We started our week by sharing exciting stories about going on Autumn treasure hunts over the weekend! We looked together at photographs of us searching for Autumn treasures with our families, talking about where we were and what we found. “I didn’t walk to find things, I used my bike!”, said Luca excitedly.

We brought our bags back to Nursery, filled with wonderful Autumn treasures to share! During our key worker group times, we took turns to share what we had found. We listened to one another politely, excited to see what our friends had found. We waited for our turn to share, talking about where we went, with who and showing our friends what we had found. We remembered the names of some Autumn treasures and joined in with group conversations where we used our senses to describe the objects. “This smells minty!”, said Zayan confidently.

We used our Autumn treasures within different activities in provision. We enjoyed making conker patterns using the conkers that we had collected. We started by copying different patterns and then started to make our own patterns and shapes! We used pine cones to develop our fine-motor skills by wrapping string around them for our finger gym activity.

We continued the theme of reusing things within our play by using cardboard boxes as a mark-making material. We used colourful marker pens to add marks, lines and shapes onto the cardboard as a different drawing surface. We explored how layering colours could change the colours on the cardboard. We shared the large mark-making surface and showed care and consideration, making sure that we didn’t draw over someone else’s work. This developed as a keen interest throughout the week, so we kept going!

We further developed this interest in mark-making on surfaces other than paper by introducing pumpkins on the painting table! We really enjoyed using paintbrushes to add paint to the pumpkins, layering colours as the week progressed. We showed fantastic levels of concentration as we painted and this was another firm favourite of the week!

We have had a busy and fun-filled week at Nursery exploring all of the wonderful things that Autumn gives us!