Nursery News

News and Updates from Nursery

2 years ago
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Nursery fun this week

Another great week of learning for Nursery has quickly passed us by. We have been thinking about good dental hygiene and the importance of looking after our teeth by brushing them twice a day and making sure we visit the dentist for regular check-ups. Hazel, also came to visit, as we have to ensure that her teeth are kept healthy too – just like us! Hazel has special toothpaste just for dogs and lots of different type chews that are good for her teeth – she is growing so fast – just like us!
Following on from the introduction of two Giant African Land Snails in Nursery, the children have been showing an interest in finding out more about other creatures that inhabit our outdoor environment. Our new mud-kitchen area is ideal for looking for little ‘mini-beasts’ and the children’s confidence and curiosity has grown.
In Mathematics we have been learning about shapes, particularly triangles and squares. We have been using loose parts to create these shapes and have been talking about the properties of these shapes. We have loved sharing and listening to the shape series of books by Jon Klassen & Marc Barnett.
2 years ago
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Science Week in Nursery

Wow… what a wonderful week of learning we have had. To kick start Science Week we began by finding out more about our Giant African Land snails (GAL’s for short). Although ours are not at all ‘giant’ at the moment, we hope that with great care and attention we can nurture the snails to become very big indeed!
We started off by talking about how similar – yes similar we are to snails – we both have the ability to breath, eat, and move. We both have a house to live in – although they are very different – thankfully!
The children are learning to take great care of these delicate creatures and we are beginning to understand that all living things have a right to be treated kindly.
We also made a wormery and collected earth worms to put in a special tank that will help us to understand why worms are so important to the earth we walk upon.
There was a special ‘visitor’ too! Miss Lowry popped in to see our ‘visitor’ and thought at first it was Hazel – but no, just something that was remarkably furry and brown just like our school puppy. It was in fact an Orangutang (not a real one of course – just a puppet). But a puppet with a very important message. It came to tell us that just like the GAL’s, Orangutangs need to be treated with respect as their habitats, the rainforests are being chopped down to make way for among other things, palm oil plantations.
The children listened very carefully to the plight of the Orangutangs and were struck by what is happening. These are really big messages for our little ones, but it is never too early to learn how connected we are to our planet and how it is vital that we take care of it for the future.
2 years ago
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Fun Packed Week – Nursery

Nursery had a fun packed week last week. A highlight was the Story Making Workshop that we had with our parents and Grandparents. We showed our families how we use Tales Toolkit to create wonderful tales and how we can write them down. It was so lovely to see so many families attend and learn all about how to create stories at home. We even got to take home our very own Tales Toolkit gift pack!
And of course, although the week ended slightly earlier than expected due to the weather, the Foxes and Squirrels took full advantage of the snow on Thursday morning. We had a fabulous time enjoying the white stuff; shame it went so quickly!
2 years ago
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Nursery fun for World Book Day

We have been joining in with children and staff throughout our school and indeed the country, to celebrate World Book Day.
The children looked fabulous in their costumes. Miss Hunt, Miss Whelan and Miss Killelay dressed up as characters from The Colour Monster… one of favourite books of all time!
Our chosen author was James Dean the creator of another Nursery favourite… ‘Pete the Cat and his White Shoes’. The book we chose today was ‘Pete the Cat and the Perfect Pizza Party’ – all the toppings for the perfect pizza began with the letter sound ‘p’ which was perfect as this is what we have been listening out for in our phonics sessions!
In the Creative Area we made our own perfect pizza, using various materials to collage the toppings. We also selected a book from the reading area and learnt how to create a Story Journey Map to match the sequence (or ‘journey’ of the story).
And of course, there was plenty of opportunities to hear stories throughout the day.
On behalf of the Nursery children, we would just like to say a great big thank you to the Friends of Raddlebarn, who very kindly bought each child a book to take home.
2 years ago
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Fun in Nursery this week

What a very exciting week it has been to finish off this term. Being inspired by our latest poem from The Poetry Basket, ‘Pancakes’ by Christina Rosetti, we decided to make some to make the poem come to life!
Elsewhere the children continue to practise their artistic skills in Drawing Club. As we have been enjoying many books about runaway food (The Runaway Pancake, The Big Pancake and of course The Gingerbread Man), we are learning how to draw a gingerbread person.
And finally, a big thank you to Rob Beck from The Rep theatre. Rob has been working with us all this term and on his first day back in January we looked at photos of Rob in his acting roles. The children were really curious about one particularly photo which shows Rob acting as Queen Elizabeth 1, complete with costume, wig and make up. The children asked him there and then could he dress up and pretend to be a mermaid?
So, on his final day with us, Rob did just that and showed us how an actor can transform into another character – this time complete with a mermaid tail! The children became sea creatures and had their face painted too, then off we all went on an underwater adventure to Elsie the Mermaid’s birthday party!
Never a dull moment in Nursery.
Enjoy the half-term everyone 😉
2 years ago
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Nursery News

 
Following on from National Story Week, Nursery continue to immerse themselves in a love of tales, especially ones from around the world, like Anansi the Spider.
This week we have been enjoying reading ‘The Runaway Chapatti’ by Susan and Adam Price. The story is set in a faraway country like India, and tells of a little girl who made a chapatti for her tea, but it did not want to be eaten! This reminded us of the traditional tale of ‘The Gingerbread Man’ man which we have also been reading.
To really get into the spirit of the book, Mrs Sakib our lunchtime supervisor, came in to teach us how to make chapattis. We also got to take home a bag of chapatti flour and a recipe sheet so that we can make them at home too!
Let’s Connect
The theme for Mental Health and Well-Being week is, ‘Let’s Connect’. We started off by talking about talking! Different ways we communicate now and in the past and how this has changed over time. We discussed the importance of talking about how we are feeling and linked this to our book, ‘The Colour Monster.’  We know that there is ALWAYS someone in Nursery to listen to us, to be there and to understand how we are feeling and to help us when we need help to understand how we are feeling.
As children we have the right to be heard (RRSA Article 12)
We made ‘talking telephones’ to connect us to each other and to our friends and family.
2 years ago
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Nursery Shenanigans

Oh my! There was some serious shenanigans going on in Nursery this week. The children arrived on Wednesday morning to discover the teddies had gone on strike (along with some of their teacher colleagues) and the teddies had formed a picket line!
They were taking industrial action as they said that some of them were being thrown around in the book corner and they no longer felt safe! The dinosaurs and a number of other soft toys had also joined them to offer moral support.
The children learnt about the British Value of ‘Mutual Respect’ and we talked about how important it was treat each other with kindness as well as looking after the teddies – they have rights too, we discovered. The children really thought about how the teddies were feeling and were very careful not to cross the picket line. The children wanted to make their own placards to join in the strike action and went on a protest march to Miss Lowry’s office to talk about the rights of their teddy friends!
Negotiations were tense as you can imagine. Some bears demanded better marmalade sandwiches, whilst three bears complained that their porridge was too hot, then too cold! After school, the bears went back to the negotiating table and Miss Lowry listened carefully to their concerns. Hazel our school dog was there in support of her furry friends and to act as mediator!
In the morning a resolution had been achieved and all was well once again. Let’s hope that no further strike action will be needed!
We have also taken part in National Storytelling Week. We have been introduced to the Anansi the Spider stories which were originally from West Africa before travelling around the world being passed on from generation to generation. Anansi tales are very much part of Carribean culture so we looked for Africa and the Caribbean on our globe.
We acted out the story, made spiders and webs and in our literacy learning created comic strip story cards, learning how to sequence the tale.
2 years ago
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Nursery News – Chinese New Year and the Mud Kitchen!

In Nursery this week we welcomed Emma’s parents who came to tell us all about how they celebrate Lunar New Year (also known as Chinese New year and Spring Festival). It was fascinating to learn all about this very special celebration for so many people around the world. We made Chinese lanterns and a decoration to hang in the home. It featured a rabbit as this year it is The Year of the Rabbit.
BREAKING NEWS!
Our super duper mud-kitchen is being built this week thanks to your generosity in raising over £1,600 during our Teddy Toddle event back in October last year. Here are some photos of Chris, from The EYFS Outdoor Resources Company who has been working really hard to construct our bespoke super duper mud-kitchen for us. There is still just a little bit of work to be done on it before the children can begin to get really stuck in!
2 years ago
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Nursery – What goes in our tummy?

Wow… what a very active week we have had! In Nursery we are learning all about what we need to do to keep us fit and healthy. Our big question is. ‘What goes in our tummy?’ 
As part of this enquiry, we have been listening to the story, The Healthy Wolf by David Bedford and Mandy Stanely. It tells of how a very unfit and unhealthy wolf called Wilfred, changed his lifestyle and diet to become a very healthy wolf indeed!
The children have been sorting food and drink into sets of things that are really healthy for us and things that we can have as an occasional treat. 
Outdoors we have been at the Superhero training camp where we have been working out to ensure that we are ready and able to go on rescue missions – all Superheroes need to keep on top of their game! 
We love our specialised Nursery gym equipment… best of all there are no membership fees to pay!
2 years ago
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How we celebrate each other’s birthday

In Nursery, when children have their 4th birthday each child gets to celebrate by baking their own birthday cake! The birthday child chooses 3 friends to help bake their cake. They do everything themselves (apart from putting it in the oven and taking it out when it is cooked). Many areas of learning are covered in this special activity. 
 
The children follow step by step instructions on the recipe card (Literacy); they measure all the ingredients (Mathematics); they use different utensils (Physical Development); they notice the changes to the mixture as each ingredient is added (Understanding the World – Science); they choose their own decorations (Expressive Art and Design) and finally, the birthday child shares the finished cake with their friends at snack time and the teachers if we are lucky!  (Personal, Social and Emotional Development). 
 
At the moment of lighting the candles on the cake, we put on a vinyl record on our record player and listen and singalong to Stevie Wonder’s ‘Happy Birthday’ hit!
We think you will see, birthdays in Nursery are so much fun – and also quite delicious😉