This week.....

This week has been a little different. It has been a ‘getting to know you week’ with Reception! We have had great fun learning and playing alongside the Reception children and teachers. Everyone loved getting to know each other and made lots of new friends. We read the story ‘Colour Monster goes to school’. Click here to listen.

Sports Day this year starts our Health and Happiness week in school. It is being held on Monday 13th June at 1.45 - 2.45 pm. We are happy to tell you that parents are invited to this event as well as all the children. However, if it is not your usual session we ask that you collect your child from the nursery entrance after the event has finished.

Our experiment form last week had some success, our white roses which we put in the blue water turned blue, the flower with water of course died as did the flower we put in milk. Sadly the flowers in the green water and red water also died! Mmmm we couldn’t fathom why. We are going to run the experiment again after the holidays

Meaningful May

Here is a monthly calendar with a happiness challenge for you all to do every day during May. Look our for Joyful June!

Key person blog

The children have had a marvellous week at nursery, we have spent every morning on the school field  enjoying lots of different activities like obstacle courses, football, den building, cloud gazing, skittles, construction and lots lots more.

This week we have been practising our fundamental movement skills in readiness for Sports Day. We have also nearly finished our sports day T-shirt’s with our own designs. We are going to look so fabulous. There are still a few children who don't yet have their T-shirt to decorate. We don’t want any child to miss out so please make sure you send in a named plain white T-shirt, it doesn’t have to be new. We must say they are all looking splendid!!

Here are some physical activities for you tp try at home. Click here.

We have also learnt about baby animals, they all have different names, there are a lot to remember. This song helps us remember. Click here

Here is a jigsaw game you may want to do too. Click here

We have also been looking at shapes in the environment. We decided to make giant shapes using our bodies. The children made a giant triangle, a giant circle, and then a giant square.

Music is always a popular activity at nursery so along with the Reception children we had a outdoor music session on the field. Colette played her guitar to help us keep in tune! We've also enjoyed lots of singing circle games, at one point there was nearly sixty children in our circle! That was great fun!

Snack in the mornings have been al fresco picnics. We made a  giant fairy ring on the field using huge bobbins as seats.

 I think we are all in need of a rest after our busy week!

Barbara, Colette, Michelle, Justine and Frances

Worship

An exciting week! Nursery was invited to join in KS1 assembly in the hall. We were so proud of them. Everyone sat beautifully and joined in all the singing and prayers. Miss Hornby told us the story of why Jesus is called the ‘Good Shepherd’ and how he takes care of us all just like a shepherd looks after his sheep. She explained that whenever we feel lost or scared, we should ask for Jesus’ help. He always listens and will show us the way.

In chapel this week we read the story of Noah’s Ark. We discussed how God was sad that people were not looking after our wonderful earth, that’s why he sent the floods. When we got back to nursery we got our huge Noah’s Ark out and marched the animals in two by two. Click here to listen to the story of Noah’s Ark.

Our singing in the chapel is so beautiful (and loud). We now know so many beautiful songs and its so uplifting hearing all their angelic voices.

May I remind everyone that Our Jubilee Afternoon Tea is next Friday 2-3.30pm. You will need to send a plate of name food in (one sandwich cut into bitesize pieces, one small celebratory bun and one packet of crisps). Everyone is to come dressed in red, white and blue!

If you can recall about five weeks ago we wrote a letter and drew some pictures to send to Her Majesty The Queen…guess what…we have had reply! Sadly she in unable to attend our afternoon tea party but she send her best wishes. We are all (especially me) sooooooo very excited. Take a look at these fabulous pictures.

Finally, because I can’t top a letter from the Queen, I would just like to say have a lovely weekend, I believe it is going to be sunny and I will see you all on Monday.

Barbara

This week....

Another fabulous week! The weather has been on and off but we are a stoic bunch and have not let it stop us from learning.

You may have noticed that we now have a composter in our garden so we cane made our own compost for the growing beds! Fingers crossed!

We have also planted a raspberry and a black current bush. We can’t wait for a bumper crop, mmmmmmm! The strawberries are doing exceedingly well. I suspect when they are ripe they may mysteriously disappear!

In our exploration of flowers and their life cycle we are conducting an experiment. We have bought some white roses and put one flower in blue food colouring and water, one in red food colouring and water, one flower in green food colouring and water, one flower in milk and one flower with no water at all. We have predicted what may happen…watch this space. Maybe you could try the experiment at home!

Key person blog

Although this has been a shorter week after our Bank Holiday, we have still managed  lots of learning.  The children have been full of enthusiasm. We began the week discussing Vincent Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ painting. We examined the sunflowers and enjoyed the sight of the beautiful bright yellow petals. The children wanted to create their own sunflowers to display in Nursery….look out for these as they will certainly brighten your day!

In our hall time on Wednesday we enjoyed ‘stirring up the porridge’,  a little walking and we also listened to a ‘floating’ song using some beautiful coloured ribbons to move to the music. We have enjoyed playing the magpie game where we use our listening skills to guess which instrument we could hear (including the best drum sticks in the world and a train whistle!!!) Ask the children if they could sing you the magpie song?

There was even time to build an extremely long train in the garden however, everyone did have to buy a ticket before you climbed aboard….…even the nursery ladies!!

We have continued exploring lucky number 7 and made as many number bonds as we could think of. We also have started a ‘number 7’ number search!

We have also made a start on decorating our T shirts for Sports Day. Thank you for sending them in so promptly. Just a friendly reminder if you haven't to please send a plain white t shirt in next week. Thank you. We are continuing to practise our Sports Day skills too.

 Have a lovely weekend.

Barbara, Michelle, Justine, Frances and Colette.

Worship

This week during worship we talked about how we are all part of God’s family. We learnt that God loves us all the same, whatever we look like and whatever our special gifts are. We explored how we are all different but can have some similarities all of which we should celebrate. We are learning a new song, Big Family of God, watch here and sing along!

 Finally, just a few reminders:

You may have noticed that we are having a Jubilee Afternoon Party in celebration of the Queen’s 70th anniversary. If you haven’t received your copy click on the button below to find out more! 

If you haven’t sent in your consent for your child to visit the beach don’t worry it’s not too late, just drop me an email.

Sports Day t shirts are coming in thick and fast ( a named plain white t-shirt). If you haven’t managed to send one in yet, next week will be fine!

At the children’s request I have sent home a science experiment for you to enjoy at home. They were all quite particular it had to involve making a rainbow, I think I managed the challenge. Let me know how it goes…pictures are always lovely to see.

Have a lovely weekend everyone and I will see you all on Monday.

Barbara

This week...

Another week of gardening and understanding how plants and flowers grow. Sing along at home, click here

We have even planted grass seeds in one of our Tuff trays so that we can grow our own lawn for the outside small world area! The problem is it isn’t growing fast enough! Patience is definitely a virtue.

Our cress seeds have grown our carrot tops are starting to sprout and the beans we put in a jam jar with cotton wool have started to sprout too. It’s all very exciting!

The children all painted their own flower this week named the parts of the flower as they painted. Take a looks at our display.

Here are our Wow words! We are always looking for new words

Germinate

Pod

Nutrients

Photosynthesis

Pollination

Nectar

Key Person Blog

This week we have been spending a lot of time in Nursery garden. The children have really enjoyed exploring the garden looking for signs of new growth. We have been given a new potting shed so we decided to store our watering cans, trowels and plant pots in there (we always tidy up when we have finished!).

We have now got a designated digging area in our garden to look for worms and to plant the pips and seeds we find in our fruit. Who know in time we may have an orchard!

The children decorated the shed by painting spring flowers on it (remembering to include the stem, leaves, roots, petals and seeds of course!)

Now that we have planted the seeds, we are also remembering to water them too. We definitely need lots of sunshine (we hope it isn’t too far away!)

We have had a very active week with lots of racing, practising for sports day and lots of active fun on the soft play.

We have continued to learn about lifecycles of frogs and butterflies, and have learnt some new yoga moves, the egg, caterpillar, chrysalis and butterfly.

The number 7 has been our focus this week and we have had fun watching the luckiest rainbow coloured Numberblock in the world. Click here to watch the seven song. Can the children show you how to make 7 by using their fingers? We have also been drawing flowers with 7 petals and went to the school field to pick 7 daisies!

Click here to watch the ‘Meet Number Seven’ Numberblock.

The children have been exploring words that begin with the ‘f’ sound. We looked in our sound bag and found five frogs! Click here to watch Geraldine Giraffe

The children were amazed to discover that a bean stalk had started to grow when they arrived at nursery and have been using lots of words to describe the giant– gigantic, gargantuan, ginormous, massive. We wonder if there are any more we haven't thought of? Fee, fi, fo, fum, here he comes! There have been lots of giggles as the children acted out the story, next week we are going to have a go at writing our own version of Jack and the Beanstalk– watch this space!

Click here to watch Jack and the Beanstalk

We have very musical children here at nursery and this week they performed a concert in the garden, with lots of bands and songs.

Have a lovely weekend, don’t forget to plant your sunflower seeds and bean!

Barbara, Michelle, Justine, Frances and Colette.

Worship

This week we have continued thinking about how we can be kind like Jesus. The children thought very hard and made some excellent suggestions of how we can be more like Jesus, such as being kind, saying sorry and thank you, asking our friends if they want to play and being helpful at home.

We have also been learning about the Bible and listened to a story from the first book of the Bible, Genesis about how God created the world and everything in it. The children were amazed to discover that God did all this in just six days!

A fabulous week at nursery! I have just a few gentle reminders. As I wrote on the Newsletter we are wanting to start taking small groups of children to the beach to explore but I do need written consent from you. Just drop and email to b.draper@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

Also, Sports Day is looming and we need to start designing our t-shirts. If you haven’t already done so could you please send in a. s. a. p a plain (named) white t shirt. We are hoping to start them next week.

Keep checking Purple Mash for activities for home and also for learning sheets sent home in your child’s bag.

Finally, we are hopeful that the good weather will continue over the bank holiday weekend so fire up the BBQ and have a relax!

See you all on Tuesday

Barbara

Welcome back.....

A glorious start to the summer term. Everyone has returned to nursery happy (and full of chocolate)! I hope you all have had some lovely family time during the holidays, magical times together that will last forever.

Our learning this term has begun with gusto. You won’t believe what we have achieved in only four days! We have been learning about parts of flowers and the life cycle of a flower. Click here or here to find out more.

We have also started an investigation table where we have started to grow carrot tops, beans and cress. Next week we are going to grow a lawn!!!

Why not have a go at home. All you need is a carrot top, a shallow dish and water. It’s really simple, just put the carrot tops in the dish with the water and pop them in a sunny spot like a window sill. Keep topping up the water. It will take a little while to get going but once your carrot top gets going it will grow quickly. Good luck!

If you catch the veggie growing bug, leeks, spring onions and garlic can easily be grown from leftovers.

Outside in the garden plans are underway to create a potting shed for the children to be able to access garden tools and a growing patch of their own….this is a work in progress, fingers crossed!

Click on the button below to see everything we have planned for this half term!

Key Person blog
All the flowers of all the tomorrows are in the seeds of today – Indian proverb

This week we have been growing, not only our brains but our garden. We have lots of investigations happening at the moment, and we can’t wait to find out if the carrot and parsnip tops will grow.

We have been carefully examining the flowers and plants to find out what they need to grow. We will be bringing some seeds home to continue our investigations at home.

We have also been finding out about the lifecycle of frogs and learnt a new word ‘froglet’. Click here to find out more.

Our fun in the garden has continued as we explored the soft play, building trampolines, castles and trains.

This week we have learnt a new sound “sh” and we were so amazed at how many words the children could think of that begin with this sound.

PE was amazing, the children demonstrated such good control in their balancing and their jumping. They were also fantastic at putting their shoes and socks back on afterwards. We think they have all been practicing at home! We will be continuing to support the children in their independence skills, such as pouring their own drinks, putting on their coats, ready for going into Reception in September.

 Colette, Barbara, Michelle, Justine and Frances

Watch out for home learning sheets coming home too! We would love for you to send the completed work back to nursery or email some photos…we love to see them. Don’t forget to keep checking Purple Mash, there’s always lots of learning happening there!

Worship

Created to Love Others

This week we discussed our relationships with others and with God. Building on the understanding that we have been created out of love and for love. This will help us to understand friendships and relationships, and teaches strategies for developing healthy relationships and keeping safe.

We have also been learning a new song to help our understanding. It is so beautiful and the children’s voices give such meaning to each word that they sing. The nursery ladies were moved to tears when we sang together on Friday.

Finally, we are hopeful that the fine weather will continue for the weekend and that you can get out and about as a family. We will see you all on Monday for another busy week of learning and fun.

Barbara

This week.....

Holy Week at Nursery

It has been a reflective week as we have followed the schools Easter assemblies and their journey through Holy week. We have visited the chapel each day to discuss and retell Jesus’s last week. The children have asked many questions about why Jesus was crucified and which of His disciples let him down. The children thought they made ‘bad choices’. Each day we tried to understand why? What would we have done? How does the Easter story make you feel?

On Thursday afternoon Mrs. Gregan and Year six invited us to join their assembly rehearsal of the Resurrection. The children were silent and engrossed as the children depicted Holy Week using drama and music. We were all moved.

We started the week with finding lots of creative ways to make crosses. We even found them on hot cross buns. Then of course we had to spread butter on them and eat them, yummy! The children have asked me to buy some more when I go shopping…and of course I did! Who doesn’t enjoy a hot cross bun at Easter?

We must say a massive thank you for all your Lenten donations. I can announce that we have collected £131.49, our best year yet. I have passed the money to school to add to their total. When I have the whole school amount I will let you know.

The Platinum Jubilee

On Wednesday we started to discuss how we could celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. We discussed who the Queen was by looking at pictures, we found out her name and how long she has been Queen for (this did lead to lots of other questions about other royals and their palaces). We decided that we should write her a letter and send it to Buckingham Palace, we also drew pictures of Her Majesty! We then popped everything into a large envelope, popped in a stamp (large) and then walked down to the postbox to post it! It was soooooo exciting!

We are now waiting for a reply, finger’s crossed.

I will be sending our more information after Easter about our planned celebration. The children has lots of ideas.

Key Persons blog

What a joy to start every day with a lap or two of the field for our CAFOD Walk for Hunger and then gather in the chapel for part of the Easter Story and singing. It is so uplifting and we are pleased they have been teaching you at home their chorus of ‘Sing Hosanna’!

 We have continued to practise our speedy sounds and rhyming games, and the children have been brilliant Bobby Bee’s. He is an enthusiastic Bee who loves to learn new things and he is helping all us in nursery too. We can chant together ‘I believe I can learn’ and if we find something tricky we have to remind ourselves of the key word YET as we say ‘I cant do it YET’ (but we will learn of course!)!!

Number 6 is becoming even more familiar and we are so proud of everyone for really working hard on their maths mastery. I wonder which numbers we will be looking at next?!

 The children led us this week, asking to make a Dr. Surgery. We have loved having the role play boxes out and people awaiting treatment!!

We have also had lots of fun playing pin the tail on the bunny, lots of giggles could be heard during this game. Blowing bubbles in the garden also caused great excitement as they grew bigger and bigger.

 We also had a great game of Pin The Tail on the Donkey, Easter magic box and dancing bunnies!!!

Michelle, Colette, Hannah, Justine and Frances

Outdoor activities for the holiday!

Click here for Forest Bathing

Click here for Birdy Surveys

Click here for Going on a Sound Walk

Click here for Barefoot Safari

Enjoy!

 A note from Hannah

On a personal note I want to say a huge thank you to all parents for giving me the opportunity to work with, care for and love your children. It has been an absolute privilege to spend the last year in nursery and see them grow and develop as the weeks go by. I am so proud of them as individuals and am sad to be leaving them...but its bittersweet as I will only be over the garden wall in Reception and will hopefully get to see a good number of the class come to school in September! Working in early years really is a magical, the team here are fantastic and there is so much joy in everyday.  I know the children will flourish when they return for the Summer term and I can’t wait to see them continuing to shine!

Hannah

As we have come to the end of another term at nursery I would just like to say that all the nursery team are so proud of the children’s learning. They never cease to amaze us at their eagerness to learn, their resilience when things go wrong and how they have embraced our nursery and school ethos. They all truly want to be more like Jesus.

On behalf of everyone here at Nursery I would like to wish you all a very Happy Easter and to thank for everything that you do for your child in support of Nursery. We are all so grateful to you.

We have more exciting (and challenging) learning planned for the Summer Term so watch this space! Make sure you have a good rest!!

Finally, the children have asked if I would upload some of the Easter activities we have done this week, I can’t resist their requests. Click on the buttons below to access them.

Keep safe

Barbara

This week...

One more week before the Easter holiday, I hope we can make it! The children have worked so hard this half term and they are all now in need of a good rest….and chocolate!

I hope all our mummy’s enjoyed their Mothers’ Day surprises. The children were so excited to give them to you, especially the chocolates!

You will have noticed that our new outdoor areas are now complete. We officially unveiled the bridge and took turns to walk across it. We all agreed it is much “bigger” and “higher” than the previous one. We love it!!! The children now would like a tunnel which they could slide inside…no pressure!

Key Person Blog

Well it’s been another fun packed busy week in nursery. The children have been busy making colourful Easter cards and beautiful Easter light catchers that are currently brightening up our nursery windows and making it look like church stained glass windows.

We have been building bridges, walkways and all sorts of balancing apparatus with our new wooden planks and building resources. The children have been practicing their fundamental movement skills over the past weeks and it is noticeable how good their jumping, hopping, running and catching and throwing is getting. We have had great fun using the parachute with games such as cat and mouse, teddy bounce and catching the air inside the parachute to make a huge balloon. We also have introduced our giant outdoor stretchy band. We played Sally go round the moon, stretched the band into an enormous circle and then let it go….wow it was very springy!

The children have been asking to play lots of board games (Snakes and Ladders is a firm favourite). Our turn taking and dice skills are just getting better and better.

On our new stage area outside the children has been a huge success. On Thursday the children performed an act for their friends. Britain’s got Talent here we come! We thought we would video the next performance and then you can watch too!

Michelle, Colette, Justine, Frances and Hannah

Worship

We continue our journey through Holy Week. The children now confidently recall the events leading up to Jesus' death by crucifixion and His Resurrection. Click here to watch a video of the Easter Story.

Each day we have tried to be a little bit more like Jesus and our Lenten Heart is overflowing with smiley faces, one for each act of generosity, gratitude, kindness, love, helpfulness and thoughtfulness. Also, thank you for your kind generosity, our Lenten collection now stands at £119.58…fantastic! Thank you so much!

Each day, rain or shine we have completed our Cafod Walk against Hunger. Click here if you would like to find out more. The children have been stoic in their determination to walk and to help others. We are so proud of them all.

Phonics

For anyone that has missed Gerald Giraffe here are the sounds we have been focusing on this half term (c, k, u, b, f,)

Click here for c

Click here for K

Click here for u

Click here for b

Click here for f

Heads up for next half term e, l, h, sh, r

Mathematics

Here are some number games for you to play if you have time!

Click here for Easter Teddy numbers

Click here for the Gingerbread Man game

Click here for Buds number Garden

After Easter Hannah will be moving next door to work in Reception. This is a huge transitional asset for the children who will be going into Reception in September.

Just like all of the nursery team I’m sure you would like to wish her well. Although she will be greatly missed in nursery, we will still be able to see her over the garden wall!

For the Summer term I will be taking over Hannah’s key group, supported by Justine. We will have a fabulous time, I can’t wait!

Next week I will be sending home some fun activity sheets for the Easter holidays, I hope you enjoy doing them. Watch out for them in your child’s book bag.

Finally, we break for the Easter Holidays on Friday at 2pm and return on Tuesday 19th April. Have a lovely weekend everyone and we look forward to seeing you on Monday.

Barbara

Such glorious weather......

The fabulous weather this week has meant that we have been able to take full advantage of the garden. You may have noticed the building works happening on the top part of the garden. We are having a new (even bigger) made, new planting boxes and a stage for budding West End performers! Hopefully it will be completed by the end of next week, we are all very excited.

Thank you for your continued support of our Lenten appeal. To date we have collected £115.06! Wow that’s fantastic, thank your so much for your generosity.

It was lovely to see some of our families face to face at the Key Person meetings this week. Thank you for all your kind words in support of nursery, it is really appreciated. Michelle meetings are on Monday, if you haven’t managed to book an appointment yet just drop her an email. I also will look forward to catching up with you.

Key Persons Blog

Another exciting week in nursery with lots of outdoor play whilst the sun is shining. We have continued to enjoy our beach area with all the lovely new sand we had delivered. We have also got a bit wet with our outdoor water play area but we soon dried off in the warm weather.

We’ve continued to practice our fundamental movement skills with hopping, jumping, running and throwing and catching. This lovely weather has enabled us to enjoy our Cafod ‘Walk for Hunger’ around the school field. We’ve even had snack times outside enjoying the sunshine.

The children have continued to explore the fantasy/mythical theme and have made their own magic wands so be careful you don’t get turned into a frog and listen out for spells being cast by your little budding wizards and witches.

The children have also made their own dragon egg. We will be sending them home next week for them to take care of. Our eggs at nursery have hatched and we now have baby dragons somewhere in the garden!

This week we have introduced a new Number Block friend ‘number 6’. We have been practicing number recognition skills through playing games such as snakes and ladders and throwing a giant dice. Why not have a games evening at home, it’s great fun ( and sometimes rather competitive!).

Click here to watch the Number 6 video.

All the children have been very busy making some wonderful treats for a very special day on Sunday. It has been lovely to hear why the children love their mummies so much, enjoy your weekend.

Colette, Hannah, Justine, Michelle and Frances

Some of our parents have been asking about letter formation. I have sent home this week a Read, Write Inc letter formation sheet to help you at home. If you haven’t received it click on the button below.

As promised last week here’s a little teaser for the children, Where is Fairy Love? I wonder if they can tell you where in nursery or school she is?

Worship

This week we will be continuing our Easter Journey. click on the button below to read the story at home.

We have also started to learn the Hail Mary. One of our friends bought us a beautiful book to help us remember the words. It is called ‘Hail Mary. A book of Prayer’, illustrated by Julianna Swaney.

This week when we visited the chapel it was truly joyous. We all sang like angels whilst Colette played the guitar. It is so moving to see the children’s faces as they sing. Next week we will try to take pictures but we really don’t want to spoil the moment.

Next week we have lots of Easter activities planned including eating hot cross buns…mmmmmmm. Watch this space.

Lastly, I have it on good authority that the weather is going to be splendid this weekend so enjoy it and have some family fun!

Stay safe

Barbara

This week.....

I have only one word for this weeks learning…truly magical. On Monday a Dragon came to nursery to lay her eggs in a dragons lair….ooooh eggciting (sorry I couldn’t resist!).

On Tuesday we had two tonnes of sand delivered, so we decided to make a beach!!! I must say moving that amount of sand was hard work! Needless to say we did it and we now have the most wonderful beach, although the children now are asking where the sea is!!!!! I’m not sure what I can do about that, I will have to put my thinking hat on!

We have been continuing our mathematical journey by exploring shape, space and measure. We have made obstacle courses, visited new areas around the school, drawn maps, read books using spatial language, spotted patterns, made patterns using natural resources, predicted routes to get to places and used small world to practice position and direction. There is so much to learn! Watch out for the handout about Spatial Reasoning I will be sending home, it may give you some ideas for activities at home.

Our exploration of number five is fabulous. The children now understand that ‘5’ can be made up of five ones, three ones and two more, four ones and one more… Click here to watch ‘Where are Five & Friends?’

Next week we will start exploring number 6.

Worship

This week we have continued our Easter Story by reading about ‘The Last Supper’. The children were concerned that Judas made a bad choice. Everyone was so eager to know what happened next we had to read on! One of our friends also brought his Easter story for us to read.

If you click on the button below there is the Easter story in sequencing cards. Perhaps your child can cut out the cards, tell you the story and put them on the correct order? Wow, that would be great. Let us know how they get on.

Also, each day we have been doing our Cafod walk for Hunger by walking twice around the school field. We can’t believe how much we have raised already for our Lenten collection. As of today our total is….£92.11. We are all blown away by you generosity, let’s see if we can get above £100!

Key Persons Blog

What another busy week here at Nursery! Our magical quest has continued with the arrival of a Dragon on Monday! Underneath the Dragon was a basket of eggs...the children counted 12!! We closely examined them (gently of course) and are watching and waiting to see if any magic happens.  We have made a Dangerous Dragons display and have ben very creative painting our own dragons. We made sure we looked really closely at  the colours of dragons. Our dragons are even breathing fire.

Click here to listen to Zog the dragon story.

We didn’t forget to make more fairy playdough (we all had sticky blue hands this time….not sure if we followed the recipe as closely as last week!!!). We have also learnt how to write like fairies using magic fairy dust and magic wands.

There has been a lot of music in the air this week and have been singing a song about ‘Leafy Green’ who has a body made up of healthy foods (not chocolate I’m afraid!).

We have also been rally busy on a top secret mission involving plant pots and chocolates. Shhhh! (All will be revealed!)

Using our open ended resources there has been some wonderful creative play in the garden. Building towers from the coloured bricks and plastic reels and also making cubes from the large waffles. We have also enjoyed singing and dancing in the garden, enjoying the sunnier days.

 Colette, Michelle, Hannah, Justine and Frances

I believe it’s going to be a lovely weekend so enjoy the sunshine and have lots of fun! We will see you on Monday, who knows maybe one of our dragon eggs may have hatched!!

P. S. The children will need an early night on Sunday as we have lots of learning planned for next week. Don’t forget Colette’s Parent Meetings on Monday and Hannah’s on Tuesday. We look forward to ctaching up with you all.

Stay safe

Barbara

Hand in hand with fairy grace.....

A very special week has occurred in nursery. It stared with a special visitor coming to nursery, a fairy called Fairy Love (the children named her). She helped us to investigate the fantasy world of all things fairies and pixies. We even found fairy footprints in nursery and the garden as well as a sprinkle of fairy dust!

Fairy Love brought us some tiny potions bottles full of magic. We have started to make up our own spells and potions in the water play. It was a different colour every day with different pixie dust…..better beware everyone!

We have been practising our rhyming skills by making silly soup. Click on the button to play at home.

We also played rhyming words with a huge cauldron and a ‘real’ magic wand. We knew it was real because it lit up when the magic was happening!

Whilst we were doing our daily walk for Lent we happened upon two gargantuan (our favourite word) branches which we dragged back to nursery to make a fairy glen…it is soooo magical. Outside in the garden we made a forbidden forest!

Frances and a team of intrepid gardeners have also started preparing the garden for summer planting. They began by weeding the big tractor tyre and planted a meadow to attract butterflies and bees in the summer.

We have been so very busy and nursery has been transformed into a magical kingdom…watch out for the pictures on next weeks blog

Key Person blog

It has been a magical time this week at Nursery. We have noticed some evidence of fairies all around. The children know how to tell if a fairy has been near:

Soft chiming bells, a sprinkle of fairy dust, tiny flickers of light and a gentle breeze in the air.

With all this in mind we have created our own fairy drawings and paintings, explored fairy sounds by using our own soft chiming bells. We have also made the most ‘fairylicious’ sparkling playdough which was red, blue and yellow. The children have made their own indoor fairy glen with sparkling lights and created their own story using a story map. Thank you to the wonderful gardeners who did some lovely spring planting.

Have a lovely weekend.

Hannah, Colette, Justine, Frances and Michelle.

 Worship

 This week we continued talking about our Lenten promises and how we could be more like Jesus. Our Lenten promise chart is getting very full as we complete many acts of kindness and generosity.

May we say a big thank you for your Lenten Almsgiving our magic counting jar is getting full. If you haven’t sent your donation in yet don’t worry…you still have time. Some of the children have sent in with their donation a list of the acts of kindness they have been doing at home. Well done everybody!

We also talked about how we should all be grateful for our wonderful world and everyone and everything on it.

We started to read the Easter story. We started by reading about Palm Sunday.

The children continue to explore and play with number and also we have been developing our understanding of shape and space including how things fit together, movements like turning and flipping, symmetry and scale. They are also beginning to predict and recognise familiar routes for example how to get to the chapel, field etc.

We have been loving finding lots of books which have a magical or fantasy theme. We read Room on a Broom and a huge red dragon appeared! Click here to watch.

One of our other favourites is ‘On the Way Home’ by Jill Murphy. Click here.

Next week be will post our own story and the display we are currently painting…it’s a bit scary!

Everyone has worked so very hard this week, I am sure a well earned rest is in order. Have a restful weekend before we continue on our magical quest next week, where we will be exploring the world of dragons, boggarts and much much more. We can’t wait!!!!!!

Keep safe and we will see you on Monday!

Barbara

This week....

A strange week weather-wise, we have managed to have prolonged periods of time in the garden when the sun has shone and warmed us, at other times it has been wet and dull. However, our spirits at nursery are never dampened and our love of learning together continues no matter what.

This months planning aims to encourage the children to become confident about coming up with their own ideas and to make more links between those ideas. The children have been using pretend play to think beyond the ‘here and now’ and to understand another perspective. For example, role-playing by creating the imaginative world of fairies, pixies, goblins and trolls!

Worship

Lent is the time when we make a special effort to grow more like Jesus and allow God's love to shine in everything we do. We began our Lenten preparations on Shrove Tuesday when we enjoyed tasting pancakes with a variety of toppings!

We have made a huge Lenten promise poster that we aim to fill with smiley faces; one face every time we grow an extra bit of love through acts of kindness and become a bit more like Jesus.

As always nursery will be joining the school almsgiving through Lent. This year it will focus on CAFOD’s Walk Against Hunger and we will be praying for all those around the world who are in desperate need. The children will be asking you to support them.

This week you will have received a box full of raisins for the children to eat and enjoy. We are asking that you fill the empty box with money, and the children and nursery ladies will pledge walk two laps of the school field every day over the next five weeks, in our lead up to Holy Week. We are hopeful that if every family donates at least £5 we should be able to head towards that collective magical £1000 for this very worthy cause.

Below are some of the items and support which CAFOD is hoping to provide:

• £12 can buy ingredients to make a highly nutritious sesame seed paste so a new mum can help her malnourished child grow big and strong

• £20 can fund expert nutrition and healthcare classes for new mums and dads in rural communities

• £200 can feed ten malnourished children sesame paste for a week, helping them grow big and strong

• £500 can provide an entire community with pepper seeds for planting season

• £600 can help local experts deliver a highly effective door-to-door campaign in rural communities, training people in proper sanitation, hygiene and nutrition

Key Person blog

What an action packed week we have had in Nursery! The Spring sunshine made a brief appearance and it was so lovely playing outside with COATS OFF (for the one day it was warm enough to!!)!! We have enjoyed talking about pancake day and eating them too, started to look at signs of Spring and celebrating all things books on World Book Day.

We have used lemons for making bright prints with paint, been curious with our primary colours by mixing them together. We have continued to really work on our super scissors skills; cutting out shapes! We are getting very good

 The sound ‘k’ has tried to confuse us this week. He sounds the same as ‘c’ but looks rather different! Can you remember anything that starts with this letter? Click here to watch Geraldine Giraffe find out about ‘k’

 What amazing creativity we have seen shine through this week with our Duplo building and role play. There has been loads of giant floor puzzles, group games and construction completed. What great team work everyone—you have been just like our new learning character ‘Be Co-operative’ Roger Robin.

 Michelle, Hannah, Colette, Justine and Frances

We are doing really well exploring the number 5. Have ago at ‘Today’s number’ game. Click here to play Remember today’s number is 5. Enjoy!

The children have also been noticing some signs of fairies in our garden and classroom. Watch this space as we investigate further! I think we may be in for a few surprises!

Let’s hope the sunshine makes a prolonged appearance this weekend and we can all get out and about. Have a lovely weekend whatever your plans may be and we will see you all on Monday.

Barbara

This week....

It’s great to see everyone full of energy and raring to get learning after the holidays, and a huge well done to everyone who completed the half term challenges. We loved seeing the photos and chatting with the children about their work, thank you.

The children this week have been extremely busy. They are all still excited about the planets and space…I think they will continue finding out facts forever! A friend came to share with everyone that he had discovered Saturn had 82 moons! Wow!!

However, next week we will be introducing some new learning (as well as space). The children have a keen interest in fairies and other fantasy worlds and creatures. Perhaps you have fairies living at the bottom of your garden, just like we have discovered in our nursery garden.

Click on the button below to look at our plans for March! We are going to have great fun learning!

Key person blog

We have all settled back in so beautifully this week, eager to see our friends, share our holiday news and get back to growing our brains! We have played some lovely games in our Seaside Café; the role play has been wonderful, with lots of orders being taken, written down and then served! The playdough creations have been fabulous this week too - trays of cakes and chocolates amongst the many! Some of us have painted using magnets...we dragged paperclips through the paint to see what patterns and colour mixing we could do. It was great fun!

We also had a look at our friend Numberblock Five. Five arrives to get the band together, and the party started, with a big high five! Click here to see the friends 1-5. Some children accepted the challenge to draw round their hand to show ‘5’ and to be creative with number caterpillars. There was lots of Tommy Turtles having a go at writing numbers1-5! Well done children!!

Click here to to watch

 The nursery ladies were amazed at how many words the children came up with that start with ‘c’!! It was a colossal amount!! Geraldine the Giraffe found some we hadn't thought of in her search...can you come up with 5 ‘c’ words at home? Watch Geraldine here!

Colette, Hannah, Michelle, Justine and Frances

Almsgiving

In the lead up to Christmas, during Advent, together with the school we raised money for Brian House, a charity close to all our hearts, which provides much comfort to parents in times of great need. We have finally reached that magic £1,000 and have sent off the cheque last week. During Lent we are hoping to match this again.

As in previous years nursery will be sending home a named raisin box fir each child. We are asking that the children eat the raisins (mmm yummy) and then fill the box with money ( preferably silver coins). You may want to ask your child to complete a small act of kindness for each coin! When it is full please send it back to nursery to be counted.

Last year was a bumper year for donations, it would be great if could surpass it this year! No pressure parents!

In nursery we will be continuing our acts of kindness by growing and extra bit of love each day. Every time we spot a friend being kind and thoughtful to another they win a smiley face to put on our Lenten promise love heart. I bet we fill it!

I will keep you updated with how things are going.

Worship

Our worship this week was about our personal tastes and how we differ from one another. We learnt about how to recognise and describe our feelings as well as some ways of managing their emotions.

Our prayers acknowledged our moods and reassured us that Jesus is always there for us, no matter what we are feeling.

As you can see we are always busy at nursery! It’s no wonder we are all exhausted by Friday. Try and have a good rest this weekend. I am hopeful that it won’t be windy!!

Barbara

This week....

This week we have continued to be like Curious Clara. We found out that sometimes our magnets clicked together and then at other times they pushed away from each other. Mmmmm curious!

We discovered that a every magnet has both a north and a south pole. When you place the north pole of one magnet near the south pole of another magnet, they are attracted to one another. When you place like poles of two magnets near each other (north to north or south to south), they will repel each other. We have learnt learnt two new words. Click here to watch Maddie tell us about magnets.

We have also been talking about recycling, which materials can be used again and which bin to put them in. Click here to to go on a recycling hunt at home with Maddie and Buster. The children have even been upcycling, also known as creative reuse. They have transformed boxes, and unwanted bits and bobs into new objects with artistic value. I suspect you have received some items at home this week

Click here to listen to a story about a little girl and her dog who set out to make ‘The Most Magnificent Thing’. But after much hard work, the end result is not what the girl had in mind. Frustrated, she quits. Her dog suggests a long walk, and as they walk, it slowly becomes clear what the girl needs to do to succeed.

Worship

This week we have reflected on all the things we have thanked God for this half term: for making us all special and unique with individual talents; we have thanked Him for our bodies, our ability to run, hop, skip, swim and play football. But, we also recognise that we must look after our bodies by making healthy choices.

We have started to learn a new song to sign this week. It’s rather tricky but we are getting there. Click here to listen.

Key Person blog

What a lovely week it has been at nursery! We started the week by learning how to care for our planet Earth, to keep it clean and green. We were all Kiki Chameleons being creative when using recycled materials to build junk models! After listening to the story ‘Somebody Swallowed Stanley’ we talked about how upsetting it is to hear that a discarded plastic bag could end up in the ocean and be a danger to animals. The children were brilliant at suggesting ways to not litter...can they remember any of their ideas? Tee and Mo have a great song about how we can help , (even as little people), to look after our wonderful world. Click here to listen. Or try their game here.

Keeping with the reuse and recycle theme...we made a super rubbish lorry outside! This then led to the making of a chalked road and roundabout, along with road signs and traffic lights! This has been great fun!

We also had challenges this week to make number lines with the pebbles. What number came next? What number is missing from the line? Hmm, we had to think and work out the problem, concentrating like Cooper Crab! Another challenge was to fit lots of stacking boxes back inside one big box. This was really tricky and got us all using our brains.

Not only have our brains been busy this week, so have our bodies! Our fundamental movement skills are developing really, really well and we are showing great resilience. You can tell we have been practising a lot because we are getting better and better. Maybe you could ask the children to show you their hopping or throwing skills?

Have a lovely half term!

Michelle, Colette, Frances, Justine

One of our maths activities this week has been to count the beats on a drum. Jacqui from the kitchen has saved lots of big tins for us to use as drums…thanks Jacqui.

Click here to play a similar game at home.

We have made an ‘how do you feel today’ corner, with help from The Colour Monster’. We have filled jars full of the colours that represent our emotions. We left one jar empty so that we can put coloured poms poms in to show our feelings in colour. If you have forgotten the story click here to listen.

If we need a quiet moment we have erected a quiet tent with the softest rug and cushions, perfect for reflection.

Click here for Moody Monsters game.

It has been such a busy, fun and exciting half term and the children have learnt so much, but, they are all tired. Try and have a good rest next week (if that’s possible) because when we return we have one last week to recap learning about Space and then the children have asked to explore the world of mythical creatures; fairies, dragons. boggarts, and much much more!!! We can’t wait!!!

Please take care during the holidays and make some lovely family memories, that will last forever. We will see everyone bright eyed and bushy tailed on the 21st February.

Barbara

All about magnets....

We have all been Curious Clara’s this week and have been finding out all about magnets. First, a discussion about what does a magnets do. The children said they stick to things…mmmmmm all things? Everyone thought magnets would pick up paper, wood and even Barbara’s knee!!

We had to find out more, we had to be curious and active. We had to investigate !!!

A big thank you everyone who has been working hard at home too. We have had lots of Purple Mash work and also the challenges which have been sent home during the week…you are all fabulous. The photos which I have received of the children working at home makes me so very proud. Thank you for sharing them with us.

Here’s a bit of fun for you all to do at home. It’s an action song about Zooming to the Moon! Click here and enjoy your trip!

Worship

Along with Freddy Teddy and Mollie the Cat, we thanked God for our wonderful bodies and discussed how we should look after them. This weeks story involved the children helping Freddy Teddy to make good, healthy lifestyle decisions, including about exercise, diet, sleep and personal hygiene. Click on the button below to read the story at home.

We have also be learning to sing and to sign the song ‘There is someone who knows me’. The children are getting very good. Why not ask them to sing it at home for you? Click here for the music.

Key Person blog

This week our learning has been truly ‘Magnetic’ at Nursery.

We have been exploring Magnets of all different shapes and sizes. The children experimented in lots of different places.  They have made of list of all the items that the magnets pull towards and as you can imagine the list is expanding each day with each new find. We even experimented with magnets in the water and sand.

We watched a short film about a top scientist nicknamed ‘Magnet Man’ with his special magnetic grippers he was able to climb up a tall tower made of steel. Click here to watch him climb…

We also enjoyed a short animation about how mice used fridge magnets to escape from a cat!!! You can click here to watch it.

We have also celebrated Chinese New Year, the year of the tiger, by performing our very own dragon dance, accompanied by our very own Chine drums. The children have made tigers and tasted noodles.

Colette, Michelle, Justine, Frances and Hannah

Next week we will be thinking about planet earth. How can we look after our planet and make sure all the creatures which live on it (including us) are safe? Michelle is also keen to do some upcycling of interesting recyclable boxes and materials. Please send in any items you require up cycling!!

I have also stolen a wonderful idea from Miss Lavelle our Reception teacher. If you have any unwanted picture of photo frames (without the glass and the back) could we please have them? It’s so exciting, when we use them I will share the photos…watch this space (no pun intended).

Please have a restful weekend, as next week will be just as busy as this week. Keep checking to see if your child’s key person has set any games or work ( I think it’s going to be a cold one). Keep safe and we will see you all on Monday!

Barbara

This week.....the aliens are coming!

A fun week making pet aliens and using alien speak. Colette and Michelle are in the process of creating an alien wall based on the the story ‘Aliens love underpants’. The children even designed their own underpants to hang on our washing line.

Click here to listen to the story.

Have you got any stories at home about aliens? If you have bring them in next week and we will read them! We love a good story!!

We have also been redesigning our outdoor area. Everyone has been thinking about what they would like to see and do in the garden. We have already started by creating a big building site using a mixture of BIG waffle bricks, house bricks and boulders ( rubber of course), large tins and buckets, wooden discs and large chopping boards. We have even put up work site sigs in the builders yard.

Some children wanted to make a cosy reading den. We cleaned out the small shed and put lots of squishy mats inside along with some of our favourtie stories! We have ordered a new storage shed for all our baskets of enhancement resources.

I have even ordered some surprise for the children, shhhhh!

We will continue our revamp next week.

Key Person Blog

Once again the children have amazed us with their learning! This week aliens have landed in nursery! The children used their prior shape knowledge to create aliens and some of us have painted them too! Some alien pets may have made their way home already, if yours has – please take good care of them! I wonder if you will hear any alien speak whilst they settle in? Have you read Aliens Love Underpants?

We have worked on our fundamental movement skills in the hall and can see lots of ’concentrate’ Cooper Crabs with our hopping, jumping and throwing! We are working in smaller groups and taking turns in the hall to really hone our skills. The alternative activity was a wellbeing and relaxation session – we did slow and controlled rainbow breathing above our heads and then led down where we focused on large breaths to move our bodies. Why don’t you have a go at home, click here.

We also had tried BREATHING BUDDIES

Purpose: Calm, Relaxation, Mindfulness of Body

Best for: Ages 4+, groups or one-on-one

What you need: Comfortable clothes, ample floor space (or another place to lie down), a favorite stuffed toy.

1. To practice tummy-breathing, ask your child to lie comfortably and place his hands on their tummy (if they use a stuffed animal, they can hold it on top of their tummy when they lie down).

2. As you count to three, ask the child to inhale deeply through their nose.

Tell them to fill their tummy with air as they inhale; they should feel it get bigger and bigger and bigger throughout the count to three. If the stuffed toy sits atop the tummy, they might see it rise as the tummy “fills with air”.

3. Ask them to exhale to a slow count to four. They might see the teddy fall as the feels the tummy shrinks and shrinks throughout the count to four.

Do five to ten rounds of tummy-breathing to get started.

When ready, ask your child how it felt.

Is there a difference in how they feels now?

What did they notice about the stuffed animal as they inhaled and exhaled?

How did it feel when they released the breath?

Repeat the process as many times as you want.

Enjoy!

The den building has been fantastic this week.  We have also been strengthening our finger muscles by manipulating the clay. This helps us develop the muscles needed to be confident writers. We have had so much fun with mixed resources and our creations have been built on a good bout of teamwork!

Don’t forget we have been thinking about things that begin with ‘p’. We could name loads of words! See what you can find at home?

Colette, Michelle, Hannah, Justine and Frances.

Worship

This weeks session required the children to move around and explore the movements their bodies can make by taking part in a story where Freddy Teddy and Mollie the Cat take a morning walk. It helped us realise how wonderful our unique, God-given bodies are.

Click on the button below to read the story and join in the actions.

As always it has been an extremely busy week at nursery and we have noticed that everyone is getting tired. Only two more weeks then we can have a big rest!

Have the most splendid weekend and we will see you all on Monday. I hope you enjoy doing the home challenges we have sent home this week…don’t forget to send us some photos, we love to share the children’s learning.

Barbara

Our Solar system

I can’t believe the learning that has been taking place in nursery this week. We have started to learn about the planets in our solar system, and wow I am amazed1

Click here for the solar system song

Click here for the planets song

We have written a poem map about the planets. We were inspired by Pie Corbett’s ‘Talk for writing’ concept. In talk for writing Children learn to tell a story off by heart. They tell the story with expression and actions. Once a story is learnt the children are encouraged to adapt it to make it their own, for example by changing the characters or the setting. We have very nearly learnt our poem off by heart.

Now we have our ‘map’ we are going to write an alien story next week. Watch this space! Be prepared for us to scare your socks off!

Key Person blog

Wow, what a rate our brains have been grown at this week! Our astronauts have boarded their rockets and crash, banged into our Solar System. We have listened to and learnt poems and songs and used this planet knowledge to create a super display in nursery. We are such a creative bunch!! More rockets have been made, (continuing to spot our 3 primary colours!), sparkly stars have been glued and glittered, and some of us have even started to design our very own planets. We have also continued to develop our scissor skills by giving some aliens a hair cut…a great one to try at home!

Outside we have been playing box monster, making aliens with stretchy blue sand and launching asteroids across the garden. Tin foil wrapped around a small soft ball, (with streamers dangling off!!) was perfect for practising our over arm throw!  

We have danced again to ‘Cherry Tots’ and met ‘quiet and mad’ this week. Can you remember how we moved to these pieces of music?

Worship- I am special

This week we have continued developing our understanding of the importance of valuing ourselves and others. We played the ‘I am special’ game. We had a golden box and inside there was something so special that there is only one in the whole wide world!

We looked inside the box to discover what could be so very special. Can you guess what we saw? Mmmmmm…you will have to ask your child to find out what it was!! Take a look at our pictures.

Throughout the day we all tried to be a little bit more like Jesus and to fill our hearts full of love for everyone.

We also visited the chapel again on Tuesday. It is fast becoming our favourite place.

We are still finding out about shapes in our environments. Here are a couple of games to try at home.

Click here for the shape pattern train.

Click here for the symmetry shape game.

Lastly, could we say a big thank you to you for supporting your childs learning at home. You are fantastic! Have a good rest this weekend but don’t forget Purple Mash, there is work set for the children to do!

See you all on Monday

Barbara

This week....

The children’s learning at the moment knows no bounds. We are all amazed at how much we have found out about space travel and the moon!

Did you know?

There is nothing but stars and darkness all around in space.

It takes four whole days to reach the moon.

When the astronauts get there they have to climb into a little spaceship.

To go outside the astronauts have to put on a special suit.

The spacesuits carry are so they can breathe.

The Moon is silent and dusty.

There are huge mountains and big holes.

There are no trees, water, animals or people on the moon

On the moon, you feel very light and floaty, when you walk around you take big bouncy strides!

Astronauts sometimes go exploring in Moon buggies. They collect moon rocks to bring back home.

You can see our world from the Moon.

Our Wow space words include:

Gravity

Asteroids

Craters

Oxygen

Shooting star

We have also found out about the new James Webb telescope sent into space in December. It’s looking for the oldest star.

Click here to see a rocket launch!

Key Person’s blog

This has proved to be another amazing week here at Nursery. There have been lots of discussions about space and the children have asked many questions asked including.... what do Astronauts eat? How many astronauts can fit into the space shuttle? How wide is the capsule? We discovered that it is 2.7 meters wide and we measured it out on the floor using masking tape. It was a squash and a squeeze for three people!!! How do the astronauts manage???? 

We have created rockets using a variety of materials and many space puzzles have been completed including pictures of planets, space shuttles, moon buggies and the moon. The children have all decorated and cut out their own rocket for our super display. Using their existing rocket knowledge some children accepted the challenge to create a replica rocket using only certain materials. This included the three primary colours....can your child name them? Click here to watch the video we liked!

The children created their own obstacle course in the garden, and we have also been practicing our throwing skills using ‘Moon Rocks’ instead of balls! There has also been some hopping, jumping and Alien splatting! What a busy week! 

Hope you have a lovely weekend. 

Michelle, Frances, Colette, Hannah, and Justine. 

Here is a small collection of this weeks learning at nursery!

We have started to look at shapes in our environment. We sang the shape song and then went on a shape hunt!! We really did want to find a dodecagon!!!! Perhaps you could go on a shape hunt at home this weekend. Click here for the shape song.

We have also been focusing on the sound ‘n’ with Geraldine Giraffe. Click here. How many things can you find at home that begins with ‘n’?

Next week we are starting to find out and be curious about the planets in our solar system.

Worship

This week focused on helping the children learn that they are uniquely created by God and special because they are made and loved by Him. We explored our uniqueness and what that means. We celebrated difference as well as individual gifts, talents and abilities.

Click on the button below to see the slides.

Finally, I have a few words from Michelle and Justine. They have had a fabulous couple of weeks getting to know the children and yourselves. Thank you for being so welcoming.

The have written a few words about themselves for you to get to know them better.

Hello everyone,

I am so excited to be here at Our Lady Star of the Sea Nursery with all your wonderful children. I’ve seen some of you this week but I thought I should introduce myself properly.

My name is Michelle and I have many years experience working in local nurseries. I have been a Preschool Room Leader, a Childcare Manager and a Nursery Manager and I hold Early Years Professional Status, a BA Honours degree in Early Childhood Studies and an NVQ Level 3 in Early Years Care and Education.

I live in St Annes and I have 2 grown up children. In my spare time I enjoy listening to live music, eating out and trying to tame the wilderness that is my garden.

I am passionate about ensuring children have the best possible start to their education and I am really looking forward to seeing your child grow and develop into the best version of themselves.

Michelle

Hello, my name is Justine and I am enjoying being a member of the Nursery team at Our Lady Star Of The Sea. Both the nursery and school have such a lovely, friendly, welcoming and hardworking ethos and I feel like a member of a huge happy family.

I have worked with children of all ages for over 23 years being a Teaching Assistant and also a Family Learning Mentor, but my favourite setting of all is by far working with the Nursery children.

My family and I moved from Manchester to sunny St Annes in 2010 and love living in such a beautiful little town so close to the sea. My husband is a keen kite surfer and I enjoy the more relaxing paddle boarding with my 2 children, (I say children but they are now 21 and 22, but they are ALWAYS your babies!)

I also enjoy playing golf, travelling, swimming, art, gardening, and going on lovely long walks with our dog Bluebell.

I’ll make an effort to wave and smile at you all (albeit from behind a mask, but trust me I am smiling) and just want to say thank you for having such adorable, funny and incredibly bright children that make our jobs an absolute pleasure.

Justine

It just remains for me to say, have a restful week and we will see you all on Monday to start learning about the planets!!!

Barbara

Happy New Year!

A big welcome back to nursery everyone. I hope you have managed some rest over the festive period.

This week we welcome a new nursery lady, Justine. She will be working alongside Hannah as a support key person. The children think she is wonderful! When you see her at the gate, introduce yourself and say a say a big hello!

The children have all come back to nursery ready to grow their brains. This week have been ‘finding out’ about Space, and working and thinking like a scientist. We have found out about the Hubble space probe, astronauts, space travel and the moon. We have even written our own song about aliens, (to the tune of ‘The Animals went in Two by Two’).

An alien came to visit you,

He roared, he roared,

An alien came to visit you,

He roared, he roared,

An alien came to visit you,

His head was green and his nose was blue,

You could hear him roaring

Did he frighten you?

NO!!

Here are our plans for January. We are going to be so busy!

Key Person Blog

Wow what a week to blast off with! We cannot believe the children have returned this week, so calm, focused and eager to learn. They have enjoyed telling us about their time at home over Christmas and drawing pictures of what presents they received.

Our new learning thread has well and truly launched itself with a bang. The children all had the opportunity to share their thoughts and ideas in small groups…giving us nursery ladies plenty food for thought! Our discussions have given us some amazing wow words and the excitement has been evident all week—we have all been buzzing!

We have talked about and read the Cape Ability story about Tommy Turtle...a scared and shy character who needs to face his fears. This has in turn helped us all and we have had plenty of ‘Have a Go’ moments ourselves… rocket making; (including plenty of astronaut role play!), moon rock exploring and painting and drawing our own stars!

Thank you children for such a lovely first week back.

Colette, Hannah , Justine and Frances

This week we have started to explore the number 4. Click here to find out more. If you fancy a challenge here a Number 4/ Learn to count video. Click here.

We also looked at the sound ‘i’ with Geraldine the Giraffe. Click here to watch.

Worship

God made Me, God made you.

Created and Loved by God explores the individual. Rooted in the teaching that we are created by God out of love and for love, it helps the children to develop an understanding of the importance of valuing themselves as the basis for personal relationships:

We learnt a new song called God made Me, God made You, and a new prayer. See if your child can remember them.

Next week we are planning to expand our knowledge of the moon and space travel. Perhaps the children can find out some facts to share?

We would also like the children to make their own rocket. Could each child please bring to nursery a named tube to start us off. Thank you in anticipation.

In the meanwhile here are just a few photos to give you a flavour of our learning this week! Lots more next week!

Next week, Michelle our new nursery deputy will be joining us, she can’t wait to meet everyone!

Please have a restful (and fun) weekend and we will see everyone on Monday. Don’t forget to check Purple Mash for more learning! Enjoy!

Barbara

Sing and Dance for Joy

At last the moment you have all been waiting for, our Christmas Nativity. We hope you enjoy it.

I’m sure after watching the children tell the story of The First Christmas there is not a dry eye in your household. All the nursery ladies (and the whole school staff) were emotional after watching it.

We must say a big ‘thank you’ to Clare and Colette who worked so hard to produce such a wonderful Nativity. Another thank you to Mrs. Gregan who built the video.

As you are aware we are saying farewell to Clare today, we are all very sad to see her go but we wish her well in her new job. She has been such a big part of nursery for such a long time she will be sadly missed.

We have two new nursery ladies joining us in January, Michelle and Justine. We are looking forward to welcoming them to Nursery.

Clare has written a message to everyone and has asked if I could share it. Here goes…

Fond farewell from Clare

I have been so blessed to be part of Our Lady’s family for over twenty years and what very happy years they have been!

To leave the nursery was such an extremely hard decision to make and took lots of prayers!

I am hoping to make the new nursery as special a place as Our Lady’s nursery is!

You will still see me at school from time to time as I will be continuing to be a school governor here at Our Lady’s.

I want to say a huge thank you to you all for the trust, kindness and for the opportunity to work with your families and your beautiful children. Each day the children give joy, love and hope. Just what we all need at the moment!

Much love and a Happy Christmas,

 Clare

It just remains for us to wish everyone a Happy and Holy Christmas and a Peaceful New Year. We will see you in 2022!

Barbara, Clare, Colette, Hannah and Frances

Let's party!!!!

We thought you may want to have a peek at our Christmas party! We all had a fabulous time…we are all exhausted!!

Didn’t we have fun!

Don’t forget tomorrow is Nativity release day!

See you in the morning.

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