Author: Reception Team

Following on from planting our bean seeds last week, we continued with a vegetable theme. We listened to lots of stories about vegetables, including ‘Oliver’s Vegetables’, ‘The Runaway Pea‘ and ‘Supertato’.

We talked about our favourite vegetables to eat at dinner time and in the Sensory area, we investigated the insides of peppers, peas, beans and sprouts. We had great fun peeling the layers off the sprouts, which was also a super fiddly finger challenge as well!

We’ve been practising our counting again, too. This week, we tried to put 1-5 peas in a pod. We talked about counting carefully and remembering to stop when we reached our ‘stop’ number. We also talked about who had the fewest/most peas in their pods.

Children enjoyed exploring what patterns vegetables make when we printed with then. Our favourite pattern was the one made using corn on the cob!

Outside, there was lots of communication and turn taking in our new role play ‘farm shop’.  The basket weighing scales provided lots of discussion about which vegetables were the heaviest.

Throughout the week, we monitored the changes in our bean seeds; some of them have started to germinate and now have roots beginning to grow. As part of our learning about plants, we watched carefully each day to see what happened to some flowers and celery that were in coloured water. Children were fascinated to see the petals change colour towards the end of the week and the colour inside the celery sticks.

Next week, we will continue to observe our bean seeds and we will find out about Easter time and how some people choose to celebrate.

We loved listening to the story of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ this week and children are really excited about growing their own beanstalks. We’ll be looking after them and watching them grow over the next two weeks.  Ask your child to talk to you about their seed and tell you about any changes that they notice.

Lots of our learning activities have been linked to ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ this week. Here are few that children have really enjoyed.

• In the story corner, we practised our story telling skills. Children enjoyed using the props to re-tell the story with their friends. Lots of children remembered the key events in the story and some could remember the Giant’s favourite phrases too.

• ‘Eughhhh!’ could be heard quite a few times in our sensory corner as children explored the textures and smells of different types of beans. We had kidney beans, butter beans and even baked beans! Despite the initial texture and feel of the beans, many children enjoyed investigating what happened when you ‘popped’ the beans and removed the outer shell.

• During group time, we practised our subitising skills. We had to say how many beans there were (1,2 or 3) without counting.  We continued this in the maths area, as well as using the tweezers to fill each pot with the correct number of beans. It was very tricky!

• In the creative area, children enjoyed sitting together and talking as they created their own beanstalks and drew Jack climbing up to the top.

As well as the ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ themed activities, we also enjoyed lots of other games and followed some of the children’s own interests -all of which helped to develop important skills such as turn taking and sharing, building friendships and balancing.

Finally, to end the week, children loved joining in with some Red Nose Day fundraising Friday fun by playing a special game of ‘Red Nose Day’ musical statues.

Next week, we will be talking about seasons and looking for signs of spring in our Nursery garden. Talk to your child about springtime and see what you can spot on your walk to Nursery. Send us a picture or let us know what you spotted. Email – scholesf1@spherefederation.org

We’ll also be talking about healthy eating and finding out about where vegetables come from as we read ‘Oliver’s Vegetables’.

Reminders

• Many children are still arriving over 10 minutes before their group’s drop off time. Please stick to your child’s allocated time as it helps to ease congestion outside Nursery and allows staff time to welcome each child and help them with their coat and handwashing.  Thank you for your support.
• Does your child’s water bottle have their name on? Please check and write it on if not. Thank you

We’ve had a fabulous first week back all together again; tiring but fun!  It’s been lovely to see everyone back in Nursery, learning and playing together with friends.

This week, we’ve also welcomed some new families to Nursery. Our new green group members are settling in really well and are already becoming familiar with our routines and beginning to form friendships.

Here are a few photos so that you can see just how happy and busy everyone has been!

    

Next week, we will continue to help children to settle back into Nursery life and we will also read ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and plant our own beans.

Reminders

• Make sure that you  are prompt for your child’s drop off and collection times. Please don’t arrive too early or collect later than your group’s time. Thank you for your support with this.
• Please respect social distancing and wear a face mask on school premises (unless you can’t for medical reasons).
• Is your child’s water bottle NAMED? We have lots of bottles without names which makes it very tricky to give them out and make sure duplicate bottles aren’t mixed up.
• Does your child have wellies in Nursery? We play out in the rain and mud, so all children need to have a pair at Nursery.

We’ve had a fantastic first two days back at Nursery! We’ll share some photographs at the end of the week, once everyone has returned.

Whilst we hope that you won’t need to use it, we’ll continue to plan for remote learning should anyone need to isolate at home over the next few weeks. This learning will be linked to the theme in Nursery so that you can join in with some of the activities at home. Everyone will receive an e-mail on Friday each week, so that you have access to the activities should you unexpectedly find yourselves isolating at home.

We promised that we’d make a little video to show you all what Nursery will look like on Monday. We hope that you enjoy watching the video and that it helps to familiarise your child with Nursery before we all return next week.

Nursery Tour – March 2021

We can’t wait to see you all! Don’t forget to read our previous post with some reminders and important information about drop off and collection times.

We’re so excited that we can all be back together again and return to Nursery from next Monday (08 March).

We know that most children will be feeling very happy about returning to Nursery and being reunited with their friends and teachers again. However, some children may be feeling a little nervous and might need a little bit of extra support to get back into the swing of things; that’s fine.  We’ll be spending lots of time settling back into our Nursery routines and getting to know each other again. This is just as important for those children that have continued to attend Nursery throughout Lockdown, as their ‘bubble’ will be different and Nursery will be much busier than it has been.

If your child has been attending Nursery during Lockdown, but for different sessions, their usual Nursery days will resume from Monday 08 March.

We’re also looking forward to meeting our new children and their families who will be joining us for their first sessions over the next few weeks. These children will be joining Green group.

Here are a few reminders before you return.

• Hopefully your child has two spare sets of clothes already in a drawstring bag on their peg. If you took this home before Christmas, please ensure you return it. Remember to NAME everything.
• Please provide a water bottle that is clearly NAMED.
• Remember to send your child with a coat and some wellies (if they’re not at Nursery still).

Nursery drop off and collection

• We will now be using the main Nursery entrance (blue door). Please put lunch boxes and water bottles on the trolley and bags in the coloured boxes as usual.
• Please wait in the area outside Nursery, socially distanced from others. School requests that all adults wear masks on school premises (unless exempt). A member of staff will call you to the doorway to sign your child in, one at a time.
• All children will be collected from this entrance at home time too. Children will be ready at their collection time and we will open the door to dismiss them at the appropriate time.
• Please help us by being prompt for your child’s drop off/pick up times.

Blue and Green group

Monday – 8.30am – 2.10pm    Tuesday-Friday 8.30am – 2.55pm

Red group

Monday – 8.40am – 2.20pm   Tuesday-Friday 8.40am – 3.05pm

Yellow group

Monday – 8.50am – 2.30pm    Tuesday-Friday 8.50am – 3.15pm

We can’t wait to see you all next week! Please get in touch if you have any questions.

This week is one of our favourite times in Nursery as we get to read so many of our favourite stories! Don’t worry though, we’ll continue with our World Book Day celebrations in Nursery next week when we all return. There’ll be lots of fun activities to look forward to, all linked to some of the most popular stories in Nursery. There are often lots of live story telling sessions during the week, so have a look at the World Book Day website for more details and ideas.

Look out for a video tour of Nursery on the Class News Page at the weekend. On Friday, we’ll be busy preparing Nursery for everyone to return and we’ll post the video as soon as we can.  We hope that you enjoy watching the virtual tour to familiarise yourself with Nursery again, before we welcome you back next week.  We can’t wait!

In Nursery, we usually choose lots of stories to read, however for our home learning this week, we’ve probably chosen one of the MOST popular children’s books of all time… The Gruffalo.  If you don’t have a copy of the story at home, click on the link to watch and listen to the story.

Here is a PDF with links to all of this week’s activities.

Reading

• Before you read the book, talk about what the children can remember if they’ve heard the story before. Who does the mouse meet? Where does the story take place? Can you remember what happens when the mouse meets the Gruffalo?
• If you have a copy of the book, look at the illustrations on each page and talk about what is happening in the story. Some children may be able to re-tell the story in their own words if they are familiar with it.
• As you read the story together, pause at some parts and see if your child can finish the sentence, especially when there’s a word that rhymes with the previous one. E.g. Where are you meeting him? Here by this lake and his favourite food is scrambled _____?

Phonics

Aspect 4 of our Phase One phonics learning is all about ‘Rhythm and Rhyme’. This week, you’ll need a drum or a pan and spoon to join in with Mrs Gosper as she plays some rhythm patterns on her drum. Use your listening ears to listen carefully to Mrs Gosper and then wait for your turn to copy her patterns.

Rhythm patterns with drums video

When you’ve finished, have a go at tapping some of your own patterns and take turns to copy each other. Remember to LISTEN first, and then LISTEN again, and then have a try to copy it yourself.

 Mark-Making

• What’s your favourite book? Draw a picture and talk about your favourite story. We’d love to hear about it – send us an email of your picture and write down a few of the comments that your child made.

• Can you remember how Mouse describes the Gruffalo? What does he have on his nose? What about his back? In our group times in Nursery, we always enjoy drawing on an outline of a Gruffalo and then using different colours and lines to add in his features. Have a go at home – you might need to help your child by drawing a rough Gruffalo outline first but without any details. Here’s one to copy or print at home.

Can you add the following things to your Gruffalo outline?

Orange eyes, purple prickles, a black tongue, terrible tusks and claws,  terrible teeth, a poisonous wart and some horns?

• For those of you with a printer, here’s a Gruffalo colouring sheet available to download.
  

Mathematics

Playing ‘track games’ is a great way for children to practise lots of different maths skills such as recognising dice patterns and counting with one to one correspondence (as they move spaces).

This week, have a go at creating your own game together. Your child will need help with the general outline of the track, but they can then add in their own drawings for the houses and trees etc.

1)  Draw some circle stepping stones across the paper to create a ‘track’ through the woods.

2) Next, draw on the animal homes that the mouse found including an underground house, a log pile and a tree top house. You could add a river and some of your own ideas too.

3) Make or find 2 counters and borrow a dice from another game.

4) Roll the dice and move your counter forward the correct number of spaces.

5) The first mouse to make it through the forest to the end of the path wins!

Extension ideas

• Make up some of your own rules. Perhaps you could draw some purple prickles in a few spaces and if you land on a prickle, you have to go back one space. You could also draw a nut in some other spaces and if you land on a nut, move forward a space.
• If you don’t fancy making your own game, find a board game that involves a similar concept, such as snakes and ladders. They’re a really great way for children to practise counting skills whilst having fun.

Creative

• Make some puppets or find some props to help you re-tell your favourite story. We’d love to see a video of your show!
• Can you make a cave/den home for the Gruffalo? He might enjoy having a tea party in his cave…
• We’ve explored printing with lots of items during lockdown such as cans, boxes and forks. This week, if you have some plastic animal/dinosaur toys, have a go at printing with them and talk about the prints that they make. Once you’ve finished dipping their feet in water, make sure you help to wash it off before the paint dries.
• If your child loves to role play in their kitchen, play ‘cafes’ and order some special items from the menu including roasted fox, scrambled snake, owl ice-cream and Gruffalo crumble.
• In Nursery, we sometimes enjoy trying ‘scrambled snake’ egg on toast. Ask your child to help you break the eggs and mix in some milk to make a ‘scrambled snake egg’ snack. Make sure they help you to spread butter on the toast too.
• 
• Are you ready for a snack and some quiet time on the sofa? We love this animated version of the Gruffalo on the BBC iPlayer.
• You’ll be singing this song about the Gruffalo all week once you hear it! Listen at home and join in.
• Julia Donaldson’s website has lots of Gruffalo themed games to join in, as well activities for her other books too.

Understanding the World

• Mouse met a few different creatures in the woods. Talk about other animals that you might find in the woods near your home. Where do they live? If you enjoy spotting things whilst out and about in your local area, have a look at this ‘Twig Spotter’ activity from the Woodland Trust’s website. How many can you find?
• Can you spot any animal tracks? Look carefully to see if you can see any footprints in the mud. Here’s a few ideas of footprints to look out for on this ‘Animal footprint hunt’ – it might be very tricky to find some of them!
  

Physical Development

Fiddly Fingers

To get your fingers moving this week, you’re going to need a pile of very small items such as 1p/5p coins, buttons, beads, Cheerios… Draw some wavy lines, zig-zags and spiral patterns on pieces of paper and then ask your child to pick up the small objects and place them along the lines. This is a good way to develop their pincer grip and control.

Movement

We’re going to have a go at balancing, jumping and crawling in this activity. Clear a space on the floor and ask your child to gather some cushions and pillows from around the house. Place them on the floor like stepping stones and ask your child to step from one to the other. This is good way for them to practise balancing, especially as the cushions will be soft and move under their feet a little. Repeat the activity, adapting the challenge by putting the cushions further away or not in a straight line.  If you have space and your floor isn’t too slippy, ask them to have a go at jumping from one to the other. Make sure you supervise your child and hold on to any cushions that may move as they jump!

Finally, create a space for your child to crawl under. You could use a blanket/sheet over two chairs, or line some dining chairs up. Ask your child to slither like a snake on their tummies under the blanket or between the chair legs. Crawling is a very important aspect of early years play, helping to provide sensory feedback and developing many different things including the vestibular system (balance).

Independence skills

As we begin to prepare to return to Nursery, we’d like you to focus on ‘toileting’ again with your child.

• Do they go to the toilet without reminders? Try and encourage them to recognise the signs that they need to go!
• When they get to the toilet, are they able to undress themselves? Practise pulling trousers/leggings/tights up and down and remember your child needs to wear clothes that allow children to do this independently.
• When they’ve finished, do they attempt to clean themselves and have a go at wiping?
• Practise handwashing skills again – this is going to be very important on our return to Nursery.

As always, we are there to help children if they need assistance, so please remind them to speak to their teachers if they need help next week.

Key Worker activity and videos

This week, we thought you’d like to be detectives! Listen carefully to each of your teacher’s clues about their favourite stories. Can you guess which book they love to read? Have a go at making some clues for one of your favourite stories and send us an email to see if we can guess!

Key Worker video – World Book Day

We’re so happy that we’re all going to be together again soon. It made us want to sing a song!

Key worker song – If you’re happy and you know it

Friday Story Time

This week’s story is one that we know you’ll be familiar with. It’s called ‘We’re going on a Bear Hunt’ by Michael Rosen. Make sure that you join in with Miss Morris!

Story Time – We’re Going on a Bear Hunt

Zoom sessions (for children learning at home)

It’s World Book Day on Thursday 04 March and we thought that children might like to join in with the celebrations on our Zoom calls by getting dressed up as one of their favourite story characters.  You might have a costume already at home or a t-shirt with a picture of your favourite character on the front. Please DO NOT purchase anything special for the Zoom call, we’re sure that everyone has something at home that you could use.

If you’re struggling to find something or your child doesn’t want to dress up, that’s fine as well.  Again, please don’t worry or feel you need to buy something.  Perhaps you have a toy linked to your favourite story that you could share with everyone instead?

Please have a copy of your favourite bedtime story ready to show your friends as well.

For Zoom sessions in week commencing 01 March,  you will need:

• Fancy dress (optional) and/or a toy linked to your favourite story
• A copy of your favourite bedtime story
• Playdough

If you are eligible for the ’30 hours’ free childcare provision, please make sure that you have renewed your code. Some codes are due to expire and need renewing in order for you to be entitled to this funding for the Easter term.

Please contact the office if you have any questions regarding renewing your code.

Zoom sessions – Week beginning Monday 01 March (for children learning at home)

It’s World Book Day on Thursday 04 March and we thought that children might like to join in with the celebrations on our Zoom calls by getting dressed up as one of their favourite story characters.  You might have a costume already at home or a t-shirt with a picture of your favourite character on the front. Please DO NOT purchase anything special for the Zoom call, we’re sure that everyone has something at home that you could use.

If you’re struggling to find something or your child doesn’t want to dress up, that’s fine as well.  Again, please don’t worry or feel you need to buy something.  Perhaps you have a toy linked to your favourite story that you could share with everyone instead?

Please have a copy of your favourite bedtime story ready to show your friends as well.

For Zoom sessions in week commencing 01 March,  you will need:

• Fancy dress (optional)  and/or a toy linked to your favourite story
• A copy of your favourite bedtime story
• Playdough

These activities are for the week commencing Monday 22 February, which is when we return to Nursery/Remote Learning, following the half term break. We hope that you have a good break over half term and find a new place to visit on one of your local walks!

A few weeks ago, we read ‘Dear Zoo’ and had to match some animals to the noises that they make in a listening game. This week, we’re going to think about some more sounds, but not just animal noises. In our story this week, poor Mr Bear just can’t get to sleep because there are so many noises keeping him awake!

If you’d prefer to download all of this week’s activities in a pdf, please use this link.

You may have a copy of this classic children’s book at home, but don’t worry if not, you can enjoy listening to it using this link. ‘Peace at Last’

Reading

• What happened at the beginning of the story? Why couldn’t Mr Bear get to sleep next to Mrs Bear? Do you snore like Mrs Bear? Have a try!
• What was Baby Bear pretending to be? See if you can make the same noise.
• When Mr Bear went downstairs, what noise could he hear in the living room?
• Can you remember which room Mr Bear was in when he heard ‘DRIP DRIP’ and ‘HMMMMMMMMMM’?
• Outside, Mr Bear heard 3 different animal noises. Can you name them? They made these noises…TOO-WHIT-TOO-WHOO, SNUFFLE SNUFFLE and MIAAAAOW!
• Talk about what happened at the end of the story. Did Mr Bear get to sleep? Did the ending make you laugh? Why?

Phonics

This week, Mrs Gosper is going to teach you about a selection of percussion instruments. Listen carefully to the sounds that they make and then see if you can work out which instrument it is.

Metal and Wood instruments video

There’s a phonics activity included in our Key Worker video this week. It’s linked to our story of the week and is all about listening for sounds around your home.  You could join in too; use a tablet/phone to record some sounds around the house and then play them back. Can you guess which sound it is?

Mark-Making

• We all love to snuggle up under our favourite blanket or duvet at bedtime – we saw some really cosy blankets on our Zoom scavenger hunts. Grab a piece of paper and have a go at designing a new blanket. What colours, patterns, shapes or pictures would you use?
• Mr Bear hears lots of animals outside in the garden at night. Can you draw a hedgehog with lots of prickles on its back? Join in with Squiglet and watch how she draws grass using zig-zags.

Mathematics

This week in maths, we’re going to think about some important mathematical language involving words associated with time. During everyday conversations, try to use words like ‘today’, ‘tomorrow’ and ‘yesterday’ and help your child to understand what they mean and use them in conversation.

It’s also important to begin to understand about our daily routines. ‘Peace at Last’ takes place at night time, just as Mr Bear is trying to get to sleep. It’s good to establish a good bedtime routine, but everybody might do things slightly differently! Talk to your child about their evening routine. What do they do first? What happens next? What things do you do together before they go to sleep?  Here’s Mr Tumble’s bedtime routine; is it similar to yours?

Have a look at these pictures  and choose ones that are appropriate for your family. Try to put them in the order that you do them. You might need to add in some different ones, such as taking off your glasses.

Extension ideas

–  Can you sequence your morning routine? What do you do first? What next? When do you have breakfast and brush your teeth?

– Don’t forget to keep practising your counting skills! You could count the number of spikes on your playdough hedgehog or roll a dice and draw that many spikes onto a hedgehog outline.

 Creative

• Paint/draw/collage a night time picture. What colours will you use for the sky? Would you see a sunshine at night? What animals might you include that are awake at night?

• A few weeks ago, we experimented with printing using different objects to see what shape print they made. This week, try printing using a fork. What pattern does it make? Use the fork to add some spikes onto a hedgehog outline.

•  Use playdough to make a hedgehog. What could you use to make spikes? In Nursery, we sometimes use wooden craft sticks, pipe cleaners or dry penne pasta/spaghetti. There are lots of ideas if you do a Google search! If you have some children’s plastic scissors, you could try rolling a ball and then snipping the top to make spikes.
• We love being all snuggly in our favourite pyjamas and reading a book before bedtime. Why not start your bedtime routine a little bit earlier one night; enjoy a bubbly bath and then make some hot chocolate or warm milk to drink whilst reading your bedtime story. What happens when you add the chocolate powder to the milk?
• In this episode of ‘Melody’, Melody can’t get to sleep so her mum tries a few things to help her feel sleepy. She listens to some music about the moon at night time. What does the music make you think of?

Understanding the World

Talk about animals that are awake at night and sleep during the day. These animals are called ‘nocturnal’ animals; follow the links below to watch some short clips all about animals that come out at night.

Nocturnal animals

Andy’s Secret Hideout – Hedgehogs

Andy’s Secret Hideout – Owls

Need a longer break? We love watching Aunty Mable and her adventures with Pippin, regardless of how old they are! Grab your fruit snack and learn about hedgehogs with Pippin.

Physical Development

Fiddly Fingers

We’re going to revisit our cutting skills this week and practise using scissors again. Make sure a grown up is around to supervise.  Fold a piece of paper in half and cut out a semi-circle shape (or use a paper plate folded in half if you have one). Cut the corner off to make a nose (as in picture) and draw on a face. Next, ask your child to make snips along the edge to create spikes.

 Movement

We’ve had some very cold weather over the last few weeks, but it’s still really important that we get outside to enjoy running around. Whatever the weather, try to wrap up warm and enjoy some fresh air and exercise. If it’s not too icy, have you got a bike, trike or scooter that you could have a ride on? Make sure you wear your helmet. Here are a few ideas, there’s a different one for each day.

Independence skills

We’ve been talking about some of the things that we do as part of our daily routines. What do we do twice a day that is really important? That’s right! We brush our teeth. Whilst we don’t expect children to do this by themselves just yet, they still need adults to ensure it is done well, children could begin to have a go at brushing their teeth before and after their adult has helped.  Watch this video and then encourage your child to look in the mirror as they brush their teeth. Teaching children about basic personal hygiene is a really important; it’s included in the ‘health and self-care’ part of the Early Years Foundation Stage.

Key Worker activity and videos

For this week’s Key Worker activity, you’ll need to have listened to this week’s story, ‘Peace at Last’. Mrs Gosper is going to play some sounds from the story and you need to use your listening ears to work out what you heard.

Key Worker video – Peace at last

After you’ve watched the video, you could play a game of ‘I can hear with my little ear’.  Take it in turns to imitate something and guess what makes that sound. You could imitate the sound of things from around your house like a clock or telephone, or of recognisable animals like a cat, dog or owl.

During group time, we often sing songs linked to our learning. This one is all about the things we might do at bedtime.

Key Worker song – The way we wash our hands

Friday Story Time

Miss Backhouse is going to read this week’s story and just like ‘Peace at Last’, it’s all about different sounds that we might hear around our homes. Find a comfortable space to sit and enjoy listening to the story, ‘Quiet’ by Kate Alizadeh.  Story time – Quiet

Zoom sessions (for children learning at home)

We’re going to play a game of ‘Colour Bingo’. Before the meeting, you’ll need to quickly draw a 3×2 grid and ask your child to draw a different colour into each section. We’ll then reveal some colours during our Zoom and you can tick them off.