Nursery
Hello and welcome to Nursery!
Autumn 1 2023
The Nursery children have settled in beautifully to their new surroundings and have been busy playing and exploring, learning, making new friends and becoming more independent each day.
They have met the first one of the Beech Hyde positive mind animals – independent rhino. All the children have a self-care target and are working towards them.
The children have enjoyed their Talk for Writing text – Rosie’s Walk. They have been learning about routes and positional language and have recreated the story in PE with Mr Drake. They thoroughly enjoyed making the windmill from the story, by following a set of instructions, using a cup, tissue paper and lolly sticks.
There are lots of opportunities for the children to choose their own activity inside or out, during Child Initiated Learning. The role play area has been very popular set up as a home, but has just changed to a doctor’s surgery. The lovely space outside has some play equipment which supports the children’s gross motor skills. We have just planted some daffodils so will look forward to watching them grow in the spring.
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This half term our topic is ‘Changes’ and so we have been reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar story in both French and English. We sequenced the story including the days of the week and learnt some of the foods in French.
We made caterpillar life cycles and designed and made our own mini beasts models using junk modelling materials. We also went on a mini beast hunt in the nursery garden.
In Science we looked how materials change and made toast (from bread) and oobleck (cornflour and water).
In PSHE we have been looking at ourselves as babies and seeing how much we have changed. We had a visit from Ms Hutchinson, who works at Beech Hyde School and her baby – Louie. The children couldn’t believe how small a new baby was.
We have started our transition to Reception class and have talked about any worries (of which there were hardly any) and our excitement too. The children have been visiting their new schools and teachers.
Finally, the children said goodbye and good luck to Mrs Stafford, who is leaving to have her baby. The children decorated a chocolate tree with their thoughts and feelings about her.
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In Nursery we have been reading the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. We predicted how tall our own beanstalks would grow, using multi-link cubes. Next, we looked at the life cycle of plants and planted our own sunflowers.
The Coronation was celebrated in a variety of ways including designing crowns, having a tea party and making a collage of King Charles.
In our maths learning we have been looking at shapes in the environment, naming and describing them. We went on a shape hunt and found lots of examples in our nursery including a cone (ice cream cone) a sphere (an orange) a cylinder (tin) and a cube (dice).
In phonics, the children enjoy forming the different graphemes using a variety of materials such as rainbow crayons, paint dabbers as well making the shapes in sand.
In child initiated learning, we are seeing some great imagination in their own play such as writing and posting letters and building traps.
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In Nursery we went around the world visiting different countries. We visited Canada, The USA, France and Italy. We made bear masks, flags, The Eiffel Tower, using straws, ate American style food at a ‘Drive In’ and made our own fresh pasta.
We read the story of The Gingerbread Man and had fun making our own gingerbread lady, which we decorated and gave to our Mummies for Mother’s Day.
During Science week, we did an investigation using the gingerbread to see what might happen to it, when placed in different liquids such as water, oil, milk and vinegar.
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This term we have started our Little Wandle phonics. We love bringing in objects for our sound box and practising the graphemes in different ways.
We read We're Going on a Bear Hunt and all helped make a bear cave role play area. We created sensory maps to help us tell the story.
We learned all about Antarctica and how penguins can live there because they have waxy, waterproof feathers. We carried out an investigation covering a paper penguin with wax crayon and spraying water on it.The water droplets ran off the penguin's tummy so it stayed dry.
We listened to the story of The Hare and the Tortoise and talked about the word resilient. We decorated our own resilient tortoise.
In maths, we built our own bridges using lolly sticks, foam shapes and cups. We had to think about making them strong enough for our bears to balance on.
We love our new mud kitchen in the nursery garden.
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The police came to visit Nursery and Reception and told them all about their job and the things they need to do their job.
The Nursery children have enjoyed doing French with Mrs Vaile. They have been finding words to describe the weather.
The Nursery children have created bonfire pictures.
Mr Drake was helping to train the Nursery children to be elves, just in case Santa needs some help. They had to balance, deliver presents, jump down a chimney and travel over and under.
Christmas is coming to the Nursery - our tree is decorated with the children's hand made decorations.
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The nursery children had to pick a different colour for each letter of their name. They are very proud of themselves!
We read Rosie's Walk and made masks of the characters. We also created the route with 2D creations of the objects they pass.
As part of Superhero Week we made superhero hand prints.
We enjoy making soup in the mud kitchen.
We played the bean game. In the picture below we are doing the baked bean where we go onto the floor. We also do runner bean, jumping bean and string bean!
