Gobble, gobble, munch, munch, SCRUNCH!
We’ve been busy as usual in nursery over the last two weeks. We’ve been getting our stomp on!
Over the last two weeks our focus story was ‘Dinosaur Roar‘ by Paul Strickland. The children enjoyed exploring our dinosaur swamp, creating dinosaur skeletons and retelling the story through simple pretend play using vocabulary and key phrases from the story.
My favourite was Dinosaur grumpy, I really enjoyed been able to show the children my grumpy face and voice! Which one did you like?
Forest School
Some of our children have had the opportunity to attend forest sessions with Børn of the Forest. A place where they can explore, create and imagine within the natural world. We’ve made Stickman, dinosaurs and even helped care for our forest by litter picking. We also checked up on our hedgehog house and it looks like its made a nice little home for some very lucky hedgehogs.
This week sound/s was: ‘g’ for Goat ‘o’ for Octopus
Rhyme of the week: Row Row Row your boat and Ring ‘o’ ring ‘o’ roses
Help at Home: How many nursery rhymes do you know? Sing your favourite with your grown ups and make up your own actions. Singing nursery rhymes supports children with their listening and communication skills to prepare them for reading and writing as they get older.
Notice:
We are running low on spare clothes. Early years would really appreciate if you would be able to donate any of the following items that you no longer need;
- pants (3-4 and 5-6)
- socks
- joggers
We hope you have a lovely weekend, here is a clue for next week’s learning. I wonder what it could be?
Miss Ward and Miss Harvey
Happy New Year!
Welcome back everyone and a Happy New Year too you all!
We’ve been busy as usual in nursery over the last two weeks. we’ve welcomed some new friends who have all settled in really well! Our older children have been fantastic in helping our new friends around our nursery classroom, showing them where everything is and making them feel apart of our nursery family.
Over the last two weeks our focus stories have been based on traditional tales, The Gingerbread Man and Little Red Riding Hood. The children enjoyed exploring our themed tuff tray’s and have been retelling the story through simple pretend play using vocabulary and key phrases from the story.
Brrrrr it’s cold!
It’s also been very cold this week and lots of our resources got stuck in the ice. The children looked for ways to help get them out. The children used senses in hands on exploration and talked about the changes they noticed.
How to keep our bodies safe and healthy!
This week Dave came to visit school from D-side. He spoke to the children about different feelings we might experience in new situations. How to keep our bodies healthy and how to stay safe with medicine.
It’s OK because our parents are there and its not scary- Mia (Visiting the dentist)
Grandma helps me when I went to the hospital. She keeps it up high in the cupboard (medicine)- Ella M
Apples are healthy and milk – Immy
I like watermelon – Louie
We can drink water and juice as well, but not fizzy pop – Charlie
This week sound was: ‘D’ for Duck
Rhyme of the week: Grand old Duke of York
Help at Home: Here are the sounds we have looked at so far s,a,t,p,i,n,m,d: how many objects can you find around your house beginning with these sounds?
Notice:
Just a gentle reminder to ensure your child has a warm coat, hat and gloves for outside. We go outside in all weathers! Please feel free to pack some extra layers for those exceptionally cold days! and please don’t forget to label everything with your child’s name as sometimes hats like to hide around school…
We hope you have a lovely weekend, as we will be stomping into the week ahead!
Miss Ward and Miss Harvey
Merry Christmas!
We’ve had a really busy couple of weeks here in nursery and it’s been lots of fun. From Stick-man to The Nativity Story, we’ve really got into the Christmas spirit.
Thank you to all out grown-up’s who attended our ‘stay and decorate’ session. The children loved it and it was really nice to share the experience with our nursery family.
Our Nativity- Wriggly Nativity, was a HUGE success! We have all thoroughly enjoyed the many rehearsals and laughs along the way. We hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did and that you won’t be singing them in your sleep for too long! Thank you for your donations towards your child’s Nativity photo, the monies raised will go towards some extra resources for our classroom.
Here is a round up of our learning over the last few weeks …
We hope you all have a lovely Christmas and a well rested break!
We look forward to seeing you all in the New Year when we return (Monday 08 January)
Here’s to 2024!
Miss Ward and Miss Harvey
Forest Forage
This week the children took inspiration from our focus story- Hodge the Hedgehog! We decided to build our own hedgehog house to take into the forest, we have noticed that the hedgehogs have been taking residence near the holly bush. We did some research to see what would make a comfortable and cosy home for a hedgehog and here’s what we got up to …
I wonder..
The children have been noticing recently that some pine cones are spiky and some are smooth. So we did an experiment!
Why do pine cones close their scales in water?
predictions…
because they don’t like getting wet
it’s their coat
so it doesn’t get full of water
The answer is…
To protect their seeds from freezing temperatures and hungry animals!
Help at Home:
Have a go at your own pine cone experiment. What happens to the pine cone in water? What do you think will happen when it dries?
Send us some pictures of your experiment to share in nursery to stjamesnursery@spherefederation.org
What’s happening next week?
Focus story– Whatever Next by Jill Murphy
Nursery rhyme of the week – 1,2,3,4,5 once I caught a fish alive
Sound of the week – I for Iguana
Parent Consultations:
Tuesday 28 November 3:30-6:00pm
Thank you to those who have booked an appointment. We can’t wait to share your child’s progress with you. It’s still not to late to book if you would like one, there is a booking form in nursery if you wish to come.
Have a happy and healthy weekend!
Miss Ward and Miss Harvey
The festival of light
This week we explored the Hindu festival of light known as Diwali. The children got busy making their own Diva lamp, Menhdi patterns and using natural resources such as pumpkin seeds to create Rangoli.
It has also been World Nursery Rhyme Week!
This is a great way for the children to develop their listening and attention skills that will support them into becoming confident readers throughout school.
Here are some of the rhymes that we’re learning to sing:
- Wind the Bobbin Up
- Baa Baa Black Sheep
- Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
- Incy Wincy Spider
- Hickory Dickory Dock
Help at home: Listen to these Nursery rhymes and sing them together at home. Does your child have a favourite rhyme? Can you think of anymore? Let us know or send us an e-mail/video to stjamesnursery@spherefederation.org
We’ve also been having lots of fun in our PE sessions recently. We’ve been exploring different ways of moving our bodies.
Like a Snake- Mia
Like my Puppy- Charlie
I can do a Caterpillar – Louie
What’s happening next week?
Focus story– Hovis the Hedgehog
Nursery rhyme of the week – I’m a little teapot
Sound of the week – P for Penguin
Parent Consultations
This week you will receive an email to book an appointment to discuss how your child has settled into nursery and their learning, plus an opportunity for you to ask any questions or raise any concerns.
Have a happy and healthy weekend!
Miss Ward and Miss Harvey
Remember, remember the fifth of November
This week in nursery the children were very excited to talk about bonfire night and the fireworks they saw. We created our own fireworks pictures using wax crayons and black paint, we then scraped marks into the paint to reveal the bright colours underneath.
We also remembered those who served in the war. The children explored our remembrance themed tuff tray, through the poppy fields – we even tried on some war helmets, they were really heavy!
As part of our phonics learning, we’ve introduced the letter ‘s’ this week. At this point in Nursery, children are learning to HEAR the sounds in words. We took turns to pull some objects out of a bag that all started with the letter ‘s’. There was… a snake, sock, spoon, and even a sausage! We talked about the ‘s’ sound that we could hear at the start of each word. In Nursery, we focus on our listening skills. We’re not learning about letter formation just yet, that will come later in your child’s phonics journey.
Here is a link to a video to show you how we pronounce the letter sounds that we will be learning over the next half term. (The video is to help show how to pronounce each letter clearly, using the pure sound. Children don’t need to be able to recognise the grapheme (letter) yet, although they might begin to.)
Help at home: What can you find at home that begins with the letter ‘s’? Go on a sound hunt together and look for some…. ssssssocks, ssssssslippers, sssssssoap. We often exaggerate the sound at the beginning of the word when we’re first learning to listen for initial sounds and then we repeat the word afterwards, saying it as it should be. Sssssocks, socks.
What’s happening next week?
- It’s ‘Odd Socks Day‘ on Monday so your child might like to wear odd socks for the day to celebrate what makes us all unique and spread kindness!
- Friday is a non-uniform day as we’ll be taking part in some spotty Children in Need fun!
- It’s been much colder outside this week and some children have been a bit chilly whilst playing outside. As we spend lots of time in our outdoor area, please make sure that your child has a warm coat, a hat and some gloves to wear. Don’t forget to add names!
Nursery rhyme of the week – We’ll be singing lots of popular rhymes as it’s World Nursery Rhyme week! If you’d like to send us an email with your child’s favourite rhyme and we’ll try to sing it at Nursery next week.
Sound of the week – T for tiger and teapot!
Have a happy and healthy weekend!
Miss Ward and Miss Harvey
What is the weather doing today?
The children have been busy thinking about all the different types of weather we may experience. We used our weather window to check what kind of clothing we needed to wear to go to the forest.
We need wellies because its been raining – Ella
It’s very foggy outside, I can’t see the rain- Charlie
I need my coat and my hat and gloves Miss Ward- Savannah
We chose a non-fiction book to look at some pictures and discuss what season why might be in based on what we could see in the forest. We looked at how we could tell when the weather was windy. The children noticed the leaves blowing, so we introduced them to a wind chime. We made our own wind chime for our outdoor area, practicing our fine motor skills by threading natural and recycled objects from around nursery.
Help at home: Could you make your own wind chime? find some natural/recycled items from around the house such as bottle tops, paper clips, pine cones- anything! This well help develop your child’s fine motor skills, strengthening those muscles which supports early writing. Send in a photo of your finished wind chime to our nursery email to share with your friends!
Email: stjamesnursery@spherefederation.org
You may of also noticed your child singing a song about a big red combine harvester!
Whilst the older children visited Church for their harvest celebration, we learnt our own harvest song. Here is the link below for you to share with your child at home.
Don’t forget the actions!
Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: Go to the settings cog (it’s 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.
It has been a lovely first half term! We hope you have a happy, healthy and well rested break.
Miss Ward and Miss Harvey
Ready, set, bake!
We’ve been cooking up a storm in our St.James kitchen!
The children followed a recipe to make their own Hedgehog bread. We observed the process of how the ingredient yeast can make the dough rise. We covered our dough to keep it warm and waited to see how big it would grow. We then shaped the dough into hedgehogs and used raisins to make their eyes.
This weeks story we have been reading was ‘ The room on the broom’ by Julia Donaldson. A definite favourite across nursery these week! We’ve been potion making and re-telling the story using props. We’ve also been exploring pumpkins, their shape, colour, texture and even taste!
In case you’re wondering it was delicious! The children said it tasted sweet and it was yummy.
WC 23.10.23
We will be making our own wind chimes this week whilst we are exploring weather and seasons. If anybody has any spare ‘bits and bobs’ they no longer want/need we would really appreciate them in nursery.
- dried pasta
- bottle tops
- buttons
- nuts/bolts
- beads
- cd’s
- wool/thread
- bottles
- tubes (no toilet rolls)
Notice
The rest of school will be having their parent teacher consultations this week. Nursery won’t be joining this one as ours is later on in the year, when the children have had more time to settle.
Have a happy and healthy weekend, hopefully the storm will of passed!
Miss Ward and Miss Harvey
Reading: Tom Palmer
This year, some children at school attended an online workshop with author Tom Palmer. Tom Palmer has been in touch to let us know about some local events he is attending in half term.
Message from Tom
For children and families – I am also coming to Leeds on Thursday 2 November 2023 :
* Farsley Book Festival – 10am-11am more here
https://trumanbooks.co.uk/event/flf-kids-day
* Chapel Allerton Library – 2pm
* Pudsey Community Hub and Library – 4pm
A forest, a dark gloomy forest…
We took a visit to the forest this week in search of a bear!
Our focus story for the next 2 weeks is ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’ by Michael Rosen. The children having really enjoyed how engaging this story is, using repeated refrains throughout the book. We particularly enjoyed being able to join in with Michael Rosen himself re-telling the story.
Help at home: Enjoy reading ‘we’re going on a bear hunt’ at home and see what else you might find on your journey. What else could you see in the forest? What sounds might you hear? If you don’t have access to this book at home here is the re-aloud the children have enjoyed this week
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iou5LV9dRP0
(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 lovely weekend and we will see you next week for more bear hunt adventures!
Miss Ward