All about me!
Children enjoyed learning about how they’ve grown and changed from being a baby. We looked at our baby and toddler photos in group time; thank you for emailing them to us. We talked about some of the things that children can do now, that they couldn’t do when they were a baby such as talking, riding a bike and eating food. In the Creative area, we looked at our faces in the mirrors and tried to draw a self portrait. It was quite tricky, but we used a circle shape for our face and then added two eyes, a nose and a mouth. Some children loved adding extra features including curly or spiky hair and long eye lashes!
To continue our learning about ‘growing up’, we helped to take care of the babies in the water tray, carefully giving them a bath and washing their hair. In the playdough area, we looked at the numerals on different birthday cards and put the correct number of candles on our chocolate playdough cakes.
As part of our ‘Understanding the World’ curriculum, we’re beginning to learn about different forces. Children loved exploring the magnets in the discovery area and taking them around Nursery to see what they were attracted to and which objects they would ‘stick’ to. During story time, we talked about pushing and pulling forces when Fix-it Duck got his truck stuck in the muck. (Can you tell that we’re reading rhyming stories, too!)
Reminders:
- It’s World Book Day on Thursday 07 March 2024. For more information, see previous communications.
Next week’s learning:
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 – I’m a Little Teapot
Sound of the week – ‘r’ for rainbow
Jack and the Beanstalk
Fee Fi Fo Fum! We loved reading Jack and the Beanstalk this week and re-telling it with our friends in the book corner.
We talked about the beanstalk that grew outside Jack’s window and how we could grow our own. Mrs Gosper looked at some seeds with everyone and helped children to work out what they needed to do to help it grow. If you look carefully through the waving window, you’ll be able to see our ‘growing’ area.
Children are very excited to see what will happen to their seeds… Watch this space!
In maths, we’ve been learning about the number 3. There are lots of stories involving the number three, we’ve read some of them in Nursery including The Three Billy Goats Gruff. Can you think of any more?
In group time, we looked at 3 spots on a dice, 3 counters on a five frame and spotted that there were 3 corners and sides on a triangle.
Help at home: Have a look to see if you can find groups of three things around your home. Can you spot the number three on any house doors or number plates? We also liked watching this song all about the number 3.
Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog along the play bar and turn off autoplay – this avoids an inappropriate clip coming up automatically, and helps to discourage your child from passively watching clip after clip.
Reminders:
- Nursery Coffee Morning – Monday 26 February 2024
- We have lots of water bottles, hats, gloves and jumpers that have name tags missing which makes it really hard to give things out to their owners, especially when we have duplicates. Please take a moment this weekend to check your child’s belongings are still named. Thank you in advance!
Next week’s learning:
Next week, we’ll learn about ‘growing up’ and will talk about how we change as we grow and get older. Thank you to everyone who has sent in a baby and toddler photograph already. If you haven’t had time yet, please read our previous post and e-mail us your photos as soon as possible. Thank you.
Nursery rhyme of the week – Wind the bobbin up
Sound of the week – ‘u’ for umbrella
Wanted! Baby photos
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.
Nursery Coffee Morning
Lunar New Year
We had a great final week of half term; children loved reading a book about the Lunar New Year and we watched some short video clips to find out how people prepare for the festival and celebrate with their families.
To join in with the celebrations, we painted ‘good luck’ banners in the creative area and we danced and played instruments to a Chinese dragon song.
We enjoyed decorating a lunar lantern with some patterns that we’re learning (circles, zig-zags, waves and lines) to help improve our pencil control.
In group time, children in red, blue and green group learnt about the number 2. We looked at a domino that had one spot on one end, and one spot on the other. When we looked at the spots together, there were two. Children knew that they had 2 eyes, 2 ears and 2 feet. We jumped twice and counted two claps.
Help at home: Have a look around your house and surroundings – What can you find two of? You might see two wheels on your bike or 2 eggs left in the box. Can you spot any number twos on doors or number plates? Send us an e-mail to let us know how you get on – you could send a photograph to show us what you find. scholesnursery@spherefederation.org
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 to help familiarise your child with the story. We’ll be looking for signs of spring in the garden, too. When you’re out and about over half term, see what ‘signs of spring’ you notice – it could be flowers beginning to grow or birds singing.
Nursery rhyme of the week – Baa Baa Black Sheep
Sound of the week – ‘e’ for elephant
Have a happy and healthy half term and we look forward to finding out about your holidays when we return to Nursery on Monday 19 February.
Running, jumping and climbing!
Children were really excited to be able to use our outside area again, as you’ll no doubt see from their faces! They loved running, jumping and climbing up the wall to the slide.
In group time, we read ‘Dinosaur Roar’ and looked carefully at the patterns on the dinosaur illustrations. We created our own dinosaurs, adding horns, sharp teeth and some spikes. This helped us to practise our pencil control by drawing lines, circles and zig-zag patterns.
We also explored what happened when we put different objects on the balance scales. We talked about going to the park to play on a see-saw and what happens when someone sits at each end. Children are becoming much more confident using the words ‘heavy’ and ‘light’.
Next week’s learning:
We will learn about the Lunar New Year and will find out about how some people celebrate this festival.
Nursery rhyme of the week –Jack and Jill went up the Hill
Sound of the week – ‘c’ for cat and ‘k’ for kite
Dinosaurs
It’s been great to see our new children becoming more familiar with Nursery routines and lots of them have now stayed for lunch and their first full day. Well done, yellow group!
Children continue to explore nursery and are independently choosing resources to enhance their play; we’ve created wildlife parks, giant train tracks and we’ve even flown on a plane to the beach. Some children worked together to build, what might just be, the world’s tallest tower of pegs!
In the maths area, children have enjoyed sorting, matching and counting different dinosaur counters. We talked about how they were the same or different…This dinosaur is the same as yours. My dinosaur is the same, but a different colour. I have put all the blue dinosaurs in the blue dish.
We also read a counting book about ‘5 Little Dinosaurs’ and enjoyed carefully counting the dinosaurs on each page.
In group time, children in red, blue and green group helped Mrs Long with her shopping bags. One bag was very heavy and the other bag was quite light. We looked at the different items in each bag and compared them. Children had to find an item that was heavier or lighter than the tin of baked beans. Lots of children could identify and say when something was ‘heavy’ but some were less familiar with the word ‘light’.
Help at home: You could continue this learning at home by asking questions during everyday activities. Which bag from the supermarket is heaviest/ lightest? Which toy is lighter? Can you find something that is lighter than the bottle of milk? Can you find something that is heavier than a packet of crisps?
Next week’s learning:
We look forward to reading ‘Dinosaur Roar’ by Paul and Henrietta Stickland in our story times next week. If you don’t have a copy of the book at home, you might enjoy watching the first 3 minutes of this clip together.
Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog (it’s along the play bar) and turn off autoplay – this avoids an inappropriate clip coming up automatically, and helps to discourage your child from passively watching clip after clip.
In maths, we’ll continue learning about weight so will be using words such as heavy, light, heavier and lighter to compare different objects.
Nursery rhyme of the week – Ring-a-ring-a-roses
Sound of the week – ‘O’ for octopus.
Reminders
- Please check that your child’s water bottle still has their name on – we’ve noticed that some have washed off. It makes it much quicker and easier to hand them out when they’re clearly named. Thank you.
Exploring Nursery
We had a busy week settling yellow group into Nursery and helping them to explore their new environment. They’re all doing really well and are gradually getting to know us and beginning to make some new friends. Please try not to worry if your child has a little wobble when they’re saying good bye to you in the morning. They usually find somewhere to play and settle very quickly (and we would always contact you if they didn’t).
It was very chilly outside this week; we talked about the cold weather and explored ice in the sensory area. We’re hoping we’ll be able to play in our Nursery garden soon – children are looking forward to seeing the changes.
Next week’s learning:
We noticed lots of children were interested in dinosaurs so over the next few weeks, we’ll learn all about dinosaurs and enjoy reading ‘Dinosaur Stomp’.
Sound of the week – g for goat
Nursery Rhyme of the week –Row, row, row your boat
Welcome to Nursery – Yellow Group
We enjoyed meeting all of our new children and families at their home visits and we’re looking forward to getting to know you more next week.
Here is a reminder of some of the important information that we discussed during the home visit.
- Your child will need a drawstring bag with a full change of clothes. Please make sure that you write their NAME in everything.
- We play outside in all weathers so a warm, waterproof coat is essential. Please also send gloves and a hat during winter. Children need a pair of wellies at Nursery. Remember to name their coat and wellies!
- Please put your child’s water bottle in the yellow basket in the entrance. You’ll need to collect it at the end of their session each day. Again, please remember to write their name clearly on the bottle.
Registration and end of day
- Nursery opens at 9am and we close registration at 9:10am. If you arrive after this time, please go to the main office.
- When you come into Nursery (main entrance via the path from Morwick Grove) you’ll be asked who is going to collect your child and for their lunch option.
- If you change who is collecting your child, please inform the office. If we haven’t met somebody before, we will ask for your password.
- Once you’ve put your child’s belongings on their peg, you’re welcome to settle them somewhere to play before you say goodbye.
- Nursery closes at 3pm but you can collect your child from 2:50pm onwards. Please make sure you arrive promptly and collect your child on time.
- At the end of the session, parents and carers are able to come into Nursery to collect your child’s belongings and check their folder for artwork.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask a member of Nursery staff. We look forward to seeing you next week!
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year and welcome back to Nursery! We hope that you all had a great Christmas and enjoyed a break over the festive period. It was lovely to see everyone on Monday morning and hear about your holiday adventures and presents from Santa.
This week, we’re reading ‘The Gingerbread Man’ and children are already beginning to retell the story in our small world area. If you have a copy of the story at home, please enjoy reading it together. If not, you might like to listen to Mr Tumble reading it.
Children love to join in with the repeated refrains in the story. Can they remember what the Gingerbread man shouts? “Run, run, as fast as you can, you can’t catch me, I’m the Gingerbread Man.”
So far this week, we’ve made Gingerbread Men in the playdough area, counted buttons on his tummy and we’ve loved getting messy in the gingery cornflour gloop!
This week’s letter is ‘m’ for mouse. We pronounce it as ‘mmmmm’.
Help at home: In group time, our sound bag had lots of ‘m’ objects including a marble, a mouse, a map and a mirror. What can you find around the house that begins with the ‘m’ sound? What other ‘m’ objects could we have put in our sound bag?
Nursery rhyme of the week: Pat-a-cake
Pat a cake, pat a cake, Baker’s man. Bake me a cake as fast as you can. Pat it and roll it and mark it with B. Put it in the oven for baby and me.
There are lots of different versions of this rhyme, here are two from CBeebies if you would like to sing along at home. CoComelon The Baby Club
It’s been a cold start to the week so children decided to make a ‘fire’ and loved toasting marshmallows on the sticks that they collected. Just as a reminder – we play out in ALL weathers at Nursery and at this time of the year, it can be very cold. Please make sure that your child has a warm coat, a hat and some gloves to wear to help keep them warm and happy whilst we play. Please write their name in them too as it’s really helpful when we’re trying to find who they belong to. Thank you in advance.
You may have noticed some new faces in Nursery this week or heard your child talking about some new Nursery members of staff. We’d like to welcome Mrs Gall, Miss Swift and Miss Bennett to our Nursery team.
Next week – 15 January 2024
We look forward to welcoming some new families and children to Nursery for their first sessions on Monday 15 January. Our new ‘yellow group’ children will join red group as they come into Nursery through the main door each morning so it may feel a little bit busier than usual. Please be patient as we help to settle the new children into Nursery. We’re looking forward to getting to know everybody and making some new friends.
Story – Little Red Riding Hood
Letter next week – ‘d’ for duck
Nursery rhyme next week – The Grand Old Duke of York