Nursery News 23.11.09

Over the past week the children have been enjoying participating in a "star" theme with star themed snacks and activities. Catching star sequins with small sieves in the blue "goo" in the water tray was very popular and good for developing the children's fine motor control. We have played at find the stars outside and counted the points on the stars. On Tuesday we had a special circle time when the children sat in small circles and told each other why they were"special stars". The children's comments were written on gold or silver stars that the children then decorated. These will be hung up in nursery.

Miss Fish helped us in nursery on Monday, Wednesday and Friday as part of her work experience and will be missed next week as she was well liked by the children.

The children continued to play at firefighters in the first half of the week but this interest was overtaken later in the week by an interest in weddings. The children have had great fun dressing up in pretty dresses, veils and tartan scarves as kilts. We even had our own wedding ceremonies with a bride, groom, minister (or prime minister as one child said!), best man, bridesmaids, father of the bride, wedding guests and a photographer. This led on to finding out about wedding receptions and doing some Scottish dancing. Another of the children's interests this week has been castles with the building blocks and balancing beams being used to build castles. This led on to castle building with duplo, bricks and a request for shoe boxes to make castles. Some children made flags for the castle and the dresses from the wedding theme were used for dressing up as princesses.

On Friday the yellow group took part in Children in Need by bringing their own teddies and getting their faces painted. They then asked if they could go on a bear hunt to see if they could find the "big bear". The children therefore explored the whole school and spotted lots of little bears and then met the big bear hiding in the library! After showing the big bear our own teddies the children helped to make long lines with the coins they had brought in for Children in Need like they had seen the older children doing in the upper school corridor. We made 3 lines the length of the cloackroom so thank you very much to all parents who contributed to this.

The children's interest in the table top garage had dwindled so the yellow group took part in a vote to decide on what toy to get out next. The majority chose the  Happy Street buildings and figures as it included a church with a bride and groom. This process will be tried out more often in the future now.

Parents will have received a newsletter with all the dates of what is happening in nursery and a note with the results of the nursery questionnaires. Thank you to everyone who took time to fill one in.

Sign up sheets will be out next week for any parents willing to help out in the run up to Christmas. These will have specific tasks assigned to different days so please have a look and help out if you can.

Next week we will have a Scottish theme in the run up to St Andrew's Day on Monday 30th and this will follow on well from the Scottish dancing that we started last week. The children will have Scottish themed craft activities, some traditional Scottish foods for snack, Scottish displays to handle and be hearing some Scottish stories, rhymes and songs.

Nursery News 16.11.09

This week we have had a dark and light theme and the children have been finding out about the differences between day and night. We have been playing with nocturnal animal toys and finding out about them from non fiction books. The craft area has been busy with the children making pictures of hedgehogs and the night sky. Some of the pre school children looked at a picture of a space rocket, discussed what materials they could use then made one themselves. Some children thought hard how to make flames, mix colours of paint and make cone shapes.

On Wednesday morning Mrs Campbell came in to teach us how to sing Over the Rainbow and Old MacDonald in sign language. We learnt the signs for lots of colours and animals. We are going to use some of the animal signs in one of our nativity songs.

On Thursday Lorraine, the Dental Health Practitioner, came in and went over how to brush your teeth using Charlie the puppet and a story about a goat with a sore tooth. We all got our nursery toothbrushes replaced too.

Some children helped to make soup and bread for snack this week and everyone is now able to wash their hands, find their name card and serve themselves at snack time.

We have continued to practise our nativity songs and following a parental request everyone has a sheet of songs to practise at home if they wish to do so. The nursery staff set up the nativity "stage set" on Friday afternoon and we will be beginning to practise there from next week. We aim to practise for about 10 to 15 minutes each day. We have not yet decided who is doing what part and will let parents know as soon as this has been finalised. The pre school children will be given any roles that require speaking or moving about from one place to another. The children have made a great start to this and are very enthusiastic so we hope this will continue! Nativity tickets will be available two weeks beforehand and there is no charge for tickets. Mulled wine and mince pies will be served afterwards. A DVD will be made and sold at £4 and this will be available just before the end of term. All proceeds from this will be spent on nursery equipment or toys and children and parents will be asked to help choose what the money is spent on.

Next week is "Star Week". We will be discovering more about the stars, using stars for sorting activities and in craft activities and having star treasure hunts. Beebot, a programmable toy will be used to practise directions and all our snacks will have a star theme. See the red notice board for a list of our activities and learning opportunities.

Nursery News 9.11.09

Some of our order of new equipment arrived this week. This was paid for out of the Toy Fund provided by parents so thank you on behalf of all the staff and children for supporting the work of the nursery. Firstly we received a gazebo with two built in wooden benches facing each other. This will be used indoors as a reading area and anything else the children wish it to be. This week it has been covered in black fabric with fairy lights inside as part of our day and night theme. The children have used it for lots of different things already; a witches house, a reading area, a place to play board games, a fire station and a bedroom. Some children made pipecleaner stars to go inside it too. Secondly we bought a proper library book box on wheels which is a lot more attractive and mobile than the covered cardboard box we were using before. Finally we have also received foam framed mirrors of different shapes and 4 new board games. once everything arrives photographs of these will be displayed outside the nursery.

We have started practising songs for our nativity and the dates are shown above. A huge amount of effort goes into the children's short performance so please encourage them if they wish to sing you some of their songs. We will let you know about the part your child will play once they have been decided. The nursery will provide all the costumes and all the parents may be asked to provide are white tights or dark trousers.

On Tuesday a story teller came into nursery and the children were very involved in helping to do the actions and counting to ten for the story about ten wild hunters. The story teller will return later in the year.

This week fire play has been very popular with lots of role play in firefighter outfits and small play with the wooden fire station and fire trucks. The children also made super bright firework pictures which they mounted themselves and put on the wall to brighten up the water tray area.

On Thursday every child made a spiral catherine wheel pizza for Guy Fawkes day.

Next week our theme is dark and light and we will be learning about nocturnal animals and the differences between day and night. See the red noticeboard for further details of the learning opportunities that will be provided.

On Tuesday our dental health worker will be coming in and using a story and a puppet to teach the children how to brush their teeth properly, and on Wednesday morning we are looking forward to Alex C's mum showing us how to do nursery rhymes in sign language.

     Nursery News 2.11.09     

On Wednesday the children found out about the festival of Divali by looking at pictures in books and had the opportunity to make mehndi hand patterns in the craft area. Other activities that the children have enjoyed this week have been related to Hallowe'en and these have included pumpkin carving, making pumpkin soup, pumpkin stories, songs and rhymes, dancing to spooky music, picking Hallowe'en sequins out of sand with tweezers and counting them, playing in cornflour and water gluck, playing in green slimey jelly bath, catching doughnuts on string and dooking for apples.  The children also enjoyed hiding under a cloak and answering other children's questions about what kind of witch they were.

Mrs Byron presented some children with certificates this week for doing especially well at particular things in nursery such as speaking in front of the whole school to report back on our Eco Day of Action, working particularly hard in the garden to look after our plants, or demonstrating gymnastics to all the nursery.

Over the next few weeks we will have a dark and light theme in nursery. Next week we will be focussing on fire safety and stranger danger in relation to Guy Fawkes Night as well as doing fireworks related cooking and crafts. An interactive display of nocturnal animals will be set up and the sand tray will have some toy British nocturnal animals in sawdust, compost, hay, twigs and leaves for the children to play with. A bedtime play corner will also be provided along with games and jigsaws related to times of day. The train set on the floor will be exchanged for the wooden fire station, fire trucks and firefighter dressing up outfits.

Winter lettuces that the children planted 2 weeks ago have started to grow and we have been given more bulbs to plant in the garden.

Look on the red board for further information about the learning opportunities available over the next week.

Nursery News 27.10.09

Our last week of term before the October week's holiday was very busy for us all. The children learnt about keeping safe beside roads through role play using lollipop person costumes, child sized traffic lights and toy cars and steering wheels. We will return to road safety regularly especially before holidays.

On the Tuesday we went on our Autumn walk and the children successfully collected lots of leaves and seeds which were used for collage the next day. Thank you to all the parents who helped on the walk and talked to the children about the signs of Autumn around them.

On the Thursday we participated in the Eco Schools Day of Action and transformed the nursery garden in a day! Andrew's dad hung painted tyres on the fence for us and Alex C's mum helped the children fill the tyres with compost and plant their choice of heathers, violas or small evergreens. The morning children also planted some bulbs in pots and did lots of weeding. James's dad strung up a rope with recycled tins, tubs tubes and pots and the morning children tested out their new outdoor instrument with wooden spoons! Stephanie's dad helped dig up the roots of a jaggy plant and started digging a trench beside the bark area. At lunchtime new woodchips arrived and all the afternoon children helped move them onto the barked areas and spread them out. Mr Wyroslawski dug out a trench for us and made a small retaining wall from tyres and wood. The children helped him fill in the gaps with soil and put sand and gravel in the tyre bases. Grace's and Callum's mums helped children plant flowers in old wellies, plant more bulbs in tubs and plant onions and garlic in large bags. They also attached  recycled plastic bottles to the fence so that the children can use the rainwater to water the plants and helped secure the log edging around the garden perrimeter. Whew! Next term we will enjoy playing outside in our brighter garden and will continue to water and weed the garden to maintain it.

This coming week will have a Diwali and Hallowe'en theme. We will be listening to Hallowe'en stories and rhymes, making pumpkin soup, catching small doughnuts on string with our mouths and dooking for apples. The weekly themes for the term can be seen down the side of the snack menu. If you are interested in what learning opportunities will be available to your child each week look out for the information on the red notice board.

Nursery News 12th October

Thank you to all the parents who came to our informal Parent's Evening on Thursday. if you have any positive or negative comments about the evening please pass them onto a member of staff so that changes can be made to future evenings if necessary.

Last Monday the children heard the story of Little Red Hen and on Tuesday Alex's mum brought a wheat grinder into nursery to show us wheat grains being ground into flour. Some children then followed a pictorial recipe to make delicious bread for our snack the next day.

Luke decided to plant some grains of wheat to see what they will grow into.

Over the past week the children have been playing a game where they have to feel different seeds and leaves and have helped to make an Autumn display.

On Friday the blue group attended the whole school assembly to launch Darwin Week and next Friday the yellow group will attend assembly to find out what all the classes have been doing to learn about plants. The Nursery's special job is to be Darwin's Helpers and find out about seeds and leaves on our Autumn walk on Tuesday.

On Thursday the nursery children will be taking part in the Eco Schools Day of Action. They will be planting garlic and onions in bags to bring on over the winter,planting bulbs in large pots, planting pansies in tyres and heathers in wellies. We will also be making rain water collectors from old drinks bottles.

The children's interest in police has continued and been extended to the fire service and the children have been evacuating the nursery as part of their role play. The pre school afternoon children planned how to make a scarecrow and then adapted their plans to make a magnificent policeman from boxes, tape, paper, crayons, police clothes, a cabbage leaf and a plant pot!

Next week as well as our Autumn theme we will do a little road safety prior to the holidays. We will return to road safety later in the year as well.

Nursery News 5th October

Over the past week we have been investigating where some of our food comes from. The children have shown a lot of interest in our Harvest table and have enjoyed handling and smelling the fruit, vegetables and grain. Vegetables were available at the painting area to make vegetable prints and our stories were all about fruit and vegetables. Natalia's mum kindly donated grow bags of potatoes and leeks and the children helped to harvest them. some children helped to wash the vegetables and others helped to peel and chop them. They were made into delicious leek and potato soup and then cheesy potato pie.

Anna's mum came in on Wednesday morning and helped the children to plant bulbs in pots. She also kindly donated some hardy herbs. Some were planted in a pot to be kept inside and some were planted in the wooden hexagon planter.

All the children were set the challenge of thinking how to open our coconuts. The children had lots of interesting ideas and showed good awareness of safety precautions. After trying out lots of ideas we finally cracked the coconuts with a hammer.

On Friday the pre school