Peacocks

This week we have been looking at different colours and have had a go at mixing colours. Henry noticed that the tail of a Peacock looks like a Kaleidoscope so we tried to make our own Peacock feathers. We coloured patterns using red, blue and yellow onto a coffee filter and then watched what happened when they went in the water. We enjoyed watching the colours spread and were amazed when purple and green colours appeared too. Even the water changed colour!!

 

We visited St. Luke's sensory room and enjoyed looking at the different pictures change on the walls when we moved the sticks over the lights. There were textured spots which felt funny on our feet when we walked on them. Some of the pictures on the floor changed when we touched them, showing different patterns.

 

In Maths we wanted to find out what everyone's favourite colour was. We used the unifix cubes and built towers of different colours. Blue seemed to be Nursery's favourite colour.

 

Some of the children in Treetops made their own sensory bottles using oil, water and food colouring. They added sequins and beads and found out whether they floated or sunk.

 

Next week our sound of the week is 'o'.

 

We are going to be finding out about Chinese New Year.

Snowflakes

This week the children have been learning about snowflakes.

 

In Maths we counted the points on a snowflake and found that all of them had 6 points. We also found out that no two snowflakes are the same. The children have been getting the idea of repeating patterns making them with the bead strings and pegs and drawing them with coloured pens.

 

This week we did an experiment to try and make snow. The children loved seeing what would happen when we mixed the bicarbonate of soda and the shaving foam to make snow and described how it looked -'like marshmallow and jelly' and felt - 'sticky and squidgy'.

 

We used our fine motor skills to thread some snowflake shapes.

 

Morning Nursery went to Celebration Assembly and sat and listened really well. Mrs Byrne came to read a story to morning Nursery  as Adam asked her to come.

 

We've had a lot of fun learning about snow, singing the snowflake song, painting and printing snowflakes and cutting them out. We were also very interested in a non-fiction book about snow. Afternoon Nursery liked finding about animals camouflaged by the snow.

 

Next week we are going to be learning about colour and pattern. On Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning we are going to St. Luke's sensory room. If anyone can help on this trip please let a member of staff know if you haven't already done so.

 

Next week our sound of the week is 'g'.

 

We will be learning a song about a Peacock.

Kaleidoscope

Welcome back and Happy New Year. We hope you all had a lovely Christmas break.

The children have had a settled week in Nursery in their new groups, Zig-Zags and Swirls and have come up with lots of ideas on what they want to learn about our new topic Kaleidoscope.

This week we have been drawing and writing about our Christmas Holidays and drawing self-portraits. We have been very impressed with how the children's pencil grips have improved.

The children have been fascinated by the torches and reflective objects, making rainbows in the glass balls. They were surprised by the coloured water in the water tray (we made it orange) and have been singing 'I can sing a rainbow' while they play.

We read 'Brown Bear, Brown Bear' and 'Polar Bear, Polar Bear' this week and the children did really well in making up their own version of the stories.  Some of our children have taken turns in helping to read the story to the group.

There was great excitement about the snow and the afternoon children managed to play with the little bit that was left on Friday.

They were very good at our 'guessing the word' game in Phonics, where they had to guess the word we were sounding out to them. They also did well at saying which colour should come next in our patterns and are keen to have a go at making their own now.

Next week we will be learning about 'Snowflakes'.

Our rhyme of the week is Little Snowflake (sung to the tune Frere Jacques) and our sound of the week is 'd'.

Christmas

We have had a lovely couple of weeks in Nursery. We were very proud of how the children performed in their Sharing Assembly. They all spoke so confidently and sang the songs beautifully. We hope that you enjoyed it.

 

Morning Nursery have been lucky enough to go into the staff room to have some Christmas stories read to them. One of the stories was read by Mrs McCormick. While we were in the staff room this week we had a very special visitor. Father Christmas came to see us, The children were very excited and sang their Father Christmas song to him.

 

Afternoon Nursery were lucky to have him come and visit in the Nursery. The children loved seeing him.

 

Treetops Club got to have a special Christmas lunch in Treetops. They listened to Christmas songs and wore the party hats they had made.

 

All the children have been loving the snow in the water tray and both Morning and Afternoon Nursery have been building towers and structures from 3D shapes.

 

We had a Maths problem solving week this week and the children had to find different objects to fill the different sized bags. We talked about which bags were the biggest and which they thought would hold more. We found out that it depended on the size of the object we put in the bags.  We have also been practising our positional language, moving Santa and his reindeer into different places in the house.

 

If you have not yet applied for a Reception place, please get your applications in. The deadline is 15th January.

 

We are finding that our coat hooks are getting rather full as some children have backpacks on their pegs. If your child does need to have a bag for spare clothes, please can you put the items in a drawstring bag which takes up less room and allows coats to fit on the pegs properly. 

 

We are looking forward to the Christmas party on Monday. Please send your child in school uniform as they have made hats to wear. Please remember term finishes on Tuesday, and Afternoon Nursery and the children who attend Treetops Club need to be picked up at 1.30.

 

Wishing you all a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Christmas Sharing

Christmas started in Nursery this week with the beginning of advent and starting to practise for our sharing assembly. We have been reading the Nativity story and some of the children were very surprised that Mary and Joseph couldn't go in a car to Bethlehem and stay in a hotel!!

In P.E. we danced to 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' using the scarves to make big movements with our arms.

We have been very busy learning all the songs for our assembly and deciding what parts we want to do.

We have been thinking about what we would like for Christmas and started writing our own Christmas lists.

We all got to choose a decoration to hang on the Christmas tree in the hall today which was really special. It looked really beautiful with the lights on it too.

We've been fascinated by the ice outside this week. Some of us thought it was glass so we put water in the freezer to see what happens to it. We've learned that it smashes like glass if we throw it on the ground.

Please remember on Wednesday 7th December it is the Nursery Sharing Assembly.

Our sound of the week next week is 'n'.

Woodlands

We have had a busy week in Nursery this week. On Monday the Morning Nursery went to Woodlands in the wet weather and looked for signs of footprints. Nathaniel thought he even saw the Gruffalo's footprints. We really enjoyed jumping up and down in the muddy puddles. We were also looking for textured objects so that we could print them in a clay tile. Some of the leaves made some lovely patterns.

 

The Afternoon Nursery managed to go into our outdoor area, despite the pouring rain. They collected objects to print into the clay tiles inside. The holly leaves made a pretty shape.

 

We spent the week learning how to share and take turns when playing a game. We had to wait our turn and remember not to shout out when it was someone else's turn.

 

We made some Christmas Tree decorations to sell at the Christmas Fair, using lolly sticks and sparkly sequins and glitter. We had to concentrate to wrap a pipe cleaner around the stick to make it look like tinsel. If you didn't manage to get to the Christmas Fair you can bring £1 to the classroom and they will be on sale next week.

 

Next week our sound of the week is 'i'. We will be starting to learn a number of Christmas songs ready for our sharing assembly on 7th December.

Cinderella

This week we have been reading the story 'Cinderella' and have been talking about the characters, events and settings in the story. This linked in very well with 'Kindness Week' as most of us thought that the Ugly Sisters were being very unkind to Cinderella. We thought that the Fairy Godmother was kind though because she gave Cinderella a lovely dress to wear.

We have been busy creating Pumpkin Carriage artwork and have been practising our scissor skills cutting around a pumpkin shape. We have also been exploring what happens when we mix different coloured paints together.

The children liked wearing spots and stripes for Children in Need on Friday and enjoyed bringing in their teddies with eye patches.

We've been describing and naming simple shapes and enjoyed listening to 'Shape Song 2' on You Tube. We've also been spotting shapes in pictures. The ice chunks we put outside have prompted a lot of discussion and questions such as 'what happens if we put the ice in water?'

Next week our sound of the week is 't' and the rhyme of the week is The Grand Old Duke of York.

On Monday we will be going to Woodlands so please remember wellies and waterproof suits if your child does not already have them in school.