Welcome!
Welcome back to our returning nursery friends and a warm welcome to our new nursery friends and families. We have been very excited to get back into the classroom. This first half term is all about ensuring that all of our nursery pupils feel safe, happy and secure in their nursery environment.
We are so proud of how well our nursery pupils have settled into their new nursery routine. A huge well done to our nursery parents and carers for adapting to our new dropping off and collecting routines. Each morning our pupils are welcomed at the door where they say goodbye to their adults and then with support they put their folder in the basket, hang up their belongings, put their apple name card on the tree and then very importantly sanitize their hands (we of course do this lots of times throughout the day).
Take a look at some of the fun things that we have been doing during our first weeks at nursery:
Our Love of Stories
To promote and develop a love of books and stories we often link our learning to a story; so far this term in nursery we have enjoyed:
We read the stories together, we act out the stories, we use small world resources and props to re-tell favourite parts, we join in with the repeated refrains, we discuss which parts we liked or did not like, we guess what might happen next. Recently we observed two children in the story corner, re-telling ‘The Tiger Who Came to Tea’, it was so lovely to listen to them re-telling and making up their own parts of the story from the illustrations.
The Day a Spider Came to Visit
In nursery we follow planned overarching themes and we also follow the children’s interests through ‘in the moment planning’. Recently we found a spider hiding in our pot of feathers on the creative shelves. We carefully transferred the spider into our curiosity cube so we could look at it more closely. Throughout the day we found out more about spiders by looking in books and on the iPads , we sang songs about spiders, we went on a spider web hunt in our nursery garden, we sorted toy mini-beasts by size, colour, type and by how they move and we used playdough to create our own spider models. It was such a fun day and great to see the children so excited, engaged and interested. At the end of the day we safely released the spider into our garden.
Number of the Week
This term we have started to focus on a ‘number of the week’. Through following this approach, we can really help to deepen the children’s understanding of numbers and develop their ‘number sense’. We explore different aspects of the number, for example recognising the number, spotting things that show that number e.g. ‘I have two eyes, two ears’. We explore ways of representing the number using marks, fingers, resources etc… We explore counting up to and beyond the number. We find out what is one more or one less than the number, we link the number to shapes, e.g ‘a circle shows one because it has one curved side’. We also explore early calculations e.g. ‘one and another one is two’. Of course, all this learning is done using a fun and play based approach; we also ensure that our classroom provision is enhanced with a range of open-ended resources for the children to explore and experiment with in their play. If needed, sometimes we focus on a number for more than one week.
DIY Role Play Area
We have recently adapted our role play area; instead of having the traditional themed role play areas, we have moved to a ‘Deconstructed Role-Play Area’. The idea is that we provide the children with a range of open-ended resources that they can use to create whatever they want. We have created a space that is full of things that can be anything. It is like that old saying about children getting expensive toys for Christmas and then playing with the box. There is good reason for that; a toy is a toy, but a box has a million possibilities!
When we first started to change the space and began adding open ended resources, such as boxes, reels, pieces of wood, fabric, pegs etc… the children were so excited and within ten minutes they had created their own witch’s house. Another group of children joined in after playing outside and began pegging up material to create a cave and then made beds for themselves and drew a TV and were pretended to watch it. We have observed that the children have been so engaged and involved in the play because they had created it themselves. We observe, play alongside, support and develop the play with the children, following their ideas and interests.
Self- Service Paint Station
This term we have introduced a new self-service paint station; this has been a wonderful success. The children can access the paint independently and they have been doing some wonderful colour mixing and experimenting with the paints. Once they are finished, the children are also encouraged to wash up their own pots and brushes and put them back, ready for next time.
Party Time!
We had a wonderful time together playing games, dancing and eating delicious food at our Christmas party. A very special visitor even popped by to drop off a sack full of presents.
Keep an eye on our nursery page for more updates throughout the Autumn Term.