Headteacher: Anna Moss

Happy Half Term Everyone!

Didn’t they do a super job at Sports Day today.  Thank you for coming to watch and cheer them on.  After years without an audience, it was fabulous to have everyone back together again.  Long may it continue.  Evie’s dough disco choice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ4qrcHyYj4 of Gold by Spandau Ballet certainly inspired us to get to the finish line first!

As part of our C&L, we have enjoyed many discussions about the Queen.  At the beginning of the week we were unsure who the lady was in the photo and we finish the week, with a bank of facts about her.  My funniest moment was Emily’s comment – “she is even older than my mummy”.  We hope you are sharing some of these facts at home and hope you get to take part in the celebrations next weekend.  Look out for those horses Carly!

This half term has flown by and we cannot believe we have only one more half term with the children before they move on to their next chapter.  We hope you all enjoy your holiday and the children recharge ready for the final half term of outdoor fun!

Have a lovely break everyone!

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen, Mrs Franklin, Miss Turner X

Happy Friday!

As we continue to be intrigued by the lifecycles of our caterpillars, who have now spun their cocoons and are ready to be transferred to their net, we moved on to a new topic – Sports.  In the cabin we have been talking about and trying to recreate a piece of artwork by Joan Miro, “Running Man” and outdoors, our Sports Day events practice has begun.  We are looking forward to taking part in the whole school event next Friday at 10.45am – meet you on the school field.  Cyril Squirrel has had us laughing once again during Phonics as we tried to play bingo with him – not that easy when he says all his words wrong.  We then enjoyed playing with some of Cyril’s squirrel friends with the Music game of “Let us Chase the Squirrels” where the squirrels had to escape from the old oak tree.  Erin chose our Dough Disco song this week – Havana, Camilla Cabello https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSMA_4lhWeM (skip to 2 minutes in for the actual song).  We have been circling our arms up high and taking our dough around the globe to meet Camilla in America.  I don’t know about you but my arms are aching this week, surely my handwriting will have improved!  Next week, Evie’s choice  which is perfect for our sporting event.  In Maths we have been learning all about the triangle – can you tell your families this weekend about what you know about the triangle?  There is one thing I know, they are very tricky to find outdoors so we made our own and played a game of hide and seek with our friends.  In Forest School Mrs Allen has been having fun teaching you how to play “What’s the Time Mr Wolf” and a throwing game with hoops and beanbags, alongside practising our three races for next Friday!

A message for parents – please ensure you take the time this weekend to look at messages on parentapp.  Alongside sports day, there is a lot happening and organised as a whole school for the Queen’s Jubilee.  Look out for the clothing (Wednesday and Friday), coin (all week) and food (Friday) requests.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen, Mrs Franklin, Miss Turner X

Happy Friday!

Thank you Savannah for your Dough Disco choice this week – La Bamba, Los Lobos.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6T85X1ClmI This has been a huge hit and for those of you heading into Red class in September, you will need to know this song for your Wake and Shake competitions.  We are starting to see the results of the daily dough disco sessions as we move onto scissor skills for the final term.  A big thank you to all those grownups at home that have already taught you how to use safely.  In Music, we have been singing and dancing to Jump Jim Joe as we move our bodies to the beat of the song.  Our Listening game has been all about Listening to the Words as we played Fruit Salad with real fruit and then pictorial fruit from the Hungry Caterpillar.  During Phonics, our tricky rhyming topic continues – this week with rhyming pairs in the wagon.  You are beginning to spot when the wagons have been mixed up and the pairs do not match, let’s hope you can transfer these skills to our Odd One Out Rhyming game coming soon.  In Maths we have been recognising dice patterns and beginning to make them ourselves.  Next week is a triangle week.  Spotting these in the outdoors is challenging so if you do spot over the weekend, please email photos in for us to use!  For our topic, sharing baby photos with our friends is always a hit and it was lovely to hear how far you have come on your own lifecycle journey already.  Comments like “I didn’t have a knife and fork as I ate with my fingers” from Evie and “I couldn’t stand up as my legs didn’t work” from Penelope are filling Mrs James, our school Science lead, with joy.  Outdoors Mrs Allen has been showing you how to make salt dough and how you can use this with mirrors to make your own salt dough face.  In the afternoons, it has been all about the knots!  Practising how to tie a simple knot and how you can use these to connect things has been fun.

A message for parents – as per parentapp, the Early Years Jubilee Sport’s Day is on Friday 27^th May at 10.45-11.30am on the school field.  If your child does not attend on this day, feel free to bring them along to the school field and they can come and join the team.

Enjoy the sun this weekend everyone!

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen, Mrs Franklin, Miss Turner X

Happy May Everyone!

Many thanks to you all for the baby photos – the children are loving seeing/spotting on the cupboard.  As we move through the lifecycle topic, the final stop is the human lifecycle where these photos really help to support the children’s learning.  Frogs and Butterflies have been on the menu for the last two weeks. Last week Mrs Allen was feeling all crafty as she showed you how to make your own jumping frogs and create a lifecycle plate.  Our new friends arrived on Monday, the caterpillars – this is a chance for us to observe the lifecycle happening before our eyes.  All they seem to do is eat!  They are very hungry!  I am sure the children will keep you all posted on their progress over the coming weeks.  In the cabin, we are in full swing with our circle times too.  Our Listening games have been about revisiting our listening rules as we have been finding hidden music machines using only our ears – it was tricky to Stay Quiet for this game!  In Phonics we have moved into our new topic of Rhyming.  Our Rhyming chant is a great warm up as we listen and repeat rhyming words to the song Happy.  This week, Cyril Squirrel has made an appearance and has needed your help with your names.  Every year he is terrible at remembering them and loves playing games with you to help him.  As we switch our sessions for the final term, our Gross Motor skills session moves onto the trim trail after lunch (always a huge hit!) and our Fine Motor dough disco session moves into the morning.  We have enjoyed moving the dough to Miss Turner’s choice with a song from Encanto (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yp5nPGWWMh4) and this week, Hugo’s choice with a song from Lion King (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bGjlvukgHU).  Last week in Maths we enjoyed exploring the skill of one more as we added one more to our tally marks with a traffic survey outside the front of school.  This week, dice are on the menu as we have been spotting our dice patterns and using these to compete against each other in our two player games.

A message for parents – as we move into the Spring, we notice the weather warming up.  On those sunny days please remember to send the children in wearing a sun hat, sun cream applied and a bottle of cream/spray in their bag if they are staying all day for us to help them apply for the afternoon session.

Enjoy your warm weekend all!

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen, Mrs Franklin, Miss Turner X

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

Happy April!

As we move into another new month of the year – we enjoyed a little taste of winter yesterday when the snow came down.  Snow=Christmas and Mrs Allen was NOT impressed when we started singing those Christmas songs again.  Perhaps these are the songs we should sing next Thursday at our “on the steps” sing song to your grownups?   Hedgehog and Badger have really improved our pitch when we sing in our Music session as we revisited “Rain Rain Go Away” with the hand signals for Mi (e ) and So (g).  We have been on an Easter Egg Hunt during Write Dance as we tackled some tricky settings along the way – grass, river, forest and cave.  In Phonics we have been learning about the concept of the Odd One Out as we played Musical Threes and spotted who was different in our group.  We extended this learning by looking at the Odd One Out with our sounds. Perhaps your grownups could help you at the weekend and lay out three objects, two with the same sound, one with a different sound – can you say the sounds for each and name the different one?  Our transition in Maths has been all about the cube as we have explored its properties.  We found out they are good to stack as they have flat sides, each side is a square and when you squeeze them, they make us say “ow” as they have sharp corners.  During our number part, we have been learning all about the number 6 and found out that when we put two three teams together in a row, we make numicon 6.  Outside, we have been Stick Discoing to Spencer’s choice, “Rock and Roll all night” by Kiss.  It has been fun talking about what the band look like; completely different to what we have had before.  Enjoy this child friendly version with Scooby Doo.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oWgPSxJdXY Following our disco, we have been role playing the idea behind “sharing” and being kind to our friends and sharing another Percy the Park Keeper story of “One Springy Day” during C&L.  It has been all about those singing spring birds outside in Forest School as Mrs Allen has shown you how to use binoculars.  You enjoyed setting up a quiet bird-watching space and listening and looking out for some.  Thanks to Mrs Hampton, we even had our own noisy one to hunt down that would not stop tweeting!  We have also enjoyed going on that egg hunt outdoors as you took it in turn to hide the plastic eggs and find ten of them again.  The story “The Odd Egg” was shared – can you remember what came out of this strange egg at the end of the story?  Being able to talk about the beginning, middle and end of a story is a key skill in the nursery curriculum and something we will be talking about in the summer term.  In the afternoons, you have also enjoyed your egg and spoon racing and playing a fun throwing game of eggs into a hoop.

A message for parents – it was so lovely to see you all this week and have the chance to chat about your little one.  We have another singsong on the steps next Thursday morning at 8.45am where the children will be sharing some of their favourite songs from the term and their Easter cards.  We look forward to seeing you all there.

Enjoy your weekend everyone – fingers crossed for some more snow!

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

Happy Spring Everyone!

The weather has made our week – how lucky we have been to have some warm Spring sunshine after those two colder seasons.  It has meant we have been able to spend longer outdoors without wearing coats and waterproofs.  During our Music session in the cabin, Hedgehog and Badger have been combining their sounds and actions to create a repeating pattern getting us ready for the song we are going to sing to the grownups on the steps in a few weeks time.  In Write Dance, we have been mark making to the familiar song “She’ll be coming round the mountain” as we have drawn cups, circles and rainbow arcs and checked whether Joshua was right with our colour mixing – does red and blue really make purple?  In Phonics, the Pink Panthers made another appearance as they tried to mix up your sound sort of objects travelling on different vehicles.  We have had fun with our Maths as we have been getting into small groups and using our subitising to work out if we have more boys or more girls.  Can you remember the word we use for the other group?  More girls, f*w*r boys.  During Dough Disco, we have been flicking, arm crossing and playing the piano like Johnny from the movie ‘Sing 2’ thanks to Poppy B.  Enjoy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opGJR_dBEvY With a special day coming up this weekend, our Listening Game and C&L sessions have all been about our mummy.  We played Dobble with a twist as you had to take your Mummy photo and find something the same about them with a friend.  Our story has been a classic, ‘Monkey Puzzle’ and we have had fun role-playing and guessing which animal we were, sorted the characters into the order they appear in the story, and talked about how happy we would be if we found our mummy at the end of the story.   In Forest School, in the morning sunshine, Mrs Allen turned you all into busy Bob the Builders as you have been hammering nails and screwing screws with your new tools.  Be careful or she will have you doing all the jobs around the site before you know it!  In the afternoon, you have enjoyed finding ten Spring flowers and collecting on the ten frame.  She has also shown you some skills for encouraging the bugs to come and share our site as you have been twisting brown paper around pencils and placing them into a milk crate as their new home. 

A message for parents – parent consultation times came home this week in children’s bags ready for next week as well as a parentapp message last Friday.  I look forward to chatting to you all about how much they have changed since September! 

Enjoy your Sunday Mums – hope their secret hiding place isn’t so secret that they forget where they put the envelope!

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

Happy Red Nose Day!

Lovely to see so many of you in red today to support this special day.  I am relieved that we didn’t have any children feeling red today though.  Our C&L story ‘The Colour Monster’ has had us talking about the feelings of happy, sad, angry, scared, calm and kind.  Can you remember which colour matches which feeling?  Being able to recognise how you are feeling and knowing what you can do to help yourself is a key part of development for 3 and 4 year olds.  Our Music friend Hedgehog brought along her new friend Badger but he wasn’t as well behaved as she is as he kept on hiding his favourite chime bar note, E.  When we eventually found it, we had fun singing our register using this note with the matching hand sign.  Now we have listened and sung the two notes E and G and can show the matching hand signal, you are ready to put together in a song ready to share with your grownups for our Easter Sing Song Show.  Our Write Dance has had us colour mixing red and white with our hands and making marks in the paint to print some special cards that you will be able to take home next week.  We have enjoyed playing the game Dobble for our Listening game as looking at and finding the matching picture on a friend’s card was a challenge!  With the weather warming a little, we have taken our Maths outside and have been programming our own robot friends to move forward, backward, left,right and for some, turning clockwise.  Thank you Aahil for programming me, I enjoyed nearly ending up stuck in the mud!  In Dough Disco, we have been using our hands as builder tools as we moved the dough to ‘Bob the Builder’ thanks to Sebastian.  Enjoy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdVg-2jn2OU  Mrs Allen has been celebrating the Spring season by having you all plant your own seeds into pots and making seed bombs by using your dough disco skills to squeeze seeds into wet soil.  In the afternoons, she has shown you how to master those baking skills in the mud kitchen with some stone vegetables.  Apologies for the pink and muddy hands this week all!

A message for parents – a reminder with regards toys coming into school.  Please can children only bring in one soft toy that fits into their bag for them to cuddle during Quiet Time.  The larger toys that aren’t able to fit in bags are being lost on the balcony as this is our only space for getting ready for the outdoors.

Look out for those signs of Spring this weekend everyone!

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