This week in Nursery, the children have been fully immersed in a magical world of winter! Our learning was inspired by the story Jack Frost, which led to wonderful discussions about the characters and the winter weather shown in the book. The children shared thoughtful observations about frosty mornings, icy patterns and the changes they notice during the winter season. Following this, the children contributed to a beautiful collaborative winter display. They painted characters from the story using soft shades of white and blue, developing their fine motor control as they used paintbrushes with increasing confidence. A subtle sprinkle of glitter gave each piece a sparkling, frosted effect, and the finished display truly showcases their creativity and growing confidence in expressing ideas through art. To extend our winter theme, the children made their own playdough, creating a snow‑ and ice‑like effect by leaving out food colouring and mixing in shimmering silver glitter. This provided a lovely sensory experience and opened up lots of opportunities for imaginative play. In the hall, the children enjoyed exploring winter-themed physical activities, using their imagination to travel through a snowy landscape. Hoops on the floor became icy puddles to step over or into, mats were used for safe snow hare jumps and balance beams represented snowy mountains and icy bridges. We also took part in a lively Squiggle While You Wiggle session to support gross motor development through movement and mark‑making actions.
During maths time, we focused on exploring 2D shapes. Half of the children used a feely box to identify shapes using only their sense of touch, while the other half played a matching shape game. Both activities encouraged concentration, reasoning and shape recognition in fun, engaging ways. We also revisited rhyming words as part of our phonological development. Stories such as Oi Frog helped the children listen for and identify rhyming pairs, predict words and enjoy the playful language within the story. To end our week, we introduced our new children to our outdoor area and looked for new growth in our greenhouses. We discovered that our spinach plants have grown taller and our lupin seeds have grown into seedlings.
