Wow!  This week seems to have flown by!

The children have been taking part in lots of different independent and adult-led activities, which have provided them with plenty of lovely opportunities to:

• Continue to develop their listening skills and awareness of sounds in the environment; this week, the children have also tried hard to remember the sounds they hear.  For example, Mrs Saunders had a box of noisy objects, which they listened to; they then had to try and work out what objects were making the sounds.  Then on Thursday, Mrs Maloney led an activity where the children had to describe a farmyard animal (without saying its name); the rest of the group then had to find the animal being described (- communication, language & literacy).
• Enjoy listening to stories, including ‘So Much’ by Trish Cooke – a lovely story about a family’s celebration and love for each other, captured through beautiful illustrations and a great text, which has a wonderful sing-song rhythm when read aloud (- communication, language & literacy).
• Sort collections of objects that are the same – for this we have mainly sorted objects by colour; for example, the children sorted an assortment of buttons by colour, with Mrs Satterly (– mathematics).
• Continue to develop their fine motor control; for example, with Mrs Edworthy’s support, the children practised throwing a bean bag into a hoop, from a distance, whilst kneeling on one knee! (- physical development).
• Develop their spatial awareness – specifically, the children have been learning how to find a ‘good’ space in the hall, and in that space, create small and large body shapes, with Miss Mills and Miss Bradbury.  They have also been travelling over, under and through a variety of objects, in response to the story ‘Bears in the Night’ (– physical development).

Next week, the children will have their first nursery library session, when they will have an opportunity to choose a book to borrow and bring home to share with you. 

• Please look out for an information leaflet that will include details about when your child’s library session will be and when their book needs to be returned; we will send this information home with your child’s first library book. 
• If your child has a book bag, please ensure it is brought into school on their first nursery session next week.

Also, if you are able to contribute a box of tissues, we would be most grateful, as at this time of year we get through a lot!

Wishing all our nursery families a lovely weekend,

From the Nursery Team 😊

Our focus story for the week has been the ever popular ‘So Much’ by Trish Cooke. In the story mum and the baby are waiting at home to surprise daddy for his birthday – other members of the family arrive one by one and they can’t wait to play with the baby. The family then have a wonderful time celebrating daddy’s birthday. We learnt the Makaton signs ‘baby’, ‘mummy’ and ‘daddy’. Perhaps your children could show you these signs?

• We have continued with our letters and sounds programme we began last week – we have been learning the phonemes for the letters (i,n,m,d) to add to the four we learnt last week (s,a,t,p). Please see the attached grapheme information sheet to support your child’s learning at home.
• During maths we have been matching and sorting this week. We began the week playing dominoes, where we were brilliant at matching the pictures, before moving on to more sorting of objects by colour, size and shape.
• As part of our carpet times we have been thinking and talking about sharing in school. We listened to a story all about a duck who didn’t want to share his oats! We decided that sharing with the other ducks would be the right choice and we practised sharing our toys in class.
• For our expressive art and design we have been exploring different forms of mark making, in particular this week we have been making wax rubbings with crayons and a range of objects. The children really enjoyed using leaves, feathers, and materials of different textures to make some wonderful creations.

Please have a look at the home learning that has been attached to find some fun activities to do at home. It links to our story of the week which will be ‘Hoot Owl Master of Disguise’.

Have a fantastic week! 😊

The nursery children have had a fantastic and very busy week! They have continued to enjoy opportunities to explore the nursery, as well as the wider setting and are settling into routines really well. 

Each day, in addition to their free flow, independent learning time, the children have been getting fully involved in small group activities, which have focused on different areas of learning.  These activities have provided lots of opportunities to:

• Develop their listening skills and awareness of sounds in the environment; for example, they enjoyed going on a listening walk with Mrs Edworthy (- communication, language & literacy)
• Focus on walking in different directions and to a variety of speeds; for example, on Tuesday they focused on walking backwards with Mrs Maloney, whilst looking over their shoulder! It was a tricky thing to do, but they did brilliantly! (- physical development: gross motor)
• Develop their fine motor control; for example, using their hands to feel an object in a feely bag and name it without looking, with Mrs Satterly (- physical development: fine motor)
• Find and match objects that are the same; for example, the children went on a bear hunt to find matching bears with Miss Mills (- mathematics)
• Explore making marks on paper using wax crayons with Mrs Saunders (- physical development and art)
• Listen to the story of the week, Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  The children enjoyed listening to the different character voices and joining in with the repeated phrases, with Miss Bradbury (- communication, language & literacy).

Thinking ahead to next week, we have lots of lovely things planned for our learning but in the meantime, we – the nursery team – wish all our families a lovely weekend.

Wow, what a busy and full week it has been! Your children have all done so well for their first full week at school and we expect they will be very tired!

We have been focusing on the traditional tale of ‘The Three Billy Goats Gruff’, which is a very popular story with the children, they enjoyed joining in with familiar phrases and putting on voices for the characters, especially the hungry troll! We have also learnt the Makaton signs for ‘goat’ and ‘walk’ this week.

The children are starting to get used to our routines in school and are trying their best at following our superhero rules. We have also been practising our listening ears and looking eyes when sitting on the carpet. During independent learning, the children are becoming confident with navigating around our indoor and outdoor spaces where they have been cooking a variety of delicious meals in the role-play kitchen, creating stories in our small world play and drawing colourful pictures.

The children are now becoming confident with going to the hall to have their lunch and remembering to say thank you when their food is served. To further support their independence, perhaps you can practise using a knife and fork when they are eating their meals at home.

Please have a look at the home learning that has been attached to find some fun activities to do at home. It links to our story of the week which will be ‘So Much’ by Trish Cooke.

For your information:

This week, we have started the Reception Baseline Assessments (RBA).  The RBA is ‘a short, interactive and practical assessment of your child’s early literacy, communication, language and mathematics skills when they begin school, using materials that most children of your child’s age will be familiar with. It became statutory for all schools from September 2021.’  More information about the RBA can be found using the following weblink: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1074327/2022_Information_for_parents_reception_baseline_assessment.pdf