This week’s bible story
‘Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.’ (1 Corinthians 13.4-8)
In February, we celebrate Valentines Day. This was originally the day for the Church to celebrate or remember St Valentine, but over time, it has developed into a day to send cards, buy presents or flowers and celebrate love. What do you think love means?
Watch this video of Anna and Hans from Frozen. Anna and Hans have apparently fallen head over heels in love: love at first sight! Ask the children what love looks like to Anna and Hans. There is so much more to love than this. Love is something that we all experience, and in different ways: the love of parents or carers, of grandparents, siblings, friends . . . these are all different types of love, but they all give us a glimpse of what love is.
Reflection:
There is a passage in the Bible that tells us more about what love is like. It is a passage that is often read at weddings.
‘Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.’ (1 Corinthians 13.4-8)
This definition sets the bar pretty high! In truth, as human beings, we do boast and we aren’t always patient and kind. However, when we feel love, we get to experience the qualities in this definition, such as patience and kindness.
Christians believe that love is God’s gift to earth, so when Jesus came to earth and died on the cross, he did it to demonstrate this love.
How we can show this love to others. How can we be the people to demonstrate love in the world around us?
Prayer:
Dear God,
Thank you for your gift of love.
Please help us to show this love to other people.
Amen.
Merry Christmas!
What a fabulous end to our first term together at Nursery! The children have been a joy to be with since we started in September and we’ve all learned so much over the last 15 weeks. This week, we’ve had lots of fun with Christmas parties, Christmas games, Christmas scavenger hunts and lots of Christmas art. We’ve solved clues to discover Elvis the elf in lots of unexpected places and played rhyming games, shape games and exercised our fine motor skills. The sleigh we designed for Santa has been a huge success; however, we’re hoping he won’t need it as back-up on Christmas Eve as it’s in need of a service!
All of the Nursery staff wish you and your loved ones a very Merry Christmas. Keep safe and enjoy the festivities. We look forward to seeing you all in January.
Christmas Dinner
What an amazing Christmas dinner we have all had together. The kitchen staff have been beavering away so that we could enjoy our traditional turkey dinner with all the trimmings (plus vegetarian option!) 
We all enjoyed sharing a joke or fact from our Christmas crackers.
It was great to celebrate as a whole school family.
Some of our nursery children joined us too!
Key Stage 2 all made party hats to dazzle us with. You may even spot a few sporting a moustache.
So thank you to our amazing staff!
This week’s bible story
Perseverance despite circumstances: Daniel 6:1-28 (omit verse 24)
Read the story of Daniel (omit verse 24 for younger or sensitive children)
Daniel was captured, along with many more of God’s people, and taken to live in a foreign country. In this country, they had different traditions and customs and it was not acceptable to worship God. But Daniel chose to continue serving God. Even though it meant that he was risking death, Daniel knelt down and honoured God by praying three times a day.
When the king discovered that Daniel was breaking the law by praying to God, he had Daniel thrown into a den of hungry lions. God stood by Daniel and rewarded his unwavering commitment to righteousness by protecting him from being eaten by the lions.
Reflection:
Do you think Daniel was lazy, or a hard worker?
When Daniel found out that he would be thrown into a lion’s den if he continued to pray, what did he do?
Why do you think Daniel continued to kneel down to pray instead of praying quietly in his head so that others could not see that he was praying?
How did God reward Daniel’s perseverance?
Prayer:
Dear God,
We can often end up in situations when life feels hard or difficult or when we feel we are out on a limb compared to everyone else.
Help us to persevere when times are tough.
Amen
Wonderful stars!
What a starry week it has been here at Nursery! We’ve had lots of fun learning as we look forward to the Christmas holiday. At the beginning of the week, we had a dress rehearsal for our Christmas production in front of the rest of the school and the children were fantastic. The filming took place on Wednesday and it was a super performance. Congratulations to everyone involved.
We’ve been exercising our fine and gross motor skills this week in a variety of different ways: The children have really enjoyed wrapping parcels, making printing blocks and decorating trees. This afternoon, we started to make a sleigh for Santa which involved a lot of group work. First, we looked at some images of sleighs and then the children made a list of jobs they would have to do to make the sleigh. They were very organised and worked really well as a team – I think Santa will be incredibly impressed with his new vehicle. We’ve also looked again at creating repeating patterns, noticed 2D shapes in the environment around us and found lots of rhyming words. Next week is the final week of our first term together – hasn’t the time flown!
Wishing everyone a happy and safe week ahead.
Dates for your diary:
Wednesday, 15th Dec – Christmas dinner and Nursery Christmas party (pm).
Christmas Production 2021
Our Christmas Production 2021
Hump the camel
We are so proud of all the children for their FANTASTIC singing, acting and dancing. We hope you enjoy the Christmas production as much as we do!
This week’s bible story
The persistent widow: Luke 18:1-8
Have you ever used pester power to get what you want? When you keep on asking and asking and asking until the person relents and gives in? Jesus once told a story about pester power, but it didn’t feature a parent and a child. The two people in Jesus’ story were a judge and a widow. Read the story to find out what happened.
Reflection:
Have you ever pestered God? reflect on your own experiences of prayer. Were their prayers denied because of any of the reasons like in the story?
Even though some prayers appear not to work, Christians believe that God is always at work in their lives, although this may be hard to see.
Prayer:
Dear God,
Thank you for being a God who listens to our prayers.
Help us to keep praying to you even when it seems that our prayers are not being answered.
May we never forget that, like a loving parent, you only want what is best for us.
Amen
A chilly start to December
It’s been a really cold start to December but we’re beginning to look forward to Christmas at Nursery. Our Advent calendar is up and we’ve decorated the class Christmas tree with lights and baubles. Our focus book for this week has been ‘The Christmas Story’ and the children have enjoyed hearing about Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem. We’ve been very busy doing lots of learning and have made some repeating patterns using pom-pom baubles. We’ve also been writing Christmas cards, decorating stars and printing ‘fairy lights’ with corks. Our Home Corner is looking very festive with stockings hanging above the fireplace and the children have been serving Christmas lunch to each other. Santa has sent ‘Elvis the elf’ to keep an eye on things in the run-up to Christmas; unfortunately, he’s a bit naughty and he has been hiding things (including himself) in the classroom! Every day, the children have been solving clues to find where he is and to spot what has moved in our room. We’re all looking forward to being detectives again next week.
Dates for your diary:
Wednesday 08.12.21 Nativity performance recording. We will let you know when this will be available on the website for you to enjoy.
Wednesday 15.12.21 Christmas dinner for the whole school.
Wednesday 15.12.21 (pm) Christmas party (the children can wear non-uniform).
PLEASE REMEMBER THAT THE LAST DATE FOR APPLYING FOR A SCHOOL PLACE FOR YOUR CHILD IS: 15.01.22
This week’s bible story
Today, we are thinking about Hanukah which is a Jewish festival. Have you ever been made to do something you didn’t want to do? In fact, you hated doing it?
How do you think David Beckham would feel if he had to do ballet? Or your headteacher if he or she had to dress up as a banana?
How do you think a Christian would feel if someone said to them at a Christmas nativity service, ‘You can’t worship Jesus, you’ve got to pray to the donkey?’
This is a story about when a whole country had to do things they didn’t want to, and how they reacted to it.
Reflection:
Quiet thought: How can you bring light to people today?
Prayer:
Dear God,
Thank you that your light burns even longer than we hope for.
Help us to be light to others.
Amen.
A magical week!
Our two focus books for this week have been: ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and ‘The Magic Porridge Pot’. The children have really enjoyed listening to these stories and we have used them as inspiration for our learning. Today, we took a ‘magic carpet ride’ with our wands and pretended to fly over the tops of the houses in Wetherby. We took an imaginary trip to the seaside, talked about what we would see if we visited some penguins and listed all of the animals we could visit on a farm. The children are becoming incredibly good storytellers and they all enjoyed suggesting places we could fly to on our imaginary journey. Earlier in the week, we used the lightbox to create different colours by overlapping transparent shapes and we made paperclips dance using magnets. We’ve also done some magical maths where we compared the height and size of different objects. We hope that the magic beans we planted will grow into a beanstalk but, just in case, we have created some of our own!
Next week, we will start celebrating Advent and we will begin thinking about the Christmas story.
