Author: Mrs Boulton

Everyone’s been very busy this week! We’ve been busy learning all about worms and caterpillars, busy creating fantastic art and busy playing with our friends.

The children have enjoyed making lists of different sorts, including a wonderful list of ‘brown things’.  We’ve drawn lots of different worms and talked about their lengths and we’ve also continued to develop our understanding of ‘one more’ and ‘one less’. We’ve been on another minibeast hunt and looked at different ways of sorting these fabulous creatures. We discovered that some have no legs, some have many legs and some have wings (and some have many legs AND wings). Our class caterpillars have been growing and changing each day and we’ve started to talk about their life cycles. Our focus book is currently ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ and we’ll be creating some Eric Carle-inspired art next week.

We hope that the weather will be kind to our beans and herbs and they will grow taller and stronger in the sunshine. Hopefully, we’ll have a tasting session soon.

Dates for your diary:

27.05.22 – Jubilee day. Please bring your child to school dressed in red, white and blue to help us celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

   

   

 

   

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

This week at nursery, we’ve started to look at minibeasts with no legs. It’s been quite a contrast to the spiders we investigated and the children have enjoyed learning lots of facts about slugs and snails. Please ask your child if they can remember what the word ‘nocturnal’ means – we had a great discussion about it on the carpet.

At the beginning of the week, we continued to try out some recipes from last week’s focus book ‘Spider Sandwiches’ which were delicious! Then, we all enjoyed the opportunity to look at snail shells and think about the spiral patterns we could see. The children created some lovely artwork with their mark-making experiments which will be displayed in the classroom. We’ve also been making marks using dyed sand and a non-Newtonian fluid called Oobleck (cornflour and water). These experiments are a fun way to help the children with their letter formation and handwriting. In our maths sessions we’ve been thinking about ‘one more’ and in phonics, we’ve been listening out for words which begin with the same initial sounds.

Outside, we’ve been re-potting our herbs from their tiny indoor greenhouse and looking after our beans which are getting quite tall. We’ll also be starting to plant some other vegetables over the next couple of weeks and the children will have the opportunity to taste their own produce.

Our caterpillars arrived this week and we’ve been watching them grow. Next week we’ll begin reading ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ and we’ll talk about the life-cycle of a butterfly. Hopefully, in a few weeks time, we’ll be able to release our own butterflies into our garden area.

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

 

We’ve all had a fantastic week learning about minibeasts and, in particular, spiders. The children have been learning about the life-cycle of a spider, they’ve been drawing spiders from pictures and modelling them from junk materials. We’ve also been thinking about spiders’ webs and how these clever creatures spin them to catch their dinner. In our ‘rainforest cafe’, we’ve had lots of fun creating and ordering food inspired by our focus book: Spider Sandwiches by Claire Freedman. Today, we all went on a minibeast hunt around our garden area and found: worms, spiders, a bee and a woodlouse.

Our beans are growing well and the children have been helping to take care of them by watering them daily and weeding them. We’ve noticed lots of little holes appearing in their leaves so we’ve also been checking for caterpillars!

In maths, we’ve been thinking about the number five and, in phonics, we’ve been identifying words which have the same initial sounds.

Next week, after looking at minibeasts with many legs, we’ll be looking at those with no legs. I wonder what we’ll discover?

We all wish you a happy long weekend and see you on Tuesday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was so lovely to see all the smiling faces when we returned to school on Tuesday. We started off the week by having lots of chats about what the children had been doing over the Easter break and we are glad to hear that everyone had a good holiday.

Our new theme for the next half-term is ‘Minibeasts’ and we’ve already been busy learning about spiders. The children have enjoyed listening to ‘Spider Sandwiches’ by  Claire Freedman and we’ve been discussing the ingredients we may need to make some of the delicious recipes in the book. How about a nice bowl of ‘lice rice’, anyone? The children have been writing recipes to go into our cookbook and they have been taking orders in our rainforest cafe. We’ve been looking at the minibeasts on our investigation table and drawing spiders at the creative table. We’ve also been counting spiders and thinking about the amount of legs they have, too.

The weather has been beautiful so we’ve been outside a lot this week. On Wednesday, the children enjoyed washing our outside vehicles and we’ve also been exercising our gross motor skills by playing games with hoops. Inside, we’ve been doing lots of mark-making and looking at letter formation. A very busy week indeed!

Next week, we’ll be learning about our new focus number (the number 5) and we’ll also be planting out the herbs which we began growing on the window ledge of our classroom. Our beans are already doing really well outside and will shortly need sticks for support! I wonder whose beanstalk will be the tallest?

Things to remember:

As the weather is getting warmer, please bring a hat into school for your child.

Please remember to name your child’s clothes, shoes and water bottles.

Many thanks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We can’t quite believe where the last term has gone. We’ve all been so busy learning that the time seems to have flown by!

Our week began with a visit from some beautiful farm animals and the children really enjoyed the opportunity to see them up close (some were brave enough to give the animals a gentle stroke). On Monday afternoon, we took our decorated eggs to the hall and had a chance to look at some of the other entries by the older children in the school. Congratulations to all of the winners – there were some fabulous ideas and it must have been difficult to judge them.

We’ve been doing lots of Easter-inspired learning this week and the children have created some fabulous Easter egg designs using collage materials. Each day, the children have been finding named paper eggs hidden around the classroom (this gives them a chance to recognise their own name and think about the initial sound they can hear). We’ve continued to focus on the number four in our maths sessions and have been concentrating on rhyming words in our phonics. As always, there has been a lot of mark-making in the classroom (and outside, too) and some of the children are beginning to write some or all of their name using their developing skills.

It’s been a very strange end to the term as the weather has turned colder again but we hope you all have a wonderful holiday. Take care and we look forward to seeing you all on Tuesday, 19th April.

  

 

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

What a week it’s been at nursery! We’ve had lots of fun talking about all of the people who help us in our daily lives and we’ve also imagined what life would be like if we were superheroes. The children really enjoyed thinking about the people who work as doctors, nurses, firefighters, police officers and lifeguards and we discussed what their jobs involve and why they are important. We looked at different types of books and their layouts and some children tried to make their own comic books. All of the children’s fine-motor skills are developing really well and some of them are able to cut along straight and curvy lines using scissors. As the weather has been very beautiful this week, we’ve been outside exercising our gross-motor skills by learning about ‘push’ and ‘pull’.

Our focus number at the moment is the number four and we will continue to learn more about it next week. In our weekly music session, the children watched a clip of an orchestra performing and we talked about the role of the conductor.

Next week, we will be thinking about Easter and will celebrate by doing some Easter-themed activities throughout the week.

Things to remember as the weather gets warmer:

Please make sure your child brings a NAMED water bottle to school each day and a sun hat, if possible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This week in nursery, our focus books have been ‘Jasper’s Beanstalk’ and ‘Oliver’s Vegetables’. Reading these books (and talking about them) has encouraged us to think about how plants grow and what sorts of foods are good for our bodies. The children have enjoyed planting seeds and beans and have predicted what their plants will look like once they have fully grown. We’ve also looked closely at flowers and have made some wonderful observational drawings using a limited palette of colours. Next week, the children will be looking at how they have changed and grown since they were babies and we would really appreciate a photograph of your child as a baby for a display in our room. We’ll be measuring how tall we are and will be talking about all the wonderful things the children have learned to do since they were born.

Dates for your diary:

Our Parent Teacher Consultation Evening is on Monday, 21st March. Appointments can be made online – please let us know if you have any difficulties booking them.

Friday, 18th March is Red Nose Day. Your child can come to nursery wearing an item of red clothing to celebrate the day.

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

 

This week has been very busy at nursery as we have celebrated two important events: Shrove Tuesday and World Book Day. We began by talking about Shrove Tuesday and why it is important in the Christian calendar, and we also read ‘Mr Wolf’s Pancakes’ to inspire our learning. The children made their own pretend pancakes and took part in some pancake-inspired activities. Whilst decorating some real pancakes, we discussed our favourite toppings and thought about the healthy choices we could make. On Thursday, lots of children (and staff) dressed up to celebrate World Book Day. The children really enjoyed creating their own books and reading their stories to the rest of the class.

We have started to look closely at the number three and will continue to explore it next week. Perhaps you could ask your child if they can spot the number three in the environment (registration plates, buses and house numbers are good places to start looking for numerals). As Spring is on its way, we will also be looking at ‘growing’ over the next couple of weeks and will be planting our own beans and seeds.

   

   

  

   

   

   

 

Our focus book this week has been The Gingerbread Man and the children have really enjoyed listening to the story. We have re-told the story using props and have included gingerbread men in our learning. We’ve even decorated some gingerbread biscuits to take home! The children have also been busy making their own musical instruments, creating fabulous junk-models, mixing beautiful gingerbread colours and drawing around their outlines to make ‘people patterns’. We have revisited ‘heaviest’ and ‘lightest’ in our maths and have checked our predictions using balance scales. We found out that larger objects are not always heavier than smaller ones.

After half term we’ll be celebrating Shrove Tuesday and we’ll also be dressing up for World Book Day. Which is your favourite character from a book?

All of the Nursery staff wish you a happy, healthy and safe half term. We look forward to seeing you all again on Tuesday, March 1st.

   

   

   

This week, we’ve had lots of visitors in school who have helped us understand how to stay safe. On Monday, we had a visit from some of the firefighters from Wetherby fire station who brought their engine with them. On Tuesday, a lady from Dog’s Trust taught us how to stay safe around dogs and, on Thursday, we also learned about road safety when crossing the road with our adults. We’ve also had a visit from a Christian organisation called Hand to Mouth and we did a special activity with them on Wednesday.

The children have enjoyed finishing off their dragon masks and have been doing lots of paintings in red and gold to mark the end of Chinese New Year. There has been a lot of mark-making in the classroom and this will help the children develop the motor skills necessary for writing their name. We’ve continued to look at the number two on a number line and have been thinking about the length of sounds in our music sessions. Next week, our focus book will be: ‘The Gingerbread Man’ and we will be doing lots of gingerbread-inspired learning.

Some important reminders:

• If your child is going to be absent from school, please can you inform the school office. It would be very helpful if you could give a reason for their absence.
• Please avoid sending anything in your child’s packed lunch which may contain nuts. This includes chocolate/hazelnut spreads.

Many thanks