Nursery Seahorses Newsletter Spring 1 2020
Winter Wonderland
This half term our topic is Winter Wonderland. We will be looking at the seasons, thinking about the clothes we wear and how the weather changes through the seasons. Books will be used a lot throughout the topic and we will share non-fiction and fiction books about Winter, looking at different types of books and what we find inside. To find out more about Winter, the children will be learning that they can use the computer to search the internet, using it as an information source with adult help. Have a chat at home to see what your child already knows about Winter. Here is a word mat to introduce the vocabulary we will be using a lot throughout the topic. You can use some of the words while you play the Winter clothes activity below.
While exploring the topic we will be challenging the children's thinking, making them wonder why things happen and how things work. Through this we will be generating questions, asking and answering them through research and experiments. We will start by asking 'how do we get ice?' From this we will set up an experiment to find out what is needed for ice to be formed. The children will be encouraged to think about the world around them and what happens when ice or snow appears. They will think about how ice affects wildlife and what we can do to help animals in winter.
We hope that at some point throughout the half term we get some snow and ice for the children to explore and investigate, keep an eye on the weather forecast! Feel free to share any photos on Tapestry of any snow and ice fun that you have at home should 'the white stuff' arrive!
The key vocabulary we will use is:
- Winter
- weather
- cold
- freezing
- snow
- melt
- water
Number
Number recognition will remain a priority this term. Some Seahorses are just beginning to recognise numbers to 5, while others are working on numbers up to 10. We will be working on quantities, counting out the correct number of objects and knowing when to stop and also looking out how quantities change when things are added or taken away. You can support your child at home by looking for numbers all around you as you walk to school. Why not play the pairs game, below. If your child doesn't recognise the numbers at first, tell them what each number is, they will soon recognise when the numbers are the same.
A fun way of getting your child to count out the right number of objects is through a game. Below is a pictogram activity where you can work on number recognition and stopping at the correct number when counting out.