Over the past few weeks children across our nursery have been engaged in exploring a range of exciting experiments as part of Science Week. At Children's House we encourage curiosity in  our children and support them to ask questions and make predictions.
There has been volcano making: children have used some kitchen cupboard ingredients and watched the reaction as it creates an erupting volcano!
Children have explored floating and sinking: using everyday, classroom objects in the water tray to see which ones have buoyancy. Children enjoyed predicting and observing each object as they were put into the water. 
Ice cream making was an effective way for children to see how materials change state: after mixing the ingredients in a bag (with lots of active shaking) the ingredients transformed into ice cream! 
Slime making was a fun way for children to follow a recipe, working alone or in pairs to create something fun to take home!

Click here for some ideas that you can explore together at home with your young scientists.

Sending love to all mothers, grandmothers, sisters, step-mothers, aunties, cousins, friends and the female people in our lives who support our development. 
We know it takes a whole community to raise our children and we are proud of working closely with our families to support the aspiration and learning for all the family. 
At Children's House we invited mums and other family members to join us in sharing and celebrating all children's learning: there was singing, dancing, races, planting seeds, decorating biscuits, sharing stories and lots of play together.

Don't worry if you were not able to join us this time, all children were included in the session.  There will be more opportunities for you to join us in school during the summer term.

At Children's House Nursery School we know how important real experiences are for children to develop language.
We have been supporting children at snack time and through a range of adult led experiences to express themselves as they handle and taste food.

A group of children have been developing independence in following a recipe to make flatbread. Children were encouraged to identify the ingredients and explore them, handling them, smelling them, tasting them and talking about them. Some children had been part of this experience before and were encouraged to 'remember' the learning. Much of learning is helped by remembering and recalling and we support children with this every day in their learning.  Children washed their hands, rolled up their sleeves and got mixing and kneading the mixture, shaping it into small, round, flat pancake shapes.  Children used language to describe the texture: "wet" "sticky" "dry" "icky" was some of the vocabulary used. Children showed perseverance and concentration as the process took a few stages: from mixing and shaping, to proofing and cooking the flatbreads in a pan. Some children selected toppings to create mini-pizzas which they then baked in the oven. Children then shared and talked about what they could taste.

Another group of children were supported to express their opinions and respond to their sense of taste. Children were introduced to vocabulary such as "sweet" "salty" "spicy" and "sour".  They then explored a range of food: identifying it and saying whether they remembered seeing or trying it before. Children were so interested in tasting the small samples: lemon, salty rice cake, a chilli flavoured crisp and chocolate (a tiny piece!) After each one, they talked about how it tasted and have begun to use the vocabulary above to relate to them. They also expressed whether they enjoyed the taste and smell and why. Some children are beginning to speak in sentences now!

Can you help your child to talk about their learning?
Please remember to borrow their Special Book and take it home to talk about all the wonderful learning they do at Children's House.
Look at old family photographs too and talk about past experiences together.
Children also love to hear about what they were like when they were babies and toddlers so share this with them. 

At Children's House we value the importance of books: there are books all over the nursery. From traditional tales, to information books, to poems, to books made by children to magazines. We know the power a book can have: the impact on language acquisition and confidence as well as understanding. 
We celebrated World Book Day this year by coming to school in our pyjamas to share a bedtime story.

Remember to borrow a book every Friday from school to share over the weekend.
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Bedtime is a wonderful time to share some precious minutes together: snuggle up and enjoy a book or tell a story without a book.
You can sing songs and rhymes.
Switch off the television, tablet or phone and enjoy some connection before bed.
Please email Becky a photograph of your child enjoying a bedtime story at home. 

We are so proud to be part of our school community at Children's House and part of the Bow community. With the absolutely heart-breaking news coming out of Syria and Turkey following the devastating earthquake, the team and families wanted to do something to help.
Staff, families and the wider community donated unwanted toys, books, gifts and toiletries for a Table Top Sale we held today.
Everyone turned out and donated what they could.
We are so thrilled to announce that in 45 minutes our tiny school (with a huge heart) raised more than £700 and we are still counting. 
From the bottom of our hearts, we would like to thank you all. Times are hard for almost everyone at the moment and yet, so many of you gave gifts, cash and donations.
We are one world.
We are one community.
We are Children's House.

If you are able to make a donation, please click here.  Thank you.

At Children's House we know the importance of communication and language development with young children.
If a child can express their needs and views through words or signing, it empowers them and builds their confidence and self-esteem.  We recognise how important the role of the adult is in language development: staff work sensitively and thoughtfully with children to listen to them, join them in their play and share talk with them.
We make sure the team are available to have conversations with children and we recorded some of these conversations.
We noticed that some children prefer to talk to an adult, whereas others have meaningful conversations with their peers in their play. 
We looked for conversation 'hotspots': places where we notice more children's talk:
Snack table 
home corner
construction area
painting easel
playdough
recyclable materials model making
forest school area
baking
It seems when children are using their hands and are focused with their friends, talk flows more easily.

How do we support children's talk while they play?
We tune into children - join them in their play but listen and wait. 
Share their attention, see what they are interested in.
If they offer words or signs (including body language and facial expressions) we respond by repeating or copying them.
We might try to build on vocabulary: if they are pushing a car saying "Brrrrrr" we might join them, saying "Brrrrr" and then add "car". 
If children are already using single words, we can extend by offering additional vocabulary: if they say "cat" we might add "white cat".
For children who are using more complex vocabulary and speaking in sentences, we use prompts and open-ended questions such as "Hmmm, I wonder what happens if I press this button?" We try not to ask too many questions and avoid closed questions (where the answer is yes or no.) Thinking aloud is a great place to start and conversations will develop from there.

Of course at the heart of this is books - sharing books and telling stories is a wonderful way to develop language. Talk about the pictures and wait for children to process the language - give them time. 

Where do you notice children will share talk and start conversations most at home?

At Children's House we follow the seasons, rhythms and festivals of the year. 
Over the past two  weeks we have explored and celebrated Lunar New Year in school.
Children looked at some beautiful images and artefacts from family celebrations of Lunar New Year from around the world. They talked about what they could see and asked questions to gather information.
Some children made their own traditional money wallets, problem solving and talking about their designs. A group shopped for, prepared and cooked stir fry. They then shared it with others. At story time some children explored the story of the animals of the zodiac, using books, songs and props to support their learning.  In the garden children listened to music and responded, dancing with ribbons and scarves and a dragon which they had created themselves!
A small group of families and staff travelled on the underground to China Town. They explored the sights and enjoyed sharing some food. The reported back on the beautiful red lanterns, interesting smells, tastes and sounds they experienced.

Have you ever been to China Town?
It is not too far on the underground to Tottenham Court Road (Central Line) or Embankment (District Line).

We know that children need first hand experiences to develop concepts and understanding. 
This week children have been supported in developing an understanding of size.
Across the nursery we have been reading Goldilocks and the Three Bears. 
This is a great book which introduces language related to size: Baby Bear's tiny chair, Mummy Bear's middle-sized chair and Daddy Bear's big chair. 
Children have shared the story at carpet time, used props and visuals at carpet time as well as in their play. Whilst building, children have been targeted to begin thinking about size and using language related to size when building collaboratively with their friends. 

Who can build the tallest tower? 
Which creature has the longest tail?
Can you find a brick shorter than this one?
The bowl of porridge was huge!

When children hear language and explore them in a range of contexts then they begin to develop understanding.
Some children's learning was moved on when they measured objects using unit cubes and comparing lengths.
Some children were keen to count the cubes and knew which numeral matched the length.
At home, talk to children about size and maybe measure how tall they are.
Do you have a doorframe you could pencil their height on?
Children love to measure themselves and it's exciting to see them grow every few months.
Look at buildings and vehicles when you are out and about: use language related to size.
And most of all, have fun!

Happy New Year & a Special Announcement!

Happy New Year to all of our Children's House Nursery School community.
We hope 2023 is a healthy and joyful year, filled with growth.

We were delighted to learn that Chris Lewis, our much-loved ex-head teacher at Children's House, was named in the New Year's Honours List.  Chris has been awarded Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to education.
Chris led our school from 2007-2021 and has a long career in education, with a specialism in special educational needs. Chris has always been a wonderful advocate for all our children.
We hope you will join us in congratulating Chris in this incredible recognition of her commitment to teaching.

When I spoke to Chris this week she said she would like to share her MBE with the Children's House staff team, the children, families and local community who she worked so closely with.

We will update you when Chris goes to Buckingham Palace to meet King Charles III.