Our project for the Autumn Term is “Journeys & Transport”!
Children are naturally curious about the different types of vehicles that they see; how they move, what we transport in them and where we find them. This term we will be looking at the different types of transport that we find today, and also in days gone by, with loads of great opportunities to learn through play.
On land we find …… Ambulances, fire trucks, buses, bicycles, motorbikes, cars, taxis, lorries and vans.
Discussions about road safety and the people who help us to keep safe on our roads are easily incorporated into this topic. Children love to mimic the things that they see in the adult world and we stimulate their imaginations with lots of role play and dress-up opportunities for all our young paramedics, police and fire fighters!
Simple map reading helps to develop spatial awareness and physical skills can be developed through obstacle courses that the children have to travel over, under, around etc. Speech and language development is encouraged throughout. Simple mathematical concepts can be introduced looking at the shapes that we find in road signs which the children can spot on our learning walks. The colours we see on traffic lights and the different emergency vehicles encourage observation of the world around us. Stop/go games using traffic light colours are a natural way to assist colour recognition.
In the air we find …… Air planes, gliders, hot air balloons, helicopters and rockets
We will provide a whole range of arts and crafts activities based on our transport theme; tyre prints/rubbings, painting with wheels and 3D models of vehicles. We have a wide range of different media including paint, collage, clay, play-dough and chalks that encourage creativity for all of our budding artists.
On tracks we find …… Trains and trams
There are many stories from children’s literature that explore journeys and transport. ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’, ‘Postman Pat’ and ‘Fireman Sam’ are well loved heroes that many of our children will be familiar with. We try to develop an early love of reading and books by bringing stories into the nursery which the children then like to discuss and act out. Songs and rhymes such as ‘Wheels on the bus’, ‘This is the way we cross the road’, ‘Five Little Men in a Flying Saucer’, ‘Yellow Submarine’ etc are all performed with great enthusiasm (and volume!) by our children.
Over and under water we find …… Boats, canal barges, yachts, ferries, cruise liners and submarines
Water and sand small world play is always popular encouraging imaginative exploration and storytelling.
Water related activities can also be incorporated such as using water channels and our water wall, when the children can experiment with water flow and what makes boats and other objects sink or float.
Animals …… Horses, donkeys, mules, oxen, camels, dog sleds and pigeons
Our children are always keen to learn about animals and we can bring this into our project by looking at the types of animals that are used for transport around the world and in the past.
And finally…
If any of our parents use interesting transport as part of their job and would be willing to come into the nursery to show the children and give us a small talk about what they do, we can guarantee an enthusiastic welcome from Chrysalis! Please speak to a teacher if you’d be interested in doing this.
We’re looking forward to our term ahead and will all be boarding the Chrysalis Express to a terrific transport related project!
