14th January 2022

Happy Freezing Friday All!

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

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

Have a lovely weekend!

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