NURSERY
This week Nursery continued with the topic ‘All about Me”. Looking in the mirror the children were encouraged to describe their hair and eyes with regard to colour and texture. Sitting in a group and looking at the facial features of each other, they were able to talk about the similarities and differences they saw in each other. In order to tune into the idea of self-portraits the children closed their eyes and traced their faces with their fingers. Feeling the position of their eyes, nose mouth and hair.
The fun started when they were presented with different art media and inspired to paint and draw their faces paying attention to the details they had observed.
Self-portraits are a fantastic way for children to explore their sense of self and build their self-identity. I love doing self-portraits at the beginning of the year with Nursery when we are getting to know and learn about each other. They foster a sense of belonging within the classroom. Drawing and painting self-portraits supports communication development. Children begin to name their facial features such as eyes, nose, mouth, ears, as well as talking about the colours they see in their face, hair, and eyes, this supporting important literacy skills.
We have showcased some of our colourful self- portraits in this week’s newsletter.
RECEPTION
We have had a very exciting week as our friends from Nursery joined us from Monday to Wednesday as Mrs. Carol-Anne was not feeling well. Reception took great pleasure in showing the nursery children around their classroom and happily shared their learning resources with their younger friends. Dressing up as doctors and nurses was a popular role-play activity and helped the children learn the names of the parts of our bodies. Miss Kristina, Miss Liza and I were given lots of vaccinations that were administered gently and cream was immediately applied to sooth any pain. I highly recommend them all as gentle and caring practitioners if anyone is feeling unwell!
Outside learning in the sunshine was lots of fun too and the children loved washing the walls with brushes and rollers, helping to strengthen their upper torso muscles. They also enjoyed helping to weed the flower garden and were delighted when they finally spotted a worm. It caused great excitement and tremendous curiosity as they marvelled at how the worm could move without legs.
Our focus story in Reception this week has been, The Colour Monster (a story about emotions) by Anna Llenas. The children are learning to identify and understand their emotions using colours and have enjoyed making their own colour monsters. Naming colours in English has also been part of our baseline assessments this week and has been reinforced through learning the beautiful Rainbow song. Ask your child if they can sing it to you! Other songs the children are enjoying singing are: Wind the Bobbin Up, The Opposites song, Incy Wincy Spider and Head, Shoulders Knees and Toes.
All in all it has been another lovely week in Reception.
