Squirrels
12/07/2024
Story of the Week: The Treasure of Pirate Frank by Elspeth Graham & Mal Peet
Rhyme of the Week: Go, Go, Pirate Boat
Number of the Week: 4
Pirate Instructions
This week, Nursery enjoyed following the pirate captain's instructions in the playground, utilising their gross motor skills to climb, move and balance on the equipment in different ways.
They had fun acting out instructions such as 'climb the rigging', 'swab the decks', 'steer the ship', 'salute the captain' and 'walk the plank'.
Treasure Maps
Nursery created their own treasure maps inspired by our story of the week 'The Treasure of Pirate Frank'. In the story the boy looking for the treasure, follows his map to travel over the mountains, past the forest, above the swamp and up some stairs cut into a volcano.
The children included these four locations on their own maps and then added some ideas of their own, such as houses, bridges, train tracks, rivers or even a surfboard on the beach!
Directions and Positional Language
In maths we practised describing the location of a pirate on a map and the route they took to reach the treasure.
The children used a great variety of positional language to describe their routes including the words, past, above, below, under, up, on and through.
05/07/2024
Story of the Week: The Best Pirate by Sue Mongredien
Rhyme of the Week: I'm a Pirate
Number of the Week: 1
Play and Learn
This week, Nursery read 'The Best Pirate' by Sue Mongredien, and enjoyed participating in a range of activities themed around pirates.
In the role-play area the children enjoyed dressing up as pirates and taking it turns to be the captain of the ship. Whilst, in the tuff tray, the children had fun using pirate props to retell our story of the week.
Floating and Sinking
Together, we explored sinking and floating. The children made predictions about which of the objects (rubber bands, stick, log, pencil, wax crayon, cotton wool) would float or sink, and carefully explained their reasoning, taking into consideration which materials the objects were made from, if they were heavy or light or if the objects had any holes in.
Recognising Numerals 1 - 10
In maths the children recapped recognising the numerals 1 to 10, which were written on the insides of different treasure chests.
They then practised showing me how that numeral could be represented in different ways - counting out the corresponding number of pirate coins, using their finger numbers to match the numeral, finding the correct amount of dots on some dice or using numicon to show how that numeral can be composed of two smaller numbers.
Sports Day
Even the rain showers could not dampen the childrens' spirits and they all tried their best during Sports Day, showing great perseverance, positivity and teamwork.
The children very much enjoyed having the support of their parents, carers and siblings to cheer them on, so thank you all very much for coming along!
28/06/2024
Story of the Week: Who Sank The Boat? by Pamela Allen
Rhyme of the Week: The Big Ships Sails On the Ally Ally Oh
Number of the Week: 0
Buoyancy
This week, Nursery explored buoyancy (how well something floats), inspired by out story of the week, 'Who Sank The Boat?' by Pamela Allen. The children added weights one by one to make the boat heavier, and discovered that as they did so, the level of the water in the bowl got higher and higher.
They also found out that if they put too many weights at one end of the boat it tilted and caused the boat to sink faster. The boat stayed floating for longer if they spread the weights out and made sure it was balanced.
Junk Modelling - Designing and Making Boats
In the creative area this week, the children have been designing boats and then using junk modelling materials to make them. The children carefully considered what tools and materials they could best use to make their boat and how these could represent the features of their designs.
Some of the children decided to design sail boats, others designed rescue boats, pirate ships or speedboats. They utilised features we had learnt about in the story 'Brilliant Boats' by Tony Mitton and Ant Parker, such as rigging, sails, propellers, portholes and steering wheels.
Play and Learn
During Play and Learn, the children used their knowledge of number order when counting both forwards and backwards to sequence the numbers on the puzzle pieces and complete the puzzles.
This gave them the opportunity to further explore the one more than/one less than relationship between consecutive numbers.
21/06/2024
Story of the Week: Somebody Swallowed Stanley by Sarah Roberts
Rhyme of the Week: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Once I Caught A Fish Alive
Number of the Week: 10
Somebody Swallowed Stanley
The main character in our story of the week was a plastic bag called Stanley that had been washed out to sea and mistaken as a jellyfish by the other sea creatures. We talked about how dangerous plastic pollution in the oceans can be for marine life and the harm it can do to animals.
The children looked at the illustrations and inferred how the characters might be feeling at different points in the story. They practised explaining 'why' the characters must feel a certain way.
Making Artworks From Plastic Waste
Together we looked at some examples of artists who have reused waste plastic to make sculptures. Nursery made suggestions about where this waste plastic might have been recycled from such as "a bin", "from a recycling truck" or "from the sea".
The children then used waste plastic from their own houses to make jellyfish inspired by our story of the week. They agreed it was much better to reuse their rubbish, than it ending up in the sea like Stanley!
Busy Fingers
During 'Busy Fingers', the children utilised their developing fine motor skills to thread beads onto the tentacles of jellyfish.
Putting Numbers In Order
In maths the children used the rhyme '1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Once I Caught A Fish Alive' to help them order numbers from 1 to 10. The children demonstrated good number recognition and practised using the words 'before' and 'after', when explaining how to sequence the numbers.
They learnt that the following number in the sequence would be 'one more' than the number before.
14/06/2024
Story of the Week: I Will Swim Next Time by Emily Joof / Meet The Oceans by Caryl Hart
Rhyme of the Week: A Sailor Went To Sea, Sea, Sea / Five Little Crabs
Number of the Week: 10
Empathy Day
Last week Nursery celebrated 'Empathy Day' by learning to recognise and empathise with the feelings of different characters in stories. As part of our celebrations 'Empathy Lab' broadcast a live storytelling of 'Elmer' by David McKee and the children identified how Elmer felt at different points in the story and why.
We then read 'I Will Swim Next Time' by Emily Joof to introduce our new topic for this half term, 'Commotion in the Ocean' and thought about how we felt the first time we went swimming at a pool or in the sea. We imagined what it was like to be as afraid of the sea as the girl in the story and considered what he mum did to make her feel more comfortable in the water.
Water and Oil Painting
This week the children enjoyed making Father's Day cards with an under the sea theme, inspired by all the marine animals we met in our story of the week, 'Meet the Oceans' by Caryl Hart.
We had fun creating an ocean backdrop for the cards, using an oil and water painting technique. The children used pipettes to drop oil into a mixture of blue paint and water and discovered that the oil did not mix with the water. It instead stayed floating on the surface of the water. The children then laid sheets of card into the water and were amazed to find out that wherever the spots of oil were, their card remained white!
Sharing to Create Equal Groups
In maths we have been learning about sharing to create equal groups. After reading, 'Sharing A Shell' by Julia Donaldson, the children practised sharing dot stickers fairly between the crabs.
The children particularly liked the fact they could eat raisins after sharing them out equally between them and their partner at snack time! The children learnt that sometimes there were too may raisins to share fairly and one would be 'left over'.
Busy Fingers
In 'Busy Fingers' this week, the children have been working on their fine motor skills by threading laces through sea creature themed lacing cards and pegging all the legs and claws back onto the crabs' bodies.
24/05/2024
Story of the Week: The Odd Egg by Emily Gravett
Rhyme of the Week: Lay A Little Egg For Me
Number of the Week: 4
Life Cycle of A Chicken
The week Nursery read a story called 'First the Egg' by Laura Vaccaro Seeger. The story shares the life cycles of different creatures describing the stages using the
sequencing words 'first' and 'then'. The children then created artworks to show the 4 stages of a chicken life cycle from egg to adult.
Which Creatures Hatch From Eggs?
In our story of the week, 'The Odd Egg' by Emily Gravett we learnt that not just birds hatch from eggs but crocodiles too! The children went on to explore all the other creatures that start their lives as eggs and sorted them into two groups, those that 'hatch' and those that 'don't hatch'.
Measuring Length and Height
In maths this week, we recapped measurement and comparing the heights and lengths of different objects. The children enjoyed measuring the characters from 'The Odd Egg' story using cubes, especially as their concertina bodies meant you could make them shorter, longer or taller!
Music
In our Friday music lesson, the children learnt an action song about chickens and had fun pecking the corn, flapping their wings, shaking their tail feathers and going to sleep in their nests.
The children added percussion to the song, using egg shakers and lollipop drums, ensuring they kept in time with the beat.
17/05/2024
Story of the Week: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Rhyme of the Week: There's A Tiny Caterpillar On A Leaf
Number of the Week: 5
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Throughout the week, the children have taken parts in lots of activities themed around 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' story. We began the week by discussing which foods in the story are healthy and which are less healthy and creating butterfly symmetry paintings.
In maths we recapped our 2D shapes knowledge by feeding different shaped foods to The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The children practised using their reasoning skills to say how they knew which items of food were different shapes e.g. "I know the samosa is a triangle because it has 3 sides."
In music the children demonstrated brilliant sequencing skills, putting the pages from the story in order. We then sang the words from the story to the tune of 'Alice the Camel' - "The Very Hungry Caterpillar had one apple, The Very Hungry Caterpillar had one apple, The Very Hungry Caterpillar had one apple, but he was still hungry..."
Local Area Spring Walk
A huge thank you to all the parents who volunteered and were able to accompany us on our Local Area Spring Walk around Sopwell Nunnery Green Space.
Squirrel Class really enjoyed the experience, managing to observe and tick off most of the plants and wildlife on their checklists. The slightly damp weather ensured we saw many insects including snails, and ladybirds; and we even saw a few ducks in the wet woodland area.
Butterfly Release
We were very excited to come into school today to discover that all 5 butterflies had emerged from their chrysalises and were ready to release outdoors.
Some of the butterflies were keen to fly quickly away, whereas others stayed for a while longer in the sensory garden for the children to observe.
10/05/2024
Story of the Week: Little Snail's Book of Bugs by Yuval Zommer
Rhyme of the Week: There's A Worm At The Bottom Of My Garden
Number of the Week: 6
Minibeast Hunt
Inspired by our story of the week, where 'Little Snail' goes on a journey around the garden to discover different insects, Nursery went on a minibeast hunt around the school grounds. The children recorded what they had spotted including ladybirds, ants, snails and butterflies.
Eric Carle Minibeast Illustrations
Nursery learnt about the author and illustrator 'Eric Carle' who created 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' story. We discovered that he uses a painted paper collage technique to create all of his illustrations, which the children then replicated to create their own minibeast illustrations.
The children enjoyed painting their own collage papers, using a variety of materials to apply the paint, from brushes, to rollers, to bubble wrap, to corrugated cardboard. I was also very impressed at the amazing cutting skills Nursery demonstrated, deftly following the outlines of each shape drawn onto their painted collage papers.
3D Shapes
In maths, we have been learning about 3D shapes and how their properties mean some are better for building than others. We used a slope to investigate which 3D shapes slide or roll. We found out that shapes with flat faces are better for stacking and create a much more stable construction.
Caterpillars and Sunflower Update
After the weekend, we arrived back at school to find that all five caterpillars had spun themselves into chrysalises. We are now excitedly waiting for the butterflies to hatch from them!
Many of the children's sunflowers have also grown significantly this week, and the children have taken them home to continue caring for their plants.
03/05/2024
Story of the Week: Jasper's Beanstalk by Nick Butterworth
Rhyme of the Week: Busy In The Garden
Number of the Week: 10
Where Do Seeds Come From?
This week, Nursery explored different fruits to collect and compare their seeds. The children described what the seeds looked and felt like using adjectives. We discovered that some fruits had multiple seeds inside whereas others only had one.
We also learnt that strawberries are the only seeds that have their seeds on the outside!
Ten Seeds
We read a story called 'Ten Seeds' by Ruth Brown and learnt that many things can hurt a plant and stop it from growing. After sorting pictures from the story into two hoops 'hurt' and 'help' we found out that only two insects - a bee and a ladybird - had done anything to help the plants grow. The children came up with their own suggestions for helping a plant grow from 'water it' to 'use slug pellets' to 'put them in a greenhouse'.
We also conducted an experiment inspired by the story of 'Ten Seeds' to explore the affect light has on plants growing. We have placed three beans in a pot which we are keeping in the light (near the windows in the classroom) and three beans in a pot kept in the dark (in a cupboard). We are checking them daily to observe the bean plants growing; so far only one of the beans kept in the light has sprouted a root!
Caring for Living Things
The children have been taking great care of their sunflower plants this week. Many of the seeds have now spouted roots and small green shoots and leaves have begun to emerge from the soil.
Our caterpillar visitors have also grown in size since they first arrived and the children have been recording these differences through drawings in their 'Caterpillar Diaries'. Today, all the caterpillars crawled to the top of the pot and have hung upside down ready to form chrysalises.
26/04/2024
Story of the Week: Sam Plants A Sunflower by Kate Petty
Rhyme of the Week: I'm A Little Seed, Small And Round
Number of the Week: 1
Planting Seeds
On Monday we learnt that is was 'Earth Day' and that on this day people think about ways we can look after our planet. We read a story called '10 Things I Can Do To Help My World' by Melanie Walsh which gave us so many ideas!
One of the ten things ideas was to grow new plants, because plants help keep the air clean and healthy. The children each enjoyed planting their own sunflower seed, and we watched a time lapse video to learn what would happen next. Hopefully the roots of our sunflower plants will start to grow in the next few days!
Observational Drawing Of A Sunflower
This week Nursery have also found out about an artist called Vincent van Gogh who created some very famous sunflower paintings. We learnt that when an artist creates an artwork from real objects that they can study closely in front of them, it is called a 'still life'.
The children each had a go at creating their own sunflower drawing from observation using coloured pencils. The finished drawings have been arranged together to mimic the famous sunflower paintings by Vincent van Gogh.
Height and Length
In maths this week we have been learning about height and length. We had fun measuring different items such as sunflowers or our feet using cubes. The children realised that if something was longer or taller if they had used more cubes to measure it, and shorter if they had used fewer cubes.
We made comparisons between the height of different children in the class, working together to order the pupils from tallest to shortest.
19/04/2024
Story of the Week: The Most Exciting Eid by Zeba Talkhani
Rhyme of the Week: Hello Moon and Hello Night (tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)
Number of the Week: 2
Eid Fruit Kebabs
This week, Nursery learnt that during the school holidays, Muslims celebrated Eid al-Fitr, marking an end to the month long dawn-to-sunset fasting of Ramadan. We learnt that when a new moon is seen in the sky, Eid al-Fitr celebrations can begin the next day.
Together we made some Eid al-Fitr themed fruit kebabs, using different tools such as cookie cutters and knives to shape the fruit into stars and crescent moons. The children pushed the fruit onto the skewers in a repeating AB or ABC pattern, recapping our previous maths learning. They really enjoyed eating their fruit kebabs for snack time!
Mehndi Designs
We learnt that whilst preparing for Eid al-Fitr, many Muslims will get their hands painted with a special paint called henna. The pretty patterned designs are called Mehndi.
After looking at a series of photos of Mehndi designs and discussing the shapes and patterns we could see, all the children had a go at painting their own Mehndi designs.
Play and Learn
Nursery learnt that may Muslims will go to a Mosque to pray during Eid. At the malleable table the children had fun "colouring in" the outline of a Mosque with loose parts.
In the home corner the children also enjoyed role-playing coming together for a family gathering to celebrate Eid al-Fitr.
28/03/2024
Story of the Week: When I Grow Up by Tim Minchin
Rhyme of the Week: Humpty Dumpty
Number of the Week: 6
People Who Help Us Week
To kick off 'People Who Help Us' week, Squirrel Class were visited by two police officers. We enjoyed hearing about their uniform and all the equipment they keep both on their person and in the police car. The children then enjoyed taking it in turns to sit inside the police car and pretend they were police officers. The sirens were very loud!
We were also visited by two parents and enjoyed finding out about their jobs as a doctor and a childrens' nurse. We learnt about different parts of our body, listened to each others' heartbeats using a stethoscope and monitored our heart rate and oxygen levels on a machine.
Easter
Today we learnt about Easter and some of the children shared how they celebrate Easter with their families. We then enjoyed collaging our own Easter egg designs using a variety of materials, colours and patterns.
The children also took part in an experiment themed around our rhyme of the week 'Humpty Dumpty'. We made predictions about which materials would best protect Humpty Dumpty when he fell off a wall based on their properties and then enjoyed testing our predictions. We dropped six hard-boiled eggs in sandwich bags from the top of a wall in turn to see which would crack. Of them all, only two remained in one piece, those protected with sand and feathers.
We hope that you all have a relaxing Easter break!
22/03/2024
Story of the Week: The Three Little Pigs
Rhyme of the Week: This Little Piggy Went To Market
Number of the Week: 5
Materials Investigation
This week, themed around our story of the week, the children have had the opportunity to explore different materials. We went on a materials hunt around the school grounds and discussed why the properties of certain materials mean they are used to create certain objects e.g. glass for a window because it is see through.
The children collaborated to build each of the houses from the story of 'The Three Little Pigs', one from straw, one from sticks and one from bricks. We then used a hairdryer (The Big Bad Wolf) to test which of the houses was the weakest and which was the strongest.
Big Bad Wolf Blow Paintings
After talking about what 'The Big Bad Wolf' did in the story, the children each created an artwork. We used pipettes to drop different coloured paints onto the paper and observed that the colours mixed when the drops landed close together. The children then used a straw to blow the paint across their paper, huffing and puffing like 'The Big Bad Wolf'. If they blew harder, the children noticed their paint travelled further and the primary colours mixed yet more to create shades of purple, green or brown.
People Who Help Us - Firefighter Visit
To kick off ready for 'People Who Help Us' week, we had a visit from the 'Red Watch' fire crew. The firefighters talked to us about the fire engine and all of the equipment on board, fire safety and the number we should use if we need to call emergency services.
The children got to see the water hoses in action, try on some of the uniform and press the button to turn on the blue flashing lights.
15/03/2024
Story of the Week: Goldilocks and The Three Bears
Rhyme of the Week: When Goldilocks Went To The House Of The Bears
Number of the Week: 3
Making Porridge
After reading our story of the week, Nursery had a go at making porridge. The children observed the changes in appearance and texture as they added hot water to the oats.
The children then had the opportunity to taste the porridge and say whether they liked it or not and why.
Capacity
In maths this week we have been exploring capacity. The children enjoyed comparing the amount of porridge oats in different bowls using the words 'full', 'empty,' 'nearly full' and 'nearly empty'. They also investigated what would happen if they poured the porridge oats from one bowl into another. Sometimes the oats would overflow and other times the oats would only partially fill the second container. We could then determine which bowl held 'more' and which held 'fewer' oats.
The children took their maths learning about capacity into their play, filling up and emptying different containers in the water tray, as well as comparing the amount of water left in their bottles at the end of snack time.
Music
In music this week, we used instruments to represent each of the bears in our story of the week. We used large drums with beaters for the Daddy Bear, rainbow tambourines for the Mummy Bear and egg shakers for the Baby Bear.
We practised beating or shaking out the rhythm as we said the name of each bear (e.g. Dad-dy Bear, Dad-dy Bear) concentrating on using a combination of short and long notes.
Red Nose Day
Today we have enjoyed dressing up in red clothes to raise money for 'Red Nose Day'. Thank you to all families who have donated money to such a good cause.
08/03/2024
Story of the Week: Little Red Riding Hood
Rhyme of the Week: Mind the Wolf! (tune of Frere Jacques)
Number of the Week: 4
Little Red Riding Hood
This week Nursery have read the traditional tale of 'Little Red Riding Hood'. We have practised retelling the story using small world characters, recalling the order of events.
We also discussed whether or not Little Red Riding Hood had made the correct decision to stop and talk to the wolf in the story. The children remembered that her mum hold told her not to stop and realised that the Big Bad Wolf was in fact a stranger. We spoke about what to do if we are approached by a stranger and who it would be safe to seek help from if we are lost (police officers, shopkeepers, paramedics etc).
Weaving Baskets
The children utilised their fine motor skills by making baskets for Little Red Riding Hood. We practised weaving strips of coloured paper, ribbons and pipe cleaners in and out of the slits in the baskets. Some of the children tried to create a repeating pattern when choosing the order in which they wove the different materials.
Heavy or Light
In maths, we have been exploring the mass of different objects in Little Red Riding Hood's basket. First we handled each of the objects to see which felt heavy and which felt light. We learnt that it is difficult to lift a heavy item and easy to lift a light one.
We then compared the mass of different items using balance scales. We noticed that the scales went down if an item was heavy, meaning that the heavier piece of food was lower than the lighter piece of food. If the scales did not move at all, we discovered the scales 'balanced' meaning the items had the same mass, neither was lighter or heavier than the other.
World Book Day
During World Book Day, we read a story released as part of of the celebrations, 'Greg the Sausage Roll: Lunchbox Superhero' by Mark and Roxanne Hoyle. In the story a little boy takes a sausage roll in his lunchbox and they have an adventure at his new school. The children had fun making their own fruit or vegetable character inspired by the story and sharing our learning environment with them.
We also discussed what makes a healthy packed lunch and had fun participating in a 'Book Swap' with our classmates, taking a new book home with us to read.
01/02/2024
Story of the Week: The Three Billy Goats Gruff
Rhyme of the Week: London Bridge is Falling Down
Number of the Week: 2
Drawing and Describing Trolls
Inspired by our story of the week, Nursery enjoyed drawing their own trolls and describing both their appearance and personality using adjectives.
Building Bridges
Nursery took part in an investigation to see which of three paper bridges was the strongest. We tested the strength of each bridge by placing plastic animals on to it one by one until the bridge fell down. We discovered the folding the paper multiple times to form a zig-zag shape made the paper stronger.
The children had fun singing 'London Bridge is Falling Down' whenever the constructions collapsed and used their knowledge of the song to suggest bridge building materials that would be far stronger than paper.
Music
In our music lesson today, Nursery learnt the song 'The Goats Came Marching'. They enthusiastically moved around the room whilst using actions to reflect the lyrics of the song. In the song the little goat stops to bask in the sun, look at the view and sit by a tree.
16/02/2024
Story of the Week: Each Peach Pear Plum by Janet and Allan Ahlberg
Rhyme of the Week: Jack and Jill
Number of the Week: 5
Thank you very much for our very informative visit from the St Peter's lollipop man who taught us how to cross the road safely and let us practise taking on his role!
Each Peach Pear Plum
This week, we read 'Each Peach Pear Plum' and had fun spotting characters from other traditional tales and nursery rhyme hiding in the illustrations. We practised re-telling the story, using the sequencing words 'beginning', 'middle' and 'end' and ordered pictures of when we met each character on a 'story map'.
Nursery also learnt the nursery rhyme 'Jack and Jill' and looked at historical paintings and photographs of 'wells', comparing how the nursery rhyme characters needed to collect water in a 'pail' to how we are now able to get water directly from taps in our homes. We discussed what humans need water for - drinking, washing, growing crops.
The Foggy Foggy Forest
We also enjoyed another story this week with characters from other stories and rhymes hidden in its pages, called 'The Foggy Foggy Forest' by Nick Sharratt. A refrain repeats in the story - "What can this be in the foggy, foggy forest?" - that encouraged the children to guess who each character was from their silhouette in the fog.
We enjoyed creating our own foggy forest artworks, using tracing paper to create the same effect as fog and disguise a nursery rhyme or traditional tale character. We used oil pastels to draw the trees on each layer.
We also made a shadow puppet theatre and had fun guessing the characters from the shadows created on the tracing paper screen.
Composition of Number 5
This week in maths we have been exploring how a number can be made of smaller numbers e.g 4 and 1 makes 5. We used numicon to build a house for Number 5, seeing which pieces would fit inside the outline of his house like a jigsaw.
We also read a story called 'The Spots and the Dots' by Helen Baugh where red spots and blue dots meet for the first time. We explored the different combinations of how the spots and dots could fill the 5 seats in a rocket ship.
09/02/2024
Story of the Week: The Great Race: The Story of the Chinese Zodiac by Christopher Corr
Rhyme of the Week: 5 Little Dragons
Number of the Week: 5
Re-telling Our Story of the Week
This week, Nursery learnt about Chinese New Year and how each year in the Chinese Zodiac is named after an animal from the New Year Story. We found out there are 12 animals in the Chinese Zodiac, and this year is the Year of the Dragon!
The New Year Story explains how each of the animals in the story were chosen by the Jade Emperor in a great race. The children practised re-telling out story of the week, using stick puppets for each of the animals. We recalled the different ways in which the animals crossed the river and if they had helped or tricked one another to secure their place in the Chinese Zodiac.
Making Paper Lanterns
This week, we learnt about the Chinese Lantern Festival, which is the final part of the Lunar New Year celebrations. We made colourful paper lanterns, like those displayed in homes, shopping centres, parks and decorating the streets during the festival.
We learnt that red is a popular colour for the paper lanterns as it is believed to be lucky and that green and yellow are also considered lucky colours in Chinese culture.
Tasting Rice Noodles
This week we discussed which special occasions we celebrate with our families and the special foods we eat during times of celebration. We learnt that at Chinese New Year, 'longevity' noodles are often eaten to wish people a long and healthy life in the coming year.
The children tasted rice noodles with chopsticks and made some brilliant observations to compare what the noodles looked and felt like before and after they were cooked. They also shared whether or not they had tried noodles before, gave opinions about how the noodles tasted and described some of the noodles dishes they eat at home.
Play and Learn
During 'Play and Learn' the children utilised their fine motor skills to count pompoms into noodle pots and gold coins into money envelopes with chopsticks.
The children also enjoyed playing in our Chinese Restaurant themed role-play area, creating playdough dragons, painting Chinese characters.
02/02/2024
Story of the Week: Naughty Bus by Jan and Jerry Oke
Rhyme of the Week: The Wheels on the Bus
Number of the Week: 4
Naughty Bus
This week, we arrived at school on Monday morning, to a crime scene outside the Nursery classroom. Squirrel Class had been asked by the police to help them investigate what happened.
We looked for clues within the crime scene and found tracks in the sand and that a wheel had been left behind, helping us to realise that the mess must have been made by some sort of vehicle...Naughty Bus!
Nursery then had fun imagining what sort of mischief Naughty Bus might have also got up to around school. The children staged their ideas, took photographs on iPads and then together we orally composed captions to go with each photograph to create our own class story 'Naughty Bus at Nursery'.
Throughout the week, the children had fun making their own 'Naughty Bus' out of recycled materials, role-playing police officers trying to catch Naughty Bus, and creating marks on paper, using Naughty Bus and other naughty vehicles to push pens and pencils around.
Ten Dots
In maths we read the story, 'Ten Black Dots' by Donald Crews. We looked specifically at the pages linked to our number of the week and discussed what the illustrator had created using four black dots.
The children then created their own four black dot pictures by placing four black counters on a whiteboard and incorporating these into a drawing. Together we used these drawings to explore the composition of four (how a number can be made up of smaller numbers) e.g. 2 and 2 makes 4, 1 and 3 makes 4, 0 and 4 makes 4.
26/01/2023
Story of the Week: The Train Ride by June Crebbin
Rhyme of the Week: I'm a Little Engine (tune of I'm a Little Teapot)
Number of the Week: 4
The Train Ride
Inspired by our story of the week, where the main character describes what she can see from the train window, Nursery travelled around the school grounds on an imaginary train ride. We used our senses to identify what we could see, hear and smell during our journey.
Shape Train Prints
In our maths lessons, we have been linking numerals to amounts, identifying that a rectangle or square has 4 sides and 4 corners.
We looked at pictures of trains and identified some of the 2D shapes we could see e.g. circle wheels, square windows, rectangle carriages. We then learnt that we could print some of the 2D shapes we know using 3D shapes, and created shape train pictures.
Exploring Friction
We looked at another train story this week called 'Runaway Train' by Benedict Blathwayt where the train driver forgets to put on his brakes! The children explored different materials, discussed their properties and predicted which would be best to slow a train down (through friction).
They tested their predictions by letting go of a toy train at the top of a ramp covered in three different materials (bubble wrap, sandpaper or foil) and measured the distance it took the train to stop.
PERFORM Workshop
We also has a visit from a company that run drama workshops for children, and enjoyed a trip to the Wild West, pretending we were cowboys and cowgirls, flying eagles, sleeping prairie dogs, galloping horses and hissing rattlesnakes.
19/01/2024
Story of the Week: Blown Away by Rob Biddulph
Rhyme of the Week: Two Little Dickie Birds
Number of the Week: 3
RSPB's Big School's Birdwatch
This week we learnt about the RSPB and how at this time of year the charity asks schools across the UK to count the number of birds we can see, so they can check if the bird population is healthy or if any birds are in trouble.
We went onto the school field and successfully spotted several types of bird including wood pigeons, magpies, robins and house sparrows. The children recorded how many birds they had spotted by circling the correct number on their clipboards.
Washing and Drying Cloths Experiment
The children took part in an investigation to see how different conditions would effect how quickly a dishcloth would dry. After washing three dishcloths in warm, soapy water, we placed them in three different locations - hanging up outside, inside on the drying rack and over one of the radiators - and predicted which location the dishcloth would dry the fastest, explaining why.
We then went back to the dishcloths at regular intervals throughout the morning to check if they were 'still wet', 'almost dry' or 'dry'. We discovered that the radiator caused the dishcloth to dry the fastest.
Stay and Play
Thank you to everyone who came along to the Early Years Stay and Play morning. It was a lovely opportunity to share some activities themed around our story of the week and our new curriculum ambitions.
Amongst other things, the children demonstrated they are 'Imaginative Inventors' whilst making kites out of recycled materials for Penguin Blue, 'Resilient Risk-takers' whilst focusing their gross motor skills to create enough wind to blow Penguin Blue across the finish line and 'Environment Explorers' whilst creating bird feeders to look after birds in our local environment.
12/01/2024
Story of the Week: My Granny Went To Market by Stella Blackstone and Christopher Corr
Rhyme of the Week: We All Go Travelling By
Number of the Week: 3
My Granny Went To Market
Whilst reading our story of the week, Nursery enjoyed seeing where the countries Granny visited were located on a map of the world. We enjoyed discovering that the blue parts on a map are the oceans and that the other parts are the land we live on. The children particularly liked discovering that some countries are really big and some are much smaller.
Later in the week we acted out the story with different pupils play the parts of the market traders, visited to travel agents to book a holiday in our role-play area and used bottle tops in our malleable tray to "colour in" a map showing all the different continents.
Making Magic Carpets
The children each made their own magic carpet using collage materials, and imagined where they would travel on it if they could fly anywhere in the world! We thought back to what Granny had bought from each market stall around the world, and reflected on if we had ever before bought a souvenir to remember a trip.
Exploring Magnetism
This week Nursery also investigated how we could make Granny's magic carpet fly. We discussed what magnets are and found out which materials are attracted (would stick) to a magnet and which are not. We discovered that Granny's carpet was not magnetic, but if we attached a metal paperclip to it, we move it with our magnet wands!
20.12.2023
Story of the Week: Eight Candles to Light: A Chanukah Story by Jonny Zucker
Rhyme of the Week: Hanukkah is Here!
Celebrating Hanukkah (or Chanukah)
Thank you very much to Teddy's mummy who came into school to teach Squirrel Class all about Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights. She told us the story of the Maccabees, taught us a song about a dreidel, gave us the opportunity to try on kippahs (cloth skullcaps), and demonstrated how to light the 8 candles of a Hanukkiah with the "helper" candle whilst singing the prayers.
Making A Hanukkah Menorah (or Hanukkiah) Decorations
Nursery have enjoyed making Hanukkah Menorah decorations this week, using our handprints to form the 8 candles symbolising the 8 nights of Hanukkah as well as the Shamash ("helper" candle). We used fingerprints to add flames to each of the candles and a painted paper plate to represent the curved shaped branches of the Hanukkiah.
Baking Rugelach
This week we have also had fun making, baking and eating Rugelach, a crescent-shaped pastry with a sweet filling, often eaten by Jewish families during Hanukkah. The children all had a turn at mixing the ingredients, kneading and rolling out the dough and spreading the strawberry jam filling.
The Nursery team send all our families the warmest wishes for a happy holidays and look forward to seeing you in the new year!
15/12/2023
Story of the Week: Dear Santa by Rod Campbell
Rhyme of the Week: We Wish You A Merry Christmas
Well done to all the Nursery pupils for putting on a brilliant performance at the Christmas Sing-Along! The Nursery team are so proud of the hard work you have put in over the last few weeks to learn all of the songs and actions.
Writing Letters To Santa
This week Nursery have been thinking about what they would like from Santa for Christmas. They have practised their cutting skills, choosing pictures from toy catalogues to show Santa what gifts they would like best, and practised their name writing, so Santa will know who has sent each letter.
Printing Present Bags
The children have enjoyed making present bags to gift their snowman decorations to their families. They applied their maths learning, printing the bags using Winter stampers, with the images repeating in an AB pattern (e.g. red, green, red, green, red, green).
Christmas Play and Learn
The children have also had great fun during Play and Learn, improving their fine motor skills through dressing up, making and writing Christmas cards, and wrapping Christmas presents to send at the 'Christmas Post Office' themed role-play area.
08/12/2023
Story of the Week: The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
Rhyme of the Week: Santa Is His Name-O
Freezing and Melting
Inspired by our story of the week, we participated in a science experiment about freezing and melting. In the story, Peter tries to save a snowball for the next day by taking it home in his pocket. However, when he looks in his pocket before bedtime, the snowball has disappeared! We made suggestions about what had happened to his snowball, and through the experiment discovered it had melted because his house was too warm! The experiment also taught us that salt and warm water help ice melt more quickly.
Mark-Making
In our story of the week, Peter had lots of fun making footprints and tracks in the snow by moving his feet in different ways. The children enjoyed replicating Peter walking in the snow by making different patterns with their fingers in salt.
Advent
This week, Nursery also learnt about Advent and how some people use an Advent calendar to help them count down the days to Christmas. The children have taken it in turns to add a decoration to our Advent calendar shaped like a Christmas tree every day this week.
01.12.2023
Story of the Week: Julian at the Wedding by Jessica Love
Rhyme of the Week: Jingle Bells
Celebrating Weddings
This week, Nursery have been learning about weddings, what happens at a wedding and why people get married. We enjoyed exploring how cameras and iPads work whilst becoming wedding photographers and wedding guests, using props to help us take our own wedding photos. Here are a selection of photos taken by the children.
The children have been learning about AB repeating patterns in maths, and applied this knowledge to create their own wedding 'first dance' routines, picking two ways they could move their bodies.
We also learnt that brides often carry a wedding bouquet and looked in detail at different flowers, making observational drawings, discussing the names of different parts of a flower and learning how to care for flowers.
23.11.2023
Story of the Week: When's My Birthday? by Julie Fogliano
Rhyme of the Week: Happy Birthday to You!
Celebrating Birthdays
This week Nursery have been thinking about how birthdays are celebrated. We started the week by sharing photos of our own birthdays and making comparisons about what was the same or different about how we had celebrated them. We enjoyed finding out if we shared a birthday month with any of our friends and what season out birthday month was in.
In maths we enjoyed finding out the age of four of our class cuddly toys; using our subitising or counting skills to work out how many dots were on their birthday badges. The children then ensured each toy had a cake with the correct number of candles and a birthday card that showed the numeral that matched their age.
The birthday fun continued for the remainder of this week with lots of role-play in the home corner, writing birthday shopping lists for Kipper the dog's party and making pop-up birthday cards.
17.11.2023
Story of the Week: Peace at Last by Jill Murphy
Rhyme of the Week: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
Day and Night
This week, inspired by our story of the week, 'Peace at Last' we have been thinking about all of the things we can see and hear during both the daytime and the night time. The children recalled the story and told it in their own words, remembering repeated phrases such as, "Oh no," said Mr Bear, "I can't stand this!" They enjoyed sorting picture cards into two groups to show which sounds kept Mr Bear awake at night and which did not.
Light and Dark
Nursery identified one factor that shows it is night time is that it is dark, and that during the day it is light. The children recognised that the night sky is "black" or "dark blue" and named some of the colours they associated with the word light - "yellow" and "white".
We looked at the work of an artist called Bridget Riley who creates work in a style of painting called 'Op Art', often using only black and white as her colour palette. We spoke about the patterns and types of lines we could see in her art and then tried to recreate our own 'light and dark' artworks in the style of her work.
10.11.2023
Story of the Week: We're Going on a Leaf Hunt by Steve Metzger
Rhyme of the Week: Autumn Leaves are Falling Down
Autumn Leaf Hunt
After reading our story of the week, Squirrel Class went on a leaf hunt around the school grounds. We practised describing our route using prepositions from the story - through, over, across and around. Once back in the classroom, we drew maps inspired by both our own leaf hunt and the journey the characters took in the story.
Remembrance Day
Nursery learnt that Remembrance Day is marked every year to remember the soldiers who have fought in wars to keep us safe. We discovered that Remembrance Day is also called 'Poppy Day' and that people wear poppies, lay poppy wreaths and parade to commemorate the event. We enjoyed created poppy potato print artworks, as our way of marking Remembrance Day.
03.11.2023
Story of the Week: Lighting a Lamp, A Divali Story by Jonny Zucker
Rhyme of the Week: Five Little Fireworks Standing In A Row
Bonfire Night and Diwali Celebrations
This week Nursery have been learning about some of the upcoming celebrations in the month of November. We learnt about the history of Bonfire Night and talked about what fireworks look and sound like. We created firework artworks by printing with cardboard rolls and straws onto black paper. We then added glitter to the wet paint to make our fireworks sparkle.
We discovered how Diwali is celebrated, and learnt that it is also known as 'The Festival of Light'. We enjoyed investigating Diwali artefacts, making Rangoli patterns with loose parts in the tuff tray and with chalk on the playground, and watching a shadow puppet retelling on the story of Rama and Sita.
Nursery made comparisons between Bonfire Night and Diwali celebrations, discovering people enjoy watching fireworks on both occasions. We are looking forward to experiencing some in the upcoming weeks!
20.10.2023
Story of the Week: Bumps in the Night by Allan Ahlberg
Rhyme of the Week: The Skeleton Dance
Doctor Bones' Surgery
This week our home corner was transformed into Doctor Bones' Surgery from our story of the week 'Bumps in the Night' by Allan Ahlberg. The children recalled what had happened to the skeletons in the story and how Doctor Bones had helped make them better. They had great fun role-playing as doctors, nurses, paramedics and patients; making appointments, taking emergency phone calls and helping to treat injuries and illnesses.
Magical Tea Party
Today Nursery held a Magical Tea Party. The children came to school in costumes ranging from pumpkins, to fairies, from superheroes to witches and wizards. We had a fantastic time playing games such as 'Pin the Stalk on the Pumpkin' and 'Pass the Pumpkin' and dancing along to tunes such as 'Monster Moves' and 'Ghostbusters'.
13.10.2023
Story of the Week: Monkey Puzzle by Julia Donaldson
Rhyme of the Week: Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
International Week
This week Nursery have been learning about where we live and the different countries of the world our families come from. We looked at a globe, Google Earth, atlases and maps to locate where we live and learnt that the blue bits on a map represent the oceans and the green parts are the land.
Thank you so much to the Squirrel Class parents who came into Nursery to teach us about another country, read us a story in another language or teach us some new words in a different language!
06.10.2023
Story of the Week: What I Like About Me! by Allia Zobel-Nolan
Rhyme of the Week: Oats and Beans and Barley Grow
Harvest Festival
This week we learnt about 'Harvest Festival', which took place this year on 1st October 2023. We found out that Harvest Festival celebrates the food grown on and gathered from the land, and that at this time of year people reflect and show gratitude for the food that they have. At Nursery we enjoyed harvesting our own vegetables in the investigation area, and buying produce from the 'Farm Shop'.
Matching
This week in maths we have been practising matching objects and making comparisons using colour and shape. The children have enjoyed taking their learning into their play, identifying if number shapes are the same and also finding the matching numerals.
29.09.2023
Story of the Week: First Day at Bug School by Sam Lloyd
Rhyme of the Week: Ten Little Fingers
Feelings and Emotions
This week, after reading 'First Day at Bug School', Nursery have been thinking back to our first day at school, and how it felt. We practised using the words happy, sad, worried and angry to describe our feelings using our mini-me photos in the 'Zones of Regulation' area of our classroom, as well as demonstrating how these feelings are shown on our faces.
22.09.2023
A Listening Walk!
This week during our phonics lesson, Nursery went on a listening walk. We used our ears to listen carefully to all the sounds we could hear in the school grounds.
Marvellous Me!
Thank you for helping your child prepare a 'Marvellous Me' bag full of objects to share with their new friends and teachers. We have enjoyed learning about each others' families, our hobbies and our likes and dislikes.
15.09.2023
Our First Week At Nursery!
A warm welcome to all of the families who have joined St Peter's this year. We look forward to getting to know you and hope you enjoy seeing what we have been learning about.
This week Nursery have been enjoying exploring their new learning environment both inside and out.
