Nursery News ~ 11th October 2019

Happy Friday!

Well the colder weather has definitely kicked in this week and for some of us, those warm winter hats have made an appearance. If you haven’t done so already, please could you send in a named warm winter hat for us to keep in our hat basket here at Nursery. By all accounts, we are going to need it this Winter!

In the cabin, during Circle Time, we have been playing/learning:

Listening Games. We enjoyed the looking game of “Follow my Leader” this week in the cabin. This skill of looking at not only adults talking, but also friends, is so important and the game helped support this as we had to keep up with a friend’s actions.

Phonics. As our listening skills improve, we have been able to add in a daily Phonics session to match what happens in Reception and KS1 in school. Phonics is the beginning of our reading journey. We start with listening and recognising environmental sounds both indoors and outdoors. You all enjoyed the bingo game where cabin sounds were played and you had to listen and match to the pictures on your board. We also went on a sound hunt outdoors – Green class definitely provided us with the loudest noise thanks to their musical instrument playing on their balcony!

Number. The “Good Morning” song has been our warm up song this week and has taught us about the sequence of our day – can you remember the signs for good, morning, afternoon, evening, night? We have also braved the scissors and glue this week, ready to add to our Creative shelf in the cabin, by cutting out and sticking the sequence of our Nursery day. These will be ready to come home to share with your family next week so you can talk to them about what you do all day.

Nursery Rhyme. “Incy Wincy Spider” has been a familiar Nursery Rhyme this week and we had fun by replacing the spider with something different from our /s/ glass jar to help our alliteration skills. Which did you find the funniest /s/ object to go down the water spout? Mine was definitely Sophie as she got stuck and we couldn’t get her out. Sorry Sophie, I hope it wasn’t too dark in there???!!!

Write Dance. We have moved on to a new song this week “Tickle Tree” and we have been practising our “tree pose”, tickling fingers and rolling arms for the acorns falling off the trees. If you are out and about this weekend, please could you see if you can collect and bring in some fallen acorns for our acorn bucket?

Dough Disco. A big thank you to Erica this week for Baby Shark, it truly is a classic song we all need to have on repeat in our heads! You enjoyed adding in the dough and squashing it with those hands for jaws. Next week, Harry has shared his favourite – The Music Man – I wonder what interesting instruments the dough can create?

Outdoors, in Forest School, Mrs Allen has shared some of her favourite animal friends with us that we can now enjoy playing with in Forest School.

The Story Area. “After the Storm” with Percy the Park Keeper was our shared story in the quiet area this week – definitely a perfect story for outdoors! Mrs Lewis also shared her Hedgehog story and talked about hedgehogs up on the balcony with some of you. Can you remember any interesting facts about hedgehogs?

Animals. The rabbit, the hedgehog and the squirrel all enjoyed some Hide and Seek fun with us following on from our story as Mrs Allen had hidden them around the Forest School and it was our job to find them. Once rescued, we then had to talk about and create new homes for them. Harry the Hedgehog was definitely safe under his pile of bark, leaves, sticks and feathers during the day – I hope he found his way out of it at night time as he was buried quite deep!

Follow the Leader. Every afternoon, Mrs Allen introduces us to a new playground game. This week, it was “Follow my Leader”. It is still a challenge for us to follow the person in front when there is so much of the world around us that we want to see! Definitely a game we will revisit and practise.

The Gully. Keeping the gully clear of leaves is always high on our agenda at this time of year! These Autumn days do create havoc when it comes to letting the water flow through. Luckily we had plenty of cups, jugs and wooden spoons to scoop it all out and keep that water moving. It was also great to see some of you using the wooden planks to create a bridge over the gully this week.

The Patio. The crates were used this week to create a pathway for us to climb, step and jump over thanks to the ideas of Red class. The wooden planks were added to make it trickier as we had to use our balance for part of the journey. Some of you came up with the idea of using these planks to make a seesaw for you and your friends - it always amazes me how your brains work with all these new ideas!

For those parents who are considering applying for a Reception space in September 2020, there is a whole school Open Evening on Wednesday evening (16th October) at 6.30-7.30pm for parents only. We hope to see lots of you there.

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen, Mrs Franklin, Mrs Lewis, Mrs Barrett and Mrs Flynn.