Headteacher: Anna Moss

Happy Friday All!

Mr Beattie has had a huge smile on his face all week as we have been dancing with our dough to his disco song ’Reach’ by S Club 7.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50kP4S0peAs  After watching this clip, I think it is safe to say our disco moves were so much better with our shake, point and reach/rainbow.  I know some of you have been singing and dancing to this at home.  Get ready for next week as we have Connie’s choice with a classic Proclaimers song – there is going to be some walking actions somewhere in this song!.  Our listening game has been all about the beanbags as we have had to listen to the words and follow the actions of putting the beanbag on our head, under our chin and in our left and right hand.  In Phonics we have continued blending our CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words with the /e/ sound in the middle.  Ben’s face made us all smile when he realised we were moving our robot arms to his name.  Have you shown these robot arms at home yet?  Try it with ten, hen, den, pen.  We have also used our scissors skills to snip up our names and tried to piece our very own puzzle back together.

With the weather being so warm towards the end of the week, we decided to shut the cabin doors and take the rest of our learning outdoors.  We have explored who is tall, who is short and began using the measuring stick to see how tall we all are.  Our gross motor skills have been tested as we have been learning how to hang safely on the monkey bars.  It always make me smile to see those of you who can hook your feet across the top and hang upside down.  We have begun talking about our new topic “Summer” as we have shared the story On the Beach.  It was fun spotting which vehicle the little boy was going to travel on next in the pictures.  We have looked at our summer bingo boards too and talked about signs of summer – can you remember any of them?    With the weather predicted to rain, Mrs Allen had planned some lovely wet weather activities but it never came!  You helped her make rain collectors to fit around Forest School and predicted which one would catch the most rain.  They may be there for some time now whilst we wait for them to fill up.  The tiny bit of rain they did collect was used to water the fast growing lettuce.  Next week, like our story, the sandpit is having a transformation and becoming the beach.  Mrs Allen will bring towels, buckets and spades and blankets – what do you think the chances are the rain will come then!?

A message for parents – it was lovely to see lots of you at the summer fayre last week and thank you for helping support the school by purchasing the sunflowers the children have planted and created.  We still have some left and so if you would like to buy, please send £2.50 in and they will come home with it.

Have a lovely weekend everyone – summer holiday is almost here!

Happy (almost) Father’s Day weekend!

In the cabin, we have begun our final Music topic using instruments as you have had a go at choosing how an untuned instrument is played and seeing if your friends can match to the correct action.  Can you remember how you moved the tambourine to make your friends clap, slap their knees and roly poly their arms?  Our dough disco has been Neve Yorke’s choice this week, Wannabe by the Spice Girls. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkmxCl1dsDw – enjoy!  In Phonics, we have worked hard on matching our letter sounds to those of some old nursery friends as we have played Sound Bingo.  We have even begun to turn the photo over to read the grapheme – Reception here we come!  This is a good point to remind your grown-ups of the importance of “pure sounds”.  This clip is one to watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCI2mu7URBc to help support you with this.  In Maths we have had fun with the dice bucket.  We began the week by recalling our dice patterns from memory up to six, we talked about the smallest and largest number on the dice and worked out how we could make more – with two dice!  It was so lovely to hear lots of you talk about “doubles” when rolling them e.g. double 2 makes 4, double 4 makes 8.  We moved on to play our own human board game where one player was the piece and one player was the roller.  We talked about the Start and Finish Line and how we never count the one we are on.  Snakes and Ladders on the patio here we come!

Outdoors we have continued with our Daddy topic as you have taken your Daddy photos out on an adventure in Forest School.  Miss Turner has been sharing one of her favourite Daddy stories with “Are we there yet?” and she has had you planning your perfect trip with Daddy – I wonder if you can remember where you chose?  The butterflies took flight on Monday afternoon as it was time to say goodbye to them.  Luckily for us (!) we had one, Bob, who just did not want to leave us and so we will continue to feed him our melon skins in the hope he will summon the strength to leave his nest.  Fingers crossed for Bob everyone.  The tadpoles are feeling much the same way, they just do not want to grow up – much like some of you when we talk about moving on.  I think maybe it is time to release them into the school pond and hope a bigger space without eyes watching them all the time will mean they transform!  I know this will make Nina happy as she is a huge frog fan!  Mrs Allen has had you gardening this week as you have been watering your own planted seed (I wonder what it will be?), planting a large planter for the mud kitchen revamp and watching the beans grow shoots!  These aren’t the only things growing are they?  Finishing off your Learning Journey of the whole year ready for you to take home, has had us smiling at how young you were nearly a year ago – a real treat for your grown-ups to have at the end of term.

A message for parents – a quick reminder on times for pickup.  These are 11.30 (no lunch), 12.00 (with lunch), 1.40 (end of the “official” school day), 3.10.  Please do let us know on drop off (or before the day via email) if there is a change to the usual pattern.  If they will not be attending at all, please let Mrs Mander know the night before or the school office on the day. If you plan on holidaying in the next five weeks, please do let us know so we don’t have to bother the office making phone calls to find out.

Enjoy your special day daddies – we hope you like your cards!  The words were genuine responses to “tell me about daddy”.

Welcome back to our final half term!

The sun has certainly shone for us this week and what a difference it makes not having to wear those waterproofs.  Thanks to you all for coming in wearing hats and cream applied (or in bag) – that sun can get a little warm when you are out in it all day long.

In the cabin, we have started our final Phonics topic of “Voice Sounds”.  We had fun looking at the faces of our old Nursery friends (now in Green class!) and trying to work out from looking at their mouths, which letter sound they were making.  The fun begins when we put three friends together to make words – that reading journey really has begun!  Our “Singing Games” music theme has finished this week with the song Lost my Partner.  I am looking forward to sharing our video clips with Mrs Cutler, our music specialist next week.  In Maths we have had fun with our new numicon necklaces.  It was great to see you comparing yours with a friend and talking about the same, different, more, less and even combining to make a new total.  To watch Martha and Neve Y connect their 3 and 1 to make 4 and Joseph and Harry connect their 6 and 6 to find out double 6, makes 12 – shows how far you have come on the number journey.  Our dough disco has been Miss Turner’s choice, Fireworks.   We have enjoyed making Catherine wheels with our dough, lighting them and making them spin.  There is only one clip to watch for this one J  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFWnVdsSgxs 

Outdoors we have been sharing our Daddy photographs with our peers and talking a lot about him.  Our special “Olympic” cards are almost ready to come home but ssshhhh, don’t tell them.  It has been lovely that some of you are bringing in stories from home – I wonder whether next week, you could bring in a Daddy themed story to tie in with our topic?  Mrs Allen has been over the moon this week as her “babies” have finally made it out of their cocoon.  I think it was the sheer volume of melon skin that enticed them out – we do get through a lot of melon!  The tadpoles on the other hand are not doing quite as well, especially after a little trip home in half term with me.  In filling up their container with more pond water and weeds, I didn’t notice I had also given them a new friend to play with – a newt.  Needless to say there were less tadpoles the following morning.  The last surviving seven have really been through the mill but we aren’t giving up on them just yet!  Mrs Allen has been talking all things seeds with you as you have been planting a special one in the hope it will grow ready for the summer fair.  You have been all arty up on the balcony by creating your own colourful labels for the pots and some of you have made a paper sunflower plate.  In the afternoons, you have been exploring the seeds in fruit using the magnifying glasses to spot them.

Have a lovely sunny weekend everyone.

Happy Half Term Everyone!

We have been all things sporty this week for our Sporting Topic – the children must be exhausted!  We have been talking about the different races at the upcoming Olympic Games in Japan this summer and have printed our own Olympic logo ready for some special cards we will be producing for a special day in June.  Our dough disco has had us moving to Khadijah’s choice with Run DMC, It’s Like That.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlUJUYnFXjw.  In Forest School, Mrs Allen has been sharing a range of Sports Day stories and practising all your favourite sporting events ready for our own Olympic event which we did this morning on the school field.  I am amazed you are still standing after all that racing – walking, running, egg and spoon, jumping and even a balancing the quoit on your head race.  I can tell you that all five of the Nursery adults will sleep well tonight as we raced against one another and you all – you can certainly run fast for people with little legs!

We hope you have a fun filled half term now life is returning slowly to normal.  Fingers crossed the sun shines for us all and keep them crossed for our tadpoles and caterpillars who will be getting some well-deserved peace and quiet whilst we are away.  Let’s hope they manage to finally grow some legs and wings. 

Enjoy your week everyone

Happy Friday!

Well we made it to the end of a wild week of weather didn’t we?  The hoods were up, the hoods were down all week long as the weather just couldn’t make a decision about what it wanted to do.  Alongside the challenge of this wild weather, we have also had the challenge of broken cabin toilets.  This has meant a lot of walking up and down to the School Room toilet all week – you must be tired!  When both combined, we found ourselves really tested as we queued in the rain – we are much tougher than we look!  This queueing  just meant an excellent opportunity to learn our music song “Old King Glory” in the front playground as we followed the King around the circle and followed him when tapped on the head.  During our limited time in the cabin, we have had fun with Lyla’s choice of dough disco “Gold Dust” by DJ Fresh.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-vWg0Oue6w   It has definitely been one of our favourite disco songs as we have been spinning, shaking and running in slow motion with the dough.  We have extended our doubles work with a new song - Double Monster.  You made excellent four handed, twenty toed, two eyed monsters!  We also revisited our looking skills with a game of Spring Bingo – you did well to remember the things we talked about during our old topic.  It was lovely to see some of you choosing to play it during Indoor Play this morning.  Florence, you made an excellent bingo caller.  Can you remember and still spot some of those Spring things this weekend - I know you could definitely spot those Spring bluebells!  

Outdoors, Mrs Allen has been sharing the progress of the tadpoles (they are still swimming) and caterpillars (they are still eating).  It is fascinating to watch how two of the caterpillars have already spun their cocoons and gone to sleep.  We just need to wait for the other three to join them and then we can transfer them to their new special net home.  Exciting times ahead!  You have had a lot of fun in the wetness of Forest School as the mud kitchen and the gully always become popular when it means you can collect, transfer and move wet mud much easier.  Lots of you had fun making pizza with Mr Beattie in the mud kitchen – I hope they tasted as nice as Mrs Barker’s!  The brushing of hair last Friday - ready for school photographs - has meant the brushes have come out into Forest School.  You have thoroughly enjoyed grooming all the soft toy animals – they are photograph ready now!

A message for parents – the sample class nursery photograph (taken last Friday) will be coming home in bags by the end of today.  Please note, if you were not in attendance on the day, a photo hasn’t been sent home to you.

Have a lovely wet and windy weekend everyone.  It might be somebody’s birthday on Monday but I am not sure whether this has been mentioned at all……..

Happy Friday!

What a wet week we have had but it hasn’t stopped you from enjoying some outdoor fun – rain just creates wet sand, wet mud and puddles!

We have continued our “Lifecycle” topic as we have been singing/sharing our Nursery Rhyme “Rock-a-Bye Baby” and looking at real life baby objects of a Babygro, toys and books.   You never tire of those baby books do you?  In Phonics, the Pink Panthers have joined us in Nursery as you competed against them to keep the correct objects on the correct vehicle.  Can you find some things at home this weekend that could travel on our bus, car, train and sleigh?  Having your own ideas for objects that begin with the same sound is such a tricky skill but we find every year, there are always some children that can do it.  In Maths we have had fun exploring the cabin and ourselves as we have been “doubling”.  How quick would we get our lunch with double Mrs Franklin?  How noisy would the room be with double music machines playing?  Some of you started doubling numbers on the washing line which led us all into doubling numicon on our new numicon frames – recalling doubles to 5 and understanding what this means is the next stage on your Maths journey as you move into Reception later this year.  We have also been developing our Fine Motor skills as we have been visiting the daily dough disco session, this week to Kylie.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7nvnSJRQWo  We have talked about where she is from and even created a dough disco move just for her – “around the world”. 

After lunch, we have managed to get out on to the Trim Trail as the rain held off as we develop our Gross Motor skills.  We have also continued our lifecycle topic in the Quiet Area as we have been giggling at your baby photos on display as well as the baby photos of the grownups in Nursery.  Can you remember who has the messiest face?  Who is naked and ready for a bath?  Who has the longest spikiest hair?  These photos, alongside the work you did with them at home last weekend, has meant they have come up with some excellent suggestions of the things they can do now compared to when they were younger – feed myself, hold a pencil correctly and do up my own zip.  Now you have mastered those zips and have this positive attitude to getting yourself ready for Forest School, we have begun the final stage of being “school ready” as this week, the grownups have been getting themselves ready and going down in to Forest School whilst you were doing it all yourself – our FAVOURITE term by far!  Once you made it down, you were introduced to the five new live friends in a pot – the caterpillars.  As well as keeping a VERY close eye on the tadpoles growing legs, we are about to enjoy a fascinating lifecycle over the coming weeks!  You have been looking at photographs of different butterfly wings and talking about the patterns.  I wonder what colour our new friends’ wings are going to be?  Mrs Allen has been sharing her favourite poem about a caterpillar from when she was a little girl (some time ago!) called Arabella Miller.  During the Outdoor Play session you have also been role playing the story of the Hungry Caterpillar with some story spoons as you have been feeding and feeding him hoping for change.

A message for parents – to help support our doubling work, could you find a small mirror and allow them some time to explore the home/garden to double people and objects in your home?  Talk to them about what this would mean.  Watch our Freddie, doubling Freya was the one thing we were worried about!! 

Have a lovely weekend everyone, fingers crossed for a break from the rain!

Happy Friday!

Another week has flown by along with the wind we had at the beginning of the week.  Our life cycles topic has continued as we have been talking about and watching the progress of our own tadpoles.  We have extended our life cycle learning by exploring the life cycle of a butterfly.  The Caterpillar Caper song was a huge hit as we listened to the tiny caterpillar talk to us from the egg, eat very noisily, spin his cocoon (Spinny Spinny Spinny), snore loudly and what happened after this?  He found he had grown wings and could fly.  We have had fun role-playing this life cycle as we have munched our way through apple, pear, plum, strawberries and orange – and yes, even Neve Y and Ralph gave it a go!!  It was funny to watch you today lying in the sun, snoozing in your cocoons before testing your wings out around Forest School.

Alongside our learning about lifecycles, we have also been practising our pitch in our daily Music session.  We were introduced to two new characters Hedgehog and Badger.  Can you remember which pitch these characters liked singing?  Perhaps you could have a go at the weekend and sing both ways to your families?  We have revisited the listening rule “Staying Quiet” as we always need to  practise at this time of year when our confidence is bursting at the seams by playing a game of Hide and Seek with the instruments.  In Phonics we have continued our work on alliteration as we have been trying to work out which friends and objects Mr Bus will let sit on him – can you remember which two friends were allowed on it?  In Maths we have moved on to the number 7 and playing with numicon 7, we have been working out the different ways we can make seven.  This is the start of our number bond work and you enjoyed helping Mrs Mander with the No 7 puzzle game today!  Can you remember which two numbers can make seven?  Thanks to Clara, we have been dough discoing to “Cotton Eyed Joe” every morning – I think we are all going to find it tricky to get this song out of our heads!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlJYTWxSVM4

Out in Forest School, Mrs Allen has been very arty as you have been creating all sorts for our life cycle display.  At the beginning of the week, she showed you how to make your own butterflies by printing your hands on either side of the paper for the wings.  It was great to see we even had some colour mixing as you made your own orange, green and purple wings by mixing two colours that you have been shown in Write Dance.  A little later in the week, we saw some wonderful life cycle paper plate pictures as you have created the four stages using just tissue paper.  The story The Hungry Caterpillar has been shared with you lots of times as you are all fascinated by the change of the caterpillar in the story – I wonder whether we will ever see this happen in real life???  As well as your art skills, you have also been developing your Gross motor skills with some ribbon dances to the Ugly Bug Ball and you had fun moving around the Forest School hunting for matching pictures of caterpillars.

A message for parents – as we move on to the human life cycle next week, over the weekend would you be able to share photos with the children of themselves as babies and talk about how much they have changed.  Our focus next week will be comparing what they couldn’t do as a baby that they can do now.  If you could give them a little background knowledge, it always helps our learning partner work!  J

Have a lovely weekend everyone, fingers crossed for some sunshine!

Happy Friday!

We are back in the swing of Nursery life in the summer term as we have opened up the trim trail to Nursery children.  After lunch, the children have the opportunity for a 15-minute play on some rather large and challenging equipment – excellent for their Physical Development.  This play opportunity is preparing them for life in Red class for lots of the children as they are managing their own risk at a whole new level.  We were very impressed with the talk partner work of thinking up their own Trim Trail rules – I wonder if they can remember and share them with you this weekend?  They will make you smile, especially Neve Yorke’s suggestion about the ladybirds on the trail.

In the cabin we have been learning about Pitch with our Music song “Hello Anna”.  We have been calling and responding and passing the ball to “someone new”.  Next week we will see if we are ready to call and respond at different pitches with our puppets Hedgehog and Badger.  In Phonics we have begun work on alliteration.  Hearing the first sounds of words is a key skill on our reading journey.  This week we have listened to the grownups sounds for Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen and Miss Turner.  I wonder if they can share the sound, the action and name the letter e.g. the sound is “mmmmm”, the action is hand on tummy, rubbing in a circle and the letter name is an “Em”.  Florence and I had so much fun when we tried to trick the rest of the team by mixing up our m, a and t objects but we weren’t quick enough to win the game.  Our Listening game has been all about Looking as we have played the game Dobble as a whole class -  a super game to practice those Looking skills.  In Maths we have all been robots with our own remote controls.  Can you remember the five symbols on the plate?  Can you remember what happens when we press the square button?

Outdoors we have been dough discoing to Pippa’s favourite singer Rihanna with the song Dancing in the Dark from the film Home. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd3xfhPmPPY   We have continued to watch and talk about changes of the tadpoles in the tank after a near fatal accident.  Using some story stones we have been learning about the lifecycle from frogspawn – tadpole – frogpole – frog.  Next week we move on the human life cycle as we share some hilarious baby photos – thank you for sending them in.  Out in Forest School, Mrs Allen has been sharing the story “I am Frog” and you have been making your own frog using parts of an egg box – they look brilliant!  We have also revisited the fishing game by making our own rods and trying to hook a fish.  This has linked us nicely into some Science work on sinking and floating as later in the week, you got to test which items in Forest School sank and which floated.  Unfortunately, the sinking items meant a lot of wet sleeves – see message below.

A message for parents – please can you ensure the children come dressed for outdoor play with jumpers and coats on (even if they are just in their bag at drop off) as the mornings are still quite chilly.  Could you also ensure that you send in a whole change of outfit (including a spare jumper) and one cuddly toy for Quiet Time is enough.

Have a lovely long weekend everyone.

Welcome back everyone!

We hope you had a lovely Easter break.  It has been lovely to have all the children return to us with chocolate in their tummies, smiles on their faces and sunhats on their heads.  The weather has certainly helped the return to school for all of us.  Now we are heading into the summer term, please could you ensure that on the sunny days, sun cream is applied before they come to school and if they are staying all day, the bottle is put in their bag for an afternoon application!  Although it has been sunny, it certainly hasn’t been that warm in the mornings.  Please can we request that children continue to wear a warm jumper and a coat for a little while longer.  It definitely isn’t warm enough in the cabin for t-shirts only as we have the windows and doors open all the time for ventilation.  Coats are a must for our morning Forest School sessions and the shady Quiet Area after lunch.

In the cabin this week, we have finally said goodbye to Cyril Squirrel as he played his final rhyming game with us – Odd One Out.  This concept was a new one for most of you and one that we need to return to.  Being able to spot the Odd One Out from a group of three where two have something the same and the other doesn’t is quite a challenge for 3 and 4 year olds.  Perhaps you could have a go at this game on the weekend by laying three objects in a row.  We have been winding the bobbin up with our rhyme of the week and to make it fun, changing the order, words and actions!  Our listening game has been introduced by our sequencing caterpillar where you have had a go at listening to up to 3 instrumental sounds and finding out if you can store these sounds in your head and show them in order.  In Maths we have been learning about more or less and had fun with a more/less disco party!   

Outdoors, we have enjoyed our dough disco circle time in the Quiet Area but instead of dough we have been moving the monkeys to their favourite tune “Dance Monkey” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gADgM89skZQ We have been sharing the non-fiction book FROG and have been sharing daily the lifecycle of a frog.  We are lucky enough to have our very own transforming in front of our eyes – we are keeping a close eye on the legs growing as this is when we will start to build a habitat for them in the school pond and NOT in the Nursery cabin.  In Forest School, Mrs Allen has been showing you how to make salt free dough and you have had fun making faces using this with natural objects found in around you.  It is funny to walk in to a dough face stuck to the tree or wall – makes us smile every time!  Drawing with charcoal from the fire has also been a big hit – it makes a change and is much more easy to use than the mud!  If you have an outdoor fire on a summer evening, have a go at mark making with it the next day!  Mrs Allen has also been recapping on the rules around the fire circle and discussed the safety part of not entering the fire circle.  I feel a Nursery fire must be imminent……

A message for parents – Spring term invoices will have come out in bags today.  Please do come to Nursery staff with any queries rather than the school office.

Enjoy some sun this weekend everyone.