Oliver’s Fruit Salad
This week we have continued to learn about healthy eating and what we can do to keep our bodies healthy. Here’s what we have been up to …
We enjoyed making our own fruit salad. The children practised their cutting skills, chopping them up and popping it into the bowl. We added orange juice to mix it up and the children enjoyed eating it afterwards. We talked about how its important to brush our teeth twice a day to keep them clean. We also know that we need to visit the dentist to get them checked.
Help at Home: Can you make your own fruit salad? What fruits did you chop up?
This week sound/s was: ‘B’ Bear and ‘F’ for Flamingo
Rhyme of the week: 5 little ducks
Have a super weekend!
Miss Ward and Miss Harvey
We love to read and rhyme!
This week we celebrated World Book Day!
Thank you to those who came and shared this day with us. The children thoroughly enjoyed becoming their favourite book character and engaging in some nursery rhyme activities.
We’ve also been enjoying our weekly forest school sessions. This week we found lots of mini-beasts. We counted how many snails we found and made comparisons between the length of our worms.
Quick question! How do we know the difference between a Snail and a Slug?
This week’s focus story has been ‘Oliver’s Vegetables’ by Vivian French
What kind of vegetables did Grandpa grow in his garden?
Why couldn’t Oliver see the potatoes ?
Which vegetables would you like to try?
The children enjoyed being able to practice their chopping skills. We chopped up some fruit and vegetables to add texture and scent to our playdough.
Help at home: Would your child like to help you cut up some vegetables to make tea? What vegetables do you already know and what could we make with them. For example, we know that potatoes can be made into chips, mash and Jacket’s.
This week sound/s was: ‘H’ for helicopter
Rhyme of the week: I’m a little teapot
Have a super weekend everyone!
Miss Ward and Miss Harvey
On Monday he found a …
Bean!
This week we have started to notice the changes in the weather and that Spring is on the way!
Our focus story this week was Jasper’s Beanstalk, the children have really enjoyed this story, anticipating what might happen next, retelling what happens and exploring how Jasper is feeling.
Jasper found a bean on Monday and he planted it on Tuesday – Ella D
He waited a long time for it to grow, it made him feel sad because it wasn’t growing quick – Ella M
Snails have a shell and slugs don’t have a shell- Charlie
It’s really long- Elliott
There might be giants – Louie
He needs to climb to the top- Evie
As we approach our ‘growing’ season, we decided to plant our own beans to see how long it will take them to grow. Over the next few weeks we will observe, discuss and draw how our plants have changed. Exciting!
In maths, we’ve been learning about the number 3. We looked at 3 spots on a dice, 3 counters on a five frame and spotted that there were 3 corners and sides on a triangle.
Help at home: Have a look to see if you can find groups of three things around your home. Can you spot the number three on any house doors or number plates? We also liked watching this song all about the number 3.
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.
Next week, we’re learning about growing up and looking at how we change as we get older.
It would be great if we could look at some photographs of children when they were babies and toddlers. If you are able to, please send us an email with one photograph of your child as a baby and one photograph of them as a toddler. We’ll use these in group time and will also be adding them to our Home Corner family display.
Stjamesnursery@spherefederation.org
This week sound/s was: ‘U’ for Umbrella
Rhyme of the week: Baa Baa black sheep
Notice:
Born of the Forest has officially finished for Nursery- so a big thank you to Shaun! The children have enjoyed it so much we have decided to continue our own forest school sessions, these will now be on a Tuesday starting 27 February. Your child can come in their PE kit or some comfy clothes.
- joggers/jumper
- spare socks
- wellies
- waterproofs/puddle suit
You are more than welcome to leave these at school for the rest of term!
Have a super weekend!
Miss Ward and Miss Harvey
Year of the Dragon!
This week Nursery have been celebrating the upcoming festival- Lunar New Year!
This year is the year of the Dragon, the children wanted to make a really big Dragon for the classroom, so we got busy practicing our gross motor movements and fine motor skills. The combination of both help to support control and balance, preparing them for early writing.
We asked the children- ‘What is Lunar New year?’
They clean their houses to get rid of the dust- Savannah
Red means lucky – Ella M
It’s a big Dragon- Louie
They have lot’s of fireworks – Mia
We also tasted some traditional Oriental food. We had sweet and sour rice, vegetable spring rolls, and vegetable Bao Buns.
It’s really yummy, I didn’t think I would like it – Charlie
I like the buns, they were fluffy – Ella D
Forest School
We had an exciting time in forest school this week. We made a fire!
The children learnt the importance of not being left alone around a fire as it is hot and dangerous!
Help at home: What 3 things can you remember that you needed to make a fire? .. think about what Shaun needed to put into the fire-pit!
Of course when you have a fire, you have to toast some marshmallows!
This week sound/s was: ‘C’ for Cat ‘K’ for Kite. We know that both letters make the same sound.
Rhyme of the week: Jack and Jill went up the hill
We’ve had a fabulous first half-term, we welcomed some new faces and we’ve all made some new friends. We hope you have a lovely half-term break and we will see you on Monday 19 February.
Miss Ward and Miss Harvey
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