and creating good relationships with their peers clearly embedded in their play. The children have really bonded and are growing in confidence with each day which is a real joy to see.

The children have also enjoyed learning about different celebrations this term. We began by learning about Bonfire night. The children created bonfire and firework pictures using a variety of different medium. They also decorated  firework biscuits and created their own music and dances to represent fireworks. The children then learnt about Diwali, the Hindu festival of light. We listened to the story of Rama and Sita and spent the day dancing to traditional music, creating our own Mendhi designs and making Diva lamps from clay. Finally, the children made everyone proud by joining the whole school in a minutes silence on Remembrance Day. They made a giant poppy as a whole class and it was proudly displayed in the village hall on Remembrance Sunday.

We have had so much fun so far his term and with just a couple of weeks to go before Christmas, this is set to continue with all the exciting things we have planned! Can't wait! 

Autumn 1, 2018.

Ducklings have really impressed us all by how well they have settled into Nursery life since September. The children have been so busy with our ‘All About Me’ topic. They identified themselves as ‘Duckling’ class and have really enjoyed creating duckling artwork in lots of different forms – collage, potato masher stamping, plasticine etc. They also enjoyed using the duckling masks for role play and singing and counting to ‘Five Little Ducks’. This topic also allowed the children to get to know each other better with lots of speaking and listening activities where the children shared their likes and dislikes as well as photos from home. The children created some beautiful self-portraits and identified how old they are as well as the first letters of their names. Recently we have been learning about Autumn and have been making the most of the pleasant weather by being outside as much as possible before winter truly kicks in. We went on Autumn walks so that the children could search for signs of Autumn and collect Autumn objects. We used these to make crowns, sort items into categories, pick them up with tweezers to encourage our fine motor skills, explore different colours & textures & use natural resources to create new art work. The children also listened to Autumn stories and loved joining in with Autumn action songs, ‘Dingle Dangle Scarecrow’ being their very favourite! Well done Ducklings for a fantastic start to the year, you have been little superstars! I can’t wait to share all the exciting things we have planned for you after half term. Have a lovely half-term break!

The month has continued with more learning about animals and the children have enjoyed the story, 'Dear Zoo'.  There have been many activities linked to the story that the children have enjoyed partaking in.  Lots of their art work is displayed in Nursery on the walls for you to see when you drop off or pick up.

More recently the children have enjoyed watching caterpillars hatch from their cocoons and emerge as butterflies.  They have also loved watching our 2 new land snails emerge out of the mud each day and eat the cucumber and cuttle fish that are in their tank.

We are looking forward to the last few weeks of term where there will be an opportunity for parents to come and see their child's work and to attend sports day, a lunch time picnic and a graduation ceremony for the children going to school in September.

Wow!! What a wonderful, busy and fun month May has been!

The children have continued learning about growth and change over time.  The beans they planted have now been transferred to the nursery garden by the children and they have loved gardening, digging, hunting for insects and watching their little beans grow taller and taller.  There has been some wonderful spoken language from the children related to growing and change.  Over the past two weeks the children have loved learning about pets and small animals.  They were so excited to meet Susie's 3 baby guinea pigs, called George, Charlie and Biscuit.  Lots of the children held the guinea pigs and stroked them gently and carefully.  A big thank you to Susie and her Mummy for bringing the guides pigs to Nursery and for giving the children a relationship life, 'hands on' experience. The highlight and most exciting visitor has been 'Gerald' - Mrs Hearn's tortoise.  The children have been enthralled with Gerald and love feeding him, talking to him, following and finding him as he does tend to wonder off! Gerald rather likes the treats that Grace brought him to eat - yummy lettuce, cucumber and buttercups!! Oakley saved the day when Gerald went missing one day last week and found Gerald under one of the outdoor toys!!!!! May we wish you all a very happy half term.