NURSERY (CLASS 1)

The children watched a clip from Aladdin about a flying carpet ride. The children pretended they were on a flying carpet and thought about where they would go and what they would see.

Fraya said, ”I’m going to have sandwiches and see a whale.”

Jake said, “Up in the sky to see trees.”

Nicole said, “I’m going to space.”

Joshua said, “Going to the tower.”

Evie said, “Paris. Going to see the Eiffel Tower.”     

Alfie said, “Going to Legoland and play with all the lego.”

Max said, “To the hotel, the one in the forest.”

Mikey said, “New York because they have the Liberty Statue. I would take my mam, dad and sister.”

Mia said, “Spain. Jump in the pool. I don’t need armbands. I can swim by myself.”

What a busy week the children have had exploring!

This week the children have been looking at different local and worldwide landmarks and then created them using drawings, building with blocks or create models using junk modelling.

Zachary said, “Statue.”

Max said, “Drawing the Stadium of Light.”

Isla said, “It’s the Eiffel Tower.”

Isla said, “It’s the Angel of the North.”

Charlie said, “It’s the Empire State Building.”

The children made a paper-mache volcano, then enjoyed making it erupt to talk about the effect it has on the environment.

Evie S said, ”Lava coming out.”

Nicole said, “Very, very, very hot.”

Preston said, “It’s gonna explode.”

Brilie said, “It burns everything.”

Phoebe said, “It’s lava it goes down and covers houses and everything.”

To talk about the changes in materials we melted ice and chocolate.

Gift said, “It will melt because it goes in the microwave and it’s too warm.”

Fraya said, “It’s cold in the freezer, ice. The ice will melt.”

Mikey said, “It’s going to melt cause it’s hot.”

Phoebe said, “The ice cubes will melt and make water again.”

Theo said, “It’s freezing. Gonna lick my hands cause it’s water.”

Kara said, “It can freeze up to ice. Why’s it already melting? My hand is warm.”

Gift said, “This bead melted cause it’s nice and warm in here.”

The children enjoyed rolling hard-boiled eggs wrapped in different materials down guttering and then unwrapped them to see if the shell had cracked to explore different materials.

Harry said, “It will crack.”

Dakota said, “I think it will crack.”

Gift said, “It’s gonna roll off these and break.”

Phoebe said, “It’s cracked in the bubble wrap.”

Kaiden said, “It’s gonna crack.”

What a busy week the children have had investigating!

This week the children have been investigators. In the water tray, the children have decided which objects would sink and float.

Nicole said, “Sink under water. Feathers float.”

Joshua said, “It’s floating. The bricks are floating.”

Dakota said, “The seashell sinking.”

Gift said, “Float cause it’s light. Sink cause it’s heavy.”

The children have all had a super week inventing things. Using junk modelling resources the children made objects. With lolly sticks, the children enjoyed creating shapes and patterns.

Preston said, “I need a box for my washing machine to put my clothes in.”

Isla said, “I made a house for mam and dad. It’s got a magic settee. It lifts up and down.”

Fraya said, “You blow it. It’s a instrument.”

Nicole said, “A funny face. Eyes, nose. A smiley face.”

Jacob said, “Triangle.”

Gift said, ”Look at my triangle!”

Scarlett said, “I’m doing a square and I need four sticks.”

Heidi said, “I’ve put my name on my shape.”

The children have all had a super week creating things. In PE, the children created movements for different creatures. With paint, the children enjoyed mixing colours to make new colours. With magnetic shapes, the children enjoyed combining shapes to make new ones.

Max said, “Red and blue make purple.”

Nicole said, “Look it’s turned into orange.”

Isaac said, “It’s a rectangle.”

Zara said, “Square.”

Mikey and Kara said, ”We’re being lions, grr!”

Alanah said, “Look at my elephant!”

Evie said, “I’m a golden butterfly.”

Harry said, “It’s turned orange.”

Fraya said, “Red and yellow make orange.”

The children all had a super time this term learning about “What’s up there?” We have talked about creatures that fly, objects you can see in the sky and space. The children have enjoyed playing in the space rocket and have taken part in astronaut training.

The children were asked, “What is up there?” and this is what they answered -

Hazel said, “They go on a plane.”

Brilie said, “The moon, the sun and the stars.”

Gift said, “Stars and planets and astronauts.”

Mikey said, “Jupiter the planet.”

Alfie said, ”Might see the moon.”

Evie S said, “A space ship. I don’t know cause anything up there. A astronaut fly in space.”

Fraya said, “A planet. It’s Earth. We live on Earth.”

Harry said, “Moon and stars when I go to bed.”

Joshua said, “Sun in the day.”

What’s up there? Aliens Love Underpants

The children have enjoyed reading the story “Aliens love underpants.” The children have coloured in underpants and created their own aliens.

Phoebe said, “This is Rosie the rhinoceros alien.”

Alfie said, “Alfie the alien.” Alfie found his name label to help write his name.

Gift said, “I was doing my own aliens. My alien has one eye.”

Isobel said, “Grace the alien.”

Allana said, ”Mammy, daddy and Anna little girl from Frozen.”

Isla said, “Lots of eyes and legs. My alien has two bellies.”

Brilie said, “Robot alien.” Brilie sounded out the word to write r, o, b, I and t on her picture.

Joshua said, “My alien is called Obo and she is a girl.”

Isaac said, “it’s purple and green.”

Hazel said, “My alien is called Hazel like me.”

Harry said, “I’m drawing his big body.”

Evie S said, “My alien is so silly and he does roly polys.”

Fraya said, “My alien has one eye he also has a baby.”

What’s up there? Day and Night.  

This week Nursery have enjoyed talking about what happens during the day and night. We have looked at what animals are nocturnal and what jobs people do during the night. Creative activities have seen the children using different resources of chalk on black paper and crayons and a black paint wash to paint over to make night pictures.  

Scarlett said, “I’m doing a night time.”

Phoebe said, “I’m using this black paint to make the night.”

Fraya said, “This is the moon. A round planet.”

Harry said, “I’m making a monster in the dark.”

Mental Health Awareness Week – Yoga

The children have watching and taking part in different Cosmic Yoga.

Kara said, “I can balance on one foot.”

Dakota said, “I’m on the floor.”

Charlie said, “Put your arm up and leg out like this.”

Evie S said, “This is fun!”

Mental Health Awareness Week - Team work!

The children have enjoyed using the parachute in PE to work together to keep a soft toy in the centre of the parachute.

Nicole said, “He’s falling.”

Jacob said, “That’s funny!”

Charlie said, “Up and down!”

Lola said, “Keep shaking it or it won’t work.”

What’s up there? Things that fly!.  

This week Nursery are enjoying talking about things that fly, such as balloons, aircraft and creatures. The children all had a go at blowing bubbles and seeing how many they could pop. 

Joshua said, “Blowing bubbles.”

Hazel said, “That’s a big one.”

Scarlett said, “Lots of bubbles.”

Allana said, “Gotta blow, look lots of bubbles.”

Gift said, “It’s high up. Got it.”

Keeping safe! Fire practise.

The children have been practising what to do if there was a fire at school.

Charlie said, “Need to line up.”

Phoebe said, “Stay in line.”

Gift answered for her name for the register with a clear big voice, “Here.”

Evie said, “One behind the other in a smart line.”

Kaiden said, “Look ahead.”

Willow said, “Don’t push.”

Teamwork – Races.

To encourage teamwork the children have enjoyed taking part in different races and cheering each other on.

Evie M said, “Come on Nursery.”

Isla said, ”Jump! Like this.”

Evie said, “Hooray we did it.”

Kaiden said, “I can jump high, like this.”

Phoebe said, “Well done! We all got to the line.”

Mikey said, “It’s tricky! Stay on egg.”

Highfield Den

This week Nursery are enjoying exploring in the den. The children have been writing and reading in the “dark den.” Lots of fun exploring light with the torches to make shadows on the walls and ceiling. 

Brilie said, “It goes round and round.”

Jacob said, “It’s dark!”

Allana said, That’s me when I was little.”

Kaiden said, “That’s me mam.”

Isla said, “I’m writing my name.”

Preston said, “I’m hiding it, so you can’t see yet.”

Role Play - Space.  

This term Nursery’s theme is “What’s up there?” The children this week have been enjoying being astronauts in the role-play space rocket.

Evie said, “I am staying in the rocket.”

Preston said, “I am going on the planet. It’s cold and hot.”

Phoebe said, “Is this the flying thing?”

Allana said, “Who’s there?”

Gift said, “Need to press this to go.”

This week Nursery are enjoying using the small world space toys to be astronauts in space.        

Gabriella said, “That man’s going to space.”

Avaya said, “This rocket’s going into space.”

Levi said, “What’s this?”

Mia said, “Rocket blast off!”

Lola said, “My rocket’s going to land on a planet.”

Billy said, “Whoosh!”

Gift said, “He’s in space.”

This term Nursery’s theme is “What’s up there?”

The children this week have been enjoying being astronauts in the role-play space rocket.

Evie said, “I am staying in the rocket.”

Preston said, “I am going on the planet. It’s cold and hot.”

Phoebe said, “Is this the flying thing?”

Allana said, “Who’s there?”

Gift said, “Need to press this to go.”

Easter and Growth

The children have been learning about the growth of humans, plants and animals this term. In class the children planted fast growing grass seed and helped to water the seed to make it grow. Once grown the grass was used to create dinosaur adventures and then to explore different capacities with trucks. 

“My dinosaur is chasing others away,” said Charlie.

“Roar, roar!” said Zachary.

The children enjoyed decorating egg templates by rolling marbles in paint to create Easter cards. The children decorated egg boxes to make nests for their Easter gifts using shredded paper and match sticks. For a school cabinet display the children used match sticks and shredded paper to decorated a plastic fruit container to make a nest and then loved using paper mache to cover balloons for eggs to put in the nest.

“Marbles rolling in the paint,” said Jacob.

“Marbles rolling making a pattern,” said Max.

“Painting the egg,” said Joshua.  

After finding an egg in Nursery we encouraged thinking skills and to extend the children’s vocabulary by asking, “How can we look after the egg?”

“Need to keep it warm,” said Phoebe.

“Need to put it somewhere safe,” said Evie.

When we asked, “What do you think will hatch out of the egg?”

“A goose,” said Max.

“A dinosaur,” said Preston.

We watched clips on different creatures hatching out of eggs, such as ducklings, crocodiles and spiders.

Red Nose Day

The children had a non-uniform day for Red Nose Day. They enjoyed using coloured pens to create their own red nose design. After talking about how facial features and body language can show how we are feeling the children drew features on a face template to show different emotions.

Children were encouraged to bring in jokes to tell and then the best joke was decided and displayed on the Nursery door.

“It’s my rainbow nose,” said Eve.

“It’s my mam! She’s happy. Look she’s smiling,” said Kara.

Nursery Jokes

“Why do giraffes have long necks? Because they have stinky feet,” Heidi said to the class who was voted the Nursery morning winner.

“Knock! Knock! Who’s there? Boo Hoo! Boo Hoo who? Don’t cry,” said Isla to the class.

“What does a cloud wear under its raincoat? Thunder-wear,” said Miss Cook to the class for Zara the Nursery afternoon winner.

Mother’s Day

Activities to encourage the use of finger muscles for future writing was involved for the Mother’s Day card and gift. 

The children enjoyed thumb printing with paint to create “spots” on strawberries for the card and rolling play dough to then use heart cutters for keyrings.

“Press down to make a heart,” said Preston.

“Rolling the play dough,” said Mia.

“Making a strawberry,” said Allana.

The children wrote their names using their name labels inside the cards which had the message, “Thumb one loves you! Mam you are berry special and sweet it’s true. Have a happy Mother’s Day because I love you.”

Did you know? Extinction and Endangered Animals

The children enjoyed learning about endangered and extinct animals. We have read “Harry and the Bucketful of Dinosaurs” to then recall the story using stick puppets. We have made junk model dinosaurs, drew dinosaurs on posters and labels. The labels we put in our Dinosaur Museum. A dinosaur had laid eggs in our messy tray. When we cracked the eggs open, using tools, we found baby dinosaurs inside.

Anti-Bullying Week

The children enjoyed making a friendship web and “Freddie” the persona doll visited to talk about a sad experience at his Nursery.

Did you know? Different cultures

The children enjoyed learning about different cultures, languages, faiths and special buildings around the world. 

Counting Songs

The children enjoyed singing and using props to sing number songs, such as Five Little Men in a Flying Saucer and Five Speckled Frogs.

Did you know? Animal movements  

The children enjoyed moving like different animals, such as a snake, monkey, bird, butterfly, penguin and elephant in PE.

Firework Music

The children watched a clip on firework safety then used instruments to make firework noises.

Remembrance Day

The children watched a clip about Remembrance Day and made poppies out of bun cases.

Skeletons

The children enjoyed learning about human and animal skeletons. They used scissors to cut out bones and tweezers to dig up bones to then make a skeleton.

Hello in different languages    

The children enjoyed looking at how to say hello in different languages.

Role Play Christening   

The children enjoyed watching clips about a Naming and Christening Ceremony to then act out themselves.

Baby Pictures  

The children enjoyed bringing in or uploading pictures of themselves when they were a baby to talk about in class.

Capacity    

The children enjoyed exploring the capacity of containers. Some children were able to make their containers empty, full, half-empty or half-full and order two containers by capacity.

Reading

The children enjoyed talking to the class about their favourite book and place to read.

Role Play

In Nursery the children have been enjoying different role play, such as a home corner, vets and builders yard.

Stick Insects

With a focus on how to care for our pets, the children had a visit from the Reception stick insects. Some children enjoyed holding the insects.

Working as a team

The children are enjoying playing together. They made walls on the slide outside to make a castle.

Being Eco-Friendly

In class we have been talking about ways to protect our environment. In class the children enjoyed sorting our junk modelling into paper and plastic bins and recognising the importance of turning lights off to safe electric and money.

The Nursery children have been practising our fire drill in case of a real fire.

Staying Safe

In Nursery the children have been keeping safe by washing their hands for twenty seconds. They have counted to ten twice or sang Happy Birthday.

This Is Us!

The children have been learning all about themselves. The children have been making portraits involving colour mixing for skin colours. The children made a mini me by colouring in a boy or girl template. To explore 2d shapes the children made houses and talked about who lives in their house.

For some children it was their first visit to soft play, the hall for PE and to the garden. The children are enjoying soft play, especially the slide. The children have been following the leader and copying actions and kicking or catching a ball in PE. The children loved exploring the maze looking for monsters and making faces out of natural resources.

Nursery 2019/20

Balancing!

We love our PE sessions and have enjoyed moving in different ways around the hall. We have been practising balancing and it is tricky!  We have balanced beanbags on our heads avoiding obstacles as we go.

Bee-Bots

We have been playing with the Bee Bots in Nursery. We have been learning how to make them move in different directions. We were very careful to make sure they didn’t crash by counting how many steps they needed to take.

Christmas

The children have been getting the classroom ready for Christmas. We made paper chains to hang on displays. The children have decorated a white soft play ball bauble for the tree using stickers to help with pencil grip and future writing. The children have chosen a reindeer or tree Christmas card which has involved painting their feet.

Nativity

The children enjoyed singing songs and some children dressed up for parts in “The Sleepy Shepherd Nativity”.

3D Shapes

This term we have been learning about 3D shapes. We built models and ate different 3D shaped food – cheesy balls, cube cake and ice-cream cones. They were all delicious!

World Children’s Day

To celebrate World Children’s Day, we used finger paints to decorate some bunting which we hung up as part of our celebration in school. We did this as we came into Nursery so we could talk to our parents about the different rights we have been learning about.

Changes

We have been explorers this term in Nursery and looking at how materials and objects can change. We enjoyed finding out how chocolate and water changed when they are put into the freezer or microwave. We talked about how the freezer being cold turned the “runny” water to “hard” ice and the microwave turned the “hard chocolate” into “yummy runny chocolate.”

Autumn Stay and Play

This term our theme is “Celebrations.” We invited our parents in to ‘stay and play’. The parents watched our “Dough Disco” focus session then we made owls from paper plates and decorated poppies with different textured materials.

Fire Station

The children enjoyed making a fire engine with the blocks. They put fires out in the classroom and sang along to the “Five Little Firefighters” song on the interactive whiteboard.

Five little firefighters standing in a row,

One, two, three, four, five they go,

Up in the engine with a shout,

Quicker than a wink, the fire is out.

Same for four, three and two firefighters.

One little firefighter standing on his own,

One, mmm, mmm, mmm he goes,

Up in the engine with a shout,

Quicker than a wink, the fire is out.

Anti-Bullying Week

The children enjoyed listening to the story “Cinderella” to talk about being kind. We talked about school rules of being respectful, responsible and safe by having kind hands and words. The children coloured in hands which were then made into a class display.

The Rights of Children

We have been learning about Article 2 – All children have rights and that no child should be treated unfairly

The children had a visit from “Freddy” who was sad. He had been to another Nursery and the children hurt him and called him names because he wore glasses. The children said that it was not kind and we talked about how they could make him happy. The children said that they needed to “give him a cuddle, share the toys and play with him. Not call him names or hurt him.” The children took Freddie to play in the classroom.

The children also enjoyed the story “The Ugly Duckling,” talking about the animals not being kind and liking the end of the story where the duckling actually turns into a beautiful swan.

Music

We have been playing lots of listening games in Music sessions and identifying different sounds, such as sounds in the home and the noises animals make. We have been playing musical instruments to make them quiet, loud, slow and fast.

Funky Fingers and Dough Disco

We have had fun with Funky Fingers and Dough Disco this half term. We have been doing exercises like stretching our fingers, making fist shapes and pretending we have magic fingers to write with.

Eco Warriors in Nursery

Every week we are choosing a different Eco Warrior in Nursery who will do our bit to help the world. They are going to make sure lights are turned off when not needed to save electricity and that water is not wasted from taps being left to run in class. We have also been learning about recycling paper. We have used different objects to decide which could be put in our bin and which can be put in the recycling box.

Bug Garden

We explored the wildlife garden looking for insects and talked about the difference between the school garden and our Nursery garden. We noticed there were more insects in the school garden around the trees and plants. We spent a lot of time watching some the insects to see what they were doing.

Fun in PE

In PE we have been looking at different shapes, linking this to our maths work. We loved playing with the parachute and stretching and pulling it to change its shape.  We also made shapes with each other creating a round circle and a square using straight lines.

Caring for our Pets.

After talking about our own pets at home, we visited the Reception class to look at the Reception stick insects and fish. We talked about visiting the vet if our animals are poorly and how it is important to give them food to keep them strong.
Adam told the class about how he looks after his dog.

 “My dog has a lead so he doesn’t get hit on the road.”

Our School

We had a walk around school to explore some of the different areas and what we might use them for. We read a book in the library and learned that we can borrow books to share in Nursery and at home.

Autumn Garden

We visited the school garden and maze to look for different signs of autumn. On the way to the garden we crossed over the zebra crossing talking about road safety. In the garden we found pinecones to bring back to class to use for counting.

Number Songs

This year in Nursery we are going to learn lots of new songs and rhymes. We have started to learn songs which help us to use numbers and count. 

This week we have been practising ‘5 Little Aliens in a Flying Saucer’. Here are the words so you can sing it with us at home.

Five little men in a flying saucer

Flew round the world one day

They looked left and right but they didn’t like the sight

So one man flew away.

Four little men………..

Three little men………

Listening Skills

We have been playing different games to encourage listening. We enjoyed trying to guess which instrument was being played behind Miss Cook’s back from a selection in the circle. We played musical instruments slow, fast, quiet and loud when given instructions to music.

All about Shapes

We have been using shapes to make pictures and went on a shape hunt in school. We found many shapes including some windows that are circles!

Balancing

In PE our focus has been on balancing. We have balanced along a beam to jump and land with two feet. We have also been practising this outside on the beam of the sandpit.

New Beginnings

 This term we are looking at “Ourselves.”

The first few weeks of Nursery we have been looking at our faces and comparing our features and those of others. We have used the classroom mirrors to look at our skin, eyes and hair colour. We then made a collage of our faces using different materials.