Welcome to Summer 1.  Our topic this half term is Plants, Flowers and Minibeasts.    

This week, our key text has been “Jack and the Beanstalk” The children have been very engaged with this story and have learnt the repeated refrain – Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum.  

We have talked about how a tiny seed grows into an enormous plant and used the whiteboard to show our ideas about what the seed needs to grow.   We have continued to take care of our plants in Nursery both inside and outside.  We have been very excited to see the progress of our pepper plants and herb garden in particular.

As part of this theme, we have made and tried bean soup.  We talked about what else Jack could have done with the beans, why was his Mummy upset with him?  Was the giant kind?  What could we do to help Jack and his Mummy? Everyone had the opportunity to chop the vegetables, mix the beans, stir the stock and then taste the delicious soup.  We even took a bowl to Mr Parsons as a Friday afternoon treat.

We have used a range of resources to create beanstalks with, such as large bricks, stones, playdough and multi-link cubes.  We have looked at which of these is the biggest, middle sized ands which is the smallest. 

We have been touch counting to 5 using all sorts of objects such as blocks, beans and even each other. 

We have been practising mark making in foam, with pencils and pens, in wet and dry sand.  A range of topic books have been available in the book corner and the children have enjoyed sharing these both inside and out.

We have made full use of the sunny weather by spending as much time as possible outside.  We have played football, throwing and catching games on the field, used the track on the main playground, the small adventure playground and had running races too.  The mud kitchen has been very busy with a soup café making all sorts of wonderful meals.

During our phonics times, we have investigated and played a range of musical instruments in different ways – fast, slow, loud and quiet.  We have practised learning the names of some of these – triangle, castanet, maraca, tambourine, drum and xylophone.

We have continued to practice our songs in preparation for the coronation celebrations on 5 May.  Thank you so much for sharing your clips of the children practising these at home-we love to share these at circle time.  On Friday afternoon, we joined Oak Base to practice together.