The Supermarket

The children have been learning all about the role of the cashier this week during our Community Helpers topic. We had a visit from Asda this week to talk to the children about Asda workers. The children have developed their imaginary and role play skills playing in the supermarket taking on roles of both the cashier and the customer. They have had to work together with other children, practise good waiting and turn taking skills. They have made choices selecting their own shopping and took it to the checkout before bagging it up and taking it home. Children have been encouraged to communicate with each other, greeting their customer, being polite etc. Children have also had to pay for their shopping, using milk bottle tops and giving E.Y.P.'s the correct numbers of 'pennies'. Children have also been practising, learning and developing their counting and number skills using real pennies and number cards. They were encouraged to count, add together, identify numerals, give a particular number. This activity was greatly differentiated to suit the needs and the abilities of each individual child and E.Y.P.'s made observations to asses children's development. The malleable tray was enhanced with food items in bags. This activity is great for developing children's language skills, learning and using lots of descriptive words. Children played a physical shopping game outside, developing their running skills and their ability to negotiate space and obstacles safely and they used creative materials to make their own shopping basket. E.Y.P.'s then encouraged children to count items and attempt to write the numb

er.

 

fresh or tinned fruit (in own juice)              

fruited tea cakes

 

 

 

 

plain rice cakes, toast or bagel with

low-fat spreads or reduced fat hummus

Wellbeing Wednesday

The focus for today's well being Wednesday was Stranger Danger. The children discussed strangers with their key workers during group time. Amanda introduced the Ofsted inspector and Asda community visitors as safe strangers earlier in the week to make children aware that sometimes we may need strangers to help us. This was also a message that Lisa conveyed to the children when we had our visit from the local Police Community Support Officer. Practitioners also read the story of Little Red Riding Hood during story time and discussed the issues of Red Riding Hood stopping to talk to the wolf. Children were encouraged to think about dangers and learn about ways to stay safe. We also have some information for parents on how to approach the issue of Stranger Danger with children so that families can carry on educating children at home. Displayed on the front door of nursery for the rest of this week is some online safety support information for parents as strangers online are probably a much bigger risk to children in these modern times than strangers on the streets. For further information on how you and your family can stay online please log on to saferinternet.org.uk they have some fantastic support information and resources.

Ofsted

Thank you to all our parents who spoke to our Ofsted inspector today. The day went really well and the children were really happy and well behaved. Our report and judgement will be available within the next 3 weeks and as soon as we can tell everyone, we will, and copies of the report will be available for parents.

OFSTED

OFSTED are inspecting our nursery on Monday 25^th January 2016.

The inspectors name is Lisa Bolton and she would like feedback from you.

Please inform nursery staff if you willing to speak to Lisa. 

Thank you

Let's get physical

Being active regularly is good for all of us, but for the under fives it can be vital to their future health and wellbeing. 91% of children aged 2-4 are currently not meeting the UK physical activity guidelines for their age group of three hours of activity a day. This means that they are missing opportunities to positively benefit their health and establish healthy behaviours that carry on into adulthood.

Being physically active at a young age is proven to support brain development, enhance bone health and muscular development as well as have non-physical benefits to social and cognitive skills development and emotional wellbeing.

In order to ensure that every child has the opportunity for the best start in life the British Heart Foundation National Centre (BHFNC) and its Early Years Advisory Group has today launched its manifesto for physical activity in the early years. At St Marys @ The Park we always try to think of new activities and ways to get children being physical. We are looking to do something in March in line with Sport Relief, further information will follow.

Show and Tell

The children have really enjoyed bringing in their toys from home this week for Show and Tell. Many of them have been able to use good speaking to talk about their toys and share it with their friends and key worker's.

Police Officers

The first community helper we learnt about was the Police. The children read the story of Goldilocks and the 3 Bears at story time and discussed how wrong it was of Goldilocks to enter the 3 Bears house without their permission. Children then came into nursery to a crime scene that had been set up by the team with empty bowls of porridge, a broken chair and empty beds. The children were encouraged to investigate and look for clues to see who might have committed the crime. Both morning and afternoon children felt that Goldilocks had been responsible for the crime and went on a search for her to ask her not to do it again. This activity was to promote children's critical thinking, encouraging them to think of ideas, find ways to solve problems, make links and notice patterns in their experience. They had to plan, make decisions about how to approach the task, solve the problem and reach a goal. The children took part in an obstacle course game making their way through the obstacles to the police officer. They played cops and robbers, choosing to be the police officer and practising their counting skills before going to find the robbers who were hiding around the yard. Children dressed in police costumes acting out role play situations and went on a hunt to find the police officer's uniform and equipment. EYP's encouraged children's mark making skills using emergency vehicles, children rolled their vehicles in paint then made marks on large pieces of paper. They were supported in making different marks and observing different patterns. The children were encouraged to create their own wanted poster, looking at and talking about their features, recording their finger prints, looking at pattern and encouraging mark making and talking about boundaries at home. We also read a book called Elephant Pants where a crime had been committed and children were encouraged to solve the crime and Lisa the local PSO came in to visit the children and talk to them about her role in the community.