School newsletter 24/25 – Term 1, newsletter 3

Hi All

Here is an overview of our week at Nursery School:

Wow experience – This week the children have had the chance to make strawberry and banana smoothies, when they followed the recipe and method. The children really enjoyed this experience, we modeled and encouraged them to the following key vocabulary – strawberries, bananas, milk, honey, ice, ingredients, slice, chunks, blend, smooth. We explored and described the textures by using our senses. We ended the week by reading the Gruffalo and making ‘Terrible Tusks Fruit Kebabs’ for our snack.

Indoor focus – The children have been busy reading and acting out a range of well know stories such as ‘Room on the Broom’, ‘What the Ladybird Heard’, ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’, ‘The Gingerbread Man’ and ‘Owl Babies’ along with making up their own stories. They have been making grand scale train tracks, role playing in the home corner and cafe, making tasty treats with the playdough amongst many other things throughout the week.

Outdoor focus – We have enjoyed the weather this week and the children have been busy in the mud kitchen, acting out stories, completing obstacle courses, playing in the sand and exploring ‘gloop’ (cornflour and water), making and extending ball / water runs using available resources.

Forest School – We had an open Forest school session on Thursday where the children could come and explore the area, they particularly liked looking for minibeasts and making bird feeders using cheerio’s and pipe cleaners. This is a good way to get the children use to the area before starting forest school sessions next term. We will continue to do this each week on a Thursday.

Maths focus – This week we have been working on cardinality and counting, where we have supported the children to understand that the cardinal value of a number refers to the quantity, or ‘howmanyness’ of things it represents. For example at group times the children have played games such as rolling a dice, recognising or counting the number of dots and then representing the number by using loose parts. Another game they enjoyed was called ‘Hidden Jewels’ where the teacher put three cups over one, two, three jewels, then the teacher lifts and replaces a cup and challenges the children to say how many there are. The teacher then swaps the cups around and when they stop they ask the children if can they point to the cup with ‘three’ jewels. The teacher then lifted the cup to see if children can instantly say whether they are right.

Phonic focus – This week the children have been exploring environmental sounds, during group times we have challenged the children to listen for clues as we described a farm animal but not told them its name. For example: this animal has horns, four legs and a tail. The teacher then asked them to say which animal it and what noise the animal might make. Once they were familiar with the game, the children took the part of the adult and described the animal for the other children to name. We also have been encouraging them to make up simple sentences in songs and stories and act them out talking in greater detail about sounds, for example acting out:

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall (bump, crash, bang!)
All the King’s horses and all the King’s men (gallop, gallop, gallop)
Couldn’t put Humpty together again (boo, hoo, boo, hoo, boo, hoo).

Core Song – If you’re happy and you know it 😊

Poem – Cup of Tea

Here’s a cup
And here’s a cup
And there’s a pot of tea
Pour a cup and pour a cup
And have a drink with me

*Don’t forget to ask your child if they can remember the actions.

Reminders / Information

– Medical – We have had a reported case of impetigo, this is very contagious but not usually serious. At Nursery School we follow the NHS / DfE guidelines where it states that impetigo stops being contagious 48 hours after you start using hydrogen peroxide cream or antibiotics prescribed by a GP or pharmacist, or when the patches dry out and crust over (if you do not get treatment). So if your child is being treated for impetigo or has signs and symptoms please keep them off Nursery for the first 48 hours after they start treatment, or when the patches have dried out and crusted over. Here is the NHS link for more information – https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/impetigo/ 

– Lost property – If you have lost any items of clothes, please check the lost property table in lobby area by the internal door. Please can you name everything as this makes it so much easier at the end of the day.

– Lending library – We have a lending library, this is located in the lobby area just outside the internal door, we ask your that if your child choose a book, you sign it out and when back in when you return it (the book is on the table by the lending library).

– Parking – Can we please ask that you do not use the staff car park to drop off your child, this also means parents dropping off and waiting. The access to the car park is a private driveway that is used by our neighbours and there is no parking here or in the private road in front of their houses. We have worked really hard to build positive relationships with our neighbours over the last year, but last week there seems to have been some confusion. I know our parking situation is not ideal but you can park up ‘Fox Close’ or use the Co-op carpark which is a short distance to Nursery School. We all really appreciate your cooperation in this matter. If parking continues to be an issue we will have to put measures in place to monitor the situation moving forwards.

Wishing you a super weekend.

Best wishes

Zoe