Wake Up Shake Up (WUSU) Club
WUSU Club have had a successful series of sessions after school this half term. They have made two new dances for you to enjoy and learn:
Dance Monkey and and Christmas Special, One More Sleep
WUSU club will be continuing after Christmas. Keep an eye out for letters about after school clubs so you can decide if you’d like to join in with any.
Christmas performance
We hope you are all excited about our Christmas performance, Wriggly Nativity. Please could all costumes be on school by Monday 06 December as we will be filming next week. Thank you.
Toys, toys and more toys.
Our interactive workshop with Abbey House Museum on Tuesday was very educational. We learned about how different toys work. Some push, pull, use gravity, or need squeezing. Identifying the differences between old and new toys was a new skill that we used too. Old toys are often made from different materials to our new toys. Can your child remember some of the differences between the two? The toys workshop was very inspiring and our children really enjoyed writing about the toys that they had seen.
In our learning environment, Santa’s workshop has been in full swing. Our elves have been building and wrapping toys. There have been many letters written to Santa this week too.
Our focus in Maths has been on ‘one more’ and ‘one less’ from 0-5. The children are so impressive! We are really proud of their learning.
A little flutter of snow and ice made for great learning about the seasons. What does your child notice when you go outside?
Home Link.
Can your child show you ‘one more and ‘one less’ with items in your home?
Reminders:
Please ensure your child has their Christmas play costume in school by Monday 06.12.21. We are having our dress rehearsal and filming early on in the week.
Our Christmas party day is Friday 17.12.21 Children are allowed to come to school in non-uniform. Please ensure that your child wears something that is appropriate for them to be comfortable in all day. (See school uniform policy if needed). Your child can also bring a few party type snacks to eat on the day. We kindly ask that all snacks are nut free. Children will still eat their usual school meal.
Christmas has arrived in Nursery!
There was a lot of excitement this week when children arrived to a very festive looking Nursery as we turned the calendar to December.
We’ve enhanced many of our areas of provision to provide lots of opportunities to learn about Christmas and talk about the traditions that some families join in with at this time of year.
Here are a few photos from this week. You can see that we have been very busy…
- practising cutting skills as we looked for our favourite toys and having lots of conversations about our Christmas wish lists
- helping Father Christmas to load his sleigh and look after the reindeer in our small world area
- listening to ‘Stickman’ and using the story props to re-tell the main events from the story
- exploring the texture and properties of water beads
- wrapping presents in the Elf workshop and building sleighs in the construction area to help Father Christmas deliver the presents on Christmas Eve
- talking about Christmas traditions and helping to decorate the Home corner
- decorating the trees in our Nursery garden. It’s quite tricky to hang baubles on the trees – and also great for developing fine motor skills.
Sculptures Coming To Life!
Year 5 and 6 have written some fantastic narratives, based on our visit to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park earlier this half term. Using a sculpture of their choice, the children had to write a short setting and character description of their sculptures coming to life!
There were some absolutely fantastic pieces of writing and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the process.
Here are a few excellent examples – enjoy!
Christmas information
Here is all of the important Christmas information that was provided on the letter that we sent home on Monday.
Christmas events
We will still be celebrating Christmas this year, although once again, it may look a little bit different to our usual Nursery celebrations. Here are some important dates and information about the next few weeks in Nursery.
Christmas Recording
As outlined in our previous letter, it’s not going to be possible to host a Christmas performance that you can watch in school this year. However, that’s not going to stop us from performing! You’ll be able to watch ‘Our First Christmas Play” from the comfort of your own home. For this, we’d like children to have a Christmas themed/coloured top trousers, leggings or a skirt to wear when taking part in the play. Please bring it to school by Wednesday 1st December. You do not need to buy anything new – a cheerful or festive top that they can be comfortable in all day (playing out and eating lunch in too) will be fine. Please put your child’s NAME in their clothes and put it in a small bag. It will remain in Nursery until we have filmed our play.
Christmas Dinner
Christmas lunch in school will be on Thursday 09 December. If you’d like your child to join in, please let us know and we’ll add your child onto the list. Payment (£2.20) can be made online. Please call the office if you are unsure of how to do this.
Christmas Party
Our Nursery Christmas party will be on Monday 13 December in the afternoon. If your child already attends Nursery on that day, you can send them to Nursery in cheerful or festive clothing. Children will still be playing in Nursery provision and outside in the morning, so please make sure clothing is warm and comfortable.
For children that attend Nursery on Monday, collection will be at the same time as usual, 2.15pm.
If your child doesn’t attend Nursery on Monday, they are welcome to join us for the party. Children will need to have had lunch before they arrive and be wearing their ‘party’ clothes. We will greet you at the main Nursery door. Please arrive promptly at 12.30pm and collect at 2.15pm. Please let a member of staff know if your child will be joining the party.
Children attending mornings only – If your child usually only attends Nursery for the morning session, please feel free to swap their morning session that day and just arrive for the party in the afternoon, or you can collect them slightly earlier on the party day at 11.30am. This should allow you time to have some lunch before returning to Nursery. Please speak to a member of staff if you have any questions.
Party treats
Children will have lunch as usual on Monday but during the party, we will provide them with a treat and drink. We’d like to ask for £1 contribution towards party treats and will place a donation jar outside Nursery soon. Thank you in advance for your contributions.
Christmas crafts
It wouldn’t be Christmas in Nursery if we couldn’t take part in all of our favourite Christmas crafts! Sadly, we can’t invite you to our usual ‘Christmas Stay and Decorate’ mornings, but don’t worry, children will still get to take part in some fun activities. We will put their Christmas crafts in a bag and send them home in the final week.
Applying for a primary school place?
If your child is due to start primary school in September 2022, you can apply for a place from 01 November 2021. The deadline for applying is 15 January 2022.
You can apply for a place online at: www.leeds.gov.uk/apply
Use this link to download and read further details and FAQs.
Creating our sculptures.
We have finally begun to make our sculptures. Following inspiration from the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, we have designed and sketched out or own ideas for sculptures that are similar to the Family of Man by Barbara Hepworth. Each child is creating a different section of their teams sculpture – it is based on a member of their family. They had to use cardboard boxes (thanks to everyone who sent these in) and manipulate them into their desired shape. They are at the initial stage of the creating process whereby they are creating a maquette. Ask your child what this means. There was a lot of discussions, a lot of cutting and I think we used the worlds supply of masking tape, but we are ready to move on to the next stage now.
Art topic : colour and colour mixing
We have thoroughly enjoyed our art topic and learnt lots of new skills and knowledge. We have been learning about primary (red, blue, yellow) and secondary colours. We learnt how to mix primary colours to make new, secondary colours. We added colour to the artwork we created during our visits to Leeds Art Gallery.
Shapes
This week, we’ve been learning all about 2D shapes. In group time, we started by sorting some shapes by their colour and size. Next, we tried to find the same shapes and sorted them into circles, triangles, squares and rectangles. We’ve used lots of new mathematical vocabulary as we described the properties of shapes, including some formal and informal language such as sides, corners, curved, straight, round and flat.
On Wednesday, we went on a shape hunt around school. Children were really good at spotting some common shapes in the environment. Have a look for some shapes around your house or on your walk to nursery. At the moment, we’ve been learning about common 2D shapes, but you may spot some other shapes or 3D shapes too.
We also enjoyed listening to these shape songs – see if you can spot some shapes as you sing along. Shape song 1 and The Shape Song Swingalong
Outside, we’ve been working on our physical development by practising balancing and jumping as we made our way around an obstacle course. Lots of children were a little bit wobbly to begin with, but after a few attempts, they were really pleased to be able to balance along the beams without any assistance.
Parent Consultation Meetings
Thank you to everyone who was able to attend a meeting this week. It was great to speak to you all (despite a few Zoom hiccups) and share how pleased we are with how well children have settled into Nursery life. It’s amazing how much children have already progressed, growing in both confidence and independence since joining Nursery in September.
If you couldn’t make your appointment, please get in touch with us to rearrange.
Reminders
- It’s definitely got colder this week. We play outside in all weathers, so please make sure that your child has a warm coat every day. You may also want to send a hat and some gloves, too. Please try to name them somewhere, there’s often a label inside gloves, or you can use a Sharpie pen in the wrist band.
- Please send your child with a named water bottle every day, and fill it with water. Thank you for your cooperation with this.
- Look out for the Christmas information letter that we will be sending home soon. It contains all the important dates and information about our Christmas party.