Headteacher: Anna Moss

Forest School Activity

Pirate Ships

The weather has been a little kinder to us this week as we have enjoyed building pirate ships on the patio to sail the high seas.  You enjoyed jumping off and using magnifying glasses to collect treasure planted around Forest School

Write Dance

(Gross Motor)

Beans

A morning Maths song that gets us moving (and smiling) – Beans.  We have been counting backwards from different numbers as we turned into runner, baked and jelly beans.

Rhyme Time

Humpty Dumpty

We enjoyed listening to the sounds of Humpty falling off the wall and the march of the soldiers coming to rescue him.  We also listened for and spotting our rhyming pairs from our pictures three.  It is great to hear that you are beginning to hear that rhyme in our everyday language and stories.

Phonics

The rainbow sound /r/

Miss Barron has enjoyed showing you what was in her sound box this week as some special siblings made an appearance – Raya, Rosie, Rex, Ralph and Ronnie.  You also spotted a rhino, a ribbon and a noisy recorder! Next week, we will be revisiting all the sounds we have learnt so far every morning so we can move on to so many more after Easter.  

Listening

Pass the Instrument

Whilst Miss Barron has been playing a game with you; Mrs Mander and Mrs Allen have been enjoying sharing the instrument basket with you in the “not so” Quiet Area.  We have enjoyed finding all the ways our instruments can make sounds, played musical STOP and followed the arrow to pass them clockwise around the circle.

Maths

Dice and Finger match

Stripes

As you joined from Forest School, Miss Barron has been teaching you how to spot the dice pattern and show on your fingers.  As we move into the summer term – we begin to combine all of that pattern work e.g. match numeral to numicon, match numicon to “in a row” pieces.  Seeing number is our super power!  We have also enjoyed spotting and talking about each other’s stripy clothing and trying to create them on the peg boards.

Communication and Language

Pirate Pete I’m a new big brother, Amanda Li

Mrs Allen has enjoyed sharing the story with you all about Pete and how he feels when his new baby brother arrives.  You have all been planting and enjoyed finding each other’s treasure on the map.  Next week we move in to our Easter topic and Miss Barron will be sharing her favourite Easter story with you after lunch each day.

Understand the World

Science

After a week of learning about push – you have been learning about the opposite force of pull.  What a game – you had so much fun!  Miss Barron had you working against a partner as you tried to pull one another over a line to win the game!

Dough Disco

(Fine Motor)

Shake it Off, Taylor Swift

Thank you Arjun.  Taylor Swift has had us pinching the dough with our finger tips and working our wrists to shake the dough off.  We look forward to our final afternoon dough disco next week as we have a timetable shift after Easter.

A message for parents – it was lovely to see you on Tuesday and Wednesday this week and catch up about your little people.  Three and four year olds are such fun to be around and even more fun to teach when we only have a 4-5 minute window of opportunity to hold their attention.  With this in mind, we hope you are impressed by them on Monday morning at 8.45am as they attempt to stand still and sing some Easter songs on the steps with Red class! 

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen and Mrs Franklin X

Forest School Activity

Spring Fire

It is that time of term again when Mrs Allen digs out her flint and steel and makes her raft ready for a fire.  During the beginning of the week, you enjoyed playing fire circle games around the fire circle to learn how to be safe, and yesterday you enjoyed toasting your own marshmallows on a toasting fork.  Thank you Evie J for toasting one for me.

Write Dance

(Gross Motor)

Round the Mountain

After last week with those magic paintbrushes, we tried out our magic sponges!  Did they work? Yes they did!  Adding two spots of colour to your sponges and a spell meant you were able to make a new colour with your circle and rainbow shapes!  You always seem so impressed that it actually works.

Rhyme Time

Round and Round the Garden

We listened and named sounds we would hear in the garden and continued to listen to and name our rhyming pairs from three pictures.  The grownups impressed you all as they made the learning harder when they thought of a third rhyming name e.g. tickle, pickle and bickle.  There were some funny nonsense words to make us smile.

Phonics

The umbrella sound /u/

A tricky sound to find for toys but we had fun with photos instead.  Mrs Mander enjoyed sharing her umbrella hat with you and there was a lot of noise and laughing coming from the box as we discovered all the uncles in there partying!!!  

Listening

Pirate Treasure

Pirate Barron shared with you her very own treasure chest and you took it in turns to hide and find the treasure in the cabin.  You were lucky you had your Pirate friends to help you by pointing to where it was!

Maths

Spring Chicken

The Number 6

We have been role playing a special Spring Chicken song as you arrived from Forest School with a Mother Hen, four eggs and four chicks.  We talked about subitising to help us learn the words and showing  these number on our fingers.  Our new learning was Numicon 6 as we looked at its shape and matched to a dice.  We enjoyed rolling them with a friend and playing the “6 woo hoo” game.  Find your dice this weekend and have a go.

Communication and Language

My Mum, Anthony Browne

With Mother’s Day approaching, it is always a chance for us to pull out all of the mum books from the cupboard.  Mrs Allen chose her favourite one by Anthony Browne which shows how many jobs us mums actually do!  Make sure you give lots of love to them on Sunday.

Understand the World

Science

Miss Barron has been teaching you all about forces in the world around us and in particular one that we find tricky when it comes to opening a door – push.  She shared her cars with you and you enjoyed pushing and marking with a cross where it stopped.

Dough Disco

(Fine Motor)

Don’t blame it on the Boogie, The Jacksons

Mrs Franklin, what a choice!  They don’t make songs like this anymore!  The children loved loved loved it and lots of you have shared that they are singing at home.  We were circling, pulling and spinning the dough to this disco beat.

A message for parents – the children have been busy every morning creating a special flower card for all you mums.  They always enjoy talking about you and we enjoy writing the highlights in the card.  Enjoy your day on Sunday!

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen and Mrs Franklin X

Forest School Activity

Pirate Maps

Mrs Allen has been teaching you different ways to make pirate maps using chalks, pencils, crayons.  You walked your area and decided where your treasure was to be buried with an X on the map.  In the afternoon, Miss Barron has had you working as pirates as you played her pirate listening game.  Climbing the riggings, scrubbing the deck and saluting the captain. It is a hard pirate life!

Write Dance

(Gross Motor)

House of the Bears

I do not know what you did to the paintbrushes this week but you must have put a magic spell on them.  As you made marks to our Goldilocks tune, you mixed two colours together to create orange, purple, green and today pink!  It was a mystery how that happened!

Rhyme Time

A Sailor went to Sea

We enjoyed singing along to our rhyme this week with actions as we talked about the homophone sea and see.  We enjoyed listening for our matching seaside rhyming pairs this week and giggled as we listened and made the seaside sounds for the seagull, the waves and the ship’s horn. 

Phonics

The elephant sound /e/

Poor Elsie and Effy were trapped in the sound box with a character that could freeze them and a familiar Christmas character who likes mischief.  We were all happy with the return of Holly and Jolly Elf in the end as they brought us an envelope full of chocolate eggs to share!!  

Listening

STOP/GO Instruments

The popular instrument basket returned this week as we played Musical STOP.  We used our looking skills to see the change in the STOP/GO paddle and had to be the first to place our instrument down.  Tearing yourself away from an instrument can be tricky when you are three and four!

Maths

Ordinal Numbers

Numicon/Numeral Match

We had racing Spring chickens this week as we labelled them as being first, second and last.  We then enjoyed playing a game with a team of three as we took it in turns being first, second and last to place down the numeral, the numicon or the “in a row” wooden piece.  The children have come so far with recognising number patterns to five in!

Communication and Language

The Night Pirates, Pete Harris

Mrs Allen returned (hooray!) and enjoyed sharing the story of Pete and the adventure he had one night with some girl pirates.  You enjoyed creating your very own treasure chest and deciding what you wanted to place inside.

Dough Disco

(Fine Motor)

Hakuna Matata, Lion King

A great song which we all enjoyed and calmed us all down at the end of a busy Forest School session.  We learnt how to make ring doughnuts with the dough that will sit safely on a knee!  Thank you Harris for your choice.  Mrs Franklin and her BIG birthday choice is up next week……..it will most definitely be an golden oldie!

A message for parents – we have begun our singing practice with Red class on some mornings as we have started learning our three new songs for the Easter “singing on the steps”.  Make sure you have the date in diary – Monday 18^th March at 8.45am.

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen and Mrs Franklin X

Forest School Activity

Pirates

We have enjoyed creating our own play ideas this week as the Pirate topic took hold.  We created a ship with a plank to walk, we used sticks for swords and enjoyed tying the broom to our leg to become a “Peg Leg”.  Our Pirate adventures will continue next week with Mrs Allen in the morning and Miss Barron (our student teacher) in the afternoon.

Write Dance

(Gross Motor)

Bear climbed over the mountain

We revisited this song about the bear who climbed over the mountain as we climbed with our chalks on the table to create vertical lines.  Two handed mark making is so good for the brain, even better when it makes a chalky mess!

Rhyme Time

Wind the Bobbin

We enjoyed singing this rhyme fast, faster and fastest as any rhyme with actions to match is fun when we change the speed.  Our daily rhyming pair pictures are working as we are beginning to hear children recognise rhyming words in their every day language.  Hearing rhyme is another skill to be “school ready” this summer.

Phonics

The cat and king sound /c/ and /k/

What a fun-packed box week we had this week – too many objects and animals to name.  The one I will remember from this week is the kangaroo that kept on jumping and the candle that burnt me every day!  

Listening

Instruments

We enjoyed Staying Quiet and listening to a piece of music where four children were playing four different instruments – can you remember what they were?  We also enjoyed listening to some music that made us feel happy, sad and scared and show this on our faces,

Maths

First and Last

Being able to understand what an ordinal number is a Maths skill you have to learn through running!  We paired up and raced down past the classrooms.  We labelled who was first and who was last to cross the finish line.  Being able to understanding first and last helps up with our Literacy skills too when asked “what is the first sound of …..”.

Communication and Language

Pirate Pete and his Parrot, Jenny Woods

Mrs Mander shared your topic story this week as we shared the story about Pete and his screeching parrot who could only say one phrase.  We laughed at the trouble this got him in to.  We also enjoyed the popular game of Pop up Pirates as we all tried to work out which one was the magic sword.

Dough Disco

(Fine Motor)

What does the fox say?  Ylvis

All the way from Norway, like Mrs Moss, we listened to Ylvis sing a song about what a fox says.  Thank you Effy for choosing this song again.  We enjoyed making foxy fingers on our hands and exercising them!

A message for parents – parent consultation slips came home in the children’s bags this week.  They are smaller than normal and so may be trickier to find!  Can they be returned next week either via the adult on the gate at drop off or into bags (that we check daily) so we can allocate you a time to suit.

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen and Mrs Franklin X

Forest School Activity

Homes

We continued our Special places topic this week as we have been sharing our home photos and talking about our home.  On Thursday, we went on a wet “house hunt” walk to find some friends’ houses on St Catherine’s Road.  In Forest School Mrs Allen has been teaching you how to hammer nails into a wooden block ready for some DIY in your own homes.

Write Dance

(Gross Motor)

The Grand Old Duke of York

Making marks with felt tips pens is always fun but making marks to the song with one in each hand, hurt our brains.  Give it a try this half term with mark making tools in each hand.  Can you make your hands move together and in opposite directions?

Rhyme Time

The Grand Old Duke of York

Hearing when two words sound the same is one of our favourite morning games.  We use photos from the rhyme e.g. down, crown, hill and take it in turns to say which words rhyme.  Say it silly was popular as we talked through the rhyme and changed the sound e.g. me mand mold muke mof mork.  We are starting to have fun with our own names too!

Phonics

The octopus sound /o/

Poor Oscar, he was trapped in the box with a grumpy ox and four octopi who kept arguing about being friends.  We settled them all down with some Octanauts on the TV and some orange juice to drink and an orange to eat.  Can you spot some /o/ objects in your home?

Listening

Simon Says

Our blue listening rule is “Good Listening is listening to all of the words”.  We always leave this one until last to practise as it can be the least obvious one to do.  You had to listen to the instruction and only follow when Simon told you to.  Listening to the whole sentence was the challenge e.g. put your hands on your head, Simon says.

Maths

Number 5

As we settled in from Forest School, we enjoyed playing our numeral game of “numbers numbers all around”.  We chose a number, crept it to our eyes and showed our friends on our hands (clapping).  Once we were all in, we were introduced to our new number – number 5.  We looked and matched numeral 5, fingers 5, red numicon 5 and 5 in a row.

Communication and Language

In every house, on every street, Jess Hitchman

Mrs Allen has been talking about all the rooms in a house and matching to their purpose.  She shared a new song with you about it too.  You have enjoyed building your homes in the quiet area with wooden blocks and creating a floor plan with wooden sticks as part of your story time activity.

Dough Disco

(Fine Motor)

I’m still standing, Elton John

Always a favourite every year, this disco song had us moving our arms as we ran through the song, sausaged the dough and punched the air with a “yeah yeah yeah”.  Thank you Oscar and thank you Elton – another artist from our country with our flag!

A message for parents – happy half term everyone, we hope you enjoy some family time together.  If in the car out and about, keep encouraging the children to clap/count syllables of new words, hear/say the first sound and see if they can hear any words that “sound the same” in general conversation.  So many of the children are so close to these literacy skills!

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen and Mrs Franklin X

Forest School Activity

Schools

With our new topic of Special Places, you have enjoyed creating a special school for all of the soft toy animals in Forest School.  Making sure they all had a seat in the classroom and who was going to be the teacher was great to watch.

Write Dance

(Gross Motor)

Row the Boat

Making marks was fun this week as the shaving foam came out of the can.  A little water on the table and a ball of foam in your hand made for some very interesting pattern work as we created vertical lines whilst we rowed our hands forwards and backwards.

Rhyme Time

Incy Wincy Spider

We enjoyed singing this rhyme slow, fast, loud and quiet and have begun to combine two – fast and quiet is the trickiest!  We continued to listen to words in the rhyme that sound the same and this week introduced the “say it silly” card as we changed the initial sound of every word in the rhyme e.g. sincy sincy spider, simbed sup se sater spout.

Phonics

The goat sound /g/

The box was jam packed full of all sorts this week.  We had fun with the glue as we managed to glue lots of the objects together! Telling fun stories through “things” with the same sound will help us make the links between these objects and ensure we can hear that first sound. Thank you Mrs Gregg and Mrs Grice for keeping some order in the box! 

Listening

Where is the Sound?

As our confidence increases term by term through our nursery year, remembering the times to stay quiet becomes more tricky for us.  A game where we have to stay quiet throughout as we try and find the sound (speaker) in the cabin was fun!

Maths

Counting games

Saying our number names to ten and beyond is one skill we usually all leave Nursery being able to do.  Saying our number names backwards from ten is a little more challenging.  This week we enjoyed playing numeral games in a circle and with a friend as we took it turns to say the next number in the pattern.

Communication and Language

First Day at Bug School, Sam Lloyd

This week, was have been talking about “Special” places and in particular, the place we meet to play and learn every day – Blackwell First School.  Mrs Allen has been sharing this book about a special bug school and Mrs Mander has been taking you on an afternoon walk to spot special things about our own school – can you remember what we spotted?

Dough Disco

(Fine Motor)

Get Back up Again, Poppy

This week it was Isla’s choice as we pinched, folded and splatted the dough to a fun tune from the film Trolls.  We talked a little about the film and the other characters but sadly no flag – even Mrs Mander couldn’t find a flag for this one!

A message for parents – next week we will be talking about another special place – our home.  Thank you for all your “home” photos.  The children are enjoyed spotting theirs and naming their new next-door neighbour!  There is still space for a few more homes for those that haven’t sent them across yet.   

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen and Mrs Franklin X

Forest School Activity

The Big School Birdwatch

Mrs Allen has been enjoying sharing her special bird this week as she has hidden her in forest school.  You have been exploring how to use the binoculars and the bird books to take part in the Big School Birdwatch.  You enjoyed making a bird hide and used lard, raisins and seeds to make a bird feeder.

Write Dance

(Gross Motor)

Wheels on the Bus

We enjoyed revisiting in an old song with new mark making.  You have been creating BIG wheels, wipers and a loud horn on the tables in water and paint.  This was fun without any music on our no technology day as we had to sing the song on repeat and make marks at the same time.

Rhyme Time

Hey Diddle Diddle

We giggled this week as we listened to the sounds that come with this rhyme – a cat, a cow and a dog.  It really sounded like they were in the cabin with us!  For some of us we are beginning to hear the 2 out of 3 words that sound the same – such a tricky skill for so early in the year.

Phonics

The duck sound /d/

We enjoyed finding out what was in the new sound “star” box this week – something that jumps in the water, a loveable dog off the TV and something with a fierce bite.  We didn’t worry though as we had someone “who helps us” when we hurt ourselves and we managed to get them all settled for the dice in the dish game!

Listening

Winter Bingo

In the middle of our coldest season, our bingo game is always a good one to play. We take the time to talk through the pictures on the board and talk about if we have seen them yet. We are all sad to report, we haven’t seen the snowy fire circle or been able to build that snowman….yet!

Maths

The Number 4 patterns and shapes

Water in the Cup

We have enjoyed this week creating shapes and patterns with four sticks this week as we waited for all of our friends to settle. We learnt about the special shape with four sides the same length (square) and we even learnt what we call this when we push it over (rhombus).  Four year children know on average 1500 words, who says they can’t be Maths words! We sang along to the water in the cup song too as we explored what full, part-full and empty look like.

Communication and Language

Betty in the Yeti, Ella Burfoot

You have enjoyed matching up the socks and gloves this week on the washing line as part of your story activity.  Betty kept discovering items of clothing in the snow and wondering who they belong to – can you remember who it was in the end?

Dough Disco

(Fine Motor)

Jump, Girl Aloud

We enjoyed balling and bouncing our dough this week to this perfect disco tune chosen by Amelia.  We talked about Girls Aloud and where they come from.  Can you show your grownups, on your hand this weekend, how many girls were singing this song?

A message for parents – thanks to our Eco Council in school, we all enjoyed the no technology day on Thursday alongside the rest of the school.  No lights, no music and no kettle (!).  It was a good talking point as to how much we use electricity and what the world was like in the old days when Mrs Franklin was a little girl!  The children really enjoyed it – we would highly recommend as an activity one day on the weekend.

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen and Mrs Franklin X

Forest School Activity

Snowflakes

We have certainly experienced the Winter weather this week but yet to see any snowflakes so we just made our own.  Mrs Allen has been showing you how to weave them with wool on the weaving boards and Mrs Franklin has been “crafting” them with you with cotton buds.  Fingers crossed the real things arrive soon!

Write Dance

(Gross Motor)

Just Like This

One messy table is all it takes to make this circle time fun.  You have been marching, zigzagging and creating pizza/pancake shapes on the tables in paint.  Being able to see the shapes your hands can make is always fascinating – wait until we add two different colours to the messy table.

Rhyme Time

Baa Baa Black Sheep

A new year, a new circle time – rhyme time!  We select a nursery rhyme for the week and have fun with it – this week “Baa Baa Black Sheep”.  We sing it loud, quiet, fast, slow.  We have enjoyed listening/naming the sounds of the sheep, a farm gate shutting and somebody knitting.  We then used the “three in a row” picture cards to help us hear which two sound the same.  It is very early days for rhyming but by the summer, we will be experts ready for school.

Phonics

The mouse sound /m/

Our alliteration work is back as we enjoyed a return to the game – What is in the box?  This week, two familiar faces were hiding in there – Mrs Mander and Mrs Moss.  I can let you know, we were fine though as Mrs Allen had popped a marshmallow in there and we had some milk to drink!  Can you remember what else we found in there?

Listening

Hiding under the Blanket

To ensure our listening skills do not leave us, we will keep playing our listening games this term to help us learn to listen.  This week we had to follow all four of the rules as we took it in turns to try and work out which friend was hiding under the blanket.  Always a popular game – you could play at home with your toys this weekend!

Maths

Subitising Ladybirds

The Number 4

As we all joined one by one following our VERY cold Forest School, we enjoyed joining in the dice game of ladybirds.  We took it in turns to roll the dice, spot the same pattern and subitised how many ladybirds were on the leaf.  Once we were all settled, we discovered our numicon 4 makes a wonderful piece of bread and we used pegs to create the toppings and the world’s tallest sandwich.  Collecting four pieces of lettuce, cheese and ice-cream (!) from the basket of pegs helped us understand what four is in so many different ways – subitising, counting as we collect, making a four-square pattern.

Communication and Language

The Gruffalo’s Child, Julia Donaldson

A classic winter story!  Mrs Allen has enjoyed playing her Gruffalo matching pairs game as you joined her for your story time in the Quiet Area after lunch.  You enjoyed keeping the Gruffalo toys warm too as you shared and explored the story.  Can you hear which character in the story begins with our sound /m/?

Dough Disco

(Fine Motor)

When will my life begin, Rapunzel

Evie White – thank you!  A great song and a new flag that we haven’t had before – Germany.  Evie has enjoyed sharing the story of Rapunzel and we have enjoyed making her long hair with the dough and finishing with those floating lanterns (dough balls).

A message for parents – thank you for the front of house photos following the request on the Nursery Newsletter.  The children are enjoying spotting their houses on our display.  Keep them coming in – “we are going on a house hunt” when our Special Places topic begins – I wonder if we will spot some familiar ones?

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen and Mrs Franklin X