Fire dogs, dancing and water fights!

We have had a busy two weeks at  nursery.

We had some special visitors- Mick the fire fighter and his two fire dogs Murphy and Roscoe. Mick told us all about his job and how the dogs help him to find out how a fire has started. We found out that the dogs wear special shoes when they go work and that they have to sleep outside in a kennel as they are working dogs. We got to stroke Murphy and Roscoe and then saw Murphy in action- Mick hid a small tissue in the outside area, Murphy picked up the scent quickly  and found the tissue!

We enjoyed travelling around the world with our passports, we visited lots of the classes to find out about the countries they had been learning about. Our children were able to tell the older children who visited us all about Fiji and were very confident when telling them facts and showing them the work they had done.

 We had our passports stamped at each country we visited. 

The children wrote postcards about what they learnt about Fiji.  

The children enjoyed a dance workshop with Fiona from the Dizzee rascals dance group.

We have also been visiting the playground so the children can practice their climbing and balancing on the large equipment.

We ended the week with a very hot day and what better way to cool off than to have a water fight!

Don't forget its the summer fair tomorrow, fingers crossed for a sunny day!

Fabulous Fiji!

This week was One World Week at St Anthony's; with the help of Louis the Lemur (who just returned from his holiday) the children have been learning all about the country Fiji.

We have had fun watching some videos of traditional poi dancing and have had a go at twirling poi's.

The children made some shell and bead bracelets and some sensory beach collages. 

 We also made a tasty fruit salad using some of the tropical fruits that grow on the islands of Fiji. We added bananas, mangos, pineapple and papaya.

 The children have also learned that there are four volcanoes on the islands of Fiji, we made some volcanoes using clay then did a science experiment to make a volcanic eruption!

 First we moulded the clay into a volcano shape.  

 Next we used pipettes to add washing up liquid, food colouring,

 baking soda and finally vinegar.

 Then we watched the reaction take place!

 Next week the children will receive their passports and travel around the world! Each class has been studying a different country and we will visit each one to learn about the different countries, as well as teach the older children about Fiji when they visit the nursery.

The tale of the missing lemur!

We came back from the half term break to find that something terrible had happened- our class puppet Louis the Lemur had been kidnapped!

The police came and taped up the crime scene and we put some missing posters around the school to let everyone know what had happened. The children had to become special officers for the week to help the police to find Louis.

Some footprints were found at the scene and the children went around looking for clues; more footprints were found by gate and it looked something had been digging under the fence.

We made the role play area into a police station and the children were able to write incident reports, take fingerprints of suspects, make badges and write up speeding tickets. We also added some equipment that police offers might use for the children to enhance their play, walkie talkies, magnifying glasses, torches, police hat and jackets.

On Wednesday we received a note...

 All of the clues contained positional language and the children worked together to find the next clue...

We followed the clues and thought we would find Louis, but when we got to the end we found another letter.

Now we knew who had taken Louis, the children made some brilliant wanted posters.

On Thursday some witnesses came in for questioning, the children came up with some great questions.
"Did you see Louis?" "Do you know who took him?" "Where is Louis?" "Did you see any footprints?"

Some of the children even made traps for the big bad wolf in the outside area.

On Friday we finally solved the crime. There was a knock on the door, it was the Big Bad Wolf and he had something for us. It was a postcard from the islands of Fiji from Louis! He had not been kidnapped at all, he went on holiday! He said he was having a lovely time and would be back on Monday to tell us all about his trip. Thank goodness he is ok!