Lots of Learning
April 2025 - Hatching Ducklings!
Children in Nursery have been very lucky to have the experience of hatching duckling eggs and observing the ducklings grow over the last few weeks. We have linked this to our core book 'Handa's Hen' and have been teaching children about the lifecycle of an egg. Alongside this, we have cooked with eggs, making delicious savoury muffins and have enjoyed combining new ingredients such as spring onions, spinach and sweetcorn.
The children have been very gentle with the baby ducklings and have increased their confidence when handling them. They have particularly enjoyed watching them have their first swimming lesson, where the ducks have loved diving under water and getting the children wet in the process!
March 2025 - Jack and the Beanstalk
Our core book 'Jack and the Beanstalk' has been an exciting one for children with links to many learning opportunities. Children have loved planting their 'magic' beans and watching them grow with great fascination. There have been lots of lovely discussions about how tall we think they will grow and if there will actually be a giant at the top! Alongside this, children have been exploring green beans in their cooking activity and practising their chopping skills when adding them to their green bean fritter mixture. These have smelt delicious when cooking in the oven and the feedback from children has been - they were very tasty! We have also been using our big bricks in the garden to build our own beanstalks, working as a team to carry the heavy bricks to make our beanstalk longer.
March 2025 - Cooking
Children in Nursery love their cooking sessions and we always try and link it to our core book where we can, to add context to what they have been learning. This week children have been making oat cookies made with three simple ingredients; rolled oats, mashed banana and chocolate chips. This recipe linked nicely to our core book 'Goldilocks'. Children have become experts at reading the recipe cards and this recipe was extra challenging as it required them to count out eight teaspoons of oats!
February 2025 - Pattern
We have been teaching children about pattern in Nursery. Children have been looking closely at patterns in our environment and using our new microscopes to look at the patterns in our clothes and objects in the classroom. Alongside this, children have been learning to create their own AB patterns using loose parts and have continued this to create their own patterns using their fingers to paint. We have also been using our African drums to listen to a pattern and continue it. Many children are now naturally finding and creating patterns in the learning environment and using the vocabulary related to pattern with great confidence.
January 2025 - Owls
We were very lucky to have four beautiful owls visit us in Nursery this week, their names were Accio, Midge, Wilfred and Milo. This linked in nicely with our core book 'Oola the Owl who lost her hoot!' Children loved the hands on experience with these amazing birds and were able to hold them and have them fly to their gloved hand.
January 2025 - The Gruffalo
The Gruffalo is always a popular book in Nursery and this year was no exception. The Children loved making Gruffalo crumble and feedback from parents suggested it was rather quite tasty! We also had great fun experimenting with clay and making our own creatures from the story. Some children even chose to paint and draw characters, selecting the correct colours for the 'orange eyes' or 'purple prickles' of the Gruffalo.
December 2024 - Stick Man
We have been getting in the Christmas mood in Nursery and our core book 'Stick Man has been perfect for talking about Christmas with children. We have been using new ingredients such as ginger when cooking, creating our own Christmas cards and making our own salt dough decorations ready to paint and cover in glitter! We have also been doing lots of mark making; using big chalks on the playground floor and some of us have even tried writing our names inside our Christmas cards.
November 2024 - We're Going on a Bear Hunt
This is always a firm favourite with children and this year was no exception. Children in Nursery have become engrossed in this story and have been experts at retelling it using the story props. They have learnt the actions to the story, some Makaton signs, learnt to keep to the beat of the story when drumming and have been able to join in with such enthusiasm when reading it in our small groups. Children have also learnt to colour mix to make brown, with some children even painting a bear picture to take home!
November 2024 - Diwali
We have been looking at the book 'The Best Diwali Ever!' in Nursery the last few weeks. To teach children about Diwali we have been making Diva lamps using clay and making our own flatbreads that the children have really enjoyed eating! We have also been making our own Rangoli patterns using the big chalks on the playground and using a stippling technique when painting using Rangoli stencils.
October 2024 - Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?
There has been lots of learning taking place in Nursery based around our core book 'Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?' Children have become experts at retelling the story using the pictures to help them. They have also loved the wooden props painted with the animal faces to retell the story themselves. Children have learnt to mix colours and make brown and some have even painted their own Brown Bear painting. All children have taken part in making a simple biscuit recipe and the feedback upon tasting has been very positive!
October 2024 - The Colour Monster
Children in Nursery have loved reading the story 'The Colour Monster'. They have become very involved in our small group activities such as; making fruit kebabs that match the colours from the story, creating our own feelings jars and making play dough that matched our feelings that day.
September 2024 - Rain, Rain, Go Away!
The Nursery garden has been flooded with water this week and children have fully embraced the wet weather. There has been lots of exploring going on and children have been keen to tip and pour the water into as many different containers as they could find. We added bubbles to see what would happen and the children made the water foamy by splashing and brushing the water. Lots of new words were introduced such as pour, sink, empty, soaked and drenched!
September 2024 - Welcome to Nursery!
We are so proud of our Nursery children and how well they have settled into their new environment. They have quickly got to know their new routine and are coming into school very independently in the morning. Children have had lots of fun exploring the setting both indoors and out. With the sandpit and climbing equipment being a firm favourite outdoors and the playdough table, home corner and snack table being very popular inside!
