Welcome to Summer Term
Welcome back ! We hope that you all had a lovely Easter break. We’ve heard all about your Easter holiday trips and visits from the Easter Bunny. The children have returned to Nursery brilliantly and settled in happily to the final term of the year. We’ve had a very busy week in Nursery.
We’ve enjoyed the sunny weather preparing our planters for seeds and planting our beans outside. Thanks for letting us know how the children’s beans are growing at home, we’ve had some fantastic photos sent in.
We created a bike wash following the children’s interest. Using our large muscle movements to scrub with brushes and sponges.
In maths, we looked at the number four. We can show number 4 on our fingers, we clapped and jumped four times. We looked at objects that are all linked to the number four.
Help at home: Can you count objects at home? How many forks or spoons do we need on the table at tea time ? Encourage your child to count carefully, pointing to or moving each object as they say they number name. How many socks do you wear? Can you put 4 bricks/ cars/ pencils away?
We also visited some new friends at home visits. It was lovely getting to know them. Everyone is looking forward to welcoming them next week.
Next week
We will begin our new theme with the story ” The Very Hungry Caterpillar”
We will also be watching our very own ” hungry caterpillars” grow and change.
Our Nursery Rhyme of the week is “1,2,3,4,5, Once I caught a Fish Alive”
Our sound of the week is Vv
Reminders
Can everyone please check that their child’s shoes are named, we realise that sometimes names can rub off. We have a few children with identical footwear this year and they are getting muddled up. Having names in shoes helps us to solve this problem.
We hope that you have a happy and healthy weekend and thankyou for your continued support.
Easter celebrations
This week, we’ve been learning about how some Christians celebrate Easter. We’ve made Easter cards, painted patterns on eggs, filled eggs in the sensory Easter tray and explored the interest table.
We listen to a story called ” We are going on an Easter Hunt” enjoying re-telling the story as the rabbits passed chicks, lambs and bees on the hunt. We followed some Easter traditions by decorating eggs and rolling them, going on an Easter hunt and tasting Hot Cross Buns. We spotted the important symbol of the cross on the top.
Help at home – Some of our older children are learning to hear the initial sounds in words. What can you find that begins with a ‘l’? You might find a lemon, a lolly or a leaf.
For our younger children in yellow group, this might be a little tricky. You could enjoy singing a rhyme related to Easter such as ‘Chick, chick, chicken‘ or ‘Little Peter Rabbit‘.
We hope that you all have a happy and healthy Easter holiday and enjoy some family time together. We’ll look forward to hearing all about your adventures when we return to Nursery on Tuesday 22 April.
Oliver’s Milkshake
We enjoyed reading ‘Oliver’s Milkshake’ this week, which is part of the same series of books as ‘Oliver’s Vegetables’ written by Vivien French. We found out about where milk comes from and learnt that milk is good for our teeth and bones.
As we drank our milk at snack time, we continued to talk about how to keep our bodies healthy and how to look after our teeth. We used toothbrushes in the sensory area to clean the dirty teeth and we listened to some songs all about how to brush our teeth. This song was our favourite!
Help at home – Talk to your child about looking after their teeth and why it’s important to brush them at least twice a day.
We loved making some ‘milkshakes’ in the water tray and whisking the water to make it frothy.
There has been lots of other learning in Nursery this week sorting and counting flowers, making gardens in the dough and painting the daffodils that we found in our garden.
We have been thinking about positional language in our maths. Using words such as “above,” “below,” “next to,” “in front of,” and “behind.” We used toy characters and placed them in different positions.
Help at Home: Can you give your child an instructions including some positional language when playing? For example, “put the car in front of the house.” Then let them be the teacher and give you the instructions.
Nursery Rhyme of the week – Miss Molly had a Dolly
Sound of the week- Ll
Next week, we’ll learn all about Easter and have some Easter-themed fun!
Oliver’s vegetables
We continued to read “Oliver’s Vegetables” and ” Oliver’s Fruit Salad” during story time this week. We talked about our favourite fruit and vegetables and those that we might like to try.
In the play dough area, we rolled tiny balls of dough to make peas and counted out the correct number to go into each pod.
You might have noticed that a pizza shop opened in Sunshine Room this week. The children have been busy taking orders, making a variety of pizzas, adding toppings and herbs. They looked delicious!
We enjoyed peeling different vegetables in the sensory area this week, the sprouts were really tricky. We also mashed our own potatoes, we had to use our muscles and press really hard. We talked about all of the different ways that we could eat potatoes.
The sun shone in the outside area this week, but it was still chilly. We warmed up by building our own obstacle course. The children used tyres, hoops, balance beams and see- saw steps. We talked about how we needed to be safe, so decided only one person could be on the see-saw step at a time. It was lots of fun balancing and jumping.
Help at home – talk about the fruit and vegetables that your child enjoys eating.
Next week
Nursery Rhyme of the week – 1,2 Buckle my shoe
Sound of the week Ff for flamingo
Reminders
Parent Teacher Consultations for our Nursery 2 children ( the children who started Nursery in September 2024) will take place next week. Please attend your appointment via the main school entrance.
We hope that you have a happy and healthy weekend and thankyou for your continued support.
Growing and changing
Our beanstalks are growing! The children have been fascinated over the last few weeks as they have watched and waited for their seeds to grow. We’ve talked about the shoot and roots as they have appeared.
This week we have explored vegetables and herbs. In the creative area, we did some observational drawing of different vegetables and looked at the shape and colours as we drew. The sensory area had lots of herbs to explore, we smelt, looked closely and touched thyme, basil, mint, rosemary and coriander.
We got busy in the Nursery garden too, tidying the planters ready for planting some of our own seeds in the coming weeks.
We have been completing our Spring checklists too, so far we have spotted daffodils, birds, blossom, green leaves, buds and snow drops.
What signs of Spring can you spot when you are out and about?
The children have been practising their counting skills and have been trying to make sure that they count carefully, saying one number for each item as they touch it or point.
Help at home: Practise counting different objects during play and in everyday life. Make sure children say one number for each item; it often helps to move each item as you count or line them up so that children only count each object once. Can they remember how many they had in total without counting again?
1,2,3 there are 3
Next week
Nursery rhyme of the week – Hickory Dickory Dock
Sound of the week Bb for bear.
We hope that you have a happy and healthy weekend and thankyou for your continued support.
Pancakes and Books
We’ve had another exciting week at Nursery with lots happening. On Tuesday, we talked about ‘pancake day ‘and the reasons why some people celebrate Shrove Tuesday. We read ‘Mr Wolf’s Pancakes’ and found out how to make our own pancakes. We enjoyed smelling them as they cooked and we enjoyed eating them even more!
Outside, children have started to notice some changes in our garden; they spotted snowdrops, crocuses and other plants and flowers starting to grow.
We LOVE reading in Nursery and we’re always excited to join in with celebrations for World Book Day. Thank you for bringing some of your favourite stories for us to share together in Nursery. The children from Y5/6 came to nursery to read our stories to us. We had a lovely time sharing the stories together.
Next week, we’ll continue with our ‘growing theme and will listen to ‘Oliver’s Vegetables‘ by Vivian French. We’ll be talking about the different foods that we eat and where they come from.
Nursery Rhyme of the week Hey Diddle Diddle
Sound of the week Hh
Thanks to everyone who sent in a photo of their child as a baby. We have really enjoyed looking at these and talking about how we have changed. If you get chance come in and have a look at our baby photo gallery in Sunshine room.
We hope that you have a happy and healthy weekend and thankyou for your continued support.
Jack and the Beanstalk
We loved reading Jack and the Beanstalk this week and re-telling the story using the props in the book corner.
Fee- Fi-Foo-Fum! Watch out everyone here I come!
We listened to an audio book of the story, too. We have been working very hard at listening carefully. Being a “ good listener” will help the children when they move to Reception and begin listening for the sounds in words.
We painted beanstalks and explored different types of beans in the sensory area. The baked beans were “ cold” “ yuck” “ squishy”
We even rolled long ‘sausages’ using dough to make beanstalks and added our own leaves. How many can you see? Which beanstalk is the tallest?
Your child might have also told you all about planting their own magic bean; we’ve planted some bean seeds and are hoping that our bean stalks will soon start to grow.
Next week
Nursery rhyme of the week –Round and Round the Garden
Sound of the week “Rr” for rainbow.
Reminder
World Book Day – Thursday 06 March
This year, we will celebrate in Nursery by bringing in our favourite books from home to to share with our friends. Please make sure that your child’s name is in their book.
Why not spend an extra few minutes at drop off time and share a favourite story with your child. We will have lots to choose from and some story props to help to bring the stories to life.
Don’t forget to send in your baby photographs
Next week, we’re learning about growing up and looking at how we change as we get older.
It would be great if we could look at some photographs of children when they were babies and toddlers. If you are able to, please send us an email with one photograph of your child as a baby and one photograph of them as a toddler. We’ll use these in group time and will also be adding them to our Home Corner family display.
Thanks to those of you have already sent in photographs.
A very busy week
This week, as part of our Expressive Arts and Design curriculum, we’ve re-visited learning to draw ourselves. We used mirrors to look at our faces and talked about what shape we needed to draw on the paper first. We then looked at our features and tried to add more details to our drawings such as hair, ears and eyes. Some children added eye lashes and eyebrows.
Have a go at home together. Can you draw each other? Start with a circle shape for your face and then add in some features
Tuesday was our Internet safety Day at Nursery. We talked about ways to stay safe whilst using technology at home such as always making sure that we are near a grown up. Only using apps and games that our parents and carers have said are ok for us to play. We also agreed that we’d tell someone if we saw anything that we didn’t like pop up on our screens.
We also followed an interest in magnetism this week. The children found the magnetic boards outside and wanted to find out more. We began exploring to find out which things were magnetic.
“It sticks to the cake tin, look”
“Metal, it sticks to the metal leg”
We found a construction kit that we could make models that used magnets to hold the parts together.
Learning after half term:
We’ll be reading Jack and the Beanstalk and beginning our ‘growing’ theme. If you have a copy of the book at home, please read it together.
Nursery rhyme of the week – Mary, Mary quite contrary.
Sound of the week – ‘Uu’ for Umbrella
We’re also learning about growing up and looking at how we change as we get older.
It would be great if we could look at some photographs of children when they were babies and toddlers. If you are able to, please send us an email with one photograph of your child as a baby and one photograph of them as a toddler. We’ll use these in group time sessions and will also be adding them to our Home Corner family display.
scholesnursery@spherefederation.org
Reminder – World Book Day
It’s World Book Day on Thursday 06 March. This year, we will celebrate by bringing our favourite book to nursery to share with our friends. Please make sure that your child’s name is in their book. If you can stay a little bit longer at drop off on Thursday morning, we’d love for you to share a book with your child or to join in with some of the World Book Day activities that will be in provision. It’s always a day that we really enjoy at nursery, so please join in if you can.
We hope that you all have a happy and healthy half term and we’ll see you on Monday 24 February.
Nursery Coffee Morning
Following the half-term break we will be holding another Nursery coffee morning.