We have been very excited about the new Gruffalo Granny story so have been reenacting the original stories in our small world tuff tray. The children had great memories and could recall lots of aspects of the stories, including all of the animals' habitats. 

To support their emotional development, we have also been making playdough faces. The children used the mirror to look at their own facial expressions and compared them to emotion cards, before using fine motor skills to manipulate the playdough into different shapes. 

When learning about autumn, the children were looking at lots of leaves that had fallen from the trees in the Nursery garden. They noticed the colours and shapes, and one child said they found some leaves that could be fairy wings. This led to a wonderful creative activity where the children used different shaped and coloured leaves to create their own artwork. 

On Wednesday, we enjoyed the Transition class' assembly about friendships. Our special leaf was awarded to a child who has shown some amazing mathematical skills this week, demonstrating they can count objects one at a time to (and beyond!) 10, as well as recognise all of their numbers to 10.

Thursday marked the start of Black History Month. We read Handa's Surprise to learn about the different animals and fruits that are from Africa, before exploring our African discovery table. Here, the children looked at different clothing, their patterns and jewellery. They coloured patterns and made their own pasta necklaces and bracelets. 

During garden time, one of the children could hear a bird singing in the trees, then spotted that we have a nest in one of our trees! We spoke about protecting the birds and helping them to be safe in our garden. The children wanted to try to feed the birds, but we weren't sure what they would like, so we have conducted an experiment by putting lots of different types of foods in a tray, along with some water for them to drink and are looking forward to seeing what foods they will take. Another child suggested they might need some things for a nest, so we went on a walk around the school to find sticks, leaves and other soft natural resources to put in our food tray to help the birds to build their nest. 

We have also been working on fine motor skills and pencil control in activities like self-portraits and a Handa's Surprise themed mark-making activity. 

Next week, we will be learning about planets, stars and solar systems for Space week. I hope you all have a lovely weekend!