Upper Nursery - current activies

Toys	Blue Kangaroo
One of our main focuses during our exploration of the topic of toys has been the use of stories. The particular stories we chose looked at ‘special toys’ that are very important to their owners. A few of these stories are, ‘Blue Kangaroo’ by Emma Chichester Clark, ‘Tom Rabbit’ by Martin Wadell and ‘Harry and the Robots’ by Ian Whybrow and Adrian Reynolds. The children talked about their favourite toys and what it is that makes them special. We also talked about how it can sometimes be quite difficult to share something that is so special, which is how Lily felt in the Blue Kangaroo story. She did share all her other toys though!! We also talked about how they made us feel. Lots of children liked to have a toy to take with them to bed.
	The books we read led us to do some lovely art work. After reading Harry and the Robots, we made some of our own, using boxes, tubes, paper etc…. This included designing the shapes of our robots, thinking about how many arms and legs it should have, adding buttons etc. An activity that had a maths focus, was making a Chinese tangram puzzle out of clay. The puzzle has seven pieces to it and includes triangles and squares and a parallelogram which, when put together, makes one whole big square. We had to use a variety of tools to create these shapes. Our next stage is going to be painting them. It will then be fun to see if we can put it all together again.
	making a Chinese tangram
	To go with our theme on toys, Our music teacher taught us the song. ‘Let’s go fly a Kite’,which you may know, from the popular film, 'Mary Poppins'. Let's Go Fly A Kite Lyrics Mr. Banks: With tuppence for paper and strings You can have your own set of wings With your feet on the ground You're a bird in a flight With your fist holding tight To the string of your kite Oh, oh, oh! Let's go fly a kite Up to the highest height! Let's go fly a kite and send it soaring Up through the atmosphere Up where the air is clear Oh, let's go fly a kite! Bert: When you send it flyin' up there All at once you're lighter than air You can dance on the breeze Over 'ouses and trees With your fist 'olding tight To the string of your kite Londoners: Oh, oh, oh! Let's go fly a kite Up to the highest height! Let's go fly a kite and send it soaring Up through the atmosphere Up where the air is clear Let's go fly a kite!