Good Morning

Here is an overview of our week at Nursery School:

Wow experience – This week most children were able to make beans on toast, Marlena read a story that explained where the beans begin and the processes involved to enable them to reach our plates. The children loved this activity and asked lots of questions developing their knowledge and understanding.

Indoor focus – The children were interested in activities on offer relating to ’cause and effect’, such as the magnetic objects we had out this week. They experimented with them and we discussed their properties such as how they; stick, pull, attract and repel when held against different types of metal. We also discussed fire and looked at what 3 elements were needed to make a fire. The children had fun creating their own camp fires in the role play area where they recalled their own experiences and discussed how we keep safe around fire.

We also continued to develop our fine motor skills by having tweezers, scoops, tubes and and pom poms to explore, some children sorted the pom poms into colours and others experimented with building ramps and slides for the pom poms to travel down.

In the water tray the children had fun washing the babies and clothes and hanging them out to dry, using pegs which also helps them to develop their fine motor skills by strengthening their muscles in their fingers. This then helps prepare them for mark making and writing later on. I have attached some other fine motor activity cards which you could do with your child at home to help them to develop this skill.

Outdoor focus – The magic came to us outside this week, our garden was like a ‘Winter Wonder Land’, the children were so excited by the snow. We encouraged and helped them to wrap up warm and put on waterproofs to keep them dry. We had to keep safe and the children were not able to use all of the garden as some parts were too icy. We made footprints, looked for other footprints, crated patterns in the snow, explored ice and discussed the science behind it, made concoctions in the mud kitchen using snow, ice and other natural resources and they helped to clear pathways.

Forest School – This week on Thursday the children in groups A & B did Forest School. We made bird feeders as we thought the birds many be extra hungry due to the weather and the ground being frozen. We also continued to develop our bug hotel.

Maths focus: Pattern – The children are really starting to understand the concept of a repeating pattern, we continued to make repeated AB patterns and challenged some children to make more complex patterns such as ABC / ABB patterns. We also had patterns and stamps in the creative area for children to explore during free play. The children also had the chance to join in physically with a song ‘Pump Up the Pattern’ that we showed them on the interactive whiteboard, here is the link – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoFhVdYsmPg 

Phonic focus: We continued to explore Instrumental sounds. During group times we played ‘Grandmothers Footsteps’ using instruments / sounds to create different movements and had a ‘Musical Show and Tell’ where the children chose an instrument and performed a song and the other children discussed what they liked about the performance and what sounds they heard such as short, long, slow, quick, smooth or bumpy sounds. The learning attention was for the children experience and develop awareness of sounds made with instruments and noise makers.

Core Song – Out of the Corner of my Eye (a Christmas song)

Poem – Jolly Red Nose

Nose, nose, jolly red nose.
Tell me what gives you that jolly red nose?
Nutmeg and ginger and cinnamon and cloves.
That’s what gives me this jolly red nose.

– See if your child can remember these and the actions. We will be performing this song and poem amongst others to you at the end of the term.

Information / Reminders

– Jenny will be off for a couple of week as she has a planned surgery. We will have a supply Early Years Practitioner in on some days and other members of the staff team will be doing extra sessions in her absence. We wish Jenny a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing her when she returns. If your child is in ‘Blue’ Group we understand this may be unsettling but all members of staff have built good relationships with your children and we will support and reassure them. If you have any questions or worries please do speak to us.

– Christmas Performance: We are planning to do a short Christmas Performance for you, where the children will sing some Christmas songs and poems that we will be learning over the next month. More than likely this will be the first time your child has ever done this, if they find it overwhelming don’t worry we will support them. If they would rather come and sit with you or you come and sit with them then this is fine and can be accommodated. We want this to be a fun and positive experience for all. The date we are looking at is Thursday the 19th of December. It will be a short performance and we will do one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The times will be confirmed officially in Sarah’s email but it will be more than likely to be half an hour before normal collection times.

– Christmas Party – We will have a Christmas Party on the last day of term where we will have a very special visitor, have Christmas activities available, play games, dance and have a Christmas snack in the morning and afternoon. We may put up a sign-up sheet and ask for parental donations for this. This will be for the children only, if your child does not normally come on a Friday they are more than welcome to attend for one of the sessions that fits in with your child’s attendance pattern.

– Children in Need: I will let put a poster up next week displaying the total we raised for Children in Need. Thank you for all your kind donations for this worthwhile charity.

– Snack donations: Thank you for your continued support with the weekly snack donations it is very much appreciated.

I hope you all have a great weekend 😊

Kind regards

Zoe