Welcome to Nursery! 

Below is some of the exciting learning we have been getting up to in Nursery and Little Stars throughout the year! 

Spring 2 - Tell Me a Story

Pancake day

As part of our ongoing learning in Understanding the World and PSED we had a go at flipping our own pancakes on pancake day! We talked about how they are a special treat and tasted some with lemon and a little sugar! We then had a go at making our own, we were very careful using our developing fine motor skills to our out some lemon juice and sprinkle on a little sugar!

"Eww its sour!"

"I love it!"

"Look I flipping it!"

"Oops it fell down, I pick it up"

Spring 1 - Farm 

Our topic for spring 1 has been Farm. We have learnt all about the different animals you might find on a farm. We have been learning and re-creating the noises the animal make, as well as watching videos of the different activities each animal likes doing and practising moving like the animals. We have connected our understanding of animals to real life, and the products we get from farms! 

"Cow make milk, that like you put in coffee" 

"I eat chicken!" 

"Chicken make eggs" 

In our literacy lessons, we have used the text The Very Busy Spider to introduce us to a range of different animals, we have then had a go as drawing them ourselves! Below is some of the children's fantastic work, demonstrating their growing fine motor, early writing, and expressive art and design skills: 

We loved hearing about the Very Busy Spider weaving his web and wanted to find our own. As part of our learning in understanding the world, we went on a spider and web hunt around school!

"I see a spider!"

"He got a web!"

"I think spider will be in the drain. He's Incy Wincy" 

Autumn 2  - A Taste of the World

Our topic for Autumn 2 has been 'A Taste of the World'. Inspired by our core text Lima's Red Hot Chilli we have explored through sight, touch and taste lots of different types of food. 

"it tastes sweet!" 

"I like it!" 

"eww that yucky"

"can I have some more please?"

We have been extremely lucky to have lots of our parents come and share some special foods with us. The children have loved hearing about where the different families in our community come from, looking at this on google earth and then sampling some special foods. Thank you so much to all the families who have participated! 

This has been a fantastic opportunity for the children to expand their knowledge of both their local community and the wider world, as well as providing an excited topic for them to try new things and practise their communication and language skills around expressing their own likes, dislikes, opinions and experiences! 

Our second Key Text this term has been Handa's Surprise. The children have loved reading this book, and loved sharing what they saw happening in the illustrations! Like Handa, we have been arranging different food and fruits into baskets, using this to pratice counting one item at a time carefully as our main focus in maths this term! 

Communication and Language

Autumn 1

This half term our focus is settling in and learning how to use our classroom sensibly and safely. During the last couple of weeks, the children have been getting familiar with being around and communicating with other children in their play, as well as sitting on the carpet and using their listening ears and looking eyes to enjoy stories and songs in carpet times. We particularly enjoy our music lessons every Thursday morning with Claire, where we are learning to join in to music with shakers!

We have listened to many stories so far and particularly enjoyed our key text ‘So Much’. We really enjoyed using the actions in the story and showing baby how we would like to greet him!

The children loved bringing in photographs from home and sharing them with their friends and teachers to talk about who is in their family!

Physical Development

Autumn 1

This half term, the children will be developing their gross and fine motor skills by climbing on different equipment in our outdoor area. We have made obstacle courses out of tyres, crates and balance beams and have been practising how to take turns on these to keep everyone safe.

The children have already taken part in lots of fine motor activities which allow the children to strengthen their finger muscles ready for writing activities later in the year. The children have been manipulating playdough, lego and using looped scissors to cut card.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

Autumn 1

The first few weeks in Nursery has involved the children getting to know unfamiliar faces and feeling safe and secure in a new setting. We have been using the visual timetable for children to become familiar with the daily routine and we have played name games to get to know each other in fun ways. We are all learning to tidy up and look after our classroom!

In freeflow, children are starting to initiate play with others by building towers and making food together in our kitchen! We are focusing with the children on using simple words and phrases when they may want something or feel frustrated.

Maths

Autumn 1

This term we are learning counting songs to 5, such as 5 Little Ducks, 5 Green Bottles, and 5 Little Monkeys. Ask your child if they can share these songs with you. We have also been exploring with early concepts of shape and pattern by building with different shapes blocks and beginning to recognise and sort using colours.

Literacy 

Autumn 1

Our core texts this term are ‘So Much’, ‘What Makes Me Me’ and ‘The Leaf Thief’. We share these regularly with the children at carpet times and use the stories to influence our play and learning around the classroom to develop the children’s language and understanding of the world.

Autumn 2 

Our core texts for Autumn 2 are 'Lima's Red Hot Chilli', where Lima tries lots of different foods to cool down her mouth, and 'Handa's surprise' where some different African wildlife steal the fruits from her basket! 

Spring 1

Our core texts for Spring 1 are 'The Three Little Pigs', a classic and familiar tale which supports the children to re-tell stories they have read and discuss illustrations, as well as 'The Very Busy Spider' which introduces us to a range of farm animals and their favourite activities. 

Spring 2

Our core texts for Spring 2 are 'The Three Billy Goats Gruff', another familiar tale which supports the children to draw comparisons with other stories they know and 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt' a family favourite which encourages the children to join in with reading and telling the story! 

Reading

Autumn 1 

We love stories, and the children are all read with in small groups at least once a week in Nursery. They have loved remembering the words in some of their favourite stories and beginning to sing or speak them when enjoying a book by themselves during their independent play.

Every Tuesday we send the children home with a new sharing book which the children pick with a teacher. Please read this at home with your child and sign their record to let us know how they enjoyed the story!