Week Ending Friday 22nd December 2023
What a lovely end to the first term in nursery - so many exciting Christmas activities!
The children enjoyed treasure hunts and hot chocolate in the forest, their first school Christmas dinner, a very special visitor, and an amazing Christmas party with help from Lucy at BabyHub.
We hope you all have a lovely Christmas holiday.
Week Ending Friday 8th December 2023
It began to feel very Christmassy in nursery this week, especially on Wednesday when we had the first of our Stay & Play Christmas Craft sessions.
Thank you to all the parents/carers who attended to work with their children to make some gorgeous Christmas gifts, cards, and decorations.
Week Ending Friday 24th November 2023
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 17th November
This week, we have taken part in World Nursery Rhyme Week. We did the ‘Rhyme a Day’ challenge by singing the nursery rhymes and taking part in supporting activities. We even learnt the Makaton for some of these rhymes.
The five rhymes were:
Jack and Jill
Hickory, Dickory, Dock
Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
Row, Row, Row Your Boat
Wheels on the Bus
We loved how the grown ups at home got involved with the week by practising the nursery rhymes with their children.
We ended the week with a fun Friday, raising money for Children in Need. We did lots of Pudsey themed activites and came to school wearing our best spotty outfits. Thank you to all who supported us with their donations for such a worthwhile cause.
Week Ending Friday 10th November 2023
This week, we would like to celebrate the children's mark-making.
In continuous provision, the children have the opportunity to mark make in all areas of the classroom. As well as having a 'writing' area, we also have portable resources that the children can use wherever they want. The children often use clipboards as they pretend to be teachers or to take orders in the mud kitchen.
We also love having mark-making available on a big scale, using large chalkboards or outside perspex boards. Large, vertical surfaces mean that the children also really have to work their arm and shoulder muscles, which is so important.
We also use a sequenced and progressive mark-making resource called 'Squiggle Whilst You Wiggle.'
'Squiggle Whilst You Wiggle' is an Early Writing Program that uses dance and large movements to help children develop the fine muscle control they need for writing. The children learn a new gross motor movement to a piece of music using 'flipper flappers' (cloths) to make the movement with their arms. They dance using this movement and then use it to make marks, this could be in foam, on paper, or in the sand.
Week Ending Thursday 26th October 2023
What a fantastic first half term we have had in Nursery. The children have settled into Emmaville life very well and are quickly learning the nursery routines.
Our favourite activities this week have been the Halloween scavenger hunt in the forest area and visiting the Roving Bookshop in the school hall.
We have been practicing our cutting skills by making Halloween lanterns and we read the books 'Spider Sandwiches' and 'Leaf Man'. The children made their own leaf men using fallen leaves and also created their own spider themed snack.
Week Ending Friday 20th October 2023
As the term powers on, we see how the children develop their independent play skills.
It is great to see how the children can use open-ended resources to become anything at all from their imaginations.
As friendships develop, we begin to see group games and the beginnings of working together to share ideas and resources.
Week ending Friday 13th October
This week has been all about birthdays! We found out that it was Starry Bear's (our class bear) 4th birthday! This led to card making, invitation writing, decoration making, cupcake making, party games, cake eating, and much more!
The children talked about their experiences of birthdays and looked at the birthday balloons for their lockers with the date of their birthday on.
Week Ending 6th October 2023
Another busy week with our amazing nursery children, filled with Autumn spotters hunts in the forest, Autumn themed songs and stories, exploring vegetables, listening to sound bingo games, dancing and drawing in our 'Squiggle whilst you Wiggle' program, some lovely, calming fine motor activities, stop, go and ready, steady, go games with instruments and vehicles; and finally joining in with our whole school poetry week by learning to perform the poem 'Chop, Chop'.
Week Ending 29th September 2023
This week, we have been doing Talk for Writing and learning the story 'Mr Wiggle and Mr Waggle'. The children used our group story map to follow the pictures and tell the story using actions.
We were super impressed when the children drew their own story maps and explained the parts of the story that they had drawn.
Week Ending 22nd September 2023
One of the children's favourite activities this week was a listening walk around the school. We talked about the skills we need to make us good listeners - staying nice and quiet, looking for sounds, and listening hard. We donned our big listening ears so that we could listen even better! The children loved having a good exploration around the rest of the school and identified lots of sounds along the way - the older children working, dinner ladies cleaning, the phone ringing and doors banging.
Week Ending 15th September 2023
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.