Headteacher: Anna Moss

Nursery News – Friday 29^th September 2023

Forest School

The Gully

Finally, the gully is officially……open!  This week we have talked about how to stay safe in this area and more importantly for you, how to keep the water flowing.  It has been fun to watch lots of you race to the gully in the morning and afternoon and clean out the mud and sand so we can turn the tap on.  I would like to think you are this keen at home to help out.

Write Dance

(Gross Motor)

Just Like This

This Write Dance song has had us marching, building and eating (!) our way to and from school.  The trickiest action was “crossing the midline”.  Zigzagging arms across the body is a skill that uses both parts of your brain (thank you Oscar for showing me where this was this week). 

Listening Game

Find the Sound

Our listening game this week involved us hiding the music machine in a bucket and hiding the bucket in the cabin.  You took it in turns to use just your ears to find it whilst the rest of us stayed still and quiet to help you.  Staying quiet during parts of our nursery day is just one of the listening skills we learn.

Maths

Circles

As we waited for our friends to join us from Forest School, we enjoyed mark making numeral 1 – the easiest numeral to draw.  It was great to see this mark making continued outside in the sand with you Isri and your sand tool.  Once we were all settled, we enjoyed exploring circles in the cabin.  Finding objects with the circle shape on was fun and a great learning point when we spotted the sunglasses were more ovals than circles.  We enjoyed working as a team of two to create coloured camel circles and today popped on our circle binoculars (our hands!) and found more circles in our Forest School.  Why not go on a circle hunt of your own this weekend?

Communication and Language

End of Topic photo share

As we came to the end of our “All About Me” topic, our final few friends enjoyed sharing their family photo.  We heard all about the dinosaur statue in Jack’s, the trip to Greece in Amelia’s and a rather large Peppa Pig being part of Harriet’s family photo.  Communication and Language incorporates all of the skills of listening, attention, understanding and speaking.  Allowing children time to talk (whilst others stay quiet and listen) is a key part of our learning.  It is so much more than reading a story to the children.

Dough Disco

(Fine Motor)

Watermelon Sugar, Harry Styles

Thank you Elsie for starting the year with an excellent disco song.  We have been working on our first dough action of squeezing and rolling the dough into a ball.  We also had to listen for Harry’s words of “Watermelon Sugar, high” as we span our arm and waved.  Next week, we are going to enjoy George Ezra thanks to Theo.  Please do email in with your disco requests – everyone gets a song and routine for the week. 

A message for parents – we have our whole school Open Evening next Wednesday 4^th October at 6-7pm.  Please do come along with your little one so they can give you a walk around of where they play.  You are also welcome to visit all the classrooms in the whole school.

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen and Mrs Franklin X

Nursery News – Friday 22^nd September 2023

Forest School

Open new areas

With the sand and the mud kitchen fully open for business in our first two weeks, we were ready for the crates.  Mrs Allen showed you how to transport the red crates safely, how you could stack with them and which types of arrangements you could make with them.  The most popular game this week was to use them for a shop as you used the wooden blocks for the money.

Write Dance

(Gross Motor)

We can do anything

To get our body ready for the day ahead, we take part in a morning dance.  We called this Write Dance.  This Autumn term we learn the song/dance part and in the Spring term we mark make to the song once our hands are ready for it.  This week we have enjoyed jumping, stretching, swinging our arms and shaking our hands.  The tricky part was doing each one as we were travelling. 

Listening Game

Matching Pairs

This term our first circle time of the day is always a listening game.  Learning the four listening rules help us learn to listen.  This week you enjoyed playing hide and seek with your three nursery grown ups as we hid their faces around the cabin.  You shared who you had found and we played a taking turns matching pairs game.  Good looking is keeping your eyes on the faces being turned over!

Maths

The number 1

We have two parts to our Maths sessions – the transition game (whilst we wait for all of our friends to join us after Forest School) and a whole class game.  Our transition game was a fun game of showing 1 on a five frame.  Five frames are ways that we can “see” the number without counting.  We then moved on to meeting our orange numicon 1, showing 1 object in our orange hoop and finding ways we can show one on our fingers.  Have a go this weekend!

Communication and Language

When we’re together, Claire Freedman

After our lunch, it is time for some story fun with Mrs Allen in our Quiet area.  Every week, she shares a story linked to our topic.  This week you enjoyed talking about the things you like to do with your friends just like the animals in the story.  Mrs Allen introduced her soft toy friends and you had fun recreating a picnic for them to match an event in the story.

Dough Disco

(Fine Motor)

All About You, McFly

Dough disco is exactly what it sounds like – moving the playdough to a disco song.  We do this daily to increase the strength in the children’s fingers, wrists, hands, arm ready for handwriting next year.  The children will choose the song and we will create the dance.  It is VERY popular part of life with us so get your thinking caps on for a favourite disco song your little one likes – everyone gets a weekly choice.  This week was a topic one as we played musical dough to the song.  When Mrs Franklin stopped the music we had to lock that dough away in a pot and pop our hands in our lap.

A message for parents – it never takes very long for the germs to circulate amongst us (including the adults!) once term begins.  If you feel your child needs calpol before school then we ask that you let us know at drop off and the reason why.  If the reason is because of a high temperature, we ask that you collect them at lunchtime (11.30/12.00) or pop to the office and complete the paperwork for calpol to be administered at 12.00pm when the temperature is likely to spike again.

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen and Mrs Franklin X

Forest School

On the Farm

Who knew toothbrushes would make such good cleaning tools?  You enjoyed cleaning all the farm animals on the patio this week – they look ready for September now.  You also enjoyed creating your own object for the Festival parade today – enjoy swinging that around in the garden at home.

Dough Disco

Old Songs, New Routines

The “music machine” continues to make the song choice and this week it strangely chose well for our Farming topic – ‘What did the Fox Say’, Effy’s choice and ‘Boogie Hedgehog’ (again!!), James’ choice.

Phonics

The wave sound, w

Our final Nursery sound – the wave sound, w.  We were a little scared this week as there were wolves and witches with wands!  We never knew what havoc they may have caused when we opened the box!

Maths

More/Fewer

We have finished our Nursery Maths this year with one final push.  Comparing numbers on dominoes and dice patterns by labelling with more; fewer was clearly too simple and so we used the numicon pieces to help us find out “how many more?” e.g. 6 has two more spots than 4.  Wow! What Maths superstars your new teacher will think you are.

Communication and Language

What the Ladybird Heard, Julia Donaldson

A classic.  A perfect story for learning about “the farm”.  Thanks to Mrs Wilson, our Early Years French teacher – we knew the French name for the main character – coccinelle.  Ask the children to pronounce it correctly rather than trying to read it. :-D

Music

Sounds like a Square Dance!

We did it – we managed to take part in the whole school “country dance”.  Not only did we remember the sequences of moves, we had to do this in the middle of the yellow class circle.  It was so much fun!

A message for parents – the Teddy Bears picnic was a huge hit for the children, we hope they shared with you what happened there.  The minibus and the huge bears were the biggest hit.  I would highly recommend looking out for the events at Burcot Grange for children (posted on parentapp) and take the whole family. 

Enjoy your weekend all!  Two days to go!

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen and Mrs Franklin X

Forest School

On the Farm

Milking the cows was a popular choice this week as you had to fill the rubber gloves with water and squeeze each finger to get it out again.  Such a good exercise for those hands!

Dough Disco

Old Songs, New Routines

The “music machine” continues to make the song choice and this week Henry was happy when Ghostbusters made a return and we still “moved it” to Benji’s disco choice.

Listening Game

Farm Sounds

Staying Quiet was revisited this week as we had to listen to the farm animal making the sound and see if we could match to the correct picture.  We talked about different types of chickens (hens and cockerels) and learnt the French names for cat and dog.

Phonics

The volcano sound, v

Just a few objects in the sound box this week – vulture, van and a vest but a lot more pictures.  We looked at a picture of a real life volcano and talked about why we wouldn’t want this in our box!

Maths

Dominoes

We linked our learning this week by looking at the patterns on our wooden dominoes – we realised we had seen these before when we were able to easily name the domino e.g. 5-2 3-1.  They were of course the same as the dice patterns.  We extended our learning by comparing each side and saying which has more and which has fewer. 

Communication and Language

Fergus the Farmyard Dog, Tony Maddox

You made the link between the characters in this story and one you have shared in the past.  Your story activity of describing animals was fun - luckily you were able to make the sound of the animal as a big clue to your friends.

Music

Sounds like a Square Dance!

Our whole school festival on Friday 21^st July is fast approaching and we are under pressure to master the dance.  Luckily the song is a hit as we can’t help but smile as we skip around in a circle all together in both directions.

A message for parents – we are off for our summer visit to Burcot Grange next Wednesday 19th for a Teddy Bear hunt and picnic.  Letter with further details has come out on parentapp today.  If your child attends on a Wednesday, we won’t be able to offer the 11.30 or 12.00 pick-ups as we are leaving at 10am and returning at 12.30pm for a late lunch.  The earliest collection time will be 1.40pm.

Enjoy the (rainy) weekend all!

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen and Mrs Franklin X

Forest School

On the Farm

You had fun creating your own farm on the tuff tray with sand, mud and water combined.  Those animals had so much fun travelling through all of this.  You also enjoyed working as a team to build your own tractor with the crates.

Dough Disco

 You’re Welcome, Maui

Poor Evie. She danced through everyone else’s songs and somehow didn’t make her own choice.  We soon made up for it Evie with a classic song from Moana.  We talked about, looked at the flag of Hawaii, and learnt four new Hawaiian hand gestures for rain, sun, flower and wind – can you teach your family this weekend?

Listening Game

Odd One Out

We played an old game of musical threes with a twist – when the music stopped, you had to make the three and spot the Odd One Out.  Looking at who is different to the other two in different ways was challenging.

Phonics

The jellyfish sound, j

The sound box was VERY wobbly this week as you discovered two things in there to make it move.  A jellyfish and some jelly.  We also had five familiar faces – can you remember who they were???

Maths

Roll, Match, Subitise

As we head into our final push for school, we have been combining all our learning with a whole class game of Ladybirds.  You were all super at rolling, matching the dice pattern and subitising the ladybirds you collected.  For some, totalling them was your challenge.

Communication and Language

Let’s go to the Farm,

Caryl Hart and Lauren Tobia

To introduce our new Farm topic, Mrs Allen shared this story with you about Bee and Billy visiting new animals on the farm.  You made the story come alive with the role-play wooden animals and enjoyed singing Old McDonald with the animals from the story as you met them.

Music

Sounds like a Square Dance!

For our end of term whole school festival on Friday 21^st July, we have begun practising our very own country-dance in the afternoon.  Taking part in the same dance routine as the rest of the school may be our challenge but we can do this!

A message for parents – the French café is open next week for the whole school and this is for Nursery too!  Please send the children in with their 50p’s to buy a delicious French breakfast snack on any morning.  When they head past Mrs Moss, we will be there to support them with a visit to the tuck shop.  This is good practice for those heading into main school in September!  We will be ready for them in the cabin with our very own French dining table set up.

Have a lovely weekend all.

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen and Mrs Franklin X

A message for parents – we look forward to seeing lots of you at the Summer Fayre tomorrow.  Please come along to our produce store where the children’s sunflowers are ready to buy and be (urgently) planted at home.  I wonder whose sunflower will grow to be the tallest and whether our cabin butterfly friends will come and visit them?

Enjoy the weekend all,

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen and Mrs Franklin X

A message for parents – our whole school photograph will be taken on Tuesday (27^th June) at 9am.  If your little one does not attend usually on a Tuesday and you would like them to be in the photograph - please send them in at normal time and collect at 11.30am.  This photograph is taken once every five years and so for our September school starters, they will be on it now and the year they leave Blackwell (in Blue class).  Quite special for them!

Have a lovely weekend all! 

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen and Mrs Franklin X

Since our return to school, we have all enjoyed two whole weeks of glorious weather.  Thank you for all the hats and cream – we are in a good routine with our longer sunny morning and shorter shady afternoons.  Long may it continue for the next five weeks.

A message for parents – it is lovely to hear that some children are taking their phonics home with their “sound talk and blend”.  This is a Little Wandle phrase that we introduce the children to as part of school life at Blackwell.  Sound talking is breaking the word down into its sound and blending together at the end e.g. c-a-t cat.  We play your turn, my turn.  It is all part of their reading journey.

Have a lovely Father’s Day everyone! 

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen and Mrs Franklin X