Our Nursery
2023 - 2024
Week beginning 15th April
This week at nursery we have been finding out about how things grow. In the curiosity corner we explored gardening equipment, bugs and minibeasts, role-playing planting seeds and looking after them. We enjoyed sharing the Very Hungry Caterpillar story sack, using the props to help retell the story and enjoyed it when the caterpillar turned in to a beautiful butterfly. We have ben developing our hand -eye coordination and demonstrated our listening skills and ability to follow simple rules by using the real hammers to tap tacks into blocks of wood. We developed our creative and imaginative skills by going on holiday in the role-play area and using the telephone to phone the Police as well as pretending to make dinner with cornflakes, using a spoon to scoop and mix them in a pan. We enjoyed looking at books, sharing them with both the adults and our friends.
In the nursery garden we have been using our bodies to move bikes and scooters along and to make marks using our hands and fingers in sand. In the mud kitchen we had fun cooking with mud, leaves, fir cones and water mixing it all together to make mud soup! We have ben taking care of the babies, taking them for walks in the push chair and giving them baths. We had fun when we decided to turn the house into an ice-cream shop. designing and making our own posters which we then displayed on the front of our shop. When we realised we couldn't reach the top, we worked out that we could use the step ladder; we were very careful even putting on high vis jackets so we could keep safe!
Week beginning 25th March
This week at nursery we have enjoyed playing in the table top den that Mrs Bebbington made in the curiosity corner. We snuggled up with our friends in there, pretending to have sleepovers and camp out. We have been sharing books together and using our imaginative skills to design and build a house out of the wooden and foam blocks. We have been developing our fine motor skills by squeezing, squashing. rolling and cutting out shapes in playdough and by using the real tools to saw and tap tacks into pieces of wood using hammers. We investigated some keys that we found in nursery, trying them out in all the different locks and doors to see which ones worked.
In the garden we have been developing our early writing skills by mark-making on the large chalk boards and in the tuff tray, copying the lines on the roads the adults and drawn for the small world people. We have been practising pedalling the bikes and then washing them using soapy water and squeegees. We have been moving in a variety of ways at Imagination Land and using the garden adventure and climbing equipment to slide, climb and balance. In the mud pit we have been digging with spades.. scooping up the mud and examining it trying to find some minibeasts!
26th March - Easter activity morning
This morning we had special visitors at nursery when our relatives came to our Easter activity session. We made Easter cards and baskets for Easter chicks, coloured Easter pictures and best of all made, and ate, birds nest cakes! It was lovely sharing our nursery with everyone we love and we all had lots of fun together!
Week beginning 18th March
This week at nursery we had lots of fun when we visited forest school. We enjoyed trying out the climbing equipment and experimented with different ways of moving including scrambling, swinging, sliding, climbing and running. We developed our balancing skills and enjoyed jumping in big muddy puddles! We worked with each other to make the swings move and developed our friendships skills, helping each other with our wet suits and having chats. Back in the nursery garden, we developed our fine motor skills by using pipettes to transfer water from a pot to the window, watching and commenting on the coloured water as it made marks in the shaving foam. In the mud kitchen, we mixed water, food colouring, mud and sand to make cakes and soup. Over in Imagination Land, we collected lots of daisies and spent time talking about their colour, size and how they grow and were very excited when Mrs Bebbington found a worm which we enjoyed examining!
Inside nursery we have been looking after the babies in the curiosity corner and enjoyed using all the lovely equipment that our mummies and daddies donated - thank you! We have changed them, bathed them, dressed and undressed them, given them their bottles and taken them for walks in the buggy. In the creative area we explored paint and how we could make marks in it using materials such as ribbons and by printing with potatoes and by printing with potatoes and used feathers, tissue paper and some daisies we found at Imagination Land to create pictures which we were very proud of!
Week beginning 11th March
This week in nursery we had fun making our own sandwiches. We used knives to carefully spread the butter before choosing a filling like yummy jam. We then folded our sandwiches in half ready to take home and eat them. We looked after the dolls in the home corner, changing their nappies before putting their clothes on and in the construction area we used the tool kit to pretend to saw the long wooden planks, the cable reels and mend things. We had fun exploring movement when we rolled the large tyres around the classroom and enjoyed going on holiday where we then had a sleepover with our friends. We enjoyed using puppets to put on a puppet show for our friends, taking it in turns to perform and be in the audience.
In the garden we explored what happens when we paint on the blackboards with water and foam rollers, being very interested in the patterns they made. We developed our ball skills and our coordination by throwing balls into hoops - it was trickier than we thought but we kept trying! We explored what happens when we roll objects down the guttering into the water trough and used our imagination to mix paint, water, mud and small world insects to make our own witches brew. We used our imaginations to pretend that the long foam tubes were fire hoses and worked together to go round the garden putting out fires.
Mother's Day Stay and Play Morning 8th March
We had lots of fun today when our mummies and nannies came to play for the morning. We made Mother's Day cards with beautiful gems, sequins and stickers, iced biscuits and decorated them with sprinkles, had snacks and played inside and out in the nursery garden in the lovely Spring sunshine. It was lovely sharing our nursery and enjoying time together!
World Book Day - 7th March
Today we celebrated World Book day by dressing up as our favourite book characters. Don't we all look great!
Week beginning 4th March
In nursery this week we have been busy exploring technology including phones, cameras and laptops in the office role-play area and developing early writing skills by mark-making in notebooks on post it notes, on whiteboards with marker pens and by drawing round our friends with chalk on the floor. We enjoyed building towers and structures including rockets and bridges with the coloured wooden blocks, carefully selecting particular shapes for a purpose such as triangular block as the top of the rocket and enjoyed finding out what happens when we roll objects down ramps. We have been working hard on developing our fine motor skills practising cutting paper with scissors and threading cotton reels onto laces. We explored printing and shapes when we used a variety of shape cutters to print in paint and showed how kind and helpful we can be when we helped each other put our wetsuits on for the garden.
In the garden we have been jumping between and off equipment, and in muddy puddles and have been developing our balancing skills on the climbing frame ladders. We explored natural objects in the tuff tray including bark, pine cones, shells and sticks talking about what they feel and look like. We explored the water wall, using the stands and pipes to move the water from the wall into buckets and then to the sand and mud pits and had lots of fun filling and then emptying jugs, buckets and pans with water. We enjoyed the sunshine and spent time outside running, chasing and bouncing on the space hoppers.
Week beginning 26th February
This week at nursery we have enjoyed using the stage area set up in the curiosity corner where we have played musical instruments, used the CD player to play our favourite songs and performed dancing and singing to our friends who sat and watched us. In the home corner we continued our exploration of technology when we used the toy washing machine, switching it on and off using the buttons. We worked as a team with our friends to build giant structures and towers with the large wooden blocks in the construction area making a car with a door that could move to let the passengers out! We have been busy developing our fine motor skills by threading laces through the wooden lacing butterflies and by building with the Lego bricks. In the creative area we have been learning about numbers by painting dots with cotton buds on caterpillar pictures and have been using our imaginations to create beautiful collages with a range of creative resources including tissue paper, pom-poms, feathers and sequins.
In the garden we have been having lots of fun despite the cold and rain! We have been carefully transferring water from the tuff tray to the mud pit then mixing it with mud and cooking it in the mud kitchen microwave. We enjoyed digging in the soil looking for bugs and were very excited when we found a caterpillar which we examined with a magnifying glass. We developed our imaginative skills by making mud ice-cream and then serving it in the role-play ice-cream shop as well as going on a journey in an open top bus to visit a giant mountain. We worked hard to kindly give our friends rides around the garden in the bikes and had fun practising our ball skills by shooting them into hoops.
Week beginning 19th February
This week at nursery we have enjoyed playing the in the role-play hospital in the curiosity corner. We explored the equipment in the doctor's kit including the thermometer and stethoscope, looked at x-rays and found out about our bodies in books and by looking at a skeleton. We pretended to be nurses and doctors and cared for the poorly dolls, our friends and the teachers using the doctor's kit, giving injections and then writing out prescriptions in our note books. In the home corner we used a wok and made dinner using lots of healthy vegetables and in the construction area we used the foam bricks to build towers and then used a tape measure to see how tall it was. We have been busy developing our creativity using paper plates, paint and a range of creative resources to make our faces after looking at our features in a mirror and talking about them. We had lots of fun using roller paints on giant sheets of paper, showing lots of interest in the marks they made.
In the garden we have been busy developing our gross motor skills when we climbed, jumped, scrambled, balanced and slid on the garden climbing equipment. We continued to enjoy using the bikes, working hard to practise pedalling which proved tricky when our friends are passengers! We had fun exploring the sounds of the different instruments on the music wall, experimenting with fast, slow, loud and quiet. Despite the rain we enjoyed cooking dinner in the mud kitchen. We used a range of pots, pans and jugs to collect water from puddles, the tuff tray and the gravity table and then mix it with the mud to make hot chocolate, soup and cupcakes remembering to set the timer on the microwave and be careful when we took it out because it was hot!
Week beginning 5th February
We have had a busy week at nursery exploring both inside and in the garden. Outside we enjoyed cooking in the mud kitchen using spoons, spades and scoops to dig up the mud and transfer it carefully to frying pans, pots and cake tins. We have spent lots of time in the sand pit digging, filling buckets, making sand castles and moving the sand around using the diggers and dumper trucks. We had lots of fun exploring the water wall. We moved the pipes and tubes to see how we could move the water and used lots of different containers to catch the water including watering cans, moulds, cones, bowls and jugs. We enjoyed the bikes and scooters, working hard to pedal and move them around especially when our friends were in the trailers and we gave them rides! We continued to develop our mark-making skills by chalking on the giant blackboards and explored what happens when we used water and squeegees to wipe off our drawings.
Inside nursery we enjoyed using the Very Hungry Caterpillar story sack to retell the story and developed our scissor skills by snipping paper and cutting pieces of playdough. In the curiosity corner we explored Chinese New Year, looking at and handling the resources, sharing books, trying on traditional Chinese clothes and tasting Chinese food. We developed our creative skills by using boxes, papers, pipe cleaners and glues to stick and join the materials to make models and practised our fine motor skills by using tweezers to pick up pom poms and cooked noodles.
Week beginning 29th January
This week at nursery we have been busy developing our creativity and imaginative skills. In the creative area we have been using a range of materials including boxes, cartons, glue, feathers, pom poms and sequins to make models including robots and monsters. We have explored colour mixing and texture by using tools and our hands to paint in cling film and in the construction area we used a selection of large boxes to make cars and houses.
We have enjoyed spending lots of time outside. In the nursery garden we have been digging in the sand pit, using spades and shovels to move the sand, fill buckets and to look for buried treasure. We played with the dinosaurs in the tuff tray, exploring the marks their feet made in the wet sand and mud and then comparing them to our own welly prints in the sand pit. We had fun mixing sand, mud, leave sand twigs to make strawberry cakes in the mud kitchen, using the microwave and setting the timer to cook them. We enjoyed exploring our voices and how they sounded and changed when we talked into giant tubes and used chalks to make marks and draw pictures on the giant chalkboard easels. We especially enjoyed water play this week: we splashed in our welly boots in trays of water and worked put how we could move water on the water wall using tubes, pipes and buckets. We experimented with different ways of moving in Imagination Land by rolling, scrambling, running and jumping and in the garden we climbed and balanced on the rope climbing frame.
Week beginning 15th January
This week at nursery we have had lots of fun exploring using our senses. In the creative area we took part in sensory play with cornflakes, enjoying how they felt and how they sounded when we scrunched them between our fingers. We made our own pizzas, being careful with knives when we cut up vegetables and developed our fine motor skills when we spread the tomato puree carefully over the base – we were very excited to take them home and see what they tasted like! We continued to practise our mark-making skills when we did finger painting, used roller paints to make marks on large sheets of paper inside and in the garden made marks with water and a range of tools on the giant chalkboards.
We have been busy developing our role-play and understanding of different occupations, playing in the home corner office using laptops and telephones and in the fruit and vegetable shop where we took it in turns to be the shopkeeper and the customer. We have been working hard on our sharing, turn-taking and listening skills by playing simple games, parachute play in a large group and circle time listening activities. In the garden we have been riding the bikes and using the pedals to move us along and enjoyed exploring the sea creatures which were frozen in the ice in the tuff tray.
Week beginning 8th January
We have spent lots of time outside at nursery this week despite the very cold weather. We have been developing our personal and social skills by role-playing shopping in the fruit and vegetable market taking it in turns to be the customer and the seller. We explored the sounds of the different instruments on the music wall, practising making loud and soft and quick and slow sounds. We developed our physical skills on the garden equipment by climbing and balancing on the frames, going over the bridge, pedalling the bikes and throwing, catching, rolling and patting balls. We worked on our creative and mark-making skills using brushes to paint on the windows and enjoyed then washing it off the next day. We especially enjoyed exploring ice which formed in various places and trying to work out ways of releasing the sea creatures frozen in ice in the tuff tray!
Inside nursery we have been spoons, scoops and containers to pour and move porridge oats and enjoyed sprinkling it, making patterns in it using our fingers and even using it in the home corner to cook dinner and feed the babies. We have been busy developing our scissor skills, exploring books and textures and using a range of boxes, tubes and bottles to make junk models. We talked about our pets and enjoyed playing with toy animals and pet cages. We have continued to explore large boxes and enclosures, working out how to fit ourselves in and using them as cars, boats and houses. We had fun mixing paints with rice crispies and then using spoons to carefully scoop the mixture into cake tins and then really enjoyed making and eating real chocolate crispie cakes the next day!
Week beginning 1st January
This week in nursery we have been busy exploring using or senses. We cut open lemons and limes, talking about what they look and feel like and then tasted them, although we weren't sure we liked them very much! We enjoyed fitting ourselves into different spaces including boxes, the clothes horse and even shelves and had fun trying to fit our friends in too. We have been exploring clothes in the curiosity corner and pretending to wash and iron them and enjoyed trying on a range of hats including cycle helmets. We have ben using props to support our role-play including using a banana as a telephone and worked together with foam blocks in the construction area using them to build towers and walls. We have been developing our fine motor skills by placing pegs into the peg boards and cutting resources to add to our pictures and junk models.
In the garden we were fascinated with how the wind blows and enjoyed running around with lengths of fabric, foil blankets and scarves watching how they move. We used various tools to make marks with water including pasting brushes, rollers and squeegees and practised moving in different ways by balancing on the climbing frame, walking over the bridge and jumping between the tyres.
Week beginning 11th December
This week we have been very busy having lots of Christmassy fun! We have been singing Christmas songs, making Christmas cards, decorating tree decorations, icing Christmas biscuits, dancing to Christmas music and dressing up in Christmas costumes. We had lots of fun when our mummies and daddies came into nursery to watch a Christmas film and make some Christmas crafts!
We have had a fun filled, but busy first term at nursery and are looking forward to the New Year and all the exciting activities we know we are going to be taking part in.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from everyone at nursery!
Week beginning 4th December
This week at nursery we have had lots of fun getting ready for Christmas! We enjoyed exploring baskets of decorations including baubles, beads and tinsel which we used to decorate the Christmas tree in the curiosity corner. In the creative area we wrapped junk boxes with Christmas wrapping paper and developed our fine motor skills using scissors to cut the paper and tape. We explored colour by mixing powder paints and then using them to paint our junk models and used our senses to explore the paint by painting with our hands and feet. We were interested in the numbers on the giant tape measure and how cameras work and continued to develop friendships, sharing books in the reading pod and dancing in groups.
In the garden we had lots of muddy fun experimenting what happens when we mix mud and water and jumping in muddy puddles. We used the trikes to move around the garden, enjoying what happened when we went through the puddles. We explored shaving foam with our hands and fingers before using paintbrushes to make marks in it on the giant blackboards and practised our balancing skills on the climbing frame.
Week beginning 27th November
This week in nursery we’ve had lots of fun exploring. In the curiosity corner we looked at technology, taking apart an old computer and examining what’s inside, finding out about cameras, explored how magnets work and using magnifying glasses to explore how things look close up. We built on our understanding of how things work by using a real food mixer to make cupcakes and showed how sensible we can be by operating the controls ourselves. In the construction area we demonstrated how we can follow rules for safety by using real tools including screwdrivers to undo screws on the giant wooden blocks and a drill to make holes in pieces of wood. We have practised our mark-making skills by drawing wavy and zig zag lines as well as writing on clipboards and in diaries. We have continued to be creative using fabric to make bear gloves, making models from junk and adding sparkles, building with Lego, cooking dinner in the home corner and using instruments to make music to dance to.
Outside we have had lots of fun despite the very cold weather. We have been riding trikes and bikes, played football in the Infant playground and climbed and balanced on the nursery garden climbing equipment. We explored ice that had formed in the tuff tray, using hammers and large sticks to break it up. In Imagination Land we moved our bodies in lots of ways including rolling, jumping, running, twisting and crawling. We enjoyed sliding down the slope on our tummies and when we needed a bit of help, our friends were happy to help!
Week beginning 20th November
This week at nursery we have been developing our fine and gross motor physical skills. In the big playground we have been kicking, throwing and catching balls of different sizes as well as being brave and jumping from a height including the slope in Imagination Land. We enjoyed balancing on the benches and swinging upside down as well as dancing on the stage and crawling through the tunnel.
Inside nursery we have been drawing round each other, including the nursery teacher sand even Mrs Searle, to reveal the shapes. We have been working on our pencil control by using stencils and developing the strength in our fingers and hands by taking part in dough disco. We have enjoyed looking at books with our friends, practising our number writing skills and seeing if we can build towers as tall as ourselves before they fall over! We have been sharing the Bear Hunt story and retelling the familiar parts by acting it out and have had lots of fun engaging in the camping enhancement in the curiosity corner. We have enjoyed playing in the home corner where we engaged in imaginary play, setting up beds for the sleepy babies.
Week beginning 13th November
This week we have been reading Julia Donaldson books and to build on our understanding of the Smartest Giant in Town story, we wrote letters to George the Giant and used card, scissors, glue and gems to make our own crowns just like George wears. We have been finding out about Diwali by exploring items in the curiosity corner including books, lamps and clothes and manipulating clay to make our own clay lamps decorating them with brightly coloured jewels.
We have been busy developing our early writing skills by writing shopping lists so that we can make pizzas next week, writing letters from our name and making marks in playdough using pencils as well as exploring alphabet puzzle books. We explored light by shining lamps onto the floor, found out what sounds musical instruments make and enjoyed transporting teddy around nursery on a trolley. We practised out turn-taking skills by playing the Dear Zoo matching game and developed friendships by pretending to go on a picnic, using playdough as our food. Outside we have made the most of the very wet weather by dressing in our splash suits and welly boots and splashing in muddy puddles!
Week beginning 6th November
This week we have been busy investigating. We’ve been folding paper aeroplanes and taking them onto the playground to test out their flying abilities as well as exploring rotational schemas by rolling objects. We have been exploring size and shape by squeezing ourselves into spaces which has developed our mathematical knowledge and interest in enclosing ourselves. We had lots of fun transporting objects as well as each other, especially in the nursery’s forest school trolley!
We have worked hard to develop our fine motor skills, using scissors to cut grass in the garden and boxes inside nursery and used our imagination to recreate our memories of Bonfire Night and fireworks using chalks and black paper. We have practised writing letters from our name and used tools including rolling pins, cutters and knives to ‘cook’ with the playdough in the home corner. We have been exploring occupations by using the Doctor’s kit equipment to make the poorly baby feel better and practised our dressing skills by putting on a selection of dressing up clothes. We have been very busy making friends and being kind, sharing and giving each other hugs.
Week beginning 30th October
We've had a fun week at nursery exploring spiders, minibeasts and pumpkins! We used magnifying glasses to examine pumpkins of all different sizes, shapes and even colours, using tools to cut them open and find out what's inside. We explored rotational schemas by rolling them to each other and found out about colour by using prime colours to paint pumpkins, having lots of fun finding out about the marks they made when we rolled them along sheets of plastic and after cutting them in half using them to make prints. We continued developing our mark-making skills using water and paintbrushes to paint on the playground and even laid down and let our friends paint around us to reveal our shape!
We developed our fine motor skills by using tweezers to pick up cereals and place them in cake tins. We used pens to draw and make marks to represent numbers in note books and recognised familiar letters from our names. We used hammers to knocks pegs into the pumpkins and screwed plastic nuts onto bolts. We matched the sorting bears by size and then counted them and explored the magnetic building blocks using them to balance and build structures. We enjoyed playing with water, filling containers and transporting it around the garden before using it to bath the babies.
Week beginning 16th October
This week at nursery we have loved making the most of the rainy weather. We played with the water wall and worked together to fill up buckets before tipping them out to make a puddle which really enjoyed jumping in. We used sticks to bang the drums on the music wall and found ice in the garden, exploring what happens when you throw it on the ground - it makes a noise!
Inside nursery we have been exploring lights and perspectives, used magnifying glasses to look at objects and print around the classroom and we had lots of fun trying on different hats and headwear. We used gloop and cocktail sticks to decorate potatoes and developed our knowledge of shapes by matching and sorting. We really enjoyed painting with water and exploring colour mixing by using our funky fingers to manipulate the prime colours to discover what happens when you combine them. To develop this learning further we read the story Mix It Up at mat time.
It’s been a very busy, fun half term and we can’t wait to see what the next one brings!
Week beginning 9th October
This week we have have been exploring how things move, making marks with pencils attached to cars, building with loose parts and developing simple role-play through having sleepovers and wearing our pyjamas to nursery, what sleepy heads! We have been finding out about vehicles in the curiosity corner, exploring attaching and sticking items together and printing with natural objects including conkers, pine cones and leaves. We have been using puppets and small world creatures to build up play and stories and enjoyed listening to a story about a monster called Boris. We built a see saw using wooden blocks and planks, made marks in paint using toy cars and recreated the story Whatever Next using props.
In the garden we have been using the trolley to transport sticks and had fun rolling natural objects down pipes and tubes. We used tweezers to pick the seeds out of the head of a giant sunflower and painted a tyre, looking at the prints it made when we rolled it along the pavement. We enjoyed using whiteboard pens to make marks on the garden whiteboards and riding around the Infant playground on the bikes. We have had fun exploring outside, looking and talking about the bark on trees and the signs of Autumn including conkers and the falling leaves.
Week beginning 2nd October
This week at nursery we have been busy developing our fine motor control. We used tweezers to pick up cereal, being very careful not to crush it – this was a bit tricky but we persevered! We enjoyed using marker pens to draw shapes and to write numbers on the whiteboards and this helped develop our mathematical knowledge too. We continued developing our maths skills by identifying patterns in books, completing inset puzzles and by representing numbers on our fingers when we were counting. We especially enjoyed exploring the shape resources in the maths area which we used to build, sort and match. We developed our building skills in the construction area by using a range of loose parts including offcuts of wood, small slices of bamboo and wooden discs to build towers.
Outside we had lots of fun exploring our voices sound when we’re talking in to tubes, experimenting with how we could change the sounds and laughing at the results. We explored cause and effect, blowing feathers out of our hands and finding out what happens when we roll things. We have continued to develop our physical skills when we practised throwing hoops over cones and used the bikes in the Infant playground. We enjoyed visiting Imagination land, especially playing hide and seek there – we found lots of places to hide and used our counting skills when we were the seeker. We had fun when it suddenly started raining and we all had to run and take cover under the nursery shelter and found it very funny when Miss McCoy and Mrs Bebbington came out in their umbrella hats!
Week beginning 25th September
This week at nursery we have been busy exploring and developing or physical skills. We have been using our bodies to crawl, run, balance, climb and slide on the nursery garden equipment and over in Imagination Land. We have had fun jumping through hoops, throwing and catching balls, squeezing ourselves in to spaces and playing hide and seek. We have been developing our fine motor skills by making marks on the giant chalkboards in the garden and using chubby chalks to draw on the nursery classroom floor. We enjoyed scooping cereal, mud and sand with spoons, shovels and cups and used the small world animals to make footprints in shaving foam in the tuff tray.
Now we are all getting used to being at nursery we are beginning to play alongside and with others. We took turns to drive the fire engine, racing to put out the fires, cooked dinner with conkers for our friends in the home corner and enjoyed sharing the creative resources when painting the junk models we created. We waited patiently to wash up our cups after snack time and worked with others to build towers and structures using Duplo, cubes and the giant foam bricks. While we are having lots of fun with the other children, we still enjoy relaxing by ourselves on a bean bag with a good book!
Week beginning 18th September
This week at nursery we have been busy developing our creative and fine motor skills. We have used paintbrushes, rollers and sponges to paint pictures and enjoyed mixing the paints to create new colours. In the mark-making area we used pencils and crayons to colour in pictures and worked hard to hold the pencils correctly helping to get us ready for when we later learn to write at school. In the home corner we have been recreating our experiences from home, cooking dinner, putting the babies to bed, having a chat on the telephone and making a lovely cup of tea! We have had lots of fun creating sounds with musical instruments as well as various objects in nursery including metal trays, saucepans and spoons. We particularly enjoyed exploring different household appliances including hoovers, irons, hairdryers and blenders and food mixers in the curiosity corner.
In the maths area we have been developing our mathematical knowledge by exploring, matching and sorting shapes and by completing inset and number puzzles. We have been exploring movement and transporting by rolling objects down tubes and pipes and moving them using vehicles and trolleys.
In the garden we have been mark-making with water using different sized paintbrushes on wood, the giant chalkboards and using bubbly water on the playground. We have enjoyed cooking in the mud kitchen using twigs, leaves and pine cones putting our recipes into the microwave before sharing them with our friends. The wet and rainy weather has given us lots of opportunities to splash in puddles and we are working hard to learn to put on our welly boots and wetsuits by ourselves!
Week beginning 11th September
This week at nursery we have been enjoying the Autumn sunshine and spending lots of time outside. In the nursery garden we have been finding out what sounds we can make on the music wall, especially the drums and xylophone and have had fun dancing to the different tunes we made. We have been busy using our bodies to climb, scramble and balance on the rope frame and to have ago at moving safely all by ourselves. We have been trying out different vehicles including bikes, trikes, giant diggers and even the role-play fire engine where we responded quickly to all emergencies! We used water, brushes and sponges to make marks on the walls, floors and giant blackboards and enjoyed investigating objects, plants and insects with the magnifying glasses. We enjoyed digging with spades, scoops and spoons in the mud pit and cooked dinner in the mud kitchen adding leaves, twigs and pinecones to our meals! We had lots of fun using blankets and pillows to build snuggly dens where we pretended to have sleepovers.
Inside nursery we have used chunky chalks to make marks and draw pictures on the floor, enjoying filling large spaces and making tracks to drive the toy cars along. We used our problem solving skills to work out how to open locks using some keys we found and had fun matching the right key up with the right lock. We also used magnifying glasses to investigate, looking at the nursery toys, furniture and even each our faces finding it very funny to see how big everyone’s eyes looked.
We had our first trips to Imagination Land and showed good listening skills by following the rules for keeping safe. We explored the slope, tunnel, stage, balancing beams and wigwam and enjoyed pretending the house was in ice-cream shop. We developed our physical skills by running, rolling, crawling, balancing, climbing and jumping and used our senses to explore the leaves that have started falling from the trees, enjoying the textures and sounds they made when we scrunched them up.
Week beginning 4th September
We’ve had a busy first week back at nursery. The children who remained with us from last year have quickly settled back into nursery life and have been very kind towards the new children who have been busy getting to know everyone and learning the nursery rules and routines. We are very proud of them all!
All the children have had great fun exploring the classroom, garden and all the exciting activities on offer. We are looking forward to having lots more adventures together!
2022 - 2023
Week beginning 3rd July
This week at nursery we have been busy exploring the nature themed enhancement in the curiosity corner. We have read books about animals and life-cycles, played with the insects and investigated the real worms in jars. We have been building enclosures in the construction area using large wooden blocks and the foam bricks. In the mark making area we have been writing on whiteboards and for the school leavers, we have been using our knowledge of letters to write our name. During circle time, the children heading up to Year R in September we had the opportunity to discuss how we are feeling about this big transition; we were able to describe feelings of excitement, happiness, sadness and nervousness.
Outside we have been exploring mud and what happens when it's mixed with water. We played in the year R playground developing our gross motor skills and practiced sliding down the fireman pole and climbing up the rock climbing wall. We slid down the slope and put on dance shows for our friends at Imagination Land. In the garden we took turns to balance along the climbing equipment, play ball games, made a campfire using sticks and rode the bus to Legoland. What a busy week!
Week beginning 26th June
This week at nursery we have been busy getting for school. We have been practising our early writing skills and using white board pens to write letters from our names as well as pencils to draw detailed pictures of our families. We have been listening to the initial sounds in words and thinking about other objects that start with the same sound as well as beginning to sound out simple words. We built on our understanding of familiar stories by using natural and craft resources to make our own men out of sticks like Stickman. We have enjoyed talking about our home lives and exploring the lives of other people looking at the foods they eat, where they eat and the clothes they wear. We particularly enjoyed trying on clothes in the curiosity corner including felt caps, party dresses, big shoes and floppy sun hats.
In the garden we have been also been writing letters, this time with chalk on the giant whiteboards and have continued to look after the vegetables we‘ve been growing, giving them lots of water in the hot and sunny weather. We have had lots of fun exploring at forest school. We have been balancing on the equipment, swinging on the rope swings, sharing the giant swings with our friends and running round the open spaces. We spent a long time looking for bugs and noticing the changes already happening around us including the leaves changing colour and falling off the trees. We worked hard to develop our climbing skills, being very brave and climbing the trees and balancing along the big branches.
Week beginning 19th June
This week at nursery we have continued to enjoy the warm, sunny weather. We have been practising our mark-making skills using giant chalks to attempt to write letters from our name on the chalkboard easels. We have been developing our gross motor skills by playing football, throwing and catching and by riding the bikes around the nursery garden steering them to avoid obstacles. In the mud kitchen we have been using tools to scoop up soil and sand and then transport it to a variety of different sized containers which has helped develop our hand-eye coordination. We have had lots of fun cooling off by playing on the water wall, moving the pipes to try to make the water fill cups which we had to hold very carefully to avoid getting wet!
Inside nursery we have been very careful using knives to cut up vegetables and comparing those in tins to those that we have grown and dug up from our garden. We have demonstrated our knowledge of familiar stories listened to at our together times by incorporating them into puppet shows we put on for our friends. We have had lots of fun playing with shaving foam, using our senses to explore it as we squeezed it through our fingers. We have continued to develop our physical skills including writing with marker pens on whiteboards, building towers as tall as ourselves and playing volleyball with inflatable beach balls. With the school holidays coming up, we have been talking about going on holiday and developing role-play based on our experiences using resources including suitcases, flippers and snorkels in the curiosity corner to support our play. We really can’t wait to go on holiday or out for the day for real!
Week beginning 12th June
We had an exciting week at nursery when every day our daddies (and granddads!) came in to celebrate Father’s Day. We loved showing them our favourite toys and books, sharing our story and song times with them and playing together in the garden. The daddies seemed to really enjoy being in nursery although lots of them commented how tired they were when it was time to go home!
In the curiosity corner, we have been finding out all about what keeps us healthy. We have used exercise equipment, talked about going to the dentist while making playdough teeth, found out about skeletons and x-rays and used the doctor’s equipment to give the teddies a check-up. We talked about healthy eating and used scissors to cut out paper pizzas before adding our own choice of healthy toppings.
We enjoyed finding out about cause and effect, using a popcorn maker to cook popcorn which we loved eating and by pushing each other round on various wheeled equipment including trolleys and office chairs. We have been developing our creativity by exploring the craft materials and using glue, tape and staples to attach them to a range of junk model materials and by building structures and enclosures with the foam bricks and wooden blocks. In the book corner we have been putting on puppet shows for each other, building on the stories we have been listening to at mat times and have been getting ready for school by practising our mark-making and early writing in school exercise books.
In the garden we have really enjoyed the sunny weather by playing with lots of water! We had lots of fun splashing with our shoes and socks off in water in the tuff tray, made bubbles with soapy water and tennis bats and explored how water moves by pouring it down tubes. We used water to put out the imaginary camp fire and painted with water and mud on the giant outside whiteboards. We have been working hard to develop our ball skills by throwing and catching to one another as well as using bats and balls. There was great excitement in the garden when after we had measured how tall our plants had grown, we dug up some little carrots and beet roots that we have grown before using knives to cut them up and then taste them!
Week beginning 5th June
This week at nursery we have continued to enjoy the sunshine and have been spending lots of time outside. We have been testing our balance and strength on the rope climbing frame and have been kind to the younger children, helping them to be brave and jump from the climbing equipment. We have been moving our bodies to move in different ways, sliding down slopes and using hula hoops and have been practising our coordination skills by playing swing-ball. We have enjoyed using giant pasting brushes to paint on the glass doors and then clean it off using squeegees and bubbly water. In the sand pit we have been scooping, measuring, transporting and mixing the sand and in the tuff tray we have been using our fingers to make marks in the dry sand.
Inside we have been developing our creativity using glue and glitter to create patterns on junk and have continued to develop our scissor skills. We have been building on our mathematical skills by recognising numerals and then matching the correct quantity to the numeral as well as writing numbers. We have explored weight, trying to make the scales balance using weights and objects gathered from around the nursery and had fun measuring ourselves against rulers, pieces of string and each other. In the curiosity corner we have enjoyed exploring camping – playing in the tent, sitting in the camping chair, cooking on the bbq, using torches and looking at books about all the bugs that live outside. We have been building in the construction area, using the foam bricks to build structures including enclosing ourselves with brick walls!
Week beginning 22nd May
This week at nursery we have been enjoying the sunshine and playing outside. We have been developing our balancing skills by walking across planks balanced on logs and by walking while trying to keep bean bags on our heads without using our hands. We have been digging in the mud kitchen, using spades to scoop up and transfer the mud to buckets, playing follow my leader and working on our hand to eye coordination by throwing coits into tyres. We have enjoyed using water bottles to make marks on surfaces in the garden and used our muscles to make the triggers on squirty bottles work when we helped wash the nursery windows.
Inside nursery we have been role-playing supermarkets in the curiosity corner and laying in the bath while relaxing and reading a book! We have enjoyed looking after the dolls and giving them baths, washing and dressing them as well as feeding them and putting them to bed. We have worked hard to develop our fine motor skills picking up small objects with tweezers and posting small hoops onto posts as well as use hole punches to make holes in paper and even leaves. We have continued practising our mark-making skills using whiteboard markers to draw on balloons, in notebooks and on whiteboards and used stencils and pencils. We have been working together, gluing and sticking with glitter, taking turns and sharing playing the pizza and 3 Little Pigs games being able to wait patiently for our go.
Week beginning 15th May 2023
This week at nursery we have been using our imaginations and basing our play on our own first hand experiences. We enjoyed being doctors and patients in the role-play hospital and used the first aid kit taking each other’s temperature, checked sore throats and bandaged poorly fingers. In the curiosity corner we had fun pretending to visit the hairdressers using brushes, combs, hairdryers and straighteners to style each other’s hair and we particularly enjoyed washing the wigs after we had tried them on!
We have been exploring sound by talking to each other through giant cardboard tubes as well as finding out what happens when you roll things down the tubes. We explored healthy eating, talking about different foods before making our own pizzas using a range of vegetables to take home and share. We have continued to enjoy exploring the range of books at nursery and snuggling up with our friends to share them together. We have further developed our mark-making skills by drawing faces onto balloons with marker pens before spending the rest of the day looking after our new balloon friends!
We have enjoyed the warmer weather and have spent lots of time outside in the nursery garden. We have been developing our scissor control and cutting skills by cutting grass with scissors, been making sand castles using the spades to carefully transfer the sand and went on a shape hunt. We made campfires with sticks and pretended to toast real marshmallows over the fire before the best bit when we ate them. We developed the strength in our upper bodies by climbing and swinging on the climbing frames and practised our use of tools and mark-making by painting with water and using giant chalks on the big blackboards. We have been checking on and looking after the seeds we have planted and are very excited to see the new plants beginning to grow.
Week beginning 8th May 2023
This week at nursery we have been busy developing our creative and mark-making skills. In the creative area we have used glue and glitter to create patterns and pictures, mixed paints and predicted the colours that we would make and made masks thinking about the features we could add and how we looked in the mirror. We have been working hard to practise our cutting skills, using the scissors carefully to cut along dotted lines and cut out shapes and have been developing our strength in our fingers by using punches to press out holes in paper, this will really help us later when we learn to write. We had fun exploring shaving foam; we enjoyed squeezing it through our fingers, smelling it and using our fingers to make marks in it on the top of the table.
We have been doing lots of group work at nursery, developing our turn taking, waiting and sharing skills. We have been talking about birthdays, holding pretend parties and playing party games. We have waited patiently to have a turn making cupcakes – weighing out the ingredients, mixing them altogether and spooning the mixture into cases and have enjoyed sharing books with our friends, spending time looking at the pictures and talking about what we can see. We have continued to practise our mark-making skills by drawing our favourite foods and beginning to write numbers on whiteboards with marker pens. In the curiosity corner we had fun playing with a range of real items and technology including old microwaves, phones, toasters, hairdryers, hoovers and even playing games on the teacher’s laptop. We really enjoyed standing under the canopy in the garden when it was raining hard and taking it in turns to go out in the rain wearing Mrs Bebbington’s umbrella hat!
Week beginning 1st May
This week we have enjoyed visiting the Year R playground where we have been busy developing our gross motor skills by moving in a variety of ways. We have been climbing on the climbing frame, scrambling over the climbing walls, playing on the fort and sliding down slopes, weaving through the wooden maze, balancing on steps. We had fun exploring what happens to objects when we push them, including tyres and enjoyed the sunshine, playing on hobby horses and in the sand pit. We hunted for signs of Spring, finding daisies that are beginning to grow and enjoyed picking up the petals from the blossom trees, good for hand to eye coordination and the development of fine motor skills.
Back in nursery we have had fun dressing up in a range of hats including sun hats, straw hats, baseball caps and cycle helmets and using bags in the curiosity corner, talking about the weather and when we would wear different types of hats. We have been busy developing our mathematical knowledge, using giant wooden measures to see how big things were, including ourselves! In the construction corner, we have been building houses and dens using giant wooden blocks, cable reels, planks, cartons and boxes and have had picnics with the animals form the Gruffalo story. We have practised our cutting skills which we find tricky, but spent lots of time trying hard and concentrating and were very sensible when using hammers to tap nails into logs. In the creative area we have continued to enjoy junk modelling and enjoyed painting monsters onto the table, using googly eyes to make them look scary!
Week beginning 24th April
This week we have enjoyed being outside. In the nursery garden we have been experimenting with different ways of moving objects including rolling balls down the plastic tubing. We have been ‘cooking’ with mud and water in the mud kitchen and exploring the different sounds the instruments on the music wall make. In Imagination Land, we have enjoyed balancing on the beams and going up and down the steps over the tunnel as well as sliding down it and hiding inside. We have continued to enjoy visiting the Year R playground where we developed our mathematical skills by counting our steps and jumps using the giant dice and following the numbered snake. We had lots of fun sliding down the giant slide on the fort, climbing up to the top of the sand pit house and timing ourselves to see who was the quickest at running races.
We have been working hard to develop our mark-making skills which is important in helping us get ready for school. We have been using whiteboard markers to write symbols on paper, paintbrushes to make patterns in paint on the creative table and large paintbrushes to make patterns in sand on the top of the sand pit. We enjoyed making banana bread, carefully weighing out all the ingredients and exploring what happens when we mixed them together. In the curiosity corner we explored minibeasts, looking at books and talking about the changes that happen as creatures grow. We have been developing our fine motor skills, using scissors to cut patterns on paper and snip pieces of ribbon and our gross motor skills to move the parachute in different ways. In the role-play area we have been shopping, filling up bags with groceries, counting out the money and packing our shopping in bags.
Week beginning 17th April
This week at nursery we have been busy developing our mathematical knowledge. We have been matching and posting shapes as well as finding items around nursery that are the same shape. We have been role-playing shops in the maths area, using our counting skills to count the food items and paying for things with money. We used our developing mark-making skills to write the numbers on a hop scotch drawn with chalk on the nursery floor and then practised our jumping and hopping by playing hop scotch. We furthered developed our physical skills by trying out exercises including press-ups!
We have been exploring similarities and differences by making paper dolls, cutting them out and adding features to them. We really enjoyed exploring the curiosity corner this week where we had a range of equipment used for cleaning and chores. We particularly enjoyed vacuuming up any rubbish we made through the day, even though the hoover was quite big compared to us! We have been finding out about cause and effect by rolling items including real tyres and cable reels and experimenting with different ways of joining junk materials, including glue sticks, PVA and a range of sticky tapes.
Outside we have enjoyed the sunshine and have been looking at the signs of Spring all around us, getting very excited when we found several Ladybirds in the nursery garden. We planted out some potatoes and carrots and know that we have to work very hard to look after them so they can grow, and hopefully we can eat them. We have visited the Year R playground this week, climbing on the fort, going down the slide and jumping off the equipment. It was very exciting for some of us as we know this will be our playground when we move up to big school in September!
Week beginning 6th March
We’ve had another fun filled week at nursery and were very excited when it snowed! We wrapped up warm and headed out to the garden where we explored what the snow felt like and practised our throwing skills by making snowballs and throwing them at each other! In the afternoon we enjoyed exploring a very snowy forest school, enjoying looking at how different the trees and bushes looked in the snow and noticing the prints our wellies made. We especially enjoyed the hot chocolate we had when we came back to nursery to warm us up!
Indoors this week we have been busy investigating. We have been finding out about sinking and floating by collecting lots of different objects and toys from around nursery and putting them into water, trying to guess what would happen to them. We explored how things move, pushing our friends round on wheeled trolleys and pulling them along in large fruit boxes.
We have been using our imaginations to pretend we were pirates with cardboard tube telescopes and doctors and nurses, using stethoscopes to check up on the poorly patients. We explored what happens when we mix colours when we painted pictures and our junk models and experimented with different methods of sticking things together, particularly enjoying using masking tape to join our creations. We have been developing our fine motor skills by writing and mark-making on different surfaces and with various materials including on lino, large sheets of sugar paper, on the floor, on white boards and in notebooks using pencils, pens, chalks and whiteboard markers. We showed how careful we can be using knives to butter our toast at snack time and then spread on jam or marmite before eating it all up. We have been developing our listening skills by playing games including Simon Says and by playing musical chairs. We found it tricky trying to listen for the music to end and find a spare chair but we had lots of fun trying!
Week beginning 27th February
This week at nursery we have been finding out about how things work. We have been rolling large cable reels, posting objects down large tubes, connecting trains to magnets, and catching fish with magnetic fishing rods. We also explored the effect tools have when we used them to drill holes and turn screws in wood in the construction area. We showed an interest in what Vets do and after talking about their job we used the medical kit and the different equipment to look after a range of poorly pets, giving the toy dog injections to make it better!
Outside we have been having jumping competitions, planting more seeds ready for the summer and taking part in obstacle races. We have been moving our bodies in lots of different ways, going under, over, around and through the garden climbing equipment and in Imagination Land we have been sliding down slopes, balancing on beams and being very brave by jumping off the top of the tunnel.
We have continued to explore and develop our creative skills, building on our exploration last week of how instruments sound by playing real guitars we borrowed from the Junior school; we were very excited but waited our turn patiently and were very sensible when we got to play them. We enjoyed using our senses to explore materials in the creative area and spent a long time squeezing shaving foam through our fingers, making marks in it and noticing how it felt and how nice it smelt! We have been doing lots of mark-making everywhere – using giant chalks to draw on the nursery floor, marking how far we jumped in the garden and then writing our names and using different coloured whiteboard markers to draw pictures of our families. We also developed our fine motor skills by threading objects and especially enjoyed making bracelets with pipe cleaners and coloured beads which we then wore for the rest of the day!
Week beginning 20th February
This week at nursery we have been using our imaginations and building on our experiences by playing in a role-play shop. We pretended to buy and sell real fruits and vegetables, putting them in bags and shopping baskets and using money and the tills to buy them. We enjoyed exploring the fruits and vegetables, talking about their colour, size and shapes as well as where they grow. We enjoyed exploring them by cutting them open, looking at what was inside and using lemon squeezers to make juice before then tasting it – yummy!
We have enjoyed developing our creative skills by using the large wooden blocks to build tall towers and a house, building on our mathematical knowledge by talking about height, and then pretending that the large plastic tube was a telescope. Using it too look out for monsters.
We had fun weighing and mixing ingredients to make our own playdough in the home corner and using it as food serving it to our friends. We built on this learning by then rolling the playdough out and cutting it into shapes with cutters. In the creative corner we have been finding out what happens to paint when we mix colours, using a range of different brushes and painting tools to make pictures and we were very careful when we explored real tools including a hand drill in the construction area.
We have continued to enjoy the outside, making use of the spring sunshine! We explored puddles that we found in the morning and made marks in the tuff tray with water, shaving foam and paintbrushes and rollers. We used a range of equipment to pick up objects from the sand including tongs, spoons and ladles which helped developed our fine motor skills. We have ben practising our physical skills by using space hoppers to bounce in the garden, moving tyres by carrying and rolling them, fitting ourselves in to tunnels, pedalling the bikes and climbing and balancing on the climbing frames, in Imagination Land and on the walls outside the middle building in the Infant School playground. Another busy and fun week!
Week beginning 6th February
We have had another busy week at nursery! Inside we have been chalking on sheets of sugar paper on the floor, drawing pictures and talking about the marks we made. We were very creative when we used glitter, feathers and fabrics to decorate the junk models we made last week and enjoyed adding those resources along with gems to the playdough we made. We continued to build and problem solve when we used giant boxes to build dens in the construction area, working out which ones we would fit into and hide! We have enjoyed pretend play when we cooked for the babies in the home corner, used the tools to mend things while being builders and explored birthdays and celebrations in the curiosity corner using baking tins, cook books, a microwave and utensils to bake cakes. We were very excited when we found a spider, using a magnifying pot to examine it and count its legs before letting it go in the garden.
In the nursery garden we have been playing in the sand pit, riding the bikes and experimenting with the different sounds the instruments on the music wall make. We enjoyed playing in the Infant School playground where we chalked huge pictures, played chasing games and practised our throwing, catching and kicking skills with balls. We have visited Imagination Land lots this week, where we ran, rolled, hid and danced. We developed our large muscles by moving in lots of different ways including bravely jumping off the top of the hill. We are all tired after such a busy half term but know that when we come back to nursery we will be ready for lots more exploration, learning and fun!
Week beginning 30th January
This week at nursery we have been busy finding out about food, cooking and using kitchen equipment. We made and cooked a cake, talking about the different ingredients especially the eggs when we cracked them open, weighing and then mixing them in a cake mixer before baking the mixture in Mrs Jandula’s slow cooker. We were very interested in how it changed once it was cooked and really enjoyed eating it! We were very creative the next day when we built on our interests in baking by decorating cakes and biscuits with icing and sprinkles before taking them home to show our families. We were fascinated when we made butter using cream which the next day we spread on the toast we cooked for our snack time, adding jam or marmite as a topping. What a tasty week we’ve had!
Inside nursery we have been interested in finding out all about animals. In the curiosity corner we were able to explore a range of wild animals, farm animals and pets along with their habitats. We had animal cages, beds and bowls and pretended to look after the animals as well as books and toys that helped us explore and find out about life cycles. We have been developing our fine motor skills by undoing screws independently on the blocks in the construction corner and by writing with pens and pencils in notebooks, diaries and cards.
In the garden we have been painting the equipment with water and large pasting brushes which helped develop our gross motor skills as did climbing, swinging and jumping off the climbing frames. In the mud kitchen we have been using the tools to make mud cakes, soups and pies! We have started to learn about growth and the changes that happen in spring when we planted seeds. We helped fill the pots with soil, using spades and trowels to transport it before planting the seeds and giving them a water. We are very excited to see what grows!
Week beginning 23rd January
At nursery this week, we have been busy developing our physical skills. We have been using marker pens on whiteboards to write and to draw pictures and chunky chalks to make marks on the classroom floor. We developed our control over tools by squeezing lemons and by mixing ingredients to make our own playdough before using rolling pins and cutters to make shapes. We have been practising our gross motor skills in the construction area by balancing along walls we built out of bricks and at Imagination Land we have been running, rolling down the hill, scrambling up the slope and climbing through the tunnel. In the garden we have been walking across the climbing frame bridge, bouncing on space hoppers and using hoops as well as developing our ball skills and coordination by playing tennis.
We have continued to enjoy exploring the creative area, using the available range of junk materials to make houses and models and painting different objects from around nursery including small world animals and cars, looking at the marks they made. We have shown how caring we can be when we looked after the poorly dolls in the home corner, talking about our visits to the doctor and hospital when we were investigating the contents of the nurse’s kit.
In the garden we have been transporting mud to the tuff tray using the big digger where we mixed it with water and in the mud kitchen we have been cooking with mud, using tongs to pick up natural objects including leaves and pinecones. We have been making marks with our fingers and with tools in the frost and really enjoyed exploring the ice, breaking it up with pieces of wood and tools.
Week beginning 16th January
This week we have spent lots of time outside exploring the effects of the cold and chilly weather. We have been finding out about what happens to water when it is left in the tuff tray overnight, using hammers to break up the ice and then investigating how it melts when it is brought inside. We have enjoyed using our fingers, sticks and tools to make marks in the frost and had fun stomping around in our welly boots and making foot prints. We have been busy building with bricks, taking turns to pedal each other around the garden on the two seater bikes and using tools including rollers to paint with water on the giant chalkboards.
Inside nursery we have enjoyed pretending to be shopkeepers using the tills and money to buy anything we could find, from hairbrushes to books. We have continued to show how kind and thoughtful we can be, especially if our friends are feeling sad and have given lots of cuddles and shared books together. We have really enjoyed mark-making on a large scale and used the chalks on the nursery floor to draw our families, make tracks for the cars, write letters and draw around our friends. We are still enjoying junk modelling and love using all the available boxes, cartons, bottles and containers to make robots, monsters and cars and then decorating them with feathers, lids, foil and anything shiny or interesting we can find in the creative area!
Week beginning 9th January
This week at nursery we have been busy developing our mathematical knowledge. We have been weighing an assortment of heavy and light resources and trying to get the scales to balance, finding out about measuring and length using real tape measures in the construction area and looking at the numbers on a selection of clocks and watches in the curiosity area. We enjoyed exploring a range of real horse shoes of different sizes, trying to guess what size horse they would fit and comparing them to our own feet!
We have continued to develop our creative and imaginative skills as well as build on our team work when we built our own house in the construction area using the large wooden blocks to build a sofa, beds and even a television with pictures of our friends on. In the creative area we have been painting, using junk to build robots and monsters, practising our scissor skills and using rollers and cutters to make shapes out of the playdough we made together. We have enjoyed using a range of mark making resources including pencils, giant chalks, biros and even marker pens to draw and write on paper, in notebooks, old Christmas cards and even wallpaper.
One of our favourite activities this week has been making waffles. We weighed out the ingredients, looking at how they changed from dry to a batter, used tools including whisks to mix everything together and were very careful when using a waffle maker. The best bit was definitely when we were able to eat them at snack time with some yummy jam!
Despite the chilly and wet weather we have spent time outdoors digging in the sand pit, whisking water to make bubbles with balloon whisks, bouncing round the garden on space hoppers and developing our coordination and ball skills by throwing and catching with our friends. While we had lots of fun, we really can’t wait for the warmer and sunny weather to arrive!
Week beginning 3rd January
We have all settled in really well since coming back after the Christmas break and have loved talking about all the lovely presents we received as well as the fun we had with our families. It has been a busy week with lots of new friends joining nursery and we have been very kind, helping them to settle in, learn where everything is and how to follow our rules and routines. We’re going to have so much fun together!
We have been working hard on our mark-making skills using pens on whiteboards, colouring in colouring sheets, using chunky chalks on the giant chalkboards and using stamps and ink pads. We have continued to enjoy looking at books by ourselves and sharing them with our friends as well as snuggling up with them on the sofa in the cosy corner. We have been developing our creative and imaginative skills using all the exciting boxes, cartons and containers brought in by the teachers after the holidays! We have enjoyed pretending to be builders by using the big wooden blocks, real tools to undo and then tighten screws and by dressing up wearing goggles and tool belts – can we fix it? Yes we can! We have been working hard developing our mathematical skills by trying to balance the scales using toys from nursery, sorting bears and matching and posting letters in a posting game.
We have enjoyed developing our gross and fine motor skills, both inside nursery and in our garden. We have been rolling tyres and making cable reels move by laying over them, balancing and climbing, jumping in muddy puddles, riding the trikes and pouring and moving water in the mud kitchen.
We are looking forward to all the fun things that another term at nursery will bring!
Week beginning 12th December
This week we have been very busy having lots of Christmassy fun! We have been singing Christmas songs, making calendars and Christmas cards, decorating tree decorations, icing Christmas biscuits and making reindeer food to put out on Christmas Eve to help Santa's reindeers guide his sleigh to our homes ready to deliver all our presents!
We have had a fun filled, but busy first term at nursery and are looking forward to the New Year and all the exciting activities we know we are going to be taking part in.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from everyone at nursery!
Week beginning 5th December
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas at nursery! We’ve had lots of fun decorating the Christmas tree, choosing where to put the tinsel and shiny baubles before making a glitter star for the top. The bottom 2 thirds of the tree where we could reach looked very festive! We used our creative skills to make and decorate a post box so we could post Christmas cards to our friends and enjoyed exploring the curiosity corner which had a Christmas theme and where we were able to look at and handle decorations, singing Santas and bears and try on Christmas costumes and hats.
We have had lots of opportunities to develop both our fine and gross motor skills this week. We have made and written Christmas cards, used chalks, sponges and rollers dipped in water to make marks on large sheets of paper on the floor, threaded laces and made marks in trays of glitter with our fingers and tools. We used the foam bricks and the large wooden blocks to build tall towers and our own constructions, pedalled the bikes and trikes, practised our climbing and balancing skills on the garden equipment and explored what happens when we pour water and roll items including conkers down tubes and pipes. We practiced our hand–eye coordination as well our awareness of safety when we cut up vegetables with knives and used hammers to break up and explore ice in the tuff tray outside.
We have continued to be creative, both inside nursery and in the garden. We made a range of different sounds using the instruments on the garden music wall and made our own snow, exploring it using our senses as well as drawing in it with our fingers. We handled ice, talking out how it felt and observing what happens to it when it’s in the sun and used a variety of tools including brushes, sponges and rollers in water to make marks on the chalkboards and the playground. We are all looking forward to a busy and fun last week of term!
Week beginning 28th November
This week we have enjoyed playing outside, despite the cold and chilly weather! We have been developing our gross motor skills by climbing on the wooden climbing frame in the garden and using the ropes to hold on while we were balancing. We have been working hard to practice our pedalling skills on the Infant School playground when we took the bikes and trikes out and had fun giving our friends lifts in the bike with a seat for passengers. We have enjoyed exploring sea creatures in water and sand in the tuff tray and using spades, scoops, sieves and buckets to dig sand and build sandcastles in the sand pit. We have been developing our mark-making skills by painting with water and large brushes on the blackboard easels and had fun exploring our voices when we spoke, sang and shouted into giant plastic tubes.
Inside nursery we have been busy in the home corner developing our imaginative skills by looking after the babies and reading them stories, cooking dinner and making very important phone calls. We explored size and shape as well as develop our understanding of the world when we made tall towers and houses out of foam bricks. We enjoyed being creative and exploring the marks we make when we used roller brushes to paint on long lengths of wallpaper and practised our writing, using chunky chalks to add to the chalkboard calendar. We have been learning to take turns and build our friendships as well as develop our matching and fine motor skills when we played a postman game. We hope that very soon, the postman will be delivering lots of Christmas cards!
Week beginning 21st November
This week at nursery we have been developing our imaginative and role-play skills. We have been talking on the telephone, putting on our shower caps before jumping in the shower and pretending to wash in the curiosity corner which has been set up as a bathroom. We enjoyed playing with a shower head, especially when it was connected to the taps and we could wash the dolls and rinse them off with real running water! We have been working hard as a team to build in the construction area using the giant wooden blocks to make houses and the long planks to make bridges which we used to practice our balancing skills.
We have been exploring magnets, using them to catch fish in the fishing game and to find out which objects we can pick up and have enjoyed relaxing in the reading pod where we have looked at our favourite books and shared them with our friends. We had lots of fun finding out about movement after we had been pushing objects with wheels around nursery and the teachers suggested we tried using the office chairs! We were very sensible and patient, waiting our turn before sitting in the chairs and pushing each other around the classroom. We developed this play by independently creating a bus stop and making tickets which we then used to buy rides on the chairs which we pretended were buses.
We have continued to develop our fine motor skills by opening and closing locks and doors and by threading and posting objects including the numbered slices of wood onto a post. We have enjoyed mark-making, both on a small and large scale. Inside nursery we used our fingers in trays of glitter and on the big playground we used chunky chalks to make large shapes as well as write letters and draw pictures.
Outside we have wrapped up warm and been using the space hoppers to develop our co-ordination and balance and in the Infant School playground we have been practicing our pedalling by riding the bikes. We have been playing with water, exploring how it moves using pots and pans to transport it and using watering cans to pour it which has helped develop our physical skills and the strength in our arms and shoulders. We have had lots of fun in the winter sunshine at Imagination Land with our friends and teachers where we have been running, climbing, crawling, balancing, sliding and rolling.
Week beginning 14th November
This week at nursery we have been busy learning all about how things work and exploring household items. We used a hand operated whisk to mix shaving foam and paint which helped develop the muscles in our hands which is really important when we later begin to write. We chopped a range of fruits and vegetables, being very careful with the knives and then used an electric blender to blend them together which gave us lots of chances to talk about healthy eating and to look at change. We had a very exciting snack time where we used a hand held electric whisk to blend together flour, eggs and milk to make a batter which we later cooked in a waffle maker before eating the finished waffles – yummy!
We have been reading The Smartest Giant in Town and have enjoyed using props to help us act out the story including a range of spoon puppets and giant clothes like George gave away in the book. We are very grateful to the daddy who donated a whole set of George the Giant clothes; we had lots of fun dressing up in them and it really helped us build on our understanding of the story. We enjoyed using the spoon puppets so much we used a range of materials including feathers, lolly sticks and googly eyes to make our own. This gave us opportunities to develop our creativity, make choices about resources and how to use them and to practice our fine motor skills.
We have continued this week to develop our early writing skills by mark-making in flour and using large chalks to draw on sugar paper. We explored cause and effect when we mixed powder paint and bubble mixture together and used cardboard tubes to blow coloured bubbles. We have enjoyed finding out about spaces and enclosures by trying to fit ourselves into cardboard boxes and by playing hide and seek. But we had the most fun when we had a sleepover day where we wore our pyjamas to nursery, pretended to go to bed in sleeping bags and snuggled under blankets while watching a film and eating popcorn – what sleepy heads!
Despite the wet and chilly weather, we have enjoyed being outside where we have been creative in the mud kitchen by pretending to cook and wash up, and in the tuff tray we played with the small world sea creatures in water finding out about habitats. At forest school we have been developing our physical skills by climbing the trees, balancing on the large wooden climbing frame, running and swinging on the giant rope swings. We have enjoyed exploring how the forest is changing now autumn is here by collecting and examining the different colours and shapes of leaves before exploring the overgrown areas and bushes. We worked together using natural resources to make a bug hotel and we can’t wait to see who checks in!
Week beginning 7th November
We have had lots of fun at forest school this week. We enjoyed watching and trying to catch drips of water falling from trees, sharing the big swing and finding and looking at all the different leaves. We used magnifying glasses to explore the wildlife and the residents of the bug hotel and enjoyed hunting for and holding lots of wiggly worms!
In the nursery garden we have been digging in the sand pit and developing our hand-eye coordination by carefully picking up conkers with big spoons and transporting them to lengths of guttering where we watched them roll down. The very heavy rain didn’t stop us from playing outside and we had lots of fun attempting to catch the water running off the roof using small cones, bowls and plates.
Inside we have been sharing the Aliens Love Underpants story and when we arrived at nursery one morning, there were pants everywhere! We used our fine motor skills to peg the pants onto a washing line and a clothes airer and then took part in lots of pants activities including counting, sorting & matching the pants and designing our own pants. We have been learning all about our bodies and playing in the hospital role-play area. We pretended to book appointments and look at x-rays on the computer, used the doctor’s kit to examine the dolls and had fun finding out all about skeletons.
We have been exploring change and using our senses this week. We made popcorn using a popcorn machine and were really excited when the hard corn changed and popcorn started coming out of it – it made some of us jump! In the tuff trays we used our hands and feet to feel and explore mud. We added water and enjoyed mixing it and then squelching in it before washing our muddy toes.
Week beginning 31st October
In nursery this week we have been developing our creativity. We’ve mixed paints together and explored the new colours we made and used large blocks to make constructions. We worked hard as a team to make a castle and our King had a shiny, saucepan crown! We enjoyed exploring rhythm when we played a range of different drums and percussion instruments. We continued to develop our fine motor skills by using chalks on large sheets of black paper to make squiggles, lines and even letters, practised our early writing skills using pens and notebooks and used our fingers to make marks in cornflour.
We enjoyed finding out about different celebrations including Halloween, Bonfire Night and Diwali. We laminated photos of people celebrating - talking about their clothes and the food they eat and we especially enjoyed making and then eating special sweets.
We had the most fun making marks in paint with a tyre. We had been putting chalks inside a large car tyre and exploring the marks they made as the tyre moved. Miss McCoy wondered what would happen if we moved the tyre in paint and so we worked together to cover it in paint. We enjoyed feeling the texture of the paint on our hands and moving the tyre along sheets of paper although it didn’t always go the way we wanted it to! Miss McCoy had nearly as much fun as us and we all got very painty!
Outside we have been moving in lots of different ways including balancing on tyres, moving large tubes, rolling hoops and going down steps. We have been working hard on developing our pedalling skills, spending lots of time riding the nursery bikes. We continue to enjoy exploring the mud kitchen where we have been cooking cakes using mud, stones and leaves and in the sand pit we have been using diggers, sieves and spades to move the sand around.
Week beginning 17th October
This week at nursery we have been developing our awareness of safety by using a range of tools and equipment. We made soup; using knives to cut up the vegetables, can openers to open tins of tomatoes and a soup maker to cook and blend the soup. We were very careful and sensible and really enjoyed eating the finished result! We used a range of tools including scissors, staplers and drills to make holes for eyes for the model robots we created out of junk and used scissors to cut a range of natural materials including leaves and twigs. We explored pumpkins, using knives, drills and spoons to cut them open and scoop out the insides – we were very surprised to find so many seeds inside!
We enjoyed making dens out of fabric, rope and blocks in the construction area and played in them throughout the week. We especially enjoyed using torches in the dens to explore light and darkness and then moving around nursery shining them onto different surfaces to see how the light reflected.
We have continued to be very busy in the garden where we have been exploring how to make bubbles in the tuff tray, use our bodies to climb and balance on the climbing frames and have mixed sand and shaving foam, using our senses to explore the texture. We have been developing our mark making skills by using tools and our fingers to draw in wet sand, paintbrushes and coloured water to paint on the whiteboard and chunky chalks to draw on the giant blackboards. Spending so much time in the garden has given us lots of opportunities to practice our independence skills by putting on and taking off out wetsuits!
Week beginning 10th October
This week at nursery we have been busy developing our fine motor skills. We have been making marks with pencils attached to cars and other vehicles, drawing and colouring pictures and painting with our fingers. We have enjoyed using chalks to make marks on different textures including bubble wrap, silver foil, bark and pieces of wood on the mark-making table and using scissors to snip paper and cardboard. We carried on developing these skills outside where we used hammers to tap nails into logs and chalked on the big playground, the giant easels, on boxes and foam blocks and any other surfaces we could find including traffic signs!
We have been using our exploration skills to find out how things move – rolling items down ramps, sand down pieces of drainpipe and cars down the click-clack track. We used our looking eyes to explore what we could see through magnifying glasses and when examining lights in the curiosity corner. We have continued to enjoy looking at books, sharing them in every area of nursery with the adults and with our friends. We have used our listening ears when exploring the sounds of various musical instruments and when following instructions to move in different ways and when helping to set up the snack area.
Outside we have enjoyed exploring in Imagination Land where we have been running up and down the hills, rolling down the slope, chasing each other, playing hide and seek and climbing on the storyteller’s chair. We were really interested in exploring the different parts of a bicycle and using diggers in the sand pit. We had great fun at forest school where we collected conkers, leaves and twigs, pushed each other on the swings and balanced on the logs. We can’t wait to see what next week brings!
Week beginning 3rd October
This week at nursery we have been busy finding out about how things move. We have been rolling cars down tubes, bicycle wheel down ramps and pushing cable reels in the garden. We have been exploring magnets and working out which objects they can pick up and we were really surprised when certain things stuck like magic! We were very curious about what was inside some of the tin cans and so with the help of an adult, we opened them and used spoons to scoop out the contents. We used our senses to explore the beans we found inside and developed our descriptive language as we talked about what they looked, felt and smelt like.
We have continued to develop our early mark-making and fine motor skills by chalking on the easel, using markers on the whiteboards, drawing in notebooks, colouring in pictures and writing on clipboards in the construction area. We enjoyed exploring natural materials including twigs, leaves and conkers and used them to create beautiful collage pictures to take home. We also had fun painting with glue and glitter and working together over several days to make a piece of giant layered artwork.
We have enjoyed working as a team to build large scale constructions with the giant building blocks and using our thinking skills to work out how to join materials including large branches and lengths of drainpipe. We have been detectives, going on a number and shape hunt inside and matching numerals with quantities. We have really enjoyed snuggling up for stories in the cosy corner with our friends and the teachers.
Outside we have been practising our developing physical skills by balancing, climbing, sliding and jumping off the garden climbing equipment. We have been painting various objects with water and paintbrushes and exploring bubbles, water and equipment with holes including colanders and sieves. We were very keen to help the adults to top up the sand pit and had lots of fun scooping and filling containers with sand as well as making sandcastles. What a busy week!
Week beginning 26th September
This week at nursery we have really enjoyed being outside. We have been building and balancing blocks and pretending to be builders using shaving foam to join bricks in the tuff tray. We developed this play in to making cakes when we added mud and water to the tray and pretended it was chocolate! We worked as a team to move large objects around the garden including lengths of tubing demonstrating our good communication and negotiation skills. We enjoyed painting on the giant chalkboard using little sponges dipped into water and were fascinated when our marks eventually disappeared. We had great fun chasing each other round, moving around obstacles and changing our speed – we needed a drink after all that exercise. We had our first visit to forest school where we ran round the fields, hid in the bushes, explored the conkers, looked for bugs, used the rope swings, climbed on the equipment and found enormous sticks!
Inside nursery we have been sharing books with our friends and exploring different types of technology including laptops, tablets and cameras which we used to take photos of our friends. We have been busy in the home corner looking after the babies, using the home office and cooking tea for each other. We have been working hard to develop our fine motor skills using tweezers to pick up small objects, by making models with junk and by rolling, prodding and pinching the playdough we made together.
Week beginning 19th September
This week at nursery we have been busy developing our fine motor skills. Inside we have been attempting to write letters from our names in the mark-making area and on the construction board we have been using pencils to draw and colour pictures. We enjoyed using a hole punch just like in a real office! We have had lots of fun writing cards, letters and invitations and then posting them in our post box and have used a variety of tools including sponges to make marks in paint. We have been busy exploring a range of junk and then working out how to join it together with tape and glue to make models.
We have used our imaginations in a role-play shop where we worked as a shop assistant using the till and developing our mathematical knowledge by counting money. We enjoyed handling real food including a pineapple and packing our shopping bags with tins and packets. We showed how careful we can be when we used real tools including saws and hammers to cut wood and open conker shells – we were very surprised to find shiny conkers inside!
We have continued to enjoy outside play where we have enjoyed role-play picnics, used tools and counted items, attempting to use chalk to make marks which stand for numbers. Another busy and fun week for everyone.
Week beginning 12th September
This week at nursery we have been developing our creative skills using paint, junk and collage materials to make models and paintings as well as making marks with chalks on the easel. We have enjoyed snuggling up with our new friends on the sofa and sharing books together as well as making and serving dinner for each other in the home corner.
In the garden we have been exploring how things move by pushing cable reels, rolling objects along planks and pouring water down pipes. We have been experimenting with making sounds using the instruments on the music wall, banging pots and pans and using big sticks along the nursery fence. Everyone enjoyed the sounds we made! We have been finding out about maps and used them in our play outside as well as developing our early writing skills using notebooks and pens. We have had lots of fun cooking in the mud kitchen using the things we have found in the garden including leaves, sticks, mud, stones and shiny conkers!
We have been developing our gross movement skills including rolling, running and jumping in Imagination Land as well as balancing, swinging on ropes and climbing on the nursery climbing frames.
We are all very tired but very happy and looking forward to another busy week next week!
Week beginning 5th September
We’ve had a busy first week back at nursery. The children who remained with us from last year have quickly settled back into nursery life and have been very kind towards the new children who have been busy getting to know everyone and learning the nursery rules and routines. We are very proud of them all!
All the children have had great fun exploring the classroom, garden and all the exciting activities on offer. We are looking forward to having lots more adventures together!
2021 - 2022
Week beginning 16th May 2022
This week at nursery we have enjoyed the sunshine and spent time playing in the garden. We have enjoyed balancing on tyres, experimenting with rolling objects down tubes, pipes and boards and exploring the possibilities of large empty boxes by turning them into beds, boats and houses. In the mud kitchen, we have been developing our hand to eye coordination by pouring water from big jugs into cups and bowls and have developed our creativity by mixing sand, mud and water to make cakes and pies. We used our detective skills to go on a shape hunt and spent a long time looking at, and caring for a snail we found in the nursery garden.
Inside nursery we have been finding out about different occupations and had fun dressing up as nurses looking after each other in the role-play hospital. The curiosity corner has given us lots of opportunities to explore a range of objects and materials and we particularly enjoyed pulling funny faces in a range of mirrors. The best part of nursery this week was definitely preparing and making our own toast for snack time. We enjoyed using the toaster, spreading the butter and choosing which topping to have although the best bit was definitely eating it!
Week beginning 25th April 2022
This week at nursery, we have been working as a group to move things round the garden – using our muscles and co-ordination to carry round large tubes. We have been making marks using a variety of materials including chalks, crayons, wet and dry sand and water and inside we have been developing our early writing skills by copying letters. We have enjoyed exploring the sounds that instruments make and have danced along to different rhythms.
We have spent lots of time in the sand pit digging for treasure and filling and emptying containers and have used our imagination by cooking in the mud kitchen and on a pretend campfire! We have been developing our control and hand to eye coordination by using real tools to screw items together and to bang in nails and have really enjoyed moving our bodies in lots of ways on the garden climbing equipment.
Week beginning 14th March
This week at nursery we have continued to enjoy being outside. At Forest School we have been sliding down mud slides, climbing trees, going on the rope- swings, playing chasing games and ‘cooking’ in the mud kitchen. We have really enjoyed regular visits to the Year R playground in the Infant school where we been playing on the fort, sliding down the slide, climbing on the climbing walls and rope-nets and running up and over the hills and exploring through the tunnels.
In the nursery garden we have been busy planting flowers and vegetables ready for the summer, using the climbing equipment, balancing on the tyres, working together in the sand pit to fill and empty containers and using giant chalks to make marks and draw pictures. We enjoyed having breakfast at snack time in the garden – making and buttering toast, eating cereals and milk and making our own fruit juice. We were very interested in frogspawn, looking at and talking about how it is changing – we are excited to see what happens in the next few weeks! We have been making lots of use of our new cosy reading area, snuggling up together and sharing books, stories and puppets.
Week beginning 31st January
This week in nursery we have been very busy in the garden! We helped open the bags of sand needed to refill our sand pit and used spades, scoops and jugs to move it. We 'cooked' in the mud kitchen using the microwave, chopping boards, pots and pans and explored paint, making marks in it using natural materials including pine cones. We had lots of fun using the bubble machine and we talked about, and explored, seeds before planting our very own beans in pots - we can't wait to see them grow! At Imagination Land we played Duck, Duck, Goose and showed how good we are at following rules and listening.
Inside nursery we celebrated Chinese New Year and really enjoyed tasting noodles, prawn crackers and sweet and sour sauce. We built giant towers with Duplo and spent a long time laid on our tummies chalking on giant sheets of paper and on the floor. We had fun scooping and pouring sand into containers and played nicely alongside our friends when we made dinner together in the home corner.
Week beginning 24th January
We have really enjoyed playing in the nursery garden this week and spent most of our time out there!
We discovered how hard we can blow when we mixed washing up liquid and water and then used straws to make bubbles; we had to be very careful not to suck on the straw though! We used tools including paintbrushes and little sponges to paint and explore colour mixing both in the tuff trays and on the large whiteboards. We used our senses to explore textures including dried rice and pasta and developed our control over tools by digging for real carrots in the mud kitchen. We enjoyed looking after the babies in the role-play Doctor's surgery and practised our climbing and balancing skills on the climbing frames. We were very careful and showed really good listening skills to follow instructions when we used a real cordless drill and screwdrivers.
Inside nursery we made tea in the home corner using real crockery, dressed up as Police Officers and developed out fine motor skills by building towers with large tin cans and by threading dried spaghetti into holes in slices of wood.
Week beginning 4th January
We have enjoyed our first week back after the Christmas break! In the garden we used chalks to make marks and write numbers on the giant chalkboards and used our bodies to balance and climb on the climbing frames. The very wet and cold weather gave us the opportunity to jump in puddles, move water by using jugs and various sized containers and to explore ice. We enjoyed thinking of ways to get to the fish frozen in the tuff trays and decided that using a hammer worked best!
Inside we have been developing our fine motor skills by threading cotton reels with laces and string and using scissors to snip paper. We have enjoyed using our creative skills by designing and building junk models using different sized boxes and by using tools in paint to make marks and explore patterns.
Week beginning 6th December
This week the wet and cold weather hasn’t stopped us exploring outside! In the mud kitchen we made ‘coffee and tea’, using jugs, pots and kettles to pour water, scissors to snip ‘ingredients’ and spoons and ladles to scoop and mix. We developed our mathematical skills by measuring and estimating, and explored time when we set the timer on the microwave. In the garden, we moved in lots of different ways when we negotiated an obstacle course and made marks using water on the giant chalkboards. At Forest School we developed our fine motor skills using a hand drill to make holes in logs; we were very pleased when we were able to do this without any adult support.
Inside we have been using our imagination to act out roles when we styled our hair in the hairdressers, pretending to use hairdryers and straighteners! We enjoyed making patterns on the windows using materials and shapes and used the chalks to draw pictures on the easel. We have been getting excited about Christmas and had lots of fun with glitter, glue and sparkly things to design and make our own Christmas cards.
Week beginning 15th November
This week at nursery we have been very busy!
In the garden we have been playing on both of the climbing frames and have practised our balancing, sliding, climbing and swinging which has helped develop our muscles as well as our confidence. We were very brave when we went on a real life bear hunt in Imagination Land and moved in lots of ways as we searched for him. In the nursery garden we went on a shape hunt and used our detective skills to find different shaped items including parts of the climbing frame and the drain cover and we even used sticks to make our own shapes. We had fun playing with the small world creatures, splashing them in the water in the tuff tray!
Inside we used rice, pasta and noodles to make our own musical instruments and enjoyed exploring the different sounds they made. We matched coloured bean bags to coloured spots and developed our coordination skills by throwing them on the correct one. We had the best fun when we spent a day dressed as pirates; making pirate hats, treasure maps, singing pirate songs and reading pirate stories – arrrr!!
Week beginning 4th October
This week we have been enjoying the Autumn sunshine and spending lots of time outside. We enjoyed making tea in the mud kitchen, showing our developing control when pouring out ‘the tea’ into cups for our friends and the teachers, and explored the different instruments, using sticks to see if we could change the sounds they make. We visited imagination Land where we played hide and seek and chase, as well as rolling and sliding down the hill. At Forest School, we had fun building, collecting and transporting large sticks and swinging on the tyres but the highlight was definitely having our snack there – we want to go for lunch there now!
Inside nursery we have been enjoying sharing books and stories. We explored the Very Hungry Caterpillar story sack, using the props to help us to retell the story, enjoyed lifting the flaps looking for the animals underneath in Dear Zoo and even pretended to be teachers reading to the whole class! We have been building towers and hiding toys in them for our friends to find, explored shaving foam and even went to the moon like Baby Bear, having a picnic when we got there!
Week beginning 27th September
This week at nursery we have had lots of fun exploring outside! We were really excited to visit Forest School where we explored the trees, bushes, swings, the brand new Hobbit House and even the new outdoor toilet! We were keen to investigate and include our new friends in our play – we loved showing the adults all the exciting things we had found! We were very sensible and showed we were able to cooperate with the boundaries and follow the rules. We visited Imagination Land where we moved in lots of different ways including crawling, rolling, balancing, running and scrambling and enjoyed hiding in the tunnel.
In the nursery garden we used jugs and various sized containers to pour and transport water and had lots of fun splashing in puddles. We looked at numbers and then tried to match the number of actions such as jumps and in the mud kitchen we 'cooked' different foods including a McDonald’s happy meal!
Inside, we explored a range of natural resources including twigs, sticks, leaves, conkers, mud and flowers which we later used with brushes, rollers and sponges to paint with.
We are really enjoying autumn and can’t wait to explore more of the changes happening all around us.
Week beginning 20th September
This week we have had fun exploring textures when we played with shaving foam and we explored change when we made our own playdough. We used a range of tools to roll and cut out our newly made playdough and selected different materials including boxes, foam, pompoms, scissors and glue sticks to make junk models including a car we could actually sit in!
In the garden we cooked dinner and made sandwiches in the mud kitchen using foam bricks as bread, talking about how to use knives safely and found a steering wheel and used it to drive to Peppa Pig World!
We developed our mark-making skills by drawing with marker pens and chalks on the giant easels in the garden and explored what happens when we mix paint; using brushes, rollers, pine cones, feather and conkers to paint with. We were very excited to visit Imagination Land where we remembered the rules and had lots of fun running, chasing, climbing and rolling.
Week beginning 13th September
What a busy week we've had! We've been making friends and exploring all areas of nursery. We've been looking at what happens when we mix colours when painting, using a range of tools including rollers and brushes to make marks with the paint both inside and on the giant whiteboards in the garden. We have been using various construction materials to build and balance and used our imaginations to take on roles in our play, pretending to be fire-fighters and shop assistants We have enjoyed trying out different musical instruments, listening to the sounds they make and finding out what happens when we use them really fast and very slow.
We have looked inside conkers and explored magnifying glasses and were really surprised when everything looked bigger! We have shown how careful we can be when we used real tools, including hammers and saws, to cut a range of hard and soft objects.
Nursery is lots of fun!
Week beginning 6th September
The new children have been getting to know everyone and learn the nursery rules and routines. We are very proud of how quickly they have settled in and how kind and friendly the children who have remained with us from last year have been towards their new friends.
All the children have had great fun exploring the classroom, garden and all the exciting activities on offer. We are looking forward to having lots more adventures together!
2020 - 2021
Week beginning 21st June
We have been exploring lots this week at nursery. We looked at the texture board and used words including scratchy, fuzzy, bumpy and spongy to describe the different materials. We used more descriptive words when we made footprints in paint; saying that the paint was squishy, cold and soft and developed our self help skills by washing and drying our own feet before putting our socks back on.
We enjoyed visiting Forest School where we found cherries and explored them - talking about their texture, colour and size and then using pieces of tree bark to cut them up. We were very surprised to find stones inside! In the garden we continued to look after our vegetables by watering them and had fun going on a bug hunt; we found wiggly worms and very slow snails and used our technology skills to draw pictures of the bugs we found on the nursery tablets. Inside we had fun rolling cars down race tracks we made out of wooden blocks and worked as a team to build and then play on our new soft play equipment. We showed how kind and caring we can be by looking after the babies and had fun developing new friendships, exploring the garden together.
Week beginning 14th June
We have had fun in the garden this week! We have used various sized pots, pans and jugs to our water down the pipes on our water wall. We used our developing mathematical skills to measure out the water and then time how long it took to travel down the pipes by using the timer on a tablet. We developed our turn taking skills when playing a throwing and catching game with a beach ball and tried to see who could do it the most times! We used our creative skills to design and make a scarecrow using a tennis racquet, hat, fabric and sellotape and showed how helpful we are when we washed and cleaned Miss McCoy's car.
Inside nursery we continued to enjoy spending time with the ducks, especially when they went for a swim and we watched them paddling. We used our counting skills to post the right number of balls down numbered tubes and then practiced our mark-making by writing the corresponding number on post it notes. We cooled down when it got too hot outside by making fruit flavoured slushy drinks. Wee spoke about what the ice felt like, made predications about what would happen to it and developed out use of technology by operating the ice machine.
Week beginning 7th June
We've had a very exciting week this week as our duck eggs arrived. We waited really patiently for them to hatch and on Thursday we were rewarded with 5 very fluffy, noisy ducklings! We have enjoyed watching them as they get used to their new home in the big cage and were very gentle and careful when we had a chance to hold them. We have spent lots of time talking about how the ducklings grow and change and have also found out about the creatures in our garden, using magnifying glasses to look at caterpillars, spiders and snails.
We have taken part in lots of duck themed activities including signing songs, matching the numbers on paper ducks and using pegs to hang them up, which helped develop the strength in our fingers, and playing 'hook a duck' - great for our developing hand-eye- coordination.
We have continued to be interested in our vegetable patch, particularly how big the vegetables have grown, using rulers to measure them before eating them!
Week beginning 24th May
It has been a very exciting week as we have dug up and tasted our radishes that we planted as seeds – they were very tasty! We explored change when we squeezed orange juice and then froze it to make ice lollies which we enjoyed eating at snack time. We used a range of materials including dried pasta, rice and noodles to design and make our own musical instruments and had fun singing songs and telling jokes around our pretend camp fire. We explored paint and shaving foam and used it to paint on both the large whiteboards and blackboards in the garden.
We were very busy inside nursery too. We acted out the Gingerbread Man story, practised cleaning our teeth in the role-play dentist surgery and played ball games with a beach ball. We are all looking forward to some sunshine and warmer weather – perhaps we will be able to make our own beach in the garden!
Week beginning 17th May
We have had a busy week at nursery. We have been tasting different foods at snack time and enjoyed curry sauce and naan bread so much we had seconds! We explored what happens to ice when it comes out of the freezer and looked at how ingredients change when we made playdough. We enjoyed preparing, making and then eating our own fruit smoothies – yummy!
Outside we developed our mark-making skills by painting with water on the giant blackboards and by using chalks to copy patterns. We made pretend cupcakes in the mud kitchen; weighing, measuring and mixing the ingredients before putting them in the microwave to cook. We demonstrated our knowledge of our favourite stories by acting out Room on the Broom and found out how things move in the wind when we made kites. We didn’t let the rain stop us having fun and really enjoyed splashing in muddy puddles just like Peppa Pig!
Week beginning 10th May
We’ve been very busy again this week, spending lots of time in the nursery garden. We’ve enjoyed pretending to be builders, playing in the role-play building site and using diggers and bricks to make towers. We have explored the sounds of items in the garden, including the drums, and used sticks to make different sounds on tyres, pots and pans. We used our investigative skills to work out which items outside were magnetic and were very surprised when the magnets seemed to attach themselves to things like magic! We had lots of opportunities to develop our fine motor skills, as well as learning about keeping ourselves and other safe, when we used real tools including hammers, saws and screwdrivers. We explored what happens when we mix colours and had lots of fun painting on a giant scale on glass using brushes, tools and our hands in paint and bubbly water. We did some more gardening, planting grass seed, and there was great excitement when we dug up some of the radishes we had planted and were able to eat them! The mud kitchen is still one of our favourite places to be and we enjoyed digging in the mud after the rain and using recipe books to help us prepare meals including carrot and mud soup!
Week beginning 4th May
We’ve had another busy week at nursery. We have enjoyed making up and writing our own songs and then performing them to our friends, using instruments, clapping and singing. We have practiced our fine motor skills by writing letters, painting with water on the giant chalkboards and by playing with the magnetic fishing game. We developed our imaginative and creative skills by making models with junk, creating collages with different materials and through exploring the texture of items around nursery. We used our language and communication skills to recreate roles when we bought and sold items in the role-play toy shop and when we ‘cooked’ using sand in the mud kitchen. Counting, sorting and matching the amount of pine cones to numerals developed our mathematical knowledge and visiting Imagination Land helped us build our muscles as we moved in lots of different ways. There was a lot of excitement when we used the new bubble wands to blow huge bubbles in the garden – we needed lots of breath, it was hard work!
Week beginning 26th April
This week at nursery the children have been using their creative skills to design and build junk models and have explored the sounds of a range of musical instruments including a ukulele, tambourines and maracas. They have developed their fine motor skills by taking part in a range of ‘funky fingers’ type activities including posting counters and matchsticks into containers and built on their technology skills by playing games on a computer after they were observed playing with an old laptop in the home corner!
The children have enjoyed the nice weather by spending long periods in the garden this week. They have performed puppet shows, using their design skills to make tickets and used their developing technology skills to programme the BeeBots. All week the children listened to The Three Little Pigs and they showed their knowledge of the story by talking about and drawing the different houses the pigs built. In Imagination Land the children had fun moving in lots of different ways including rolling, running, crawling, sliding and scrambling.
Week beginning 19th April
The children have been busy this week designing, planning and building houses and then using diggers to move the sand and bricks to build with in the garden. They have had lots of fun practising their ball skills by throwing, catching and making up games using hoops as targets and have developed their balancing and climbing skills on the climbing frames outside. The children have enjoyed ‘cooking’ with mud and sand in the mud kitchen and at Forest School they played hiding games, looked at leaves and pushed their friends on the tyre swings. They showed how careful and sensible they are by using real tools including hammers, saws and screwdrivers on pieces of wood.
Inside nursery the children developed their literacy skills by making passports and by recognising logos including their favourite pizza and burger restaurants! Some of the children had fun by exploring what is inside a computer when they used tools to take one apart.
Week beginning 29th March
This week we have enjoyed the sunshine, taking the opportunity to spend lots of time in the garden. We explored the sounds of various objects in the garden including metal pots and pans and showed how good we are becoming at climbing, balancing and jumping off equipment. We had fun making marks in paint with different items including sticks, tyres and bunches of twigs. We explored paint volcanoes in the tuff tray where there were also dinosaurs. We demonstrated how we are able to show care and concern for living things by taking care of the seeds we planted recently and enjoyed using the watering can.
Inside nursery we took part in lots of Easter themed activities. We explored patterns by matching together Easter egg halves and particularly enjoyed making bird nest cakes to take home for tea, yummy! We extended our knowledge of growing by planting cress and are looking forward to seeing how big it grows.
Week beginning 22nd March
We had so much fun this week at nursery when we visited Forest School! We practiced our independence skills by putting on our own coats, splash suits and wellies, and demonstrated good listening skills by following the adults and walking sensibly together on our way there. There was so much to do when we got to Forest School and so many places to investigate! We developed our balance and coordination by using the ropes and walking on the wooden logs and used our imaginations, ‘cooking’ with the leaves and mud. We used our muscles to climb the tress and scramble over the wooden pallets which will really help us when we are using pencils and later learning to write. We ran, rolled and tumbled, and chased each other, hiding in trees and bushes. We had lots of fun exploring the wildlife living in Forest School, going on a bug hunt, looking under logs for woodlice and digging for worms; some of us were even brave enough to hold them, although they were very wriggly!
Back at nursery, we spent a long time designing and building a zoo for all of the small world animals and developed our fine motor skills by threading pasta and making necklaces and by using real tools. At Imagination Land, we explored the equipment, moving our bodies in lots of ways and especially enjoyed rolling down the hill!
Week beginning 15th March
It’s been another busy week at nursery! In the garden, the children have been taking care of the seeds they planted and showed excitement when they noticed they are starting to grow. They have been exploring filling and emptying containers with sand and had lots of fun using the hose to fill jugs and watering cans. The children had lots of opportunities to develop their creativity by painting on large pieces of fabric and by using paint in icing bags to ice toy biscuits and cakes. They enjoyed pretending to cook food and toast marshmallows on the role-play camp fire and had fun exploring what happens to their voices when they speak into giant plastic tubes. There was lots of excitement when the children had the chance to make pizzas using real knives to cut up the vegetables and to talk about healthy eating.
Inside, the children used their problem solving skills to work out how to make bridges for The Three Billy Goats Gruff and to build homes for The Three Little Pigs. They explored different ‘real’ objects and how they work, including watches, magnets, a clock and cameras and developed their awareness of technology by programming the Bee Bots. They looked at similarities and differences by looking at their own and other people’s faces and then painting them.
Week beginning 8th March
This week was very exciting as the children who have been off during lockdown came back to nursery! The children had lots of fun playing with all their friends and the adults enjoyed spending time finding out all the exciting things the children have been up to while at home. In the garden, the children have been showing how they can move in different ways including crawling, jumping and hopping by completing obstacle courses. They had lots of fun preparing soups using shaving foam and paint to cook on a pretend campfire!
Inside nursery, the children have been exploring books and story sacks, using the props to act out the stories and develop their understanding of how they are structured. They have been taking on roles in their play, being shop keepers and pretending to be doctors looking after the sick babies. The children have been developing their mathematical skills, matching numerals to quantities and counting, and exploring shape and height by building giant towers and making arrangements with blocks. They were very excited to be able to use real hammers and screwdrivers and were very sensible, being able to explain and demonstrate how to use them safely. The children have been developing their fine motor skills and the strength in their fingers by using tongs and tweezers to pick up a range of objects including corks and sorting bears.
Week beginning 1st March
What a busy week we’ve had at nursery! In the garden, the children have been mark-making using paintbrushes and water on the giant chalkboards, drawing with their fingers in cornflour gloop and chalking on the floor. They have been developing their creativity by mixing paints and exploring what happens when colours change and investigating the marks made by rolling vehicles in paint. The children have been enjoying lots of opportunities to develop their imagination through role-play experiences including camping and camp fires and tea parties with the ponies! The dry weather has meant the children have been using the climbing frame and garden equipment to balance, crawl, climb and jump from and it's provided the perfect opportunity to plant up lots of vegetables and flowers ready for summer.
Inside nursery the children have been investigating how to use equipment and have had great fun drawing and then laminating their own pictures! They have been exploring a big basket of keys that appeared in the curiosity corner, working out how to use them and trying to find which doors they open. Sorting a tub of worms of different sizes by their length and colour and using rulers to measure them gave the children opportunities to build on their mathematical skills. Playing in small groups, building with foam bricks and constructing pathways helped the children develop their social and communication skills through working together and negotiating plans.
Week beginning 22nd February
This week the children have had opportunities to develop their independence by washing up their cups after snack time and practising their dressing skills. They have extended their mathematical knowledge by playing with magnetic shapes, and counting actions such as jumping, rolling & hopping. Playing games on the computer and programming the BeeBots gave the children chances to develop their awareness of technology and they engaged in creative activities including making instruments, exploring the sounds of real instruments, painting with glitter and using large wooden blocks to design & make houses .
The children have enjoyed the sunshine and spent lots of time in the garden. They have played in the sand pit filling and emptying containers and building sand castles and developed their understanding of various shapes by filling shape cutters. The children have explored what happens when water runs down pipes and tubes and used bubbly water to give the dolls a very chilly bath!
Week beginning 8th February
This week the children have been developing their creativity by making models with junk, building with Duplo and painting their reflections on metal trays. They enjoyed tasting noodles as part of our celebrations for Chinese New Year and worked hard to use the chopsticks which helped develop their fine motor skills. They continued to build on their mark-making skills through writing in the home corner and in the construction area, drawing with their fingers in the snow and painting with paintbrushes on sheets of ice. Pretending to be teachers reading books, and looking at and recognising logos allowed the children to build on their understanding of print and their love of books. Opportunities to play as part of a group, building a house and going on a picnic developed the children's social and imaginative skills and programming the Bee Bots built on their understanding of technology. Outside they have enjoyed being in the sand pit using buckets and spades to dig and fill containers, and exploring Imagination Land where they were keen to move in a variety of ways and to explore the words on signs. The highlight of the week was definitely the snow, which caused great excitement amongst the children and the adults!
Week beginning 1st February
This week the children had lots of fun exploring Imagination Land where they jumped, ran, crawled, hopped, balanced and climbed on the equipment. They enjoyed using the stage to sing and perform, and used the wigwams to act out The Three Little Pigs! In the garden they used chalks and paints on the giant boards, explored the sounds of various pots and pans and moved vehicles down pipes and through tubes. The children demonstrated their ability to use tools safely when they used real hammers to break up ice they found in the tuff trays and knives when they prepared their own pineapple for snack time. Inside, the children counted and matched sorting bears to the correct numerals, explored magnifying glasses and worked hard in the new ‘home office’ set up in the home corner! They developed their mark-making skills by using paintbrushes in shaving foam and using toy animals to print in paint.
Week beginning 25th January
This week the snow and ice caused great excitement at nursery! The children had lots of fun exploring what it felt like, the marks their boots made in it and what happens when it starts warming up and melts. They used hammers to break up the ice which had formed in the tuff tray, using pieces of it to build an igloo for the small world fairies and to draw with on the chalk boards. Everyone was very sad when the snow disappeared!
Inside nursery the children have been developing their fine motor skills by picking up small objects with tweezers and tongs and by posting shapes into shape sorters. There’s been lots of mark-making with the children filling out forms at the hospital and in the cafe. They have enjoyed role-play this week, pretending to be teachers reading stories at mat time, working in the café serving cakes and sandwiches and visiting the hospital, although they didn’t look very impressed with the long waiting time in reception!
Week beginning 18th January
In nursery this week the children have been outside practicing pouring and moving water in the mud kitchen, making slime and mark-making on a large scale on the blackboards. The rain hasn’t stopped them from exploring the garden where they have had lots of fun jumping in puddles, running and climbing.
Indoors they have looked after the poorly dolls, and each other, in the hospital role-play area! They have been using the giant wooden blocks to build castles, used junk to build houses and wrapped presents in the creative area. Using real tools, including hammers and saws, to open conkers and coconuts gave them the opportunity to develop their awareness of keeping safe, although they were a little disappointed to find that the conkers didn’t contain a secret message as they had predicted!
Week beginning 11th January
This week the children have been developing their fine motor skills by threading, chalking on the giant blackboards and painting on the whiteboards in the garden and tracing numbers with pencils. They have been exploring technology; taking photographs of themselves and their friends and programming the Beebots to move around nursery. Engaging in role play, pretending to be doctors and working in a café, gave the children opportunities to develop their imagination and build their social and communication skills. Developing the listening area encouraged the children to explore the sounds of different instruments and painting using their fingers and objects, including small world animals, has promoted their creativity and mark-making skills. The very cold weather provided opportunities to talk about and explore ice, with the children keen to find out what happens when it melts!
Week beginning 4th January 2021
The cold weather hasn't stopped the children having fun in the garden this week where they made mud soup and cakes in the mud kitchen, using a recipe book to help them. They enjoyed playing in the role-play builder’s yard where they used their physical skills to balance and build and inside they have been developing their mathematical skills by building constructions with the giant wooden blocks. The children practised their fine motor skills by threading and by mark-making on giant sheets of paper on the floor and developed their creativity by painting and exploring what happens when they mix colours. The Very Hungry Caterpillar and The Gruffalo story sacks provided the children with opportunities to develop their understanding of how stories are structured and to begin to describe the story and its characters. They engaged in pretend play in the role-play book shop and further built on their mathematical knowledge by making patterns with the sorting bears and playing shape games on the Ipads which also supported their technology skills.
Week beginning 14th December
This week the children have been taking part in group activities to explore rhyme and the rhythm in words and working together to create a giant chalk drawing on large sheets of paper. They used their mark-making skills to make tickets for a train journey and developed their imaginative skills when nursing the poorly dolls. In the garden the children had lots of fun making soup and carrot cake in the mud kitchen, explored what happens when colours are mixed and discovered how water moves along pipes. There has been lots of talk about Christmas and the children enjoyed looking at the Christmas tree and talking about the decorations. They had lots of fun making, and drinking, chocolate milkshakes as well as decorating Christingles; a lovely way to finish the term!
Week beginning 7th December
This week at nursery the children have been spending time in the garden practising their climbing skills, painting on the giant white boards and exploring textures and making marks in shaving foam.
Inside they have been developing their fine motor skills by using tweezers to pick up the sorting bears and then building on their mathematical skills by sorting them. Matching objects to numerals further developed the children’s mathematical knowledge. They enjoyed decorating Gingerbread men pictures with glue and (lots!) of glitter and took it in turns pretending to be teachers reading to the class! With Christmas coming, wrapping pretend presents gave the children opportunities to use scissors and they had fun colouring Christmas pictures on the Ipads and then printing them off in the office. With only one week left at nursery before Christmas, we’re all feeling very excited!
Week beginning 30th November
This week the children have been very creative! They have used junk to make models, both inside and outside, painted on the large whiteboards in the garden and begun to make-believe by pretending to go on a bus journey. They have been developing their fine motor skills by threading cotton reels and making Christmas pasta necklaces as well as chalking on giant sheets of paper. Outside they have had opportunities to practice their climbing, balancing and throwing skills. They have continued to develop their mathematical knowledge by sorting coloured bears, matching shapes and by feeding shape monsters! Sharing stories and props including The Room on the Broom and The Very Hungry Caterpillar have enabled the children to build their understanding of how stories are structured and to begin to join in with repeated parts of the text. The children have been talking lots about Christmas and were really excited to decorate a Christmas tree and by the arrival of a cheeky Elf!
Week beginning 23rd November
This week at nursery the children have been developing their creative skills. They have been taking on roles in their play, cooking in the kitchen and pretending to be hairdressers. They have been exploring using their senses and have enjoyed feeling and beginning to describe different textures. In the creative area, the children used a range of available resources to make their own version of Forky from Toy Story 4 and then used them as props in their games.
The introduction of a new 'design area' situated in the construction area provided the children with the chance to develop their early writing skills alongside one of their favourite activities. Lots of the children, especially the boys, have enjoyed using the new resources and taken a real interest in mark making.
Outside they have been jumping in puddles, climbing and negotiating their way around obstacles, developing their balance and jumping off the garden equipment. The cold, wet weather has meant lots of opportunities for them to practice putting on and taking off their coats, splash suits and welly boots; great for developing their independence!
Week beginning 16th November
This week the children have been developing their mathematical skills by counting, sorting and matching the number of objects to numerals. They have been practicing their fine motor skills by putting pegs in peg boards, using tweezers to pick up pom poms and posting small objects into containers. Outside they have been exploring what happens when you roll items down tubes and have been practicing their climbing and jumping skills. They have enjoyed using objects in paint to print and have been exploring the marks they make when doing finger painting. Some of our children talked about how they celebrated Diwali at home and in nursery we learnt more about Diwali, making Rangoli patterns and Diwali sweets – yummy!
Week beginning 9th November
This week the children have been finding out about shapes and exploring colour and texture. They have been using their imagination to design and build with junk and have been exploring musical instruments and the sounds they make. They have been using their mathematical skills to sort and count and developing their hand-eye coordination by using keys to open padlocks. They have been baking in the home corner and using the role-play hospital to look after each other. In the garden, the children have been busy making sand volcanoes, serving coffee in the café and preparing shaving foam ice-creams! On Friday they had great fun raising money for Children in Need by wearing their pyjamas to nursery; a lovely way to finish another busy week!
Week beginning 2nd November
This week the children have had lots of fun in the garden. They have been digging in the mud kitchen and making bridges, exploring emptying and filling containers with water, practising their balancing skills and have been mark making in the role play builder’s yard. They have enjoyed using the musical instruments in the garden and have been explorers going on a shape hunt! The children enjoyed using finger paints to make Rangoli pictures, developed their counting skills and had fun with the Whatever Next story sack. They made firework chalk pictures, explored spiderwebs in a den in the garden and put out fires when pretending to be Firefighters. The children made the most of the dry sunny days and toasted pretend marshmallows around a campfire in the garden!
October
The children have settled quickly into nursery life and have had lots of fun taking part in the activities on offer. They have been using musical instruments, developing their hand-eye coordination and exploring paint, shaving foam, mud and sand! They are beginning to make friends, are developing their social skills including sharing and turn taking and have had fun taking part in role-play experiences including a Vets, camping and a mobile phone shop. The children are working really hard, learning all the time and we have really enjoyed seeing all the lovely things that parents have been sharing on Tapestry.
September
The children have had a busy first month at nursery! The new children have been getting to know everyone and are beginning to learn the nursery rules and routines. We are very proud of how quickly they have settled in and how kind and friendly the nursery children who remained with us from last year have been towards their new friends. All the children have had great fun exploring the classroom, the garden and all the exciting activities on offer. We are all looking forward to having lots more adventures together!
2019 - 2020
The nursery children have been very busy having lots of fun. The rain hasn’t stopped them from being outside where they have been playing with water beads, using the water wall, climbing on the obstacle course, using hula hoops and riding bikes.
Inside they have been taking part in ‘dough disco’ every day which helps strengthen the muscles in their hands – important for when they later start to write. They have been exploring lots of things in the sensory tray including cold cooked spaghetti, rice, glitter and shaving foam and this week the children have been talking about autumn, looking at different sized pumpkins and using tools to cut them open to discover what is inside as well as making 'pumpkin soup' in the mud kitchen!
We've had a very busy and fun first half-term!
It's been a busy couple of first weeks back at nursery. The new children have been getting to know everyone, exploring the classroom and the garden, as well as learning the routines and rules of nursery. We are very proud of how quickly the new children have settled in and how kind and friendly the nursery children who have remained with us have been towards their new friends.
We started our weekly forest school mornings last week and the children (and adults!) had great fun. They have been on a bear hunt, explored 'the jungle' and collected natural materials to make crowns. The children have been developing their physical skills by using the swing, climbing in the trees, balancing on planks of wood, climbing over pallets and rolling giant wooden reels. They can't wait to go back and explore some more!
At nursery this week we have had some very special visitors. Our eggs arrived and 6 ducklings hatched; the children were very excited and named them Bob, Charlie, Archie (after the new Royal baby!), Chloe, Rosie and Daisy. One of the ducklings had a poorly leg so Mrs Searle and Mrs McCoy made him a splint which helped his leg get better.
The children had lots of fun watching the ducklings in their cage and enjoyed giving them cuddles! The ducklings have now gone to live with a friend of Mrs Searle, who is going to send us regular duck updates!
