I hope that you are all still happy and healthy!

Here are some things that you could do with your child at home this week.  There are a lot of ideas but please do not feel that you have to use them all.  It would be lovely if you could have a look at the Story of the Week and the Rhyme of the Week with your child and also do a fine motor skills activity and some maths.  However, at this age the majority of time should be spent playing, exploring, singing, dancing, reading, being creative and having fun!

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

If you would like to try yoga, there is a lovely channel on Youtube called Cosmic Kids Yoga which has some special videos for toddlers that would be suitable for our 2 and 3-year olds.  Maybe this week you and your child could go on a ‘Pirate Adventure’:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDwyVonx35Q&list=PL8snGkhBF7nj0OVWEyE4YAa8CtiIzPl1m&index=2&t=225s

It’s lots of fun… I hope you enjoy it!

As the weather is due to be a bit more changeable this week, a practical mindfulness activity for this week could be to go cloud watching.  Sit or lie outside (or look out a window) – make yourselves comfy by snuggling up on a blanket or in a chair - spend time quietly looking at the clouds.  Talk about the shapes that you can see and whether the clouds remind you of different things.  This is a lovely, quiet activity that can be done for 5 or 10 minutes a day.

Communication and Language

This week at Nursery our Story of the Week would have been Hands Are Not for Hitting by Martine Agassi.  An online version can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dayo82HYHTk

We have a number of books from this series at Nursery and we use them, not only to develop communication and language skills, getting the children to listen, join in with the actions and say the repeated refrain “Hands are not for hitting”, but also to reinforce behavioural expectations in Nursery.

If your child enjoyed this book, here are a couple more from the series:

Feet Are Not for Kicking:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxeCH8OeGyw

Teeth Are Not for Biting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjXKfiH8FdM

Our new vocabulary for this week would have been naming parts of the body.  Maybe you could play ‘Simon Says’ with your child e.g. “Simon says touch your nose”, “Simon says put your knee on the floor”.  Let your child have a turn at giving you instructions!

Physical Development

Fine Motor Skills:

This half term we would be doing lots of work on strengthening our finger muscles ready to work on pencil grip in September.  This week your child could use clothes pegs again.  This week they could either use them to clip pairs of socks together (good for developing matching skills at the same time) or use them like tweezers to pick up small objects like pasta tubes, scrunched up paper or pom poms and transfer them from a plate to a cup.

Gross Motor Skills:

This week please practise walking up and down stairs if you have them in your house or flat entrance.  This might seem like a strange thing to work on, but it is one of our learning objectives in Nursery! Children usually start by walking with two feet to each step and then, as they become more confident, they are able to climb up and down using alternate feet (i.e. one foot to each step as an adult would).

Self-Care:

If your child is not already potty trained, then this time in lockdown is a perfect time to work on this.  It will really help your child’s independence and self-confidence if they are able to use the toilet before they start in our Morning Nursery Class. Here is one of the potty-training books that we read with the children at Nursery:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoNoB9Lj5UE

Literacy

This week at Nursery we would have continued to work on Phase 1 of our Letters and Sounds phonics scheme.  Please have a go at one of the other activities from the Voice Sounds home learning challenge sheet:

Also please try to read with your child every day and also to give them the opportunity to look at books independently.

Mathematics

This week at Nursery, we would have been looking at how a group of things changes in quantity when something is added or taken away. Why not play shops with your child?  Ask your child to find 5 toys to sell in their shop.  Count out 5 pennies and explain that you are going to buy things from their shop.  Each time you buy a toy, you will have to pay your child a penny.  Buy things from the shop, counting the quantities of toys and pennies and talking about what is happening e.g. “oh look, now I only have 4 pennies because I gave one to you!”.  Then let your child have a go at being the customer while you are the shop keeper.

While you are playing shops, you could try to get your child to use the language of size by asking to buy the “big teddy” or the “small car”.

Understanding the World

This week, we would have been talking about our senses and how we use our eyes to see, our ears to hear, our tongue to taste, our nose to smell and our hands to feel.  Here is a senses powerpoint that you might like to look at with your child and talk about the different pictures and what they show:

This week, please try to make a point of highlighting your child’s senses while you play or when you are outside.  Ask them what they can hear; point out a flower they could smell; get them to touch different textured surfaces; talk about what the food tastes like as you eat and point out things to look at on your daily walk.

Expressive Arts and Design

Our rhyme of the week would have been ‘Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’. Can you child do all the actions and join in with the singing?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvEtwhui1k0

We would also have been continuing to sing lots of nursery rhymes to make sure that the children know all the common rhymes before they move up to the Morning Class.  This week your child could listen to these versions by The Cbeebies Baby Club. If they have a favourite teddy then it can help them to do the actions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC44vlb3Rqg

Finally, this week why not have a go at creating some art with hand and feet (or even shoe and boot) printing!

I would love to see your creations if you would like to put them on Tapestry!