Christmas
We had such a busy week learning the songs and rehearsing for our ‘Santa’s Hat’ production. We can’t wait to share it with you on Monday and Tuesday and hope you enjoy watching.
During group time, we enjoyed drawing some decorations onto a giant tree and learning about the letter ‘n’. We could hear the ‘n’ sound at the beginning of the words nurse, nose, nut and net.
Outside, we decorated trees, used chalks to draw snowmen and we aimed red balls (noses!) at a giant rudolph on the wall to practise our throwing skills.
We also made Christmas cards for our families; children can’t wait to bring them home so please remember to check their folder on their final day in Nursery next week.
Next week:
We will consolidate the letter sounds that we have learnt so far – s, a, t, p, i and n.
Reminders:
- Our Early Years Christmas performance will take place on Monday 18 December at 1.30 – 2.15pm and on Tuesday 19 December at 9.45 – 10.30am.
- Thank you to everyone that has replied to say which ‘Stay and Decorate‘ session they would like to attend. If you haven’t returned the slip yet, please let us know if you’re able to join in with one of the sessions. They will be on Wednesday 20 December 9.00- 9.45am or 2.00 -2.45 pm and Thursday 21 December 9.00-9.45am.
- Our Nursery Party will take place on Friday 22 December from 10-11.15am. Children can attend Nursery wearing their party clothes. Please remember that we will still take part in Nursery activities (which can be messy) and we’ll also be outside so footwear needs to be sensible.
- A pot for your £1 party contribution will be available in Nursery all week. Thank you in advance for your donation towards the cost of treats for our party.
Stick Man
Nursery is beginning to look very festive! This week, we enjoyed listening to Stick Man by Julia Donaldson and children loved the new ‘elf wrapping station’ in the Sunshine Room. We made presents and added them to Santa’s sack and then we worked together to build a sleigh in the construction area.
In the home corner, children enjoyed decorating the Christmas tree and re-creating some experiences from home.
We’ve made Christmas cards and have practised our cutting skills in the creative area as we looked through toy catalogues for toys that we might like to ask Father Christmas to bring us. We also have started to make some props for our show. Can you guess what we’re painting red?
Outside, children loved decorating the trees with baubles and tinsel and making patterns in the sand.
Next week’s learning:
We’ll continue with our Christmas themed learning and will find out about the Nativity story.
In maths, we continue to learn about length so will be using the words long, short, longer and shorter to compare different objects.
Nursery rhyme of the week – We’ll be busy learning songs for our Christmas show, ‘Santa’s Hat’ so please keep singing your favourite rhymes together at home.
Sound of the week – n for net
Reminders:
- Please send your child’s costume to Nursery by Monday 11 December. If your child is a hedgehog, we also need their headbands as soon as possible so that we can add some ears and spikes! Remember to write your child’s name on all items of their costume and the bag. Thank you for your support.
- If you haven’t already returned your reply slip for the ‘Stay and Decorate’ sessions, please do so this week.
Whatever Next!
This week, we listened to another of Jill Murphy’s stories about a family of bears, titled ‘Whatever Next’. It’s about a little bear who went on an adventure to the moon. He used a cardboard box as a rocket, some wellies as his space boots and a colander for a space helmet. He packed some food and shot up the chimney into space. When he got there, he enjoyed a picnic with his friend owl. What would you take into space with you?
In maths, we’ve been learning to compare quantities using language such as ‘more than’ and ‘fewer than’. E.g. The blue plate has fewer cookies than the blue plate or I have more cookies than you.
It is easier to compare sets when there is a big difference in the number of objects. Children will do this by perceptually judging which has more. Just by looking, children will notice that Big Bear has more apples than Little Bear, and Little Bear has fewer apples than Big Bear.
Image source: NCETM.
Help at home: Try and use some of this language at home. Children are often familiar with the words ‘more’ and ‘most’ but don’t often hear ‘fewer/fewest’. Who has the fewest bricks? Do we have the same number of grapes? Who has more beads?
Next week’s learning:
We look forward to reading ‘Stickman’ by Julia Donaldson in our story times next week. If you don’t have a copy of the book at home, you might enjoy watching the BBC animation together.
In maths, we’re learning about length so will be using the words long, short, longer and shorter to compare different objects.
Nursery rhyme of the week – We’ll be busy learning songs for our Christmas show, ‘Santa’s Hat’ so please keep singing your favourite rhymes together at home.
Sound of the week – i for iguana
Reminders
- Please return the Christmas slip to let us know if you can attend one of our ‘Stay and Decorate’ sessions in December. Please see the letter for more details of dates and times.
- Remember to send your child’s costume for the Christmas concert by Monday 11 December 2023 . Please NAME all items and put them in a NAMED bag. As you can imagine, changing lots of young children can be tricky; having items named and in a clearly named bag makes things much easier for us. Thank you.
Peace at Last
We loved reading ‘Peace at Last‘ this week. (This is a YouTube link. 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).
We especially enjoyed joining in with the repeated refrains in the story (e.g. “I can’t stand this!”) and adding our own sound effects. BRRRRRRRR, NEEEEEOOOOW, TICK TOCK, SNUFFLE SNUFFLE!
Help at home: What noises can you hear around your house or in the garden? Go on a listening walk and talk about the sounds you hear. Can you make the sound? If your child has a favourite bedtime story, try adding some sound effects to different parts of the story.
In the story, Mr Bear moves around the house to try and find somewhere that is quiet to sleep. As we were reading, we talked to children about night time. We talked about what they can see out of their windows at night and about some of the animals in the story that are awake when we’re sleeping.
In the fiddly fingers area, children had to carefully pick up buttons to place them on an owl outline. We talked about the different colours on their wings and about when they like to hunt for food. In the dough area, children used different star cutters to make big and little stars.
We learnt a new sound this week – p for penguin. During group time, we looked at a selection of objects beginning with ‘p’ and we tried to say the phoneme (sound) without adding an ‘uh’ to the end. (Please see our earlier web post and video about using pure sounds.)
Here are a few other photos from this week’s learning – you can see that the space rockets and learning about night time is popular.
Outside, we enjoyed practising our throwing and catching skills using balls and beanbags.
Next week’s learning:
Next week, we’re going to read another of our favourite stories written by Jill Murphy. It’s called ‘Whatever Next‘ and this time, it’s Baby Bear that goes on an adventure to the moon. We’ll continue to learn about night time so that children can talk about some of the differences between day and night.
Nursery rhyme of the week –Hickory Dickory Dock and we’ll also be singing a number rhyme 5 Little Men in a Flying Saucer
Sound of the week – a (a for astronaut)
Reminders
- We have our Parent Teacher Consultation evenings on Monday and Wednesday. Please check your emails for the Zoom link. We’ll keep our fingers crossed for no technical difficulties!
- The weather has certainly got colder towards the end of the week. Please make sure that your child has a warm coat, a hat and some gloves to wear every day. We play in our garden throughout winter, so children need to be wrapped up to keep warm and enjoy learning outside in all seasons.
- It’s the final school open session on Friday 01 December 2023 at 9.30am.The sessions are a chance to find out more about our school, visit some classrooms and talk with some of our pupils and staff.
- Wish List – thank you to everyone who has helped contribute items from our wish list so far. It’s really appreciated. We’ve added a few more items, so please take a look and if you’re able to help out, take the post-it note from the display. Thank you
Children in Need
A huge thank you to everyone that donated money last Friday for Children in Need. The Junior Leadership Team were out in the playground with collection buckets before and after school – they did a great job! We managed to raise a whopping £436.98 in total. Thank you so much!
World Nursery Rhyme Week
Has your child been singing lots of Nursery rhymes at home this week? As it’s World Nursery Rhyme Week, we’ve been singing even more rhymes than usual!
Singing Nursery rhymes is a very important part of daily life in Nursery. There is a wealth of evidence to suggest that young children who regularly sing nursery rhymes, will go on to develop a love of literacy and language and will become confident readers
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We loved playing with the sticky jelly in the sensory area and had great fun making it wobble as we sang ‘Jelly on a plate‘.
Here are some of the rhymes that we’re learning to sing:
- Wind the Bobbin Up
- Baa Baa Black Sheep
- Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
- I’m a Little Teapot
- Incy Wincy Spider
- Hickory Dickory Dock
Help at home: Listen to these Nursery rhymes and sing them together at home. Does your child have a different favourite rhyme? Let us know or send us an e-mail to scholesnursery@spherefederation.org
Outside, children continue to enjoy collecting leaves. They worked together to sweep them into a pile and took turns to use the sweeping brush. It was a great way to strengthen their upper arm muscles!
The rabbit shaped construction toys have been very popular. Children used their imaginations to make all sorts of creations and tall towers. We also enjoyed splashing in the water whilst singing one of our favourite number rhymes, 5 Little Ducks.
Next week’s learning:
Next week, we’re going to read ‘Peace at Last’ by Jill Murphy. In the story Mr Bear hears lots of sounds in his house and he can’t get to sleep. We’ll continue with our Phase 1 phonics learning, listening for environmental sounds around us and we’ll talk about ‘night time’.
Nursery rhyme of the week – 1,2,3,4,5, Once I caught a fish alive
Sound of the week – Pp
Penny Trail – Cancer Research collection
Thank you to everyone who donated to
last week’s penny trail in aid of Cancer Research.
In total, we raised
£99.32!
An amazing amount made from mainly 1p and 2p coins.
Thank you!
Bonfire Night celebrations
Everyone has quickly settled back into Nursery after the break and children were very excited to tell us all about their half term adventures and Bonfire Night celebrations.
We began the week talking about children’s experiences of Bonfire Night. Children enjoyed launching the rocket into the sky in our Bonfire themed small world area. Whooooosh!
We watched firework videos and talked about the colours, patterns and noises that we saw and heard. Outside, we listened to some firework sounds and pretended to be fireworks, dancing with ribbons.
What noise did the firework make? Pop! Bang! Whizz! Crackle, crackle! Fizz!
In the shallow sand tray, we looked carefully at the firework cards to try and create different patterns and shapes. There were crosses, zig-zags, spirals and wavy patterns.
Children also talked about the bright colours that they’d seen in the sky and enjoyed using chalks and brightly coloured paints, to make firework prints and pictures.
As part of our phonics learning, we’ve introduced the letter ‘s’ this week. At this point in Nursery, children are learning to HEAR the sounds in words. We took turns to pull some objects out of a bag that all started with the letter ‘s’. There was… a star, stick, snowman, sock, spoon, snake and even a sloth! We talked about the ‘s’ sound that we could hear at the start of each word. In Nursery, we focus on our listening skills. We’re not learning about letter formation just yet, that will come later in your child’s phonics journey.
Here is a link to a video to show you how we pronounce the letter sounds that we will be learning over the next half term. (The video is to help show how to pronounce each letter clearly, using the pure sound. Children don’t need to be able to recognise the grapheme (letter) yet, although they might begin to.)
Help at home: What can you find at home that begins with the letter ‘s’? Go on a sound hunt together and look for some…. ssssssocks, ssssssslippers, sssssssoap. We often exaggerate the sound at the beginning of the word when we’re first learning to listen for initial sounds and then we repeat the word afterwards, saying it as it should be. Sssssocks, socks.
What’s happening next week?
- It’s ‘Odd Socks Day‘ on Monday so your child might like to wear odd socks for the day to celebrate what makes us all unique and spread kindness!
- Looking for a school place for September 2024? There is an Open session in school on Thursday 16th November at 1.30pm, so please come along to find out more and visit some classrooms.
- Friday is a non-uniform day as we’ll be taking part in some spotty Children in Need fun!
- It’s been much colder outside this week and some children have been a bit chilly whilst playing outside. As we spend lots of time in our outdoor area, please make sure that your child has a warm coat, a hat and some gloves to wear. Don’t forget to add names!
Nursery rhyme of the week – We’ll be singing lots of popular rhymes as it’s World Nursery Rhyme week! If you’d like to send us an email with your child’s favourite rhyme and we’ll try to sing it at Nursery next week.
Sound of the week – T for tiger and teapot!
THANK YOU – charity collection coin trail
Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 created this amazing coin trail with all the coins you kindly donated. Counting is still in progress and we’ll let you know how much we raise for Cancer Research when we have finished counting all the coins.
THANK YOU!
School Gateway App
Make sure you keep up to date with the latest school information and news using the School Gateway App. You can select alerts on your app to ensure that you are reminded of key dates and important information.
If you haven’t logged on to the School Gateway App yet, look out for an email next week with more details or please contact the school office for further information.