What a wonderful week we have had in nursery thinking about our extended family as part of our ‘all about me’ topic. Once again, the children have loved using Seesaw as a tool to share pictures and hold discussions about members of their extended family. We have been focusing on vocabulary such as; aunt, uncle, cousin, nan/grandma/nanny, grandad etc. We have looked closely at the meaning of these words, understanding that an aunt is our Mum or Dad’s sister etc. We have respected other’s differences, accepting that some people use different names or labels for their family members, paying particular focus to differences in culture/language – such as calling our Nan and Grandad ‘Nain’ and ‘Taid’. Following these discussions, children then created family trees where they listed members of their extended family.

In maths, the children have been using their knowledge of counting and cardinal principle to match numeral and quantity correctly. Children are becoming very confident to recognise numerals between 0-5 and beyond! We also pay attention to larger numbers during our morning carpet session where we count the children and think about the daily calendar. Children have been challenging themselves appropriately during provision and meeting individual targets.

Along with Class 1, nursery children have also been working extremely hard on their upcoming nativity. We have enjoyed learning our Christmas songs and actions as well as rehearsing in the hall. We can’t wait to show you the finished product!

On Forest Friday, we spent the morning looking for signs of winter and thinking carefully about how our environment has changed. Children could recall things we learnt about autumn (such as how the leaves on the trees change colour and begin to fall off) and the built on this knowledge, thinking about how the trees now look bare, winter berries can be seen on the bushes and how the air feels cold and we might be able to see our breath.

Parent notices:

PE days – Monday and Tuesday

Outdoor learning – Friday

For those children who receive Talk Boost, please can you ensure that books are returned each week so that Mrs Forrester can change them. 

Have a lovely weekend. Many thanks,

Mrs Jones.

Nursery will be joining the rest of the school by introducing the ‘Reading Rocket’ initiative. Your child should have a book bag containing a class library book and a reading record. If you do not have a book bag, please let me know. We encourage children to bring this bag to school each day so that they can change their book and share their thoughts on the story. This helps with children’s reading comprehension and recall of known stories. We ask that children share a story with their parents/carers each day, either from their school book bag or a book from home. We then ask that this is recorded in the children’s reading record along with any of the children’s comments about the book. If children read three times per week, they will get a mark on our reading rocket. Once they hit 10 marks they will receive a bronze award, 20 marks will mean a silver award and 30 marks will mean a gold award. We hope that all of the amazing work you do at home coupled with our school curriculum and initiatives will instil a love of reading that lasts a lifetime.

Many thanks for your continued support,

Mrs Jones.

We have had another busy week in nursery! Firstly, I would like to say a huge thank you to our wonderful parents for coming in to see me for parents evening this week. It was great to take the opportunity to speak to you about your child’s development and share with you all of the learning we have been doing at nursery.

Another huge thank you to for engaging so fantastically with Seesaw, the children have absolutely LOVED seeing their pictures up on the big screen and our gaining so much confidence to talk about their experiences with their peers.

This week we have focused on ‘where we live’ as part of our ‘all about me’ topic. We have looked at the pictures of the children’s houses and used a wide range of vocabulary to discuss the features we can see such as ‘roof, windows, door, letterbox, gutter/pipes, chimney, garage’ etc. We then used Google maps to explore Shawbury and our community, discussing key areas such as school, the park and the shop. Children were so engaged and were able to give directions brilliantly to guide us around the roads.

Following on from this learning, we tied in ‘road safety week’. We discussed rules and expectations when moving around the community, highlighting the risks from cars, bikes and HGVs on the main road. We explored the role of a lollipop person and road signs that the children might see in the local area. Children then took their learning into their play, creating elaborate small-world constructions.

In maths, children have been introduced the language of ‘total’. They are continuing to understand the need to line objects up and say one number name for each item. They also now understand that the last number said in a set is the total.

Next week we will be exploring our extended family. If you could upload any pictures to Seesaw, that would be great! We are also exploring St. Andrew’s Day on Thursday. If anybody has a kilt or Scottish items at home that the children would be able to look at physically or see on Seesaw, I would be very grateful for your support.

Parent notice – Our PE days may be subject to change, we will keep you updated once a timetable has been released.

Many thanks,

Mrs Jones

This week, as part of our ‘all about me’ topic, we have been focusing on our friendships. This has tied in very nicely with anti-bullying week and children in need. We have held many circle time discussions about friendships, what makes a good friend and who we like to play with. We have understood that we are all different, and may have different interests or talents, but all special and equally valued. We now know that we can still be friends, even if we want to play with different things or take part in different activities for a little while. We have read lots of social stories such as ‘Kindness Makes Us Strong’ and ‘Will You Be My Friend?’.

In maths, we have been working on saying one number name for each object when we count. The children have recapped Number 3’s rules for counting and are beginning to understand that we need to put our objects in a line, say one number when pointing at each object and say our number names in order. The Numberblocks episode ‘how to count’ (series 1, episode 10) has shown this in a very engaging way. If you would like to watch this at home, if you access it on BBC iplayer.

We have continued to enjoy Diddi dance sessions on a Monday afternoon. We have begun to learn the actions to a jive dance. We have been dancing individually this week and will begin to use the moves learnt to dance with a partner next week.

In our Forest Friday session, the children continued their learning on ‘friendships’ by using natural materials to make friendship bracelets and friendship crowns.

On Friday, we celebrated Children In Need by dressing up in spotty clothes. The children began to understand what work the charity does and how it is important to respect everybody equally.

This week we have been celebrating space week by focussing on the nursery rhyme ‘twinkle twinkle little star’. The children have enjoyed singing their nursery rhymes whilst playing instruments. They have learnt the names of our most commonly used instruments within nursery; xylophones, wood blocks, drums, castanets and maracas. The have experimented with different ways to move their body and understood how they can effect the sound of the instrument by playing louder, quieter, faster and slower.

We have been super scientist who have understood the concepts of light and dark, using a large box, glow-in-the-dark stars, torches and reflective clothing. The children understood that stars can only be seen in the dark and how the sun makes the earth light and bright in the daytime. The children also creating dissolving stars such bicarbonate of soda and vinegar, showing amazement when the stars began to bubble and fizz. We were able to use lots of great vocabulary to describe the changes we could see.

The children have enjoyed accessing mark-making using lots of different media including, paper, card, sugar paper and tin foil. They have also enjoyed using their new dab markers to explore pointillism.

In maths, we have been focussing on cardinality. This is the understanding that the last number we say when counting gives us the total. We were able to use lots of great vocabulary within our maths lessons and help poor counting lion who thought every set of items contained 8 things as 8 is his favourite number! Silly counting lion!

Over the last few weeks, the children have been building their knowledge of harvest and have loved singing harvest songs. On Wednesday we were invited to a singing assembly with the rest of the school to show off our beautiful singing. The children were absolutely amazing! We had so many compliments on how ready, respectful and safe they were 🙂

Parent notices:

Nursery door will open at 9am and we sit down to take the register at 9:10am. We understand that mornings can be a bit of a rush but please try to ensure that your child is ready to come in at 9am 🙂 If your child is scheduled to attend nursery and they are absent for whatever reason, please contact the office or leave a message on our school absence line to let them know.

Have a lovely weekend!

Mrs Jones 🙂

Hello everyone!

We have had another wonderful week in nursery. This week our nursery rhyme has been ‘Miss Polly had a dolly’. We have had lots of fun turning our role play area into a doctors surgery. The children have loved dressing up and exploring the equipment, trying hard to put on the clothes and gloves independently. They have engaged in imaginative role play, thinking about ways they could be poorly and how they could be helped by a doctor or nurse. The children have also enjoyed sharing lots of their own experiences, recalling times in their own lives when they make have been poorly or needed to see a doctor.

In maths, we have been working hard to recognise numerals 1-3 and match numeral to quantity. The children have enjoyed engaging in lots of games and activities, such as classroom number hunts and interactive games on the whiteboard, to support this understanding.

On Muddy Monday, the children enjoyed looking closely in the natural environment for signs of autumn, commenting on how the leaves were changing colour and beginning to fall down. We collected some lovely red, yellow, orange and brown leaves which we then used to make craft hedgehogs throughout the week.

On Forest Friday, the children children were learning about nocturnal animals. We read stories and watched videos to understand more before going down to the forest area to build some hedgehog houses for the animals to have a nice cosy hibernation period.

In PE this week, the children have been doing gymnastics. They have been practising their jumping skills, thinking carefully about keeping their feet together, bending their knees and landing safely.

We have had a great initial response to the Seesaw app, it has been great to see your reactions to our posts and for you to see what your little one has been up to. I have also had some lovely posts from parents showing what the children get up to outside of nursery and how they have brought their learning home, which is great! 🙂 Please let me know if you are finding it difficult to access Seesaw and I will do my best to support you.

Parent Notices:

Wednesday 11th October we will be supporting world mental health day with our ‘hello yellow’ day. Children are welcome to wear yellow clothes to nursery if they have them. We will be doing lots of activities linked to PSED and emotions as this is a prime area of our curriculum.

Books: Your child has a reading record and book bag for them to share stories between nursery and home. If you write a comment in their reading record, we will know that children are ready to change their books. We endeavour to look at the children’s reading records on a daily basis to change them as often as it needed.

PE: PE days are Tuesday and Thursday. Please ensure children are wearing suitable footwear (i.e. trainers) as we are jumping and climbing.

Outdoor learning: Sessions are Monday and Friday. Please ensure children have wellies and a waterproof coat as we will still go over to the forest area even in mild rain. If you have a puddle suit at home, you are most welcome to bring it into school and leave it here for the week. If you do not have a puddle suit please let me know and we can provide waterproof trousers.

Have a great weekend and I will see you on Monday!

Mrs Jones.