Autumn treasure
Autumn has definitely arrived. Lots of children have been out exploring this weekend are were keen to show us the Autumn treasure that they had collected. This generated a lot of discussion about the windy weather and conkers falling off trees.
We looked at some conkers that children had brought into Nursery and talked about the different shapes and sizes. Some of the conkers that Mrs Long had found were still in their cases. We looked closely at the shells and felt their prickles carefully. Children were excited to see a crack down one of the shells; we carefully opened it and found not just one, but two shiny conkers inside!
The Autumn woodland small world area was popular today and the tractors were very busy collecting hay bales in the fields. Some children tried to stack the hay bales in the trailer. It was quite tricky and took a lot of perseverance to stack them in a tall tower. It was even harder to stop them from falling off as the tractor moved across the bumpy field to the farm!
The Sunshine room was buzzing with excitement this morning. Children loved ordering and making pizzas in our new role play area. They played together, taking turns to take orders and to make and cook the pizzas. Some pizzas cost “5 dollars” and some were “2 pounds”. Children counted out the coins carefully as they paid.
Making friends and exploring Nursery
We’ve had a great start to the week in Nursery; most children have now had their first session and we’ve been really proud of how well they’ve all settled in. Children are beginning to make friends and it’s been lovely to see them playing alongside each other and starting to become involved in role play together. The home corner has been a hive of activity with children enjoying making cups of tea and some breakfast for Mrs Long.
In our Nursery garden, we’ve been collecting lots of apples from the trees. Miss Backhouse, and a group of little helpers, used them to bake some delicious apple buns. The children helped to count out the apples, weigh the ingredients and mix them together. We enjoyed eating the apples and buns at snack time. Yum yum!
In the Early Years Foundation Stage, physical development is one of the important Prime Areas. Children should be able to move freely with pleasure and confidence in a range of different ways such as slithering, shuffling, rolling, crawling, walking, running, jumping, skipping, sliding
and hopping.
As you can see, we’ve been busy developing our climbing and balancing skills already this week.
Welcome to Nursery
We had a busy time visiting all of our new children and their families at home last week. It was great to meet everybody and to begin to get to know each other. Ferdie, our Nursery fox, enjoyed making lots of new friends and is looking forward to seeing everybody again when they visit Nursery this week.
It was lovely to see our older Nursery children again on Monday and Tuesday; we think they’ve grown over the holidays! We’ve enjoyed finding out about their holiday adventures to farms and beaches (and even a trip to a hospital!)
All of the children noticed lots of changes in Nursery. They spotted our super, shiny new toilets and sinks straight away. They also enjoyed exploring the Rainbow room and finding out what new toys there were in each area.
As well as seeing our old friends again, we have also begun to make new friends in Nursery during the ‘Stay and play’ sessions this week. We’ll post some photographs soon.
Welcome to Foundation!
We’ve been very busy getting the classroom and outdoor environment ready today. We’re excited for your child to see their new classroom environment in the next few weeks.
Miss Morris (Foundation 1) has been busy gardening and digging up some vegetables we have grown.
Mrs Beesley (Foundation 1) has been busy in the water area!
Mrs Long (Foundation 1) has been on the bikes!
Miss Backhouse (Foundation 1) has been with the dinosaurs!
Mrs Myers (Foundation 2) has been working hard trimming the den!
Mrs Flynn (Foundation 2) and Toffee have been on the slide!
Miss Daniels (Foundation 2) has been digging in the sand tray!
Miss Eckersley (Foundation 2) and Treacle have been busy in the mud kitchen!
We’re looking forward to welcoming some children into Foundation 2 tomorrow.
Teddy Bear’s Picnic
Teddy Bear’s Picnic
Monday 16th July 12.30-2.30 pm
- If your child is moving to Reception in September and they don’t attend Nursery on a Monday afternoon, they are welcome to join us from 12.30pm-2.30pm. Please bring them to the Nursery door and sign them in as usual and you can collect them at home time, which is 2.30pm.
- Children can wear summery clothes and bring their favourite teddy.
- We will provide picnic food that the children are going to help make in the morning. They have told us all the things that they would like, including honey sandwiches for the bears and some watermelon. Children will have lunch as usual at Nursery.
- Thank you for your donations towards to the cost of the picnic food. If you’d still like to contribute, there’s a bowl in the Nursery entrance.
Health Week Highlights 2-6 July 2018
What a jam-packed week! We focused on learning about our physical and mental health and engaged in a wide variety of activities including:
- Whole school sports roundabout
- Tag rugby sessions with 5 Star Sports
- Tutti Frutti production of ‘Keepy Uppy’
- Fruit tasting, drawing, smoothie and kebab making
- Living and Learning lessons – healthy choices and sun safety
- Crucial Crew – personal safety and risk assessing
- KS2 competitive sports afternoon
- WUSU Crew performance
- Dodgeball – Leeds City Finals
- Netball, rounders, football
- Mindfulness
- Yoga
- Change for Life – Train like a Jedi
- Visit from Doodles the donkey from the Donkey Sanctuary
- Flex Dance – World Cup dance workshops and dance-off in front of the whole school
- Whole school health related homework
- Leeds Rhinos Rhinestones street dance workshops
- Health Fair after school
Home link – Seasides
This week, we’re going to be talking about going on holiday and visiting the seaside. If you have a photograph of you at the seaside, we’d love to see it and put it on our display for everyone to share. If you don’t have one, you could draw or paint a picture instead.
This week’s letter sound is ‘v’ if you’d like to play Eye-spy and spot things that begin with the letter ‘v’ at home. You can listen to the Jolly Phonics song here.
Sports Week
Week 5 – Sports week
We’ve had a very active week and have continued to talk about different ways to stay fit and healthy. Children loved joining in with Wake-up Shake-up on the KS2 playground and enjoyed visiting the field to watch some of the older children take part in Sport’s Day. In Nursery, we’ve taken part in mini races and learnt how to throw foam javelins. We measured how far we’d thrown them and compared who threw the javelin the furthest. On Tuesday, we were really lucky because a theatre company came to visit. Children were very animated after the show; hopefully they told you all about the giant football and shrinking pink football kit! We also had an unexpected visitor at the end of the week…The Donkey Sanctuary came to school and brought a donkey to meet us.
Week 6 – What are we learning this week?
With the current hot weather and lots of children returning from holidays or about to go on one, there has been a lot of talk in Nursery about trips to the seaside. Next week, we’ll enjoy singing ‘Oh I do like to be beside the seaside’ and will take part in lots of seaside- themed fun. We will:
- Talk about our experiences of the seaside and the associated sights, smells and sounds.
- Create an ice-cream shop role play area and make our own ice lollies (see below)
- Look at the size, shape and texture of shells.
- Investigate real fish.
- Explore what happens when we mix sand and paint.
- Learn about the letter sound ‘v’ for van, ice-cream van!
Fundraising – Ice lollies for sale.
We think the time has come for Ellie and Elvis to retire from active duty in Nursery! Over the last few years, they have visited many homes and are well loved by children. Elvis would like to hand over the role to someone new and has asked for your help. Next week, we will be making ice-lollies and will sell some to Nursery children at the end of the session/day for £1. We will use the funds raised to help Elvis find a replacement so that he can enjoy his retirement, knowing that children in Nursery still have an animal friend to visit. Thank you in advance for your support.
End of Year party
We will have a ‘Teddy Bear’s Picnic’ on the afternoon of Monday 16thJuly. If your child is moving to Reception in September and they don’t attend Nursery on a Monday afternoon, they are welcome to join us from 12.30pm-2.30pm. Please bring them to the Nursery door and sign them in as usual. Please collect them at home time, which is 2.30pm. We will be making sandwiches in the morning and will have a few picnic treats including some fruit and a biscuit. We will provide the picnic food but if you’d like to contribute towards the cost, we will put a money box in the entrance.
Home Link – Being Healthy
This week, we will be talking about how we keep healthy. Talk to your child about all the things they do to keep fit and be healthy.
- Do they go to any sporting activities or clubs?
- You could play some games in the garden together. What happens to your body when you exercise?
- What are your favourite foods? Ask your child to help you prepare a healthy snack.
- Make a chart to see if you can eat your ‘5’ fruit and vegetables every day.
- How do you look after your body? Bath time, cleaning teeth, going to bed early etc.. You could draw a picture of all the things you do to stay happy and healthy.
This week’s letter sound is ‘Jj’ for jumping and jiggling jelly. Please sing along to the Jolly Phonics song at home and look for things beginning with ‘j’.
You could even make some jelly (sugar free, of course!),and talk about how you make it and the changes that occur.
Healthy Eating
Week 4 – Healthy Eating
Children have loved tasting different types of fruits at snack time this week. Some children had never tasted some of the fruits and with a bit of encouragement to try them, they were pleasantly surprised and enjoyed it! Thank you very much for your kind donations. In group times, we talked about healthy eating and how to look after our teeth. Children enjoyed using toothbrushes to clean the ‘teeth’, making sure that they brushed the top and the bottom ones and got into all the gaps.
We were really pleased to see the butterflies had emerged from their cocoons. We looked at the patterns on their wings and talked about symmetry. In our painting area, we made butterfly prints and we used the Smartboard to draw symmetrical patterns.
Children were really excited to be able to release them into the garden and watched them fly away.
It was a very hot week in Nursery, we found lots of ways to try and keep cool. Can you guess what our favourite way was?
Week 5 – What are we learning this week?
There are lots of sports activities happening in school this week. Nursery will join in with some of them and take part in our own sports themed fun. We will:
- Play ‘Sport’s day games’ outside involving running, jumping, throwing and catching.
- Take part in Wake-up Shake-up.
- Talk about how our bodies feel after we have been exercising.
- Think about ways that we try to keep healthy.
- Learn about the letter sound ‘j’ for jumping.
- Play skittles and count how many pins are left standing.