Potions and pumpkin soup!
What fun everyone had during the half term holidays.
Thank you for sharing all your half term fun with us! It was wonderful to hear about all the different activities and adventures the children experienced. We love to share news, photographs and souvenirs during group time. It provides an excellent opportunity for developing your child’s speaking and listening skills and of course, helps them to gain the confidence to talk to their peers. There was a delicious smell coming from nursery this week as we made pumpkin soup. The children helped to chop the vegetables and picked different herbs from the outdoor area to flavour the soup! There were some very creative potions made in the water and sand as the children explored capacity, colour and let their imaginations run wild with some very horrible looking ‘recipes’. Outdoors, some very observant children found the biggest worm on the grass which grew and grew before our eyes as it wriggled under the soil. We began to discuss length and use lots of different words to describe and compare the size of the worm. “It’s enormous…the longest worm I’ve ever seen!” The children have loved making their own obstacle courses in the large construction area. There was lots of cooperative play, mark making and number play as we awarded prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places!.
What we are learning this week
Leading on from the Guy Fawkes weekend fun, we will be having a bonfire and firework theme as we incorporate all the wonderful colours, sounds and shapes into our provision. Outdoors, we look forward to using the ribbons and scarves to dance and move like fireworks. We will be getting very messy as we create our own firework art on a large scale using the powder paints and some very interesting paint flicking techniques – please see this week’s reminders! We shall be talking about the children’s own experiences and continuing with the safety messages highlighted at this time of year relating to fire. This of course leads into creating a ‘firefighter’ small world area to reinforce learning across so many of the areas; language, creative play and making relationships to name a few. By using bubble wrap, we hope to not only recreate the ‘popping’ sound of their fireworks but also strengthen our fingers in preparation for the super mark making (early or ‘developmental’ writing) we do during our play. We will continue to use number skills as we count out objects from a larger group and learn another number song about 5 firefighters!
Reminders
- If you have any old adult shirts could you please send them to nursery to protect clothing during our firework art activities. We do have some but possibly not enough to go round everyone.
- Please check the entrance area towards the end of the week for signing up sheets for Parents meetings. These will take place W/C 20th November and be held over several days and at various times as to provide as much choice as possible.
- If you would like to share any none urgent information with us please get in touch using the nursery email scholesf1@spherefederation.org
Thank you for your continued support.
Tell us about your bonfire night!
Monday news next week will be all about Bonfire night. To encourage your child to share their bonfire night experiences, bring in a time to talk sheet or email us some photos/comments – scholesf2@spherefederation.org
Monday news is a great chance for your child to build their self-confidence by speaking in front of their peers. It’s also a valuable time to develop their communication and language skills.
Ukulele
Y3 children really enjoyed their ukulele lesson with Mr Oliver today. We practised our chords from last half term: C, A minor and F. We also learnt a new chord, G.
Tennis with Dwight
Our tennis lessons with Dwight are progressing well. Today, we practised our forehand and backhand. Dwight commented on how impressed he was with the improvements in hand-eye co-ordination.
Fun with Phonics!
This week, the children have learnt to read three tricky words – the, I, and and – as well as segmenting and blending CVC words e.g. s/u/n and reading short captions – ‘the sun’ or ‘Biff and Chip’.
The children have enjoyed playing various games to help with their sight reading of the tricky words. They have particularly enjoyed playing ‘Boo’ and singing the Jolly Phonics songs.
Fiddly Fingers Stay and Play
We’d like to invite you to the first of our Foundation Stay and Play session which will be on Wednesday 15 November. The focus of this session will be ‘Fiddly Fingers’.
Your child will be designing a personal invite for you and a letter detailing the information will be sent home soon.
We look forward to your visit.
Holiday adventures
Thank you to everyone who has e-mailed photographs and details of your activities in the holidays or to those that have sent in leaflets.
One of the most popular activities was pumpkin picking at Farmer Copley’s pumpkin festival, Piglet’s Adventure Park or Canon Hall Farm. It looks like you all had a good time scooping out the slimy insides and carving some very elaborate designs into them. (What a talented group of parents and carers you are!)
You told us all about…
- Discovering dinosaurs at Temple Newsam. Mrs Long thought that she could hear some strange noises when she was hanging washing out in her garden!
- Trips to museums and finding out about space.
- Learning to swing without being pushed.
- Eating pizzas at Pizza Express – mmmmm!
- Shark spotting at The Deep.
- Mark making, drawing pictures and writing letters.
- One lucky person even got to go camping…in the Moroccan desert and met a magician! Lawson told us all about his trip to see the magic man and toasting marshmallows on the fire.
We have enjoyed sharing the photographs with the children and it has been a lovely opportunity for children to tell us all about their adventures. It really helped them to remember what they had done during the holidays; children often forget to tell us about home, just like they forget to tell you about their day in nursery!
Children were excited to see their photographs on our iPads and they were eager to share their experiences with their friends. It provided lots of conversation, even with some of our quieter members of nursery.
Thank you for taking the time to e-mail us and please continue to keep us up to date with your child’s learning and new fascinations and interests.
It’s not too late to send us your holiday photographs if you haven’t already. We’ll look forward to seeing some more.
Swimming starting soon!
Swimming at school will start next week (w/b 06 November). The children will swim once a week on either Monday or Wednesday afternoons. Your child should have a letter in their book-bag with their swimming day.
A qualified swimming instructor will be teaching the children and will be following the ASA swimming award scheme.
Please can children bring a named one-piece costume / trunks and a towel in a named bag on their swimming day. Please ensure your child is wearing uniform they can change in and out of independently (tights are tricky on wet legs!). Please pack a spare pair of underwear and socks as these easily get wet by the poolside.
Adjective Dress Up Day – 01 November
We’re looking forward to it and we hope you are, too! More details can be found in the letter we sent home last week.
Home Link – Tell us about your holiday adventures
What did you do in the holidays?
Can you bring a souvenir or leaflet from somewhere you went in the holidays?
It may be a trip to the park, a farm or maybe the seaside. We’re going to share our adventures during the first week back and encourage children to tell their friends during group time.
You might want to draw a picture or send a photograph to our nursery email – scholesf1@spherefederation.org