Harvest Time
It has been a very busy week in Nursery. We have noticed the children enjoying building and designing, using their imagination and skills of cooperation to work together with their friends. They have also been using construction kits to create their own designs.
“Will this fit?”
“Try this one, we need a straight bit”
“It’s an aeroplane with wings, here are the windows”
We have also been thinking about harvest time. We talked about all the vegetables that are harvested in Autumn. We made our own farm outside with vegetables to harvest and used our senses to explore corn.
We also continued our interest in conkers by rolling and balancing them, using our fine motor control to help us. It was tricky!
Thanks to everyone who brought in Autumn treasures we shared our final few this week. So many interesting things corn, pumpkins, conkers and acorns. We have really enjoyed exploring their contents and finding out all about them.
Help at home
This week we have been working very hard at taking care of ourselves. One of the Prime Areas of learning in Early Years is Personnel, Social and Emotional Development, so learning to take care of ourselves is very much part of our curriculum.
We encourage the children to put on their coats and fasten them up independently.
Changing from wellies to shoes is something that we do many times throughout the day. Pushing your foot into your shoes can be tricky but with some practice we can do it.
We have had quite a few coughs and colds this week so our ” nose blowing area” has had lots of use. Getting a tissue and looking in the mirror to check that your nose is clean helps to develop independence.
These skills of independence are something that you can help with at home. Supporting your child to put on their own coat and shoes, to wipe their nose independently and to wash and dry their hands.
Next week in nursery will be our final week of the half term. Our story next week is Room on the Broom, it’s written by the very popular author, Julia Donaldson. You may be familiar with the story from the BBC version. You can watch it on BBC iplayer
Our Nursery Rhyme of the week is Incey Wincey Spider Can you sing this at home?
Reminders
Nursery closes for half term on Thursday 24 October.
We will return to Nursery on Monday 04 November.
Let’s get creative.
Talk of Autumn filled nursey this week as we continued to share our amazing Autumn treasures. If you haven’t returned yours to nursery yet, don’t worry, we will continue to share them until Friday.
We enjoyed using some of our Autumn treasure to create our own autumnal artwork inspired by the artist, Andy Goldsworthy. Whilst doing this, we also used some of our sorting skills to sort the leaves into different colour piles.
In the Maths area we used our Autumn treasures to copy and continue repeating patterns. Why not try this at home with toys eg car, brick, car, brick, car.
Autumn has inspired our learning in the sensory areas too. We have scooped and poured red and green lentils and barley. We listened to the sound it made as it dropped onto the tray and how it felt as it trickled through our fingers. We used the light frame to create pictures with leaves made from various materials. We watched how the light made the leaves change.
Group time learning activities began this week. We enjoyed drawing different patterns on some wellies. We drew horizontal lines, spots and some children created their own patterns including ‘x’ and zig-zags.
Help at home
Next week our Nursery Rhyme of the week is Humpty Dumpty
Can you join in with this rhyme?
Reminders
- We have been sharing lots of family photographs at group time this week. If you are still to send yours in its not to late send it to the nursery email address scholesnursey@spherefederation.org
- Please make sure that your child’s shoes are named. We have some identical pairs this year.
Parent- Teacher Zoom Appointments
Nursery will hold our parent-teacher Zoom meetings after half term, in the week commencing 25 November.
Please look out for further information when we return to Nursery after the half term break.
Amazing Autumn
Thank you for returning your autumn bags! This week, we began to look at their contents. Children enjoyed talking about what they had found and where they found their autumn treasure. Don’t worry if you haven’t had a chance to go for a walk yet, there’s still time. Please return your bag to Nursery over the next week.
We’ve been learning all about autumn this week; we talked about the changes that we could see around us in our Nursery garden. Children noticed that the leaves were changing colour and falling from the branches. We listened to a song about autumn leaves falling down and named lots of different coloured leaves that we could see outside.
In our story corner, children have enjoyed listening to the story of ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’. They’re getting really good at re-telling the story and joining in with the repeated refrains.
Next week, we’ll continue to learn about autumn and will look at some artwork by Andy Goldsworthy so don’t forget to bring your autumn treasure bag back to nursery.
Help at home
Next week’s nursery rhyme is Baa Baa Black Sheep Can you join in with this nursery rhyme?
We are continuing to explore “We’re going on a bear hunt” Here is the author telling the story. Have a listen at home and join in together with the sound effects!
Reminders
- Our individual photographs will take place on Tuesday 08 October. If your child does not attend nursery on a Tuesday but you would like them to have their photograph taken please contact school.
- Please ensure that your child has a waterproof coat at nursery every day. We go outside to learn, whatever the weather!
Down on the farm
We’ve had another busy week in nursery, continuing to explore the provision and making friends. Our new small world area, the farm, has sparked a lot of interest. We talked about the different animals that we see on a farm and the sounds that they make. The children enjoyed adding the animal sound effects whilst playing.
As part of our early phonics learning, we encourage children to listen to the sounds that they can hear around them, such as an aeroplane flying above or birds singing in the trees. We also explore the different noises that animals make.
Help at home: If you visit a farm or see some animals in a field, remember to use the animal names and talk about the noises that they make. You might like to play a game where you use some farm animal toys and choose an animal to describe. For example: It has 4 legs, a curly tail and a snout. Can they guess which animal you are describing and make the animal noise? Can they give you some clues? This is a great way to add new words to your child’s vocabulary and to develop their listening skills.
The children have enjoyed retelling this weeks focus story ‘The Three Little Pigs’ joining in with the repeated refrains “I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down”.
As the children continue to explore the provision lots of different interests have been emerging, rolling cars down ramps being a big favourite. We experimented with other things that roll in the paint this week and tried our hand at painting with rollers. This up and down motion will help us later when it comes to developing our skills as a writer.
Here are some of the other activities from this week
- bug hunting
- friendship making
- brick house building
- sorting and matching in the maths area.
- imaginative play
Next week, we’ll talk about the changes that we are noticing outside. Look out for a brown bag in your child’s folder – we’d like you to fill it with autumn treasure that you find and return it to Nursery.
Our focus story is the popular story “We’re Going on a bear Hunt” We will be exploring this story using our own puppets and props.
Our Nursery rhyme of the week will be Row, row, row your boat Can you sing along with the rhyme at home?
Reminders:
- Please don’t forget to send a family photograph for our home corner display Please send it to scholesnursery@spherefederation.org
- We play outside in all weather – please remember to send your child with a waterproof coat everyday.
- Please remember to check the school menu each day. School Lunch Menu
Family Photographs
As we’re getting to know everyone, we like to talk about our families and home life. To encourage children to tell us more about their family life, please e-mail or bring a photograph of your child with their family to Nursery. These will be displayed in our home corner for children to look at and talk about with staff and their friends. scholesnursery@spherefederation.org
Our First Lunchtime and Exploring Outside
This week, many of the children have stayed for their first lunch time and full day; we’re really proud of how well they did. They all sat down together to eat in the nursery dining room and tried tasty school meals or their own packed lunch.
As children have become more settled in Nursery, we’ve gradually been introducing them to our nursery routines. We now know that when we hear “3,2,1, Stop!” we need to empty our hands, have a silent voice and to stop and look at the person who is speaking. The 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.
We have been very busy this week enjoying the September sunshine . Some of our favourite outdoor activities have been –
- rolling balls and cars down ramps
- sweeping the leaves
- chalking patterns and pictures
- singing and playing instruments
- developing our climbing and balancing skills on our new playground equipment
- baking in the mud kitchen
Each week we will be suggesting ways that you can support your child at home. This week involves a favourite rhyme.
Help at home – Can you sing the ” Wheels on the bus” nursery rhyme? Can you remember all of the actions? The Wheels on the Bus
Next week we will be reading our first focus story ” The Three Little Pigs”. We will be using story props to retell the story. The Three Little Pigs
Settling in and making friends.
What a busy and exciting week we have had at nursery. Our returning children came back looking much taller than before the holidays, then we welcomed some new friends to our “stay and play “sessions. Their grown ups came too, to join in with all of the fun activities.
This week we have been busy helping the children to settle into their new environment. It can take quite some time to remember where everything is but the children are doing so well. They have been exploring all of the nursery provision, from building in the construction site to pouring the colourful rice in the sensory area. We have had lots of fun!
We are working hard to find out what everyone enjoys playing. You can help us with this by adding a note to your child’s photo on our “What makes us tick” board. Whether its diggers or dancing to Mama Mia, we want to know. Ask your child’s key person for more details.
A few reminders
Please name your child’s indoor shoes, We have a number of identical pairs this year.
Please clearly name your child’s water bottle.
Don’t forget to register for your child’s milk with the dairy ( details in your welcome pack)
Please return the ” All about me” sheet – another way we can get to know lots about your child.
Welcome to Nursery
We’ve been busy this week meeting some of our new children at their home visits. It has been lovely finding out about you all and what you like to do. We’re looking forward to getting to know you more when we welcome you to Nursery next week.
We’ve also been getting Nursery ready for the new school year, we can’t wait to show you around. We’ve tried to make sure that there’s something for everyone to enjoy- including some of your favourite things that you told us about on home visits. We’ve got Paw Patrol, fairies, dinosaurs, diggers, The Gruffalo and our bikes ready for you to come and play. Where will you play? See you soon!
A few reminders from Home Visits.
What your child will need every day.
- A waterproof coat ( named)
- A pair of wellies ( named)
- A change of clothes ( top, trousers/ leggings, underwear, socks)
- A filled water bottle ( named)
Happy holidays!
We say it every year, but we can’t quite believe it’s already the end of term! Thank you for all of your kind words, cards and gifts this week. We hope that you all have a great Summer holiday and we’ll look forward to seeing some of you in Nursery in September and some of you, next door in Reception! We’d also like to say good bye to those children that are moving to other schools – we hope that you love your new school and make lots of new friends.
