It's the most wonderful time of the year.....

It has been all systems go at nursery this week. Filming of the Nativity is now complete and has gone off to Mrs. Gregan who is very kindly editing and compiling it for us. Thank you Mrs. Gregan.

We have finished our Christmas cards and a special surprise. Everyone is completely exhausted! Some of the children at the end of the day have struggled to stay awake. This is in addition to all our usual learning at nursery.

As last weeks quiz was such a hit, the nursery ladies have put their creative thinking caps on and come up with another fun quiz called ‘Guess who came to nursery?” Look at the pictures in the gallery below and ask:

Who came to nursery and why?

What do you think Father Christmas was cooking in the home corner?

Father Christmas is on his laptop in one of the photos, what was he writing ( I hope he wasn’t adding Colette to the bad list!!)

Which story was Father Christmas reading?

Father Christmas was having a good look at our emotions wall, how do you think he feels?

Why was Father Christmas washing his hands ( I hope he made a hundred bubbles!)

Why was Father Christmas in the nursery office?

What is Father Christmas having a drink of?

What colour remote controlled car is Father Christmas playing with?

What colour bauble is Father Christmas looking at on our tree?

Click here to listen to the story ‘Santa Needs a Wee’

ENJOY!

On Friday (and throughout the week) the children and nursery ladies have been wearing their finest Christmas outfits. Here are just a few!

If you fancy some Numberblocks, click here for their Christmas Special and on the button below for a 1-5 cut and stick activity.

Well done to everyone who completed the Purplemash activities. I will set some more! Keep watching!

I hope you all manage some down time this weekend, time to recharge your batteries before the festivities begin at home. We will see you all for the last week of term on Monday (don’t forget school and nursery closes at 2pm on Friday). It is an even busier week culminating with our Christmas party on Thursday and the Nativity going live on Friday.

Barbara, Clare, Colette and Hannah

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.......

Phew, such a frantic week. We have started to prepare for Christmas, the children have been making Christmas surprises, singing (lots of singing) and acting out the Nativity (you are all in for a BIG treat, it’s FABULOUS!). Most of our children are just 3 years old and they are performing like it’s a West End production. They have reduced the nursery ladies to tears with their portrayal of the Christmas Story.

If your remember I said we had redesigned nursery last week and that we would endeavour to produce a walkthrough video… I’m afraid to say we have failed in our quest but think we have devised something better!! I will let Clare, Colette and Hannah explain!

Clare, Colette and Hannah’s blog

We have been busying away in Nursery rehearsing our Nativity and doing lots of Christmas crafts (all Top Secret!). What a lovely week it has been, e are all getting very excited.

As the Newsletters have gone out this week...and not wanting to spoil the surprise ahead of the Nativity video going live on the website (Friday 17th December), we have decided to upload a Nursery Quiz to do at home this week instead of the usual photos!

Where will you find this beautiful Angel in nursery?

Where will you find this beautiful angel in nursery?

What is this lovely sparkly , twinkly addition to Nursery?

What decorations are on the tree?

Which area of the classroom is this photo taken?

 

Who lives on this shiny silver web?

 

What are these little numbered pockets for?

Can you remember the special word getting ready for Christmas?

 

Pick a colour...how many items can you see on the shelves in that colour?!

 

Can you name everyone in this special scene?

 

It’s red and it sparkles...but what it is?

 

Which Christmas book have you read this week?

Which is your favourite?

 

Who is this visitor to Nursery and where is he peeping out?

 We hope you could answer all the questions? Next week watch out for our Christmas Taskmaster activity sheet, keep checking your child’s bookbag.

Clare, Colette and Hannah

As you know Friday (and nearly every other day too!) was Silly Sock Day. Thank you to everyone who joined in and made a contribution to Brian House. Here are just a few photos.

Don’t forget:

On Friday 10th December ( it may have said Thursday the 10th on the Newsletters, sorry) will be the second of our Charity events. It is a Christmas themed clothes day, e.g. jumpers, dresses, t-shirts or Christmas colours.

Don’t worry if your child is not in nursery on Friday just choose another day to join in the fun!!

Our Christmas party is being held on Thursday 16th December 9.30 am -11.30 am. Party clothes and dancing shoes are a must!

All children are invited to this event, but if it is not your usual session please bring you child at 9.30 am collect promptly at 11.30 am.

May I thank everyone who has taken the time to return our annual Parent Questionnaire. We have been touched by your kind words and the unconditional support that you give to nursery. Don’t worry if you haven’t returned the questionnaire yet we still have two weeks left before the end of term!

Lastly, it is never easy when we lose members of the nursery team and sadly following Christmas our lovely Clare will be leaving Nursery for a new opportunity she couldn't resist taking. Clare has worked at Our Lady's for over 20 years and has touched the hearts of so many children and parents. It is hard to imagine her not being beyond the Nursery door, but I know she will take everything she has learned and will inspire others the way she has inspired us all here at Nursery. I know you will all miss Clare as much as we will, but that you too would like wish her every success in all she does.

Sarah has also made the decision not to return to Nursery from maternity leave, she has decided to be a full-time mum. She is very sad but knows this is the right decision for her family. Sarah will again, be greatly missed in Nursery and we wish her only happiness and lovely times with Jude.

We hope you all have a fun weekend and enjoy the picture challenge! If the weather is cold and wet why not snuggle down and listen to this Christmas story. We read the book at nursery this week and the children love it. Click here for Laura’s Star

Barbara


And so Christmas begins.....

Helping Others

As you know, an important aspect of our whole school ethos is to support the vulnerable through our almsgiving and charity work. Over the years, working together, we have raised an enormous amount of money which has supported so many people and various charities. Over the last year this work has been more difficult and yet the need has never been greater. The children recognise this and are aware that so many people are struggling and need support. A charity close to all our hearts is Brian House; the children’s hospice up in Blackpool. Staff there work tirelessly, helping very poorly children and their families in what can be deeply distressing circumstances and do so with such love and laughter and deep compassion. It always fills us all with great warmth when collecting for our charity at the end of our KS2 church Nativity service, to find that everyone has been so generous, wanting to help and support.

After great discussion as a whole school community the children have agreed that if every family donates £5 per family, we will be able to raise a large sum to present to Brian House. To do this, they have planned two themed Fridays, the first on December 3rd – a Silly Sock or Terrible Tights Day (worn alongside their uniform). Make your socks or tights stand out! Customising (within reason!) is allowed. The second themed Friday is on December 10th – a Christmas themed clothes day; a jumper, a t-shirt or simply Christmas colours, bright and cheerful. Don’t worry of your child isn’t in nursery on these days just choose another day to join in the fun!

Please send your kind donation in a named envelope to the nursery office. Please know that we appreciate that times are tough and every single donation means so much, thank you. Each and every donation given with love is a true blessing and if anyone can’t manage to donate, please say a prayer for peace and love in lieu which will mean a great deal.

Following this we will be heading into school’s very own Christmas week when each class will enjoy a party day on Thursday 16th December and will have the chance to wear their own choice of partywear. On the same day, Jacqui and her team will be cooking our Christmas lunch, something we all look forward to. If your child doesn’t normally have a school lunch they can order a special Christmas Lunch. Please click here. We need to know numbers by Monday so please complete this form over the weekend and in time for the office to pass on the numbers to Jacqui at lunchtime.

If you have any queries drop me an email.

Barbara

This week....

Such an exciting week!

The nursery ladies have been watching carefully and noticed that a large group of our children are great builders, some love a cosy moment in the book area whilst other enjoy the home corner. With this in mind, one night after school the nursery fairies decided to rearrange nursery! We now have a huge construction area, an even cosier book corner with cushions and rugs and our home corner, wow the children LOVE it!

It is our plan to give you a guided virtual tour, hopefully next week! Hannah is on to it, fingers crossed and watch this space!

Can I highlight that next week our monthly newsletter will be sent out. It is full of Christmas events that are happening over the next few weeks. Be sure you don’t miss out on the festive fun! If you have any questions just give me a ring or drop me an email.

Clare, Colette and Hannah’s blog

Wow...we are indeed a musical lot this year! A few of the children were enjoying finding different objects around nursery and garden to see what sounds the objects made. Within minutes we had our very own band as numbers had multiplied and we had a plethora of wonderful sounds! This musicality is hopefully going to shine through when its Nativity time!!

Perhaps you can practice our songs at home? Click here for a new version of Away in a Manger (only the first verse please) and here for Sing and Dance for Joy (we are singing ‘dance’ instead of shout for joy etc).

We have had more fun in the hall this week,  - our new favourite is ‘The Circle Song’! Might be a tricky one to practice at home but our group was super at following the moves! Here is the music if you fancy a go!

The three little pigs made another visit with our friends the Numberblocks this week… the children love this story in any form and enjoyed the maths game many of them played alongside it. Perhaps have a go at home at drawing house number one with one window, number two with two windows and three with three windows? Send them into nursery next week and can display them. Good luck!

Clare, Colette and Hannah

Lastly, with the start of Advent fast approaching (yes, it’s next Wednesday!) the children have been planning where we will put our tree and how we should decorate it! It’s all very exciting! We also thought we could recreate the stable in Bethlehem and ‘Christmasify’ (I’m not sure that’s a word) all the areas of the continuous provision. We will take lots of photos to share with you all next week.

We hope that everyone has a calm and restful weekend, not too much Christmas shopping! We look forward to an even busier week at nursery next week!

Barbara

This week...

A fabulous week of learning at nursery. The children are growing each week in confidence and taking more challenge in their play and learning. We are proud of each and every one of them.

One of our number two challenges this week was to sort and pair socks and wellies, but guess what, we can’t find our sock box anywhere. Can you help? If you have any old socks of different sizes and patterns we would be most grateful for donations. Thank you in anticipation.

Clare, Colette and Hannah’s blog

This week we have continued to thank God for all the amazing animals on the planet! We have drawn even more interesting animals and we even had a vote for our favourite animal. Alongside this, we just had to learn an animal song too! Click here to watch the song ‘Animal House’

The Autumn winds have blown lots of leaves around Nursery garden…on Wednesday it was so windy that it looked like it was raining leaves!! We had lots of fun exploring the different kinds of leaves and looking at all the beautiful colours on the ground. We even discovered one or two wiggly worms hiding at the bottom of the pile of leaves.

We have been continuing to look at the Number three and have been continuing to practise our m, a, s, d and t sounds with our lovely Geraldine the Giraffe. Why not get wrapped up warm and head out on a lovely Autumn walk to see if you can find anything that starts with one of our sounds? There is usually a few things at the park beginning with ‘S’. Or try the sound quiz on purple mash… Click here

As we mentioned in last week’s blog we have begun to organise our Nativity play. We have been sharing the Christmas story with the children and they have been asking lots of questions (as they always do!!). Everyone has been getting excited about their role in the Nativity.

Now for the photos!

Next week we will be learning the songs for the Nativity and also our lines in readiness for filming. Costumes are ready, cameras are set, it’s all systems go… hopefully. The play will go live on this blog in a few weeks time, I will let you know the date as soon as I can…watch this space.

Have a lovely weekend everyone and wrap up warm, apparently it’s going to be cold…brrrrrr!

Barbara, Clare, Colette, Hannah and Frances

Such a busy week!

Phew, this week has been really busy! We are all so tired!

We started the week by finding out why all the nursery ladies were wearing poppies. We watched a beautiful and evocative animation that sees war as experienced by animals in a WWI battlefield. We all found it very moving. This inspired us to look closely at the poppy flower and to paint our own version. The children created the most beautiful poppy pictures. Look out for them in your child’s book bag! If you would like to watch the video click here.

We have started to explore the number three. We watched the number 3 Numberblocks and then investigated our number 3 sack. Click here to watch Numberblocks. See if you can find three objects at home….Can you tell something that is the same about your objects? Can you tell something different about your objects?

Everyone has been practicing our m, a, s, d and t sounds. We have explored our sound bags and founds lots of resources in nursery starting with the corresponding sounds. Have you watched Geraldine the Giraffe yet?

Click here for m

Click here for a

Click here for s

Click here for d

Click here for t

Why don’t you see if you can find objects at home beginning with these sounds. Have fun!

On Thursday we had a BIG mixing colour day….it was FABULOUS! We his the paint under huge blobs of shaving foam then we started the magic mixing. First we mixed with our finger, then two fingers three fingers and then our whole hand!!! We found out that by mixing two or more colours together that we could make a new colour!!

Also on Thursday we made an orchestra. We got all the instruments out and played and sang. It’s the Albert Hall for us next!!

Worship

This week we are thanking God for his wonderful gift of animal life!

Together we made a list of how many animals we could name. The children real impressed the nurseries because they named 85 different animals, with only the minimum support from the nursery ladies!  How blessed are we to live in a world so full of interesting animals. You may want to make your own list at home as a family, I think you will be surprised just how many different animals you can count.

A group of friends drew animals to place into ‘Our friend Jesus book’, another group made a spectacular animal home for the small world animals in nursery and others drew animals outside with chalk.
Together we all thanked God for his gift of animals.

We watched a couple videos all about animals. Afterwards we named as many animals that we could think of… we named forty animals!!!!

Click here to watch the animal video. We also enjoyed the camouflage animal video. We have learnt a new word too! Click here

And now for you favourite part of the blog….the photos. We hope you enjoy them.

I’m sure you will agree, it’s been a very busy week in nursery! Try and have a good rest this weekend because next week we are starting to organise the Nativity!

Barbara, Clare, Colette and Hannah

Welcome back....

A huge welcome back after the half term holiday, I hope you all managed to get a rest. Click on the button to see this months planning.

We have started this half term with a bang by exploring the world of colour. As Bonfire Night is upon us it seemed sensible this as a way to find out about colours. We discussed which colours we liked the best and why? We had a whole rainbow of suggestions!

We then listened to a song all about colours. Click here to watch and listen. Here’s another song for you to listen to at home…the children haven’t seen this one, I hope they enjoy it! Click here.

Everyone thought it would be a good idea to find out about the firework colours we might see on Bonfire Night, but first it was important to know how to stay safe. We talked about staying with mummy and daddy or a grown up if you were going to a big firework display because it would be very busy …and dark (you may want to take a torch!). We also discussed that we must not touch or go near either a bonfire or fireworks, they are VERY dangerous, even sparklers. Click here to watch the ‘Firework party’ video.

We were then ready to get the paints out and start our firework paintings! We splashed and splattered the paint making firework sounds. We noticed that fireworks are noisy! Look at our fabulous display!

Wow!!!!!!!!

We have also made a colour table with lots of objects to help us explore the world of colour, we even put different coloured covers over our torches!

Click here if you want to watch the Numberblocks Firework Night video.

After all that hard work we made a huge firework art attack picture. Everyone helped. Check this out!!

Clare, Colette and Hannah’s blog

It was lovely to see the children again after their half term break  looking so relaxed and eager to return.

We found out something about our bodies this week, we found out that inside our bodies we have a skeleton!

We learnt that we have 206 bones in our body, the largest bone  is in our legs and the smallest is in our ears. We noticed that our bones do not bend and that they help us to hold our bodies up, move and protect the inside of our bodies. We enjoyed dancing and feeling our bones moving.

We also have been learning how to stay safe with fireworks and discussing what are good choices when near fireworks. We enjoyed a story about going to a firework display and the classroom was then filled with dazzling, glittering, sparkles as we painted firework pictures making the noises as we painted lots of bangs, crackles, whizzing and screeching!

Outside in our garden we had a wonderful surprise the playground was filled with beautiful yellow, brown , red and orange leaves!

We had great fun collecting them and even making a leaf pond, that we could jump into and throw the leaves, watching them then dance to the floor.

As you can see we have had a wonderful week full of exciting learning and enjoying being with our friends again!

We have loads of photos of our learning to show you, we hope you enjoy looking at them.

Hannah, Colette and Clare

Worship

This week we have been thanking God for the gift of plant life. We have examined the trees in our garden, feeling the bark, looking at the shapes of the branches and feeling the leaves. We have looked similarities and differences and noticed no two trees are identical, just as no two people are exactly the same!

We think the trees and plants God has given us are so beautiful!

Next week we will be moving on to number 3, painting Remembrance Day poppies and continuing our exploration of colour. We will be getting very messy as we mix colours together! We can’t wait!

We hope you have a lovely weekend and if you are going to a firework display or having a firework party at home, remember to stay safe. Ask your child, they know how!

Barbara

This week.....

Thank you for all your positive feedback on the Sticky Kids activities we posted last week. The children have asked if we could post some more this week, in particular the dinosaur song! I hope you have lots of energy!!

Here goes…click here for the dinosaur song.

You may also enjoy zooming to the moon. Click here

If you are exhausted and need a rest you can cool down with this nice relaxing song. Click here

Key persons blog

We cannot believe how much the children have packed into this week, they have been so busy growing their brains during this last full week of learning before breaking up on Tuesday—well done!

There have been parties (or should we say banquets?!) in the outdoor house and so much lovely role playing with one another. Everyone has really played so well taking turns to share the resources during this game; it was lovely to see! Your imaginations were wonderful when we needed to get more food from the shop and then cook/bake things before serving it to our friends!

This week we have introduced the sound ‘a’- can the children think of anything beginning with this sound? It is a short, bouncy sound—why not have a go at practising with Geraldine the Giraffe. Click here to watch

Some of us have a real thirst for doing jigsaw puzzles at the moment and it is great to see the giant floor puzzle pieces spread out as we work together to complete them. We can see brains thinking about where pieces go and how to make them fit, the children have shown great resilience to get the job done! Perhaps that resilience has shone through after reading about our new friend Sadie Spider?! Sadie had to work so hard and think of different strategies to weave her webs and we are embedding her motto to help us too; “try, try, try to catch that fly” and indeed she did. We will keep hearing about Sadie Spider and perhaps even more of her friends over at Cape Ability too!

We have also been continuing to hunt for ladybirds in the garden. We are finding quite a lot of them, some are red with black spots and some are black and orange. We have even discovered that Ladybirds can hibernate during the winter time. Click here to watch the video.

 Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Clare, Colette and Hannah xxx

I’m sure you will agree it has been a very busy half term. The children are now beginning to get tired!

Nursery closes for half term on Tuesday; we hope that you all have a fun (and restful) holiday. When we return it will be even busier, especially with the run up to Christmas.

Please keep safe and we will see you all on November 1st.

Barbara

This week....

Another fabulous week at nursery. We are learning more and more each week…our brains are getting full of knowledge!

A story that has quickly become a firm favourite this week is Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen. We read the story (lots of times) then acted it out in the garden, it was great fun! If you would like to listen to Michael Rosen telling the story click here.

Perhaps you could go on a bear hunt this weekend…or even a tiger hunt! The children love to introduce new (and scary) animals!

It has come to my attention that there is some confusion as to when we break for the half term holiday. If you click on the button below you will find the holiday dates for the whole year.

Key persons blog

After great thought we have decided to compile a collaborative blog from all the nursery key persons. Clare, Colette and Hannah have all contributed and added photos of their groups children. We hope you enjoy it. Here goes….

Wow Nursery...what another fun and busy week we’ve all had!

We introduced our new friend ‘Number 2’ this week. Click here to Meet Two, 2 is one more than 1. In the video One discovers it’s tricky to play tennis when you’re the only block in the world. She bumps into a magic mirror and meets Another One and they join force to make Two. Enjoy!

After watching the number 2 video we each went to find one object in nursery and then paired up with a friend to make two objects!

We have also revisited the sound ‘m’. Can you go on a sound hunt and perhaps find two things starting with ‘m’?!

In the hall for PE we have loved doing the ‘Funky Monkey’. Click here for the Funky Monkey music

‘Lets Go Walking’. Click here for the Let’s go Walking music

…and our favourite ‘Stir Up The Porridge’ Click here for Stir up the Porridge

Why not see if your child can remember any actions and have a go together!

There was some fabulous role play when we got the hairdressing box out on Thursday, such lovely turn taking. We all had enormous fun styling our friends (and the nursery ladies) hair, then relaxing in the chair ready to be beautified!

Worship

This week we thanked God for the gift of water. We talked about how blessed we are to have clean water and prayed for people who don’t have any. We then relaxed to some soothing water music. Click here to listen and relax at home.

We talked about how we need water to live and all its uses. We then wondered about where water came from. This led us to the ‘water cycle’. We talked at length about the water cycle, we also learnt a new word… ‘evaporation’. Click here to watch a video all about water and evaporation. Please ask your child and see if they can explain what evaporation means.

Throughout this week we have been very mindful of the beautiful gift of water.

Here’s a weekend challenge in case you are at a loose end. It’s a chance to notice the natural world change outside our window or in our back garden, the National Trust are challenging us to experience the small moments of joy nature brings us in five different ways.

Let us know how you get on!

Click on the button below

Finally, we are missing a small ‘fox’ snack box. Could I ask you to take a look at home in case it has been sent home by mistake.

Have a fabulous weekend everyone and see you on Monday.

Barbara

A rainy, blustery week!

A funny sort of week at nursery, the weather has definitely taken a turn for the worst. We better start thinking about wellies and winter woolies!

Nonetheless, the children have been undeterred to brace the elements. Our outdoor sand pit is now a mud kitchen, we think it is even better now!

This week has seen the launch of the new ‘What to Expect, when?’ document for parents. The purpose of this booklet is to help you as a parent/carer find out more about how your child is learning and developing during their first five years, in relation to the EYFS.

Children develop more rapidly during the first five years of their lives than at any other time. This booklet has been written to help you as a parent know what to expect during these vitally important years by focusing on the seven areas of learning and development which are covered in the EYFS. Click on the button below to find out more.

The children have been loving an old favourite story, Little Rabbit Foo Foo. As promised on the newsletter here is the link to watch the video. I bet the children will be able to join in! Click here for Little Rabbit Foo Foo.

…and now for your favourite part of the blog…

I am pleased to say that Colette will be back at nursery next Wednesday, in the meanwhile Clare has been compiling photos of Colette’s key children.

Clare’s (and Colette’s) blog

This week we have been deepening our learning on our emotions. We each took a group of photos acting out each emotion and discussed when we experience these emotions. These photos are on this blog, see if you can work out which emotion is which! You may want to play acting out each emotion with your child.

Clare

Hannah’s blog

Some very rainy days have given us the chance to explore more of our lovely nursery classroom this week whilst we couldn’t play outside. It has been nice to watch the children be creative with different things! We have had skeleton jigsaws to piece together, magnet creations that crossed the whole length of the nursey when linked up and some fast cars whizzing down ramps that we have built. Lots of us managed to identify that fruits and vegetables were indeed healthy in our shopping basket game, but were a little more puzzled when it came to deciding if fish fingers and ice creams were healthy or treat foods! This has been such a fun game to play with the children whilst we share ideas about which foods are sugary and might not be as good at helping our bodies grow big and strong! We did spot that brushing our teeth is really important too, along with exercise and a good night’s sleep!! Well done everyone on another fun filled week at nursery.

Hannah

The children look so happy and are eager to try lots of new activities.

Worship

This week we have been thanking God for the gift of our oceans. Together we thought of sea animals that live in the ocean and came up with 29 different creatures! You may want to see how many you can name at home.

We also asked the children why Earth is called the blue planet? Please ask your child, as I know they would love to tell you why. We then watched a short video full of sea creatures and thanked God through prayer for his wonderful gift of oceans. Click here to watch the video at home.

Next, I have just a few snippets of important information for you.

Firstly, could we ask that you do not park close the corner of Kenilworth Road junction at drop off and collection times. It makes it difficult for cars turning in and out of the adjoining roads as well as putting children crossing the road at risk. I fully understand that these are busy times and parking is difficult but please help us keep our children safe.

Secondly, this year Tempest photography will be taking individual photographs for all classes (including nursery) on Wednesday 13th October. Unfortunately we are unable to accommodate family groups or children who do not attend nursery on that morning.

Lastly, as you will know all parts of society are struggling with supply and delivery and school catering has not been immune. Over the past two weeks Jacqui, our cook and her team have tried to problem solve as deliveries have been late or have not arrived and I have to say they have done a fantastic job keeping everyone well fed despite the disruption. Going forward Lancashire catering have now introduced a temporary menu until the situation eases. Within school we have decided to try and keep as much variety as we can, including that well loved roast dinner. We will create weekly menus depending on our deliveries. We are so sorry for this inconvenience but please rest assured all children will be fed with tasty food lovingly prepared by our cook Jacqui and the team.

We hope you manage to get out and about this weekend without getting too soggy or blown away. Whatever you have planned stay safe and well and we will see you all on Monday.

Barbara

This week....

A lovely sunny start to the week, but by Thursday there has been a definite Autumnal chill in the air. The leaves are changing colour and beginning to fall from the all the trees in the nursery garden, a bit faster than we can sweep them up some days!

The conkers have also started to fall from our Horse Chestnut tree, the children were very excited about opening each one to reveal the conker inside, some were big, some were small and one or two were really tiny! We have collected them in a large bowl so that we are able to count them and order them according to size.

If you are going for a walk this weekend why not take this leaf spotting checklist with you. Click on the button below.

Our Fabulous Friends display is completed. I am sure you will agree that everyone has worked very hard!

Worship

This term we are celebrating creation. Thanking God for our beautiful planet Earth, which God made as a home for everyone.
This week we have been thanking God for the gift of air. Together we have been taking deep breathes, feeling the air as it tickles our noses. We then thanked God for this wonderful gift.
 You may want to breathe in our lovely clean air with your child and thank God together.

Clare’s blog

This week we have been so very busy.

We decorated our key person books and made it very colourful. We are now excited to fill it full of our learning. We have continued to look deeply at number one, so that we can really understand its value, the children collected one toy and then they took one photo of it all by themselves
We have been rolling balls, balancing, even making a bridge. We enjoyed dressing up as doctors and have also been reading lots of books, your children really love stories!

Clare

Hannah’s blog
 

The children have been busy growing their friendships this week and playing beautifully with one another. A lovely sunny week (in the main) has meant we have had the perfect backdrop for challenging our bodies with lots of climbing and balancing on our obstacle courses. The children have set up the equipment themselves and love the satisfaction of getting from one end of the nursery garden to another! I have enjoyed our story times and the songs we have sang together this week, we really are growing our listening and joining in skills! Lots of super recognition with our friend ‘Number 1’ and many of us have had a look at the sound ‘m’ – have a look at the sound mat that has been sent home … can you remember what the sound looked like?

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Hannah

Colette’s blog

Sadly, Colette has not been at nursery this week. I know you have missed her as much as we have but don’t worry she will be back on Monday.

The children in Colette’s group have been working closely with the rest of the nursery team. Rest assured they have been loved, cared for and have continued on their individual learning journey, as you can see in the photos.

Lastly, it remains for say, have a lovely weekend and we will see you all on Monday for another busy week.

Barbara

This week....

Another fun week at nursery. We have been reading ‘The Colour Monster’ story to try and understand our feelings and emotions. Everyone loves the story, you may have even heard your child saying that they feel yellow or red! Click here to listen to the story and help your child to self- regulate their emotions using colour. Maybe, the children could draw how they are feeling using the corresponding colour…I hope they are all yellow or green!

You will have noticed that we have send home everyone’s Purple Mash log in details this week. Purple Mash is a cloud-based platform for primary-aged (and early years) children. It contains a wide range of age-appropriate, creative software tools for writing, drawing and activities across the early years curriculum. Click here for more information on how to log in. You will notice that I have pinned a quick tutorial video to help you navigate the virtual classroom. I hope you enjoy using it t home. Also, watch our for any activities your key person may have set!

Enjoy!

The children have started their key group ‘Learning together’ floor book. They have been drawing their pictures and have begun to record all the learning they have been doing at nursery.

Some of our families have been asking about Read, Write Inc. Click here to find out more. Please note that in nursery we will be introducing Set 1 speed sounds. Watch the video to see how we pronounce each sound. Also, Alphablocks is a good resource. Click here to watch the Alphablocks song!

Next week we will send home a Read Write Inc sound mat. Keep a lookout for it in your child’s book bag!

And now for the Key person blogs, your favourite bit I expect!

Clare’s blog

This week we have been looking closely at ourselves and talking about our emotions.

We helped our friend the Colour Monster to sort his emotions, he had got them all in a muddle.

He was feeling happy, sad, angry, scared, calm and love all at the same time!

So we connected each emotion with a colour to help him. You may want to ask your child to act out each emotion but be careful as they are very good at the angry emotion!
Over the next few weeks we will be working with the colour monster to better understand our own emotions.

We also painted our own portraits, first we looked at ourselves in the reflection of a mirror, noting all the details we could see, then we set to work painting. The portraits are completed and they are fabulous and we hope to display them soon, we will post a picture of the display here on the blog next week.

The children are all still being wonderful, loving making friends and doing lots and lots of important playing.

Clare

Hannah’s blog

What another wonderful week at nursery! The children are continuing to settle in beautifully and make friendships as they explore the nursery environment. We have been lucky with more lovely sunshine meaning we can enjoy our learning and playing outside. The children have done so well recalling all the mixed up emotions in the story of The Colour Monster and have been recognising these emotions in themselves as we continue to talk about how we feel. It really is so important to understand our feelings and begin to think about how we can then help ourselves and one another if we need to with sad, angry or scared feelings! We have also done some great work with our Numberblock friend ‘Number 1’ and have started to explore healthy eating choices and how we can look after our bodies!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Hannah

Colette’s blog

What another great week in Nursery! The children have been entering Nursery with smiles on their faces, it has been so wonderful to watch them.

We have been very fortunate with the weather too which meant we were able to enjoy that beautiful sunshine whilst we played. The children have been making and building in the garden, we have made some houses for the three little pigs but the big bad wolf was able to blown them down! We better look for some stronger materials next week and make sure they are wolf proof!

There was also time to build an obstacle course, which the children worked together to build. We were able to practise our jumping and landing skills too.

As always, there has been lots and lots of reading inside and outside of nursery, there have been books everywhere!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend together.

Colette.

I must say a big thank you to everyone who took time out of their busy schedule to come along and speak to their key person. It was so lovely to eventually see you in person. Please don’t worry of you have not managed to touch base with you child’s key person yet, just drop them and email and make an appointment.

I have it on good authority (the BBC weather app) that Saturday is going to be a nice day, we must make the most of it!

We will see you all on Monday for another wonderful week of learning.

Barbara

This week...

What a fabulous week. The children are so confident and are accessing all the areas of the continuous provision independently, that’s great!

We have started to introduce the Number 1 . A great resource that you can access at home is Numberblocks. Click here to watch Number 1. At nursery we use the Maths Mastery approach. Maths mastery is a teaching and learning approach that aims for children to develop deep understanding of maths rather than being able to memorise key procedures or resort to rote learning. At this point they are ready to move confidently on to their next stage of maths. So we will be taking our exploration of number slow and steady.

We have also started to discuss and explore healthy practices, starting with healthy foods. Click here to find the NHS Eatwell guide.

This year we are starting a weekly Key Person blog, we hope that you like it.

Clare’s Blog

What an extremely happy start to nursery we have had this year!

The children have been excitedly exploring the nursery environment, keen to play with everything.

Already in the first week at nursery we have been cutting, sticking, painting, lots of painting! Reading so many of our wonderful selection of books, planted sunflower seeds from the flower head. We have made a fairy garden, built ‘Pride Rock’ and have pretended to be firemen, trolls and the Billy Goats Gruff and so much more. The children have had the opportunity to play both inside and out and are already feeling comfortable, confident and secure in the nursery.

The manners and the kind way the children are talking to each other is beautiful, you must all feel so very proud of them all!

Clare

Hannah’s Blog

What a super start to nursery life the children have all made; I cannot believe how well everyone has settled in! There has been so much lovely playing in the garden whilst we enjoy the sunshine and we have all made such an effort to be kind friends to one another. There has been lots of whizzing round on the bikes, splashing in the water and plenty of digging in the sand pit.

I have loved seeing castles and robots being made from building blocks, so many amazing pictures being painted and have particularly been wowed by how many children like to sit attentively and listen to stories! When we have played inside I have seen lots of dinosaur enthusiasts amongst our friends and some fabulous creations with playdough!

Well done everyone on such a super start.

Hannah

Colette’s Blog

The children are beginning to settle in beautifully in to Nursery and are starting to make some lovely friendships.

So far this week we have built a road but then some roadworks appeared…we even had to make our own temporary traffic lights to ease the congestion!

We have read many stories, completed lots of number puzzles (inside and out) and the lovely hot sunshine meant that we could have the big water play out (we did wear our aprons and wellies!)

Have a lovely weekend.

Colette

As you can see the children are all having a splendid time at nursery!

Please note: this week we have emailed everyone to book either a face to face meeting or a telephone meeting with your child’s key person next week. It’s not to late to book an appointment.

Also, a few reminders

  • I will require written consent (an email is fine) giving nursery consent to use images on our webpage, I am still waiting to hear from a few of our families.

  • Please could you put your child’s fruit time snack in their blue book bag not lunch boxes. Please remember that your child will need one piece of fruit for each session they attend (two pieces for a full day).

  • Any items which are likely to be removed during the day should be clearly labelled. The nursery ladies are getting very confused!

Some of our families have been enquiring how to pay for lunches and fees. My apologies it is going to get to next week before the invoices are ready to be sent out. There are not enough hours in the day! Keep checking your emails!

In the meanwhile, if you have any queries please drop me an email or catch me at the end of the day.

I’m not sure if summer has made its final appearance of the year (I hope not) but nonetheless have a fabulous weekend with your loved ones.

Barbara

Welcome to Nursery!

A HUGE welcome to all our children and their families. It has been wonderful to finally meet you all in person.

The children who started nursery this week have really coped well with starting nursery under unusual circumstances. It is such a big ask to expect a small child to come unaccompanied into a new building with nursery ladies they haven’t met in person. I’ve been so impressed with how the children (and grown ups) have dealt with the circumstances. I would not be being honest if I said there hadn’t been the odd tear from one or two of our friends, but they have been short lived and within minutes they were having fun!

As is customary at the being of the year our learning thread will be ‘All about Me’. We will explore families, healthy eating and practices and how our body works. If you click on the button below you will be able to look at the next few weeks planning so you can support learning from home.

As is usual in September are some ‘housekeeping’ reminders, sorry!

  • Could all children’s clothing and belongings be clearly labelled. Also, a spare set of clothing would be useful, just in case of accidents.

  • Everyone should bring with them one piece of fresh fruit or vegetable for each session attended, for example, a full time time should have two pieces. Milk and water are available at nursery.

  • Each child should have an Our Lady’s book bag. These can be purchased from Top Marque on Park St St. Annes. Large back packs make storage tricky.

  • Please remember to send your child to nursery in clothing suitable for the days weather. It is also worth mentioning that the nursery is always well ventilated and therefore an extra layer during cold spells would be a good idea.

    That’s all the reminders for this week but I’m sure I will think of more for next week!

If you click on the buttons below they will display the attachments I emailed home earlier this week.

Finally, from next week we would like to start sharing our learning at nursery by using photos of the children at work and play. I will only be able to upload images of your child if you have sent me a consent email. Don’t worry if you have not had time to reply to my email yet, as long as I receive permission by Wednesday that will be fine.

I hope everyone has a lovely week end and that the sun shines on us all! The nursery ladies look forward to seeing you all on Monday bright eyed and busy tailed, ready for fun and learning.

The Nursery Team

It's party time!!

Such a fun week, culminating with our end of year party on Thursday.

Everyone joined in with the party games, we played musical chairs, statues and bumps, did the conga around the garden, played I wrote a letter to my friend all to some very loud music (Mrs. Gregan set up the loud speakers for us). We chose all our favourite music to play!

I must say we have some fabulous dancers!

We finished the morning with fish and chips (kindly donated St. Annes Fish Restaurant). They were sooo yummy that some the children had seconds and third helpings. We then had ice lollies for after’s. A perfect lunch don’t you think!

In the afternoon we watched the Year 6 production of the Wizard if Oz. As expected it was superb. We spotted lots of budding performers.

Take a look at our party photos.

As always we are sad to see the children leave nursery, but we are certain they will have a have an equally wonderful year in their Reception class.

It has been such a privilege, during such a difficult and unknown time, for you to have entrusted your most precious child into our care. It shows us how much to have trusted us to both keep the children safe and to get them ready for the next stage of their learning journey. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

We will miss you all so very much but we hope you will keep a little piece of nursery safe in your heart forever.

We will see some of you in September but for those of our families who are moving to pastures new, remember you will have left your mark at Our Lady’s Nursery so you belong to us! Please keep in touch.

Please do keep safe and well this summer.

God Bless

Barbara, Clare, Colette, Frances and Hannah

This week...

This week has been an odd sort of week. I feel the children sense we are coming to the end of the year.

We have been spending lots of time preparing the children for the next stage in their learning journey and everyone is really excited, they can’t wait to grow their brain even more!. The children who have another year with us in nursery are looking forward to being the ‘big’ children in September.

A a democracy we asked the children what they would like to learn and find out about this week. As we suspected there was lots of physical activity, messy play, building, music and story telling. The children particularly enjoyed reading Peely Wally with Hannah. They then drew some fabulous pictures (even Hannah)!

Peely Wally was a small bird who lived high up in a tree . . . One day she laid an egg . .

Click here to listen to the story. Perhaps you could draw some of the pictures in the story.

The children also wanted to make tunnels and chutes from large cardboard tubes. We raced the cars to see which went the furthest! Great fun!

We worked out that the cars would not roll if the tubes were flat on the floor so we propped them on the tables and furniture.

We have been practicing our numbers and doing really hard problem solving activities. The children watched the Numberblocks video about when Ten turns up to tell the Numberblocks what it's like to be a perfect ten. Click here to watch at home.

Just in case we had forgotten, we revisited ‘shapes’. We went on a shape hunt to find lots of different shapes and noticed how many sides they had, if they were curved and rolly, how many corners and the length of the sides. Click here to watch the shape song.

Please don’t forget our Leavers Party is on Thursday 9.30- 12.00. All the children are welcome and it’s fish and chips for lunch!!! Mmmmmmmmm!

…and finally a message from Miss. Hornby.

Over the past few days some of you have been asking again about gifts. The first thing I need to say is that please know that everyone in the building already knows just how much they are appreciated. You have already given us the biggest gift of all; the trust to teach your child. We never presume that we will receive gifts; our jobs are jobs of passion. We teach because we love the craft of guiding little minds to actively seek to learn. At Our Lady’s we have the most important mission to help children to become the ‘best versions of themselves’ just as Christ yearns for us.

I do appreciate that no matter how many times I say this, there are those of you who just want to say a personal thank you and please know we never want to offend and seem unappreciative of your kindness. However, we have all been through so much together this year and you have already given us so much. Please can I request that no class collections are asked for as many parents and families are genuinely struggling financially and often feel obliged to contribute, causing distress and anxiety. I do know that beautiful words in a card always give staff a sense of worth and a card or a letter is probably the most appreciated gift of all. During this year, some parents have made donations to charities such as CAFOD on the school’s behalf and have sent us a card in to share this; bringing our mission firmly to life!

Have a lovely weekend and we will see you on Monday for our last week together at nursery.

The Nursery team.

This week...

This week we have been taking advantage of the lovely warm weather. As you can see our learning activities have been varied!

Now we have all learned our letter sounds we tried to make some CVC words ( CVC words are words created using a consonant, vowel, and a consonant. Vowels are the letters A, E, I, O and U, while consonants are all the other letters in the alphabet. Examples of CVC words can include 'new', 'hat', 'cot', 'lit', and 'pit'. You can also create nonsense words that follow the rules of CVC words.) It was a little bit tricky to begin with but we soon got the hang of it.

We have continued with our investigation of mini beasts…still no snails! We have lots of spiders though! We watched ‘Come Outside’ with Auntie Mabel, all about spiders. Click here to watch Warning: may contain spiders!).

The children noticed this week how big the broad beans had grown. We decided to pick the biggest ones and see what they looked like inside. It was really interesting.

On Wednesday there was great excitement as all our butterflies had hatched out of their chrysalis. We had five! We gave them some sliced oranges to feed on and then released them on Thursday. Jacqui from the kitchen came to see them too!

A group of construction mad children made ‘Pride Rock’ for all the animals using the large bricks and boulders. We had to place the bricks and the animals carefully, one false move and the whole ‘rock’ fell down! It was quite spectacular when we had finished.

….and now for our regular feature ‘photos’ of the week! This weeks images range from under the sea world, afternoon tea in the house, making pictures at the workshop and more generally having a fabulous time at nursery!

Lastly, a quick reminder that our leavers party is being held on Thursday 15th July, 9.30- 12.00. All children are invited to attend. Lunch of fish and chips is kindly being provided by St. Annes Fish Restaurant… mmmm we can’t wait!

Have a lovely weekend everyone and see you on Monday, only two weeks left to the end of term, it’s hard to believe it! Where has this year gone!

The Nursery Team

This week...

We have been continuing our investigation of minibeasts. We completed ‘What am I’ description quiz. Everyone was very good at listening to the clues and then working out which minibeast it could be. Click below to have a go at home (you will need a PowerPoint facility to access this).

We looked in all the places where minibeasts could be hiding. We found worms, slugs, earwigs, spiders and one snail! We even got the explorer bags out! I must admit I think all the creatures ran away as they heard us coming! We had to search for ages!

We decided that we could catch some ants and make a formicary (the ants were extremely fast) and a snail house (we found out that snails have hundreds of teeth and we wanted to watch them eating! ! Click here to watch a video about snails eating!

Also, have a look at our beautiful garden!

Carrying on with our Sports’ Day physical activity challenges the children decided to create obstacle courses form the soft shapes and the large wooden bricks. They were really challenging!

I have also added some more photos from Sports’ day.

Our love of books has grown and grown over the years and the children can be found reading EVERYWHERE!

We listened to a video story with lots of minibeasts in it during the week, because we just love minibeasts. Click here to listen at home.

And now for more Photos of the Week!! They range from making a sand café in the garden, a shiny river for all the animals, designing a water filling machine, making snow (a request from Roo) and making wishes with Aladdin’s lamp! Such great fun!

After another packed week of learning at nursery the children may need a rest! Enjoy your weekend and we will see everyone on Monday, bright eyed and bushy tailed!

The Nursery team