Headteacher: Anna Moss

Forest School Activity

Frogs

It was good to see a return of our speckled frog song as you joined from Forest School.  You have also enjoyed creating your own lifecycle with Miss Veillet.  However the highlight of the week has to be the warmer weather and keeping those waterproofs in the boot room as we enjoy some summer fun in the sun!

Rhyme Time

Ring O Roses

We have been adding actions to our rhyme this week as we have circled around and swam like fish.  We have worked hard to find a third rhyming word for our string – rose, nose and ……. anyone?

Phonics

The jellyfish sound /j/

It’s a record – four friends in the sound box this week!  Can you remember who we found in there?  They had fun in there wobbling with the jelly and we all had fun eating it with our snack!  You laughed at the jester but the funniest must have been Mrs Mander trying to juggle like the jester!

Listening

Who is missing?

We took it in turns to play a game that uses all of our listening rules.  It was a two-player game with player 1 and player 2 both hiding behind the curtain.  Clues were given by all the rest of us as you took turns to work out who was missing.

Maths

Tally Time

You may have spotted our tally marks in the front playground as we started the week creating tally 5 stepping stones.  Once we picked up the pattern, we enjoyed tallying the vehicles that passed the school – luckily Blackwell is a quiet place during the day.  We did make it tally 10 eventually!

Communication and Language

Hungry Harry, Joanne Partis

This week Mrs Allen has been sharing a story about a hungry frog who was told by his mum to go and hunt down his own food.  He met some minibeasts on his journey but was quite unlucky when it came to actually eating them!  Can you remember what he found to eat at the end of the story?     

Fine Motor (am)

Dough Disco

Adelenna’s choice of King of my Castle has had us talking about the difference between a DJ and a singer.  We learnt that a DJ makes the music and this was the part we enjoyed moving to the most this week!

Gross Motor (pm)

Sports Day

As we prepare for our Sports Day in a few weeks, we headed over to the field to find the long-lined track.  From our Maths session last week, we learnt about start and finish and we found these as we walked out our tracks.  A little more work on staying in lines and not switching lanes and we’ve got this!

A message for parents – we will be having our nursery class photograph on Monday 20^th May.  If your little one does not attend on a Monday and you would like them to be a part of the photo, please send them in at normal time and collect at 11.30am or 12.00pm. 

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen and Mrs Franklin X

Forest School Activity

Butterflies

Our caterpillars have arrived!  Mrs Allen has been sharing how to care for them in the first week as we watch them eat and eat and eat every day whilst getting fatter and fatter and fatter.  Outdoors you have enjoyed being a caterpillar at the Ugly Bug Ball and crafting butterfly lifecycles up on the balcony.

Rhyme Time

Mary Mary

We have enjoyed playing with our rhyme this week as we have been singing about some quite contrary children.  We continue to enjoy and support our friends on our rhyming journey as hearing and suggesting rhyme is our goal before we leave for big school!

Phonics

The lollipop sound /l/

Lottie, Lachlan and Lily were happy to see their faces appear out of the sound box with a lemon, a lime and a rather large lollipop.  Not as big as the ladybird that Miss Veillet brought in though – who thought you could have an inflatable ladybird!  Thank you to Alice, our Blue class friend, for bringing along some objects from home to help support our learning.

Listening

Introduce Self

In preparation for next weeks listening game (and to support our Computing knowledge) we have enjoyed introducing ourself and sharing information.  Looking at the person talking is still a listening rule we are working on – have a go at home this weekend!

Maths

Snakes and Ladders

As the weather warms, our learning takes a trip outside.  Mrs Mander and Miss Veillet have been teaching you how to play human snakes and ladders.  You have enjoyed working in pairs to roll the dice, see it/say it and jump this number.  The “obstacles” of a snake and ladder definitely made the game more fun!

Communication and Language

The Hungry Caterpillar

Of course it was going to be this story by Eric Carle as our first lifecycle story.  Mrs Allen has enjoyed retelling the story using story spoons and you have enjoyed making caterpillars with dough.

Fine Motor (am)

Dough Disco

Thank you Lachlan!  We have loved this song.  Not so much dough disco this week, more dough rock.  Royal Blood have had us strumming our guitars and banging our drums as we have enjoyed moving to “Trouble Coming”.  This is one we will always remember from this year!

Gross Motor (pm)

Hop, Skip and Jump

As we continue to enjoy our play and explore time on the trail, we have been showing off our travelling skills as we have practised our hopping and skipping across the grass.  Definitely work in progress.   

A message for parents – with warmer weather, we begin to leave the waterproofs in the boot room and head to Forest School in our home clothes and school wellies.  Please send children in wearing clothes that you do not mind getting sandy, dirty and ultimately not survive the wash.  The school wellies have seen better days and although dry, the dirt does make it inside. 

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen and Mrs Franklin X

Forest School Activity

Hammers

You have been revisiting an old song from our early nursery days – “Johnny Hammers” with Mrs Allen.  She enjoyed teaching you how to use the tool the hammer as you have been hammering nails into a block of wood.  It is always lovely to see you take your learning into your play and explore time as you used your own hammer (stick) to repair the fences in Forest School.

Rhyme Time

Twinkle Twinkle

Hearing rhyming pairs and creating a third is becoming hilarious.  We are all enjoying coming up with the silliest rhyming “non-words”.  We are now beginning to enjoy putting these silly words back into the rhyme e.g. twinkle twinkle little mar. 

Phonics

The flamingo sound /f/

Freya and Francesca were over the moon to be in the sound box this week! We started the week with very few items but thanks to your help (your sound knowledge has come so far!), you helped to gather a collection by the end of the week.  We couldn’t believe it today when the fairy had poured flour into the whole box – lots of floury fingertips!

Listening

Spring Bingo

We have had to use all four of our listening rules as we played team Spring Bingo.  We talked about the photos on the Spring bingo board and then enjoyed covering them up with a counter.  The challenge was when Mrs Mander didn’t have her glasses on and couldn’t read the words!  Was it knees, cheese or bees on the board….?

Maths

One more

Shaker/Ten Frame Maker

As you joined from Forest School, you have revisited your ‘one more skills’ by showing one more on your fingers and linking your learning by rolling two dice and seeing (not counting!), one more.  Once we were all settled in, we have been learning about the rules of the game of snooker!  One friend has been shaking the red/yellow counter, whilst a friend has been showing this number in marks and on a ten frame! 1=red, 2=yellow.  We are starting to see a ten frame is just two five frames neighbours.

Communication and Language

The Very Busy Spider, Eric Carle

Mrs Allen has been sharing a story all about a spider who loves to weave.  You have enjoyed singing spider related songs and creating your own wool web.  It was great to see some of you chalking webs on the patio.

Fine Motor (am)

Dough Disco

Thank you Lottie!  It has taken the grownups back to their school disco days as we all danced to Holiday, Madonna - what a song!!  We made sure we had “disco ready” hair and passed that disco ball from hand to hand.  We talked about the artist Madonna and the country she comes from.  Only a few more friends to choose and then we head in to our disco medley in the final half term!

Gross Motor (pm)

Climb, Balance and Jump

During our trim trail time, we have been practising our climbing on, balancing across and jumping off the equipment.  Miss Veillet has been working on helping you step up safely and how to use your arms to keep your balance as you step across.  The two feet jump doesn’t seem to need any work at all! 

A message for parents – it won’t be long before the warm sun joins us.  Some of you are coming in in your sun caps already - brilliant.  Can you ensure the children have one ready and are wearing them on arrival for those sunny warm days!  We really do spend a lot of time outdoors during this final term.

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen and Mrs Franklin X

Forest School Activity

Spring

We all enjoyed our Spring walk around the school grounds as we spotted the signs of Spring.  We returned to the Forest School and have been enjoying making flowers with our natural materials.  This week we have enjoyed printing flowers with forks and weaving flowers with wool.

Rhyme Time

Down at the Station and Hickory Dickory Dock

Rhyme Time is becoming our favourite time of the day!  We love listening to (and making) the sounds we might hear in our rhymes, speeding up/slowing down our rhyme and seeing if we can all name the two pictures (out of three) that sound the same.  For some of us, the final challenge – seeing if we can make up our own third rhyming word…. 

Phonics

The helicopter sound /h/ and bear sound /b/

Harvey, Harris and Harriet appeared in our box in the first week alongside a heavy hippo, a hairy horse and a hair brush/band/clip.  This week, the sound box was full as we enjoyed sorting our objects into a bath and a bed.  The ballerina and the baby had fun splashing in the bath whilst the bear was bouncing the ball in the bed under the blanket.  

Listening

Silent Circle

Quiet Feet

After two weeks at home, we were all very chatty on our return to school. Our listening games helped us to remember our school rules.  In the game “silent circle” you had to look at the photocard of a friend and swap places with them in the circle – all whilst staying quiet.  This week “quiet feet” has been all about remembering how to move quietly in the cabin and move louder outside.  We used the hand bells and maracas to help us remember!

Maths

Dice and Numicon Match

One more

Now “seeing” number patterns is in place, Miss Barron enjoyed teaching you a two-player game where you took turns to match the numicon piece to the dice.  This week, we have moved on to learning about the concept of one more.  You arrived with those superhero eyes as you were able to say how many one more makes through a screen.   Understanding that one more is the next number in the number sequence is another “school ready” skill for us!

Communication and Language

One Springy Day and

Don’t wake the Bear Hare!

As we move into our new topic of Spring, Mrs Allen and Miss Barron have enjoyed sharing Spring stories in the Quiet area after lunch.  You enjoyed watching the fox get in to all sorts of trouble in the first story.  You then enjoyed playing a game of hide and seek with him on the balcony.  During the second story you have enjoyed seeing how all the animals were planning a party for bear.  You then had a chance to play the bear role whilst the others worked as a team to ensure the bear isn’t woken by noisy objects being passed around!

Fine Motor (am)

Dough Disco

We have had two great song choices since our return from our Easter break.  Mrs Allen chose ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’ by Tight Fit.  We enjoyed sausaging the dough to make the lion’s tail and banging the drums with both hands.  Evie J chose a Christmas tune – ‘Sparkle and Shine’ from the movie Nativity this week.  Although it feels strange to be singing about Christmas Eve in the Spring, it does make us smile.

Gross Motor (pm)

Trim Trail

The trail is finally open!  We have watched the big children play on here for two terms and now it is our turn!  After Quiet Time at 1pm we put on our home shoes and enjoy running, climbing and balancing on all the equipment.  Next week we will add an extra grass activity to introduce you to a game that you may play in PE lessons.

A message for parents – as we said goodbye to our teacher training student Miss Barron on Wednesday, we welcome a new friend next week – Miss Veillet.  She will be with us for seven weeks and will enjoy taking on the teacher role during parts of our day!    

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen and Mrs Franklin X

Forest School Activity

Pirate Ships

The weather has been a little kinder to us this week as we have enjoyed building pirate ships on the patio to sail the high seas.  You enjoyed jumping off and using magnifying glasses to collect treasure planted around Forest School

Write Dance

(Gross Motor)

Beans

A morning Maths song that gets us moving (and smiling) – Beans.  We have been counting backwards from different numbers as we turned into runner, baked and jelly beans.

Rhyme Time

Humpty Dumpty

We enjoyed listening to the sounds of Humpty falling off the wall and the march of the soldiers coming to rescue him.  We also listened for and spotting our rhyming pairs from our pictures three.  It is great to hear that you are beginning to hear that rhyme in our everyday language and stories.

Phonics

The rainbow sound /r/

Miss Barron has enjoyed showing you what was in her sound box this week as some special siblings made an appearance – Raya, Rosie, Rex, Ralph and Ronnie.  You also spotted a rhino, a ribbon and a noisy recorder! Next week, we will be revisiting all the sounds we have learnt so far every morning so we can move on to so many more after Easter.  

Listening

Pass the Instrument

Whilst Miss Barron has been playing a game with you; Mrs Mander and Mrs Allen have been enjoying sharing the instrument basket with you in the “not so” Quiet Area.  We have enjoyed finding all the ways our instruments can make sounds, played musical STOP and followed the arrow to pass them clockwise around the circle.

Maths

Dice and Finger match

Stripes

As you joined from Forest School, Miss Barron has been teaching you how to spot the dice pattern and show on your fingers.  As we move into the summer term – we begin to combine all of that pattern work e.g. match numeral to numicon, match numicon to “in a row” pieces.  Seeing number is our super power!  We have also enjoyed spotting and talking about each other’s stripy clothing and trying to create them on the peg boards.

Communication and Language

Pirate Pete I’m a new big brother, Amanda Li

Mrs Allen has enjoyed sharing the story with you all about Pete and how he feels when his new baby brother arrives.  You have all been planting and enjoyed finding each other’s treasure on the map.  Next week we move in to our Easter topic and Miss Barron will be sharing her favourite Easter story with you after lunch each day.

Understand the World

Science

After a week of learning about push – you have been learning about the opposite force of pull.  What a game – you had so much fun!  Miss Barron had you working against a partner as you tried to pull one another over a line to win the game!

Dough Disco

(Fine Motor)

Shake it Off, Taylor Swift

Thank you Arjun.  Taylor Swift has had us pinching the dough with our finger tips and working our wrists to shake the dough off.  We look forward to our final afternoon dough disco next week as we have a timetable shift after Easter.

A message for parents – it was lovely to see you on Tuesday and Wednesday this week and catch up about your little people.  Three and four year olds are such fun to be around and even more fun to teach when we only have a 4-5 minute window of opportunity to hold their attention.  With this in mind, we hope you are impressed by them on Monday morning at 8.45am as they attempt to stand still and sing some Easter songs on the steps with Red class! 

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen and Mrs Franklin X

Forest School Activity

Spring Fire

It is that time of term again when Mrs Allen digs out her flint and steel and makes her raft ready for a fire.  During the beginning of the week, you enjoyed playing fire circle games around the fire circle to learn how to be safe, and yesterday you enjoyed toasting your own marshmallows on a toasting fork.  Thank you Evie J for toasting one for me.

Write Dance

(Gross Motor)

Round the Mountain

After last week with those magic paintbrushes, we tried out our magic sponges!  Did they work? Yes they did!  Adding two spots of colour to your sponges and a spell meant you were able to make a new colour with your circle and rainbow shapes!  You always seem so impressed that it actually works.

Rhyme Time

Round and Round the Garden

We listened and named sounds we would hear in the garden and continued to listen to and name our rhyming pairs from three pictures.  The grownups impressed you all as they made the learning harder when they thought of a third rhyming name e.g. tickle, pickle and bickle.  There were some funny nonsense words to make us smile.

Phonics

The umbrella sound /u/

A tricky sound to find for toys but we had fun with photos instead.  Mrs Mander enjoyed sharing her umbrella hat with you and there was a lot of noise and laughing coming from the box as we discovered all the uncles in there partying!!!  

Listening

Pirate Treasure

Pirate Barron shared with you her very own treasure chest and you took it in turns to hide and find the treasure in the cabin.  You were lucky you had your Pirate friends to help you by pointing to where it was!

Maths

Spring Chicken

The Number 6

We have been role playing a special Spring Chicken song as you arrived from Forest School with a Mother Hen, four eggs and four chicks.  We talked about subitising to help us learn the words and showing  these number on our fingers.  Our new learning was Numicon 6 as we looked at its shape and matched to a dice.  We enjoyed rolling them with a friend and playing the “6 woo hoo” game.  Find your dice this weekend and have a go.

Communication and Language

My Mum, Anthony Browne

With Mother’s Day approaching, it is always a chance for us to pull out all of the mum books from the cupboard.  Mrs Allen chose her favourite one by Anthony Browne which shows how many jobs us mums actually do!  Make sure you give lots of love to them on Sunday.

Understand the World

Science

Miss Barron has been teaching you all about forces in the world around us and in particular one that we find tricky when it comes to opening a door – push.  She shared her cars with you and you enjoyed pushing and marking with a cross where it stopped.

Dough Disco

(Fine Motor)

Don’t blame it on the Boogie, The Jacksons

Mrs Franklin, what a choice!  They don’t make songs like this anymore!  The children loved loved loved it and lots of you have shared that they are singing at home.  We were circling, pulling and spinning the dough to this disco beat.

A message for parents – the children have been busy every morning creating a special flower card for all you mums.  They always enjoy talking about you and we enjoy writing the highlights in the card.  Enjoy your day on Sunday!

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen and Mrs Franklin X

Forest School Activity

Pirate Maps

Mrs Allen has been teaching you different ways to make pirate maps using chalks, pencils, crayons.  You walked your area and decided where your treasure was to be buried with an X on the map.  In the afternoon, Miss Barron has had you working as pirates as you played her pirate listening game.  Climbing the riggings, scrubbing the deck and saluting the captain. It is a hard pirate life!

Write Dance

(Gross Motor)

House of the Bears

I do not know what you did to the paintbrushes this week but you must have put a magic spell on them.  As you made marks to our Goldilocks tune, you mixed two colours together to create orange, purple, green and today pink!  It was a mystery how that happened!

Rhyme Time

A Sailor went to Sea

We enjoyed singing along to our rhyme this week with actions as we talked about the homophone sea and see.  We enjoyed listening for our matching seaside rhyming pairs this week and giggled as we listened and made the seaside sounds for the seagull, the waves and the ship’s horn. 

Phonics

The elephant sound /e/

Poor Elsie and Effy were trapped in the sound box with a character that could freeze them and a familiar Christmas character who likes mischief.  We were all happy with the return of Holly and Jolly Elf in the end as they brought us an envelope full of chocolate eggs to share!!  

Listening

STOP/GO Instruments

The popular instrument basket returned this week as we played Musical STOP.  We used our looking skills to see the change in the STOP/GO paddle and had to be the first to place our instrument down.  Tearing yourself away from an instrument can be tricky when you are three and four!

Maths

Ordinal Numbers

Numicon/Numeral Match

We had racing Spring chickens this week as we labelled them as being first, second and last.  We then enjoyed playing a game with a team of three as we took it in turns being first, second and last to place down the numeral, the numicon or the “in a row” wooden piece.  The children have come so far with recognising number patterns to five in!

Communication and Language

The Night Pirates, Pete Harris

Mrs Allen returned (hooray!) and enjoyed sharing the story of Pete and the adventure he had one night with some girl pirates.  You enjoyed creating your very own treasure chest and deciding what you wanted to place inside.

Dough Disco

(Fine Motor)

Hakuna Matata, Lion King

A great song which we all enjoyed and calmed us all down at the end of a busy Forest School session.  We learnt how to make ring doughnuts with the dough that will sit safely on a knee!  Thank you Harris for your choice.  Mrs Franklin and her BIG birthday choice is up next week……..it will most definitely be an golden oldie!

A message for parents – we have begun our singing practice with Red class on some mornings as we have started learning our three new songs for the Easter “singing on the steps”.  Make sure you have the date in diary – Monday 18^th March at 8.45am.

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen and Mrs Franklin X

Forest School Activity

Pirates

We have enjoyed creating our own play ideas this week as the Pirate topic took hold.  We created a ship with a plank to walk, we used sticks for swords and enjoyed tying the broom to our leg to become a “Peg Leg”.  Our Pirate adventures will continue next week with Mrs Allen in the morning and Miss Barron (our student teacher) in the afternoon.

Write Dance

(Gross Motor)

Bear climbed over the mountain

We revisited this song about the bear who climbed over the mountain as we climbed with our chalks on the table to create vertical lines.  Two handed mark making is so good for the brain, even better when it makes a chalky mess!

Rhyme Time

Wind the Bobbin

We enjoyed singing this rhyme fast, faster and fastest as any rhyme with actions to match is fun when we change the speed.  Our daily rhyming pair pictures are working as we are beginning to hear children recognise rhyming words in their every day language.  Hearing rhyme is another skill to be “school ready” this summer.

Phonics

The cat and king sound /c/ and /k/

What a fun-packed box week we had this week – too many objects and animals to name.  The one I will remember from this week is the kangaroo that kept on jumping and the candle that burnt me every day!  

Listening

Instruments

We enjoyed Staying Quiet and listening to a piece of music where four children were playing four different instruments – can you remember what they were?  We also enjoyed listening to some music that made us feel happy, sad and scared and show this on our faces,

Maths

First and Last

Being able to understand what an ordinal number is a Maths skill you have to learn through running!  We paired up and raced down past the classrooms.  We labelled who was first and who was last to cross the finish line.  Being able to understanding first and last helps up with our Literacy skills too when asked “what is the first sound of …..”.

Communication and Language

Pirate Pete and his Parrot, Jenny Woods

Mrs Mander shared your topic story this week as we shared the story about Pete and his screeching parrot who could only say one phrase.  We laughed at the trouble this got him in to.  We also enjoyed the popular game of Pop up Pirates as we all tried to work out which one was the magic sword.

Dough Disco

(Fine Motor)

What does the fox say?  Ylvis

All the way from Norway, like Mrs Moss, we listened to Ylvis sing a song about what a fox says.  Thank you Effy for choosing this song again.  We enjoyed making foxy fingers on our hands and exercising them!

A message for parents – parent consultation slips came home in the children’s bags this week.  They are smaller than normal and so may be trickier to find!  Can they be returned next week either via the adult on the gate at drop off or into bags (that we check daily) so we can allocate you a time to suit.

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen and Mrs Franklin X