This week’s bible story
The son who left home continued: Luke 15: 11-32
This half term, our bible story that Jesus told was about the son who sold his share of his father’s farm he was to inherit and went off to the city intending to enjoy himself. You will also remember that, in the end, he decided it was a big mistake and went back home to beg his father’s forgiveness. Much to his surprise, his father forgave him completely and even threw a party for him. That’s where we left the story last time, but Jesus did not end it there – he also talked about the eldest son, who had stayed at home.
Read the story of the Lost son continued.
Reflection:
Consider the feelings of the father, the eldest brother and the younger brother at each stage of the story.
How many things related to our homes and families do we often take for granted?
Prayer:
Father God,
Help us to share gladly in the success of others.
When someone does well, may we be happy to congratulate them.
When someone falls, help us to comfort them.
Forgive us when we take things for granted and help us to appreciate all the good things we have.
Amen
Staying safe
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
This week’s bible story
Jesus is friends with Zacchaeus: Luke 19: 1-10
Have you ever heard the story of Burglar Bill – Bill goes out every night. Getting into houses through open windows and taking things. Until one night, Bill found a baby, and that changed his whole life …
There is a Bible story about a man who stole from other people. He took extra money when he gave them their tax bills and became very rich on all the money that he stole. Zaccheus was a little man and that small people can’t see in crowds. Read the story of Zacchaeus to find out what happened to him.
Reflection:
Jesus loved everyone when he lived on the earth. It didn’t matter how bad people were, Jesus was always there for those who needed him. This is true for us too – no one is so bad that God doesn’t love them. And the more time we spend with God – praying, thinking about him, finding out about him, the more we want to be like Jesus; kind, helpful and good. Just like Zacchaeus, Burglar Bill changed his ways and tried to be more like Jesus by loving those around him.
Prayer:
Dear God,
Thank you that Jesus loved Zacchaeus even when he wasn’t making the right choices. Help us to love all of those around us.
Amen
Celebrations and new friends
Over the last few weeks, we have welcomed some new friends into our classroom and it’s lovely to see them doing so well. The children who have been with us since the Autumn term have been really good role models for our new starters and they have helped them to settle into the routines of the classroom very quickly.
This week in Nursery, we have been using Chinese New Year as inspiration for our learning. We have looked at some of the family traditions involved in preparing for the new year and the celebrations which are important through the season. The children have made their own decorated red envelopes (which helped them to exercise their fine motor skills) and they will be completing their dragon heads over the coming week. The children have also been making comparisons between objects in relation to weight and have used mathematical language such as: ‘heavier than’ and ‘lighter than’ when describing the items they are holding. Next week, we will continue looking at ‘number two’ and its position on a number line.
REMINDER
Please remember to name all of your child’s clothing as well as their water bottle.
This week’s bible story
The Lost Coin: Luke 15.1-9
Read the story in Luke 15.1-9.
Or suppose a woman who has ten silver coins loses one of them – what does she do? She lights a lamp, sweeps her house, and looks carefully everywhere until she finds it. When she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbours together, and says to them, ‘I am so happy I found the coin I lost. Let us celebrate!’
It doesn’t seem much of a story, does it? A woman loses a coin, she searches high and low, then she finds it and is so pleased that she throws a party for her friends – it’s hardly Harry Potter, is it?
The coin must have been valuable for the woman to search for it so hard and long and to be so pleased when she found it.
This is a parable – a simple tale that is meant to give listeners something to think about. Even this very simple story can have a big meaning.
Reflection:
If I lose something that doesn’t matter to me –
an old leaflet, a broken pencil, a toy I don’t play with any more,
if I lose something that doesn’t matter to me,
it doesn’t bother me much at all.
If I lose something that does matter to me –
some money, my lunch, my favourite toy,
if I lose something that does matter to me,
I search and search and don’t stop until I find it,
or until I know it’s really lost.
Jesus said that God looks for me like that:
searching high and low
never letting go
making sure I know
that I’m so
very, very special.
Prayer:
Dear God,
Thank you that you love us so much you would search for us just like the woman searched for the lost coin. Help us to show our friends how much they mean to us.
Amen
Lots of learning!
The children have had a super week with lots of learning and creativity in the classroom. They have been exercising their gross motor skills by riding tricycles and also finding different ways to travel down a slippery slope safely. Inside, they have been developing their fine motor skills by threading, using scissors and mixing paint. We have also continued to explore the wintery weather by making some ice hangings which we filled with tiny objects and put into the freezer. The children were very interested to see what happened to them when we took them out of the freezer and put them in a tray inside the classroom for the afternoon.
Here are a few pictures of our wonderful week…
This week’s bible story
Moses: Exodus 20.1-17
Moses is one of the great biblical heroes and is revered by Christians, Jews, and Muslims. There are many stories about this great and inspirational leader, but one of the things that we most associate with Moses is the Ten Commandments. The ten commandments are ten instructions about the way people should live if they are to be happy and live together in peace.
Read the story of Moses and the ten commandments.
Moses tried to keep the people’s spirits high and led them on through the desert until they came to the Oasis of Sinai. Here, there was water and food and they could set up their tents for a while. It was on Mount Sinai that God gave Moses a list of rules about the best way to live.
Reflection:
The first three commandments are about loving God, but the others are about loving other people. The world would not be a good place if everyone just did whatever they felt like doing all the time. If there were no rules, people could do bad or unkind things and get away with it. Rules are important so that we learn about what is right and wrong, good and bad, helpful and unhelpful. Rules are there for a reason: to help us stay safe.
In the New Testament part of the Bible, Jesus spoke about a new commandment that has two parts. He stated that people should love God and love others. How could we do that today?
Prayer
Dear God,
Help us to see that rules are there to keep us safe and happy.
Help us to love other people and to act in a way that shows care for them.
Help us to follow the best ways.
Be near to us when we find it difficult.
Guide us to live together in peace and harmony.
Amen.
This week’s bible story
The Lost Sheep: Luke 15.3-7
Have you ever received a card with the words ‘Love from . . .’ written in it.
What do you think the words mean. ‘What does “love” mean?’
The dictionary defines it as ‘a strong feeling of affection’.
Think about things that they love. Who are the people whom they love? Who loves you? How does it feel to be loved?
There are times when everyone feels alone or unloved. Maybe we have done something wrong and are in trouble, or maybe we just feel down in the dumps and it makes us feel like no one cares about us very much.
Christians believe that no matter what happens to us, God always loves us. There are many stories in the Bible about God loving people. One of them is the story of the lost sheep. In this story, the shepherd loses a sheep, but cares for it so much that he looks and looks until the sheep is found again.
Read the story from Luke 15.3-7. The story makes the point that no matter how many of us there are in our school, our family or the world, each one of us matters to God. Remembering this can help us never to feel alone and always to feel special.
Reflection:
Let’s think about the people who care for us and show us love.
Pause to allow time for thought.
Let’s think about the people whom we love. How can we show love to them?
Pause to allow time for thought.
Prayer
Dear God,
Thank you for the people who love and care for me.
Please help me to show them that I am grateful and a happier person because of it.
Being loved makes me feel safe and happy. I feel warm inside and special.
Help me to love others so that they may feel that way, too.
Help those people who feel lonely and sad.
May they remember that they are loved by you and are never alone because you are always there.
Thank you for loving me.
Amen.
Our busy week!
We’ve been busy again this week! There are two weather charts in our classroom and the children really enjoy looking at the weather each day and taking turns to record it. As it’s been quite chilly, we’ve been discussing the best clothes to wear outdoors to keep ourselves warm and dry. Our current theme is: ‘Winter’ and we’ve been decorating snowflakes, playing ‘throw the snowball’ and talking about animals who live in cold climates. One of our other outdoor games this week has been: ‘find the penguins’ where the children worked in two teams to see which team could collect the most penguins. We’ve also tried wax-resist painting, taken a pretend trip on a ‘magical classroom bus’ designed by the children (first stop was a well-known local supermarket) and exercised our gross-motor and balance skills.
Our focus number for the next week is: one and we will explore its position on a number line and look for it in the environment around us.
If you have any photos of family celebrations or weekend events, we would love to see them. Please email them to:
stjamesnursery@spherefederation.org
Happy New Year!
It’s lovely to be back at Nursery after our Christmas break. We hope you’ve had a good holiday and we’re looking forward to a wonderful half-term of learning ahead. This week we have welcomed some new friends into our classroom and the children have been looking after them by being really good role-models. We hope our new friends have enjoyed their first few days with us.
The new year is always a good time for reflection and the children have been talking about Christmas and what they have been doing over the holiday. We’ve discussed (and drawn) our favourite presents and have talked about our hopes and wishes for the year to come. We’ve also had lots of chats about the weather and have looked closely at what happens to water when it is left outside in cold temperatures (and then brought back inside again). We’ve also discovered that we can see our reflections in water when it is still.
We’re all very excited about the coming weeks and we’ll be sharing lots of photos of our learning. Here’s a taster of our first week back…
