World Nursery Rhyme Week
It’s World Nursery Rhyme Week, so we’ll be singing lots of rhymes in Nursery – even more than usual! We know how important Nursery rhymes are for developing early literacy skills; we’re hoping that by the end of the this week, children will be able to confidently sing along to some nursery rhymes or will have learnt some new ones, in addition to those that they already know.
Each year, World Nursery Rhyme Week focuses on 5 songs and rhymes, if you’re not familiar with this year’s rhymes, follow the links below to sing a long at home.
Head, shoulders, knees and toes
In Nursery this week, lots of our areas of provision are linked to some of these rhymes, as well as some other favourites. We have Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars to sort in our maths area, Incy Wincy Spider to put together at the creative table, Little Miss Muffet’s curds and whey to mix in the sensory area and 5 Current Buns to make at the playdough table.
What’s your child’s favourite rhyme? Send us an email to let us know and we’ll make sure we sing it in Nursery.
We will remember them
We observed the 2 minutes silence at 11am on 11th November. Children also talked about family members who they know were involved in wars or part of the armed forces.
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…
- 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!
- 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!!