Autumn time and hunting for bears!
This week, we’ve talked about autumn and some of the changes that we’re beginning to see all around us. Please help to consolidate this learning at home by looking for changes as you go out for a walk or on your journey to Nursery. What’s happening to the leaves on the trees? What are the farmers doing in the fields?
In maths, we’re learning to sort objects in different ways (such as by type, colour or size). During group time, we sorted our autumn treasure into different groups including conkers, pine cones, sticks and leaves. We also noticed that the pine cones were different sizes. We sorted them into a pile of big pine cones and little pine cones. Some children noticed a “medium” sized pine cone that didn’t fit into either group!
What can you find to sort at home? You might have some toy cars that you could sort into colours or a tub of buttons that are different sizes.
Children have shown an interest in the popular book, “We’re going on a Bear Hunt”. Listen to the author, Michael Rosen, telling the story here – we love watching it!
We enjoyed retelling the story with our friends using props and we also took advantage of the sunny weather and went on our own bear hunt out side. We walked through the swishy swashy grass, tiptoed through the forest and we even stepped in some squelchy mud and cold snow!
If you haven’t already, please remember to return your ‘autumn treasure’ bags next week. We’re going to learn about Andy Goldsworthy and look at some of his art work; you’ll soon see why we needed lots of autumn treasure!
I’ll huff and I’ll puff…
Have you read the story of ‘The Three Little Pigs’ recently? Children have loved listening to the story this week and re-telling it with their friends using the story props.
If you have a copy at home, read it with your child and see if they can join in with some of the repeated refrains in the story. If you don’t have the book, see what you can remember and have a go at re-telling the story together. There are lots of versions on-line if you need a reminder. What are the main events in the story? Remember to include some important story language as you tell the story.
- Once upon a time…
- “Little pig, little pig, let me come in!”
- “Not by the hairs on my chinny, chin chin…”
- “I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down!”
In the Sunshine room, our new construction small world area has been extremely popular. We’d like to say a huge ‘Thank you’ to Miss Backhouse, who gifted the construction toys to Nursery in summer on her retirement.
Outside, children have enjoyed mark making on the floor in the rain using paints and they continue to show their interest in construction, fixing the climbing frame and building towers.
We’ve also enjoyed cycling, singing along to the Lion King and balancing on wobble boards.
Whilst digging in the planters, children were very surprised to find some unexpected treasure. They discovered some potatoes hiding, waiting to be dug up and eaten. We also harvested some weird and wonderful shaped carrots! Children helped to wash and prepare the vegetables for snack time. Everyone enjoyed tasting them with their toast on Thursday afternoon, fresh from the garden. They were delicious!
Family photos
Thank you to everyone who has e-mailed a family photo. They’re displayed in our home corner. If you haven’t had a chance yet, don’t worry, please send it in this week.
Autumn
Next week, we’ll learn about autumn. We’ve already seen some bulging pockets full of conkers that children have enjoyed collecting! Watch out for a little brown bag coming home with your child soon. We’d love you to collect some autumn treasure and return it to Nursery for children to talk about with their friends. You could also e-mail a photo of you collecting things on your walk and let us know any words your child uses to describe what they find. scholesnursery@spherefederation.org
Getting to know you
This week, we’ve continued with the very important job of helping children to settle into Nursery. They’re already becoming more familiar with our routines and are beginning to get to know each other. In fact, we’re so impressed with how well children have settled, we’ll begin short Key Person group times next week.
As we’ve been getting to know everyone, we’ve been talking about our families. To encourage children to tell us more about their family life, please e-mail or bring a photograph of your child with their family to Nursery next week. These will be displayed in our home corner for children to look at and talk about with staff and their friends. scholesf1@spherefederation.org
Here are a few snaps from this week. As you can see, we’ve enjoyed building, drawing, painting, printing, creating patterns and lots more!
Reminders
- If you haven’t shown us proof of your child’s D.O.B yet, please bring it to Nursery or email us a copy.
- Is your child’s water bottle named? We still have lots of water bottles that don’t have names on and it’s very hard to give them out when there are up to 30 bottles and many duplicates. Please make sure it is labelled clearly with their name.
- More names… There are lots of cardigans, jumpers and coats that don’t have names on. Again, please make sure that you check and use a marker pen to quickly write a name on the care label. Thank you for supporting us with this – it results in much less lost property.
Help your child at home – recent workshops
Thank you to everyone who has attended our recent Zoom sessions to help you support your child at home. Watch the phonics session and the Early Years introduction.
Exploring Nursery
What a busy week! It was lovely to see our older children return to Nursery on Monday and hear all about their holiday adventures. They all settled back into Nursery brilliantly and were quick to notice the changes that we’ve made to the Rainbow and Sunshine Rooms.
We also welcomed our new children to Nursery for their first sessions this week. There were lots of happy faces and just a few wobbles! Try not to worry too much if your child has a little wobble or struggles to say goodbye in the morning. We often find that a quick hug, a big smile and waving good bye works best and children usually settle very quickly once you’ve gone. We will always give you a call if your child continues to be upset, so if you don’t hear from us, you can presume that your child is happy and busy playing!
Children have loved exploring their new environments, both inside and out. The climbing frame, sand and dinosaurs have been very popular in the garden and inside, children have enjoyed scooping water beads, rolling out the dough, cooking in the home corner and painting at the easel.
Over the next few weeks, we will continue helping children to settle in and become familiar with our routines.
Reminders
- Please make sure your child has a spare pair of wellies and a full change of clothes to leave at Nursery.
- Remember to bring a NAMED water bottle every day.
- Help your child to become more independent by… choosing shoes with Velcro fastenings (not buckles or laces) and ensuring that trousers are elasticated and can be pulled up/down easily when toileting.
Welcome to Nursery!
It’s been lovely to meet all of our new children and their families this week and we can’t wait to get to know you all during our transition sessions.
Who’s who?
We’re very lucky to have an experienced, enthusiastic and very friendly team in Nursery. Here’s a quick reminder of who is who!
Left to right – Mrs Beesley, Mrs Long, Miss Morris, Mrs Crompton, Miss Miller and Mrs Gosper.
Mrs Beesley (EYFS Leader, Nursery teacher) teaches in Nursery on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Mrs Long (Nursery teacher) teaches in Nursery on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Mrs Beesley and Mrs Long share the Key Person role for Red group children.
Mrs Gosper (Blue group) and Mrs Crompton (Green group) support teaching and learning in Nursery everyday.
Miss Morris enjoys playing in Nursery every morning and lunchtime. Miss Miller joins us at lunch time and stays for the afternoon. They are Yellow group’s Key People.
We are also supported at lunch times by Mrs Butler and Mrs Quinn.
Stay and play visits
Please come to the main Nursery door (all colour groups) and you will be signed in on your arrival. Remember to wear a face covering (unless exempt) and sanitise your hands as you enter.
Reminder – please email or bring passports/birth certificates if we didn’t see them when we visited you this week.
Nursery dropping off/collection
To ease congestion in the morning, we’ve decided to trial having two entrances to Nursery open for registration.
- Red and Yellow group – Please wait to be greeted and registered at the main Nursery blue door.
- Green and Blue group – Please walk down the side of Nursery and through the playground to the Sunshine Room door where Mrs Gosper or Mrs Crompton will greet you.
At the end of the day, ALL children will leave from the main Nursery door. Please be patient as we get to know parents and carers. We will dismiss children one by one and may ask for passwords until we become more familiar with everyone.
To ease congestion at the end of the day, children may be collected up to 10 minutes before the end of our session (see below for times).
Nursery session times
Monday 9.00am – 2.15pm (Collection from 2.05pm onwards)
Tuesday-Friday 9.00am – 3.15pm (Collection from 3.05pm onwards)
Morning session 9.00am – 12.00pm
*Please ensure that you collect your child promptly at the end of the session.
Nursery – Let’s play!
We’ve been very busy getting our Rainbow Room and garden ready for you all. We’ve tried to make sure that there’s something for everyone to enjoy – including some of your favourite things that you told us about when we visited you this week.
We’ve got Paw Patrol, fairies, dinosaurs, The Gruffalo and our bikes ready for you to come and play. See you soon!
Lunch menus
Here is a link to the lunch menus for next term; they’re on a 3 week cycle. If your child would like to have a school lunch, let Nursery staff know your choice at registration each morning.
It’s nearly time…
We’ve had a super summer and we’re looking forward to another fun filled year in Nursery. Hopefully, you’ve all had lots of adventures too; we can’t wait to find out about them.
If you are one of our older children and are returning to Nursery, you’ll have received a letter before the holidays to about your first two days. Remember, we’re on home visits during the first week so we’ll have to wait until Monday 13 September until we see your happy faces again! Please refer to your letter for further details.
On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (07-09 September) the Nursery team will be out and about to say hello to all of our new children and their families for their ‘door-step’ Home visit. Fingers crossed the weather will be kind to us but we’ll have an umbrella with us, just in case! During this short visit, we’ll introduce ourselves and answer any questions that you may have. Your child’s individual transition into Nursery (which included a Home Visit date, ‘Stay and Play’ details and their first session date) was outlined in your transition letter that you received in July. Please get in touch with us as soon as possible if you have any queries. Our Nursery email is scholesf1@spherefederation.org
What does my child need?
- A waterproof coat (NAMED)
- A pair of wellies (NAMED)
- A water bottle (NAMED)
- A drawstring bag containing a full change of clothes (including a top, trousers/leggings, underwear and socks – ALL NAMED)
- A sun hat on sunny days (NAMED)
In case you missed it above, you must NAME all items that your child brings to Nursery! You don’t need to get special name labels, a simple marker pen (e.g. Sharpie) in the care label is fine! It is very hard to return missing items to their owners when they’re not named.
Next week, we’ll also be busy preparing Nursery for you to come and play. Keep checking our News page and we’ll post some photos for you as soon as we’re ready.
See you soon!
Happy Holidays!
What a busy two weeks! We’ve had so much fun, playing in the sunshine, visiting the farm, joining in Sport’s Day races on the field and dancing at our ‘Under the Sea’ party. We’ve put together a short video for you to watch of our last few weeks in Nursery.
Nursery Video – End of term fun!
Thank you for all of your kind words, cards and gifts this week. We hope that you all have a great Summer holiday and we’ll look forward to seeing some of you in Nursery in September and some of you, next door in Reception! We’d also like to say good bye to those children that are moving to other schools – we hope that you love your new school and make lots of new friends. Finally, we’re very sad to say good bye to Miss Backhouse but we hope that she has enjoys her very well earned retirement.
Farm visit – allergies
Please remember to make sure that staff know if your child is allergic to any animals before the farm visit on Tuesday. Thank you