2 Year Olds

Welcome to our 2 Year Olds Explorers Room!

Miss Ainsley and Mrs Leightell are your Early Years Practitioners.

Week Commencing the 3rd July 2023 

This week we have enjoyed exploring the outdoor environment. The children have developed many skills throughout, including Communication And Language, Personal, Social And Emotional, and Physical. Staff have continuously modelled key vocabulary to support the children, we have played alongside our friends within small groups, and developed skills when running, climbing, rolling, pushing, pulling, emptying and filling, digging, drawing and painting!  WOW! 

The boys and girls had great fun at Hetton Primary's very own car wash! The children explored different items, such as sponges and cloths to help clean the cars. They all demonstrated the skills to parallel play alongside their peers while also taking turns and sharing the resources. 

We have shared endless amounts of story books, sang our little hearts out while also exploring puppets and props to further develop our learning. 

Week Commencing Monday 26th June 2023 

Another busy week for our ‘Little Explorers’. 
This week our Maths focus is 3 Green Speckled Frogs, the children absolutely love this song. They all participated throughout, copying various actions while also developing their number knowledge when counting 1-3. Some children were able to demonstrate the number of frogs when using their fingers. The children also developed their vocabulary when using different phrases, such as “all gone” and “no more”. 
 

We looked at the story book ‘Maya’s Walk’ again, to extend the children’s learning. The children were asked a variety of simple questions. This was to encourage vocabulary relating to Who? What? Where? With support the children could identify various pictures in relation to some of the questions that had been asked.

The children have been developing their physical, and Personal, Social and Emotional development when exploring the outdoor environment. They have had great fun exploring the cars, bikes and scooters, while developing the skills to move their feet to make the ride on’s move. The children engaged in simple turn taking when waiting for one of the toys to become available for them to play with. Some children enjoyed exploring various resources to facilitate their climbing and balancing. 

Week commencing Monday 19th June 2023

This week’s number rhyme was ‘3 Currant Buns’, the children enjoyed each day acting out the song and also playing imaginatively in the Home Corner with the salt dough props!

The children this week also made a Father’s Dad card and they found it amusing and tickly when staff painted their feet to create footprints to make a dinosaur! 
 

Following on from last week, the children enjoyed exploring sounds by combining various media and materials together and took turns well.

The children were able to manipulate the malleable material in various ways exploring the texture with their hands as well as exploring the tools and pretending to make cakes and biscuits using paper cases and cutters.

Lastly, we had so much fun cooling down in this hot weather by having a water fight with the staff and children in Nursery, we especially enjoyed the water balloons!

Week commencing Monday 5th June 2023

At story time we read one of our focus books for this term - ‘Maya’s Walk’ several times throughout the week, staff used simple language to reflect the illustrations whilst boosting the children’s vocabulary for the natural world around them, for example; “flower” and “rainbow”.  As well as environmental sounds, such as; “birds singing”, “people talking” and “dogs barking”. Staff encouraged the children to model the labels stated and they did and several of them also independently recognised and labelled what they could see, showing interest in the colourful illustrations.  At Group time, we listened to different sounds by exploring and experimenting with a range of media through sensory exploration creating sounds by banging, shaking, tapping and scraping and at differnt speeds and volumes, where staff again emphasised the key vocabulary such as; “Wow, that’s loud!” 

The children enjoyed engaging in both Sand and Water play both indoors and outdoors whilst strengthening their large muscles as they use them to dig and scoop the sand and pour and splash in the water.  As the children were pouring, filling and emptying they were also developing their fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. Additionally, sand and water play is great for developing the children’s language skills, as they learn new words relating to the different objects that have been placed/added to the sand and water, what they are doing as well as talking to their peers as they play alongside each other.  As well as incorporating this week’s number rhyme; ‘1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Once I caught a fish alive’ where the children used the nets to catch and scoop up the fish. Staff promoted key related vocabulary, counting and sang songs and rhymes.

Additionally during outdoor play, the children developed their gross-motor skills and balance as they rode along and around on the wheeled resources, including the Scuttlebug, scooter boards, 3 wheel scooter and balance bike. The children also enjoyed looking through the fencing at the surrounding environments, in which staff spoke to the children about what they could see, such as; house, car, bus, tree etc.

Week Commencing Monday 22nd May 2023 

This weeks number rhyme is 🎵3 Fat Sausages Sizzling In a Pan🎵, the children enjoyed exploring the salt dough that they formed into sausages as props for our number song. They demonstrated a good understanding of 1-1 counting when counting the sausages, while also demonstrating a good understanding of change in quantity. The boys and girls have been developing their vocabulary throughout, copying key phrases and actions. 
We took part in a taste testing activity, we cooked and ate some sausages which the children very much enjoyed during snack time. Later in the week the children made their very own sausage rolls, they were definitely a firm favourite! They explored texture while also developing their fine motor skills when rolling the pastry to form the sausage roll. 
 

We have also explored colour matching, the children demonstrated a good understanding throughout this activity. They were able to confidently match various coloured objects to the correct colour, while also developing their vocabulary. The children said the words “this go here” “blue” “green” “yellow” “red” “blue hand”. Some boys and girls are beginning to join words together to form a short sentence when communicating. 
 

Week Commencing Monday 15th May 2023 

This week the children have been developing their knowledge and understanding when identifying and naming objects. We used fruit during this activity as we observed that this was something the children occasionally seemed unsure of. The children can now confidently identify an ‘apple, orange and banana’. We developed our colour recognition when discussing the different colours, the boys and girls demonstrated good communication and language skills when using words, such as “red, green, yellow, banana, apple, orange”. We also explored our sense of taste when enjoying the fruit during snack time, the children taste tested all three different pieces of fruit. We explored colour during a fruit printing activity, the boys and girls enjoyed dipping the fruit into the paint then creating marks on the paper. 
 

We explored animals again this week as we observed that some children found identifying the animals a little tricky, we explored the different noises that the animals make while also pointing to and naming them. We looked at different animals on the IPAD while staff used key vocabulary and modelling language throughout.  
 

Wednesday 17th May 2023 was National Numeracy Week, the children within the 2 year old provision joined together with nursery to participate in a maths activity. They all enjoyed racing to find the pom poms, counting them then filling the correct jars. We also had fun engaging in a maths dancing activity. 

Week Commencing Monday 8th May 2023 

We have had another fun week exploring within our 2 year old provision, who would have thought you could cram so much fun into four days! 😁

The children have recently demonstrated an interest in singing, music and dancing. They have used their imaginations throughout their play, they used the toy torches to represent a microphone. The boys and girls were pretending to sing into the torches. We facilitated this interest by creating a stage for the children to further develop their imaginations and their interest of singing and dancing. All of the children had such a great time taking on a role while acting out real life experiences with their friends. They explored the Pom poms, forming different motions, such as waving them up in the air then shaking them from side to side. The children explored moving their bodies in different ways, such as jumping up and down, shaking their hips from side to side and bending their knees. 
 

The children have enjoyed exploring the wild animals, the boys and girls have been developing their vocabulary throughout as they labelled each animal. Some children preferred making the animal sounds and were able to confidently point to the correct animal when asked by key staff. We have also explored ‘big’ and ‘small’, some children were able to recognise the difference in size when there were two of the same animal. 
 

This week we have also sang ‘3 Little Ducks’ again, to test the childrens knowledge from previous weeks. They have demonstrated good number knowledge and retained what they have learnt. They are able to 1-1 count to 3, while also noticing when the quantity has changed. 

Week Commencing Monday 1st May 2023 

We have all had such a busy fun filled week to celebrate the Kings Coronation🤴. The children have enjoyed being creative when making their own crowns to wear during a mini parade around the school hall. The boys and girls explored various resources and materials when creating their crowns, they used glue, pom-poms, sparkles and glitter. They all demonstrated attention to detail, concentration throughout, and being proud of what they had made. 

All of the children within the EYFS enjoyed Afternoon Tea with the residents of Primrose Care Home. They sat alongside the children while they engaged in various creative activities, biscuit decorating and singing. They all had a fantastic time, and it was lovely to have visitors within our school. 
 

We definitely celebrated our new King in style! It was fantastic to see so many parents and carers participate in our whole school event. We celebrated with a non uniform day ‘Red, White and Blue’ and we did our very first ‘Song Bomb’. It was absolutely fantastic to hear everyone’s wonderful singing. 
 

Week commencing - 24th April 2023

This week the children enjoyed exploring the play dough and its texture, they manipulated the malleable material initially using their hands to do so before then using the tools. Staff modelled to the children how to use both the rolling pin and cutters effectively and supported were necessary, during this time staff also encouraged the children to describe the play dough and what they were doing and modelled related vocabulary such as; ‘soft, squash, squeeze, roll and pat!’ The children also imaginatively pretended to make ‘cakes and biscuits’, as they used the cutters and also enjoyed filling and emptying paper cake cases with play dough.

Staff have also been working hard behind the scenes, enhancing the environment and the cosy book area and indoor climbing frame definitely got the seal of approval from our Little Explorers! 

Week Commencing 17th April 2023 

This week the children have enjoyed settling back into their environment after a lovely break during the Easter half term holidays. ☺️ They have enjoyed exploring independently while also seeking out their friends to join in with their play. Some children have used their imaginations while playing with the Duplo, and the natural wooden blocks to extend their experiences. They enjoyed making dinosaur models with the Duplo, hiding under the tunnels and taking on a role while playing alongside others. Mrs Leightell and Miss Ainsley are super impressed with the children's vocabulary, we heard “It’s a T-Rex.”  “Rawwww!” “She’s building a house.” “My Dinosaur.” Some children demonstrated an interest in Rockets when exploring the natural wooden blocks, one child said “Look! A log, it’s a Rocket Ship. Whoosh!” The boys and girls are beginning to use their imaginations more, when pretending objects can be used for many purposes when playing. 
 

We have also explored colour matching, although support is occasionally required with colour recognition. We were blown away with how confident the boys and girls were when matching the correct colours. The children were also developing their fine motor skills and hand eye co-ordination when using the little wooden hammer to put the coloured block through the correct hole. 
 

We have also sang an array of Nursery Rhymes and read endless stories, we are encouraging the children to tell us which songs and stories that they would like sing and read, this is to develop confidence and make them feel valued when making choices. 

Week commencing - 27th March 2023

This week’s number rhyme is ‘3 Little Speckled Frogs’, the children explored different textures and materials within the tuff-spot tray as they acted out the parts of the song as they sang along as they counted down from 3-0. As well as additionally playing imaginatively and using vocabulary such as; “Ribbit”, “ Water” and “Splash!” 

The children enjoyed playing alongside each other with the Duplo blocks, building various creations including towers, houses and dinosaurs! Staff also took this opportunity to use this activity to further prompt the children’s counting skills and colour recognition as well as turn taking.

This week the children also creatively made an Easter card to take home for their families and we also welcomed parents and carers to attend a Easter Craft Sessions, followed by an Egg Hunt to find some treats that the Easter Bunny had left, both of which were lots of fun!! 

Week Commencing 20th March 2023 

Maths ➕➖🟰

This week we have all had fun exploring the Space/Rocket tuff spot scene to coincide with this weeks number rhyme ‘3 Little Men In A Flying Saucer’. 
The children demonstrated good number skills, some were able to hold up the correct amount fingers to mirror how many men there were. Some children were able to 1-1 count, they even noticed a change in amount and recognised when all 3 men had gone. The children demonstrated a good understanding when asked questions, such as how many men were left. The children were able to sit within a small group alongside their friends throughout this maths activity. 

Launchpad 

Auditory Skills>Auditory Memory For Sounds

This week the children have been developing the skills to discriminate and identify animal sounds. Some children could confidently identify the sound of a Tiger, Cow and a Sheep, they were able to model back the sounds and also use their vocabulary when identifying the correct animal. Some boys and girls required a little extra support, they preferred using objects of reference alongside the sound to facilitate their learning. 

Week commencing - 13th March 2023

This week the children enjoyed getting creative and making their cards for Mother’s Day, they made marks using a variety of media and materials - card, paint, cotton wool balls and clothes pegs.
During this activity Staff encouraged the children to talk about their Mammies. 

This week’s number rhyme was ‘Three Little Ducks’, the children enjoyed exploring the different materials used to represent the water, playing with the toys ducks within the tuff-spot tray as well as looking at the associated book alongside and showed interest in the illustrations. Several of the children joined in well with parts of the songs and attempted to use their fingers to count along and down and represent the numbers. 

Week Commencing 6th March 2023 

This week we have explored a variety of different learning experiences within the setting. We have taken part in a Launchpad For Literacy activity. The children enjoyed using the animal puppets alongside one of their favourite Core books ‘Dear Zoo’. The children were able to sit within a small group, take turns whilst also follow very simple instructions, to match the correct animal to the pictures from within the book. The boys and girls also engaged in another small group activity while exploring the main school hall, they were taking turns and learning to follow simple instructions when passing the ball back and forth to each other. 
 

We have also been developing our number skills through songs and Rhyme, the children have enjoyed sitting alongside their friends while participating with ‘Three Little Monkey’s Jumping On The Bed’. The children joined in with various actions while also repeating modelled language.

The children enjoyed exploring numbers from around the environment, some were able to recognise and say the numbers 1,2,3. Definitely a WOW moment! 😁 

Some children have been learning about various shapes when exploring the shape sorter, they have also been learning through trial and error when slotting the shapes through the correct space. 
 

SNOW ❄️❄️❄️ 
We all had great fun exploring the snow in the outdoor area, the children enjoyed playing with the large trucks in the snow, they noticed that they had created marks with the wheels when pushing the trucks around. Some children observed other marks that the snow had created, when lifting the hola hoop up from the ground there was a big circle shape formed. Key person modelled language to build key vocabulary, we talked about different size and shape.  
 

🐣🐥🐣🐥🐣

. The boys and girls from Reception asked if we would like to go and visit their baby chicks ☺️. Our ‘Little Explorers’ loved them. 
 

📚World Book Day - (02/03/2023):

The children enjoyed dressing up as a book character to celebrate World Book Day and joining in with a whole school parade, as well as sharing stories with both staff and their peers! 

Week commencing - 27th February 2023

The children were happy to return to Nursery after the half term and this week they engaged in some mark making with chunky jumbo-sized chalk sticks, they were able to grasp these well and it allowed them to mark-make without them snapping. Staff encouraged the children to discover the properties of the chalk and they enjoyed smudging the colours with their fingers. 
 

The children modelled Staff and with support they explored the easy grip and opening loop scissors to snip at paper, the children initially used both hand to operate the scissors and then as the activity continued several of the children began to use one hand, showing a preference of their more dominant hand.  Additionally, Staff 

held the paper for the children but then some of the children wished to hold the paper in their opposite hand, developing their hand-eye coordination.

The children also had fun matching pairs of hands and footprints by colour and were able to so do with ease. Several of the children also displayed colour recognition and correctly labelled several of the primary and secondary colours.  Staff labelled the colours the children were unsure of and the children repeated these.  

Week Commencing 13th February 2023 

We have all had such a busy week being fantastic ‘Little Explorers’. The children have explored a range of activities to build upon existing skills, and to also develop new ones. The boys and girls have engaged in a Valentines Day Activity, where each child decorated their own yummy biscuit to take home. They were able to independently chose which toppings they preferred on their biscuit, they enjoyed stirring and sprinkling the different ingredients. 
The children have been developing their fine motor skills when participating in a threading activity, we chose to continue this from last week as the children demonstrated a huge interest in this. The children have displayed great determination and enthusiasm throughout this activity, and have learned by trial and error, some found threading quite tricky but still gave it a go and tried their very best, they preferred using the peg boards instead. 
We have also looked at colour and AB patterns, the boys and girls did a great job of matching the correct coloured objects to the correct spots. Key person worked more 1-1 with each individual child so that the activity could be modelled. Some children preferred to group the colours together, rather than following the AB pattern. Some children were able to complete the pattern when promoted by Key Person.