Emmaville Primary School

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Crawcrook Nursery

Welcome to the Crawcrook Nursery Class Page.  Here, you can find out about everything that we've been doing this term.
Week Ending 23rd December 2022
 
What a fabulously festive way to finish our first term - an amazing Christmas party, hosted by Lucy from Gateshead Baby Hub, a delicious Christmas dinner, a visit from a very special guest, and an array of Christmas crafts and Christingles to make and take home to our families. 
 
Week Ending Friday 9th December 2023
 
This week the children helped to host the first of two Christmas craft Stay & Play sessions for their parents. We made cards, decorations, gift bags, and presents. It was such a lovely morning and we can't wait for the second one next week. 
Week Ending 2nd December 2022
 
This morning we got the nursery Christmas tree out and the children did a great job of decorating it.
I only got a few pictures but most of the children helped...doesn’t it look fabulous?!
Week Ending Friday 25th November 2022
 
The week began with the discovery of some mysterious eggs...the children used their senses to investigate them and we speculated what might be inside.
 
We concluded that we thought they might be dinosaur eggs and we set about finding out as much about dinosaurs as we could so that we could look after them properly.
 
The week was full of fun dinosaur adventures, stories, and songs!
 
Week Ending Friday 18th November 2022
 
This week in Nursery we celebrated World Nursery Rhyme Week. As much as we loved devoting a whole week to nursery rhymes, however, we always have nursery rhymes floating around nursery, all year long!
 
Why are Nursery Rhymes so important?

Experts in literacy and child development have discovered that if children know eight nursery rhymes by heart by the time they're four years old, they're usually among the best readers by the time they're eight. -
Mem Fox, Reading Magic.

Nursery rhymes provide bite-sized learning opportunities for young children to develop key developmental skills and can often be the trigger for hours of creative and open-ended play. They are a powerful learning source in early literacy and enable children to become interested in the rhythm and patterns of language. Consider the alliteration in “A Sailor Went to Sea Sea Sea”, or the onomatopoeia in “Baa Baa Black Sheep” and rhyme in “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”. Many nursery rhymes are also repetitive which can support the development of memory and kickstart the practice of listening and speaking.

Week Ending Friday 4th November 2022
 
This week, nursery was very lucky to have a special musical guest.
 
Richard teaches some of the big boys and girls at Emmaville how to play musical instruments, and he came down to nursery to show us too.
 
He played some songs on his guitar which we joined in with when we knew the words. He taught us some new songs, and let us dance to his bumpy music on the violin.
 
The children loved the session and had lots of fun. We all said a big thank you to Richard and can’t wait for the next one. 

Week Ending 21st October 2022
 
There were lots of spooky goings on in nursery this week.
 
We shared lots of fabulous Halloween-themed books. I think the children's favourite was 'What's in the Witches Kitchen?' Some of the combinations that the witch made were truly disgusting! Luckily, the biscuits that the children made afterward looked a little spooky, but tasted delicious!
 
We also learned a new poem, complete with actions called 'Point Hat' - what do you think it was about?!
 
There was also lots of messy and sensory play, with slime, jellybaff, pumpkins, and paint.
Week Ending Friday 14th October 2022
 
'Ooh arr me hearties!'
 
This week in nursery we plunged into a world of swashbuckling Pirates, complete with eye patches, bandanas, treasure maps, and gold coins!
 
The children practiced a range of skills and investigated concepts through motivating Pirate-themed activities.
 
These included an introduction to maps and map reading using very simple treasure maps, which led the children to some tasty gold coins in the forest.
We also used junk modeling to attempt to build boats. We then investigated floating (and sinking!) by letting them set sail in the water tray.
We relaxed our bodies and minds at the end of the week with some Pirate yoga.
Needless to say, throughout the week, the children also enjoyed lots of Pirate stories, songs, and rhymes.
They were also excellent at using props and open-ended resources in their play to build boats, walk the plank, and capture baddies!

Week Ending 7th October 2022
 
What a busy week we have had in nursery. We began our first Talk for Writing unit of this year with the lovely story 'Mr. Wiggle and Mr. Waggle'. 

Talk for Writing was developed by the educational trainer, writer, and author Pie Corbett. It is fun and creative, whilst also being a great approach to develop future writers. We use the ‘Talk for Writing’ approach in nursery to support children’s early literacy skills, and help them develop:

  • A range of vocabulary
  • Knowledge of story structures
  • Use of their imaginations and experiences to create stories
  • Enjoyment in sharing stories together
We began by learning the story by using actions. We then modelled how to draw the story to help us to remember it by creating a very simple story map. We practiced the story, again and again, using the actions and story map together. We encouraged the children to tell and retell the story to their friends during their play using props and models.
Some of the children then went on to create their own fantastic versions of the story map. 
We were also thrilled when lots of parents told us that their children were excited to tell them the story at home. What amazing, confident storytellers we have in nursery!
 
Our youngest children also had fun this week; continuing to learn about Autumn. We introduced lots of sensory vegetable explorations this week - the children loved naming, smelling, tasting, looking, and feeling the range of Harvest vegetables.
Week Ending Friday 30th September 2022
 
This week, we made the most of the Autumn sunshine in the forest. The children went armed with scavenger hunt tick lists and collecting buckets to see which signs of Autumn they could see and collect.
Week Ending 23rd September 2022
 
This week we have observed some lovely friendships blossoming as the children get to know each other.
 
In our group times, we have learned more about daily rules and routines; such as going to the toilet and washing our hands. We have also introduced a 'Snuffle Station' into the classroom so that the children can be really independent and wipe their noses or clean their faces whenever they need to.
Week Ending 16th September 2022
 
This week we have welcomed our lovely new children into nursery - they have been amazing and are beginning to find their feet.
 
We played lots of fun games during our circle times to learn each other's names.
 
The existing children have been fabulous role models and have loved showing the new children around.
Week Ending 9th September 2022
 
What a lovely, busy week we have started our new year with!
 
We welcomed back some children from last year for their full nursery year, some children moved up from our fabulous 'Purple Poppies' to join us in 'big nursery' and we also had lots of visits from new friends that will be starting nursery next week!