Week Ending Friday 22nd March
Talk for Writing
At Emmaville, we use the Talk For Writing approach across the school, starting in Nursery.
Talk For Writing is based on the thinking and creative process involved in ‘being a writer’; including generating ideas, drawing on the experience of what has been read, and understanding how to change and improve.
Talk For Writing involves the oral learning of model texts and the oral development of new versions so that children internalise the language patterns that they need for writing, adding to their linguistic competency. This benefits children’s writing as they get older. With a wealth of stories already in their heads, they can focus on the technical parts of writing rather than creating a story.
Last week, our Talk for Writing text was the Traditional Tale, The Enormous Turnip.
The children learned the story, using actions and a story map.
We looked at turnips in detail, using our five senses - the taste test wasn't that popular!
Some of the children finished the week by attempting to draw their own story maps and use them to retell the story to each other.
Week Ending Friday 15th March
We have spent a lot of time outdoors this week looking for the first signs of Spring.
We read the Hooray For Hoppy book which told us a lot of what to look out for.
In our forest area we noticed some new flowers growing and even planted our own strawberry plants.
We have learnt about the lifecycle of a strawberry and used our senses to look at, feel and taste strawberries.
Week Ending Friday 8th March 2024
On Thursday, the children loved coming to school dressed up for World Book Day - they looked amazing.
Throughout the day, the children participated in lots of book-themed activities; listening to lots of stories, hunting for story characters hidden around school, and going on a story hunt in the forest. The children's favourite part of the day was visiting the Year 6 Book Cafe where they were spoiled rotten by all of our lovely Year 6 children who gave up their morning to read to and share books with our youngest children.
Week Ending Friday 1st March
We've had an action packed week full of fun pirate activities. To introduce our Pirate theme, on Monday we read a lovely new book called Pirate Pete, where the children got to chose items to place on each page to change the story and also looked at some pirate props.
The children loved dressing up as pirates, and they had lots of fun using our blue Lycra to lift up and down and pretend their friends were swimming in the sea.
We even joined the pirate crew this week in an active session of walking the plank, scrubbing the decks and climbing the ladder. The children were thrilled to receive a certificate to welcome them to the pirate crew.
Later in the week we practiced our core strength- pirate style to the song ' when I was one'. We hunted for buried treasure using a treasure map that Pirate Pete sent us - we were very excited to find the coins in the chest were chocolate!
We ended the week by reading Pizza for Pirates and we made our very own pirate pitta pizzas for snack.
Week Ending Friday 16th February 2024
This week in nursery, we learned all about two special celebrations - Shrove Tuesday and Valentine's Day.
The children enjoyed the story Mr Wolf's Pancake and were surprised to find lots of characters in the story that they already knew, such as The Gingerbread Man and Little Red Riding Hood!
Of course, we had a pancake-tasting session after some cold and sunny sessions in the forest. Our forest play included our own pancake races, which helped to practice lots of physical skills such as balancing and running in a space.
On Wednesday, we shared love and kindness in nursery with lots of stories about families, friends, love, and feelings.
The children also enjoyed sensory play in pink jelly, red rice, and pink playdough.
In group times we talked about our family members, who we love, and why. Some children went on to draw and mark make special pictures for their families.
Week Ending 9th February 2024
This week, has been a whole school mental health awareness week. We began by practicing our calming rainbow breathing and talking about things we can do to help us feel calm.
We have been learning about Chinese New Year ready for the celebrations at the weekend. The children in Nursery enjoyed learning about Chinese New Year traditions and looking at the props.
We read and acted out the story of Chinese New Year and also practised using chopsticks to eat noodles.
Week Ending Friday 2nd February 2024
National Storytelling Week
Today we had a special visitor, author Adam Bushnell.
The children's faces of excitement, giggles, and pure amazement just showed how much they enjoyed his storytelling sessions!
Adam then brought out his pet tortoise called Jet and we all had a stroke of its shell.
We children also drew their story characters on big pieces of paper.
Week Ending 26th January 2024
Week Ending Friday 19th January 2024
Brrrrrrrrr...that was a chilly week!
We still got outside to enjoy lots of lovely sunny, crisp winter fresh air though. The children are becoming much better at putting their outdoor clothes on independently...keep practicing that 'flip trick' for your coats!
This week the children enjoyed listening to We're Going on A Bear Hunt. We read the story over and over, encouraging the children to join in with the repeated refrains and actions to join the words.
We also went on our bear hunts around the school and the forest area; practicing teamwork, counting, prepositional language, and listening skills.
Week Ending Friday 12th January 2024
Happy New Year!
We have had a lovely first week back at school after the Christmas break. We have been signing Happy New Year to each other using Makaton, watched the 2024 London Firework display and then created our own firework pictures.
We welcomed some new starters to our nursery and enjoyed playing circle games to get to know each other.