Nursery

Nursery Class 

Welcome to our class page. We will regularly update our page so you can see the fun we are having and  what the children in Nursery are learning about.

Staff 

Mrs Wright-Class Teacher

Mrs McLaughlan-Teaching Assistant

Mrs Wilson-Lunchtime Supervisor

Session Times

Morning session- 8.30 am-11.30 am

Afternoon session-12.30 pm-3.30 pm

We offer a limited number of places of 30 hour Provision

Water Bottles

 Children can bring a named water bottle to class each day.

What we are learning this half term:

This term our topic is 'Life cycles /Growth'

Our P.E day is Monday and Thursday this half term

 Reading

Here is a list of books we will be reading in class this term and if you wanted to read them at home or borrow them from the library, your child will quickly become familiar with the stories.

*Errol's garden by Gillian Hibbs

*Sunflower House by Eve Bunting

* Ten Seeds by Ruth Brown

* The Tiny seed by Eric Carle

We have a library system in class where children can take home books on a daily basis.

Rhymes

Below is a list of the nursery rhymes and counting rhymes we will be learning in nursery this term.

Hickory Dickory Dock

Humpty Dumpty

Incey Wincey Spider

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

If Your Happy and You Know it

Five Currant Buns

Five Little Peas

Wind the Bobbin up

Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

Five little ducks went swimming one day

We're going on a bear hunt

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

One, Two, Three, Four, Five

Friday 30th June

This week, one of our tadpoles has grown some front legs – we’ve been very excited about this! We hope to see more changes in the other tadpoles. We have been learning to recognise the letter sound ‘i’ and practised our Fred talk. We have continued to work on writing our names. On Wednesday, we designed boats and talked about the type of boat we wanted to make. Next week, we will be using our designs and making our boats from junk materials, then testing them to see if they float. The children created a rhyme about the Naughty Bus from our story and tried to act out the rhyme in their play. We have talked about the season of summer and sorted pictures associated with summer and winter. We are learning about what we see and do in the summer months.

Friday 16th June

This week was Bike Week! We cycled every day on the playground. The children have been learning to identify different parts of their bike and we have talked about bike safety in class. The children have become amazing cyclists! Three butterflies emerged this week and the children released them in the garden today. Also this week, we looked at the work of the Italian artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo, who used fruit, vegetables, food and flowers to make portraits. We made portraits in the style of Giuseppe Arcimboldo, using real fruit and vegetables. Look out for the photos of these on our website page. We are developing our athletic skills in preparation for Sports Day In Maths this week, the children played games focussing on adding one more. In Science, we predicted which objects would float and sink then we tested them in the water tray. We discussed the results together and found that the predictions we made were accurate. Next week we will look at different types of boats. The children talked about their favourite photographs from the story ‘The Naughty Bus’ and discussed what they liked and disliked about the book.

Friday 9th June

In Maths this week, the children focussed on recognising numbers and the identification of our numicon shapes. The children have used their numicon fans to find different numicon shapes, and we played various maths games to help with their number recognition. In the garden, our peas are getting taller, so we have put canes in to support them. Our caterpillars are almost ready to come out of their chrysalises, so next week we will hopefully have butterflies! The tadpoles have grown bigger but have not grown their back legs yet. In Science, we discussed what it means if an object is waterproof. We carried out a fair test in small groups to see which materials were waterproof and which were not. The children made some accurate predictions. Next week, we will be exploring the concept of floating and sinking. The children have started their new Power of Reading book, ‘The Naughty Bus’.

Friday 26th May

In Maths this week, the children have focussed on developing their spatial awareness skills, and they have had opportunities to select and rotate shapes to fill a space. They have completed jigsaws and made 2D shape pictures. We have revisited our Active Maths games (dancing dice, riding the road and roll a ball). We have been busy weeding our nursery garden and we have had so many willing helpers to water the vegetables and plants. The children have planted some lettuces and courgettes this week. The children have talked about and sequenced the life cycle of the sunflower. They followed step-by-step instructions to draw sunflowers using oil pastels. We have finished our work about the story ‘Errol’s Garden’ by designing posters to ask for help with the rooftop garden. We have also been sewing simple patterns with a needle and thread. We also met Mrs Scalici who is going to work with us on Thursdays and Fridays after half term. We hope you all have a lovely half term break!

Friday 19th May

We now have caterpillars in class and we are checking on them every day. Our carrots, potatoes and peas have also started to grow in the garden. We have designed and planted miniature gardens. We will send them home next week for the children to look after at home. In Maths, we have been focussing on number recognition and being able to count out sets accurately. We have played some active maths games and a number target game. The children have been busy building the Numberblocks characters from cubes and making Numberblock stick puppets. Next week, we will be developing our spatial awareness skills and the children will have opportunities to select and rotate shapes to fill a space. We have been learning the letter sound ’s’ in our phonics works and clapping out the syllables in words.

Friday 12th May

In class this week, we talked about where we live. We named some features we see in our town such
as the town hall, walls, promenade, parks and lighthouse. Stripy, our class teddy, went on an
adventure and we had to guess where he had been. We have looked at photographs of local beaches
and we talked about the features of the beach. We’ve introduced the words, sand, waves, sea, rock
pool, crab, starfish, shell and seaweed. We have created beach scenes using paints and
rollers. In Maths, we have been recognising and ordering the numicon. Next week, we will continue to
recognise and compare the numbers up to 6.

Friday 5th May

In class this week, we listened to some lovely stories about King Charles’ coronation and learnt some facts about the coronation such as when it takes place, where it happens, how King Charles will travel to his coronation and what happens at the coronation. We have designed and made crowns and we also made a coronation wreath. In our role play area we have celebrated the coronation by having a coronation party. We have looked at the colours in the Union Jack, and we have coloured in Union Jack flags and printed them using our hands. Today, we are weaving with red, white and blue paper. In our circle time this week, we talked about what we are good at. The children recorded their responses in picture form in their books. Also this week, we have played some more ‘Fred talk’ games, and we have been learning the letter sound ’a’ in our phonics work. In Maths, we have been learning to estimate (have a good guess) how many objects are in a group, pot or jar. Our sunflowers have grown roots and shoots and our caterpillars should arrive next week.

Friday 28th April

This week, we continued to watch our tadpoles grow, and we hope to have some caterpillars in class soon. We have been learning the names of the parts of a plant. We were introduced to new vocabulary, including root, stem, leaves, flower and petal. We sequenced the parts of the plant to build a flower and made a flower picture. We used different materials (string, card, paper cake cases and tissue paper) and techniques to create the picture, such as twisting, snipping and rolling. We also painted sunflowers. In Maths, we recapped the numbers 6, 7 and 8. We sorted picture cards into the correct sets and used practical resources to count out sets of 6, 7 and 8. Some children completed number mazes to support their recognition of these numbers. Next week, we will be comparing numbers and estimating. We played some more ‘Fred talk’ games and learned the letter sound ’m’ in our phonics work. We are busy learning two new sunflower rhymes. Today, we have been practising weaving with material and we are making cakes for our snack. Next week, we have some lovely stories and work planned about the Coronation of King Charles.

Friday 21st April

We have a pond in class and this week, we have talked about the life cycle of the frog. At the moment we have lots of tiny tadpoles to watch! The children drew the tadpoles with oil pastels.
We have also been busy gardeners, planting potatoes, carrots, peas and sunflowers. We have been learning about what plants need to grow.
We had a lovely time with Becky from the Union Chain bridge Project, who came to do a workshop based on the story ‘The Black Rabbit’. After the story, the children made their own rabbit stick puppets, which they created shadows with.
In Maths, we have been learning to recognise and name 2D shapes, and to copy and make repeating patterns. The children played with shape dominoes and created patterns with natural materials.
We have been practising holding and cutting with scissors to make paper flowers and a route for the frogs to get to the pond.
We still have spaces for anybody who would like to be our secret reader this term. This week it was Mrs Lee, who read one of our favourite stories, ‘Little Rabbit Foo Foo’.

Friday 31st March

On Monday the children enjoyed taking part in a STEM activity with Becky who read the story of ‘The very hungry caterpillar’ and then supported the children in making a flappy butterfly using a lever. They were very excited to make their butterflies move!

In class we have discussed Easter celebrations, made Easter cards, threaded an egg and have had some egg hunts in the garden.

We had our last large apparatus lesson in the hall this week and the children are now more confident and are able to think of different ways to move along the apparatus. In maths we have talked about and made repeating patterns with coloured eggs.

On Wednesday the children did a great job singing their Easter songs for their families. We were so proud of you all! Our secret reader this week was Miss Lee who read a funny story called ‘The Story of the Little Mole who knew it was none of his business’. If you would like to be our secret reader next term please let me know after the Easter break.

Today we are making chocolate nests with Mrs Dickson and then we are decorating eggs ready for our egg rolling competition. This afternoon Emma, our PhD drama student, is coming to do a Very Hungry Caterpillar workshop with us.

We hope you all have a lovely Easter holiday.

Friday 24th March

This week we have been very busy scientists! We enjoyed taking part in a range of activities with our parents in our workshop on Monday. We have been learning about the Solar System, astronauts and what it would be like on the moon. We all enjoyed looking at the motorised model of the Solar System and the star constellations on the ceiling. The children looked at globes and we located where we live. The children marbled planets and created starry night-time sky pictures. On Tuesday, we had a special space-themed movement session. We acted out a space voyage to the moon. Yesterday, we enjoyed a visit to the planetarium with Adam the astronomer from Kielder Observatory. We looked at the night sky and he showed us the star constellations. We found the star pictures for the Big Bear, the Little Bear, a dog, a unicorn, a snake, a dragon, a crab, a lion and the Gemini Twins. We read the Easter story in class. Our secret reader was Mrs Benton, who read the story ’The Very Hungry Caterpillar’. For snack this week, we melted chocolate in the microwave and made Easter nests, which tasted great!

Friday 10th March

On Monday the children were excited to use the large apparatus in the hall to develop their climbing, balancing and jumping skills. Please look at the lovely photographs of the session on our website.

This week in maths we have been learning to recognise and represent the number 7. We also read the story Noah’s Ark and acted out the story by pairing up the animals and putting them in the ark. We had a challenge outside whereby the children had to find a matching pair of socks and we have played memory games which has helped develop our understanding about what a pair is.

In class we talked about and named items that use technology in different rooms in our home. We have used the remote control cars and have taken photographs of spring flowers on the I pads. In our role play area we have set up an office.

Spring flowers was our theme in our artwork and we painted some daffodils and printed some tulip pictures. Our ‘secret reader’ this week was Mrs Brown and she was very impressed with our listening skills.

Friday 3rd March

On Monday we went out in the garden to look for signs of
seasonal changes. We spotted some daffodils, snowdrops and some crocuses! We have started to learn
new songs and rhymes about spring.

This week in Maths, we have been learning to recognise
and represent the number 6. We have counted 6 into ten frames, made six spots on a ladybird using playdough and we have explored different ways to make 6. Next week we will be learning about the number 7.
In class, we started to look at the technology around us and used the metal detectors to find magnetic objects in the classroom.
Our first ‘secret reader’ on Wednesday was Mrs Dixon, our school cook, and the children really enjoyed listening to her story!
Yesterday, we enjoyed dressing up for World Book Day and being pirates with Carol the storyteller!
Today, we are looking forward to a drama session with Emma, a PhD drama student, who is helping us to start our project about houses and homes.

Friday 17th February

This week, we have been measuring amounts in different containers, using language such as full, empty, half full, nearly full and nearly empty. We used cubes to measure how much different containers hold.
On Tuesday, we did a range of Valentine’s Day-themed creative activities, including painting symmetrical hearts, making a heart collage, and red slime in the water tray.
The Maths task included using rice and heart-shaped cutters to measure how many spoonfuls filled the heart. We also baked heart biscuits, which involved measuring the ingredients using tablespoons. Everyone enjoyed decorating their biscuits and they tasted great!
We listened to the story ‘Croc and Bird’ read by Alexis Deacon, and sequenced the story in small groups. We talked about the life cycles of crocodiles and birds. We have finished introducing the Read Write Inc picture cards and will start ‘Fred talk’ activities after the half term break.
We also enjoyed making sandwiches for our teddy bears picnic and being superheroes in our Boogie Beats session.

Friday 10th February

This week, we have been comparing weights, using direct comparison and working out which objects are heavier and lighter. Next week we will be measuring capacity.
We have finally read all of our story, ‘Croc and Bird’. Next week we will be using props to retell it!
As part of Children’s Mental Health Week, we have had lots of circle time on the themes ‘What Makes
Us Smile’ and ‘What Are We Good At?’ We talked about our feelings and completed the Stormbreak
activities ‘Roll With It’ and ‘Mood Shift’, which the children really enjoyed. We tried to represent
feelings using colour, patterns and marks.

We talked in class about bird migration and looked on the world map to see where the birds from the UK migrate to, then discussed why birds migrate.
We also sorted food into healthy and unhealthy groups and enjoyed playing in our shop.

Friday 3rd February

This week in Maths, we have been comparing numbers up to 5, using
five frames and different representations of 5. Thank you to everyone
who attended our maths workshop.
In our class story, we have been describing the characters Crocodile
and Bird. We measured out how long female crocodiles are and made
a model of the crocodile using boxes, plastic pots and bubble wrap.
Next week, we will find out if Croc and Bird find some food and we will
talk about the life cycles of these animals.
As part of Arts Week, we read the story ‘The Planet in a Pickle Jar’,
which led to a discussion about aquatic animals being hurt by rubbish
in the sea. We worked together to create a sea background and then
made models of endangered sea creatures. This was a tricky job but
the children’s model were fantastic! We then went on a litter pick
around school. In the water tray, the children enjoyed using tongs to
pick out the litter to help protect the animals.
Today, we are going to do some drama activities based on our story.
We continued learning about healthy eating. This week, we learned
about fruit. We played shops in the garden and in the classroom, and
also played a shopping board game.
We are continuing to look after the birds in our garden. This week, we
made some bird cake and cheerio bird feeders.

Friday 20th January

This week in Nursery we have been learning the names of birds that visit our garden. We have fed the birds each day and next week we are going to do some more birdwatching and count how many birds visit the garden. The children have made charcoal drawings of birds.

It has been an exciting week to explore the snow and although it’s been cold, we have enjoyed building snow castles, making tracks with the diggers and tractors and making footprints over the garden. We continue to develop an understanding about the season winter.

In maths we have been learning to recognise and talk about the properties of squares and rectangles. We have built rectangles and squares using straws and bricks, played shape recognition games, printed with these shapes and have been on a shape hunt in the outdoor environment to find everyday objects that are rectangular and square in shape.

In our new class story we have discussed the first two pages where there are two eggs sitting on the grass. We have predicted what might hatch from the egg. Next week we will find out what’s inside the eggs.

Friday 16th December

This week, Nursery have been learning about the Nativity story. We made puppets of the characters and enjoyed performing our own puppet shows. We have also been recognising and exploring the number 5. We made 5 with Numicon, matched and sequenced numbers to 5, and we enjoyed watching
the BBC Numberblocks episode about number 5.We also enjoyed our mathematical challenge
activities and investigations.

We had fun playing in the snow and exploring its texture. We are enjoying a range of Christmas craft activities.
In our last Christmas baking session, we made shortbread.

Friday 9th December

This week, we focused on recognising and representing the number 4. We played number recognition games, represented 4 on our 10 frames and made collections of 4 in class. Next week, we will be learning about the number 5. We have been talking about the things we would like for Christmas and have written a class list. We enjoyed listening to lots of Christmas stories. Our Santa’s workshop has been very popular and we are learning how to wrap up parcels. Next week, we will be focussing on the story ‘The First Christmas’. We practised our cutting skills by making decorations to hang in class. We carried on with our work about understanding about our emotions by looking at photographs of children and trying to identify how they are feeling, then matching them to the correct zones of regulation. We also made our own stress ball/fidget toy using a balloon and flour!

Friday 2nd December

This week, we learned about positional language: in, on, under and beside. We had fun travelling along different obstacle courses, hiding teddies and describing where we found them, and putting them in positions around the garden. We read the story ‘Rosie’s Walk’ and have been on our own walk around school. Next week, we will make our own class book using the photographs we took on the walk. Class challenges were based around the story ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’. Nursery made beanstalks out of Cheerios and practised counting out sets, using magic beans. All the children tried hard when completing a STEM challenge with cardboard tubes and circles, being very careful where they placed each tube when building a beanstalk. The class have been talking about emotions and we have introduced the Zones of Regulation. Next week, we will continue to talk about feelings and the class will be placing themselves into the relevant colour zone on the class chart (Blue Zone=sad/tired, Green Zone=happy, ready to learn and focussed, Yellow Zone=excited/hyper, Red Zone=angry).

Friday 25th November

This week, we have been learning to recognise, names and discuss the properties of circles and
triangles. The children have created their own shape pictures. We had some lovely aeroplanes, faces, and
a giant! We used natural materials to make circles and triangles.
We also looked at the work of the artist Wassily Kandinsky. We focussed on two pieces: ‘Squares
and Concentric Circles’ (1913) and ‘Circles in a Circle’ (1923). We then created our own artwork in
the style of Kandinsky.
We started to read a new traditional tale, ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’. We have had great fun in our giant’s
castle-themed role play area, where we acted out the story.

Friday 18th November

This week we have talked about the materials that the three little pig’s houses were made from. We have designed our own house using marshmallows, lollipop sticks and straws. We then tested then with a hairdryer to see if they could be blown down. As a class we have enjoyed sharing the work the children did at home about the story ‘The three Little Pigs’. In Maths we are have continued to recognise and represent the numbers 1, 2 and 3 and we are getting very good at showing these numbers on our fingers. We have concluded our colour mixing work by mixing red and blue to make green. The children also started their new topic of friendships, making new friends and what characteristics make a good friend. For Children In Need we helped Pudsey get his spots back in our 1 2 3 dice game and baked some spotty buns for snack.

Friday 11th November

This week, we started to explore traditional tales. We listened
to and retold the story of The Three Little Pigs. We talked about
the materials the little pigs used to build their houses; in our
Investigation Area we have a range of different materials to
examine.
We have completed activities on the School 360 ‘Busy Things’
about the story. The children have been sent home a challenge
sheet on the story, so please send in any activities you
complete, so we can record these in your child’s learning
journal and share them with the class.
In Maths, we are learning to recognise and represent the
numbers 1, 2 and 3.
In PE, we played parachute games and are learning to work as
a team when using the parachute.
We continued our work on colour mixing, using our hands to
mix red and blue to make purple. We have enjoyed using the
bottles of paint to mix different colours.
Nursery children made their own poppies and poppy fields to
acknowledge remembrance and we went on a soldiers’ march
around our garden ... it was very windy!
The children baked banana cakes for their snack today.

Friday 4th November

This week, we focussed on the story ‘Funny Bones’. We
read it, listened to it and used props to help retell the
story. We made chalk skeletons and everyone was keen
to talk about their Halloween experiences. We had a spell
kitchen in our role play area, where the children created
some spooky spells.
In Maths, we are learning about patterns and have made
action patterns with our bodies; for example: tap, stamp,
tap, stamp or run, balance, run, balance. We also made
repeating patterns with cubes, bricks, natural materials
and numicon shapes.
In Dance with Chloe, the class were introduced to a new
dance about winter. In PE, we have been bouncing,
rolling and kicking balls.
In Art, we are learning about colour mixing and have
made orange flame paintings in class.
We have been exploring why we celebrate bonfire night
and discussing how we can stay safe on bonfire night.
The children created firework pictures through printing
with different materials and made sprinkle sparklers for
today’s snack.

Friday 21st October

This week, we went on an Autumn walk around school to see all the things we have been talking about in class. We learned some interesting facts about hedgehogs and discussed hibernation. We created lovely oil pastel pictures of hedgehogs using downward strokes. In Maths, we continued to work on weight, using our hands to compare the weights of different boxes. We tried to use vocabulary such as ‘heavy’ and ‘light’ to describe the weights. We became human scales this week, using our arms to depict how the weights of the boxes would affect the scales. In dance with Chloe, we continued to perform a collection of dances. This week, our dance was inspired by raindrops and the children loved getting to spin on their bottoms and backs — it was lots of fun!

We have also been learning about how much we have changed since we were babies and looked at how different our features are now!

We have continued to practise our pencil grip and control in mark making, as well as practising our cutting skills. In Baking, we made fruit kebabs and witches’ broomsticks!

We hope you have a lovely half-term break.

Friday 14th October

This week we have been learning about size and comparing the size of objects. The children sorted balls in the garden into large and small groups. In our role play area we have set up the three bear’s kitchen and the children have been setting the table giving daddy bear, mummy bear and baby bear the correct sized objects. In class we have been discussing and investigating which objects were best suited to which box. We have listened to and began retelling the story of the Little Red Hen. We also talked about our sense of hearing and have used this to play sound lotto games and identify every day sounds. We had a special snack whereby we tasted sour, bitter, sweet and salty foods. We have printed colourful Autumn trees using corks. We created 'pebble family fames' and were able to say who is in our families. This has helped us to create our class family trees for our display. Just like the' Little Red Hen', we baked our own bread rolls and enjoyed them with vegetable soup as snack on Friday! The children used ripped autumn coloured tissue paper to make beautiful suncatchers. We introduced the terms 'heavy' and 'light' in our maths. We have had fun hunting for objects to weigh on our scales to start comparing which objects are heavier and lighte