Class News

Pop! Bang! Crackle!

Thank you to everyone who emailed photographs of your Bonfire Night celebrations. Children enjoyed sharing them with their friends and talking about their Bonfire Night experiences during our ‘snack and chat’ time. Some children loved all of the different colours and noises, where as others explained that they didn’t like the loud bangs in the night.

In Nursery, our Bonfire Night small world area was very popular and a great starting point for conversations. Children talked about what they’d seen and heard, as well how to stay safe and how to look after animals on Bonfire Night. We made firework patterns outside in the sand and used fluorescent paints to create our own firework pictures.

In maths this week, we continued comparing groups of objects to say which had the most and fewest. Children are getting much more confident with this. We compared spikes on hedgehogs in the playdough, counters on the light panel and we even spotted which pile had the most leaves.

Outside, children loved collecting leaves to help tidy our playground. This required lots of teamwork and gave our arm muscles a good work out as we used the brushes and rakes to make large piles of leaves. It’s a great way of  developing our gross motor skills, too. The best part was definitely jumping in the leaves and listening to the rustling and crunching noises!

Here are a few other photos from this week:

Next week –  Odd socks, Nursery rhymes and Pudsey Bear!

As you may have read on the main school news feed, next week is Anti-Bullying Week. This year’s theme is ‘One Kind Word’ and Nursery will be joining in with the rest of school with Odd Socks Day on Monday. Odd Socks Day is to raise awareness of our differences, individuality and personal choice. Your child (and you!) can come to school wearing odd socks to celebrate what makes them unique.

It’s also World Nursery Rhyme Week, so lots of our areas in Nursery will be linked to a well known Nursery Rhyme.  Look out for another post about this soon.

And next Friday is Children in Need day. This is a non-uniform day. Your child is invited to come to school in non-uniform and make a donation to the charity.

Remembrance

Remembrance…

This week we’ve been learning about Remembrance Day. Our focus story was Flo of the Somme by Hilary Robinson and Martin Impey.

The story, which has repeating lines in poetry verse,  follows a rescue dog during a WWI. It features child-friendly depictions of events in which animals were needed. For example, Flo finds injured pilots and carries a medical kit, a donkey walks alongside a soldier carrying equipment and a messenger pigeon gets hurt on duty. The children learnt about why we wear both red and purple poppies- purple to remember the animals that served during wars.

The children used their phonics skills to write words or captions about the story.

On 11.11 at 11am we held a two minute silence. The children were asked what they thought about during the silence:

The soliders in the war- Eti

Flo and the animals- Mahli

We’ve been making our own poppies in different ways. Our beautiful poppy wreath is now on display in the classroom.

Light and Dark…

The dark tent has been out in Rainbow room this week. We’ve been exploring shadows using our light frame and models we have made.

Marvellous Maths…

We’ve been revisiting our subitising skills (when you are able to look at a group of objects and know how many there are, without counting) and representing numbers 3 and 4.

Our Magnificent Marching Band!…

In music sessions this week, Reception became marching bands. They used the skills they had learnt over the past few weeks when playing percussion instruments, to put on a magnificent march!

What else have we been up to?…

Home-link challenges…

1. Next week, we will be celebrating World Nursery Rhyme Week 2021 Have fun singing nursery rhymes with your child at home. Ask them what their favourite nursery rhyme is- they may be lucky enough to see it around the classroom next week!
2. On Friday 19 November, we will be taking part in Children in Need. Talk to your child about charities and the work Children in Need do. You could visit the Children in Need website. We will of course be doing this in class too but it is lovely for the children to be able to share what they already know with their friends.

Diary Dates… 

Monday 15 November- Odd Socks Day 2021

Children can come to school wearing odd socks with their PE kit, in support of Anti-Bullying week.

Friday 19 November – Children in Need Non-Uniform Day (Donations welcome)

Friday 19 November, 3.30-4.00- Classroom Drop-in, Sunshine Class.

Friday 26 November, 3.30-4.00- Classroom Drop-in, Rainbow Class. (rescheduled from 12 November)

Tuesday 30 November- Toys from the past day…

On Friday 30 November, Reception Classes will take part in a virtual workshop with Abbey House Museum on Christmas Toys and Games. We will be comparing toys and games from the past, with those we enjoy now. 

On this day, children are welcome to bring in a toy from home that does not require any electricity or batteries. Please ensure the toy has your child’s name clearly labelled, so that they can be safely returned at the end of the day.

Thank you. 

We are artists

We have been comparing classical and modern pieces of art – in particular, sculptures. We looked at how different modern art movements had influenced artists. We researched different art movements such as cubism and futurism. We loved the abstract concepts and use of bright, vivid colours. We then used a classical sculpture and had to turn it into a modern piece using the different art movements to influence our adaptations. We could use different medium to add colour – some of us used pastels, others used felt tips. It was definitely a very creative afternoon.

Topic learning – art

Scientists in the making

Our science topic this half term is ‘Working Scientifically’. The vocabulary we are learning is below. Help at home by using some of the words in conversation at home so your child becomes familiar with them. There are also lots of science experiments here you could try.

We have observed closely this week, looking how coloured water is absorbed by tissue and can mix to make a new colour!

Awesome Adjective Day!

We had an amazing adjective day today. We learned a song, created expanded noun phrases, described characters and learned about adjectives all day!

Adjectives can tell you more,

About a noun and that’s for sure,

Ad-jec-tives!

Hockey fun

Today, 5/6B decided to brush up on their hockey skills. They worked hard in pairs to learn how to efficiently pass the ball to each other using their hockey sticks. They had to think about the positioning of their hands, how hard to hit the ball and how to stop the ball quickly. They then worked on their dribbling skills, maneuvering the ball around different sets of cones. Finally, they had a match against different teams in the class – it got very competitive!

Helping Your Child With Reading

Helping Your Child With Reading – at home!

As parents, we are the most influential teachers that our
children have. It is down to us to play an important part in
helping our children to improve their reading.
Here are some suggestions to help your child read at home:
• Set aside quiet time every day for reading with no distractions.
10 to 15 minutes a day should be enough. Little and often is
best.
• Make this time enjoyable. Sit together and if your child loses
interest then just talk.
• Do not correct often at all. Let them make mistakes!
• Allow time for children to self correct their own mistakes and
if you do need to correct them, then don’t do this for every
word mispronounced, only occasionally.
• Boost confidence with lots of praise.
• Build up confidence with easier books.
• Discuss what happened in the book, what was said, the
pictures etc. This discussion will lead to good comprehension
skills as well as develop love of books.
• Make up stories with some of the characters. What would they
do here in our home or school?
• Which characters did you like? Why?
• Which characters did you not like? Why?
• Would you like to be able to climb inside the book and visit
the place it is set in?
• Can you draw pictures and write out scenes from the story?
• Could you make a sequel? A prequel?
• Most importantly . . . have fun!!

Welcome Back!

We loved hearing about all of your half term adventures this week. Some people enjoyed jetting off to sunnier climates and others enjoyed a spooky walk along woodland trails. There was also lots of talk of collecting sweet treats on Sunday evening in the rain!

This week, in group times we’ve been focussing on our listening skills further. We reminded ourselves of what makes a good listener and then set off on a listening walk through school. Some of the sounds we heard were loud, but some were very quiet and we had to listen very carefully and stay silent and still.  Can your child remember going on a listening walk? See if they remember some of the things that we heard.

Here are some of the sounds that we heard:

• a baby crying in playgroup
• a spoon ‘clinking’ in a bowl as someone stirred round and round and the ‘chop, chop, chopping’ noise of a knife in the kitchen
• a creaky door and a door slamming
• teachers talking and children laughing
• a machine whirring – it wasn’t the washing machine though, it was the photocopier!
• vehicles on the road and birds quietly singing
• the leaves rustling and the wind blowing past our ears

Why not go on a listening walk abound your house and garden? What can you hear?  Listening and identifying environmental sounds around us is a really important part of developing children’s early phonics skills.  Let us know how you get on. 

In maths, we’re learning to compare collections of objects and say which group has more things. To keep it simple initially, we’ve been comparing sets that have the same type of items and an obvious difference in quantity (with one group having a widely different number of things). We looked at which plate had more sweets  and which web had the most spiders on it (and also which had the fewest). We’ll be continuing this learning next week. Try and include it in some day to day activities at home to help your child consolidate their learning. Which garage has the most cars? Which pile has fewest socks? Which pile has more coins? 

Highlights of the week also included…

• Storytime on Monday with Heather the Witch , aka Miss Backhouse!

• Using tongs to pick  insects out of some very sticky and slimy jelly.

• Creating a track game outside where the dragon had to catch the wizard and witches before they reached the cauldron. We rolled the dice and the witch and wizard had to move forward that many spaces.

• Room on the Broom continued to be a popular story so we made our own wands at the creative table and thought of our own magic words to say as we cast some spells.

• We’ve also mixed more potions, drawn lots of patterns and even saw some superheroes using a map to help find and rescue people in danger!

After the excitement of Bonfire Night, our learning and activities at the start of next week will be themed around this celebration. Please e-mail us a photograph if you enjoy joining in with any Bonfire Night celebrations. It’s a great way to remind children and encourage conversation about their family and home life.  scholesnursery@spherefederation.org 

Have a safe and fun Bonfire Night!

Happy Diwali! The Festival of Light

We’ve been celebrating Diwali! The Festival of Light was a joyful and perfect start to our topic- Light and Dark.

We listened to stories of children who were celebrating Diwali at home with their families, including one of our friends in Sunshine class!

We made our own Diya lamps and fireworks using playdough…

We worked together to make colourful Rangoli patterns on the floor. We used rice, powder paints and flowers…

We designed and then carefully painted Mehndi patterns. We used brown face paint to represent the henna dye. Mrs Myers was so lucky to have many beautiful designs painted onto her hands!

In PE, we followed a YouTube tutorial for a special Diwali dance. Each movement in the dance represented a decoration or activity that happens during Diwali.

Click here to try the Diwali dance at home!

We noticed that Diwali shares some traditions with other celebrations we know. We made links to our experiences …

My Nanna decorates the house but at Christmas time- William

We light a candle at a birthday party, on the cake- Sophia

We see fireworks on Bonfire Night- Penelope

At the end of the week, we learnt about Bonfire Night and why it is celebrated. We discussed ways to keep safe at bonfire parties and made posters to remind us of some important rules.

Home-Link Challenge…

Will you be celebrating at a Diwali or Bonfire Night event this weekend?

We’d love to see your pictures and hear the children talk about their experience. To support them with this, please help them to focus on their senses in discussions at home. What can they see, hear, smell, feel and taste? Can they remember those safety rules?

This type of discussion supports children to develop their descriptive language. ‘In the moment’ discussions also develop children’s understanding of the world around them, nature and their environment.

Thank you to the parents who have already been sending in lots of fantastic learning from home.

Diary Dates…

 Tuesday 9 November- Maths in Early Years (Zoom)

Friday 12 November, 3.30-4.00- Classroom Drop-in, Rainbow Class.

Friday 19 November, 3.30-4.00- Classroom Drop-in, Sunshine Class.