Butterflies

Welcome to Butterfly class!  We have mainly 3 and 4 year olds in this class, but we also have some older 2 year olds as well. Our classroom is quite different to the other two rooms as we have a conservatory attached which gives us views of our woodland garden. The conservatory houses our art studio and it gives children the space and resources to create all different styles of artwork. In Butterfly class we also have a cookery area, equipped with child sized equipment and outfits which was set up using a National Lottery grant.

As with all the classrooms, we have divided up the areas using shelving, so children have direct and easy access to the resources available to support their independent play.  We tend to have many resources that stay the same, so that children can return to their activities over a period of days, and revisit their favourite activities.  However, we also add resources that may be of interest to the children, such as fairy-tale outfits in the home corner.

All children have their own coat peg and pigeon holes. Upon arrival in the morning or afternoon, we encourage children to find their peg and put all their belongings away. The pigeon holes can be checked by parents at the beginning or end of a session, for letters or leaflets.
 
Who is in the Butterfly Team?
Emily - Class Teacher
Nicole - Classroom Deputy / Classroom Senco
Amanda - Early Years Assistant 
Karen - Early Years Assistant
Laura - Early Years Assistant
Ali - Outdoor Practitioner
 
 

Spring 1 2024

This half term, we have been looking at and listening to the story ‘Whatever Next!’ by Jill Murphy. The children have been enjoying this story and learning about the main characters. We have a tuff tray with the characters and small world props so the children can use them to retell the story. We have drawn bears, mixed brown paint, painted bears, made play dough bears, used flat and solid shapes to create rockets. We have talked about the stars, moon and the planets. The children have been dressing up as astronauts and pretending to blast off into space in their rockets inside and outside in the garden. The children have looked at and listened to many different books about space and bears including ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’. We have been using boxes and recyclable items to make and build rockets. The children have sung our songs ‘Five Little Men’, ‘Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear’ and ‘Zoom, Zoom, Zoom’. 

This week we have been looking at different types of technology and learning how to keep ourselves safe as part of ‘Safer Internet Week’. 

The children really enjoyed a visit from Bertie the dog who belongs to Katy. They all like to have a stroke and sometimes give him a treat if they want. 

We have done several woodland sessions with Ali in the Woodland garden. The children have been practising putting on their wet suits and wellies. Also they have been playing in the mud kitchen, using real spades in the digging pod, sweeping leaves with brushes, doing various scavenger hunts for different things, using the binoculars to spot birds as part of ‘Bird Watching Week’ and using magnifying glasses. The children have been really enjoying playing and exploring in this area. 

Next week we will be making pancakes and have them for snack on Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day) and finding out about how Chinese New Year is celebrated. We are currently making our dragon ready for our dragon dance. 

Next term – Spring 2 our new core story is the traditional tale ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’.

Thank you for your continued support and have a lovely break.

Emily and The Butterfly Team

 

Christmas 2023

This half term in Butterfly class, we have been looking at and listening to the traditional tale ‘The Gingerbread Man’. The children have been enjoying this story and learning about the different characters. We have a tuff tray with the characters and small world props so the children can use them to retell the story. We have drawn, made play dough gingerbread men, eaten gingerbread biscuits for snack and made our own gingerbread men biscuits. We have added aprons, a mixing bowl, wooden spoon and the ingredients into the home corner for the children to role play making gingerbread dough.

The children have been fascinated with watching the grey squirrels in the Woodland garden as Ali has installed a squirrel feeding station for them. 

Amanda supported the children to chop vegetables to make some soup and the next day we had the soup to try at snack time. Lots of the children really enjoyed this experience.

Thank you for your continued support and have a lovely break.

Emily and The Butterfly Team

 

Autumn 1 2023
 

This half term, we have been looking at and listening to ‘Owl Babies’ by Martin Waddell and ‘It was a Cold, Dark Night by Tim Hopgood. The children have been enjoying these stories and learning about the different animals in them. The ‘Owl Babies’ story has been a useful story as it talks about mummy owl coming back so this has helped with our new children settling into nursery. We have a tuff tray with the characters and small world props so the children can use them to retell the story. We have painted owls, printed baby owls using a potato masher, drawn owls and made cardboard tube ones as well. We have looked at feathers and talked about the colours and patterns on them. The children have made nests outside in the garden and we have been watching the birds in the Woodland garden.

We have started learning about the season of Autumn and trying to find some fallen leaves out in the garden.  The children have loved playing with the conkers inside and outside in the garden. They have been rolling them down the guttering and large cardboard tubes. We have been using leaves to make pictures and using them to print with to make our Autumn tree.

We will continue with our core story of ‘It was a Cold, Dark Night’ by Tim Hopgood and then move onto the traditional tale of ‘The Gingerbread Man’. 

We will be starting Woodland days after the half term holiday.

Thank you for your continued support and have a lovely break.

Emily and The Butterfly Team