Headteacher: Anna Moss

Happy Spring!

Two weeks have flown by as we have moved into our Spring topic.  We have been sharing Spring stories both indoors and outdoors and started looking for those signs of Spring using the magnifying glasses.  This weekend, see if you can spot some signs of Spring when out and about – birds singing, flowers growing, trees and bushes growing back their leaves and blossom.  We had a slight change to our plans with broken toilets for a short while but it didn’t stop us ticking off the tasks in our day as we ended up with our circle times on the front playground whilst we used the School Room toilets.  We enjoyed sitting on the front steps and taking it in turns to wear the blindfold to guess who was saying hello to us in our Listening game – “Who is it?”  We also enjoyed bringing Bertie Bus and his driver Bobby to the front playground and seeing which people, animals and objects he would allow on the bus during our Phonics.  Thank you Isla for working out what his problem was - he only liked people, animals and objects that had his sound.  We have also taken our Maths circle times outside as we have been doubling in Forest School with mirrors, creating Double Monsters with a friend and playing the “Double Double Double” game with our finger numbers.  When we had sinks in action, we were able to continue with our Write Dance to two of our familiar songs – “Just Like This” and “We can do anything” and have been colour mixing on the tables.  Can you remember what colour blue and yellow made?  Red and yellow?  Dough disco has been all about rhythm patterns thanks to Robyn and her We Will Rock You, Queen choice and squeezing the dough to Mrs Franklin’s choice of Can’t stop the Feeling, Justin Timberlake.  Watch them in action this weekend with these links - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tJYN-eG1zk and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru0K8uYEZWw

In Forest School, Mrs Allen has been sharing her favourite Spring stories, Superworm and Spike’s Best Nest.  You have enjoyed playing hide and seek with ten Superworms and using the soft toy animals and ribbons to role play the story of Spike.  In the mornings on the patio, you have enjoyed printing Spring pictures with forks in preparation for some special cards we will be making to go home this half term.  Up on the balcony in the afternoons, you have been wrapping your worms with wool and working on your fine motor skills. 

A message for parents – parent consultation slips will come home in the children’s bags and a Zoom link sent via parentapp next Friday (18^th).  Look out for both.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen, Mrs Franklin, Miss Turner (am), Mrs Hampton (pm) X

Happy Half Term Everyone!

Storm Dudley blew that week away so fast alongside our Forest School.  As we enjoyed the final week in our Winter topic; Mrs Allen has had you rolling ice balls down your own ramps and we have been sharing a new Winter story, Snow Bears.  We have danced and made marks with chalk to a popular Maths song all about Beans and moved the dough to Nina’s favourite disco song, Rolling in the Deep by Adele.  In Maths, we have been talking about the word heavy and what this means.  You were tested on your idea of heavy when we filled up different size boxes with objects – which one was the heaviest?  The small or the big one?  We also took our learning outside as we made our own scales to stand on using only a wooden block and a plank of wood.  Today was Nina’s final day so we celebrated with chocolate/sweets for snack thanks to our Break the Rules Day, a fire in the Forest to keep us warm, doughnuts for pudding after lunch (thank you Nina!), and taste testing of Red classes own made juices this afternoon.  I am not sure about you but I am ready to burst.

A message for Nina and family – good luck Miss Madura on your new adventure.  We have enjoyed every day you have been with us for the past two years.  Your love of Sid the Snake, dancing and the weather when it finally warms up in the Spring have made us all smile.  Have a safe trip and keep in touch!

Have a lovely family week everyone!

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen, Mrs Franklin, Miss Turner (am), Mrs Hampton (pm) X

Happy Friday!

Another week has flown by and we are almost halfway through the year.  Our Winter topic has continued in the cabin with our Write “Penguin” Dance.  Enjoy at home - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf0uKmKwnKs .  Outside in Forest School, Mrs Allen has been sharing with you the Winter story, The Storm Whale.  You have enjoyed making your own cardboard snowflakes on the balcony, weaving with wool and creating snowflakes with paper and pipe cleaners.  Can you hear the same sounds in both of these words?  I have never known a group of children who love (and can hear) alliteration as much as you.  Our Phonics topic has really excited you all as we began to share our sound boxes and sang about the two dicky birds (with the same sound) who are sitting on a wall.  Can you think of someone who could sit with you on a wall?  In Music we have been pitch matching using our chime bars to the notes C,D,E,F,G.  This has tied in beautifully to our Maths work on the number 5 as we have been stopping at five and counting backwards.  You enjoyed drawing around your own five on your hand and printing five in water around Forest School.  Now we have talked about the numbers to five, we stop for a little while and begin to have fun with them – splitting them, doubling them, finding one more/less than them.  Our dough disco has been chosen by Carly; Grease Lightnin’ from the film Greece.  You enjoyed listening to Gracie Mander playing it on the piano for you via video link today.  We have been talking about Danny and his friends in the film and how they wanted a fast motor car.  Grease Lightnin’ became our car in the SALT Listening game as we had to drive around the cabin and be ready to stop when we saw the STOP sign or the music stopped.  It was challenging with so many children, in order to keep in the game, you had to NOT bump a friend!  During our C&L session after lunch we have continued with our Winter story, One Snowy Night and have been adding to our word wall as Zia gave us the word “reflection”.  We talked about this word - what it means and where we would find it?  I did feel old when we used blank CD’s to see our reflection with only five of you knowing what one was.  The CD player is coming out next week!  In the afternoons, Mrs Allen has been adapting the usual playground games with a Winter theme – Musical Frozen Statues and Frozen Stuck in a Mud.  Brrrrrrr.

A message for parents – it was so lovely to see you on Wednesday afternoon/evening and we were so happy to have you in the cabin to see the children’s learning environment.  For any parents who came with questions/queries who we didn’t get to speak to, please do come and ask.

Have a lovely weekend everyone

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen, Mrs Franklin, Miss Turner (am), Mrs Hampton (pm) X

Happy Friday!

We have finally made it to the end of our “Circus” topic and the Nursery grown-ups have thoroughly enjoyed learning all about it with you.  In C&L we have enjoyed sharing our final circus story, At the Circus, and have been talking about the word ‘opposites’ and what this means.  It was funny listening to you share times when you argue at home just like our characters Eddie and Ellie.  In Write Dance we have been playing the parts of the circus characters to the music and today enjoyed sharing our circus show to Red class.  Take some time this weekend to watch/listen to the music and see if your family can work out who you are.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pct1uEhAqBQ  During our morning Forest School session Mrs Allen has been testing how strong you are by using the pipes to be strong “people” from the circus. Towards the end of the week, a stage was set using the crates ready for the outdoors.  In the afternoons, you have enjoyed mark making using your hands and boots; printing mud on paper. We took this piece of mark making, alongside our Write Dance juggling ball circles, to show to the rest of the school as part of the writing competition.  I think Mrs Moss was actually very impressed with our writing skills in Nursery!  Our dough disco song has been very non Circusy as Emily chose yet another Spice Girls song, Spice up your Life.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7r03_iLh_ng . I don’t know about you, but that tune is going in circles around my head.  In the cabin we have learnt yet another new song as part of our daily Music session, Rain Rain Go Away.  We are moving on to learning about pitch this term with this call and respond song.  In Phonics we have been using our listening rules to pass the body sounds around the circle.  We moved on today by starting to create our first musical composition as you chose which two sounds you were going to combine to create your own piece of music.  In Maths we have been learning all about the square.  We all know you can recognise it when you see it but our focus has been exploring the properties – four corners, four straight sides that are all the same length.  We enjoyed watching you carry out your own investigation today as you had collected straight sticks and were trying to piece them together to make the square – tricky wasn’t it when they were all different lengths.  Have a go this weekend and see if you can find a collection of straight sticks and make the square. 

A message for parents – next week you will be given your allocated time to come and visit us in the cabin on 9^th February.  This is an opportunity for you and your child to take a tour, play with table top toys and find a seat somewhere to share the Learning Journeys.  Parent consultations discussing progress will take place after half term.  We have talked to the children about only being able to play with a few friends on that evening and how we will use the bell (they are used to) as their “time to tidy” warning and moving on to allow time for the next children to arrive safely. 

Have a lovely weekend.  It looks set to be tropical after the temperatures we had at the beginning of the week!

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen, Mrs Franklin, Miss Turner (am), Mrs Hampton (pm) and Miss Herlihy (student teacher) X

Happy Friday!

Another successful week of “Circus” as we learn more about them every day.  Our dough disco song, The Greatest Show, has been a huge hit as we have used our dough to be jugglers, strong “people”, clowns and make a ring of fire for our family of five.  Try and find some time this weekend to watch the clip – can you spot the ringmaster? The tall man?  The jugglers?  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKLT6_7Y1nc .  In the Quiet area after dough disco we have enjoyed spotting these circus characters in our story Peppa’s Circus as part of our C&L story as well as clapping out the full names of Peppa’s friends.  We have learnt some more circus skills in Forest School as we had a go at walking along a chalk line, starting on the S and ending on the F.  Why did Mrs Mander draw these letters?  If you have some chalk at home, draw your own balance line and see if you can follow.  We made this balancing  task even harder as we had a go with the Red classes beams, creating our own straight and curved pathways.  In the afternoons, Mrs Allen has been teaching you how to make and create your very own paper plate map.  You used these with friends to move around the outdoor space.  In the cabin, we have been playing with our different voices with our daily Music song, “Have you brought your singing voices?”.  We have had fun singing our days of the week with sad, angry and quiet voices – quite a giggle.  We took our whisper voices to our Listening game “Chinese Whispers” where we had the challenge of taking a friend’s name around the circle through our ears.  We worked so hard on this game as, once we got past the need to change what we heard, the same name came back to the beginning.  With Miss Herlihy in Phonics, you have been extending those body sounds by creating sounds with your mouth, lips and teeth.  Get ready for some fun games next week where you have to recognise them when you can’t see the action.  With our subitising skills (counting up to 3 with our eyes) firmly in place, we have moved on in our daily Maths session and begun our counting journey as we have learnt about the number 4.  Our first challenge was making different arrangements of four as we played Musical Fours – numicon/dice style and in a row style.  We then had a go at collecting four and knowing to stop when we have four – quite a challenge for some!  We then linked the two and made our two arrangement with them.  Seeing numbers in different ways is a key skill!

A message for parents – the children are so excited to welcome you in to the Nursery for play with them on the 9^th February.  We are all so excited to finally be able to have you come in and share their learning journeys with you so you can see all the hard work they do.  Please do return the slips to the office or in the children’s bags so we can allocate spaces safely.    

Have a lovely weekend!

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen, Mrs Franklin, Miss Turner (am), Mrs Hampton (pm) and Miss Herlihy (student teacher) X

Happy Freezing Friday All!

Gosh the weather has turned cold but it doesn’t seem to stop you from wanting to be playing outdoors.  Thank you for bringing in those warm hats and gloves from home.  We have found that you are all so keen to wear your own gloves and so we are happy for you to do so as long as you aren’t wearing them in the mud, sand or gully – it is important to look after our own things.  We are now full swing into our second term and very much enjoying our circus topic.  During our C&L sessions we have been sharing the story – “You see a Circus” and we have been talking about the funny characters that we would see at a circus.  It was fun to watch you become clowns when you were wearing Mrs Mander’s shoes. We did giggle.  Miss Herlihy has been teaching you some circus skills in Forest School as you have been jumping through a ring of fire and balancing on stilt cups.  She has more to teach you and then we all look forward to you putting on an outdoor circus show for our friends in Red class in a few weeks’ time.  Mrs Allen has been teaching you how to be gymnasts as you have been swaying with and looping ribbons on sticks to the music.   In the afternoons, she has been showing you how to use sticks, twigs and a little bit of mud to mark make on paper – have a go at home at making your own and find some mud to mark make.  In the cabin, we have been having fun in Music with the Tambourine Game and you enjoyed having to show three actions depending on what the tambourine was doing – clap, slap knees and roly poly.  The first two actions/sounds tied in beautifully with the Phonics topic Body Sounds that Miss Herlihy has been teaching you all about.  It was fun for me to come in and watch you perform these body sounds to the circus tune.  In Write Dance we have been flying in the sky as jet planes and birds and have now moved our learning on as we have been mark making on the tables.  With your hands, you have been drawing horizontal and vertical lines and for some of you, with blue paint this morning.  Please say sorry to your grownups if you have come home tonight with blue paint under your nails.  During dough disco, Poppy O chose yet another Spice Girls song, STOP.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JD6ejmlpa8 – can you spot Baby, Posh, Scary, Sporty and Ginger Spice doing their stop hands like we did with the dough?  Maths has been all about turning flat shapes (circles) into fat shapes (cones) as we learnt a new magic trick.  Enjoy sharing this with those paper plates at the weekend.  I wonder what you will use your new shape for?  We also all enjoyed eating our very own cones today for our pudding – a cookie cone is definitely something we need on any menu!

A message for parents – With the majority of the children now being able to read their own name, we move on to drawing their initial sound on arrival.  In nursery, we focus purely on the capital letter only and how to form this correctly as the lower case letters can be taught so differently in the range of schools the children all move on to.  You are doing so well with this daily practice – keep it going.  Next week, for those that are ready, it is going to be our number formation.  For those keen mark makers at home, feel free to encourage the drawing of this first shape only, and the number 0 1 2. 

Have a lovely weekend!

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen, Mrs Franklin, Miss Turner (am), Mrs Hampton (pm) and Miss Herlihy (student teacher) X

Happy Friday!

What superstars you all were on Wednesday for our filming day.  You coped so well the costumes, being in the big hall with a lot of unfamiliar faces and singing some songs a few times through so we have the best version for the finished show.  We are all waiting patiently for the show to be put together and then we can watch it together – I for one, cannot wait to see it.   We will be singing a few of these Nativity songs on the front steps on Wednesday morning at 8.45am, come along and join in with us! 

Nativity week is always a challenging week with our daily routine but we did manage to play a few games.  In the cabin we have started talking about the Christmas story as you are now familiar with the characters – Mary, Joseph and Baby Joseph.  Today we used our Russian doll versions and have begun our own role-play story.  We, of course, managed to fit in our daily Dough Disco to a classic Christmas song, “Merry Christmas Everyone” by Shakin Stevens. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-PyWfVkjZc It is a good job we had a photo of the Shakin to help support as Miss Turner and Miss Herlihy weren’t even very sure who he was!  The rest of us, the older generation, remember him well!  Holly and Jolly have continued to bring in a new daily Christmas story which Miss Herlihy has been sharing with you after lunch.  In Forest School, you have been playing “Santa Says” with Miss Herlihy where you have had to listen to the words and follow the action but only if “Santa Says”.  Mrs Allen has been sharing “Stick Man” with you with her very own Stick Man.  You then found and made your own using sticks found in Forest School.  Later in the week, you had the chance to create some of the settings from the story by collecting objects around Forest School and laying them out in the tuft tray.  In the afternoons, you have been decorating the sand netting with tinsel to create our very own Forest School Christmas tree.  You have also been shown how to create a sleigh using the crates; it was fun watching lots of you play the reindeer role!

A message for parents – For those parents making a claim for additional hours in the Spring term, could you check you have a working code that takes you beyond 31^st December.  Mrs Bailey has noticed some codes haven’t been renewed to a date in the New Year which will sadly mean hours will be payable.  Please check this weekend.

Have a lovely weekend!  One more week to go!

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen, Mrs Franklin, Miss Turner (am), Mrs Hampton (pm) and Miss Herlihy (student teacher) X