Ladybirds
Welcome to Ladybird class! We generally have the younger children in Ladybirds, and have spent time setting up the room for this age group. The shelving is lower than in other rooms, allowing easy access to resources. We also have a sleep/quiet area for those children who wish to take some time away from the busy nursery day for a nap or rest. Some of our younger children can find the outdoor area quite big to begin with, so we have a sand tray in the classroom, for those who wish to stay inside – sand play can be a very calming activity for children. In addition, our classroom has direct access to the Woodland Garden. There is a small sheltered area, which we often have open to the children at the beginning of the year, so they can still access the outdoors, just in a smaller space and with less children.
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 a doctors kit in the home corner.
All children have their own coat peg and pigeon holes. Upon arrival in the morning, 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.
March 2023
Our core story for Ladybird class this half term has been “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle.
The children have really enjoyed this story and its supporting stories, and we have explored the story using all of our senses.
The children have enjoyed taking part in lots of caterpillar themed activities. They have made collage caterpillars, colourful butterflies and have enjoyed using fruit to print pictures with.
The children have really enjoyed the experiments we carried out for science week. We created “whooshing” volcanoes using coke and mentos, explored fruits textures during printing activities, and investigated what happened when the colours from skittles mixed with water. The experiments created much excitement and it was lovely to see lots of curious little scientists in the making!
After the Easter holiday our new core story shall be the traditional tale of the “Three Little Pigs”. We shall be doing lots of pig and building themed activities both in class and outdoors. We shall also be celebrating the Kings coronation!
As the weather changes and gets warmer we shall be playing with water more often. Can I please remind parents/carers to provide suitable clothes for your child, that you don’t mind getting dirty, as we love to use our whole bodies to explore in the Ladybird class.
We hope you have a lovely Easter holiday.
Thank you from the Ladybird Team.
Our core story for Ladybird class this half term has been “Where’s My Teddy” by Jez Alborough.
The children have really enjoyed this story and its supporting stories and have begun to join in enthusiastically with them!
The children have enjoyed taking part in lots of bear themed activities. They have made bear masks and pretended to be bears through music and movement. We have explored different colours and textures through our art work and messy play. The children enjoyed exploring honey and listening to the sounds it made as they got sticky moving it around.
We have also learnt about Chinese New Year. For this, some of our class watched the dragon parade that the older rooms took part in and we all enjoyed tasting Chinese food such as noodles and rice. We also took part in bird watching week and made bird feeders and binoculars to help with the bird spotting we did.
As I write this the children are currently taking part in Safer Internet week and we are learning how to use technology correctly and safely.
After the half term holiday our new core story shall be “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle. We shall be doing lots of bug themed activities both in class and outdoors. We shall also be exploring food and be practising counting small amounts from the story.
Our woodland days will continue to be Tuesday until Easter and can I please remind parents/carers to provide warm, suitable clothes for your child, that you don’t mind getting dirty, as we love to use our whole bodies to explore in the Ladybird class.
We hope you have a lovely half term.
Thank you from the Ladybird Team.
Our core story for Ladybird class this half term is ‘Old MacDonald’.
The children have been enjoing listening to the story and using the small world tuff tray to explore the animals and their sounds. They have also enjoyed singing the song and dressing up as farm animals in the outdoor area.
We also began the half term learning about Bonfire night. We have made our own fireworks pictures, using the salad spinner and paints, practising our fine motor skills to turn the handle. We have also been making fireworks noises in our play, playing with sounds and exploring words! We also celebrated Diwali and drew Rangoli patterns in our mark making and read a story about the festival. The children also enjoyed our Pudsey Ramble for children in Need, and excitedly drew Pudsey’s to bring home.
As the weather has changed we have begun to explore the season in our garden. We will begin visiting the woodland garden before the end of this term in preparation for woodland days next half term. Could we please remind parents to pack plenty of spare warm clothes, a warm coat, hat and gloves.
As we move into December we shall be learning about Christmas and getting ready for our Sing-a-longs by practising our songs. Each child shall receive a song book and we shall post the songs to Tapestry. Could we please ask that these are shared at home ready for us all to sing together!
Our Ladybird class sing-a-long is Monday 19th December at 9.30am or 2.15pm. Our Christmas party is on Tuesday 20th December so remember to dress up.
Thank you from the Ladybird Team.
A warm welcome to all of our new families and a big thank you for all of your support during the settling in period.
The children are settling in really well and are enjoying exploring all that our classroom has to offer.
Our core story over the coming weeks is one of our favourite stories in the Ladybird room, ‘Dear Zoo’. We shall be sharing the book with the children and theming all of our learning around it. Through the story, we shall explore animals, counting, size, sounds and textiles. We shall be providing lots of hands on learning experiences.
This half term, we will also be learning the routines of our nursery day and supporting the children in their learning of this. We shall be promoting independence by encouraging the children to have a try at taking off and putting on their coats by themselves, supported by staff. If you could practice this skill at home, by encouraging them to put their arms in the sleeves (don’t worry about the tricky zips and buttons yet!) then that would be lovely.
It has been lovely to meet you all and if you have any questions or worries then please don’t hesitate to speak to a member of the Ladybird Team