Lunches & exploring outside!
This week, many children have stayed for their first lunch time and full day; we’re really proud of how well they did. Everyone happily sat down in the Nursery dining area and tried some delicious school meals or tucked into the contents of their packed lunch box.
Is your child having a school dinner? Have a look at the current menu here so you know what options are available to choose from each day. If you’ve opted to send your child with a packed lunch and need a few extra ideas of what to include, please have a look at our Healthy Packed Lunch Guidance.
As children have become more settled in Nursery, we’ve gradually been introducing them to our Nursery routines. We know that when we hear “3,2,1, Stop!” that we need to empty our hands, have a silent voice and to stop and look at the person who is speaking. 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.
Here are a few photos of our learning and playing this week. Favourite activities have included:
- collecting conkers
- using the tools to ‘cut’ outside
- chalking patterns and pictures
- singing and playing instruments to accompany nursery rhymes
- developing our climbing and balancing skills
- making cookies in the dough
- creating collages using craft materials
Settling into Nursery
It was lovely to welcome everybody to Nursery for our ‘stay and play’ sessions and we couldn’t believe how much our older children have grown over the holidays!
During our first week, we’ve been busy helping children to settle into their new environment. We’re really lucky to have so much space to play in at Nursery, but it can take children a little bit of time to familiarise themselves with where everything is. We’ve also been working hard to get to know everybody’s names and find out where everyone enjoys playing.
There were lots of happy faces as children waved good-bye to parents and carers for their first session alone at Nursery (with just a few wobbles!). Try not to worry too much if your child has a little wobble or struggles to say goodbye in the morning. We often find that a quick hug, a big smile and waving good bye works best and children usually settle very quickly once you’ve gone. We will always give you a call if your child continues to be upset, so if you don’t hear from us, you can presume that your child is happy and busy playing!
As you can see in the photographs, children are already very busy and engrossed in play!
We’ll continue the really important process of helping children to ‘settle in’ over the next few weeks so that everyone feels safe, secure and happy in Nursery. Please speak to a member of the Nursery team if you have any questions.
Reminders
- Please collect your child promptly at the end of their session. It can be very upsetting if you’re the last child to be collected when others have already gone home.
- Make sure your child has a water bottle every day and that their NAME is clearly marked on it.
Ferdie and Fern have been busy…
We’ve had a great week meeting some of our new children during their home visits. It was lovely to find out a little bit about you all and we’re looking forward to getting to know you more when we welcome you to Nursery next week.
Nursery is looking fantastic; there are lots of exciting areas to play in and we can’t wait to show you our new playground. Our Nursery foxes, Ferdie and Fern, are looking forward to having some more friends to play with. As you can see from the photos, they’ve already been busy testing out some of our toys, playing in the fairy garden and sliding down the slide!
Ferdie and Mrs Beesley loved using the diggers and crane in the construction small world area.
Mrs Long helped a fairy to whizz down the slide in the fairy garden with Fern the Fox.
Mrs Kilburn told Fern all about her holiday to the seaside as she built a sandcastle in the Sunshine Room.
Lots of you told us that you love to read ‘The Gruffalo’ when we visited you this week. Ferdie enjoyed listening to the story with Miss Thomas in the book corner.
It’s not just the fairies that like slides; Miss Morris and Fern loved testing out our new climbing frame and slide. Whhhhheeeeeeeeee!
Mrs Gosper has really missed singing and playing with the Nursery instruments in the holidays. She couldn’t wait to make some noise in the Nursery garden!
Here are a few reminders of some of the things that we talked about at our home visits.
- Please bring a full change of clothes in a drawstring bag and a pair of wellies that will stay in Nursery. Remember to write your child’s name on EVERYTHING!
- Children need to bring a water bottled (named) to Nursery. Please put it in your child’s coloured basket in the morning and collect it at the end of the day to be washed.
- Please return your ‘All about me’ information sheets next week and bring proof of your child’s date of birth, if we didn’t see it at your home visit.
Have a great weekend and we’ll look forward to seeing you next week.
Welcome to Nursery
Welcome to Nursery! We’re looking forward to meeting our new families during our home visits this week. We can’t wait to see you and to begin to get to know each other.
So far this week, we’ve been busily getting Nursery ready for everyone to come and play. Today, we’ve been outside in the sunshine and rain, putting the finishing touches to our lovely new playground. We’ll post some photographs at the end of the week, so make sure you check our Class News page again at the weekend.
Next week, we’ll welcome our older children back to Nursery, too. Make sure you check your child’s transition letter for dates and times.
See you soon!
Have a great holiday!
We say it every year, but where did this year go? Time flies! We had a great final week in Nursery, eating ice-creams, dancing in the bubbles and paddling our feet to help keep us cool!
We’d like to say thank you to everyone for your kind words, cards and end of year gifts. It’s been lovely to watch your children learn and grow this year and we know that they’ll have a great time in Reception.
Have a fantastic summer holiday.
Nursery team
Scholes in Bloom – winning design
A group of children went out to meet the Britain in Bloom judges today. The winning designer of the Scholes in Bloom competition was there and everyone admired the planted design in the flowerbed outside school. It looks fabulous!
Fun outdoors
This week, we began to make our own pirate ship using a large cardboard box. We’ve painted it and have made a flag; it’s almost ready to set sail!
Outside, children have enjoyed using the equipment to play throwing and catching games. They’ve also continued to develop their balancing skills on our obstacle course.
We also made our own shelter using clippings from a very overgrown tree in the Nursery garden. Children loved helping to weave the branches through the string and bamboo sticks.
Planes, boats and pirates!
Children are loving the new pirate themed enhancements in Nursery this week. We’ve been talking about boats, investigating floating and sinking and drawing pirate maps to hunt for hidden treasure.
In the dough area, we’ve been practising some of our dough disco moves; we pushed our thumbs into the dough to make ‘thumb pot’ boats.
In the Sunshine room, we’ve been making dens and toasting marshmallows in our new camping role play area.
Outside, we spotted some ladybird lavae on our willow tree; we even saw one that was beginning to pupate. We’re going to keep checking it regularly to watch what happens next.
Vehicles
Our current ‘transport’ theme is very popular and has inspired lots of role play this week. We’ve been on bus and train rides and floated across the sea in our box boats!
Children enjoyed having using the stencils in the mark making area. It was quite tricky to carefully trace the pen around the edge of the stencil, but they persevered.
In the book corner, we’ve listened to lots of stories about The Little Red Train and we looked closely at the detailed illustrations. We talked about the different places that the Duffy driver visited. Was it the city, countryside or seaside? How did they know?
Outside, children made ramps for the cars, talked about visits to the fair in the small world fairground and made mud ‘chocolate’ cakes. Yum!
A highlight at the end of the week was most definitely watching children enjoy some very messy play!
Transport
We can’t believe that we’re now entering our final half term of this academic year! Over the next few weeks, we’re going to be learning about different types of transport. We’ll be looking at whether something travels by land on a track or the road, or if it travels by air or sea.
To start our transport theme, this week, we’ve listened to some stories from ‘The Little Red Train’ series of books. Children enjoyed hearing about Duffy Driver and his adventures on The Little Red Train.
In group time, our maths focus has been talking about our daily activities and using words to describe when things happen such as during the day, night or in the 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?
In phonics, we’re learning to orally blend words. We’ll be doing lots of ‘sound talking’ over this half term to give children plenty of opportunities to develop their oral blending before they move into Reception. For example, when giving instructions, we may segment the last word into separate phonemes and then immediately blend the sounds together to say the word (e.g. It’s time to get your c-oa-t, coat!). Have a go at home. Whilst setting the table, you could say…Can you put the c-u-p, cup on the table, please. Where is the f-or-k, fork? To begin with, try to keep it simple, with one syllable words.
Outside, children were amazed at how much our plants have grown in the vegetable planter over the holidays. We could even see some radishes poking out of the soil. Children enjoyed picking the biggest ones and we washed them to eat at snack time. There were very mixed reactions; some children loved the ‘crunch’ of the radishes and others weren’t too keen on the flavour! Well done, Nursery. It’s always good to try something new – especially when you have grown it yourself!
Next week, we’ll be looking at different types of vehicles with wheels. If you, or any of your family, have any toy cars, trucks, monster trucks etc. that you no longer use at home, Nursery would be grateful for any donations. Thank you.
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.