Week commencing 1st March 2021 - Lindfield.

The focus for the week is Expressive Arts and Design – Being imaginative.

We have included this into our continuous play provision by providing many opportunities for the children to express themselves and to use their imagination.

We have been observing …

How the children pretend that one object represents another, especially when the objects have characteristics in common. (Using a remote control as a telephone.)
How they begin to use representation to communicate, e.g. drawing and then saying “That’s me.”
Do they use movement to express feelings?
Do they make up rhymes?
Can they build up stories around their toys, adding a narrative to their play?
Do they engage in role play?
Do they sing to themselves?
Do they choose colours for a purpose?
Do they play cooperatively with other children who are engaged in the same theme?

It has been Fancy Dress Week this week at The Acorns – here are some of our costumes.

On Monday -

Some children brought in junk from home which was perfect for box modelling.

We thought about what we wanted to make and then enjoyed creating some masterpieces with tubes, tubs, leaves, pots and straws.

Miss Matthews played music in the garden – The children who were in the mud kitchen turned pots and wooden spoons into drums and joined in.

It sounded amazing!

It was such a beautiful day that we spent most of the day outside.

The sun was shining brightly. It was glorious!

On Tuesday –

We created some paper plate animals.

Dinosaurs, lady birds and bumblebees are now hanging up around the nursery for us to enjoy looking at.

They are bright and colourful.

The children worked so hard on them and rightly so, are very proud of them.

We enjoyed music time, both indoors and out.

It is wonderful to see your posts/videos on the ‘Acorns Family’ Facebook Page.

Thank you to those who have shared videos of the children singing and playing instruments.

It was another beautiful day so we enjoyed more time outdoors playing on the pirate ship and in the mud kitchen. We had the bikes and trikes out too.

On Wednesday –

The children decided to make magic wands so we went in search of paper and sparkles. We rolled the paper up tightly and used cellotape to stick it together before using sticky glue to add sparkles and sequins.

We built bridges and platforms with the big community carpet blocks – we hadn’t seen those blocks for a while.

“Are these a new toy?”

“Where did you find these Mrs Franks?”

We also had the big trucks and diggers out.

We played games and worked as a team to complete giant floor puzzles.

On Thursday -

We celebrated World book day.

We shared lots of stories together.

The children were given the opportunity to make their very own books.

We explained the roles of the Author and the Illustrator.

The children came up with some brilliant stories – we shared some videos earlier this week on our Facebook page.

This task was incredibly engaging for the children.

It was a one to one task alongside a teacher. It gave the children time to really explore their own imaginations and to talk about the books they enjoy reading at home.

It wasn’t quite as warm outside but we still enjoyed our garden time.

The bikes and trikes from the shed are proving to be popular this week and the slide remains a firm favourite.

One of our favourite stories at The Acorns is The Hungry Caterpillar. We had fun completing a giant floor puzzle, recalling what the caterpillar ate each day.