Celebrations
This week, we’ve been talking about some different celebrations. Children were very excited on Tuesday when they returned to Nursery; there was a lot of talk about witches and bat costumes and tales of trick or treating in the dark. We also learnt about Diwali, the festival of lights. We watched some short video clips to find out about how some people prepare for Diwali and enjoy celebrating with family. We learnt about rangoli patterns and loved looking at the special sweets that were part of the celebrations.
In the dough area, we made our own Diva lamps by rolling a ball and pushing our thumbs into it to make a ‘thumb pot’. We added patterns with the tools and put a candle inside. In the garden, we created some rangoli patterns on the floor using chalks.
Outside, children helped to tidy the garden after the holidays; there were a LOT of leaves that needed sweeping up!
In phonics this week, we listened to sounds in our environment. We enjoyed reading ‘Peace at Last‘ and hearing all of the noises that stopped poor Mr Bear from getting to sleep. In the Nursery garden, we heard a helicopter flying above us and the leaves rustling in the wind. What can you hear in your house? You could also listen to the different sounds that fireworks make if you go to see any. Do they pop, crackle, hiss, sizzle or BANG?
Finally, towards the end of the week, we began to talk about another celebration that lots of children might take part in at the weekend – Bonfire Night. We talked about how to stay safe and next week, we’ll continue our learning as we’re sure you’ll all hear and see lots of fireworks in the sky this weekend!
If you have joined in with any Diwali celebrations, or are going to take part in Bonfire night celebrations, please send us a photo of your child celebrating for our ‘Home learning’ display. Children love to share their photographs and talk about their adventures. Email us at scholesnursery@spherefederation.org
Have a good weekend and stay safe!
Increasing/changing sessions for January
Thank you to those parents/carers that have contacted us after receiving the letter regarding increasing or changing your child’s hours (if your child is currently attending for less than 30 hours) in January.
If your child is moving from morning sessions to full days, we will send you further details of a short transition plan soon.
Parent Teacher Consultations
Nursery Parent Teacher consultations for Nursery children will be held on the following dates:
- Monday 21 November from 3.30pm until 5.10pm
- Wednesday 23 November from 5pm until 6.50pm
Living and Learning: Me and My Communities
What a fantastic week we’ve had! This is one of two Living and Learning themed weeks each year – this one’s a celebration of community.
Each day, the children have been learning about a different theme:
- Diversity
- Identity
- No room for Racism
- Same but Different
- We’ve had visitors from our community share their roles within the community of Scholes.
- Here are some children being active in the village community. There are vouchers to win for the best active photo!
New staff in KS1
We have sadly said goodbye to Miss McKechnie this week but welcomed two new members of staff, Miss Morrison and Miss Fletcher. Here are the adults who work in Year 1 and 2.
Living and Learning : Community Week
We have had a great start to community week.
Yesterday, we have had a special visitor- a guide dog!
The children were fantastic at asking questions about the guide dog and its duties. Here is an example of a few of them:
“What does he do when you are on holiday?”
“Does he have to eat special food?”
“How does he know where a road is?”
The children were also able to try on glasses that altered their eyesight. This meant they could experience what it would be like to be visually impaired and see how it would effect everyday tasks.
Topic: art
This week, we have started our new art topic – printing. The first lesson focused on the history of art and we were introduced to William Morris who was an artist and designer. The children had the opportunity to look at some examples of wallpaper designs by Morris and explain their likes and dislikes. The children had to comment on the use of colour and shade. Was there a repeated pattern or any symmetry? The children all identified that William Morris took his inspiration from nature and his wallpapers depict flowers, leaves and birds. They did a great job of applying some artistic vocabulary such as figurative and abstract.
Wonderful writing
Everyone came back to school rested and full of news. We enjoyed sharing our holiday news with each other so much that we decided to write some sentences too. We use phonics to help spell words we are not sure of, a word bank (a list of useful words) and tricky word mats too.
Help at home by encouraging your child to write for a purpose (a diary entry, a sign or poster, a menu or recipe or letters and cards to friends and family).
Year 1
Year 2
New lunch menus
Here are the new lunch menus starting this week.
New Junior Leadership Team
During the last week of term, our classes cast their votes for who they would like to represent their class on the JLT. I was absolutely overwhelmed by the number of children that wrote speeches – these were well written, full of ideas and very persuasive!
The votes were counted and the new members were announced in assembly – each child received their shiny JLT badge.
Here are our new members:
5,6A – Sam
5,6B – Olive
5,6C – Layla
3,4A – Archie
3,4B – Olivia
3,4C – Archie
2C – Abby
1,2B – Faith
1A – Eti
Well done to each of you. I’m looking forward to working with you this year and can’t wait to get started.