Animal Patterns

We have had a lovely week learning all about different animals and their patterns.

The children had a go at predicting which animals would be inside the boxes from the patterns on the front. Quite a lot of the children were unsure what wild animals would feel like. They talked about whether a tortoise shell would be hard or soft and how a snake's skin would feel. They are beginning to get the idea of camouflage.

The chn have enjoyed the chameleon themed stories this week and have had a go at predicting what they think might happen at the end of the stories. We had fun trying to make our own mixed up animals, like in the Mixed Up Chameleon story.

 We listened to  'Elephant' by Saint Saens and there were some really good ideas about which animal it could be about. Some suggestions were; a whale, because it sounds quite big and scary, a tiger roaring and an octopus in deep water.  The chn had a go at making their own music about animals and thought carefully about which instrument to choose.

At Woodlands we collected leaves and other natural materials to make snake patterns along the ground. We thought hard about which objects could be used for the different parts. We also had a go at making spider web patterns between the trees using wool. We enjoyed winding the wool around the branches and joining it to other branches to make different patterns.

We have had a lovely time playing outside in the milder weather. The chn have made some great dens and have got out of breath running up and down the hill and climbing up the climbing wall. The Vet role play has proved very popular too with lots of people bringing their sick animals to be treated.

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

Our song of the week is 'I can sing a Rainbow'.

The Gingerbread Man

The children have had a lovely Book Week, telling us all about their favourite book characters and painting them for their character hats on World Book Day. Thank you for sharing with us your favourite stories too.

Our book this week has been the Gingerbread Man and we have been reading it every day. In P.E. we pretended to be the Gingerbread Man and ran as fast as we could whilst avoiding other people and the obstacles in the hall.

In Maths we have been using out problem solving skills and had to think of ways to share the buttons between the Gingerbread Men so that they all had the same number. Some of us were very sure the Gingerbread Men should only have 3 buttons each. We had to do very careful counting. We worked very well with the other children in our group, discussing our ideas and helping each other.

On Thursday we wrote our own endings to the Gingerbread Man. We thought you might like to read them.

PM Nursery

When the Gingerbread Man met the fox he said “I don’t want your help.” He ran as fast as he could over the bridge. The fox was still chasing him so he climbed up a tree where he met a bird. The Gingerbread Man sat on the bird and the bird flew away for safety.

 AM Swirls.

The Fox met the Gingerbread Man at the river. The Gingerbread Man was feeling very hungry after so much running. He started to lick his lips. He ran to the fox and said, “I’ve got a sister you might like to eat. She lives in a cave over here.” The fox looked in the cave. When his back was turned the Gingerbread Man gobbled him up. 

 AM Zig-Zags. 

The Gingerbread Man got to the river. He might fall in. Gingerbread Man thinks, “Should he jump?” No. He might fall in the river. He could fly on a bird or an aeroplane or an owl or a rocket or a helicopter with a harness or a hot air balloon. He could cross the other way. The Gingerbread Man decided to go along the path and nobody caught him. 

 

The chn really enjoyed their Gingerbread Men for snack and everybody was prepared to try them! We looked at a piece of real ginger and smelt it.

Afternoon Nursery wore their hats to celebration assembly and could tell Mrs McLellan and the whole school what the Gingerbread Man says in the story.  Morning Nursery had fun in the rain outside wearing their wellies and wet suits. They danced to 'Raindrops keep falling on my head.' 

 

Next week we will be learning about 'Animal Patterns.'

 

Our Sound of the Week is u.

 

There will be no P.E. on Monday as we will be going to Woodlands on Wednesday.

William Morris

This week the children have been learning about our whole school artist, William Morris. We looked at some of his prints and the children described what they could see. There were a lot of flowers and leaves.

We looked at the 'Larkspur' print and the children used potatoes, cotton buds and leaves to print their own pictures based on this pattern. The children showed great concentration.

The children have also been showing us how well they are doing in their Maths. They are getting much better at describing shapes now and we have even started to look at some 3D shapes. The children have talked about a cylinder and cone. 

This week we continued to look at stories set under the sea as we had been reading the Rainbow Fish. They really enjoyed the story of Barry the Fish with Fingers. 

The school role play has been very popular. The children have been pretending to be the different teachers in Nursery which had been very interesting. They've been following the timetable and doing snack, phonics and story time.

Next week is Book Week and we will be focusing on the story 'The Gingerbread Man'. The children can bring in their favourite stories to share. 

Our sound of the week is 'e'.

Chinese New Year

This week the children have enjoyed learning about Chinese New Year and know that red is a lucky colour. They explored Chinese objects and talked about when they have celebrated a special occasion.

In Maths we have been carefully counting the animals and arranging them in different ways.
We had some great conversation about numbers on NSPCC Number Day. We think Henry wore the most numbers in the school with his pi t-shirt! We talked about  big numbers and what they would ask for if they could have any amount of money- lots of children thought £10 was a lot of money. Grace thought we could just ask for £1 and give the other money to children that need it.

We read the story of the Great Race and Mrs Wilson came and talked to us about living in China. She taught us how to count to 5 in Chinese.

In P.E. we watched a clip of a dragon dance and worked together to create our own dancing dragon. The children did very well moving up and down and shaking their heads to the music.

Next week we will be reading the story 'Rainbow Fish.'

Our rhyme of the week is Pat a Cake.

Our sound of the week is 'c'.

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'.