Hello from all of your Nursery teachers!
Good morning, today we’ve got a few messages to share with you from everyone at Nursery . We hope that you enjoy watching them (more than we enjoyed recording ourselves!) and spotting a few familiar faces. We’re really enjoying seeing your email photographs, so keep sending them in.
Unfortunately, Miss Backhouse isn’t able to record a message at the moment; she’s ok though, so don’t worry. She’d like us to pass on a big ‘hello’ and she hopes that you’re all having lots of fun with your families. Miss Backhouse is being kept very busy looking after her mischievous cats and drawing lots of super pictures. Do you think she’s been drawing Batman and unicorns?
Rainbows
Have you noticed lots of rainbows recently? As we’ve been going on our daily walks and bike rides around the villages where we live, we’ve all spotted lots of rainbows in people’s windows. Have you seen any? If you have already made a rainbow, please let us know and send us a photo of it.
If you haven’t had chance yet, there are lots of different ways to make one. Why don’t you get creative and have a go! There are many examples on the internet already and we’ll post your rainbows as you send them in.
Do you have all the different colours at home to paint a rainbow? Don’t worry if you don’t, experimenting with colour mixing is a great activity. Talk to your child about what happens when they mix different colours. How could you make orange? What happens if you mix blue and yellow? All you need are some paints and paper (or your patio/path outside!). If you wanted some extra ideas, there are some colour mixing resources on Twinkl, such as these finger painting mats.
We often see children painting and drawing rainbows in Nursery and lots of children enjoy singing along to I can sing a rainbow. Why not sing a long at home as you make your rainbows. You could even go on a ‘rainbow hunt’ and look for items around your house that are all the different colours of the rainbow.
Supertato
Finally for today, we hope that you’re having fun with the Supertato activities. Ferdie enjoyed colouring in a picture of the Evil pea yesterday. He also loved making little peas by rolling playdough into ball shapes. This was great for strengthening his paw muscles, but he also practised his counting at the same time! He had to make 1,2,3 or 4 peas and make sure he stopped when he had enough peas in each pod. Ferdie could even say which pea pod had the most and fewest peas in. Well done, Ferdie! Keep sharing your learning at home with us and we’ll be back on Friday with a story time and some of your friend’s photos.
Supertato!
We hope you enjoyed the weekend and found some fun things to do at home and in your garden. This week, we will be thinking about the story Supertato by Sue Henndra. You might have this story at home, but if not we have posted a link to it on YouTube.
Read or listen to the story with your child – talk about the various vegetables that they can see in the story. Are there any vegetables that they haven’t seen before? Which vegetable is their favourite to eat? Talk about evil pea and how he is being unkind to the other vegetables. It is always a good idea to revisit the story throughout the week, your child may even be able to retell the story, in their own words, using the pictures to help them.
Here are some activities that you can try that are linked to the story.
How many different ways do we eat potato? Talk about this with your child eg mashed potato, chips, jacket potato, crisps.
Make your own Supertato or super vegetable – Draw on the eyes with a marker and add a paper cape with sellotape. Send us a picture via the email we would love to see your creations.
Have a try at vegetable printing or drawing your favourite vegetable. What colour is it? What shape is it?
Sorting carrots –Which are long, which are short? Can you put them in order from shortest to longest? Use the words long, longest, short and shortest with your child. How many carrots have you got? Count carefully pointing to each carrot as you go.
Evil Pea – If you have frozen peas in your freezer have a look at them in their frozen state. Feel them, what do they feel like? Watch them defrost. How long does it take? Does it defrost more quickly in different places around your house? Use the words “frozen” and “melting” with your child.
Make a sign – tell evil pea to stop being unkind. Ask your child what they want it to say and write this for them. They can add pictures of evil pea and maybe a STOP sign.
Let us know how you get on by replying to the email address scholesf1@spherefederation.org. We would love to hear about what you have been doing. Also we are happy to answer any of your questions too.
Have fun!
Chick news
If you have been keeping up to date with our chick news, you’ll know that we were going to move the chicks into a bigger cage this weekend. They love the extra space and have been running around and starting to flap their wings. The chicks are getting better at jumping too; they can now jump over the side and escape when we open the door to feed them.
They’re growing quickly and are really hungry; we’ve been filling their food tray up several times a day. This also means that they poo a lot too! Mrs Long’s first job today is to clean them out and give them some fresh water.
They’ll be going back to the farm soon to join the other chicks and mother hens. We’ll let you know when they do and post a few final photographs of them before they go home.
Story Time
Hello, Nursery! We’re really enjoying seeing all of the photographs that you have emailed us. You’ve all been really busy learning at home. Keep up the good work next week and don’t forget to e-mail us. We’re going to aim to post things on our website on Monday, Wednesday and Friday; make sure you check in with us on those days to see what Ferdie has been doing.
Today, we thought we’d share a story together. Ferdie has chosen to read ‘Hattie Peck’ by Emma Levey (published by Simon and Schuster). Hattie loves eggs but she doesn’t have any of her own so she goes searching for eggs around the world.
- What does Hattie Peck love?
- What did Hattie Peck want most of all?
- Hattie had an idea, what did she decide to do?
- What happened on her journey?
- Can you remember where Hattie found some of the eggs?
At the end of the story, there’s an illustration to show all of the different creatures that hatched from the eggs that Hattie found.
- Can you name some of them?
- Can you think of any other creatures that hatch from eggs?
Home Learning
One of the suggested home learning activities for this week, was to look at eggs and have a go at peeling the shell off a hard boiled egg. However, we know that eggs are difficult to buy at the moment, so we wouldn’t want one to go to waste! Make sure you make a sandwich afterwards and ask your child to help you butter the bread and mash the egg for inside. Yum, yum!
Chick, chick, chicken…
Here’s a quick up-date on our chicks. We have 7 chicks that have hatched and they’re all now happily keeping warm under the brooder. You may remember that one of the chicks was taking a very long time to break out of its shell. With a little bit of help, it broke free and spent an extra 24 hours in the incubator whilst its feathers dried. It has now been moved to join the rest of its friends.
Some of the chicks are just beginning to grow feathers on their wings. These look different to the fluffy down. Can you see them in the photograph?
The chicks are getting bigger everyday, in fact, they can now jump on top of the brooder and one managed to escape! We’re going to move them into a bigger space today so that they have more room to run around. They’re also very fast; Mrs Long has been struggling to catch them!
Home Learning and family fun
Thank you to those children that have been sending us details of your family fun and home learning. Here are a few of your chick drawings; we love their long legs and fluffy feathers. It’s also great to see you’re enjoying some sunshine too.
Meet our fluffy, little chicks!
Thank you for your emails; it’s great to keep in touch and find out how you’re all getting on at home. We’re pleased to hear that some of you have enjoyed joining in with the activities so far. Please remember, whilst at Nursery, children learn through play. We try to make things as fun as we can so please don’t worry about children sitting down to do activities for long periods of time.
Today’s chick news
This morning, we moved three of the chicks into the chicken brooder to give them more space and to keep them warm. They’ve also got some food and water too.
Thank you for sending us your suggestions for names. We’d like you to meet Chirpy and Chippy and their friend, Pecky. Joe, named after the nation’s current favourite PE teacher, is still drying his feathers in the incubator!
We still have one chick in the incubator that has begun to chip away at its shell but it’s taking a long time!
If you’ve drawn any pictures of our chicks, please take a photo of them and send them in. Make sure you listen and sing along to Chick, chick, chicken!
Chicks
At the time of writing this post, we have 4 chicks (2 yellow and 2 brown) that have hatched and 3 eggs that have little cracks in their shells. The fluffy chicks hatched earlier, their feathers have had time to dry in the incubator. The little chick in the corner only hatched 30 minutes ago. Its feathers are still wet and it’s lying down, resting.
We hope that you’ve enjoyed watching the videos so far. In the next video, we managed to film the little chick (in the corner of the photograph) just as it was about to hatch. It’s a time-lapse video so it appears to happen much quicker than it does in real life. Apologies for the wobbles, Mrs Long was videoing for about 20 minutes or more! It’s quite tricky to see clearly, but you might be able to see that the chick is pecking around the shell to crack it more and more. Each time it pecks, it has a little rest before starting again.
Here’s a photograph of the chick, taken just after the video stopped. Can you see its eye and legs? What colour feathers does it have?
What shall we call our chicks?
Send us an e-mail with your suggestions for names and don’t forget to tell us how you’re getting on with your learning from home. Did you read or watch ‘Oh Dear!’ today? Ferdie, our Nursery fox, has come to live with Mrs Long whilst we’re not at Nursery. He’s been busy today; he read ‘Oh Dear!’ this morning and he enjoyed taking part in a PE session with Joe Wick. He also counted how many chicks have hatched and counted how many eggs are left!
Chicks beginning to hatch…
We have been checking the incubator for the last few hours and the cracks in some of our eggs are getting bigger. It’s fascinating to watch; you can see the chick pecking from the inside, trying to get out!
We’ll add the videos and photos of our hatched chicks soon. We’re busy editing them!
We can see a crack…
How exciting! Last night, just before bedtime Mrs Long noticed a crack had appeared in some of our eggs.
We’ve taken the incubator off the rocker now, to keep the eggs still.
What happens when the eggs hatch?
After growing for about three weeks, the chicks inside are ready to break out of their shells. This is called hatching. The chick has a special ‘egg-tooth’ on its beak which it uses to crack a hole in the shell. If you listen very carefully on the video, you’ll be able to hear the chicks chirping inside.
Talk to your child about what happens as the chick hatches; they may remember talking about it during group time at Nursery. Over the next few hours, the chicks will gradually chip away around the inside of the shell until it has broken it enough to get out.
Remember to check the website again soon to see the first our chicks hatch!
Oh Dear
This week we will be thinking about the story Oh dear by Rod Campbell. He also wrote the story Dear Zoo, maybe you would like to listen to that too.
You might have this story at home but if not, follow the link to it on YouTube. We have chosen this story because this week, we are hoping that our eggs will hatch. Mrs Long has taken them home, so no need to worry. She will be keeping us updated with photos via the website as they are due to hatch on Wednesday, fingers crossed. It is such a shame that the children will not see them hatch first hand, but hopefully they will be excited to see their progress.
Read or listen to the story with your child – talk about the story with your child. Discuss all of the animals that Buster visits on the farm. Talk about the young of these animals and their names eg sheep – lamb, a horse- foal. Listen to the story again encouraging your child to join in with the repeated phrase “No eggs here, Oh dear”. How many eggs can they see in the nest at the end of the story? How many animals are in the story?
Here are some activities that you can try that are linked to the story.
Can you draw a chick? Perhaps draw the basic outline of 2 circles then ask your child to add a beak, eyes, legs, wings, feathers.
Small world play – If you have farm animals at a home ask your child to set up their own farm. Use paper for fields and an old cereal box as a farm house.
Sing – Old MacDonald and Baa baa black sheep are favourites in Nursery. Why not learn Chick chick chicken ? Folow the link to listen and sing along together.
Watch – Keep an eye on the website for photos of our chicks. Talk to your child about what they see in the pictures. Why are the chicks wet when they hatch? Why do they need to stay in the incubator?
Eggs – We were planning to look at eggs in various forms at Nursery. Maybe you could do this at home? Peeling a boiled egg is a finger strengthening activity that young children need in order to develop the muscles needed to write. Let them help to make an egg sandwich.
Extra resources and ideas – As detailed in the ‘Useful websites for Home Learning‘ document, Twinkl is offering free access for a month to parents using the code UKTWINKLHELPS. There are a number of chick themed resources available to download and print if you have a printer at home. We often use the pencil control activities and colouring outlines in Nursery.
Let us know how you get on by replying to the email address scholesf1@spherefederation.org. We would love to hear about what you have been doing. Also we are happy to answer any of your questions too.
Have fun!