What is ice?
On Tuesday morning, we arrived to a very cold Nursery and our garden was covered in frost and ice. When we went outside, children had lots of questions to ask about the frost, but nobody seemed too sure about how it had got there and where it went in the afternoon when the sun came out.
There was talk of snow, Jack Frost visiting and that it had fallen from the sky and that it ‘melted’ but children couldn’t explain what ‘melting’ means. We talked about lots of different things – ice, snow, frost, rain, water, freezers and melting and children were keen to investigate.
We looked at some ice from the freezer and predicted what would happen to it if we kept it out of the freezer in a bowl. Children suggested that the sun might make it melt and another child suggested that hot water might make it melt. We left some ice in our classroom, some in the sun outside and we also added hot water to some ice, too. We talked about how it changed and what happened to the ice in the different places. After lots of discussion, and after noticing that it melted in our hands as well, we worked out that when ice gets warmer, it melts and becomes water.
Why do we sometimes have ice in the Nursery garden in the morning? Children had lots of ideas and we decided to set up an experiment to see what would happen if we put some water in different containers over night. We also looked around the garden to find some natural objects to add into the water.
When we returned to Nursery on Wednesday, nothing had happened! We still had cups and pots of water. Why didn’t we have any ice? We tried again on Wednesday night, and on Thursday morning, we were very excited to find some ice. Again, after lots of discussion and ideas, we agreed that it had to be very, very cold at night for the water to freeze and turn into ice.
Have a go at making some ice at home. What do you need to do? Where do you need to put it? Ask your child to help you fill an ice cube tray with water and put it in the freezer. Check on it a few times the same day. Has anything happened? Leave it over night. What has happened to the water in the tray? Why? What does the freezer do?
Children have enjoyed reading ‘Dinosaur Roar’ this week, so we’ll continue with their interest in dinosaurs next week. We’ll be weighing dinosaur bones, investigating dinosaur footprints and drawing eyes, horns and sharp claws to create our own, fearsome dinosaurs.
Identity Day
Nursery is not taking part in ‘Identity Day’ on Friday (21.01.22) with school. Children need to wear their usual Nursery clothes or uniform. Thank you
Winter and welcome!
It was lovely to meet all of our new children and their families on Monday for their ‘stay and play’ session. We’ve enjoyed getting to know everyone this week and children have enjoyed exploring Nursery and playing with some familiar faces as well as beginning to make some new friends.
This week, we have learnt all about the number one. During group time, we passed around a mystery bag that was full of different items that were all linked to the number ‘one’. We looked at the numeral, a ‘one’ piece of Numicon, one counter on a five frame, one pebble, a hand holding up one finger, a unicycle, a dice, a circle, one brick and a few other ‘one’ related items. Can you think of any more? We talked all about the number ‘one’ and also did lots of actions once. We did one clap, one jump and one hop! See if you can spot the number one when you walk to Nursery, maybe on a house door or a number plate. We loved singing ‘One finger, one thumb‘ although it was quite tricky to remember all of the movements towards the end!
We’ve continued to learn about winter this week, talking about the changes in the weather that we noticed when playing outside. Unlike last week, we couldn’t find any ice in the morning and it was very sunny one afternoon – is it still winter? We talked about things that we might see outside in winter time and the clothing that we need to wear. At story time, we looked at a non-fiction book to find out some more information about winter.
In provision, children have enjoyed exploring winter further with some wintery themed enhancements including a ‘Frozen’ small world area and a wintery themed loose parts area.
Run, run as fast as you can!
It was great to see everyone again this week and we couldn’t believe how much some of you have grown over the Christmas holidays! Thank you for your festive photos; we enjoyed looking at them and talking about your family celebrations at group time.
Children returned brilliantly to Nursery and have settled back into our routines well. It’s been very cold this week so please make sure that your child has a warm coat, a hat and some gloves every day. We’re always trying to promote independence at Nursery, so please take some time at home to help your child to learn how to put on their own coat and gloves. Gloves are especially tricky, but give it a try! Remember to label items with your child’s name too so that we can help to return them at the end of the day.
This week, we’ve been reading the well know traditional tale of The Gingerbread Man. It’s a great story for children to recall and there are lots of repeated refrains for them to use when re-telling the story. Try and tell the story together at home. Can they remember the main parts? Encourage them to use the repeated refrains. ‘Run run as fast as you can, you can’t catch me I’m the Gingerbread Man.’ or ‘Stop! I want to eat you!’
The ginger playdough was very popular – we’ve lost count of how many gingerbread people have been made this week! Children have enjoyed investigating the cornflour gloop, too. It was hard and then sometimes runny, how strange!
Our maths focus this week, has been learning to make comparisons between objects relating to size and length. We looked at big/little/small/large gingerbread outlines and ordered them by size. During group time, we introduced some more specific vocabulary relating to height such as tall, taller, short and shorter. We stood back to back with our friends and compared our heights and we even had a go at measuring each other using ‘hands’. We carefully counted how many ‘hands’ tall we were. Mrs Crompton was 10 hands tall! Some children knew that tape measures are used to measure height and used them to measure their friends. After group time, some children went on to compare the heights of their water bottles and the size of their carrots at snack time.
Try to use some of this language at home this week in order to help your child consolidate their new vocabulary. Who is the tallest person in your family? Who is the shortest? Which teddy is the shortest? Which bottle is the tallest?
Here are a few other photographs from our play this week: constructing with 3D shapes on the light panel, learning to draw our faces in the creative area and more measuring and investigating capacity in our play ‘baking’ area.
Finally, the cold weather sparked lots of interest and discussion in the ice that children found in the garden each morning. We’ll continue with this interest next week, investigating ‘ice’ and learning more about winter time.
Information for children starting Nursery in January
It was great to meet some of you this week for your door step visit and we hope that you’re looking forward to joining us in Nursery on Monday for your ‘stay and play’ session. For those families that we were unable to meet, don’t worry, we’ll look forward to catching up with you on Monday.
Here is some of the important information that we discussed at the home visit.
‘Stay and play’ visit
- Please take a lateral flow test just before the ‘stay and play’ session and wear a mask during the visit. We’re asking that only one adult accompanies your child. If you test positive, please don’t attend and get in touch to let us know.
- Please come to the Nursery door (blue) on Monday (via Morwick Grove entrance).
- Remember to bring proof of your child’s date of birth (passport/ birth certificate).
What does my child need to bring to Nursery?
- A drawstring bag with a FULL change of clothes (underwear, socks/tights, trousers/leggings, a top and jumper.) Make sure that everything is clearly NAMED
- A NAMED pair of wellies to remain at Nursery
- Children play out in all weather, so please make sure that your child wears a a warm, waterproof coat each day and has a hat and gloves during winter. Don’t forget to NAME them all!
- A NAMED water bottle
Arrival and collection
- Red and yellow group – Entry through the main Nursery entrance at 9am.
- Blue and green group – Entry to the Sunshine room through the Nursery playground at 9am.
- Collection at the end of the day – Nursery closes at 2.15pm on Monday and 3.15pm Tuesday-Friday. Children can be collected from 3.05pm onwards (or 2.05pm on Monday) to help reduce congestion at collection times. For children attending for the morning session, collection is at 12pm.
If you have any other questions, please let us know. For non-urgent enquiries during term time, you can email us and we will try to reply as soon as we can during the working day, once we’ve finished teaching. scholesnursery@spherefederation.org If you have an urgent enquiry, please call school and speak to the office.
We look forward to seeing you all on Monday and hope that you’re getting excited about coming to play!
Have you applied for a primary school place yet?
Don’t forget, if your child is due to start school in September 2022, you need to apply for a primary school place before 15 January.
Please refer to our previous post for more details.
Happy New Year!
We hope that you all had a fantastic Christmas and enjoyed the New Year celebrations. We’re looking forward to seeing you all this week and finding out about your holidays and time with your families.
If you’d like to choose one or two photographs of your Christmas or New Year celebrations, please email us and we’ll share them at group times and on our Nursery display. Scholesnursery@spherefederation.org
We’re also looking forward to meeting some of our new children this week for their doorstep home visit. You’ll soon get to meet everyone when they begin Nursery next week.
Reminders
- Remember to bring your water bottles this week – containing WATER only please. Also, don’t forget to write your name on it if Santa brought you a new one!
- The weather is very mixed at the moment. Remember to wear a warm, waterproof coat to Nursery and bring a hat and some gloves. (All named please.)
See you soon!
Merry Christmas!
We’ve had a brilliant week filled with lots of festive fun! Here are a few photos from our Christmas party, our secret visit from Father Christmas and some of the other festive activities that we enjoyed.
As you will no doubt have already heard, we received a letter in Nursery this week. It was from… Father Christmas! He’d been to visit school and to play in Nursery with us, but as we’d all gone home, he sent us a video message instead. He told us that he’d put his sack down somewhere but couldn’t remember where. He also said, that if we managed to locate his missing sack, then we could have a little early Christmas treat. Luckily for Father Christmas, we are good detectives and found his missing sack under our Christmas tree! We hope that you all enjoyed reading your new story from Santa.
Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We’ll see you in January.
Christmas dinner day
Yum, yum! We loved our Christmas dinner and had a great time celebrating with our friends. Thank you to the lunch staff for cooking such a delicious dinner for us to enjoy with all of the trimmings.
Also, thank you to Mrs Pennock for creating our very own Christmas light show. We loved looking at all of the giant characters in the hall.
As well as recording ‘Our First Christmas Play’, we’ve been learning about the Nativity story this week and writing letters to Father Christmas. If you’d like to continue this learning at home, there are some short videos that you can watch on the CBeebies website. They’re all about how Christians prepare for Christmas and the Christmas story.
Our Christmas performance will be ready to watch next week… watch this space and check your inbox early next week for more details.
Party day – Don’t forget it’s our Nursery Christmas party on Monday 13 December. Please read our previous post for more details. Also, if you haven’t already, please don’t forget to add your £1 donation to the party pot. This will go towards the cost of some treats at our party. Thank you.
Christmas fun in the hall
A massive thank you to Mrs Pennock and all the lunchtime staff who created a fabulous atmosphere for Christmas dinner day today. The children and staff had a lovely time!
