Exploring in the garden at Molesey

This week the children have been looking at the letter 'P'. They practiced drawing the letter, while thinking of words that begin with the sound. Amelie said "P is for Peter! We have a Peter at nursery!" They also cleverly identified words such as pineapple, peas, pumpkin and pears, drawing their ideas and were very proud to show their peers. The children have also been for a walk through the Imber court grounds, searching around and in the bushes to see what they could find. Peter picked up a mysterious object and said "Look pears that have grown. They are not very big are they!" Holding them up for everyone to see.

Back at the nursery, the children explored the various plants and flowers that are in the nursery garden. They enjoyed investigating the smells, which Lily and Elodie thought were beautiful. They explored the colours and talked about which ones were their favourites. As they were looking, Hector spotted a bumblebee flying over their heads, which inspired them to go on a bug hunt with their magnifying glasses. They were very excited to see all kinds of small insects such as spiders and ants, crawling quickly along the ground.

Gardening and mini beasts

This week the children have been focusing on the environment around them and also the mini beasts that live there. The children have been exploring the outdoor learning area. They helped to water the plants and also do some weeding. Elara said "the water helps the vegetables grow." Joshua then replied with "I don't like vegetables.! The children have also been on a mini beast hunt where they found different insects and natural materials. Jasmin found a pine cone and shouted excitedly to her friends "Pine cone, that's p, the sound of the week!" They spoke about what shapes they could see when looking at the creatures. Dawid said "Look !, circle, snai!". Afterwards the children all spoke about what they had seen and spent time carefully drawing the bugs.

The toddlers also participated in the outdoor learning area fun! They spent time looking in the pond. They shouted excitedly "Fish! " The little ones also helped to water the plants by using the watering cans. They watched very closely as the water ran down the end of the watering can and made marks on the wooden edge of the planting beds below them.

Under the sea at Molesey

This week the children have been focusing on the theme of the week, 'Under the sea' and have enjoyed activities related to this topic. The pre-school children have been having lots of fun in the water tray where they have been catching different sea creatures in their fishing nets, Albie recognised "It's a shark with really sharp teeth!" which he quickly put back into the water tray, causing the water to splash everywhere. The children have also been exploring with different coloured paints getting their hands messy making crabs, Peter said "my hands are all messy now" as he pushed them onto the paper.

This week the children have been focusing on 'N' as the sound of the week and the children have been sounding out different objects that begin with N. Lily said "Nectarine, I like them they are orange", and they have also been copying the actions to form the letter N in the air.

Wow .... look at the amazing marrows the children have harvested since being at Molesey nursery that they all individually planted. They have been picking these throughout the week which they were all very excited about. Chloe said "It's very heavy!" as she managed to pick one up.The children are all looking forward to trying them when they are cooked. Yum!

This week the baby room have been having lots of fun exploring different sensory activities throughout the week. They got very messy indeed exploring the different textured bubble wrap and painting with cars. Leo enjoyed touching the paint putting it all over himself making himself nice and blue! Some of the children have also been exploring within the tufty tray playing with the porridge oats mixed with blue food colouring where they have been using cups to help show the children's control and movement.

1,2,3,4,5 once I caught a fish alive

The children had lots of fun in Bushy park this week, joining in with many Forest School activities. They took fishing nets with them and sat by the small river, dipping their nets into the water. Darcey said "Look, look, I caught a stick!" proudly showing off her prize. They then decided to make their own fishing rods, searching the woodland gardens for their various materials. The children threaded wool around sticks, making their fishing rods nice and long to catch huge fish.

On the way to the stream, they noticed some ducks waddling along and became very excited, standing beside them. Eve said "Look there's baby duck, there's mummy duck but where's daddy duck?" The children had a long think, to which Robyn replied "Daddies gone to the waterworks!" The stream was a fantastic place for the children to paddle, marching up and down and observing how big their splashes could be! Ines shouted "Splish splash, Splish splash!" They had such a brilliant time in the park, going on an animal hunt for the jungle animals from the story 'Rumble in the Jungle'. They listened closely for any sounds or sudden movements, giggling as birds rustled the leaves on the trees. They searched under logs, in the bushes and behind trees. By the end of the visit, the children were discussing their next trip!

This week the babies explored the woodland gardens and acted out the story of the bear hunt. Thomas loved to walk through the long grass and stopped suddenly when he saw a bunny, "Oohh!" he said pointing excitedly. Xanthe couldn't wait to jump and splash in the stream "splash splash" they shouted. "Yaaaay" Xanthe said. Back at nursery they all sang the song 'Sleeping Lions' and acted out all the different animal sounds. Emily and Ines joined in and loved to roar like lions!

We also investigated some plants. Emily loved to smell the fragrances of the new plants and Xanthe felt the different textures. we decided to do some mark making to see if we could draw the new plants.

The Gruffalo at Molesey

This week the children have all been enjoying ‘The Gruffalo’ theme where they have taken part in many different Gruffalo activities throughout. Toddlers and pre school have enjoyed exploring our new water trays and mud kitchen In the outside area where they have been making Gruffalo Crumble. Ezra said “We need some chocolate chips” as he scooped up the bark placing it into the bowl stirring. Whilst Peter said “How about some porridge oats?” whilst using a bucket full of sand. They have shown great imagination whilst being very curious with the different textures they have been mixing together. The children have taken part in a Gruffalo walk around the garden where they noticed different footprints in the sand area and within the bark whilst trying to find the Gruffalo, fox and mouse. Albie said “I think he is being a cheeky one hiding!” as they all ran into the wooden house to hide! 

They have been for a lovely walk around Imber court this week enjoying the sunshine whilst they were collecting daisies, leaves and twigs to take back to nursery to make Gruffalo textured pictures. Ella counted “1,2,3” as she picked up the daisies smiling. 

The sound of the week is ‘I’ and the children have been sounding out the letter during carpet time and writing the letter in the air using their fingers to show great control. They found different textured letter ‘I’ in pasta and oats and had fun crunching them together while they searched. 

Babies have had a great week exploring and taking part in different activities throughout where they have been experimenting with different textures materials. Julien has really enjoyed painting with the cars pushing them back and forth on the paper to make wheel marks whilst getting extra messy. Some of the other little ones have enjoyed exploring within the farm Tufty tray picking out the hay laughing as they picks up the different animals. They have taken part in music and movement this week where they have been using different musical instruments, singing different nursery rhymes.