Whatever Next!
This week, we listened to another of Jill Murphy’s stories titled ‘Whatever Next!’. It’s about a little bear who went on an adventure to the moon. This story led to lots of conversations about space and rockets. We watched a rocket blast off into space and joining in with the countdown from 10. We created our own space station in our small world area and blasted our own rockets in to space ….. blast off!
In the story baby bear makes his own space rocket from a cardboard box. We decided to make our own rockets in the creative area using different shaped boxes and bottles. It was quite tricky working out how to attach the different parts together.
We enjoyed singing the number rhyme “5 Little men in a flying saucer” this week. Showing the amounts on our fingers as we sang the song. The children are getting really good at this important mathematical skill.
Help at home: Can you sing a number song at home and use you fingers to show the amount?
Here are some number songs to try.
1,2,3,4,5 Once I caught a fish alive.
Next week’s learning:
We are looking forward to reading ‘Stickman’ by Julia Donaldson in our story times next week. If you don’t have a copy of the book at home, you might enjoy watching the BBC animation together.
In maths, we’re learning about length so will be using the words long, short, longer and shorter to compare different objects.
Sound of the week
i for iguana
Pull your lips back and make the i sound at the back of your mouth.
Nursery rhyme of the week –
Twinkle, twinkle little star
Reminders
Please return the Christmas slip to let us know if you can attend one of our ‘Stay and Decorate’ sessions in December. Please see the letter for more details of dates and times.
We hope that you have a happy and healthy weekend.
Snow and Ice
On Wednesday morning our Nursery garden was covered in a thin layer of snow. We were so excited and couldn’t wait to get outside. We tried to catch the snowflakes, it was very tricky!
On Thursday morning we found ice everywhere! We collected it all to explore. It melted quickly when we broke it up.
We decided to try to make our own ice. We put some water in a tray and left it outside in the Nursery garden. Would it turn into ice over night?
Yes, it would!
We felt the ice.
“It’s so cold”
” It is wet and slippy”
We looked through the ice.
“It’s like a window”
“I see through it”
Help at home: Can you make some ice at home? You could try and make some outside overnight or use your freezer. Try freezing a small toy or object in the water and watch it appear as the ice melts. Let us know how you get on. As always send us in your photos to scholesnursery@spherefederation.org
Next week’s learning:
Next week, we’re going to read another of our favourite stories written by Jill Murphy. It’s called ‘Whatever Next‘
Nursery rhyme of the week – 1,2 ,3 ,4 5, Once I caught a fish alive.
We’ll also be singing a number rhyme 5 Little Men in a Flying Saucer
Sound of the week –P p (p for penguin)
Bring your lips together push them open and say p, p, p.
Reminders
- Check your child’s going home folder this week for a letter about Christmas in Nursery.
- Please make sure that your child has a warm coat, hat and gloves every day. All named please. We play in our garden throughout winter, so children need to be wrapped up to keep warm and enjoy learning outside in all seasons.
Colours in the sky
The children were very excited when they returned to Nursery. They excitedly shared their stories about Halloween with their friends. There was a lot of talk about witches, bat costumes and skeletons.
Wednesday was Bonfire Night, the children played with the bonfire themed small world area adding the sounds of the fireworks to their play. “whoosh, bang, zoom, whizz”
Along with hearing lots of different sounds the children had seen lots of bright colours in the night sky. They used ” sparklers” to print firework pictures. Outside they painted the dark floor to create the Bonfire Night sky.
Some more fire work activities in the sensory and fine motor areas of nursery.
As part of our phonics learning, we’ve introduced the letter ‘s’ this week. We took turns to pull some objects out of a bag that all started with the letter ‘s’ We talked about the ‘s’ sound that we could hear at the start of each word. In Nursery, we focus on our listening skills. We’re not learning about letter formation just yet.
We show the children this picture card and use this pronunciation phrase.
Show your teeth and let the s hiss out ssssss
You could try this at home.
Help at home: What can you find at home that begins with the sound ‘s’? Go on a sound hunt together and look for some. Let us know what you find.
Next week’s Learning
It’s World Nursery Rhyme Week so instead of our usual Nursery Rhyme of the week, our provision will be Nursery Rhyme themed. We’ll be singing lots of our favourite rhymes. If you’d like to send us an email with your child’s favourite rhyme and we’ll try to sing it at Nursery next week. scholesnursery@spherefederation.org
Sound of the week – Aa for astronaut and apple
Open your mouth wide and make the a sound at the back of your mouth a a a
Story of the week – Peace at Last by Jill Murphy
In this story Mr Bear moves about the house to try to find somewhere that is quiet to sleep. We will find out how many different sounds he hears.
Reminders
It’s a very busy week next week
- It’s “Odd Socks Day” on Monday 10 November so wear odd socks to Nursery for the day
- Our Nursery Coffee morning is on Tuesday 11 November straight after drop off at 9am. This is your chance to enjoy a coffee and a catch up with other nursery parents. Mrs Beesley and one of our school leaders will be there to share what is happening this this term in nursery with you.
- It’s Children in Need on Friday and it’s a non-uniform day. Please remember it will be a usual Nursery day, so please dress your child in clothes that are appropriate for outdoor and messy play.
Have a happy and healthy weekend everyone.
Do you have a child due to start primary school in 2026?
A video and FAQ’s are available for more support and guidance with applications.
Nursery Coffee Morning
Please join us at 9am on Tuesday 11 November for our Nursery coffee morning. It’s a great chance to find out more about the learning that will be happening in Nursery over the next half term. After you’ve dropped your child off at Nursery, make your way to the Hub. We hope to see you there!
Colour and light!
Applying for a Reception school place 2026
Applications for a Reception place for September 2026 can be made from 01 November 2025 until 15 January 2026.
You will receive your child’s school offer on National Offer Day, April 16, 2026. Ensure you use your child’s permanent address when applying, as this is a key factor in the admissions process.
If you’d like to come and look around our school, the next open sessions are on Tuesday 04 November at 6pm and Friday 21 November at 1.30pm. No need to book just turn up!
Please remember that you still need to apply for a Reception place even if your child attends Scholes (Elmet) Nursery.
Training day – Arty Ideas!
We thought you’d enjoy hearing a little about what went on during our recent teacher training day! Part of the day was dedicated to developing our art knowledge and skills with our resident art teacher, Mrs Boulton.
Teachers got hands-on with paints, pastels and even soap! There was plenty of colour, laughter, and even a bit of friendly competition as we experimented with new techniques and ideas for upcoming art lessons.
The rest of the day focussed on other important areas too, including maths and inclusion. It was a full, productive day – and we left feeling ready and excited for the next half-term!
“I can do it”
One of the Prime Areas of learning in Early Years is Personnel, Social and Emotional Development, so learning to take care of ourselves is very much part of our curriculum. This half term we have been working very hard at this. Encouraging the children to put on their coats and fasten them up independently. They are all doing so well and are showing fantastic resilience. Trying again when they cant always manage it first time.
Changing from wellies to shoes is something that we do many times throughout the day. Pushing your foot into your shoes can be tricky and can take lots of practice.
We have had quite a few coughs and colds this week so our ” nose blowing area” has had lots of use. Getting a tissue and looking in the mirror to check that your nose is clean helps to develop independence.
Help at home : You can help at home to develop these essential skills. Perhaps on a weekend, when popping out, you could support your child to put on their own coat and shoes. We can’t wait to hear how you get on and more calls of ” I can do it” in nursery.
Next week: we will be continuing to enjoy Julia Donaldson’s Room on the Broom. We have been joining in with the story adding our own actions to various parts.
” The witch tapped her broomstick and whoosh they were gone”
As it is the last week of our very first half term we will be rehearsing the Nursery rhymes that we have covered so far. We are sure that the children would love to recite these at home to you all.
Baa baa Black Sheep
Humpty Dumpty
Incy Wincy Spider.
Reminders
I’m looking forward to meeting with you all next week for our first parent teacher consultations. If you haven’t managed to book an appointment contact the school office.
Nursery closes for half term on Thursday 23 October.
We will return to Nursery on Monday 03 November
Working together.
Thanks to everyone who brought in Autumn treasures. We shared our final few this week. So many interesting things pumpkins, conkers and acorns. We have really enjoyed sharing their contents and finding out all about them.
Using them all we created a display to explore together. Magnifying glasses helped us to look closely,
“The pine cone looks big”
“I see lines on the leaf”
The artist, Andy Goldsworthy inspired our autumnal creative work this week. We worked together to create a spiral pattern of conkers, pine cones and leaves.
Our interest in autumn has helped us to develop our fine motor skills too. This is the development of the muscles in the fingers. This will help us to develop an effective pencil grip.
We balanced conkers and fir cones on up- turned cups. Used tongs to add conkers to our recipes in the mud kitchen. Then caught leaves with tongs in the water tray.
Why not try this at home ? Use old kitchen tongs or pegs to pick up the leaves in your garden or at the park. Let us know how you get on.
We always enjoy watching the children lead their own learning in nursery. This happens when they develop their own activities. Last week they used the hoops and decided to collect objects from around the outdoor provision that matched the colours of the hoops. Leaves, bricks, pens, flowers and cars were all placed into colour sets.
They then found orange flowers and pink bricks, but there weren’t any orange or pink hoops. What to do? They found some coloured paper and completed the sets. Lots of mathematical talk, co operation and team work. Super learning nursery.
Next week’s learning
Our story next week is Room on the Broom, it’s written by the very popular author, Julia Donaldson. You may be familiar with the story from the BBC version. You can watch it on BBC iplayer
Our Nursery Rhyme of the week is Incy Wincey Spider Can you sing this at home?
A few reminders
- Parent Teacher consultations – Please don’t forget to sign up for these 10 minute appointments. This is an opportunity to find out how your child has settled into nursery. It’s on zoom this time, the next meetings will be in person.
- We still need your family photos. The children are really enjoying talking about their special people and seeing their photos in our home area each day.