October 2022

Sculpting With Clay
Over the past few weeks children have been supported to explore clay. They started by using their hands to flatten, squeeze, roll and pinch the clay. Children were encouraged to talk about the texture and how it felt. 
Next some tools were introduced and children sustained concentration.
We know when children are engaged in focused work with their hands, they often will share lots of talk and relax. 
Some children decided they would like to make a pot and were supported to find ways to shape the clay. 
They needed to be patient and to leave their creations to dry before they could be painted. 
Children returned day after day to explore, design, make and decorate their sculptures. 
Finally, this week some children had the chance to visit a local artist at Bromley-by-Bow.
Murude is a ceramicist, teacher, maker and community artist who works locally. 
They went inside Murude's studio and saw where an artist creates her pieces.
We hope many of our children go on to be able to use art as a beautiful way to express themselves.

Visit to an artist's studio

Forest School Learning

At Children's House we understand how important it is for children to be out in nature all year round.
Children develop confidence, language, attention, relationships and risk taking by engaging with the natural world.
We are so lucky to have a Forest School area where our children can explore with mud, leaves, berries, water, twigs and petals.
Children in the main building have access to the Forest School area every day.
Over recent weeks they have been exploring, making potions and imaginary food: they have been growing in confidence, not worrying about getting a little dirty and developing their use of language with their teachers and friends. Children have been developing fine motor skills, mixing and creating their concoctions.
Some children wrote their recipes on the board too!
The Red Building will be coming across each week to explore the Forest School too - that will be a big adventure for them! 
As part of our School Development Plan we are planning to create more areas of nature in the garden for the whole nursery. We want children to have freedom to explore, enjoy the awe and nature of the flora our garden has and encourage more creatures to visit our garden. We will create some growing areas and may even have campfires. 
Watch this space!

Black History Month at Children's House Nursery School

We are so lucky at Children's House to have a beautifully diverse community from all over the world. We value our families and friends and recognise that there is more that unites us than separate us.
Every day we aim to ensure our children feel valued, represented and develop a sense of self-confidence in who they are. Across the year we develop children's resilience, confidence, independence and language through a range of meaningful, first hand experiences.
We share stories and cook food from around the world and celebrate the seasons and festivals of the year.
We also welcome visitors into the nursery to celebrate music, dance and theatre.
In October, we mark Black History Month as we recognise the incredible contribution that people with African and Caribbean heritage have made to British society: art, culture, cuisine, medicine, music and the hard work the Windrush Generation contributed in the face of hostility and racism.
We at Children's House are reflective in our practice and provision and try to avoid stereotypes about culture and religion every day, not just in October. 

In January all teaching staff are going to a conference to hear Liz Pemberton speak: Liz is an anti-racist trainer and speaker. She has a background in early years education and we are very excited to be listening to her speak. 
We hope that this will support us in our anti-racist work and challenge us to do even better.
Please see some of the wonderful experiences the children have been part of so far this October.
Iroko Theatre Group visited us children actively engaged in African drumming: feeling the beat, joining in, developing a sense of joy and uplifting both the staff and children for weeks to come - we are still singing some of their songs!!
Joshua's mum who is from Nigeria, came in to sing with children and the wonderful catchy song she taught us was beautiful!
Ayah is from Somalia. She works at our school early each morning before the children arrive. She came in and cooked kimis with the children. She also shared some beautiful clothes and artefacts with us. Just look at the beautiful photographs below. 
Nyomi's dad came in and played football in the garden with lots of children. They were very excited and dad enjoyed it so much, he has said he will come and play again.
If you would like to come in and spend a session with the children and share something, please speak to your child's key person.

Videos

​Ayah is from Somalia

​Iroko Theatre Company

Videos

​Singing in Edo

Handa's Surprise... Who took the mango?