Nursery News

News and Updates from Nursery

2 months ago
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Nursery News

Wow! What a very busy few weeks we have had in the Nursery. An Afternoon Tea party and performance for parents, a visit to Uplands Care Home to meet our Gran Friends as part of Inter generational project and visits to and from Reception to meet our new teachers.
 
The children have also taken part in Raddlebarn in Bloom and produced the most stunning 3D crowns that showcased their amazing drawing skills. We based our idea on the beautiful book, ‘A Crown for Corina’. We also presented to our new Gran Friends at Uplands, some of the crowns to brighten up their day room.
We also visited Guatemala (well via the internet at least) to learn all about Guatemalan Worry Dolls. The children have made their own memory bags as a keep sake of their time in Nursery and created their very own ‘worry doll’ just in case they may feel a little anxious about starting school.
 
I know that they will continue to be the amazing, creative and joyful bunch of children that we have had the pleasure of teaching this year. So to all our fabulous families, to the Badgers, Squirrels and Foxes alike, have a wonderful summer break and we see you soon.
Love Miss Killelay, Miss Hunt
Miss Karimi 
3 months ago
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Focusing on the mathematical skills of positional language and linked to elements such as ‘describe a familiar route’ within our curriculum, we have been immersing ourselves in the popular tale of ‘Rosie’s Walk’ by Pat Hutchins. In the story a hen ‘Rosie’, goes for a walk around her farm, unaware that a crafty fox is following her! The book is superb for describing how and where Rosie is going, enabling the children to understand words associated with positional language.
We have not only used story props to embed this language but also we ourselves became foxes and hens and used our outdoor equipment to build an obstacle course so we could deepen our understanding of following and describing a familiar route.
To top off the week, Oliver’s Daddy brought in one of their hens to show us. She is a magnificent hen with a beautiful plumage and lays the most scrumptious eggs! So thank you Oliver and Daddy for making this a very special way to end our very busy week!
4 months ago
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Nursery News

In Nursery, we love to share books together. Whether they be information books, poetry or good old picture books, we just love to listen and share our favourites together. This week we have been sharing a poetry book and a new story book. ‘Brian The Lion Who Learned’ is a terrific read all about a lion who learns to be respectful of others. Respect is such an important idea and this is what we strive for together as a Nursery team. 
 
Following the reading of this book some of us had a go at making lion masks. The children used their D&T skills such as scissor work, attaching (glue and sellotape) and their drawing skills to create these incredible head masks – the results are simply stunning and would not look amiss in a West End production of ‘The Lion King’!
 
As we learn poems through our Poetry Basket, we have also been sharing an anthology book of poems called, ‘Here’s a Little Poem.’ It is a lovely collection of poems by different poets and illustrated by a whole host of illustrators. 
We took inspiration from the poem ‘A Circle of Sun’ and were inspired by the fabulous illustration. Here are some of our own creations using the poem as a stimulus. We hope you enjoy them as much as we had making them.
4 months ago
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As we continue on our journey to becoming sunflower experts, we have been exploring other types of seeds in our Science Lab – this is part of being in the C.I.D Club (being Curious leads to Investigation which leads to Discovery which results in Learning!)
 
We have listened to many versions of the traditional tale, ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and talked about the similarities and differences in these different versions. We then went on to investigate dried bean pods saved from last year’s harvest on Miss Killelay’s allotment. We used all of our scientific skills of noticing, wondering, hypothesising to finally discovering the seeds inside. We used mathematical skills to estimate how many seeds maybe inside and laid out our bean seeds on 10 frames to show the actual amount. 
We have also been exploring measurement related to height and learning mathematical vocabulary such as short, tall, taller, shorter, shortest and tallest. The children made paper chain stems for their sunflower paintings, ensuring that their chain was as tall (not shorter than or taller than) themselves. They then counted each link and recorded the amount using tally marks.
There is so much mathematics going on at the moment in our Sunflower Challenge but next week our learning takes us down the creative path… tune in again for more Nursery News.
5 months ago
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Nursery News

Nursery have joined the CID club! C for curiosity – when we are curious we want to, I –investigate to find out more, which leads to D – discovery and discovery leads to learning! 
 
We are continuing our journey to becoming sunflower experts and already on the Nursery Padlet, children are posting how their sunflower seeds are beginning to germinate at home – exciting times!
In the CID Club this week we have been using our noticing skills and looking really closely at a range of different seeds. We have been learning to use digital microscopes to look even closer and see things that we cannot see with the naked eye. It has been fascinating to see the young scientists at work and to see their reactions to the images that the digital microscopes can produce. Keep tuned for future news from the CID Club and all our young scientists.
 
Elsewhere, Hazel has been to visit and in Drawing Club, some of our young artists have drawn portraits of her. We must say that Hazel made an excellent model and sat very still and quiet whilst the artists worked. She was well rewarded after with lots of treats!
5 months ago
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Back in the Autumn term the children looked at sunflower heads which Miss Killelay had brought in from her allotment. We harvested the seeds from the middle and saved them. Now the Spring is here, it is time for our annual Sunflower Challenge. The children have put together their very own growing kits to take home in order to get growing at home and see who can grow the tallest sunflower.
 
We used our maths skills to investigate how many seeds we had in total and to find out if we had enough for each child… it turns out that, using five frames, we most certainly did. It was great to see children using their subitising skills in a real-life context and shows just how much they are learning. Watch this space for more updates about the Nursery Sunflower 🌻 Challenge 2024
6 months ago
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As part of our mini Geography project this week we have been discovering a little more about the country of Mexico and a little boy called Pablo who is Mexican. The story book, ‘At The Same Moment Around the World’ was our inspiration. We learnt although there are some things that are different in Mexico (such as the weather!!), there are many things that are the same for the children of Mexico and the children in Nursery. For instance, at times of celebrations they have fiestas and play the pinata game. We made our own pinatas but sadly they were not filled with sweets (we think Miss Killelay must have eaten them first!!)
 
We have also been learning to play the traditional game of Hopscotch. We looked at photos from the past of children playing hopscotch including children around the world. It was great to develop physical skills such as aiming and throwing and hopping and jumping. Our Hopscotch ‘boards’ were drawn out in the playground with chalk and we included numbers, shapes and letters to match the ones we have been learning in Phonics. We also created an indoor Hopscotch game by using masking tape 😉
 
We wish you all the happiest of holiday times and look forward to seeing you for the Summer Term back on April 8th.
7 months ago
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This week Nursery have been participating in British Science Week. The theme this year is ‘Time’. 
We discussed what time means to us – our daily routines such as morning time, school time, lunch time, bedtime etc. We have a huge monthly calendar in our class which we use every day to see what has happened in the past, what will happen today and what will happen in the future. The children are busy filling in their own weekly calendar at home as part of our learning.
 
Within the Nursery we used sand-timers as a way to show what we can do in either 30 seconds or 3 minutes. Using the 30 second timer, the children had to throw a die and carry out the challenge that it landed on. For example take off our shoes and put them back on again, put on and take off our coats, as many star jumps in 30 seconds that we could manage (exhausting!) and then the ultimate Gladiator challenge of how many laps around the playground we could do in 3 minutes on our balance bikes!
We think it is time for a rest now! Enjoy the weekend everyone 🙂
7 months ago
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This week Nursery have continued their investigations into the world of 2 dimensional shapes. To help us consolidate our understanding and to develop physical skills such as aiming and throwing, we created a shape target game.
We went one step further and introduced ways to record the scores. The children developed their own ways to record and the mathematical graphics were varied; from using tally marks, smiley faces to drawing the actual shapes! 
 
We also talked about our families, particularly with Mother’s Day on Sunday. We looked at the story, The Family Book by Todd Parr, which tells us that not all families are the same and that it is important to recognise, respect and celebrate our differences. For this reason, our cards this year, reflect the many special people in our lives and to be thankful to be loved and cared for by them.
For World Book Day Nursery had a lot of fun with two special visitors- Sarah from Flat Pack came to tell us some stories and Natalia (Mummy of one of our nursery children) visited to tell us about her fave book – The Invisible String –  and also what it’s like being an author!