Superworm
This week our book focus was a favourite amongst nursery- SUPERWORM! by Julia Donaldson
Superworm has lots of different jobs and is very helpful towards his friends, but we need to watch out for that sneaky Wizard Lizard!
We’ve tried really hard to be minibeast hunters this week and have looked so hard for some worms but they have been hiding. We think it’s because its been so dry. But we will keep looking for some next week!
Our caterpillars have been busy building their chrysalides. We’ve put them into the butterfly garden. Will we get to see them hatch? Watch this space!
Fine Motor Control and Writing Stay and Learn
On Wednesday afternoon, we were so lucky to invite so many of our parents and grown-ups in to explore some fine motor challenges with us. We had the chance to show everyone just how well our pincer grips are developing.
Some of the activities included pegging out the washing, creating butterfly paintings using cotton wool buds, and filling the holes in LEGO pieces with water using pipettes. The children showed great focus and enthusiasm throughout.
Mrs Kendrew then spoke to our grown-ups about how we are developing both our gross motor skills (big movements) and fine motor skills (small and pincer movements) to support correct pencil grip. We also discussed the 4 P’s of handwriting: posture, pencil grip, paper position and pressure.
Finally, we talked about writing for a purpose—for example, creating shopping lists, labels, cards, letters and postcards. These are all activities that can easily be practised at home using the children’s phonics knowledge.
Help at Home: try some of the example above and bring them in to show the teachers. Don’t forget the 4 P’s of handwriting when you do.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
This week we had a special delivery in Early Years the children were so excited to find what was inside the little cardboard box that arrived by post. Inside, there were 5 teeny, tiny caterpillars! They were so hard to see that we needed to use the magnifying glasses. We’ve been checking them everyday and they are getting bigger and bigger, just like the caterpillar in this weeks story The Hungry Caterpillar.
The weather has been perfect for some gardening outside too. We got our green fingers busy and planted some flowers and herbs in the garden. We talked about making sure that we watered the seeds so that they will grow.
We then finished the week with Forest school, we had such an amazing time with Sarah, we made butterflies and decorated them with flowers. We explored the slack line, the swing and all the exciting areas in forest school. We can’t wait to go again next week!
Wheels, wings and other things
Summer 1
This half term will be learning about bugs and will be going on lots of bug hunts. We will be learning about the life cycle of a butterfly and will hopefully set some free! We will be using some hand drills to build a bug hotel for our outdoor area.
We are also hoping to develop our outdoor space a bit more so if anyone has any compost, plant pots, tree stumps or plants we would would really appreciate them.
Reminders and Notices
Forest School- It is our turn to go to Forest School after the holidays. Please send your child to school in their PE kits on Friday with waterproofs and wellies in a labelled plastic bag.
Rabbits Don’t Lay Eggs
We ended the spring term with the focus book Rabbits Don’t Lay Eggs! by Paula Metcalf.
This was a very funny book, that definitely made us chuckle! We were also very lucky to receive a visit from the Easter Bunny who kindly left us all a tasty Easter egg in forest school! Thank you so much Easter Bunny and the PTA helpers!
Our final week in school was full of Easter fun, we made cube carrots in the maths area, Easter bonnets in the workshop area and used our funky fingers to cut out and make Easter chicks.
Have a happy and healthy Easter break and we will see you on Monday 20th April.
Spring Planting
This week we’ve replanted our sunflower seeds because they’ve really grown.
We’ll be sending them home at the end of term to see who can grow the tallest sunflower. Good luck everyone!
Oliver’s Milkshake
This week we’ve been reading the story ‘Oliver’s Milkshake’ and on Wednesday we even made a milkshake ourselves.
We chose the fruit for Miss Feldman to buy and then we put it in the blender to make a milkshake. It was so tasty and fruity we drank it all up!
Thank you to Miss Feldman for getting all the things we needed to make such a delicious drink.
Oliver’s Vegetable
This week, we have been enjoying reading “Oliver’s Vegetables” by Vivian French.
We have been thinking about the vegetables in the book; and tasting them.
“My carrot is crunchy”
“I can hear it when I eat it.”
There are other books in the Oliver series about healthy eating. Next week Our book is called Oliver’s Milkshake. Can you find any more stories in the series?
Help at home: Can your child remember the story? Have a go at drawing some of the vegetables you have at home.
World Book Day
We had the best time on Thursday celebrating World Book Day. We started the day with a book themed Stay and Learn that was a very busy session with so many of our grown ups coming.
Then we read the story How to be Lion by Ed Vere a heart warming children’s book about Leonard, a gentle lion who prefers writing poems to chasing ducks. When other lions pressure him to be “fierce,” Leonard and his duck friend, Marianne, prove that being yourself is important. It celebrates kindness and individuality. This was the book chosen by the Reading Ambassadors for the whole school to look at. We made some lions to add to a whole school display and talked about how we are all different and special.
We were also very lucky to welcome our Year 6 Buddies into our classroom to read with us. They were so enthusiastic and the children really enjoyed sharing books together. Thank you, Year 6! One of the other highlights was helping to write a whole school book together, we really enjoyed adding a fun Reception and Nursery spin to the story.
To finish our day, we visited the Reading Café, organised by our fantastic Reading Ambassadors. We enjoyed a biscuit and a cup of hot chocolate while sharing books together – the perfect end to a lovely day.
Throughout the day, there were so many opportunities to celebrate reading and our love of books. It was wonderful to see the children so excited about stories.
Help at home by continuing to celebrate our love of reading!