Nursery News

All about transport!

Posted on Friday 24 June 2022 by Mrs Boulton

This week, we’ve been continuing with our theme ‘On the move’. The children have looked at maps, sorted different vehicles into the categories of ‘air’, ‘land’ or ‘sea’ and they’ve also described familiar routes around school. We’ve been junk-modelling cars and trains and drawing our own tracks, too. As the weather’s been so hot, we’ve spent lots of time outside conducting experiments. One was to find out how our small cars would cope with different sorts of weather conditions. We tried using foaming soap to represent snow drifts but enjoyed the foam so much that we ended up making impromptu pretend ‘ice creams’ with it! Who’d like some soil sprinkles on theirs?

Last week, we harvested our first crop of broad beans. On Monday, after the beans had been cooked, the children had the opportunity to taste their own vegetables. Some children were not very keen to try them; however, others really enjoyed them (and some even asked for a second helping).

The children have also been looking very closely at their faces using mirrors. We spent a long time talking about all the details we could see, thinking about our eye and hair colour and what shapes our heads are.  After these discussions, the children drew some fabulous self-portraits in pencil.

In phonics, we’ve been continuing to think about initial sounds. We’ve also played lots of games to help us identify the different sounds (phonemes) which make up simple words. Metal Mickey, our class robot, has been eating all sorts of strange things for his dinner including a ‘h-a-t’, ‘c-a-n’ and ‘p-e-n’.  In maths, we’ve been using positional language (such as ‘under’, ‘beside’, ‘behind’) and have also tried to describe a route to our friends. Next week, we’ll be talking about capacity and we’ll be using the words ‘full’, ‘half-full’ and ’empty’ in our learning.

Please remember to name all of your child’s belongings. The current heatwave means that we have lots of discarded jumpers, cardigans and other items to send home at the end of the day.

   

     

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

     

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

 

 

This week’s bible story

Posted on Monday 20 June 2022 by Mr Roundtree

Adam and Eve: Genesis 2.15—3.14

Do you know the names of the very first people in the Bible: Adam and Eve. In Hebrew (the language the story was written in) names tell you about who the person is, what they’re like. The names Adam and Eve mean ‘the first people ever’.

In the story God made a special garden for Adam and Eve to live in, and we know from the Bible that it was set in modern day Iran, next to Iraq in the Middle East.

Adam and Eve had been told that they could eat anything they wanted, except the tree that grew in the middle of the garden, which was called ‘the tree of the knowledge of good and evil’. What do you think that name means?

Read the story of Adam and Eve

What do you do when you know you’ve done something wrong? What is the best thing to do when you’ve done something wrong?

In the story, God sent Adam and Eve away, out of the lovely garden, and they learned to be farmers, to grow their own food, and to work on the land.

But what might have happened if they’d been honest and owned up (’fessed up!); if they’d taken responsibility for their actions instead of blaming someone else? We don’t know. Perhaps we’d still all live in that garden, not having to work …

But this story is still told as an example of how, when we aren’t honest, it affects many more people than just us. We don’t know what might have happened in the story if Adam and Eve had been honest. But we can be honest about ourselves, and then we know that whatever we’ve done, it’s easier to make it right again if we take the blame, apologize and acknowledge our part.

 

Reflection

Think for a few moments about the story of Adam and Eve:

how they did what they knew was wrong;

how they blamed someone else for what they’d done;

and how often we do that too.

 

Prayer

Dear God,

Help us to be honest when we do something wrong.

Help us not to blame other people, but acknowledge our mistakes,

and apologize and so learn and move on.

Amen.

Lots of writing!

Posted on Friday 17 June 2022 by Mrs Boulton

We’ve been continuing to talk about different types of transport this week and lots of the children have told us which vehicles they’ve travelled on and where they’ve been to. We’ve looked at plane, train and bus tickets and have been writing our own in the mark-making area. The children have also been thinking about what happens during their day and have been making (and taking) their own registers and planning what they are going to do at nursery. Outside, we’ve been parking the vehicles in numbered bays and designing new petrol pumps. There has been lots of outdoor printmaking, too, and the children have experimented with rolling vehicles down our wooden hill to make tyre-track patterns.

As it’s been extremely hot this week, we’ve had fruit and milk time under the trees for a couple of days to try to keep cool out of the sun. Our beanstalks have started to bulge under the weight of the beans so we harvested our first crop on Friday and, after Mrs Boulton has cooked them, the children can have a taste of their own home-grown food.

The weather looks like it will continue to be warm so please make sure your child brings a NAMED hat and a NAMED water bottle to nursery. Also, it would be great if you can apply sunscreen to your child before they come to nursery in the morning. Any sunscreen brought into school should also be named. Thank you.

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

 

 

Lots of learning

Posted on Friday 10 June 2022 by Mrs Boulton

It’s been great to be back at nursery this week. Our new theme is: ‘On the move’ and we’ve been thinking about different types of transport. Some of the children have been making cars and trains from different shaped blocks and bricks and we’ve also had some transport-related number games in our areas of provision both inside and outside. As the last couple of days have been very summery, we’ve taken advantage of the warm weather and have been outside using water to help us learn about letter and number formation and 2D shapes. The children have been making chalked letters and numbers ‘disappear’ by spraying them and painting over them with water. This is an activity you could try at home as it’s good for the development of gross and fine-motor skills. (*For safety reasons, please remember not to re-use bottles which have previously contained cleaning products or chemicals. Cheap spray bottles, which are a different shape and colour to those which contain cleaning products, can be purchased from the gardening section of a well-known budget retailer.)

In phonics, we’ve been segmenting one syllable words like ‘cat’ and ‘dog’ to help us recognise the individual sounds within them. We’ve also been continuing to identify the initial sound in words and have been grouping the sounds together. In our maths sessions, we’ve been talking about ‘our day’ and what we do between getting up and going to bed each day.

Our beanstalks are getting taller (almost as tall as the children) and the beans will be ready to pick and sample soon, as will our coriander. Hopefully, the warm weather will continue next week and we’ll be able to spend lots of time learning outside. With this in mind, please remember to send your child to school with a named hat and a named water bottle.

   

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

   

 

 

 

 

 

This week’s bible story

Posted on Monday 06 June 2022 by Mr Roundtree

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. Zacchaeus 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. Even though Burglar Bill and Zacchaeus made the wrong choice, God forgave them and continued loving them.

 

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 and be honest about our actions.

Amen

Our school community working together to commemorate the Queen’s Jubilee.

Posted on Friday 27 May 2022 by Mrs Freeman

As part of a Wetherby community group, our school has entered a Jubilee craft cake  for the Royal Church and Community Fete and Queen’s Jubilee Cake Festival at St James’ Church, Wetherby.

The whole school contributed to this creation and they all thoroughly enjoyed making it.

 

Reception – Beefeaters

Year 1/2 – stamp rubbings and crowns

Year 3 – clay corgi dogs

Year 4 – clay postage stamps

Year 5/6 – Hama Beads flags

We are all very proud to have been part of this and if you would like to attend the festival, it takes place on Friday 3rd June, 10am till 2pm at St. James Church in Wetherby.

Beautiful butterflies and joyful Jubilee!

Posted on Friday 27 May 2022 by Mrs Boulton

Wow! We’ve had a wonderful week, here at nursery. We’ve been celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and hoping our butterflies would come out of their chrysalises. At the beginning of the week we learned all about the Queen’s transport and looked at some of her special carriages. Then, we looked at some of her crowns and special jewels and, finally, we looked at some of her palaces around the UK. The children also had a look at the Union Jack flag and talked about the colours they could see. On Thursday morning, we had a little nursery tea party together and, in the afternoon, the children had a chance to make their own special crowns ready for the big Platinum Jubilee party on Friday.

All week, we have been wondering when the butterflies would emerge from their chrysalises and, on Wednesday, the first one appeared inside the special net cage. By Friday, all of them were flapping happily around the cage and we were very excited to be able to release them into the wild. We took them outside and opened the zip but the change in temperature and the windy conditions meant that the butterflies were reluctant to leave their safe environment. We decided that the best thing to do was to leave them outside and wait until the afternoon for another try.

The big party went really well and we were first on stage to perform our special dance which we had been practising. The children were fantastic and they were helped by some of our wonderful Year 6 friends. So, we send a big thank you to them. It was lovely to watch everyone else’s performances and we really enjoyed our special party lunch.

In the afternoon, we went outside again and found that the butterflies were ready to leave their home. One-by-one, they flew away until the last one was alone. It took a while for this little butterfly to fly out of the cage and it rested on the ground immediately. We all wondered why this had happened… The children decided that it might be tired or hungry so they all gathered daisies to help it to recover. We watched the butterfly feed and, after a while, it had the strength to fly away. It was a magical end to a magical day!

Please take a look at our fantastic photos from this week and we all wish you a very happy Platinum Jubilee weekend.

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

     

 

   

  

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

This week’s bible story

Posted on Monday 23 May 2022 by Mr Roundtree

Jesus Gives Us Peace: John 14:27–31

 

In John 14, Jesus is talking to His disciples shortly before He is crucified. He knows they will be scared, but He promises them a spirit of peace. Even though He will leave them, He promises them “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you . . . Do not let your hearts be troubled.”

He doesn’t promise His disciples a peaceful, easy life when they will always relax and never experience conflict or fear. But He does promise that ultimately, they will live together again in peace when Jesus returns. That means that no matter what they face, the disciples’ future is secure because of Jesus. This gives them true peace, not a peace based on their situation. We can share in that same peace when we believe in Jesus!

 

Memory Verse: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. John 14:27

 

Prayer:

Dear God,

Help us to remember that you are always there for us. Help us to feel the peace that you have given us when we are in times of uncertainty.

Amen

Finding shapes

Posted on Friday 20 May 2022 by Mrs Boulton

This week, our maths focus has been to understand and describe the properties of 2D shapes. We started off the week by looking at circles, squares, triangles and rectangles and talked about their similarities and differences. The children went on a shape hunt in the outside area and also created 2D shapes from sticks. These activities helped them to gain better understanding of ‘sides’, ‘corners’, ‘edges’ and ‘curves’ and use this vocabulary in their discussions. Lots of the children have been able to  identify 2D shapes in real life and have realised that these shapes can be found in their lunches. One of the children told us that their sandwich was a rectangle  and another exclaimed: “A fish finger is a rectangle shape, too!”

Our class caterpillars have all become chrysalises and we are keeping a close eye on them every day to see what happens next… We have been making more art inspired by our focus book: The Very Hungry Caterpillar and have even been creating our own painted papers in the style of Eric Carle. We have also looked at symmetry this week and used a mirror to understand the concept of both sides being identical.

Next week, we will be doing lots of Jubilee-inspired activities to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. We hope to have lots of fun while we learn.

Things to remember:

  • Please bring a named water bottle and hat for your child as the weather is getting warmer.
  • Please name all items of clothing as we have lots of cardigans and jumpers to return to their owners at the end of a warm day.

Dates for your diary:

  • Thursday 26 May – Jubilee Coffee Morning from 9.15am (please bring your child into nursery as normal at 9am). Further details to follow…
  • Friday 27 May – Jubilee Celebration Lunch. Please dress your child in red, white or blue.

   

   

   

   

   

     

   

   

   

     

   

This week’s bible story

Posted on Monday 16 May 2022 by Mr Roundtree

Jesus in the temple: Matthew 21:12-13

 

Have ever been really angry? Is there a difference between being angry because we can’t get our own way and being angry because something really isn’t right or fair? Can they think of a story when Jesus was angry?

The following story probably happened during the week leading up to Easter. Jesus had just entered Jerusalem on a donkey. Crowds of people came to see him and cheered him as a hero. Many powerful people were worried about how popular Jesus had become and some didn’t like his teaching.

The Temple in Jerusalem was a place of pilgrimage, especially at the time of the Passover. People would bring offerings, often of animals, as symbols of thanksgiving or of sorrow for past sins. These animals could be bought at the entrance to the Temple. It seems likely that the people who sold the animals, the money-lenders or merchants of the story, were charging too much and cheating the poor. Jesus may have heard about this, although that is not recorded in the Gospels. listen carefully to the story and think about the following:

How they think Jesus is feeling.
What Jesus does.
What he says.

Read the story of Jesus in the temple.

 

Reflection:

How do you think Jesus was feeling?
What did he do?

What did he say?

Was Jesus putting himself in danger by expressing his anger? are surprised to hear a story in which Jesus expresses anger. Why do they think he was angry? Are there times when it is right to show we are angry? Is it right to be angry about injustice or unfairness? What was Jesus trying to change by his anger?

Think about a time when you have been angry. Was it right to be angry?

 

Prayer:

God of all creation,
Help us as we try to understand all our feelings.
Help us to recognize when we are angry
and to see when things we do or say make other people angry.
Help us to see the difference between anger that is selfish
and anger that seeks justice for others or ourselves.
Help us to choose our actions with care, courage and love.
Amen.