Headteacher: Anna Moss

0121 445 1622

8th April 2022

Happy Easter Everyone!

It was so lovely to see you at the Easter singsong yesterday on the steps.  Alongside Reception, the children did really well and as they do every year, enjoyed singing their Spring Chicken song.  We used this as the base for our Listening Game this week in the cabin as we hid Easter eggs with chicks inside and it was the children’s job to find them and return to their Mother Hen before they cracked.  Learning songs through role-play and talking is key at Nursery age so they have a sound understanding of what they are singing about.  We tackled our final indoor Write Dance this week as we moved our bodies to the Easter Shark song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ODaID0n3Jo  Please share this clip with them during the Easter break and watch them move – it is hilarious!  In the summer term, we take our Gross Motor Development outdoors and onto the trim trail after lunch.  This is always such a huge hit and so please help support the children by sending them in footwear they can run, climb and put on themselves.  We finished our Phonics topic of alliteration this week as we can now hear the sound at the beginning of words, sort objects with the same sound and for some, spot the odd one out.  In the summer term, we learn about rhyming and begin to blend and segment the sound we can hear.  Our job will be done then as they will be ready to start the next phase of their reading journey in September.  In Maths, we have put together all of our learning about numicon 1-6 as we enjoyed dressing up in our numicon necklaces.  We found someone with the “same” and doubled them and found someone with “different” and worked out the total.  You loved the partner game where you took it in turns to name the numicon piece through touch alone.  We have also enjoyed comparing our two “fat” shapes – cones and cubes.  We have talked about the properties using language such as points, corners, faces and are beginning to understand that these “fat” shapes are made up from “flat” shapes.  Being able to spot the circle on a cone and squares on the cube is key!  We took our “fat” shapes into the Shape Disco this week as we knocked them together to Nancy’s song choice, “It’s a Hard Knock Life” from the film Annie.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8s5Cv4gpvE  Outdoors in Forest School we have enjoyed sharing the story “We’re Going on an Egg Hunt” and begun to talk about and understand how stories have a beginning, a middle and an end.  Hugo was able to tell me that the wolf was coming at the end of the story and Eleni was able to say that they would meet the lambs at the beginning of the story.  I feel some “story maps” coming on!  Mrs Allen enjoyed making bunny masks with you as you used them to role play the story outdoors finding your own eggs.  It was lovely later in the week to watch you use the soft toy animals to put it all together and role play the full story.  In the afternoons, you have been playing the “Hop Little Bunny” game and singing about Five Little Bunnies.  Your throwing and catching skills were put to the test as you also enjoyed playing a game of throwing eggs in the rabbit’s mouth! Brilliant!

A message for parents – thank you for all your support this term with the children.  They have come such a long way since September and with one final push in the summer term, we will send them off to Reception (whichever school they go to) with a sound grounding for how to listen and learn.

Enjoy your two week break everyone – I know we all will!

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen, Mrs Franklin, Miss Turner (am), Mrs Hampton (pm) X