What is happening outside?
Hello everyone!
This week we have been exploring the seasonal changes. We’ve been into forest school jumping in giant muddy puddles and collected some Autumnal objects to add to our tuff tray.
We have been focusing on fine motor control, using pincers to pick up our objects and practising using these skills with our fingers sorting them into baskets.
Fine motor skills involve small muscles working with the brain and nervous system to control movements in areas such as the hands, fingers, lips, tongue and eyes. Developing fine motor skills helps children do things like eating, writing, manipulating objects and getting dressed.
Help at home:
We practice ‘dough disco’ daily to further develop these skills. Here is one of the children’s favourites for you to enjoy at home!
(This is a YouTube link. Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog along the play bar and turn off autoplay – this avoids an inappropriate clip coming up automatically, and helps to discourage your child from passively watching clip after clip.)
Have a happy and healthy weekend!
The Nursery team
Who are you?
We’ve had a lovely few weeks settling back into Nursery. As we have made new friends we started to talk about out families and who is important to us.
We became artists and captured our families on paper. Each child chose a colour to represent each person within their family.
In the early years, your child’s main way of learning and developing is through play. Building these realtionships between family and Nursery helps your child learn key life skills, like communicating, thinking, solving problems, moving and being with other children and grown-ups.
Spending time playing together sends your child a simple message – you’re important to me. This message helps your child learn about who they are and where they fit in the world and we foster this within Nursery!
Help at Home:
As the weather is beginnng to change, so is our environment. This is the perfect time go out for a family walk and see what you can find!
Please bring in all your lovely Autumnal treasures so we can add them to our tuff tray next week.
Have a happy and healthy weekend!
Miss Ward and Miss Harvey
Welcome back everyone!
It’s been lovely to welcome back our returning nursery children and also to introduce our new starters!
We’ve had a wonderful settling in week, exploring our provision and becoming familair with our nursery routine.
Here’s a sneak peak of some of the activities we’ve been enjoying
During snack time this week the children have enjoyed listening to the nursery rhyme ‘Wheels on the bus’.
Help at home: Can you child recall some of the actions from the ‘Wheels on the bus’ nursery rhyme?
Next week, we will be starting our first focus story ‘ The Gruffalo’ By Julia Donaldson.
- In the coming weeks, we will be talking about our families. Please could parents/carers email some photos of their families to- stjamesnursery@spherefederation.org
Have a happy and healthy weekend!
Miss Ward and Miss Harvey
Our new sensory space; The Den
Over the summer, Mrs Freeman has been busy creating a sensory themed room in school.
The Den is a safe space which aims to provide any child with the individualised sensory input they need to self-regulate so they can be better prepared for learning and interacting with others.
The Den offers a safe space for relaxation, exploration, independence, and social sessions. The resources in The Den can be used to stimulate, soothe, entertain and distract, depending on the child’s requirements.
We would like to say thank you to the school PTA for the contributions towards resources for this room.
We hope users of The Den benefit from the stimulating visual and tactile activities.
I make safe choices, including online!
This week has been safety week across school. In Nursery and Reception we had a visit from Dave at D-side.
He spoke to us about the importance of being safe online and what we should and shouldn’t do!
We watched a little video about a girl playing a game on her Daddy’s computer and all of a sudden an advert popped up to win a toy.
Should the girl click on the prize?
‘ No, it could be dangerous’
Here are some other response we had from the children in relation to sharing personal information online ..
‘They might ring your number’
‘They might drive to your house’
‘Because they might find where you are playing’
Who should we ask before we go online? use a computer, Ipad or phone?
Mummies, Daddies, Grandparents, uncles, aunties older people’
Help at Home: Can you remember what these numbers mean?
Have a happy and healthy weekend!
Miss Ward, Miss Harvey and Miss Feldman
Yo-ho a Pirates life for me!
This week our focus story has been ‘Pirates love Underpants’ by Claire Freedman.
We’ve been practicing our best pirate voices and searching for treasures around school.
We made our own pirate maps and thought about the locations we could hide our treasure for our friends to find. The pirates left one for us to follow, it lead us straight to forest school. We followed the directions and found the pirates treasure!
Although sneaky pirate Miss Harvey kept pinching our treasure so we had to chase after her!
Help at home: Can you draw your own treasure map? Hide some treasure around your house and see if your grown-ups can follow the directions on your map!
If you have any photos of your treasure maps, please send them in so we can have a look at them during ‘snack and chat’.
stjamesnursery@spherefederation.org
Our garden has been busy growing our peas and runner beans for a while now and the children were so excited when I told them the peas were ready!
We picked some, washed them and then enjoyed them during our ‘snack and chat’. They were delicious and very sweet.
Have a lovely weekend everyone!
Miss Ward, Miss Harvey and Miss Feldman
Full, half-full and empty!
Over the past two weeks our maths focus has been exploring capacity.
We’ve spoken about understanding what full and empty means, exploring capacity using different materials such as water, sand and rice and comparing capacities directly by pouring from one container to another to find which holds more or less.
Charlie- ‘ It doesn’t all fit in this one (water), the jug is too small’
Wyatt- ‘ It’s gone over the top, it’s too full now’
T- ‘ This is a really small one (jug), it won’t be big enough for all the water’
Next week we will be getting out our eye patches and going on a treasure hunt, the pirates are arriving in their underpants!
We would just like to say a BIG thank you to all our lovely parents and carers for attending our sports day this week. It was a brilliant morning and I think we can all agree that the children had a wonderful time!
Have a happy and healthy weekend!
Miss Ward, Miss Harvey and Miss Feldman
What’s the commotion?
For the next two weeks the children will be reading ‘ Commotion in the Ocean’ by Giles Andreae
In Nursery we have been talking about different parts of our books. We know that the author is someone who writes the words in our stories and the illustrator is someone who draws the pictures. Next week, we are going to talk about what a blurb is!
After all our hard work in looking after our vegetables, our pototoes we’re finally ready! We dug down deep into the soil to pull them out. We washed them and popped them into the fridge ready to make some potato salad next week for us to try. I think they will be yummy!
Help at home: What vegetables have you grown before? What did they taste like? Which was your favourite?
If you have any photos of your vegetables growing please send them in so we can have a look at them during ‘snack and chat’.
stjamesnursery@spherefederation.org
Notice:
WC. 24/06 the children have been asked to wear their PE kit all week. This is so we can practice our sports day races ready for you all on Wednesday!
Nursery and Reception Sports Day- Wednesday 26 June from 9am (children will be out on the field by 9:30)
If your child doesn’t usually attend a Wednesday, we are more than happy for you to come along and join in, just drop off at Nursery as normal.
Please can your child be wearing suncream before coming to Nursery and be provided with a hat, it’s set to be a hot one this week!
Have a lovely weekend!
Miss Ward, Miss Harvey and Miss Feldman
Three friends sharing a shell..
This week the children have enjoyed reading ‘ Sharing a Shell’ By Julia Donaldson
This story highlights the important role that sharing plays in building lasting friendships.
- What did the Anemone do to the big fish?
- What two items did the sea creatures find in the rockpool? Should they be there and why?
- why did the three friends fall out?
- How did the bristleworm help them become friends again?
We got very creative this week, the children followed their own interests and wanted to make their own shells! we used lots of different materials from our junk modelling bucket, such as plastic bottles, tubs and milk cartons. They chose lots of bright and colourful materials to add to their shells including tissue paper, glittter, sequins and paint. They look amazing, I think I might like to stay in one!
Next week we are exploring our under the sea theme more!
We will be reading..
Can you guess which sea creature I’m describing?
Having eight arms can be useful,
you may think it looks a bit funny,
but it helps me to hold all my children
and tickle each one on the tummy.
Have a wonderful happy and healthy weekend!
Miss Ward, Miss Harvey and Miss Feldman
Save the Whale!
Our theme this term is ‘Let’s make a splash!’
We started this week off with Julia Donalson’s, ‘The Snail and the Whale’
A beautiful tale of an unlikely friendship, a tour of the world and a heroic rescue!
We’ve been talking about the differences in the world around us, from the countryside to the seaside, we looked at some artwork and here’s what we thought…
We don’t have beaches at home but we have one outside in our garden’- Ella D
There is lots of grass- Oria
I like the seaside, I went on my holiday – Elliott
I love getting an ice-cream, with sprinkles and red sauce- Louie
It’s full of tree’s and big wall’s – Immy
After the half-term, the Caterpillars had finished growing in their cocoon and we’re ready to be released. We had 4 in total!
They spotted our wild flowers in the garden and went on the hunt for some delicious pollen.
Miss Ward, Miss Harvey and Miss Feldman