Headteacher: Anna Moss

Happy Friday!

What a wet week we have had but it hasn’t stopped you from enjoying some outdoor fun – rain just creates wet sand, wet mud and puddles!

We have continued our “Lifecycle” topic as we have been singing/sharing our Nursery Rhyme “Rock-a-Bye Baby” and looking at real life baby objects of a Babygro, toys and books.   You never tire of those baby books do you?  In Phonics, the Pink Panthers have joined us in Nursery as you competed against them to keep the correct objects on the correct vehicle.  Can you find some things at home this weekend that could travel on our bus, car, train and sleigh?  Having your own ideas for objects that begin with the same sound is such a tricky skill but we find every year, there are always some children that can do it.  In Maths we have had fun exploring the cabin and ourselves as we have been “doubling”.  How quick would we get our lunch with double Mrs Franklin?  How noisy would the room be with double music machines playing?  Some of you started doubling numbers on the washing line which led us all into doubling numicon on our new numicon frames – recalling doubles to 5 and understanding what this means is the next stage on your Maths journey as you move into Reception later this year.  We have also been developing our Fine Motor skills as we have been visiting the daily dough disco session, this week to Kylie.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7nvnSJRQWo  We have talked about where she is from and even created a dough disco move just for her – “around the world”. 

After lunch, we have managed to get out on to the Trim Trail as the rain held off as we develop our Gross Motor skills.  We have also continued our lifecycle topic in the Quiet Area as we have been giggling at your baby photos on display as well as the baby photos of the grownups in Nursery.  Can you remember who has the messiest face?  Who is naked and ready for a bath?  Who has the longest spikiest hair?  These photos, alongside the work you did with them at home last weekend, has meant they have come up with some excellent suggestions of the things they can do now compared to when they were younger – feed myself, hold a pencil correctly and do up my own zip.  Now you have mastered those zips and have this positive attitude to getting yourself ready for Forest School, we have begun the final stage of being “school ready” as this week, the grownups have been getting themselves ready and going down in to Forest School whilst you were doing it all yourself – our FAVOURITE term by far!  Once you made it down, you were introduced to the five new live friends in a pot – the caterpillars.  As well as keeping a VERY close eye on the tadpoles growing legs, we are about to enjoy a fascinating lifecycle over the coming weeks!  You have been looking at photographs of different butterfly wings and talking about the patterns.  I wonder what colour our new friends’ wings are going to be?  Mrs Allen has been sharing her favourite poem about a caterpillar from when she was a little girl (some time ago!) called Arabella Miller.  During the Outdoor Play session you have also been role playing the story of the Hungry Caterpillar with some story spoons as you have been feeding and feeding him hoping for change.

A message for parents – to help support our doubling work, could you find a small mirror and allow them some time to explore the home/garden to double people and objects in your home?  Talk to them about what this would mean.  Watch our Freddie, doubling Freya was the one thing we were worried about!! 

Have a lovely weekend everyone, fingers crossed for a break from the rain!

Happy Friday!

Another week has flown by along with the wind we had at the beginning of the week.  Our life cycles topic has continued as we have been talking about and watching the progress of our own tadpoles.  We have extended our life cycle learning by exploring the life cycle of a butterfly.  The Caterpillar Caper song was a huge hit as we listened to the tiny caterpillar talk to us from the egg, eat very noisily, spin his cocoon (Spinny Spinny Spinny), snore loudly and what happened after this?  He found he had grown wings and could fly.  We have had fun role-playing this life cycle as we have munched our way through apple, pear, plum, strawberries and orange – and yes, even Neve Y and Ralph gave it a go!!  It was funny to watch you today lying in the sun, snoozing in your cocoons before testing your wings out around Forest School.

Alongside our learning about lifecycles, we have also been practising our pitch in our daily Music session.  We were introduced to two new characters Hedgehog and Badger.  Can you remember which pitch these characters liked singing?  Perhaps you could have a go at the weekend and sing both ways to your families?  We have revisited the listening rule “Staying Quiet” as we always need to  practise at this time of year when our confidence is bursting at the seams by playing a game of Hide and Seek with the instruments.  In Phonics we have continued our work on alliteration as we have been trying to work out which friends and objects Mr Bus will let sit on him – can you remember which two friends were allowed on it?  In Maths we have moved on to the number 7 and playing with numicon 7, we have been working out the different ways we can make seven.  This is the start of our number bond work and you enjoyed helping Mrs Mander with the No 7 puzzle game today!  Can you remember which two numbers can make seven?  Thanks to Clara, we have been dough discoing to “Cotton Eyed Joe” every morning – I think we are all going to find it tricky to get this song out of our heads!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlJYTWxSVM4

Out in Forest School, Mrs Allen has been very arty as you have been creating all sorts for our life cycle display.  At the beginning of the week, she showed you how to make your own butterflies by printing your hands on either side of the paper for the wings.  It was great to see we even had some colour mixing as you made your own orange, green and purple wings by mixing two colours that you have been shown in Write Dance.  A little later in the week, we saw some wonderful life cycle paper plate pictures as you have created the four stages using just tissue paper.  The story The Hungry Caterpillar has been shared with you lots of times as you are all fascinated by the change of the caterpillar in the story – I wonder whether we will ever see this happen in real life???  As well as your art skills, you have also been developing your Gross motor skills with some ribbon dances to the Ugly Bug Ball and you had fun moving around the Forest School hunting for matching pictures of caterpillars.

A message for parents – as we move on to the human life cycle next week, over the weekend would you be able to share photos with the children of themselves as babies and talk about how much they have changed.  Our focus next week will be comparing what they couldn’t do as a baby that they can do now.  If you could give them a little background knowledge, it always helps our learning partner work!  J

Have a lovely weekend everyone, fingers crossed for some sunshine!

Happy Friday!

We are back in the swing of Nursery life in the summer term as we have opened up the trim trail to Nursery children.  After lunch, the children have the opportunity for a 15-minute play on some rather large and challenging equipment – excellent for their Physical Development.  This play opportunity is preparing them for life in Red class for lots of the children as they are managing their own risk at a whole new level.  We were very impressed with the talk partner work of thinking up their own Trim Trail rules – I wonder if they can remember and share them with you this weekend?  They will make you smile, especially Neve Yorke’s suggestion about the ladybirds on the trail.

In the cabin we have been learning about Pitch with our Music song “Hello Anna”.  We have been calling and responding and passing the ball to “someone new”.  Next week we will see if we are ready to call and respond at different pitches with our puppets Hedgehog and Badger.  In Phonics we have begun work on alliteration.  Hearing the first sounds of words is a key skill on our reading journey.  This week we have listened to the grownups sounds for Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen and Miss Turner.  I wonder if they can share the sound, the action and name the letter e.g. the sound is “mmmmm”, the action is hand on tummy, rubbing in a circle and the letter name is an “Em”.  Florence and I had so much fun when we tried to trick the rest of the team by mixing up our m, a and t objects but we weren’t quick enough to win the game.  Our Listening game has been all about Looking as we have played the game Dobble as a whole class -  a super game to practice those Looking skills.  In Maths we have all been robots with our own remote controls.  Can you remember the five symbols on the plate?  Can you remember what happens when we press the square button?

Outdoors we have been dough discoing to Pippa’s favourite singer Rihanna with the song Dancing in the Dark from the film Home. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd3xfhPmPPY   We have continued to watch and talk about changes of the tadpoles in the tank after a near fatal accident.  Using some story stones we have been learning about the lifecycle from frogspawn – tadpole – frogpole – frog.  Next week we move on the human life cycle as we share some hilarious baby photos – thank you for sending them in.  Out in Forest School, Mrs Allen has been sharing the story “I am Frog” and you have been making your own frog using parts of an egg box – they look brilliant!  We have also revisited the fishing game by making our own rods and trying to hook a fish.  This has linked us nicely into some Science work on sinking and floating as later in the week, you got to test which items in Forest School sank and which floated.  Unfortunately, the sinking items meant a lot of wet sleeves – see message below.

A message for parents – please can you ensure the children come dressed for outdoor play with jumpers and coats on (even if they are just in their bag at drop off) as the mornings are still quite chilly.  Could you also ensure that you send in a whole change of outfit (including a spare jumper) and one cuddly toy for Quiet Time is enough.

Have a lovely long weekend everyone.

Welcome back everyone!

We hope you had a lovely Easter break.  It has been lovely to have all the children return to us with chocolate in their tummies, smiles on their faces and sunhats on their heads.  The weather has certainly helped the return to school for all of us.  Now we are heading into the summer term, please could you ensure that on the sunny days, sun cream is applied before they come to school and if they are staying all day, the bottle is put in their bag for an afternoon application!  Although it has been sunny, it certainly hasn’t been that warm in the mornings.  Please can we request that children continue to wear a warm jumper and a coat for a little while longer.  It definitely isn’t warm enough in the cabin for t-shirts only as we have the windows and doors open all the time for ventilation.  Coats are a must for our morning Forest School sessions and the shady Quiet Area after lunch.

In the cabin this week, we have finally said goodbye to Cyril Squirrel as he played his final rhyming game with us – Odd One Out.  This concept was a new one for most of you and one that we need to return to.  Being able to spot the Odd One Out from a group of three where two have something the same and the other doesn’t is quite a challenge for 3 and 4 year olds.  Perhaps you could have a go at this game on the weekend by laying three objects in a row.  We have been winding the bobbin up with our rhyme of the week and to make it fun, changing the order, words and actions!  Our listening game has been introduced by our sequencing caterpillar where you have had a go at listening to up to 3 instrumental sounds and finding out if you can store these sounds in your head and show them in order.  In Maths we have been learning about more or less and had fun with a more/less disco party!   

Outdoors, we have enjoyed our dough disco circle time in the Quiet Area but instead of dough we have been moving the monkeys to their favourite tune “Dance Monkey” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gADgM89skZQ We have been sharing the non-fiction book FROG and have been sharing daily the lifecycle of a frog.  We are lucky enough to have our very own transforming in front of our eyes – we are keeping a close eye on the legs growing as this is when we will start to build a habitat for them in the school pond and NOT in the Nursery cabin.  In Forest School, Mrs Allen has been showing you how to make salt free dough and you have had fun making faces using this with natural objects found in around you.  It is funny to walk in to a dough face stuck to the tree or wall – makes us smile every time!  Drawing with charcoal from the fire has also been a big hit – it makes a change and is much more easy to use than the mud!  If you have an outdoor fire on a summer evening, have a go at mark making with it the next day!  Mrs Allen has also been recapping on the rules around the fire circle and discussed the safety part of not entering the fire circle.  I feel a Nursery fire must be imminent……

A message for parents – Spring term invoices will have come out in bags today.  Please do come to Nursery staff with any queries rather than the school office.

Enjoy some sun this weekend everyone.

Happy Easter everyone!

What a lovely sunny week we have had for our final week of the Spring term.  It has felt just like the Summer term out in Forest School as we have been enjoying our morning snack outside and coats/waterproofs were even left on the balcony one afternoon!   

We have enjoyed sharing the Easter Story this week as we have role-played using our Christmas characters.  Joseph became a grown up Jesus, the Three Wise Men became guards for the tomb and Mary became Mary Magdelene.  We hope they come home with a little understanding of the meaning behind Easter and were able to share a little of their “child friendly” version of the story.

I am sure you will agree they did a super job at this afternoon at the Easter Show.  The Easter Show has always been a highlight of the year for parents and we missed having you join us in the hall.  We hope you managed to spot them on the screen even when they were jumping beans.

Have a lovely Easter everyone.

Happy Spring everyone!

Our Spring topic has continued and signs of Spring have very much been in the forefront of our minds.  We have been listening for the birds singing, talked about the light mornings and now have our very own Spring friends in the cabin – can you remember who has joined us and is changing every day?  We are all (well not all of us) so excited to see those black dots in jelly develop into an actual living creature.  This weekend, could you take the time to look for buds growing on trees and bushes and see if you can find some beautiful blossom?  This will help you when we play Spring Bingo next week! 

During our Phonics circle time, we had fun helping a very forgetful Cyril Squirrel who just could not remember the name of the foods in his own lunchbox!!!  Luckily he had a team of rhyming superstars who were able to continue his rhyming string.  Silly Cyril, it wasn’t leese, meese and beese – it was cheese!  Perhaps you could be the forgetful ones this weekend and see if you families can help you remember the names of what is in your lunch!  In Music, we have been working on Pitch as we have been singing “Rain Rain Go Away” with a twist.  We sang together, stayed quiet whilst Mrs Mander sang and then had a solo part all whilst trying to keep the timing, the length of each note and the pitch – so much to remember! I am looking forward to sharing a clip I have of you with Mrs Cutler (our Music specialist) on Monday afternoon who is helping support us develop our music skills in Nursery.  We have also been recapping on our Staying Quiet listening rule by keeping our feet quiet as we move around the cabin and in Write Dance, the “messy table” with red paint to the Wheels on the Bus has been a huge hit (not for Mrs Allen mind who has the job of trying to clean it away afterwards)! 

Outdoors we have finished our focus story of Jasper’s Beanstalk as we have been reading, yes reading, the Days of the Week and spotting each day in the story.  We have talked about the tools Jasper used and predicted what he could be doing with them.  Can you remember the four tools he is holding in his paws?  Our Dough Disco has had us making steering wheels and driving our fast cars as we have been moving the dough to “Real Gone” thanks to Ralph. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdimnI4Xtc0

Mrs Allen has gone egg crazy this week.  She has been sharing the story The Odd Egg with you and then you have been playing a Hide and Seek game with the eggs.  You had so much fun hunting them down and some of you had the opportunity to hide them for your friends.  You then moved on to rolling these eggs in paint to create some of your own egg paintings.  In the afternoons, you have had fun bird hunting with the binoculars and soon discovered which spots were the best in Forest School to see them (the quieter spots!).  You have had fun throwing eggs into a hula-hoop and even had your own egg and spoon race.  Look out because next week, we might find something in those eggs.

A message for parents – our Easter singsong will be on Thursday 1^st April at 1.30pm.  The Zoom link was sent via parentapp.  We look forward to sharing some of our favourite songs and dances from this term.

Happy Friday everyone!

What a strange week it has been in Nursery as it feels like we have returned from a half term break.  I know this isn’t true as we have evidence of how hard you were working with the children last week with our very own “Lockdown” photobook.  The children are really enjoying showing and sharing these photographs with their peers – I think Benji has the most to share with three pages of photographs.

We returned this week to our new topic of Spring.  Miss Turner had been busy at home making some Spring labels for our display and yesterday some of you even read the words!  Connie did an excellent job of sounding out “lambs”.  Reading words by looking at the first sound and the picture linked to it is just one of many reading strategies.  I wonder whether you have any stories at home in this format where you could practise?  We have been messy mark making with shaving foam to “Just Like This” – I know how familiar lots of you are with this Write Dance song now.  We will return to our Rhyming Phonic topic next week as we have revisited our listening rules by playing a game with a red hand and a tunnel – can you remember how we played it?  In Maths we have been counting forwards and backwards fast and slow and then had a go at running fast and slow in the funniest running race I have seen.  We have talked about fast and slow things and Ralph, once again, came up with his own ideas of a motorbike and a tortoise.

After lunch, in the Quiet Area we have revisited some of our favourite Dough Disco routines to get ready for an end of term show on the 1^st April at 1.30pm.  We hope to see you all there via Zoom!  You are in for a treat with our yearly Easter show singing a classic Easter song.  We have begun exploring our Spring story Jasper’s Beanstalk as we have been looking at the characters and objects and clapping out how many syllables are in each.  Even though you know what a “Watering can” was, it was definitely the most challenging word to clap out.  Mrs Allen has gone all magic on us as she introduced us to how to make a magic potion using water, coloured sand, cake sprinkles and anything we could find around us in the Forest School.  How did your potion work when you “sipped” it?  My favourite was the one that made us all have magic manners.  In the afternoons, you had the chance to mark make Spring flowers with forks and you then moved on to create your own mark making tools with sticks, twigs and string.

A message for parents – we never got around to saying a huge thank you to you all for the delicious cakes that the Nursery staff enjoyed on those last few days before we broke up.  It was such a kind gesture of your thanks but we should be thanking you for enabling us to stay open by following restrictions.  We did well didn’t we to stay open all that time?  Fingers crossed it is only a one off as, as lovely as Zoom was, it isn’t the same as being with you in real life.

Happy Friday everyone!

Well the warm weather didn’t last very long did it?  We were all back to layers, warm socks and Winter hats this week! It was lovely to chat to most of you on Wednesday and Thursday this week – we miss the contact with you all as much as you do.  Reports shared will be coming home with the children next week.

We began the week with picture clues for our Nursery Rhyme – there was a cat, a moon, a little dog, a dish and a spoon. With a little prompting, you worked out which one it was in the end!  We all enjoyed Hamish’s choice of Dough Disco this week as we have been shaking the dough (and our bodies) to Boom Shake the Room.  We look forward to Ralph’s choice next week.  Please do send in any requests the children have of favourite disco songs as it is so important our learning is led by the children’s interests – that is what Early Years is all about!  In Write Dance we have continued mark making on the tables to a favourite Maths song “Beans”.  We were even brave enough this week to introduce a “messy” mark making table so if you went home with yellow or orange hands, this is why!  In Phonics Cyril Squirrel has been singing Pattern Parrot with his rhyming pairs game – it was lovely to see some of you choosing to play this matching rhyming pairs game when you arrived.  Our Music this term is learning all about Pitch and so we have started practising changing our voices by singing, talking, whispering in a call and respond song.  During our Maths session we have been singing about full, part full and empty cups and have being learning about how numbers up to five look in the tally arrangement.  We had fun with our traffic survey outside the front of the school – I wonder whether vehicles move past your house quicker than they do past Blackwell School?  Perhaps you could have a go at tallying vehicles this weekend – don’t forget to shut the gate after four as we do not want those animals running into the road!

After lunch, in the Quiet area on the balcony we have been sharing a popular story about a monkey who has lost his mum.  We predicted the animals that we would see next and we have had fun clapping out the syllables in each characters name.  Can you remember which character in the story had four claps??  For some of you who head into Quiet Time last, we have been exploring the names further by listening to the initial sound and finding nonsense rhyming words for our animal friends.  In Forest School Mrs Allen began the week by showing you how to wrap paper around the tree and make bark rubbings with wax crayons.  A trickier activity later in the week was where you had to make your own working paintbrush with a stick, twigs and a piece of string.  It was fun to see you rise to the challenge and then when achieved, you were able to see if it worked with the paints in the tuft tray.  In the afternoons, you have been chalking mini beasts on the patio.  Nina’s bumblebee was truly impressive – mummy will look forward to seeing this in your Learning Journey later in the year.  Mrs Allen has also been shopping for some new tools for the mud kitchen and you have enjoyed baking cakes with the new bowls and wooden spoons.  For decoration, you have been grating pieces of chalk – strange but very effective!

A message for parents – there are getting more and more occasions as the weeks go on where we aren’t clear as to what time the children are being collected. Please can you ensure that you let us know via email or a message on the gate at drop off as to what time you will be collecting them if there isn’t a regular pattern.  We rely heavily on the visual timetable to watch time pass and it can throw some children (and us adults with our numbers) when it isn’t clear.  Thank you!

Happy Friday everyone!

What a beautiful week of sunshine we have had to return to.  The layers of clothes are starting to peel away for us all.  This, along with some excellent practising of doing our own zips up over half term, has made our transitions in and out of the Forest School so much quicker.  For some, you are ready for Reception already!

This week we have continued along our Families topic by starting our Mummy topic.  Your mummies’ faces were there to greet you on arrival on Monday morning – what a pleasant surprise.  They have been watching us in our circle times this week and seem very impressed by your ability to listen and join in!  We have met a new friend in Phonics – Cyril Squirrel.  He is our very own rhyming puppet and only talks in rhyme.  It turned out he was a very hungry squirrel and we had to keep feeding him Silly Soup.  Can you remember how many objects we needed in our soup and what these objects needed to sound like?  In Write Dance we have started dancing on the tables (!) but not as you think it sounds – we have added in our big arms movements to our songs and have been taking our hands around the Mulberry Bush in the water and soap combinations.  Our Nursery Rhyme has been Hickory Dickory Dock which linked to our Maths focus of TIME.  We have stolen the teaching clocks from the main school and have been naming the face, the numbers we can see and exploring the movement of the long and short hand.  Can you remember which one moves faster?  The blue one or the red one? Which one is Mrs Mander?  Which one is Mrs Allen?  Why?  Outdoors we started to read the o’clock times as we played “What’s the Time Mr Wolf?”.  Have a look at the analogue clocks around your home this weekend and see how they look the same and different to ours.  After lunch we have been joining the disco and twisting our wrists (very tricky!) to “What does the Fox say?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jofNR_WkoCE – apologies if the children have been singing this on repeat at home!

With the warmer weather, meant a return to the Quiet Area after lunch for our Communication and Language session (C&L).  These sessions are all about practising your listening, attention, understanding and speaking skills.  The latter is the one we are trying to develop – talking in front of a large group.  Luckily the mummy photos took away all your inhibitions as you shared some lovely thoughts, comments, stories about your mummy.  We even had fun playing “Where is my Mummy?” where we mixed them all up on the carpet, chose one and said “That’s not my Mummy”.  I am sure I have heard this line before from a very popular story we know – a focus for next week I think!  Mrs Allen has enjoyed hunting in the Forest School with you using the magnifying glasses.  Lyla did a super job when she found our very own daffodils growing.  Pippa also seemed to be the Worm Queen as she kept finding and rescuing them!  You shared the story “Spike’s Best Nest” and then had the chance to weave sticks together to make a birds nest.  In the afternoons you have continued to build up the bug hotel using sticks and stones.  The wind on Tuesday was also a great opportunity to explore how we can get the streamers to move in the wind and dance with them.

A message for parents – I look forward to seeing you all at Parent Consultations next Wednesday and Thursday.  The zoom link will have now come out in a parentapp message.  Please enter the waiting room five minutes before you allocated time.  Appointments are 15 minutes long.

Have a lovely sunny weekend everyone – don’t forget to keep looking for those signs of Spring when you are out and about!