W/B: Monday 16^th and 23^rd November 2023

Over the last two weeks of the Autumn 1 term, children have been enjoying Autumn topic with the ‘Tree’ book and the ‘Room on a Broom’ by Julia Donaldson. They began exploring seasonal changes and weather in Autumn.          

In English, children drew their favourite season and watched ‘Room on a Broom’ replayed by their teachers with the story spoons in a small theatre. Children then replayed the story by themselves in the reading corner.

In Maths, they learned ‘More or Less’ and ‘Positional Language’ topics in a playful way. Children played the game ‘Who Has More Conkers?’ and placed the Witch’s hat in a different position: in front, behind, on their side, under their legs, on the top of their head.

On Creative table, children made an Autumn tree, painted a night scene, and made the witch’s collage and printed colourful fireworks. For the Science experiment, we filled an empty pumpkin with some soda and vinegar: ‘Eeggety, ziggety, ziggety, zoom!’ Out of it came magnificent foam.

During Stay& Play afternoons both, Bear Cubs and Tiger Cubs and their parents were engaged in some fun-filled Halloween crafts: making skeletons, magic wands, and playdough pumpkins. Playing with small world toys inside of the Spooky Castle, making magic potions with purple water and catching spiders through the web in the sand tray.

We hope you are going to enjoy your holiday and are looking forward to see you back on the 6^th of November.

Nursery Team

W/B: Monday 2nd and 9th October 2023

It has been a very busy and fun couple of weeks at nursery with children talking about their family and the place they live. Our topic stories the ‘Monkey Puzzle’ and the ‘Lion Inside’ linked to the Jungle and Savannah, helped children to learn about various places and how they are different from the place they live.

Children listened so attentively to both stories and tried to help the Monkey to find her Mummy. They laughed when the Lion in the other story squeaked like a mouse and learned that it’s okay to feel scared and also to be brave. They learned new vocabulary like ‘savannah’, ‘jungle’, 'rainforest', names of the animals and some descriptive words e.g., slithering snake, swinging monkey, stomping elephant.

Together, we listened to the animal sounds and guessed which jungle animals made them. We clapped the syllables: zeb-ra, gi-raffe, e-le-phant, go-ril-la and even rhi-no-ce-ros and hip-po-po-ta-mus. Both, Bears and Tigers worked very hard searching for and counting safari animals, ‘feeding’ the Lion with counters and linking amounts to numbers 1-3.

Our Key text for these two weeks was ‘Lion Inside’ by Rachel Bright.

Children have been exploring the topic through the fun-based activities: collage and painting safari animals, loose parts lion and playdough savannah and the jungle-world construction area.

W.B Monday 18th and Monday 25th September

What an amazing two weeks we have had in Nursery exploring our new story of 'Monkey Puzzle'. The children have gone into great depth with this story. They have explored how it made the Monkey feel in the beginning, middle and end of the story, exploring how his mood changed from sad, angry and finally to happy. They even tried to do their own sad, angry and happy faces. 

In Maths they have been exploring counting to number 3 and recognising numbers to 5. The children have been learning to stop counting when there are no more items left to count. They are becoming very good at this. 

In writing they have been exploring large motor movements, circling those shoulders to create the large marks. They have been telling us the marks they have made and some children have drawn in great detail!

Our continuous provision has been set out in the areas alongside the children's interests. They have been exploring colour mixing, play dough and using tools, working on full and half full in the water and reading their favourite stories in the reading area. 

We can't wait to see what fun they get up to next week!

Thank you,

Your Nursery Teachers. 

W/B: Tuesday 5th and Monday 11th September 2023

It has been a very exciting couple of weeks, and we were so happy to see all the children settling so well in Nursery and exploring the areas of play!

During our circle time, we introduced ourselves to a Teddy and to each other, sang our ‘Hello’ song, counted friends in the circle, talked about our feelings and favourite things to do at nursery, discussed the weather.

We went to an adventure to the big school. We walked in a smart line to our gym where we will have PE lessons and played with hoops and rolling boards. We visited the dining hall, saw the busy kitchen, and even tried some ice cream.

During our snack time, we listened to the stories about other children settling at nursery and what they liked about themselves. Children shared their feelings and ideas with their friends and teachers. Most importantly, children played happily with each other in the room and outdoors, while the teachers were doing the Baseline assessment.

We are so excited to see all of you back at Nursery next week!

Our Key text for the first two weeks is ‘I Like Myself!’ by Karen Beaumont.

Children have been exploring the topic through the fun based activities: collage and painting self-portraits, home corner role-play area, playdough cupcakes and candles, dollhouse and small world toys.

Note: From the next week, Bears and Tigers begin attending nursery for 2 full days and a half day.

All Bears: Monday& Tuesday 8.40am – 3.00pm;   Wednesday 8.40am – 11.50am

All Tigers: Wednesday 1.00pm – 3.00pm;   Thursday& Friday 8.40am – 3.00pm

W/B: Tuesday 27th September 2022

The third week of September has flown by, beginning on Tuesday as we were off on Monday to celebrate the life of our late Majesty The Queen together as a country.

Our new topic story is ‘Monkey Puzzle’, by Julia Donaldson. The children settled well and enjoyed staying full day at Nursery and trying school dinners…yummy! They walked into the School hall in a smart line, so everybody thought they were Year 6 pupils.

Bear Cubs and Tiger Cubs dived into the exciting topic and have learned a lot about the Jungle and animals which live in it. As a part of the school’s cooperation with NSTEM, nursery children received a loan box with objects linked to ‘Light and Dark’ theme. They were very excited to find out about how light works and making a jungle animal puppets show using torches.

There were opportunities to practice writing skills with brushes and soft coloured foam and cutting skills with scissors cutting out images of jungle animals; and making puppets. Children enjoyed using their own senses in sensory play with water bubbles and sand.

Jungle small world tray and Jungle den were teeming with predators and other Rainforest animals, so nursery explorers had to tread with care and use binoculars to spot them out. Also, outdoor adventures continued and children played happily with the Early Years brand new equipment: a fantastic enormous sand pit and new light-weight balancing bikes.

Keep up your exploration, hard work and excellent behaviour, Tigers and Bears! We look forward to more fun next week!

Your Nursery Teachers.

W/B: Monday 12th September 2022

What another super fun week our nursery children have had in school. Another week of transition has gone by and we are so excited to welcome our children into school next week for their first full days! 

This week we have been exploring paint mixing and making our own family portraits. It has been lovely to hear more about the children's families and everyone they live with. We have also been manipulating play-dough to look like cakes and counting how many candles we put into the cakes. Our number of the week this week has been the number 2. The children have explored a different range of representing the number 2, including trying to write it. 

We are so excited for your first full days next week at school.

A polite reminder:

Bear Cubs are Monday and Tuesday 8.45am-3pm (doors open at 2.50pm) and Wednesday 8.45am-11.45am. 

Tiger Cubs are Wednesday 1-3pm (doors open at 2.50pm) and Thursday and Friday 8.45am-3pm (doors open at 2.50pm)

W.B: Monday 5th September 2022

We would like to say a big welcome back to all our lovely nursery children and their families. You have made coming back after the Summer holiday so much fun! This week has been our first week of transition and the children have come into Nursery as if they have always been with us which has been a joy to see. We have been focusing on the Number 1 for our weekly number and the children have had lots of fun exploring different ways to create this. We have also had a strong focus on ourselves. The children have been making self portraits using different materials. The children have loved exploring our Nursery environment and even more our new outdoor area which will grow into the best place for your children to learn whilst being in the outdoors.

Just as a reminder next week is our last transition week!

See you all next week.

Key Text

Our Key Text this half term has been ‘Monkey Puzzle’, we used this book to complete fun activities around ourselves, families and jungle animals. We have had a lot of fun completing self portraits and
creating jungle scenes using lots of different art materials. Your child will be bringing a copy of this book home at the end of half term for them to keep. We hope that you enjoy sharing this wonderful text with them as much as we have.