he Nursery staff want to start by saying a big well done to all the children who have started in our Nursery over the past few weeks! All the children have settled in so well and are quickly learning the rules and routines of our school!

Curiosity Cat

Curiosity is our Nursery cat. Every day we look in Curiosity's basket to see what special item she has for us. The item she brings introduces the topic for the day and gives us lots to talk about!

Say Hello to Curiosity...

Summer Term!

Transport

Our theme this week is ‘Transport’. We have learnt about lots of different types of transport including aeroplanes, cars and motorbikes and we have done lots of fun activities at Nursery this week...

>   We have enjoyed playing outside on the bikes, scooters and boat.

>  We have enjoyed playing with the different vehicles in the small world area.

>   We made tracks and roads for the vehicles using the lolly sticks in the finger gym area.

>   We made buses in the collage area using different materials. We then drew passengers on the bus using the felt tip pens. 

Teddy Bear's Picnic

This week, we had our very own Teddy Bear’s Picnic! We brought in our favourite teddies from home and enjoyed eating some delicious food with our friends at Nursery. Unfortunately, it was raining outside so we had our teddy bear’s picnic inside instead. We had such a fantastic time. Our teddy bears loved it too!  

We also enjoyed having our own pretend picnics with our friends in the role play area. 

We're Going on a Bear Hunt!

We enjoyed reading the story, ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ as part of our Teddy Bear theme. It is one of our favourite stories to read at Nursery. After reading the book, we went on our very own Bear Hunt around our school. We went through the swishy swashy grass, through the squelchy mud, through the deep, cold river, through the big, dark forest, and through the swirling, whirling snowstorm. At the end, we found the friendly bear in his cave! 😊 We had so much fun on our bear hunt! 

Minibeasts

We have spent the last few weeks at nursery learning about 'Magnificent Minibeasts!' We have been naming and exploring lots of different minibeasts and going on minibeast hunts in our outdoor area! We have enjoyed reading lots of stories about minibeasts such as 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' and 'The Very Busy Spider'. We have also loved singing lots of songs including 'Incy Wincy Spider,' 'There's a Worm at the bottom of the Garden' and 'There's a Tiny Caterpillar on a Leaf'. Take a look at some of the fantastic activities we have done this week!

Outdoor play

Now the weather is getting warmer, we have loved being in our outdoor area! We have been practising our gross motor skills including running, climbing and balancing on the outdoor equipment. We have also enjoyed playing games with our friends.

Science / Investigation

As part of this week’s theme, we enjoyed exploring our outdoor area and hunting for minibeasts! We used the magnifying glasses to search for minibeasts outside. We looked at them carefully to see how many legs they had and also if they had wings. We found so many, including worms, woodlice, beetles, spiders, ants and butterflies. We collected some of these minibeasts and put them in a giant cup that has a large magnifying glass on the top. Here are the pictures below of us looking at them closely.

Art

We enjoyed doing lots of art activities this week. On the painting table, we have painted different minibeasts using different types of paint including water colours. In the collage area, we have enjoyed making spiders, ladybirds and butterflies using glue and different collage materials. 

Finger Gym

We have been practising our fine motor skills in the finger gym this week by using scissors and tweezers. We used the scissors to cut the spaghetti into tiny pieces – this was so much fun!

We also enjoyed playing a game of ‘Bug Rescue!’ We used the tweezers to save the minibeasts from the sticky web. 

Other activities

Here are some other activities we have enjoyed doing this week as part of our theme:

-          Playing minibeast bingo

-          Drawing pictures of minibeasts

-          Minibeast colouring

-          Making minibeasts out of playdough

Tadpoles

We have been looking after some tadpoles at Nursery and learning about the life cycle of a frog. This week, the most exciting thing happened... some of our tadpoles turned into frogs! Have a look at the pictures below. 

(Pictures Coming Soon)

Spring 1 - Week 5

Goldilocks the the Three Bears

Reading

This week, we read the story of 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears'. After listening to the story, the children enjoyed acting it out with their friends using the story props. They retold the story using the familiar phrases such as “who’s been eating my porridge!” The children also thought about how the different characters were feeling in the story and used expression when pretending to be Goldilocks and the bears.

Food Tasting

After reading the story of 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears,' we decided to make Baby Bear some more porridge. The children mixed oats and milk together to make the porridge and then they chose which topping they would like, honey or jam. All the children had a taste of the porridge, it was delicious!

We then explored the porridge oats in the investigation area and enjoyed making marks and copying writing patterns. We even had a go at forming some letters!

Art and DT

We have created some lovely art work this week!

The children have painted pictures of the three bears and made bear hats. They have also practised their cutting skills by cutting out pictures of the story characters and sticking them onto paper.

Maths - Size

This week in maths, we explored ‘size’. The children sorted the objects into ‘large’, ‘medium’ and ‘small’ and practised using this language of size to describe the objects and also the characters from this week's story.

Stories and Songs

Some books we have enjoyed this week are...

• Goldilocks and the Three Bears
• Brown Bear, Brown Bear
• We’re Going on a Bear Hunt
• Old Bear
• Postman Bear

Some songs we have enjoyed this week are...

• Them Bears
• When Goldilocks went to the House of the Bears
• Tiny Turtle
• 5 Marching Ants
• A range of nursery rhymes

Spring 1 - Week 4

Music and Musicians

 This week we have been learning all about music, we have loved using and learning about instruments, making our own instruments and even listening to a real musician! What an amazing week in Nursery!

Here are the children exploring the percussion instuments we have in Nursery.

Art and DT

 The children used junk modelling resources to make their own instruments. They chose whether to make a string instrument or a percussion instument - a shaker and those chose the resources they need! They then decorated their instruments and loved playing them. 

The children also painted their own guitars like Miguel's from the film Coco!

Role Play

 The children love playing in our home corner, this week they enjoyed making a picnic and pretending to eat their lunch sat on the blanket with their friends!

Special Visitor

The highlight of our week was when Miss Thompson came down from big school with her guitar! The children loved listening to her play and singing along! Thank you Miss Thompson!

Spring 1 - Week 3

Splash of Colour

 This week we have continued the theme from last week about art and have explored colour in more depth!

We have explored what happens when we add white and black to colours and have learnt some key vocabulary such as shades, lighter and darker. 

Art

 In Art we have used colour to create some lovely work. We have explored colour mixing using our hands and we also used other techniques such as marble rolling and watercolours. 

Personal Skills

 As part of using our hands to paint... we had to learn how to wash our hands properly and independently. The children can get soap, wash their hands and dry them independently, well done guys!

Science

While exploring colour mixing, we have encouraged the children to practise many scientific skills such as making predictions, explaining methods and discussing results. The children enjoyed using pipettes to squirt coloured water onto the cotton balls to see what colour it could make. 

PE

This week in PE the children loved singing and playing ring games! Next week we are going to practise taking our socks and shoes off, so please can you also practise this at home. The children need to be able to do this independently. 

Spring 1 - Week 2

Snow Day!

On Tuesday we woke up to snow and we had such a fun day at Nursery, exploring and playing in the snow!

Art and DT

 This week our topic has been 'Art and Artists'. We have loved looking at a range of art work and some famour artists, especially Van Gogh. The children have used a range of media to create art work this week and they even had a go at recreating Van Gogh's sunflowers. Great work everybody!

Maths

 We have been looking at capacity this week in Maths. We explored this concept using water in the tray and worked together to fill the tubes. We had to use good hand eye coordination to use the pipettes to squirt the water into the tiny tubes. We then used vocabulary such as empty, full and half full.

Construction (DT)

The children used their design skills this week to build veichles out of mobilo. They had to attach the peices together and add wheels. The children then used the bricks to build a garage, a bumpy road and a prison for their veichles. I was so impressed with their design skills!

Role Play

We love role play in Nursery! It is a really good way of developing our vocabulary and language skills. Here are some children enjoying our home corner. 

Spring 1 - Week 1

Happy New Year!

Welcome back to everyone, it has been lovely to all be back in school this week! 

This week our theme was 'Winter'. We have been learning all about Winter and Snowy Animals. We have had so much fun looking at the artic animals and learning how to stay warm in Winter. 

Science - Ice Cube Experiment

As part of this week’s theme, we enjoyed exploring ice! First, we talked about how we made the ice and then we watched it carefully as it melted. We talked about what was making it melt and what it looked like before and after. We also had a think of other things that could melt in the same way such as ice cream, chocolate and snow.

Art and DT

We enjoyed doing lots of Winter art and crafts this week! On the painting table, we painted pictures using Winter colours such as blue and purple. We also enjoyed printing snowflakes. On the collage table, we made snowflakes using cotton buds. After talking about what items of clothing we wear in the Winter, we had a go at collaging a scarf using different coloured paper. We also practised our cutting skills by cutting old Christmas cards!

Writing Activities

After reading the story, ‘Say Hello to the Snowy Animals’, the children had a go at drawing some of the artic animals from the book and forming the initial letters. We were so impressed with their work!

The children also practised their mark making skills independently by copying the writing patterns in the sand and also on the whiteboards.

The children are continuing to build their finger muscles in the finger gym to get their hands ready for writing. This week, they practised their threading skills by threading the small beads onto the pipe cleaner snowflakes.  

Maths - Pattern

In Maths this week, the children have been practising the skill of creating a two-colour repeating pattern. Firstly, the children had to continue the pattern on the scarves using the multilink cubes, before having a go at creating their own repeating pattern. The children are getting much better at this skill! :) 

Stories and Songs

Some books we have enjoyed this week are...

• Kipper’s Snowy Day
• Say Hello to the Snowy Animals
• One Snowy Day
• Snow

Some songs we have enjoyed this week are...

• 5 Little Snowmen  
• I’m a Little Snowman
• Do You Want to Build a Snowman
• 1 Elephant Came Out to Play
• A range of nursery rhymes

Autumn 2 - Week 8

This week our theme was 'Christmas'. 

RE – The Nativity Story

This week, we have been celebrating and learning all about Christmas! We talked again about how Christmas is a Christian celebration that celebrates the birth of Baby Jesus. We read the Nativity story and enjoyed acting out the story with the characters.

Christmas Jumper Day

Today it was Christmas Jumper Day! Take a look at all of our fabulous Christmas jumpers.

Christmas Party!

Today it was Christmas Party Day! We all came to nursery wearing our party clothes and we had such a fun day. We played party games including pass the parcel and musical statues, we had a dancing competition and we enjoyed some delicious party food. We all had so much fun.

Christmas Activities

The children have enjoyed doing lots of fun Christmas activities this week! Take a look at the pictures below.

Maths - Length

 The children created Christmas trees using strips of paper. The children had to order the strips of paper from the longest to the shortest to create their tree. They then practised using this language of size in the maths area when playing with the measuring worms. 

Here is some of the key vocabulary that you can reinforce with your child at home: 

long, short, longer, shorter, longest, shortest, big small.

Stories and Songs

Some books we have enjoyed this week are...

• The Nativity Story
• Santa Claus comes to Manchester
• The Best Christmas Ever! 
• Mog's Christmas

Some songs we have enjoyed this week are...

• 5 Little Elves
• 5 Little Snowmen 
• We Wish You a Merry Christmas
• It Was on a Starry Night
• Rat-a-Tat-Tat
• Jingle Bells
• Away in a Manger

Autumn 2 - Week 7

This week our theme was 'The Grinch Who Stole Christmas'. 

On Monday, we noticed that our nursery Christmas tree had been put outside in the rain! It was… The Grinch! We spent all week trying to cheer The Grinch up and make him like Christmas again! We wrote him Christmas cards, painted pictures for him and sang him lots of Christmas songs. By the end of the week, the Grinch was so happy and said he loved Christmas again! He even brought our Christmas tree back for us.