Welcome back!
Children returned to Nursery brilliantly this week and settled in happily. We heard all about your Easter holiday trips and visits from the Easter Bunny.
The weather was very mixed this week; we had wind, rain, hail stones and sunshine! Please make sure your child has a waterproof coat everyday as we go outside in all weather.
As well as enjoying an obstacle course, children helped to sow some vegetable seeds.
In maths, we looked at the number five. We know that we have 5 fingers on each hand and we clapped and jumped five times. We looked at objects that are all linked to the number five.
Help at home: Enjoy singing number songs linked to the number 5 together with your child such as 5 Little Ducks, 5 Little men in a flying saucer, 5 Currant Buns or 5 Little Monkeys .
In our story times, we read a very popular story by Eric Carle, called ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ and started to learn about the life cycle of a butterfly.
We also had a special delivery in Nursery; children were very excited to find out what was inside the little cardboard box. Inside, we found 5 tiny, spiky caterpillars! We’ve been checking on them everyday, and just like ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’, they’re very hungry and are getting bigger and bigger each day.
Children showed an interest in looking for creepy crawlies outside. We found lots of creatures hiding under logs including wood lice, slugs and some very long worms.
Next week’s learning
We’ll continue with the children’s interest in bugs and worms. We’ll read Superworm and learn all about wriggly worms! If you don’t have the story book at home, follow the link to watch the animated version on BBC iPlayer.
Sound of the week: J for jellyfish
Nursery rhyme of the week: 12345, Once I caught a fish alive
Easter
Although it was a shorter week than usual, it’s been a very busy one!
We enjoyed learning about Easter celebrations and taking part in some traditional Easter activities. Children made their own Easter cards and practised drawing patterns to decorate an egg outline.
We loved making Easter nests and tasting Hot Cross Buns.
Outside, children enjoyed playing egg hunt games with their friends, taking turns to hide and then find the eggs. We practised our counting skills at the same time and compared how many eggs we’d found with the eggs in our friend’s baskets.
How many blue eggs did you find? Who has the most/fewest?
We hope that you have a lovely holiday and we’ll look forward to hearing all about your adventures when we return to Nursery on Monday 15 April.
Eggs, chicks and rabbits!
Towards the end of the week, children were very egg-cited to find lots of Easter themed enhancements to our Nursery provision.
We’ve been counting rabbits, carefully picking eggs out of a nest using tongs and decorating egg shapes in the creative area.
Next week, we’ll continue with some Easter themed fun and will find out about how some Christians celebrate Easter.
In our group times this week, we learnt about the number 4. We looked at 4 candles on a cake and put 4 counters into a 5 frame. We could see that there was only one space left.
Help at home: As you play with your child or during snack time, have a go at including some of these things into your play and conversation.
- Can you count 4 objects? Remember to line them up and touch/point to each one carefully as you say one number for each item.
- Can you count to 4 and show 4 on your fingers?
- Can you spot the number four on house doors or car number plates?
- Count 4 objects from a pile and remember to STOP when you get to 4.
Some children have shown an interest in ‘spinning’ objects and have loved exploring spinning and spirals.
Next week’s learning:
Sound of the week – F for flamingo
Nursery rhyme of the week – Humpty Dumpty
Eat your peas!
Look at our beanstalks! Children have been fascinated over the last few weeks as they watched and waited for their seeds to grow. We talked about the shoot and roots as they appeared and have made sure that we watered and kept them in the sunlight to help them grow.
We read ‘Eat your peas’ during story time and continued our learning about vegetables and healthy foods. We picked some healthy foods to add to our plates and talked about other food that we might choose to eat occasionally.
In the creative area, we did some observational drawing of different vegetables and looked at the shape and colours as we drew. We even had some beetroot to draw that we harvested from our Nursery garden.
In the play dough area, we rolled tiny balls of dough to make peas and counted out the correct number to go into each pod.
In the maths area, children looked at lots of carrots and sorted them by length. There was lots of conversation using different vocabulary related to size. Look how long this one is! This carrot is tiny, it’s very short. Your carrot is longer than mine.
Children have also been practising their counting skills and have been trying to make sure that they count carefully, saying one number for each item as they touch it or point.
Help at home: Practise counting different objects during play and in everyday life. Make sure children say one number for each item; it often helps to move each item as you count or line them up so that children only count each object once. Can they remember how many they had in total without counting again?
We also enjoyed exploring and peeling different vegetables and outside, we cleared the planters, ready to start growing our own veggies!
Next Week’s Learning
Letter sound of the week – b for bear
Nursery rhymes of the week – 5 Little Ducks and Pat-a-cake
World Book Day
We LOVE reading in Nursery and we’re always excited to join in with celebrations for World Book Day.
Thank you for bringing some of your favourite stories for us to share together in Nursery.
Here are a few photos from today- Can you name the characters and match them to the book?
All about me!
Children enjoyed learning about how they’ve grown and changed from being a baby. We looked at our baby and toddler photos in group time; thank you for emailing them to us. We talked about some of the things that children can do now, that they couldn’t do when they were a baby such as talking, riding a bike and eating food. In the Creative area, we looked at our faces in the mirrors and tried to draw a self portrait. It was quite tricky, but we used a circle shape for our face and then added two eyes, a nose and a mouth. Some children loved adding extra features including curly or spiky hair and long eye lashes!
To continue our learning about ‘growing up’, we helped to take care of the babies in the water tray, carefully giving them a bath and washing their hair. In the playdough area, we looked at the numerals on different birthday cards and put the correct number of candles on our chocolate playdough cakes.
As part of our ‘Understanding the World’ curriculum, we’re beginning to learn about different forces. Children loved exploring the magnets in the discovery area and taking them around Nursery to see what they were attracted to and which objects they would ‘stick’ to. During story time, we talked about pushing and pulling forces when Fix-it Duck got his truck stuck in the muck. (Can you tell that we’re reading rhyming stories, too!)
Reminders:
- It’s World Book Day on Thursday 07 March 2024. For more information, see previous communications.
Next week’s learning:
Next week, we’ll continue with our ‘growing theme’ and will listen to ‘Oliver’s Vegetables‘ by Vivian French. We’ll be talking about the different foods that we eat and where they come from.
Nursery rhyme of the week – I’m a Little Teapot
Sound of the week – ‘r’ for rainbow
Jack and the Beanstalk
Fee Fi Fo Fum! We loved reading Jack and the Beanstalk this week and re-telling it with our friends in the book corner.
We talked about the beanstalk that grew outside Jack’s window and how we could grow our own. Mrs Gosper looked at some seeds with everyone and helped children to work out what they needed to do to help it grow. If you look carefully through the waving window, you’ll be able to see our ‘growing’ area.
Children are very excited to see what will happen to their seeds… Watch this space!
In maths, we’ve been learning about the number 3. There are lots of stories involving the number three, we’ve read some of them in Nursery including The Three Billy Goats Gruff. Can you think of any more?
In group time, 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.
Reminders:
- Nursery Coffee Morning – Monday 26 February 2024
- We have lots of water bottles, hats, gloves and jumpers that have name tags missing which makes it really hard to give things out to their owners, especially when we have duplicates. Please take a moment this weekend to check your child’s belongings are still named. Thank you in advance!
Next week’s learning:
Next week, we’ll learn about ‘growing up’ and will talk about how we change as we grow and get older. Thank you to everyone who has sent in a baby and toddler photograph already. If you haven’t had time yet, please read our previous post and e-mail us your photos as soon as possible. Thank you.
Nursery rhyme of the week – Wind the bobbin up
Sound of the week – ‘u’ for umbrella
Wanted! Baby photos
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.
Nursery Coffee Morning
Lunar New Year
We had a great final week of half term; children loved reading a book about the Lunar New Year and we watched some short video clips to find out how people prepare for the festival and celebrate with their families.
To join in with the celebrations, we painted ‘good luck’ banners in the creative area and we danced and played instruments to a Chinese dragon song.
We enjoyed decorating a lunar lantern with some patterns that we’re learning (circles, zig-zags, waves and lines) to help improve our pencil control.
In group time, children in red, blue and green group learnt about the number 2. We looked at a domino that had one spot on one end, and one spot on the other. When we looked at the spots together, there were two. Children knew that they had 2 eyes, 2 ears and 2 feet. We jumped twice and counted two claps.
Help at home: Have a look around your house and surroundings – What can you find two of? You might see two wheels on your bike or 2 eggs left in the box. Can you spot any number twos on doors or number plates? Send us an e-mail to let us know how you get on – you could send a photograph to show us what you find. scholesnursery@spherefederation.org
Learning after half term:
We’ll be reading Jack and the Beanstalk and beginning our ‘growing’ theme. If you have a copy of the book at home, please read it together to help familiarise your child with the story. We’ll be looking for signs of spring in the garden, too. When you’re out and about over half term, see what ‘signs of spring’ you notice – it could be flowers beginning to grow or birds singing.
Nursery rhyme of the week – Baa Baa Black Sheep
Sound of the week – ‘e’ for elephant
Have a happy and healthy half term and we look forward to finding out about your holidays when we return to Nursery on Monday 19 February.