Journeys
Children returned to Nursery happily on Monday and enjoyed telling us about their holiday adventures. These conversations led to us to talk about different types of transport, including trains, boats and planes.
We sorted and counted lots of vehicles in the maths area and built a train with carriages in the construction area. Children made tickets to sell to the passengers as they got on board.
During story times, we’ve enjoyed hearing about the adventures of ‘The Little Red Train‘ and watching a song about a magic train ride. We looked closely at the detailed illustrations in the Little Red Train books and talked about the different places that Duffy, the driver, visited. Was it the city, countryside or seaside? How did they know?
Children drew a map of the journey; the train started in the city and travelled past farms in the countryside and went through a dark tunnel before it reached the seaside.
Children loved using the remote controlled cars this week and were able to move them backwards and forwards between the obstacles.
In group time, we talked about night and day and next week, we’ll move on to ordering key events in our daily routines .
Help at home: Talk to your child about day and night time. What activities do people do in the day and at night? What do they do in the morning/afternoon/evening?
After lots of interest in pouring the PVA glue between containers in the craft area, we decided to add to slime to our sensory area. It was a big, albeit messy, hit!
We’ve also enjoyed fire fighter role play (Do you like our safety helmets?), making planes and spaceships and practising our cutting skills.
Next week’s learning:
For the final half term, we’ll revisit all of the sounds we have learnt and we will focus on key phonics skills such as identifying initial sounds, spotting rhymes and segmenting and blending words.
Over the next few weeks, our focus will be on oral ‘segmenting and blending’ skills. This is when we segment words into sounds and learn how to blend them together. Segmenting and blending orally is an important skill for children to acquire before they begin the more formal teaching of phonics in Reception. We practise segmenting and blending sounds that we can hear in words, we don’t expect children to recognise or write the letters in Nursery. This skill is quite tricky and can take children some time to grasp; it will continue to be taught throughout the Foundation Stage.
To segment ‘bus’, we would say ‘b – u – s’ . We always use pure sounds and try to avoid putting ‘uh’ on the end of a sound. E.g. ‘ssss’ not ‘suh’.
Please don’t hesitate to ask Nursery staff for any further information with how to support your child at home.
Beautiful butterflies
We had a lovely surprise on Tuesday morning when we returned to Nursery; we had a butterfly that had emerged from its chrysalis. There was a lot of interest in the butterfly house. We talked about the life cycle of a butterfly and what we needed to do next to look after the butterflies. Children helped to feed the butterflies with an orange and left over fruit from snack time.
Children enjoyed watching as their wings opened out and they began to fly around in the butterfly net. The sunny weather on Friday was perfect for releasing our butterflies before the weekend. It was lovely to watch them fly away and one landed on some flowers in one of our pots so we got to watch it for a little bit longer.
Next week’s learning:
We’ll learn about shapes next week and will be looking for shapes all around us.
Sound of the week – Z for zebra
Nursery rhyme of the week – Jack and Jill
Tiny tadpoles
Have you seen the tadpoles in Nursery? Children are fascinated watching them wriggle and swim around the tank. We’ve been learning about the life cycle of a frog and know that the next stage in the cycle is for the tadpoles to grow back legs. We keep looking at them closely to check for signs of legs.
In maths, we’ve been singing ‘5 Little Speckled Frogs‘ and have been carefully counting how many frogs are left on the log after each verse.
How many frogs jumped into the pond? How many are on the log? If there are 3 frogs on the log, how many are there in the pond?
Our other learning and interests this week have included:
- Rolling tiny balls of playdough to balance on the suction cups and using the tools to roll the dough as flat as we can before using a cutter.
- Lots of physical activity including balancing and swinging!
- Making more cheesy pizzas in our role play area.
Next week’s learning:
We saw lots of insects this week and there was a lot of interest in a bee that we found. Children enjoyed looking at the wings and stripes closely on it using the magnifying app on an iPad. Next week, we’ll follow this interest and find out about bees and ladybirds.
Sound of the week – Y for yoyo
Nursery rhyme of the week – Ring-a-ring-a-roses
Spider Sandwiches
This week, children have been searching for spiders in Nursery and looking for their webs. We sang Incy Wincy Spider and made spiders in the malleable area using playdough. First, we had to roll a ball to make the body and then we rolled sausage shapes to add on the legs. Some children managed to count 8 legs to put on their spiders!
In the maths area, we sorted spiders by size and counted spiders carefully to match the numeral written on each web. During group time, older children counted spiders and looked at which web had the most/fewest spiders. We also talked about what happened if we had ‘one more’ or ‘one less’ spider on the web. For example: ‘There are 4 spiders on the web, 1 spider runs away. How many will be left? How do you know?’
In our phonics group time, the older children learnt a new sound -V. We looked at some objects and had to listen carefully to the sound that they started with. Can you hear a ‘V’ sound at the beginning of the word? Which is the odd one out?
Help at home:
For children moving into Reception in September, play games like ‘I spy’ where you have to listen carefully to the initial sounds in words. Get three objects, two that begin with the same sound and one that starts with a different sound. Can they spot the odd one out and tell you why? E.g. car, cookie, banana.
For children that are in yellow group and will stay in Nursery next year, begin to listen to sounds around you as you’re out and about. What can children hear in their environment? Can they hear birds singing, a fridge humming, a bell ringing?
Our other learning and interests this week have included:
- Making collages and learning how to join different materials together in the creative area.
- Re-telling one of our favourite stories from earlier in the year, ‘The Gingerbread Man’, with our friends.
–
- Throwing small hoops and aiming to get them on the cones. How many did you get on? Who got the most onto the purple cone?
- Drawing patterns and writing our names in the sand.
- And…enjoying some sunny weather!
Next week’s learning:
Have you seen the tadpoles in Nursery? Next week, we’ll learn about the life cycle of a frog and check to see if there have been any changes to our caterpillars. They were VERY big at the end of last week!
Sound of the week – W for wave
Nursery Rhyme of the week – 5 Little Speckled Frogs
Superworm
Whilst the sun did shine a little bit more this week, it was still quite chilly in the nursery garden. We didn’t let that stop us from exploring; we hunted for wriggly worms, slimy slugs and other bugs and we loved being able to access the music area and wobbly bridge now that the ground is a bit drier.
Our story this week was ‘Superworm’ by Julia Donaldson. We looked at some real worms that we found in the garden and talked about where they live. In the maths area, we compared the length of different worms and counted how many long and short ones there were. We continued this learning in the sensory area, counting spaghetti worms that we caught with tongs. In the dough area, children loved rolling dough to make a very long Superworm!
Help at home – Counting objects to 5
We’re working really hard on our counting skills. Here are a few things to remember when your counting together at home.
- Count anything and everything in everyday life! Birds on the fence, coins, biscuits on a plate, apples in the bowl…
- It is often easier to count objects accurately if they are in a line so encourage children to touch/move each object as they count it.
- Ensure that they only say one number for each object as they point to it/touch it.
We also found a snail outside and looked at the spiral patterns on the shell. In the creative area, we drew spirals and circles and made swirly snails in the dough, too.
Our other learning and interests this week have included:
– Using a straw construction set to make masks, flowers and fireworks.
– Working together to create a new Pizza shop role play area. Children drew their favourite pizzas to add to the menu and helped to gather the items that they would need, including making a pizza oven! We’ll share some more photos of our creations next week.
Next week’s learning:
We’ll find out about spiders and enjoy reading ‘Spider Sandwiches’. We’re still watching our caterpillars closely and have noticed how much bigger they are. We may even have some more wriggly visitors coming to Nursery… Can you guess what they could be?
Letter sound of the week – V for volcano
Nursery rhyme of the week – Incy Wincy Spider
Welcome back!
Children returned to Nursery brilliantly this week and settled in happily. We heard all about your Easter holiday trips and visits from the Easter Bunny.
The weather was very mixed this week; we had wind, rain, hail stones and sunshine! Please make sure your child has a waterproof coat everyday as we go outside in all weather.
As well as enjoying an obstacle course, children helped to sow some vegetable seeds.
In maths, we looked at the number five. We know that we have 5 fingers on each hand and we clapped and jumped five times. We looked at objects that are all linked to the number five.
Help at home: Enjoy singing number songs linked to the number 5 together with your child such as 5 Little Ducks, 5 Little men in a flying saucer, 5 Currant Buns or 5 Little Monkeys .
In our story times, we read a very popular story by Eric Carle, called ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ and started to learn about the life cycle of a butterfly.
We also had a special delivery in Nursery; children were very excited to find out what was inside the little cardboard box. Inside, we found 5 tiny, spiky caterpillars! We’ve been checking on them everyday, and just like ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’, they’re very hungry and are getting bigger and bigger each day.
Children showed an interest in looking for creepy crawlies outside. We found lots of creatures hiding under logs including wood lice, slugs and some very long worms.
Next week’s learning
We’ll continue with the children’s interest in bugs and worms. We’ll read Superworm and learn all about wriggly worms! If you don’t have the story book at home, follow the link to watch the animated version on BBC iPlayer.
Sound of the week: J for jellyfish
Nursery rhyme of the week: 12345, Once I caught a fish alive
Easter
Although it was a shorter week than usual, it’s been a very busy one!
We enjoyed learning about Easter celebrations and taking part in some traditional Easter activities. Children made their own Easter cards and practised drawing patterns to decorate an egg outline.
We loved making Easter nests and tasting Hot Cross Buns.
Outside, children enjoyed playing egg hunt games with their friends, taking turns to hide and then find the eggs. We practised our counting skills at the same time and compared how many eggs we’d found with the eggs in our friend’s baskets.
How many blue eggs did you find? Who has the most/fewest?
We hope that you have a lovely holiday and we’ll look forward to hearing all about your adventures when we return to Nursery on Monday 15 April.
Eggs, chicks and rabbits!
Towards the end of the week, children were very egg-cited to find lots of Easter themed enhancements to our Nursery provision.
We’ve been counting rabbits, carefully picking eggs out of a nest using tongs and decorating egg shapes in the creative area.
Next week, we’ll continue with some Easter themed fun and will find out about how some Christians celebrate Easter.
In our group times this week, we learnt about the number 4. We looked at 4 candles on a cake and put 4 counters into a 5 frame. We could see that there was only one space left.
Help at home: As you play with your child or during snack time, have a go at including some of these things into your play and conversation.
- Can you count 4 objects? Remember to line them up and touch/point to each one carefully as you say one number for each item.
- Can you count to 4 and show 4 on your fingers?
- Can you spot the number four on house doors or car number plates?
- Count 4 objects from a pile and remember to STOP when you get to 4.
Some children have shown an interest in ‘spinning’ objects and have loved exploring spinning and spirals.
Next week’s learning:
Sound of the week – F for flamingo
Nursery rhyme of the week – Humpty Dumpty
Eat your peas!
Look at our beanstalks! Children have been fascinated over the last few weeks as they watched and waited for their seeds to grow. We talked about the shoot and roots as they appeared and have made sure that we watered and kept them in the sunlight to help them grow.
We read ‘Eat your peas’ during story time and continued our learning about vegetables and healthy foods. We picked some healthy foods to add to our plates and talked about other food that we might choose to eat occasionally.
In the creative area, we did some observational drawing of different vegetables and looked at the shape and colours as we drew. We even had some beetroot to draw that we harvested from our Nursery garden.
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.
In the maths area, children looked at lots of carrots and sorted them by length. There was lots of conversation using different vocabulary related to size. Look how long this one is! This carrot is tiny, it’s very short. Your carrot is longer than mine.
Children have also 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?
We also enjoyed exploring and peeling different vegetables and outside, we cleared the planters, ready to start growing our own veggies!
Next Week’s Learning
Letter sound of the week – b for bear
Nursery rhymes of the week – 5 Little Ducks and Pat-a-cake
World Book Day
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.
Here are a few photos from today- Can you name the characters and match them to the book?
