Golden Stars
Well done to our two most recent Golden Stars!
Maths – capacity
We took advantage of the mini heatwave this week and took our maths lessons outside. We filled three containers to different levels (full, half full, less than half full), found out how many scoops/cups it took to fill different containers, looked closely at the measurements on different containers and talked about how taller containers don’t always hold the most.
Help at home by looking at the capacity of juice, sauce, shampoo or water bottles. Talk about how many litres or millilitres containers hold. Use a spoon, scoop or cup to find out how much bowls, jugs, bottles or the sink holds. Bath-time can be learning time, too!
Home Link – ‘r’ sound
This week we are going to be learning about the ‘r’ sound.
Here is a link to the Jolly Phonics song that we will be singing to in Nursery. We sometimes watch Geraldine Giraffe video clips, too. Geraldine likes to find things in the house that begin with the letter…
Can you find things in your home and environment that begin with ‘r’?
If you have something that begins with ‘r’, that you’re happy to send in, please put your child’s name on it and bring it to nursery for our sound shelf. Alternatively, you could draw a picture or take a photograph of it.
Mischievous Bunnies
Week 1 – welcome back!
It was great to see so many happy faces returning to nursery after the Easter holidays. We hope you had lots of fun; we heard all about Easter egg hunts, visits to the cinema and trips to the seaside and farms. Unfortunately, as Mrs Long wasn’t very well before the holidays, some Parent Consultation Meetings had to be cancelled. Please sign up for a new one this week, if you haven’t already. Appointments before and after nursery are available on Monday, Tuesday and Friday. Please speak to Mrs Long if you’re unable to find a suitable time. It’s a good opportunity for us to discuss with you how your child is progressing in nursery and for you to look through their Learning Journey. For those children moving to Foundation Two in September, we’ll share with you some of the targets that well work towards for the rest of the year.
Here are a few photographs of our Easter fun in nursery before the holidays. Children enjoyed tasting hot cross buns, making Easter nests and cards, going on an Easter egg hunt in our garden. The highlight of the term was definitely seeing the chicks hatching and holding them!
This week, we’ve enjoyed talking to children about the holidays and finding out what their new fascinations are. Thank you for all of your emails with photographs and details of your holidays. Remember, our email is scholesf1@spherefederation.org if you haven’t had chance to send us any yet. We also like to hear about your child’s Wow! moments, too; these could be small or large achievements at home such as fastening a zip by themselves, learning to ride a bike or recognising a letter/number in the environment. Basically, anything that you may suddenly think…Wow! I didn’t know they could do that!
We loved seeing the sunshine this week! Outside was a hive of activity; children were busy making campfires to toast marshmallows (after a few children had a trip to This Green Moon’s Easter event) and using puppets to re-create the Mimika ‘Landscapes’ theatre show that some children were lucky enough to watch this week. There was also a lot of excitement around a certain film involving a rather mischievous bunny…
Week 2 – What are we learning this week?
As part of our continuing theme of ‘Spring’, we’ll learn about Peter Rabbit and his friends. Children are already busy learning how to look after animals in our new vet role play area and we’re finding out how plants grow so that we can have a vegetable patch just like Mr McGregor. We’ll read some of the traditional stories written by the famous author, Beatrix Potter and we may even have a visit from a furry, four-legged friend. Please let us know if you do not wish your child to take part in handling/stroking the rabbit.
Electricity
This week, we’ve started our new mini-topic… Electricity. We started our topic by thinking about what is electricity. Each group looked at pictures of appliances and sorted them into electrical and non-electrical appliances. The children then moved on to create a Venn diagram to show appliances that are ran by mains electricity, battery power or both.
Then, we dicussed how electricity works. Each group were given pictures of circuits and predicted whether the bulb would light. The children made their predictions and tested each circuit. There was some fantastic learning, team work and discussions throughout the lesson. I was extremely impressed! The children were very excited and proud when they made a complete circuit and saw the light bulb light up. We then went on to discuss why some of the bulbs were brighter. The children successfully told me it was when there was more power from an extra battery.
The Rainbow Factory
We had a great day out at the Rainbow Factory. When we arrived, we were greeted by three superheroes who told us their friend Willemina had been kidnapped by the Evil Eye. The superheroes needed our help to get their friend back home safely. We were sent to superhero training – we had to complete special tasks to become a superhero.
Throughout the day, we had to decipher cryptic messages to find a missing gem that had been stolen – along the way we tasted mice tea, tried on the Mad Hatter’s hat and showed how brave we were by putting our fingers in the wolf’s mouth!
We used our creative abilities to design a shield and draw a picture of a superhero. We had to decide what our special superhero power would be. We talked about how our special power could be something about us rather than something we do. We came up with ideas such as sharing, being a kind friend and helping others.
We also learnt how to use our shields. Defend, attack and protect!
The staff and volunteers who came on the trip were very proud of all the children. They all behaved brilliantly throughout the whole day.
The Foundation 2 team would like to say a huge thank you to the volunteers who helped support us. We really appreciate all of your help to make the trip possible.
Living and Learning: I can name emotions.
Healthy Minds is the Living and Learning theme this half-term. Being aware of different emotions – both positive and negative – is an important basis for good mental health.
Throughout this week, Year 3/4 have been naming emotions that we feel. We discussed how different emotions make us feel inside and the situations that happen that can change our emotions.
Lovely landscapes!
Mimika theatre came back to school this week – after been cancelled due to the snow. 5/6F and 5/6M both spent an hour in the dome, experiencing the sounds, sights and surprises of a range of landscapes. It was very immersive. Ask your child which landscape or puppet they liked the best and why. My favourite puppet was the flamingo!
School Library
Today, we visited our lovely school library and the children chose books to take home for the week. They were really enthusiastic about choosing their own book to take home. Please ensure your child looks after their book and returns it to school every week. If your child wishes to keep the book for longer then that’s fine, but please note that a new book will not be issued without the return of the old one! I hope you enjoy reading together.
Sun, sun, sun!
Welcome back to Nursery! It was lovely to see so many happy, smiling faces on Monday morning and to find out about your Easter holiday adventures.
It’s also great to finally see some sunshine. Hooray! Please can you make sure you send your child with a sun hat and water bottle and apply ‘Once’ sun cream in the morning if necessary. Please check your child’s folder this week for a letter regarding sun cream application in Nursery.