Parent- Teacher Zoom Appointments
Nursery will hold our parent-teacher Zoom meetings after half term, in the week commencing 25 November.
Please look out for further information when we return to Nursery after the half term break.
Amazing Autumn
Thank you for returning your autumn bags! This week, we began to look at their contents. Children enjoyed talking about what they had found and where they found their autumn treasure. Don’t worry if you haven’t had a chance to go for a walk yet, there’s still time. Please return your bag to Nursery over the next week.
We’ve been learning all about autumn this week; we talked about the changes that we could see around us in our Nursery garden. Children noticed that the leaves were changing colour and falling from the branches. We listened to a song about autumn leaves falling down and named lots of different coloured leaves that we could see outside.
In our story corner, children have enjoyed listening to the story of ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’. They’re getting really good at re-telling the story and joining in with the repeated refrains.
Next week, we’ll continue to learn about autumn and will look at some artwork by Andy Goldsworthy so don’t forget to bring your autumn treasure bag back to nursery.
Help at home
Next week’s nursery rhyme is Baa Baa Black Sheep Can you join in with this nursery rhyme?
We are continuing to explore “We’re going on a bear hunt” Here is the author telling the story. Have a listen at home and join in together with the sound effects!
Reminders
- Our individual photographs will take place on Tuesday 08 October. If your child does not attend nursery on a Tuesday but you would like them to have their photograph taken please contact school.
- Please ensure that your child has a waterproof coat at nursery every day. We go outside to learn, whatever the weather!
Down on the farm
We’ve had another busy week in nursery, continuing to explore the provision and making friends. Our new small world area, the farm, has sparked a lot of interest. We talked about the different animals that we see on a farm and the sounds that they make. The children enjoyed adding the animal sound effects whilst playing.
As part of our early phonics learning, we encourage children to listen to the sounds that they can hear around them, such as an aeroplane flying above or birds singing in the trees. We also explore the different noises that animals make.
Help at home: If you visit a farm or see some animals in a field, remember to use the animal names and talk about the noises that they make. You might like to play a game where you use some farm animal toys and choose an animal to describe. For example: It has 4 legs, a curly tail and a snout. Can they guess which animal you are describing and make the animal noise? Can they give you some clues? This is a great way to add new words to your child’s vocabulary and to develop their listening skills.
The children have enjoyed retelling this weeks focus story ‘The Three Little Pigs’ joining in with the repeated refrains “I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down”.
As the children continue to explore the provision lots of different interests have been emerging, rolling cars down ramps being a big favourite. We experimented with other things that roll in the paint this week and tried our hand at painting with rollers. This up and down motion will help us later when it comes to developing our skills as a writer.
Here are some of the other activities from this week
- bug hunting
- friendship making
- brick house building
- sorting and matching in the maths area.
- imaginative play
Next week, we’ll talk about the changes that we are noticing outside. Look out for a brown bag in your child’s folder – we’d like you to fill it with autumn treasure that you find and return it to Nursery.
Our focus story is the popular story “We’re Going on a bear Hunt” We will be exploring this story using our own puppets and props.
Our Nursery rhyme of the week will be Row, row, row your boat Can you sing along with the rhyme at home?
Reminders:
- Please don’t forget to send a family photograph for our home corner display Please send it to scholesnursery@spherefederation.org
- We play outside in all weather – please remember to send your child with a waterproof coat everyday.
- Please remember to check the school menu each day. School Lunch Menu
Family Photographs
As we’re getting to know everyone, we like to talk about our families and home life. To encourage children to tell us more about their family life, please e-mail or bring a photograph of your child with their family to Nursery. These will be displayed in our home corner for children to look at and talk about with staff and their friends. scholesnursery@spherefederation.org
Our First Lunchtime and Exploring Outside
This week, many of the children have stayed for their first lunch time and full day; we’re really proud of how well they did. They all sat down together to eat in the nursery dining room and tried tasty school meals or their own packed lunch.
As children have become more settled in Nursery, we’ve gradually been introducing them to our nursery routines. We now know that when we hear “3,2,1, Stop!” we need to empty our hands, have a silent voice and to stop and look at the person who is speaking. The children have been learning how to use all of our labels, pictures and templates to help tidy toys away into the right places and we’re beginning to form a line when going to play outside.
We have been very busy this week enjoying the September sunshine . Some of our favourite outdoor activities have been –
- rolling balls and cars down ramps
- sweeping the leaves
- chalking patterns and pictures
- singing and playing instruments
- developing our climbing and balancing skills on our new playground equipment
- baking in the mud kitchen
Each week we will be suggesting ways that you can support your child at home. This week involves a favourite rhyme.
Help at home – Can you sing the ” Wheels on the bus” nursery rhyme? Can you remember all of the actions? The Wheels on the Bus
Next week we will be reading our first focus story ” The Three Little Pigs”. We will be using story props to retell the story. The Three Little Pigs
Settling in and making friends.
What a busy and exciting week we have had at nursery. Our returning children came back looking much taller than before the holidays, then we welcomed some new friends to our “stay and play “sessions. Their grown ups came too, to join in with all of the fun activities.
This week we have been busy helping the children to settle into their new environment. It can take quite some time to remember where everything is but the children are doing so well. They have been exploring all of the nursery provision, from building in the construction site to pouring the colourful rice in the sensory area. We have had lots of fun!
We are working hard to find out what everyone enjoys playing. You can help us with this by adding a note to your child’s photo on our “What makes us tick” board. Whether its diggers or dancing to Mama Mia, we want to know. Ask your child’s key person for more details.
A few reminders
Please name your child’s indoor shoes, We have a number of identical pairs this year.
Please clearly name your child’s water bottle.
Don’t forget to register for your child’s milk with the dairy ( details in your welcome pack)
Please return the ” All about me” sheet – another way we can get to know lots about your child.
Welcome to Nursery
We’ve been busy this week meeting some of our new children at their home visits. It has been lovely finding out about you all and what you like to do. We’re looking forward to getting to know you more when we welcome you to Nursery next week.
We’ve also been getting Nursery ready for the new school year, we can’t wait to show you around. We’ve tried to make sure that there’s something for everyone to enjoy- including some of your favourite things that you told us about on home visits. We’ve got Paw Patrol, fairies, dinosaurs, diggers, The Gruffalo and our bikes ready for you to come and play. Where will you play? See you soon!
A few reminders from Home Visits.
What your child will need every day.
- A waterproof coat ( named)
- A pair of wellies ( named)
- A change of clothes ( top, trousers/ leggings, underwear, socks)
- A filled water bottle ( named)
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.
Staying safe
Staying safe
As part of our learning about ‘Staying safe’, some children joined an online assembly hosted by Yorkshire Water all about water safety. Children listened really carefully to the safety messages and were great at spotting potential dangers near lakes and canals.
We also learnt all about how to stay safe when visiting a beach. We know to look for areas that are supervised by lifeguards and which colour flag means that it’s safe to swim.
Help at home: For older children in red, blue and green group – Talk to your child about what they remember from the assembly. Can they remember what the different flags mean on the beach? What does a red flag show? Which colour flag means it’s safe to swim?
During group time, we looked at other ways to stay safe around our homes and when we’re at school. We sorted some pictures into ‘safe’ and ‘not safe’ and talked about our reasons. Children quickly identified dangerous activities at a playground and knew lots of ways to stay safe when crossing a road. We also talked about being with an adult when helping to cook and remembering to stay away from hot cooker hobs and sharp knives.
Pirates
When playing in Nursery this week, children have loved drawing treasure maps! We used a map during group time to hide some treasure. Children had to carefully follow instructions using positional language. The favourite places were on top of the volcano and behind the mermaid.
The construction area has also been a hive of activity and creativity. Children have worked together to build tall towers and a big bus for their trip to a dinosaur museum!
Outside, we joined in with some dance routines where children had to put together a sequence of movements to their favourite song.
Children also loved using pipettes and playing with the frogs in the ‘5 Little Speckled Frogs’ water tray and working with their friends to create a very long ramp! After the stormy weather, there were a lot of little apples on the floor that children enjoyed collecting and rolling down the guttering.
Reminders
On Wednesday 17 July, it’s our Nursery party. Please see the letter that we sent last week for more details. Children can wear summery clothes, but remember that footwear needs to be safe for them to run and play outside in.
The end of term is rapidly approaching! Remember to take all of your child’s belongings (including bags and wellies) home with them at the end of their last session in Nursery.
Ahoy there!
Children enjoyed listening to ‘Pirates Love Underpants‘ and we’ve been busy digging for treasure in the sand tray and counting gold coins in the maths area.
During maths group times, we’re learning about positional language. Next week, we’re going to use treasure maps of the Nursery garden to find some treasure. Children will need to use lots of positional language to describe where the treasure is hidden. For example, the treasure might be next to the sandpit, underneath the bridge, behind the planter or on top of the bird table.
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?’
The older children have also been busy visiting Reception and have enjoyed exploring and playing in their new classrooms. We’ll continue to visit over the final few weeks as part of our transition process.
Reminders-
- Please send your child with a waterproof coat everyday. The weather is very mixed at the moment and we enjoy playing out in all weather, even when it’s warm but wet!
- A few water bottles have missing names. Please take a minute to re-label your child’s bottle if it has come off.