Headteacher: Anna Moss

Happy July!

Three more weeks to go and for the first year ever, we will be saying goodbye to all of you as you head off to big school.  For those of you who are off to Red class in September, story club is on Thursday 7^th July 8.35-9.  If you do not usually attend on a Thursday, come and join your friends with a normal drop off and we will take you back to grownups at 9am.

Another non-dough disco week as we have revisited a classic thanks to Aahil and Sammy – Baby Shark.  Enjoy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqZsoesa55w  Our Bear Hunt on Monday was a huge success as we explored all the classrooms in school and found each and every one.  We hope your pictures made it home and you got to share them with your family.  Can you remember the name of them all?  Miss Muddy Boots, Redmond, Olive, George Cadbury, Lionel, Nightingale.  Lunch in the hall completed our morning as we learnt some of the new routines facing lots of you in September and even took some back into the cabin with our own lunch routine.

The rest of the week has mostly been spent outdoors, exploring signs of summer and playing outdoor circle time games.  A favourite circle time game was “Muddy over the ocean” in our Music session as you had to sing and move around the circle to the beat of the song, being ready for if Muddy landed behind you.  Another highlight was a Mrs Allen outdoor craft activity as you talked about and made some jelly fish using some super fine motor skills. 

A message for parents – we hope to see you all at the summer fayre tomorrow on the playground and field between 12:00-2:00.  Please come and find us on the “produce” stall where you are able to purchase something the children (and Mrs Allen) have worked hard to make.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen, Mrs Franklin, Mrs Thomas X

Happy Friday Everyone!

What a week of glorious sunshine we have had – so much fun outside and am sure you have returned home every day quite messy from all that outdoor fun.

Bobby chose our dough disco this week which led to lots of conversations about the heart and its job.  Enjoy this clip over the weekend – My Heart Goes, Becky Hill.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fseQRnEV9BQ .  Try and teach your family the three different actions to work those fingers, wrists and arms.

With all of the outdoor Play and Explore time, we have also had time to play some circle time games with the ball – Silent Ball and Hot Potato.  In Maths we have been creating the boy/girl pattern and playing against each other to see who could spot the mistake first.

With summer being our topic, Mrs Allen has been busy making a special summer flower ready for you to sell at the Summer Fayre next Saturday (2^nd July).  Please do come along between 12pm and 2pm and find the teachers’ stall! 

Summer is always a fun season to explore and we have had a lot of giggles as we have been learning about which parts of our body we can use to explore summer things.  Can you remember the five parts of the body you can use to explore?  Next week, we are going to have some fun with our own senses wheels. 

A message for parents – with the whole school off on their summer trip on Monday, we will be going on a Bear Hunt and following our maps to find all the Blackwell Bears in each of the classes.  Can you remind the children on the weekend of the five different class colours – Red, Green, Purple, Yellow, Blue to support them.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen, Mrs Franklin, Mrs Thomas X

Happy Summer Everyone!

Welcome back after the final half term and welcome back to our final season – summer.  With the weather being so settled, we have all been enjoying a longer morning session outdoors as we have headed straight into the Forest School as soon as you have arrived.  Thank you to your grownups for putting that sun cream on before you arrive and providing sunhats, sun cream in bags.  Without these, Forest School isn’t quite the same with the small shady space you are safe to play in. 

We have completed two weeks now and are having a final push to strengthen our hands, wrists and arms with our dough disco.  Last week, Eleni chose a classic song by Sister Sledge, We are Family https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMVe_HcyP9Y and this week we have had our silliest song this year chosen by William; What does the Fox say?  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jofNR_WkoCE

Without technology in Nursery we aren’t able to watch these video clips so would love you to watch at home over the weekend if you can?  Make sure you teach your families your foxy fingers and am sure they would enjoy hearing some of the sounds a fox makes…..

We have taken all of our other learning outside as we have been creating repeating patterns with natural objects in Maths, talking about and sharing Daddy stories in our C&L outdoors story area and creating sunflowers with Mrs Allen as part of our Art topic.  In Music we have been learning how to move our bodies to the music with our songs Old King Glory and Lost my Partner.

A message for parents – when your pick up times change day by day, please can you ensure that you let us know at drop off in the morning the time you will be collecting and make it clear to the children as well.  Messages from 3 and 4 year olds are not always accurate.

Happy Father’s Day to all of our Daddies.  We hope the card makes it safe and crease free to you!

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen, Mrs Franklin, Mrs Thomas X

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