Over the last few cold mornings the children have been noticing all the frost and ice in the garden. There have been lots of discussions on how it got there and how it turned into ice, as well as exploring it and mark making in the ice and frost with their fingers. We then filled trays with water, glitter and natural resources and our plan was to explore the changes the following day. The next day the children were so excited to see that the water had turned into ice after a very cold night. The children explored with their hands and used icy colours to paint on the ice. After they enjoyed smashing the ice using real hammers. They used their strong muscles in their arms and hands to break the ice. #frost #colderweather #ice #iceactivities #exploration #tools #physicaldevelopment #language #eytagteam #winter #waterplay

We are SUPER proud of Ruby Room who had their first fire in their own garden this week 🔥 They were introduced to all the safety rules and did a fantastic job at sitting, looking and listening. They helped to start the fire with a BIG sneeze! Well done Shelley for doing your first fire this week we are really proud of you too! Please continue to collect sticks for our camp fires when you are out on your walks. With the weather this cold we are looking forward to some more cosy campfires in both our gardens #terrifictwos #direbuilding #forestschoolskills #eyfsforestschool #earlyyearsforestschool #earlyyearslearning #outdoorlearning #eytagteam #maintainednurseryschools #barnetearlyyearsalliance

Circles everywhere ….. After making traffic lights the children showed an interest in the circles so we looked at various artists who use circles in their work and we found so many inspirational pictures from Kandinsky, Anish Kapoor,Jennifer Sherman,Alma Thomas and Yayoi Kusama The children created some amazing pictures using various media such as loose parts, paints, chalks, stickers, pencils and pens. Every picture an individual interpretation from what they observed Giving children freedom to explore media in different ways gives them opportunities to experiment,create and use their own imagination with confidence ,without pressure of an expected end result. #everychildisanartist #processart #creativelearners #earlyyearsart #artists #eyfslearning #expressiveartanddesign #eytagteam #maintainednurseryschools #barnetearlyyearsalliance

It was road safety awareness week. So we had to get involved with lots of transport themed activities. We talked lots throughout the nursery sessions and at circle time about the importance of road safety. Teaching children about road safety empowers them to make positive choices that may save their lives. We talked about looking both ways when crossing the road and holding a grown ups hand and waiting for the green man before crossing the road. We also looked at the traffic lights and talked about the colours and what each colour meant. The children enjoyed painting traffic lights and making their own road signs for the garden.  They engaged in lots of role play with them in the garden and also practiced crossing the road safely at our zebra crossing. #roadsafety #roadsafetyweek #trafficlights #zebracrossing #greenman #go #stop #road #look #listen #earlyyears

Look who came to visit Ruby Room! 🐻 🐻 🐻 The Three Bears have had a lot of fun teaching Ruby Room all about their friend Goldilocks and how to make porridge. The children have had so much fun with role play activities, story telling and making and eating porridge Learning through storytelling is a wonderful way to extend our children’s language and vocabulary. Traditional stories introduce children to values, right and wrong and fuel their imaginations so they can begin to use these play ideas in their own games and storytelling. This story has also given Ruby Room lots of mathematical opportunities as they looked at the sizes of the bears, bowls chairs and beds and measured and mixed the porridge. #terrifictwos #goldilocksandthethreebears #traditionalstories #earlyyearsplay #communicationandlanguage #earlyyearsmaths #eyfsmaths #playingandlearning #eytagteam #barnetearlyyearsalliance #maintainednurseryschools

Our children are encouraged to look after their nursery and all that is in it -helping to put things back where they belong and look after resources as they explore, play and learn. They have really enjoyed the bike labels using numicon and pictures to park their bikes and scooters in the right place. They counted, matched and recognised numbers as they put everything away to get ready for storytime. Encouraging the children to take some responsibility and being involved when it’s time to move onto the next thing gives them a feeling of responsibility and independence. They are all doing really well at lending a helping hand. We encourage you to involve your child in this at home too #earlyyears #exploringandlearning #tidyuptime #helpinghands #numberplay #outdoorlearning #numicon #barnetearlyyearsalliance #maintainednurseryschools

Our children have really enjoyed World Nursery Rhyme Week. We made it our focus this week and planned lots of fun activities that all the children would enjoy. They loved learning all the Nursery rhymes. Nursery rhymes play an important role in early childhood development and education. As well as being fun they are excellent teaching tools. Nursery rhymes and children’s songs boost vocabulary and language development. They help children to develop literacy skills. They also provide a fun way to support early numeracy skills Nursery rhymes help children to develop social, physical and emotional skills. #worldnurseryrhymeweek #nurseryrhymes #literacy #singing #vocabulary #language #engagement #numeracyskills #earlymaths #eyfsideas #eytagteam #earlyyears

Excitement in the garden this morning when we discovered a frog 🐸 We placed it in the water tray so we could watch him but discovered he was very good at jumping. To keep him safe we put him in a tank added water and a log and stone so he had somewhere to sit and looked at him through our magnifying glasses. We looked at his colours, counted his speckles, sang a frog song and shared the book “Oi Frog” at story time. Impromptu opportunities for learning and following our children’s interests leads to valuable learning outcomes for our children #childledlearning #inthemomentplanning #outdoorlearning #nurseryeducation #understandingtheworld #nature #earlyyearsnature #eyfslearning #maintainednurseryschools #barnetearlyyearsalliance

We have noticed that lots of birds have been visiting our nursery garden. Using pine cones, honey and bird seeds we made our very own bird feeders. The children enjoyed dipping the pine cone into the sticky honey, they then covered the pine cone with birds seeds. We then hung them up on tree using some string. We will be watching to see if the birds come and eat from them. #birdfeeders #birds #wildlife #wildlifeofinstagram #nature #noplastic #naturalresources #outdoorplay #forestschool

Poppies for Remembrance Sunday Emerald, Sapphire and Ruby Room created their own poppies for this important day. Lest we forget #rememberanceday #armisticeday #poppyart #lestweforget

We have been celebrating Diwali, the Hindi festival of light. We have been reading stories and taking part in activities to mark this celebration We have been making divas (small candles) Exploring coloured rice and making Rangoli and Mehndi patterns Giving the children these experiences are so important . We encourage and help them to understand about different beliefs, cultures and celebrations. Have a look on learning journals to hear the story about Rama and Sita. This story explains why Hindu people celebrate Diwali #diwali #festivaloflights #happydiwali #cultures #celebrations #mehndi #faiths #beliefs #understandingoftheworld #stories #diwalistories

Finding interesting ways to mark make helps to keep children interested and motivated……you can mark make with so many different things….sticks,mud, in trays of salt or flour or simply use water and brushes on the ground Today we used the charcoal from yesterday’s campfire to make various marks,patterns and pictures #earlyyearsmarkmaking #markmaking #earlyyyearsdrawing #eyfs #outdoorlearning #nurseryeducation #eytagteam #maintainednurseryschools #barnetearlyyearsalliance