Headteacher: Anna Moss

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

Happy Spring!

Two weeks have flown by as we have moved into our Spring topic.  We have been sharing Spring stories both indoors and outdoors and started looking for those signs of Spring using the magnifying glasses.  This weekend, see if you can spot some signs of Spring when out and about – birds singing, flowers growing, trees and bushes growing back their leaves and blossom.  We had a slight change to our plans with broken toilets for a short while but it didn’t stop us ticking off the tasks in our day as we ended up with our circle times on the front playground whilst we used the School Room toilets.  We enjoyed sitting on the front steps and taking it in turns to wear the blindfold to guess who was saying hello to us in our Listening game – “Who is it?”  We also enjoyed bringing Bertie Bus and his driver Bobby to the front playground and seeing which people, animals and objects he would allow on the bus during our Phonics.  Thank you Isla for working out what his problem was - he only liked people, animals and objects that had his sound.  We have also taken our Maths circle times outside as we have been doubling in Forest School with mirrors, creating Double Monsters with a friend and playing the “Double Double Double” game with our finger numbers.  When we had sinks in action, we were able to continue with our Write Dance to two of our familiar songs – “Just Like This” and “We can do anything” and have been colour mixing on the tables.  Can you remember what colour blue and yellow made?  Red and yellow?  Dough disco has been all about rhythm patterns thanks to Robyn and her We Will Rock You, Queen choice and squeezing the dough to Mrs Franklin’s choice of Can’t stop the Feeling, Justin Timberlake.  Watch them in action this weekend with these links - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tJYN-eG1zk and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru0K8uYEZWw

In Forest School, Mrs Allen has been sharing her favourite Spring stories, Superworm and Spike’s Best Nest.  You have enjoyed playing hide and seek with ten Superworms and using the soft toy animals and ribbons to role play the story of Spike.  In the mornings on the patio, you have enjoyed printing Spring pictures with forks in preparation for some special cards we will be making to go home this half term.  Up on the balcony in the afternoons, you have been wrapping your worms with wool and working on your fine motor skills. 

A message for parents – parent consultation slips will come home in the children’s bags and a Zoom link sent via parentapp next Friday (18^th).  Look out for both.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

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

Happy Half Term Everyone!

Storm Dudley blew that week away so fast alongside our Forest School.  As we enjoyed the final week in our Winter topic; Mrs Allen has had you rolling ice balls down your own ramps and we have been sharing a new Winter story, Snow Bears.  We have danced and made marks with chalk to a popular Maths song all about Beans and moved the dough to Nina’s favourite disco song, Rolling in the Deep by Adele.  In Maths, we have been talking about the word heavy and what this means.  You were tested on your idea of heavy when we filled up different size boxes with objects – which one was the heaviest?  The small or the big one?  We also took our learning outside as we made our own scales to stand on using only a wooden block and a plank of wood.  Today was Nina’s final day so we celebrated with chocolate/sweets for snack thanks to our Break the Rules Day, a fire in the Forest to keep us warm, doughnuts for pudding after lunch (thank you Nina!), and taste testing of Red classes own made juices this afternoon.  I am not sure about you but I am ready to burst.

A message for Nina and family – good luck Miss Madura on your new adventure.  We have enjoyed every day you have been with us for the past two years.  Your love of Sid the Snake, dancing and the weather when it finally warms up in the Spring have made us all smile.  Have a safe trip and keep in touch!

Have a lovely family week everyone!

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

Happy Friday!

Another week has flown by and we are almost halfway through the year.  Our Winter topic has continued in the cabin with our Write “Penguin” Dance.  Enjoy at home - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf0uKmKwnKs .  Outside in Forest School, Mrs Allen has been sharing with you the Winter story, The Storm Whale.  You have enjoyed making your own cardboard snowflakes on the balcony, weaving with wool and creating snowflakes with paper and pipe cleaners.  Can you hear the same sounds in both of these words?  I have never known a group of children who love (and can hear) alliteration as much as you.  Our Phonics topic has really excited you all as we began to share our sound boxes and sang about the two dicky birds (with the same sound) who are sitting on a wall.  Can you think of someone who could sit with you on a wall?  In Music we have been pitch matching using our chime bars to the notes C,D,E,F,G.  This has tied in beautifully to our Maths work on the number 5 as we have been stopping at five and counting backwards.  You enjoyed drawing around your own five on your hand and printing five in water around Forest School.  Now we have talked about the numbers to five, we stop for a little while and begin to have fun with them – splitting them, doubling them, finding one more/less than them.  Our dough disco has been chosen by Carly; Grease Lightnin’ from the film Greece.  You enjoyed listening to Gracie Mander playing it on the piano for you via video link today.  We have been talking about Danny and his friends in the film and how they wanted a fast motor car.  Grease Lightnin’ became our car in the SALT Listening game as we had to drive around the cabin and be ready to stop when we saw the STOP sign or the music stopped.  It was challenging with so many children, in order to keep in the game, you had to NOT bump a friend!  During our C&L session after lunch we have continued with our Winter story, One Snowy Night and have been adding to our word wall as Zia gave us the word “reflection”.  We talked about this word - what it means and where we would find it?  I did feel old when we used blank CD’s to see our reflection with only five of you knowing what one was.  The CD player is coming out next week!  In the afternoons, Mrs Allen has been adapting the usual playground games with a Winter theme – Musical Frozen Statues and Frozen Stuck in a Mud.  Brrrrrrr.

A message for parents – it was so lovely to see you on Wednesday afternoon/evening and we were so happy to have you in the cabin to see the children’s learning environment.  For any parents who came with questions/queries who we didn’t get to speak to, please do come and ask.

Have a lovely weekend everyone

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

Happy Friday!

We have finally made it to the end of our “Circus” topic and the Nursery grown-ups have thoroughly enjoyed learning all about it with you.  In C&L we have enjoyed sharing our final circus story, At the Circus, and have been talking about the word ‘opposites’ and what this means.  It was funny listening to you share times when you argue at home just like our characters Eddie and Ellie.  In Write Dance we have been playing the parts of the circus characters to the music and today enjoyed sharing our circus show to Red class.  Take some time this weekend to watch/listen to the music and see if your family can work out who you are.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pct1uEhAqBQ  During our morning Forest School session Mrs Allen has been testing how strong you are by using the pipes to be strong “people” from the circus. Towards the end of the week, a stage was set using the crates ready for the outdoors.  In the afternoons, you have enjoyed mark making using your hands and boots; printing mud on paper. We took this piece of mark making, alongside our Write Dance juggling ball circles, to show to the rest of the school as part of the writing competition.  I think Mrs Moss was actually very impressed with our writing skills in Nursery!  Our dough disco song has been very non Circusy as Emily chose yet another Spice Girls song, Spice up your Life.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7r03_iLh_ng . I don’t know about you, but that tune is going in circles around my head.  In the cabin we have learnt yet another new song as part of our daily Music session, Rain Rain Go Away.  We are moving on to learning about pitch this term with this call and respond song.  In Phonics we have been using our listening rules to pass the body sounds around the circle.  We moved on today by starting to create our first musical composition as you chose which two sounds you were going to combine to create your own piece of music.  In Maths we have been learning all about the square.  We all know you can recognise it when you see it but our focus has been exploring the properties – four corners, four straight sides that are all the same length.  We enjoyed watching you carry out your own investigation today as you had collected straight sticks and were trying to piece them together to make the square – tricky wasn’t it when they were all different lengths.  Have a go this weekend and see if you can find a collection of straight sticks and make the square. 

A message for parents – next week you will be given your allocated time to come and visit us in the cabin on 9^th February.  This is an opportunity for you and your child to take a tour, play with table top toys and find a seat somewhere to share the Learning Journeys.  Parent consultations discussing progress will take place after half term.  We have talked to the children about only being able to play with a few friends on that evening and how we will use the bell (they are used to) as their “time to tidy” warning and moving on to allow time for the next children to arrive safely. 

Have a lovely weekend.  It looks set to be tropical after the temperatures we had at the beginning of the week!

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen, Mrs Franklin, Miss Turner (am), Mrs Hampton (pm) and Miss Herlihy (student teacher) X

Happy Friday!

Another successful week of “Circus” as we learn more about them every day.  Our dough disco song, The Greatest Show, has been a huge hit as we have used our dough to be jugglers, strong “people”, clowns and make a ring of fire for our family of five.  Try and find some time this weekend to watch the clip – can you spot the ringmaster? The tall man?  The jugglers?  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKLT6_7Y1nc .  In the Quiet area after dough disco we have enjoyed spotting these circus characters in our story Peppa’s Circus as part of our C&L story as well as clapping out the full names of Peppa’s friends.  We have learnt some more circus skills in Forest School as we had a go at walking along a chalk line, starting on the S and ending on the F.  Why did Mrs Mander draw these letters?  If you have some chalk at home, draw your own balance line and see if you can follow.  We made this balancing  task even harder as we had a go with the Red classes beams, creating our own straight and curved pathways.  In the afternoons, Mrs Allen has been teaching you how to make and create your very own paper plate map.  You used these with friends to move around the outdoor space.  In the cabin, we have been playing with our different voices with our daily Music song, “Have you brought your singing voices?”.  We have had fun singing our days of the week with sad, angry and quiet voices – quite a giggle.  We took our whisper voices to our Listening game “Chinese Whispers” where we had the challenge of taking a friend’s name around the circle through our ears.  We worked so hard on this game as, once we got past the need to change what we heard, the same name came back to the beginning.  With Miss Herlihy in Phonics, you have been extending those body sounds by creating sounds with your mouth, lips and teeth.  Get ready for some fun games next week where you have to recognise them when you can’t see the action.  With our subitising skills (counting up to 3 with our eyes) firmly in place, we have moved on in our daily Maths session and begun our counting journey as we have learnt about the number 4.  Our first challenge was making different arrangements of four as we played Musical Fours – numicon/dice style and in a row style.  We then had a go at collecting four and knowing to stop when we have four – quite a challenge for some!  We then linked the two and made our two arrangement with them.  Seeing numbers in different ways is a key skill!

A message for parents – the children are so excited to welcome you in to the Nursery for play with them on the 9^th February.  We are all so excited to finally be able to have you come in and share their learning journeys with you so you can see all the hard work they do.  Please do return the slips to the office or in the children’s bags so we can allocate spaces safely.    

Have a lovely weekend!

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen, Mrs Franklin, Miss Turner (am), Mrs Hampton (pm) and Miss Herlihy (student teacher) X