2018 in Nursery has begun with a few new faces joining us each day. We have all been getting to know one another and we have even been helping our new friends to explore the activities and play spaces available.
As most of the Nursery children prepare for their transition into the Toddler room through orientation each day, we have also been working on slowly incorporating important aspects of Toddler room life into the Nursery. In the past couple of weeks, many children have begun sleeping on mattresses as opposed to the cots and when possible have been having one sleep after lunch. The children have responded to these changes positively, being excited to be sleeping near their peers and enjoying the freedom a mattress brings. We have even found some children to be sleeping longer on a mattress! The children have been really enjoying the hour-long orientation each day, those moving in to the Toddler room have been exploring both the outdoor environment and Pre-Kinder rooms predominantly. The children have enjoyed interacting with peers they already know well and those they don’t know so well, or might not have met before. Those children who will remain in the Nursery have begun getting to know Kerry, and spending quality time engaging in different experiences in the room together.
In celebration of Australia Day, the children have been doing some Australian animal threading. The children have enjoyed both using the activity as threading, as well as moving the animals like puppets through the air. Through this experience, children can further their physical development through using fine motor movements to maneuver the string through each hole.
We also introduced an airport onto the climbing frame area, to encourage children to continue to use this area to further their gross motor functions, but with an aspect of vehicles due to some of the children’s interests. The children have really enjoyed this area, continuously climbing or crawling over it to reach the planes and emergency vehicles, and at times groups of children have been playing with their planes together.
