Bears
Have you been on a ‘Bear Hunt’ recently? We started our school year in September by reading ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ because so many of you talked about it being your favourite story during our home visits. So, we thought that we’d end our year by revisiting the story.
- We love this version of the story, performed by Michael Rosen. See if you can join in with the sound effects and actions.
- For those of you that have enjoyed the yoga activities, we’ve found a Cosmic Yoga for you to take part in that tells the story through yoga poses and balances. Have fun!
- We love to retell the story outside at Nursery. Have a go at re-telling it on your next walk. What will you have to walk through?
Finally, have you had your teddy bear’s picnic yet? It’s not too late to join in and send us a photo. All you need is a blanket, a teddy and a snack! Enjoy your picnic and take a snap. Email us – scholesf1@spherefederation.org
Remember, there’ll be a special ‘end of year’ Nursery video for you to enjoy on Friday!
Where’s my Teddy?
We can’t believe that this is our final week of home learning activities. Look out for something special arriving in the post this week and remember to check back on Friday for a special video.
We’re going to finish our home learning activities with ‘Where’s My Teddy?’ written by Jez Alborough.
We often celebrate our learning and the end of our time in Nursery with a Teddy Bear’s picnic party. Sadly, this isn’t going to be possible this year but we didn’t want to miss out on all of the fun. So, this week, we’d love it if you could have a Teddy Bear’s picnic at home (inside or outside depending on the weather!) and send us your photos by Thursday.
Remember to email your photos to scholesf1@spherefederation.org
We’ll share all of your photographs on Friday. We thought that this would be a lovely way to end the year – to fill our Class News Page with all of your happy, smiling faces.
Where’s My Teddy
- Did you enjoy the story?
- How do you think Eddy felt when he lost his teddy?
- Do you have a favourite teddy bear or soft toy? Talk to your family members about their favourite toys as children. They may still have an old favourite teddy hidden away somewhere that they can show you.
Here are some activities that you can try that are linked to the story.
Mark Making – Draw or cut out an outline of a bear. Ask your child to add eyes, a nose and a mouth to the bears face. You could encourage them to draw some clothes on the bear or a bow tie and decorate it with patterns. There are also some free printable pencil control activity sheets to download on Twinkl.
Music – Sing along at home to this well-known family favourite all about a teddy bear’s picnic.
Cooking – Find a recipe to bake something to eat at your Teddy Bear’s Picnic this week. There are lots of recipe ideas on the I Can Cook website. Some bears like to eat honey; you might like to make a honey sandwich! Ask your child to help butter the bread and add their choice of sandwich filling. With help, they can cut their sandwiches carefully into squares or triangles.
Understanding the World – Do you like honey? If you’ve never tried it before, have a try. What does it taste like? Where does honey come from? Maddie Moate knows all about where honey comes from because her parents are bee keepers. Watch these short clips to find out about how bees make honey and how Maddie harvests honey from her bee hives.
Mathematics
1) Top Marks has a teddy bear counting game that children really enjoy playing at Nursery. We help children to recognise the number so that they know how many cupcakes to feed the bear.
2) Ask your child to choose some soft toys/teddies to invite to the picnic. How many have they chosen? How many plates and cups will they need?
Watch – Teddy bears are obviously very popular as there are lots of programmes available to watch all about bears! Here’s an episode from Postman Pat about a Special ‘teddy’ Delivery or you can find out what happens in the town of Biggleton when too many bears arrive for the picnic.
Never Forget
We’re nearly at the end of this crazy year.
It’s been a long time but we’re not too sure where we’ve been.
We’ve had good times …
Do you know what? I’ll let Take That say the rest.
(If they refuse to sing or you can only see half of the screen, slide the image to the far right and click on the full screen icon.)
Story Time
Well done! You’ve just completed another week of home learning. What was your highlight of this week? We have one more week of activities planned before we break up for the summer holidays. Next week, our usual Friday story time will be slightly different; visit our Class News Page on Friday 17 July for a special ‘end of year’ Nursery video.
This week, Miss Morris is going to read our final story of the year. We know that many of you have loved listening to them each week so we hope that you’ll enjoy today’s story, too. Can you guess which story it is from these clues?
- The main character has long ginger hair that she wears in a plait.
- She meets a fearsome creature that wants to have ‘witch and chips’ for his tea.
- There’s a cat, a dog, a bird and a frog in the story and they all help to make a spell using the magic words…Igggity, zigggity, zagggety, zoooooom!
That’s right! Miss Morris is going to read ‘Room on the Broom’ by Julia Donaldson.
Independence
It is really important that you help your child to be as independent as possible. Here are some essential skills that we’d like you to encourage your child to practise so that they can try to do them independently on their return to Nursery or Reception. Over the summer holiday is often a great time to work on these skills; you may have a bit of extra time and aren’t as rushed by time deadlines.
Whilst some of these activities may be more suited to our older children that are moving to Foundation 2 (Reception) in September, most of them are things that our younger children could be working towards too. It’s never too early to encourage children to be as independent as they can be.
- Encourage your child to put on their own coat and shoes. When you’re buying shoes, try to choose shoes that have Velcro fastenings or that children can do themselves.
- Can your child use the toilet independently? Try to help your child recognise when they need the toilet. Encourage them not to leave it until the last minute so that they have time to remove their own clothing. Can your child wipe themselves afterwards? These are all skills that children will need in Reception and that would also be very beneficial in Nursery.
- Encourage your child to be independent at lunchtime. When you’re at home or on a picnic over the summer, teach your child how to open food containers and to remove packaging themselves. If they have a carton drink, encourage them to put the straw in independently. All these things will be really helpful on their return to school so that we can minimise our close contact with their lunch items.
- If your child is already well on their way with these skills, you could look at other ways to build their independence. Can they get dressed themselves? Can they put on their own socks? Do they know how to put a t-shirt / jumper on and take it off ?
- Watch – There are lots of programmes about starting school or nursery on this CBeebies page all about being ‘Ready for School’.
Home Learning
Here are your friend’s photos from this week.
Floating and sinking
We hope that you’re having a good week so far. Today, we thought you might like to investigate floating and sinking. You could gather a few items from around the house to investigate which ones float and which ones sink. Alternatively, wait until bath time and investigate in the bath tub!
Watch – We know that some of you love Maddie; here she is singing a song about floating and sinking.
07 July 2020 : Whole school home learning (Let’s get sporty!)
Whole school sporting activities
Sharing a Shell
Whilst going on a big holiday might be less likely this year, we know that everyone loves a trip to the seaside. This week’s story is another of Julia Donaldson’s popular books, it’s called ‘Sharing a shell’.
You can also listen to Julia Donaldson singing the ‘Sharing a Shell’ song here.
Talk about the story with your child. Have you ever visited the seaside and had a look in the rockpools? You may have some photos that you could look at and talk about what you saw whilst at the seaside.
Here are some activities that you could try that are linked to the story.
Listening skills – We might not be able to visit the seaside as much as we’d like to at the moment, but we can still listen to some seaside sounds. Listen to the beginning of the recording and see if you can guess what some of the sounds are.
Fiddly fingers – Can you make a snail out of playdough? Roll a really long sausage shape and then carefully curl it back around to make a snail shell.
If you want to make some shells or sea creatures that you can keep, you could make a batch of salt dough and when it’s dry you can paint them too.
Make a sandcastle – Don’t worry if you don’t have any sand! Have you ever made cloud dough at home? Whilst it can be messy, it’s great fun and very easy to make. All you need is some flour and oil (vegetable oil or baby oil) and to mix them together in a bowl. There’s a recipe here, but you don’t have to add the extras like oranges or cinnamon. Once you’ve made your cloud dough, you can use small pots and spoons (yogurt pots or small containers) to scoop and mould it.
Creative – Have a go at making a flag to go in your sandcastle. You could use a bamboo skewer or find a small stick when you go for a walk. Cut out some paper to make the flag and decorate it with a picture. Will it be a triangle or rectangle shaped flag? Make sure that you keep it somewhere safe so that you can take it to the seaside, the next time you go. You’ll be able to look forward to building a giant sandcastle!
Lego challenge – Build a lighthouse using your Lego/Duplo bricks. How tall can you make it? Is it stable or does it fall over? Here’s a very short clip of Maddie learning about lighthouses.
Role play – Do you like to eat fish and chips at the seaside? You could have a go at creating your own fish and chip shop. Cut out a circle to make a cone and use some dry penne pasta for chips. You could make a fish using some brown cardboard. If you have an old newspaper or magazine, you could use that to wrap them up. Add a note pad to take orders and some money for the customers to pay. Have fun!
Watch – Join Barnaby Bear on his visit to the seaside.
Health and self care – What would you wear to go to the seaside? Being able to get undressed and dressed independently is a really important skill. Encourage your child to get dressed by themselves when you’re not in a rush. Can they put their own shorts and t-shirt on? How about tricky socks?
Sports Week
This week, children’s learning will include lots of health and sports related activities across school. If you’d like to join in as well, we’ve posted a few activities to get you started. Also, watch out for a new post about a fun sports event for the whole school later today.
- We love making obstacle courses at Nursery and we often count how many times children can go around in a set amount of time. Can you make one at home? You could include something to balance along (like our walk the plank activity last week), markers to create a slalom course for children to run in between, a bucket/hoop to throw balls into (or similar items – like rolled up socks!) and try to create something to crawl under or through. Be creative and have fun setting it up! Take a photo of your course and let us know how you get on.
- Get active! Have a go at some activities to raise your heart rate. Try some games involving running, jumping, hopping and star jumps. How does your body feel before the exercise? How about afterwards? What happens to your breathing/heart beat/temperature?
- Talk about other activities that you can do to keep fit and healthy. We know lots of you love to ride on your bikes and scooters. Put your helmets on and go for a ride/scoot!
- As well as exercise, what other things do we do to keep a healthy body and mind? Talk about all of the things we do to stay healthy. You could think about the foods we need to eat to have a healthy, balanced diet. Given the current situation, it’s always a good idea to revisit the importance of hand washing and general good hygiene habits, including looking after our teeth. These are important things to begin to teach young children.
Story Time
We loved seeing the photos of your scavenger hunt items. Did you find any tricky to find? Which ones were difficult?
On Monday, we asked you to save your telescope if you made one – you might want to use it during today’s story. Don’t worry if you didn’t make one, you’ll still enjoy the story without one, or you could quickly find a tube that you could use!
Have you guessed which story Miss Backhouse is going to read? It’s about a little boy who loves his telescope and he takes it everywhere with him. Guess what he spots when he goes to the park!
Did you spot the sharks that Timothy saw? Watch the story again and try and join in when he shouts “SHARK IN THE PARK!”
Here are a few activities linked to today’s story if you enjoyed it.
- There are few stories in this series of books. Here is the original ‘Shark in the Park’ story read by the author, Nick Sharratt. There’s a drawing lesson afterwards that might be a bit tricky, but you could have a go at drawing your own sharks. What shape do you need to draw for the fin? Can you draw some zig-zags for the shark’s sharp teeth? Alternatively, here’s a printable shark colouring sheet that you might like to do.
- What can you see in the park? Enjoy a visit to a local park and have a look to see what shapes you can see. Are there any triangle shapes that look a bit like a shark’s fin? You could take your telescopes to see what you can see.
- Watch – If you’re interested in sharks, you can learn more about them with Steve Backshall in these short clips on the CBBC website.
- We know that lots of you love this very catchy song and will have fun joining with the actions at home. Turn it up and have a dance! Andy from CBeebies has also written a rap song about sharks.
- Some of the older Nursery children may notice that the words ‘shark’ and ‘park’ rhyme. Can you think of any other words that rhyme? Listen for rhyming words in stories that you read or you could try giving your child a word and thinking of other words it rhyme with. Start with easier ones such as cat, hat, bat, rat… There’s also a rhyming game called ‘Cake Bake’ on the Phonics Play website and it is still free to play using the login details given on the site.
Home Learning
Another week has ended and we can’t believe that there are just two weeks left until the Summer holidays. We’ve loved reading all of your emails this week, thank you. Please keep sending them for our last few weeks of learning together. Here are a few photos from this week. Can you spot the different items that your friends found in the scavenger hunt? There were lots of smelly socks!
Zoom call
If you contacted us to say that you wanted to take part in our Nursery Zoom call, you should have received the details via email on Wednesday. We’re looking forward to seeing you next week!
Scavenger Hunt
We love listening to stories about pirates hunting for treasure so we thought that you might like to go on your own ‘treasure hunt’ today. Your Nursery teachers are going to give you two items to find. Listen carefully and then pause the video when you see Feridie Fox and go and see if you can find something that is …
When you’ve found all of your items, please take a photo of them and email it to us at scholesf1@spherefederation.org. We can’t wait to see what you find that is smelly!
If you enjoyed this, you could have a go at making your own scavenger hunt clues to play with your family. Have fun!
Pirates Love Underpants!
There were some noisy thunderstorms over the weekend and lots of heavy rain showers. Did you hear the thunder or see any lightening? It made us think of stormy seas…
This week’s story is one of the very popular books from a series of stories written by Claire Freedman; they’re all about aliens, dinosaurs and pirates that love underpants!
We hope that you enjoy listening to ‘ Pirates Love Underpants‘; it’s all about a crew of cheeky pirates that are looking for some golden treasure.
We hope that you enjoyed listening to the story.
- What was your favourite part?
- Did any parts of the story make you laugh?
- Can you remember which animal was waiting underneath the bridge?
- How did the pirates trick the rival pirate crew to steal the treasure?
Here are some activities for you to try that are linked to the story.
Creative – Have a go at making your own pirate hat, patch, telescope or treasure chest. Before you start, gather together some cardboard boxes or tubes from your recycling pile. You could cut out the shape of a hat from an opened out cereal box or you could simply roll up some paper to make a telescope. A clean, empty egg box would make a great treasure chest. It can be as easy or as complicated as you want to make it! We’ve added a few links if you need some help or a starting point.
Music – This week, we thought we’d share another of the songs we enjoy listening to before home time at Nursery. It’s called ‘Port Side Pirates’. We hope you enjoy singing along at home.
Mark making – Every good pirate needs a map! Draw where the pirates have hidden the treasure on the island. Is it next to a tree or in a cave? How will you show where the treasure is? That’s right, X marks the spot. When we were little, we used to use a teabag to stain the paper to make our treasure maps look really old. Did you?
Role play – Grab your hats, telescopes and treasure maps and come aboard! We’re sure that you can make a pirate ship on your bed/sofa/picnic blanket and enjoy sailing the Seven Seas together. What can you see through your telescope? Is that a desert island ahead? Look for the landmarks on your map and go and find some treasure! Ahoy, Maties!
Mathematics
- Investigate capacity using a selection of different containers, bottles and tubs. This activity might be a good one to do in the bath or outside with a bucket or storage box full of water. Children love to play in the water and investigate pouring and filling containers. As they pour, talk to your child about which containers/bottle holds the most/least water. Is it nearly full? Half full? Empty? If you have a funnel or colander in the kitchen, let children explore using these too. If you want to add to the discussion, you could put a hole in one of the bottles. What happens to the water as you try to fill the bottle?
- Treasure hunt – Hide 5 coins outside. As children find them, ask how many there are left to find. Once you have found 2 coins, how many are still missing?
- Listen to this counting story about ’10 Little Pirates’ . Can you join in each time and work out how many pirates are left each time?
Physical development – Can you walk the plank at home? Have a look in your garden or whilst on a walk in your local area to see if you can find something to practise balancing along to ‘walk the plank’. You might have a plank of wood that you could lay along the floor, or you could use a rope or rolled up blanket. Children will enjoy carefully balancing along it and then jumping off the end.
We’re sure that you’ll all love the pirate theme this week! Remember to send us photos of your telescopes and eye-patches and save your telescope as it might come in handy for Friday’s story time.
Reminder – Zoom Call
If you would like your child to take part in the Nursery Zoom call, please e-mail us by Monday 29 June. Refer to our previous post for more details.