Welcome to Nursery! 

The first few weeks have been very exciting and the children have all settled well into their new classes. Here are some of the fun and exciting things we have been up to in Ladybird and Butterfly Class.

AUTUMN 1 AND 2

 Communication and Language 

In Autumn term, the children have had lots of exciting opportunities in our provision to develop their communication and language skills. Our home corner allows the children to practise their speaking skills by talking on the old telephones and sharing experiences from their own home life such as making each other meals and sharing the dressing up costumes. 

We have also been learning lots of nursery rhymes and songs including Old McDonald had a Farm, 5 Green Bottles and 5 Currant Buns and the children have loved using props during choosing time to sing along independently as well. This half term we have been learning about ourselves and our families and the children sent in pictures of their families so they could talk about them with the class. We made a family tree with all of the family pictures which the children have been very excited about. They love calling their friends over and talking to them about their families. 

We have also had an amazing opportunity to invite the police, a dentist and a midwife into Nursery to talk to the children about their job roles. The children enjoyed asking lots of questions and using with the equipment and tools the guests bought with them.

We have read some of our core books such as Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell, Oi Frog by Kes Gray and Jim Field, We're Going to find the Monster by Malorie Blackman and Peace and Last by Jill Murphy and the children have enjoyed using the story bags and the different story characters to act out the stories. 

The children have also really enjoyed learning nursery rhymes such as 5 currant buns, Incy Wincy Spider and 5 green bottles. They have been exploring the props and singing along to the rhymes during their play.  

Music

Every Monday and Tuesday, the children are very fortunate to have music lessons with Duncan who teaches them how to sing along to new songs such as Alice the Camel, Walking Through the Jungle and The Biggest Band in the Land. The children really enjoy joining in with the songs and moving their bodies to the beat. 

The children have also been using lots of different instruments to follow different songs and have to learnt to play fast, slowly, quietly and loudly. 

During Celebration Day, children made their own musical instruments and enjoyed playing along to reggae music for our Jamaican theme.

Physical Development

This half term, the children have really enjoyed balancing along the trim trails and exploring the obstacle courses made up of stepping stones, tyres, A- Frames and balancing benches. This has allowed the children to also develop their turn taking skills by waiting patiently for their turn and making sure everyone can safely move across the equipment.

The children have also taken part in lots of fine motor activities which allows the children to strengthen their finger muscles ready for writing activities later in the year. The children love manipulating playdough and have enjoyed rolling, pinching, cutting and patting the playdough to make cakes for each other as well as marshmallows for hot chocolates. For our all about me topic, the children used the playdough to make faces and also teeth for our guest dentist to check. 

For Celebration Day, we had lots of opportunities for children to develop their fine motor skills by threading string to make bracelets, pushing fruit onto sticks to make fruit kebabs and also ripping paper to make a collage of the Jamaican flag.

For our topic, 'Taste of Our World', the children have enjoyed using their bodies to become fireworks and making Diya lamps out of clay for Diwali. They also enjoyed using scissors to cut out puppets, using dough to make their own Christmas Tree Baubles and mark making. 

Personal, Social and Emotional DevelopmenT

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 have also learnt some classroom rules which allow us to have positive environment to learn and grow in. 

During play, children are starting to initiate play with others by making food in the mud kitchen, washing toy babies in the water area and even making cups of tea in the home corner.

For our 'All About Me' topic, the children shared pictures of their families and discussed what makes them special.  

During our 'Taste of the World' topic, the children learnt more about where people come from and they used a map to discuss this with the class. The children also explored the different celebrations people celebrate and how to celebrate them. We also read a lot of Pip and Posy books and discussed how to speak to our peers.

Reading 

The children have enjoyed listening to high quality texts each day and discussing their favourite parts with their class. Everyday children vote for the stories they want to listen to at the end of the day and become very enthusiastic when joining in with key phrases and actions from the stories. 

The children have also enjoyed sitting in our cosy reading corner to listen to stories and look at pictures of books during their play. We also display our story sacks and puppets in our reading corner to allow the children the opportunity to act out the books they hear which really helps to develop their speaking skills.

Every Thursday we send home two choosing books for the children to read at home. We ask for parents to read these books daily  to encourage a love for reading and listening to stories in preparation for when they begin to read the books themselves in Reception. 

SPRING 1 and 2

In Spring 1, we introduced our topic called 'The Farm' and the children enjoyed carrying out many activities around this.

In Spring 2, the children loved our topic, 'Tell Me a Story' and enjoyed listening and acting out the stories, 'The Three Billy Goats Gruff' and  'We're Going on a Bear Hunt'.

Communication and Language

In Spring 1, we talked about the farm and the children  enjoyed sharing their experiences of visiting the farm as well as discussing the farm animals that we know. We went to the Nature Garden to have a look at the chickens and this developed into a great talk discussion where we discussed what chickens need to survive.

The children  had great opportunities to develop their communication and language skills. The children enjoyed playing in our new role play areas - a School in Ladybird Class and ASDA in Butterfly Class. They used these opportunities to share experiences of home life and also develop their vocabulary by learning new words. 

In Spring 2, the children developed their communication and language by repeating key phrases in the stories, 'The Three Billy Goats Gruff' and 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt'. The children learnt how to answer questions about the stories and to explain what was happening at key events.

Physical Development

 In Spring 1, the children really enjoyed developing their fine motor skills which enables the children to strengthen their finger muscles. Butterfly Class introduced a 'Finger Gym' and the children  enjoyed carrying out various fine motor skill activities including tweezing, cutting, hammering and drawing.

 The children had the opportunity to go to the top hall to carry out many gross motor activities, these types of activities enables the children to develop all the muscles in their bodies. The children enjoyed playing ring games such as 'duck duck goose' and 'ring o roses'. We also linked this to our topic 'The Farm' where the children had the opportunity to move their bodies like different farm animals. 

In the outdoor area, the team collectively setup an obstacle course where the children could practise climbing and jumping skills. The children have learnt about how we can safely climb, jump and land. 

 In Spring 2 during PE, the children were able to develop their physical development skills further by using more advanced equipment such a beams to climb and develop risk as they moved across the equipment. They also learnt how to balance across beams whilst putting one foot in front of the other. 

We also had a visit from from a Parent Dentist who spoke to the children about the importance of brushing and looking after our teeth. The children then put all the advice into action practised brushing their teeth. 

personal, social and emotional development 

In Spring 1, the children talked about their emotions. We read the story 'The Colour Monster' and they discussed what makes them feel happy, sad, scared and many other emotions that we experience. The children made their own emotion puppets and discussed what the emotions were and why they shared those feelings. 

We also listened to the story 'Hands are not for Hitting', the children discussed how they can use their hands in kind ways to help their friends and and to also be a helpful member of the class.

In Spring 2, the children developed their understanding of emotions and explored what to do when they experience strong emotions such as sadness and anger. We read stories such as 'Pip and Posy, The Super Scooter' by Camilla Reid and Axel Scheffler and used puppets to act out what to do when someone/something makes us feel sad or angry. 

We also discussed what a stranger is and who we could talk to if we ever become lost. 

Reading

In Spring 1, the children enjoyed reading a range of high quality texts and this has helped to develop their listening and attention skills. We read the story 'Farmer Duck' and the children enjoyed joining in with the book as well making predictions about they thought would happen next. 

The children also enjoyed listening to a favourite classic 'The Three Little Pigs'. In relation to the story, the children enjoyed re-enacting the story using story masks and making up their own version of the story. 

In Spring 2, the children enjoyed listening to 'The Three Billy Goats Gruff' and 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt'. We acted out the stories and the children made up their own characters to replace the troll and the bear.

 This term, we invited Parents/Carers to our 'Stay and Read' sessions. This enables the adults to come in share a story with the children in small groups. The children have really enjoyed these sessions and has also helped the children to develop a love for reading. 

This term, we also celebrated 'World Book Day'. The children thoroughly enjoyed the day by dressing up as their favourite book character. In conjunction with this we held Celebration Day in Early Years, with the topic being Reading. The parents/carers were invited to participate with various reading activities with their children and understand how reading is taught in Nursery.