This week......

A fabulous week! We have been enjoying being together in our final couple of weeks. Luckily the weather has been kind to us and we have loved learning in our outdoor environment. Now all the trees are in leaf and our plants and flowers in bloom it is truly and beautiful place to be.

Key Person Blog

This week the children have enjoyed practising their sounds in the garden. We had lots of objects to sort; our task was to work out what the first sound in the word was, and then find the matching letter on the tray. We were very proud when we sorted all the objects together as a team!

We got ‘creative’ with the stickle bricks this week – the children have loved making different creations and were proud to show them to their friends and adults in the classroom. Some of us made excellent cameras with moving and removable parts!

As usual there has been lots of counting (the children want to count everything!) We have been introduced to the Number 9 Number Block (click here to watch). Numberblock Four is amazed to find another square Numberblock (number 9)! We have also been finding out different ways that we can make the number 9. We used different objects to help us to explore and some of the children even thought of 3 numbers to make up 9!

The link blocks we used for counting have been very popular this week. We have revisited ‘Octoblock’ (number 8) and made Octoblock in a different ways using the purple blocks. The remaining blocks were used to stretch from one side of the garden to the other…it took absolutely ages and a fantastical amount of blocks.

As if that wasn’t enough the children used our wellies in a row to see exactly how far they stretched across the garden. They were 52 single wellies! Phew! That was a lot of counting.

Why don’t you see what you can count at home!

Have a lovely weekend

Barbara, Michelle, Colette, Justine and Frances

Could I remind everyone that our Leavers Pirate Party is on Monday 18th July 10.30 am -12.30 pm. A fish and chip lunch will be provided for each child…mmmmmm! Please send your child to nursery dressed as a pirate! We are planning lots of exciting games to play!

Watch out for your ‘endless possibilities’ home activity sheet being sent home today and enjoy being creative!!

If you are out and about this weekend click on the button below and do a bit of butterfly spotting! If you want to find out more about butterflies click here!

Finally, have a great weekend and enjoy your time together as a family. We will see you all on Monday…and what a week we have planned!

Keep safe

This week....

Yet another fabulous week of learning. Our brains are growing so fast.

We are all enjoying our visits to the beach and to the library. We are now thinking where else we can visit that is within walking distance!!

Key person blog

What a week for our caterpillars! We came in on Wednesday morning and one of our caterpillars was starting to emerge from their chrysalids! We were all super excited. At first there were only four but today, another has emerged, meaning all five have now gone through their metamorphosis (one of our wow words we have recently learnt).

Our caterpillars had grown beautiful wings. The children said that the butterflies must be hungry—it’s hard work growing wings! We dissolved our little sachet of nectar in water and placed little droplets on flowers and pot them in the butterfly habitat with some slices of juicy orange. The butterflies landed on them and seemed to enjoy their tasty treat! We have been feeding them nectar and plan to release them soon.

 We have also enjoyed reading our story we wrote together last week! Some of our friends hadn't seen the story as they weren't in last week, so we concentrated like Cooper Crab and told them all the parts of the story! We used our story map to help us—it was so much fun to remember all the different minibeasts we had put into our story.

We have continued with our trips out and have explored more of St Annes sea front, this time spotting baby ducks on the pond and investigating the waterfall. We tripped trapped across the bridge but luckily, we managed to avoid the troll. 

Some of us also enjoyed a super story at St Annes library, Whatever Next. Click here to listen at home. We also had our snack at the library!

PE was great fun in the hall where we practised moving in different ways to the Sticky Kids song. This is one of our favourites. Click here to join in at home.

The children have explored length by measuring and comparing lengths of lots of different objects, including themselves.

Click here for a measuring activity to do at home.

We have even made popcorn…it went everywhere!!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend and we  will see you all next week for more fun and learning.

Barbara, Michelle, Colette, Justine, Stephanie and Frances.

I am sure you will agree that we are all working very hard…and also having lots of FUN!! Here are even more photos of our learning; sound sorting, symmetry, mark making big and small, constructing, reading our floorbooks, making collage pictures, playing hairdressers, working on the Touch TV and capturing minibeasts for further investigation!!! Phew!!

We have a request from any gardeners at home. We have had delivered a small Christmas tree to look after and nurture. If anyone has a large pot and some compost and you are willing to donate them to nursery, we would be most grateful. We are wanting it to grow the tree really tall then we can decorate it at Christmas time with baubles and lights!

Make sure the children have a good rest this weekend as next week is even busier!!!!!

Have a fabulous weekend full of family fun and we will see you on Monday!

Barbara

What a week......

It seems that every week is getting more and more busy. This week it has been hot so we have had to keep ourselves cool with lots of water activities. The children have instinctively looked for shade underneath our canopy of trees….how sensible!

To relax and try and find our ‘cool’ we did Rainbow Relaxation. See if you can remember how to do it! Click here.

Friday saw us hold our Gym Jam Jog sponsored event ( the first one in two years!). It was so lovely to see all our families back together having fun. Well done everyone and thank you for your wonderful support.

Key person blog

Wow….God has truly blessed us with the sunshine this week and there has been so much work to do!             We began the week by making sure that everything in the garden was still ‘rosy’ and we planted some new poppy and bluebell seeds.  So far, the existing flowers are ‘blooming’ marvellously, the tadpoles are still swimming (no sign of any legs yet but we are still hopeful) and there continues to be a plentiful supply of minibeasts to spot (according to our team of explorers!) The children are now the proud owners of some ‘Super Pupas’ as our greedy caterpillars have eaten all of their special food and have turned themselves in to Chrysalises. We will continue to watch them very closely!

This week we have enjoyed looking after our lovely plants in the garden—it has been so warm and sunny that we have had to give them lots of water to continue to grow! We have experimented in different ways to fill up our buckets and watering cans and moved around the garden to get to all the flowers. We also used the syringes to strengthen our muscles in our fingers—we hung the umbrellas upside down and tried to aim the water into them. We also them into a cascading waterfall. As well as practising our number skills aiming the water at the gingerbread numbers hanging on the wall. This was both great for strengthening the muscles in our hands and also cooling us down as the water fell back down onto us! There were lots of happy faces during this activity!

There was a successful trip to the beach where the children had made some sand art including a sand man using some seaweed. Sadly our Wednesday trip to the library had to be postponed due to a road closure but on a positive note a very helpful Police lady allowed us to inspect the Police van. It was fantastic!

There has been some popcorn making (we are still finding the evidence) and some excellent joke telling and some obstacle courses.

 Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Barbara, Michelle, Colette, Justine, Frances and Stephanie.

Worship

Created to Live in Community explores our relationship with the wider world. Here we explore how human beings are relational by nature and are called to love others in the wider community through service, through dialogue and through working for the Common Good. Living in the Wider World helps children to extend their understanding of communities from Unit 1, as they learn about the responsibilities they have to people, places and the planet now and increasingly as they get older.

Religious Understanding introduces in a very simple way the concept of the Trinity, where God is three-in-one and each part loves the others and loves us. The children will come to understand that as we are made in the image of God, we are designed to love God and love one another in our wider communities too. Through the story of Jesus feeding the 5000 with just the humble offering of a small boy, children will learn that our loving actions can be used by God to do incredible things.

We began our worship by singing a new song called ‘My hands are yours’, we are still learning it but we think its going to become of our favourites! It helps us remember how we can be more like Jesus by using our hands, feet and voices for good.

Home learning

We are doing so well with our phonics. Here’s a game you can play at home to practice! Click here to play!

We have been looking at pattern and symmetry on mini beast we can fine in the garden. It was a bit tricky at first but now we are looking for symmetry everywhere! Here is game to play at home …good luck!

As always we love our Numberblocks, especially Octoblock! Eight is great….click here

Also, watch out for some fun learning activity sheets being sent home today!

Finally…

It’s hard to believe we only have four weeks left to the end of the year. The nursery ladies are already feeling sad. That means we have to make the time we have left together count, so we have been planning a Pirate Leavers Party!! Keep a look out for child’s party invitation.

Have a great weekend!

Barbara

Sports Day extravaganza!!!!

First of all, apologies to everyone for making you wait till Monday for our blog, but I just ran out of time!

We kick started Health and Happiness week with Nursery and Reception Sports Day and what a fabulous time we all had! Thank you for coming and supporting us, didn’t we look good in our bespoke t- shirts? Everyone worked so hard at all the activities, it was such good fun. We had lots of Bobby Bees, Sadie Spiders and Tommy Turtles.

Key person blog

Wow- what a wonderful week we had last week. we have been so busy with Sports day, trips to the library and the beach.

Sports Day was so much fun! It was so lovely to have so many grown ups join us to cheer us along. We all enjoyed moving around the different stations and trying out different activities with our team. Moving our bodies in different ways gave us the chance to try new things and ‘have a go’ like Tommy Turtle! There were lots of smiling faces all afternoon especially when we ended the day with a yummy rocket ice lolly! Lots of ideas here for active fun- Click here

Wednesday was also very exciting - some of us went on adventures outside of the nursery and into the community! We will all get a chance to do this over the coming weeks. In the morning 6 of us went to the library. We had a look at all the books and joined in with their story time session. It was all about Winnie the Pooh, we coloured some pictures and joined in with a game of indoor pooh sticks. The nursery ladies were very intrigued by this game—we will definitely be playing this one again with the children in nursery! In the afternoon another 6 children went to the beach. This was great fun—we looked for shells and pebbles and even buried some of the nursery ladies legs in the sand! The trips gave us a great opportunity to practise our listening skills, making sure we were very careful crossing the roads and walking nicely with our friends. We made lots of people smile along the way and we had a great time. Don’t worry if your child was not in one of the groups, as we will be making sure that all the children will get an opportunity to go on a walk over the next few weeks. All the children were very well behaved and had lots of fun.

Some ideas to try at the beach here

We have continued to care for our garden and this week we have had to measure the sunflowers as they are growing so tall. We are also so excited to see the strawberries are starting to ripen and our potatoes are coming into flower. Our wildflower meadow is attracting so many insects. Click here to find out how you can do the same.

The children have enjoyed exploring symmetry using the paint to make beautiful butterflies. We had fun getting messy making the paint go splat onto the paper! We painted one side of the paper, folded it in half, pressed the paint down then unfolded it to see the magic happen! The children were amazed to see their patterns had been repeated on the other side of the paper.

The tadpoles are getting bigger everyday but as yet, have not grown any legs. Our snails had lots of races in the garden before we released them back to the wild and our caterpillars are so big now, we think they will be making their cocoons soon, ready for their metamorphosis- this is one of our wow words we have learnt, we love to learn new words and use them in our conversations. We also discovered some new facts about ladybirds. Did you know ladybirds don’t have ears or a nose? Our investigations and discoveries continue daily.

Tips here to encourage minibeasts in your garden or outdoor space- Click here

We have continued to learn all about number 8 and we have explored how number 8 can be made in lots of ways- ask your child to show you number 8 with their fingers.

Our funky fingers have had lots of exercise this week as we practised our pre-writing skills by squashing and squeezing the clay and making swirly patterns in the shaving foam- great for developing those muscles we will need at school for writing.

We have lots more learning planned for this week.

Until Friday!

Barbara, Michelle, Colette, Stephanie, Justine and Frances

As you can see we have been very busy. This week we are hoping to go to the library and the beach again so watch this space!!

As you are aware Ofsted joined us for the day on Friday. A big thank you to everyone who took the time to speak to the Ofsted inspector. We will share with you the outcome of the inspection when the report is published, unfortunately until then we have to keep it top secret! As soon as I receive the final copy I will send you all your own copy to read.

Barbara

Jubilee special!!!!

Welcome back everyone. It’s hard to believe it is the last few weeks of the year!! The children have been full of interesting things that they have been doing at home to celebrate the Queens 70th Jubilee. It sounds that you all had great fun!

Our favourite bit of the celebration was Paddington have tea at Winsor Castle with the Queen. If you didn’t manage to see it click here, it was truly magical.

As you know we had our Jubilee Afternoon Tea Party before the holidays. It was such good fun. We played lots of ‘Royal’ party games (including ‘pin the Tail on the Corgi1), danced to all our favourite songs, stood smartly for the National Anthem and ate lots of yummy food!!!!

Have a look at all our photos!

We were also lucky enough on Wednesday to receive and invitation from school to join in their Jubilee Picnic. We then had a chance to play with everyone in the whole school on the field! It was such great fun to play with big sister and brothers, cousins and friends. We even got to play on the big climbing equipment! It was lovely to all be back together again!

It has been another splendid week at Nursery, the children have come back full of energy and ready to learn. There have been some avid explorers spotted in Nursery garden who have been surveying the environment along with their backpacks and binoculars! There have been a few minibeasts spotted along the way!

The explorers are aware that there is so much to do, in our garden. As well as looking after all our plants and flowers we have some new additions to our Nursery family. Firstly, we have some tadpoles to care for. The children have helped to make them a new home and we will be examining them closely over the next few weeks to see if there are any changes….watch this space!

Naturally, not being satisfied with just the tadpoles, we went on a snail hunt and made them a new habitat with supplies of lettuce so we can observe those too. More??? Absolutely! The next mission was to build a wormery with layers of sand and soil so that we can observe the worms too! Last but by no means least Thursday saw the postman bring us a delivery of baby caterpillars so that we can watch their journey as well!

In addition to all this there has been some painting of minibeasts, music, practising for Sports Day and we have been introduced to the Numberblock Eight the amazing Octoblock! Click here to watch. 

 Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Barbara, Michelle, Colette, Justine, Frances and Stephanie.

You may have noticed a new name on our Key person blog. Stephanie has joined our happy band of learners at nursery! I’m sure you will have chance for a chat at the gate and to introduce yourself. Like the rest of the team I’m sure you would like to say a huge ‘welcome’.

It has been a full on week of learning and the children are starting to flag. Hopefully you will get some rest at the weekend?

It’s been good to see you all after the holidays, enjoy your weekend.

Barbara

This week...

As we limp towards half term we have reflected on all the learning we have encountered sine Easter. It really is no wonder we are all exhausted!

The garden is blooming and we are now seeing lots of minibeasts are starting to visit the garden. The children are always on the lookout for anything that moves! This has made us think we should explore minibeasts as a learning thread next half term! Click on the button to have a look at our plans.

Key person blog

 What another busy week in Nursery! We have continued to celebrate our reply from Buckingham Palace by making our own crowns to wear for the Platinum Jubilee Party on Friday! Look out...there is a lot of ‘Bling.’ If that wasn’t enough, we decided we would create our own portraits of Her Majesty and have put them up on display.  We have also enjoyed listening and singing (very enthusiastically!) to the National Anthem. Click here

There has been a little bit of messy play in the garden (your washing machines may already know this!) The children have made their own mud kitchen and were making mud pies and potions that could turn humans in to lions. It was ferocious!!

To counteract the mud we did have lots of water play as the sunny weather appeared towards the end of the week...we have washed babies and  also our beautiful selection of sea shells.

We have been out on the school field practicing for our upcoming sports day and the children’s running and throwing skills are improving all the time.

We have been looking after some poorly patients in our animal hospital where our super vets have been caring for and looking after some of nursery’s teddy bears and animals.

Our outside house has been redecorated by some mini painters who have painted it with glitter water and it is now all beautiful and sparkly. This is a fab activity to do at home outside in the garden with your children , all you need is some water and a paintbrush. This activity really helps develop those important muscles needed for writing.

We have continued caring for all our plants in the nursery garden and have also now planted some courgettes and everything else continues to grow. We hope your sunflowers are growing at home, we have loved seeing the photos you have sent in.

We have been learning about the number 8 and watching the number blocks video. Click here to watch at home

We hope you all have a lovely half term holiday.

Barbara, Colette, Justine, Frances and Michelle.

 Worship

This half term we have discussed at great length our relationship with others; our family at home, our family at nursery and school, our friendships and relationships and the wider community, the Church and God. The children expanded their vocabulary by applying names to different family/friend relationships, considered positive/negative behaviour in relationships and learn to look to Jesus as their role model for a good friend. We learnt to resolve conflict and the importance of asking for forgiveness: that when we hurt others, we also hurt Jesus – but that Jesus teaches us how to forgive ourselves and others.

We also have explored our religious understanding. We talked about why the Bible is so special to Christians.

This week in assembly Miss Hornby talked about how we should love each other and when we smile it shows our love for another person. Some of the older children thought of other ways to show our love, by giving hugs, helping each other and sharing. Our challenge for the holidays is to smile and show the people around you how you can be more like Jesus.

Theo and Henry received the Learning certificates this week; Theo for being a concentrate Cooper Crab and doing good listening at Carpet Kingdom time; and Henry for being a Cooperative Roger Robin. He always notices if anyone needs help and is the first to lend a helping hand. Well done Theo and Henry.

Finally, the nursery team would like to say a big thank you for all your wonderful support of nursery, we really do appreciate it. Try and have a rest over the next couple of weeks because the last half term is even busier!!!!

Hopefully the weather will be sunny, if not here is a rainy day activity sheet for you. I have also sent a few maths games home for you do (if you have time) ….sorry I just can’t help myself!

Stay safe and have fun and I will see you all on the 6th June bright eyed and bushy tailed.

Barbara

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