Nursery Seahorses Newsletter Summer 1 2019
Marvellous Minibeasts
This half term our topic will be 'Mini beasts'. It's a short half term so we have lots to fit in! It will be a fantastic opportunity for us to get our hands dirty and explore our world around us. Not everyone likes the idea of looking at and handling little creatures so it will give some children the chance to develop the confidence to give things a go!
We will use non-fiction books to learn mini beast facts as well as sharing fiction stories. The stories we will be using as a stimulus include 'The Very Busy Bee', 'Yucky Worms', 'Superworm' and 'The Very Busy Spider'. We will be thinking about what mini beasts look like, sorting them by similarities and differences, what they eat and why they are important to our environment. Why not read the 'Superworm' storybook with your child.
The main focus of our topic will be 'The World', commenting on things we see as well as asking questions about why things happen and how things work. The children will have hands-on experiences to get them thinking, such as mini beast hunts, building homes for mini beasts and we even have a wormery so we can observe worms in action. Hopefully this will help change the minds of the children who think worms are 'yucky' like our story and we can begin to learn how helpful worms are. It is important that children learn to care for the world we live in from an early age, learning to love the creatures around them rather than fear them. The children will learn about bees and the important role they play within our ecosystem. Hopefully the children will be less fearful of bees as a result of this and will develop a respect for them through their learning.
Communication and Language will continue to be a key area for development. The children will be encouraged to listen attentively for increasing periods of time, demonstrating their listening skills through the comments and answers they give. When responding to questions such as 'where was the mini beast?' the children will show they understand and can use positional language such as 'under', 'beside', or 'on top'. We continue to develop all children's speaking skills, developing language linked to the topic and individual children's experiences.
Here is a word mat showing some of the language we will be using throughout the half term.
In Maths 'numbers' will be a focus area, working on recognising numbers to 10 and beyond, counting out the right number of objects and solving simple number problems with support. We will continue to focus on a number a week, learning how to write the number correctly and to understand the quantity. The children will learn that as well as objects, jumps, claps, hops etc can also be counted.
Here is a ladybird matching game for you to play, count carefully then match with the right number.