Happy Holidays
We say it every year, but we can’t quite believe it’s already the end of term!
Thank you for all of your kind words, cards and gifts this week. We hope that you all have a great Summer holiday and we’ll look forward to seeing some of you in Nursery in September and some of you, next door in Reception! We’d also like to say good bye to those children that are moving to other schools – we hope that you love your new school and make lots of new friends
Don’t forget Nursery opens for our returning children on Monday 08 September 9 -12 ( please follow the information in your transition letter)
Have a fantastic summer holiday.
Nursery team
Harvest time
You may remember back at the beginning of the summer term when the children helped to prepare the soil so that they could plant beans, carrots, strawberries and peas in the nursery garden.
Over the last few months they have watered and watched the seeds develop and this week it was harvest time for some of the crops.
The carrots had grown so big, the children really enjoyed pulling them up. They looked carefully at the roots and noticed that some of the carrots were longer than others. They washed and scrubbed the carrots, enjoying tasting them at snack time.
The strawberries had also ripened and were juicy and red.
The peas were growing fast too. We are hoping to be able to enjoy popping some pods before we break up for summer next week.
The children have really enjoyed nurturing these plants and have been checking on their progress daily.
Thank you for all of your “bean updates” too. It’s great to see how many of you will have some green beans to enjoy very soon.
We really have had ” green fingers” in nursery this summer.
What a busy week!
We enjoyed sharing our story What the Ladybird Heard at the Seaside, there were lots of conversations in Nursery about the differences between the seaside and the countryside.
“There is sand at the seaside”
“I can see fields in the countryside”
” That’s the sea or the ocean”
The children enjoyed developing their cutting skills this week, snipping paper in the creative area and making long snakes to snip in the dough. We talked about using scissors carefully.
Outside the children were very busy using their imagination and creativity, gathering all the natural resources they needed to create their own dinosaur worlds.
Finding the ingredients they needed for potions and stirring them carefully.
Creating amazing tracks using ramps, crates, tyres and stands. What great team work!
More tracks were devised using shapes with the children balancing carefully along.
This week our Story of the week
Commotion in the Ocean
Our Nursery Rhyme of the week
1,2,3,4,5 Once I caught a fish alive
During maths group times this week, we’re learning about positional language.
Help at home: Try to use positional language in your day to day conversations and during play. For example -Can you put your teddy underneath the box? The car is behind the garage. The monkey is on top of the tree. Put your shoes next to the cupboard. As you look at illustrations in a story, ask questions such as ‘Where is the cat hiding?’ or ‘What can you see in front of the fence?’
Reminders
Please ensure that your child has a complete change of clothes at Nursery every day ( including socks)
If your child is returning to Nursery in September can you please ensure that your child’s returners paperwork is handed into the school office by Monday 30th June.
Hot and Cold Countries
Following on from our discussions about journeys and holidays, we looked at some photographs of hot and cold countries. We talked about the weather and thought about which animals live in hot places and which live in colder areas. The children enjoyed using the small world area to sort the animals.
In the creative area we used the “hot colours” red, orange and yellow to create our art work.
Children loved using the remote controlled cars this week and were able to move them backwards and forwards between the obstacles. It was lots of fun!
Our Maths focus this week has been capacity. We have been using the mathematical vocabulary of capacity full, empty, half-full.
In group time we filled our cups with pasta, making sure they were half-full was tricky.
We also practised our skills in the sensory area, pouring the sand carefully into the tubes and bottles. We had to concentrate really hard.
Help at home
Can you use the language of capacity at home ? Is the cup half-full yet? My cup is full ? Can you empty the box?
Next week our story of the week is
Our Nursery rhyme of the week is
A Sailor went to Sea.
Sun safety
As the weather gets warmer this week, here are a few reminders from our previous communications.
Sun safe reminders
- Bring a named sunhat every day.
- Ensure your child has a full water bottle (named) at nursery every day.
- Parents and carers must apply cream before nursery.
- Please put your child’s name on their sun cream.
- Put sun cream in your child’s group basket if you want it applying at lunchtime. Please don’t leave it in their bag.
- Collect your child’s sun cream at the end of the day.
- Help us out by using ‘All day’ cream and applying at home
Thankyou for your continued support.
Transport
We continued our interest in transport this week using the ramps inside. The children used ramps and tubes to see how far their cars could go. We used a number track to check which car went the furthest, first to 5 and then to 10.
We learnt how to fold paper to create our own paper aeroplanes. It was quite difficult but we kept trying and were really pleased that we did. Outside we tested out our planes from various places. We wondered if they would go further if we set them off from the top of the slide?
Outside this week we practised our throwing, we aimed for some number on a target with the bean bags. We recorded our scores with tally marks on paper.
We used team work skills and our fiddly fingers to create some bridges, balancing the lolly sticks on the paper cups. We then tried to balance small figures on top. It was really tricky but we got better at it each time we tried.
Help at home
This weeks maths focus has been talking about our daily activities and using words to describe when things happen such day, night, morning or afternoon. We looked at our daily routines and tried to sequence the events. Try to use some of this language at home, too. What happens in your house in the morning? What do you do as part of your bedtime routine? What comes first, next, last? What day is it today? Do you go to Nursery tomorrow?
Reminders
- Our Nursery registration closes at 9.10am. Please ensure that you arrive to Nursery between 9-9.10am to allow us to begin our learning activities on time. Thank you.
- Please send your child with a rain coat to Nursery everyday; the weather is very changeable at the moment.
- We have lots of water bottles that don’t have children’s names on – remember to check that your child’s hasn’t worn off. You may also want to check cardigans and jumpers, too.
- Please ensure that your child’s sun cream is in their group basket if you would like it applying at lunchtime.
Off we go!
The children returned to Nursery happily on Monday with lots of chatter about their half term adventures. Some children had been on trains and some on long car rides to various destinations. This talk led us to think about lots of different types of transport – cars, trains, planes and boats.
We sorted and counted lots of different types of vehicles in the Maths area, counting some really high numbers as we lined up the vehicles.
During story time, we’ve enjoyed listening to The Train Ride. We noticed that the rhythm of the story makes us think about the train going along the track. We drew some maps of the journey, passing the sheep in the meadow and the lighthouse at the seaside.
Outside in the Nursery garden, we got a wonderful surprise to see that our strawberries, beans, peas and carrots were growing so well. We can’t wait to start harvesting them once they’re ready. How are your beanstalks growing at home? Don’t forget to let us know.
In group time, we talked about night and day and next week, we’ll move on to ordering key events in our daily routines .
Some more learning from this week.
Help at home: Talk to your child about day and night time. What activities do people do in the day and at night? What do they do in the morning/afternoon/evening?
Next week’s learning:
For the final half term, we’ll revisit all of the sounds we have learnt and we will focus on key phonics skills such as identifying initial sounds, spotting rhymes and segmenting and blending words.
Over the next few weeks, our focus will be on oral ‘segmenting and blending’ skills. This is when we segment words into sounds and learn how to blend them together. Segmenting and blending orally is an important skill for children to acquire before they begin the more formal teaching of phonics in Reception.
We practise segmenting and blending sounds that we can hear in words. This skill is quite tricky and can take children some time to grasp; it will continue to be taught throughout the Foundation Stage.
To segment ‘bus’, we would say ‘b – u – s’ . We always use pure sounds and try to avoid putting ‘uh’ on the end of a sound, for example ‘ssss’ not ‘suh’.
So for example, you may ask your child if they would like some ‘j – a – m ‘ on their toast at breakfast.
Please don’t hesitate to ask Nursery staff for any further information with how to support your child
Next week’s story of the week
Duck in the Truck
And finally…
The children watched a video this week of our butterflies being set free. They decided to arrive a little later than expected, during the half term holidays. We are sure that they will find their way to our Nursery garden, so we’re keeping a look out for them everyday.
Busy bees
We have had a lot of busy bees in Nursery. We have been learning all about bees, Bumblebees and Honey bees. We found out where they live and how hard they work. At snack time, we tasted some honey on our toast. Although some children were a little reluctant to try it at first, everybody had a taste and decided if they liked it or not.
Outside, we played a ‘bee’ game where we had to collect ‘pollen’ from around the garden. Children loved hiding the balls for their friends and then running to find them. After we’d collected the pollen balls, we counted them into a large five frame to see how many we had found.
In maths, we noticed a pattern in the honeycomb in a book about bees. We used hexagons to see if we could recreate the honeycomb pattern. There were lots of opportunities to practise our counting skills this week using yellow counters as pollen for the bees.
At group time we used our mark making skills to create pictures of bees. We are working really hard at holding our pens with a pincer grip. We made sure that our bees had a repeating pattern of black and yellow and of course 6 legs!
We have been watching our cocoons closely this week in the hope that they would turn into butterflies before the holidays. It appears that they are super cosy inside their cocoons and are not quite ready to emerge just yet. They will be going home with Mrs Beesley so that she can keep a close eye on them.
Help at home
We have been finding out lots of facts about mini beasts this half term. Ask your child if they can talk to you about what they have found out. We are sure that they will remember lots.
We hope that you all have a happy and healthy half term holiday. We will see you back at Nursery on Monday 02 June.
Incy Wincy Spider
This week, children have been searching for spiders in Nursery and looking for their webs. We sang Incy Wincy Spider and made spiders in the malleable area using playdough. First, we had to roll a ball to make the body and then we rolled sausage shapes to add on the legs. Some children managed to count 8 legs to put on their spiders!
In the maths area, we counted spiders carefully to match the numeral written on each web. During group time, older children counted spiders and looked at which web had the most/fewest spiders. We also talked about what happened if we had ‘one more’ or ‘one less’ spider on the web. For example: ‘There are 4 spiders on the web, 1 spider runs away. How many will be left? How do you know?’
In the creative area we made our own spiders webs by rolling a marble backwards and forwards. It was lots of fun and we were very happy with our silky webs.
In the sensory area we used tweezers to pick up our own spaghetti worms.
Help at home.
Have a minibeast hunt in your outdoor space or at the park. Can you find any minibeasts ? How many legs can you see ? Do they have a pattern ? Do they have wings ? Let us know at Nursery what you find.
Next week
We will continue reading “Mad about Minibeasts”
Our Nursery Rhyme of the Week
Ring-a -ring of roses
Our sound of the week
Yy
Reminders
Please remember to put your child’s named sun cream in their group basket on the days that you want it to be applied.
Your child needs a coat every day. The weather is changeable at the moment and a sunny morning can often turn into a chilly afternoon.
Very Hungry Caterpillars
We were very excited in Nursery this week when a very special delivery arrived: a tub of our very own ‘Hungry Caterpillars’! We’re looking forward to watching them grow over the next few weeks. Our story of the week is ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ – it’s taught us all about the life cycle of the butterfly and now we’ll be able to watch it for ourselves.
The children’s interest in minibeasts has continued in all of the Nursery provision. Outside, we’ve found lots of creatures hiding under logs including wood lice, spiders, slugs and some very long worms. Inside, we’ve been busy threading beads to make caterpillars and exploring our indoor small world area.
We’ve enjoyed the sunny weather this week, planting some more vegetables. We really have got green fingers !
We’ve also had lots of discussions about keeping safe in the sun. We know that we need to wear our sun hats, use sun cream and drink lots of water.
Help at home
Listen for the initial sounds in words. Find three objects, two that begin with the same sound and one that starts with a different sound. For example, car, cookie, banana. Can your child spot the odd one out? Say the name out loud, emphasising the initial sound.
Next week
Our Book of the Week is a poetry book. Your child will be able to identify the rhyming words.
Our Nursery Rhyme of the week is Incey Wincey Spider. You can sing this together at home.
Our Sound of the Week
Ww
Reminders
Sun safety
Please remember a sun hat, sun cream and water bottle. Please ensure that all sun cream is clearly named.
We hope that you have a happy and healthy long weekend. Nursery will open again next week on Tuesday 06 May.