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
English – Reading
Our class novel is The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton. Today, we read an extract taken from the book.
“Moon-Face’s house in the tree, was very peculiar.
It was one round room, and in the middle of it was
the beginning of the slippery-slip that ran down the
whole trunk of the tree, winding round and round
like a spiral staircase.Round the top of the slide was a curved bed,
a curved table, and two curved chairs,
made to fit the roundness of the tree trunk.
The children were astonished, and wished that they
had time to stay for a while.”
We used a dictionary to find out the meaning of some unfamiliar words – peculiar and astonished. We learnt that they are both adjectives.
We thought of some sentences of our own to include these words.
“My friend was acting peculiar.”
“Peculiar is a peculiar word.”
“I was astonished when I saw all the presents.”
“I was astonished when I saw a bee downstairs.”
After, we drew what we thought Moon Face’s house would look like based on the words from the text. Have a look at some of our ideas!
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
Leaf Man
Thank you so much for the leaf donation, they really helped with our learning, we have had great fun reading the story ‘Leaf Man’ by Lois Ehlert, in the book autumn has come, the wind is blowing and Leaf Man is on the move. No one is sure where he is going, but ‘A Leaf Man’s got to go where the wind blows.’ Our word of the week was ‘seasons’ we have talked about the four seasons winter, spring, summer and autumn. We have really enjoyed learning about the season of autumn, when the leaves fall from the trees, when some small animals like hedgehogs are looking for food to store and some animals begin to hibernate like a door mouse.
Phonics
This week the children have recapped all the phonemes (the sound a letter makes) we have covered so far this term. We have focused closely on our blending, the skill that helps us with our reading and our tricky words the, is and I. Keep up the great work everyone!
Poetry Picnic
Each week we will be learning a new poem. We will recite the poem each day. By saying the poem out loud we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line.
This week our poem was Five Little Pumpkins
Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate.
The first one said, ‘Oo, it’s getting late.’
The second one said, ‘There are witches in the air.’
The third one said, ‘Well I don’t care.’
The fourth one said, ‘Let’s run, run, run.’
The fifth one said, ‘Let’s have some fun.’
But oooh went the wind, and out went the light,
And five little pumpkins tumbled out of sight.
Maths
This week we have been helping our teddies out. Polly Penguin and Susan starfish has been arguing! We have helped them by using and repeating the sentences
…has more than…
…has fewer than…
Help at home phonics sheet
Today, your child has come home with a new ‘learn at home’ phonics sheet. The sheets link to all the phonemes we have covered this half term. Please support your child by practising these at home.
Help at home
We are continuing to develop our model making area as a ‘Waste Innovation’ area so the children can show off their creative side. Some have already explored this area and have been so proud to place them in the ‘Gallery’ for their friends to see and then bring home. Please can we ask you to kindly continue to send in any donations to make it a continued success. Donations of the following would be greatly appreciated,
- Small boxes
- cereal boxes,
- yoghurt pots,
- tubes (no toilet roll tubes please),
- bottles,
- bottle tops.
- old keys,
- beads (from broken necklaces),
- buttons,
- wool,
- corks
- Anything that the children might find interesting.
Next week our book of the week is Potion Commotion, please can we ask for donations of plastic bottles we are going to be making our own potions, hopefully without the commotion!
Reminders
We will be doing PE on Monday, so please send your child to school wearing their PE kit and trainers. They will stay in this all day.
Stay and Learn Sessions
This is an opportunity for you to come into school to find out about the Early Years Curriculum and watch your child Learning in school.
Maths- 15.11.23 2.20pm-3.00pm
Phonics Phase 3- 16.1.24 2.20pm-3.00pm
Early Writing- 05.02.24 2.20pm-3.00pm
World Book Day 07.03.24 -8.50am-9.20am
Learning Journey Drop In’s
An opportunity to “drop into” school and share your child’ learning journal with them.
Times- 8.45am-9.15am and 3.15pm-3.45pm (Tuesday and Thursday)
Week beginning 11.12.23
Week beginning 25.03.24
Week beginning 08.07.24
Don’t forget to email your pictures from home stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org thank you, have a lovely weekend!
Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon and Miss. Feldman
Maths: ordering numbers
This week, we have been comparing and ordered two digit numbers from the smallest to the greatest and from the greatest to the smallest and using the < (less than) and > (greater than) symbols.
Help at home: Choose 3 two digit numbers and order them.
Challenge: Can you add in the < (less than) and > (greater than) symbols?
Topic: Local walk to Sandringham Park
On Tuesday, we went to Sandringham Park to answer our fieldwork question.
What types of green spaces are in our locality and what are they used for?
How could they be improved?
We walked sensibly and safely to the park and when we arrived we thought about the following questions:
- Is there a playground?
- Are there places to sit down?
- How many rubbish bins can you see?
- Is there an area to walk dogs?
- How does the park keep people and animals safe?
- Why do you think the council want to change this green space?
- How did we stay safe during our fieldwork?
Help at home: Talk with your child about other green spaces in your local environment. What are they used for? Could they be improved?
Help at home with phonics
Please support your child to practise and reinforce the phonemes and graphemes we have been learning in our phonic sessions. More information and support can be found on the Little Wandle website – https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/
| Phonemes we focused on in school – | |||
| ai | ee | igh | oa |
| oo | ar | or | ur |
| oo | ow | oi | ear |
We have read and written these words. Add sound buttons.
| tail | feel | right | road |
| food | bar | born | surf |
| down | join | near | soap |
We have read and written these sentences. Can you spot any tricky words? Can you read these sentences fluently?
The toads feel so cool.
The boot on my right foot is too hard.
I can see foxes in the car lights.
We can go down to the town on the bus.
We have practised tricky words. Can you spot the tricky part of the word?
- no
- go
- so
- my
- by
- to
- into
- out
- the
We have spelt words. Can you write these words? Can you use the correct phonemes?
- right
- hard
- took
- hear
20.10.23
Please practise ready for a spelling quiz on Thursday 26 October 2023.
- are
- ask
- be
- by
- come
- do
- for
- friend
- full
- go
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
Geography – using grid references.
Geography – our year 3 and year 4 children have been learning how to use grid references using easting and northing coordinates. We were able to find places of interest on an Ordnance Survey map using a 4-figure grid reference. We looked in detail at OS maps of Harewood, Golden Acre Park, Ilkley and Wetherby – it was lovely to hear some of the children’s stories from when they have visited some of these places.
Help at home – Ask your child about easting and northing lines on an Ordnance Survey map – what do they tell us, and which is vertical and which is horizontal? Can they remember the rule we use when finding a grid reference? Which other subjects would we need to use grid references?