Weekly News

 Spring 1 - Week 1

The children have settled in well at Nursery. This week has been a busy week for the children. With children settling back into nursery from the long break, we have had new children starting Nursery ( A warm welcome to the new children) and have settled in very well. The children have been playing and exploring the nursery environment. The core story of the week is 'The blue balloon.' The children have explored the different types of balloons and pretended to go on a hot air balloon. In Numeracy the children have been learning about positions and the younger ones have been learning about size. 

 Autumn 2 Week 8

This week the children have been busy learning about 3D shapes. We went on a shape hunt. The children have also had a visit from the fire team. They explored the fire engine and learnt about the important job a Fire Fighter has and how to keep safe.

Towards the end of the week, the children had a Christmas party with Reception children. They played lots of party games and lots of fun. 

We would like to take this opportunity to wish all Parents and Carers a Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year. 

Mrs Patel and the Nursery Team

 Autumn 2 Week 7

This week has been a very busy week for the children. They have had lots of nativity practices and showcased the Nativity on Thursday. Thank you to all Parents/Carers for your support. 

We have also had our Christmas Jumper day, Christmas Lunch and lots of Christmas activities in our continous provision. 

Autumn 2 Week 6

This week the children have been busy exploring Christmas activities. They made Christmas hats, cards and paper chains to decorate the room. The children have also been exploring the Christmas story and acting out the story. They have also been learning to sort out objects according to shape, size and colours. 

Autumn 2 Week 5

We have had another busy week this week. The children have been practising for their Nativity show. They have also been busy playing and exploring lots of Christmas activities in Nursery. 

Autumn 2 Week 4

We have had a very busy week this week. The children have been busy playing and exploring, practising their nativity, putting up the Christmas tree and decorating it with decorations and stay and play for the parents. Thank you parents for attending stay and play and reading to the children. They have enjoyed your company.

Autumn 2 Week 3 Nursery Rhyme Week

This week the children have had lots of fun exploring 5 Nursery rhymes. The Nursery Rhymes they learnt was Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Old Mc Donald had a farm, The big ship sails, Incy Wincy Spider and 5 Current buns. The children have explored lots of activities linked to the rhymes. They have been baking, talking about positions, routes, shapes, rhyming words and much more. 

Autumn 2 Week 2

This week the children have been busy talking and sharing about their home learning experiences. The children collected Natural materials and then worked together at Nursery to create a piece of art work which is inspired by Andy Goldsworthy. 

We have also been busy with counting and matching the number to Numerals. We have also enjoyed playing and exploring lots of other activities at Nursery.  

Autumn 2 Week 1

This week the children have been busy learning about size, practising their cutting skills, exploring Autumn and learning to help each other. The children also had a Halloween dress up day and carried out lots of activities.  

Autumn 1 Week 7

This week the children in Nursery have been busy exploring Autumn activities. They have also been busy practicing working on their cutting skills, matching numerals and quantities, completing jigsaws and much more. The children also learnt about Harvest and had the opportunity to drop off their donations to the hall where the rest of the schools donations were. (Thank you Parents/Carers for your generous donations)

Autumn 1 Week 6

This week we have had a very busy week at Nursery. We had a special stay and play for the parents. Thank you for attending stay and play. We have also been exploring shapes, exploring Autumn, baking and lots of playing and exploring. 

Autumn 1 Week 5 

This week at Nursery the children have been busy exploring their school environment. They have been for a walk around the school and to meet some of the people who work in the school to learn about their important jobs. 

We have also been exploring shapes. We went on a shape hunt outdoors and also made pictures using shapes. 

The children have also noticed the weather changing. We talked about the changes of the season and explored Autumn objects. 

Autumn 1 week 3+4

This week we have been learning all about our Families. The children brought in some photographs from home to talk about who lives in their family. We had a parent from Nursery who brought in their baby to show the children and talk about the baby. The children have also been mark making pictures of their families.

In Maths we have been learning all about patterns. 

Our core story of the week is called 'Silly Billy.' The children have been exploring feelings and made worry dolls to go with the story. The children also talked about what worrys them and what do they do to overcome their worries. 

Here are some photos of the children busy making learning choices during continuous provision

Autumn 1 week 1+2

The children have all settled in well at Nursery. Here are some photographs of them learning, exploring and having lots of fun. 

Our topic this half term is all about Me, Myself and I. The children have been busy doing lots of activities learning about themselves. Here are some of the things they have been busy doing: 

• Creating self portraits
• looking in the mirror to talk about ourselves
• Making apple crumble and having a go at tasting it, talking about likes and dislikes
• A special visitor from the Live bus team visited, to talk to the children about taking care of themselves
• Dancing and learning to move in different ways

Summer 2 Week 7

What a week it has been! We went out with a bang.

The children have celebrated 'Ashura', an Islamic festival. We made the oldest dessert in the world, 'the Noah's Ark' dessert. We used chickpeas, dates, apricots and spices to flavour it. It was an interesting choice with mixed reviews from the children. We also looked at some Islamic mosaics and made our own.

We had great fun on box day. We started the day off by reading the story 'It's not a box'. The children were inspired to make their own rockets, cars and robots. They enjoyed building and also relaxing in the boxes :)

On Wednesday we celebrated our pre-school leavers. They did us proud and were amazing performing in front of everyone. At the party we played lots of games, did some dancing and enjoyed biscuits and ice lollies in the garden. 

Today the pre-school children had lots of fun on the bouncy castle and other games. We let our younger children have a quick play before they packed up. 

I would like to personally thank all the parents and carers for your support this year. I am over whelmed with your kind words and generosity.  I hope you all have a wonderful summer and I will see you in September :)

Miss Rushton

Summer 2 Week 6

We have been learning about Kandinsky and exploring circular art work of our own! The children have enjoyed using different media to create their circles. 

Our physical focus this week was balancing. The older children had to work as a team to build an obstacle course and the younger children have been practising walking along the beams. In PE, the pre-school children had to work closely with their partner and drive their 'boats'. We took it in turns at being the captain and rowing the boat. The children had to listen carefully and follow the different commands. We found it tricky to jump forward, holding the hoop and rowing at the same time!

Thank you to all the parents/ carers that came to the stay and play sessions this week. It was lovely to have so many of you here :) 

Pre-schoolers have focused on number formation this week and we have also introduced syllables in phonics. The children have been taught to put a flat hand under their chin and this helps them to count how many syllables in a word. You could practise this at home.

Our younger children have been trying to show different amounts on their fingers. This manipulation can be difficult but they gave it a good go! When counting at home, do ask your child to show you the correct amount of fingers. 

Dates for next week:

Tuesday- Box Day- remember to bring your boxes in!

Wednesday- 9:15am- pre-school leavers assembly. Hopefully this will be outside, if not we will be in the hall. All pre-schoolers to come into nursery at 9am as normal.

1:30pm- nursery party for all the children, even if they are not in on a Wednesday normally. Drop your child off just before 1:30pm if they are not in Nursery that day. 3pm pick up as normal. 

Thursday- Fun Valley for the pre-school children. This needs to be paid for on Arbor. Arrive at 9am at nursery and pick up at 11am.

Friday- last day for everyone :)

A cold and windy week but we still have been enjoying the outdoors. The children have continued performing for their friends. Some of them have even been making up their own songs. We made leek and potato soup which was enjoyed as an afternoon snack.

Pre-schoolers have practised their leavers dance with Clair Bear and then developed their throwing and catching skills in multi sports.

In maths we have been developing our positional language. The children need to be confident to understand and use positional language such as 'next to', 'besides', 'behind'. Practise this at home by hiding toys and asking your child where they are.

Our phonic sessions have focused on instrumental sounds and body percussion. However, we have been challenging the children to justify and explain why they have chosen a particular instrument or body sound to represent an image or word.

Next week it will be the stay and play sessions, all from 2-3pm.

Tuesday- Zebra's

Wednesday- Elephant's

Thursday- Tiger's 

Summer 1 Week 4

The children have enjoyed being outdoors in the sun, rain and wind this week! We made a canopy in the garden so we could keep nice and cool. There was lots of water play when it was hot, puddle jumping when it was wet and windy sticks when it was breezy. 

The pre-school children have been learning new songs with actions that they will perform at their leavers assembly. We have also been listening to music from different famous artists such as Amy Winehouse, Elvis and Bob Marley. We want the children to enjoy a range of music and be confident to dance and perform in front of their friends. 

You could have a family talent show or singing competition and send us the videos and photo's to share in class.

Please can we ask that you save boxes of every shape and size for our 'Box Day' which is on the 16th July. 

A reminder that all water bottles need to be clearly labelled. It is difficult to monitor how much water the children are drinking when we don't know which bottle is theirs. 

Summer 2 Week 3

In Phonics this week the children have been selecting instruments to play alongside a story. They have to explain why they chose that instrument. For example, beating the drum when the goats are trip trapping over the bridge. 

We have been developing our building skills in maths using different construction kits. The children have been encouraged to use shapes appropriately and try to join pieces together. They have been building fire stations, hospitals and vets! 

Thank you to everyone that came to support us for sports day on Wednesday. The children had great fun and we hope you did too :)

Pre-schoolers took part in their multi skills session this morning. The focus was around jumping and catching. Please do practise throwing and catching at home, lots of the children tend to close their eyes when a ball is thrown. 

Reminder- please apply sun cream before nursery and we will apply it at lunch time/ late afternoon. You can bring your own named bottle or 50p to use the nursery cream. Sun hats are a must as well.

Thank you. 

Summer 2 Week 2

It was busy in the nursery garden this week with cleaning, cooking and performances around the clock. It was great to see our younger children singing and dancing in front of their friends. 

Our younger children have been taking part in different threading activities to help develop their fine motor. Where as our pre-school children are focusing on their letter formation. 

We made pizza this week as well as a cake for the King's birthday. We're sure he would have loved it, it was delicious!

As part of National Healthy Eating Week, the children were encouraged to taste new fruits such as mango, kiwi's, dried apricots and cranberries. Not everyone was a fan!

Summer 2 Week 1

A fantastic first week back! The children have been busy with different art work, creating collages and working on a real life sized giraffe. We have been learning about giraffes, linking to our core story 'Giraffe's Can't Dance'. 

Some children had a go at flower printing. We have displayed these in the classroom. They look beautiful. The children took great care when making them. 

We made flapjack for an afternoon snack which was delicious. We have some expert bakers!

In PE it is the Games Unit this half term and it involves lots of partner work and listening to each other.

Multi skills will take place again every Friday morning with the focus being fundamental skills, throwing and catching, skipping, jumping etc. 

A reminder that our new healthy eating policy states that children should have a water bottle with either water or diluted juice in. Additional drinks are not to be brought in. 

Summer 1 Week 6

A brilliant last week for our nursery children. On Wednesday we dressed up as fantasy characters and made hats, swords, wands that we could use in our play. The children were making up stories and it was great to see their imaginations come alive!

Maths sessions have focused on subitising. We have played lots of different games involving a dice and recognising the amount. The children know 'don't count, know the amount'. Have a go at some subitising over the holidays. You could show them a set amount of objects and quickly cover them up, do they know how many are there without counting? Do this up to 5 objects.

In phonics, we have been trying to remember a pattern and sequence of sounds. We used picture cards to help us but you could extend this at home by giving you child 3 different sounds and asking them to copy e.g whoosh, bang, bzzzz or ping, crash, mmmmm. Do this in the mirror and point out where their teeth and tongue are. 

We had our last session of fundamental skills. They did amazing with jumping, skipping, hop scotch and hopping.

We hope you have a lovely week off and we will be back at nursery on Monday 3rd June for the final half term :)

Summer 1 Week 5

In maths this week our pre-schoolers played matching pairs. We explored picture cards that were the same, similar and different. We started off with just 8 cards and built this up over the week. You could play this as a family at home.

Our younger children have been building with different construction sets and creating different sized towers using mathematical language to describe them. 

Phonic sessions has focused on tuning into initial sounds. Children have grouped and matched objects that begin with the same phoneme. We have used objects beginning with p, m, h and c. See if you can find some items at home starting with these sounds. When talking about the sound they can hear, refer to it as the 'phoneme'. 

Some of our other children have been building their vocabulary by describing the sounds they can hear. 

In PE we developed the skill of jumping in different directions as well as balancing. Today we extended this and practised hop scotch. The children loved this so why not draw one on the path at home and let them have a go?

We made biscuits on Wednesday which were enjoyed in the afternoon as a treat. 

Thank you to the parents and carers that came to stay and play. 

Next week is out 'fantasy dress up day' on Wednesday. The children can be mermaids, unicorns, knights, dragons, kings or queens. Please do not buy a costume. They do not have to take part if they don't want.

Summer 1 Week 4

Our PE focus this week was to move in different ways and be able to stop quickly. The children did well with this. We found skipping tricky so we will be practising this a bit more. 

We have been focusing on rhyming again during our phonics sessions. The children have been able to identify rhyming words, match rhyming pairs and continue a rhyming string. We have taught the children a strategy that focuses on onset and rime. E.g c-at/ b-at. This is different to oral segmenting so it is quite difficult to understand but the children gave it a good go!

In Maths we have practised our number formation. You could do this with chalks, water or paint if they find pencil control hard.

These are the rhymes we use:

0- make a loop and that is all

1- go straight down and that is all

2- swing it round and then go right

3- swing it round and then once more

4- down slide, cut in half

5- down, round, put on a hat 

Remember stay and play sessions next week, you are welcome to any:

Wednesday- Zebra's- 2-3pm

Thursday- Elephant's- 2-3pm

Friday- Tiger's- 9-10am

The new healthy eating policy has been added to the school website. The section below highlights the changes to Nursery.

It is the responsibility of the parents / carers to provide an appropriate packed lunch container where food items can be stored securely and appropriately until the lunchtime period. 

Parents and carers should buy containers and packaging that encourage independence and are easy for children to open and reseal.

Nursery will provide a storage area for lunch bags, in the most convenient and appropriate place possible. However the nursery cannot provide cooled storage areas and therefore cannot take legal responsibility for foods prepared at home and then brought into school.

Nursery will not warm up any food that is brought in from home, as this may cause hot spots in the food item which may cause injury.

Additional drinks are not to be included in a packed lunch. Children will use their water bottles, which readily available throughout the day. 

Parents should provide a suitable amount of food for their child, without over-facing them. Please see page 3 of the policy for guidance on what to include in a healthy packed lunch.

Children will be allowed to eat their lunch in any order. The reasoning behind this is to encourage healthier eating habits for our children. The savoury foods should not be seen as something the children have to endure so that they can be rewarded with a ‘sweet treat’. 

Nursery staff will speak to parents and carers if they are concerned about their child’s packed lunch. Certain foods have an increased chance of becoming choking hazards. Grapes, cocktail sausages, small tomatoes and other similar items must be cut up, if they are to be included in lunchboxes.

Summer 1 Week 3

A space themed week for us as it is National Space Day today. The children have been making aliens, rockets and space stations. We have been moving like an astronauts and aliens to space music and have enjoyed playing with the small world space set. The children were using some fantastic vocabulary!

For May Day we explored fruits and vegetables. Mrs Maymon shared the importance of giving and receiving flowers and vegetables. This long time tradition is about enjoying the first signs of Spring.

Pre-school children went to the 'fairy woods' on Wednesday. We found the hidden fairies and made them a home using the natural materials around us. This was of course followed by a play at the park!

In PE we have been practising the skill of jumping with two feet together and being able to jump over an obstacle and jump in different directions. This is something to practise at home as we found it a bit tricky.

We have made pizza's, potions and just enjoyed being outdoors in the sun.

Enjoy the bank holiday weekend.

Summer 1 Week 2

A very busy second week! The eggs arrived on Monday and nearly all of them have hatched. The children have loved watching them in the incubator and then in the brooder box. Some children were feeling brave and even held them.

We had a Petting Zoo visit us on Tuesday as part of 'Earth Day'. The children got to stroke the animals including a bearded dragon, a millipede and a snake!

In RE, we have been learning about the Holy Spirit. We studied a flame and spoke about how the flame of the Holy Spirit was special as it didn't burn. Some children created their fire pictures using paint and a fork. 

We did our dance session in class this week. The children had great fun and we were very impressed with some of their stretches and holds!

As part of our Core Story, Oliver's Vegetables, we made chips. The children washed and chopped the potatoes and enjoyed them as an afternoon snack.

Please remember to send in a change of clothes for Pre-school children on a Friday morning for PE.

Younger children in nappies must have plenty spare nappies and wipes in their bags. Nursery cannot provide these.

Have a brilliant weekend.

Summer 1 Week 1

Despite the weather we have spent quite a bit of time outside this week. The children have enjoyed planting in the eco garden and we carried out the large wooden bricks onto the yard. They made obstacle courses and even a boat!

In Maths, the children have built upon their knowledge of patterns and were able to make a repeated pattern with sounds, colours and different objects. Even our youngest children have been able to point out patterns on materials such as stripes, polka dots and spirals. 

Phonics groups have focused on alliteration, initial sounds and oral blending. I Spy games can be adapted to help support all these aspects. Some children had to find the odd one out (having a group of objects starting with the same sound, except one) and others were asked to spy a 'c-a-t' or a 'b-a-g'. Try these games at home. Oral blending is really important skill in early reading, try and build this into your daily routine e.g 'Time for b-e-d', 'Find your c-oa-t'.

In RE, the pre-school children began to wonder what heaven looked like and thought about where heaven is. Some of the children drew a picture using chalks. 

This afternoon the children made dandelion and honey biscuits! They were a real hit!

Pre-school PE is now going to be on a Thursday afternoon (the children will not get changed as we have a late hall slot). We will then do a session on a Friday morning where the children can practise getting changed. Sorry for the confusion!

Spring 2 Week 6

Apologies for the late upload. We had a fun last week and our pre-schoolers thoroughly enjoyed their trip on the bus! 

We are looking forward to another busy half term :)

Spring 2 Week 5

Not many photo's from this week but we have been very busy.

At the start of the week we celebrated St Patrick's day by making an Irish stew. In RE, the children learnt about the crucifixtion and some of them chose to collage a cross. It was tricky for the children to understand that Jesus was ready to die but they asked some fantastic questions.

Our maths focus has been counting. We have been showing the children numerals and amounts on our fingers and asking them to count out the correct amount of objects from a group. You can practise number recognition and counting skills at home using any house hold items. 

Some groups have continued with rhyming games and are doing really well. At this age, children need to be able to find a rhyming pair and carry on a rhyming string. Ask them to go round the house and find something that rhymes with.... cat/ frog/ box/ car.

Clare Bear did her session in class on Wednesday as the hall was being used. The children had great fun with the parachute. Their listening skills are improving and they are able to remember sequences of movements.

We have been learning about whales this week, linking to our core story The Storm Whale. Ask your child to tell you a fact about whales.

Thank you to everyone that came to the stay and play sessions, we really appreciate you taking time out. 

Spring 2 Week 4

A week full of experiments! This week was Science week. We learnt some facts about space and the pre-schoolers found out about Katherine Johnson, an inspirational black woman who worked for Nasa!

We made rocket pictures with 2D shapes and built them using 3D shapes. 

Have a look for 2D and 3D shapes around your house. Ask your child to group them and talk about them. Can they tell you how many sides or edges it has?

We did PE on Wednesday as Clare Bear wasn't here. The children practised jumping from a height, landing with two feet and not putting their hands down. They improved throughout the lesson :)

In RE and collective worship, our focus was Palm Sunday. The children learnt about Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. We have been singing 'Sing Hosana' for our weekly hymn. Talk to your child about this story and see if they can remember key features such as the crowd shouting 'hosana', waving palm leaves and Jesus going to the temple. 

Thank you to all the parents/ carers that attended parents evening and for everyone's continued support. 

Remember our stay and play sessions next week:

Tuesday- Zebra's- 2-3pm

Thursday- Elephant's- 2-3pm

Friday- Tiger's- 9-10am

A wonderful week spent outdoors! We have thoroughly enjoyed being outside and staying dry for a change.

We have made a vegetable and carrot soup this week as well as carrot chips. They were all delicious. The children's culinary skills are really coming on. They know where most foods come from and how they are farmed. They are able to talk about the importance of hygiene when cooking and know our safety rules when using the equipment. 

Some of the Year 6 children delivered collective worship this week. We listened to the story of The Good Samaritan. We explored this further in RE and have planted cress seeds. The children have learnt that Lent is a time to grow in love for others. We are going to compare how quickly the cress seeds grow to the flower we planted during advent. 

Pre-schoolers have been learning about animals and their habitats. When you are out this weekend, talk to your child about the environment and what animals you might find there. 

Some children have been developing the skill of rhyming and have been able to carry on a rhyming string. You could find a book that contains rhyming words. Explore them together and think of others that aren't in the story. 

For maths we have been focusing on matching numerals to the correct amount. This can be done in many different ways. Firstly, check which numerals your child recognises. Then you can ask them to count out the right amount of objects such as stones, fruit, cutlery etc. Encourage your child to show you the amount on their fingers.

World Book Day was a huge success. The children looked amazing and we enjoyed time in the school reading cafe as well as reading throughout the day in class. 

Spring 2 Week 2

This week our maths focus has been length and height. The children have learnt 'height is how tall something is' and 'length is how long something is'. They have been using their mathematical vocabulary to describe the towers and snakes they made. We lined up in height order to see who was the shortest and who was the tallest!

Our physical activity this week focused on listening and drawing to the music. We listened to music from around the world, including Africa, Spain and Russia. If the music was fast, the children had to express this through their drawing. 

Our younger children have been practising their threading skills. This is an easy activity you can do at home. E.g. cereal hoops onto spaghetti. 

We have started to explore some Jackson Pollock art work. Instead of using a paintbrush we used ropes and rolled balls around in the paint to create a 'messy' effect. Outside, the children enjoyed flicking paint at the paper to create a group piece of art work. 

Remember we are dressing up on Thursday 7th March as our favourite book characters :)

Spring 2 Week1

Our RE lesson focused on Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday. Of course this meant we had to make pancakes! During collective worship the children reflected on praying more over Lent. We also thought about what else our hands are for. The children drew around their hands and then cut them out.

In maths we have been building sky scrapers with different construction kits. We linked this to our core story 'Town Mouse, Country Mouse'. The children were encouraged to work with a partner and use their problem solving skills.

Our phonics sessions have focused on 'enunciating sounds correctly' and 'being able to remember and create a sequence of sounds'. Both of these activities could be done at home. Use a mirror when making the different sounds so children can see the position of their tongue and teeth. Sit down as a family and pass around a sequence of sounds e.g clap, tap, clap. Introduce different sounds and use 3 or 4 to increase the difficulty!

Pre-school children did fantastic in their first PE lesson today. Most of them surprised us and were able to get changed independently! We practised the skill of jumping on the spot, jumping forwards and backwards and jumping across the room. There was lots of 'galloping' so we will be revisiting this again :) 

Thank you to the parents that have supported our 'healthier option' lunch box ideas. The children have thoroughly enjoyed them!

Spring 1 Week 5

A busy last week in nursery. We have celebrated Chinese New Year with cooking, roleplay and writing Chinese numbers. Pre-schoolers even learnt to count to 10 in Chinese!

It was mental health awareness week so we spent time talking about what makes us happy. We have focused on emotions and linked this to our RE story of Jesus blessing the children. The children were able to tell us what makes them excited, angry or upset. 

In maths some children have started writing their numerals, working on number formation. Younger children have been developing their language of 'more', 'less' and 'fewer' when building with a range of materials

Phonics has focused on developing patterns of sounds using body percussion. Children must be able to remember a pattern of 3 or 4 sounds. You could try this at home e.g tap your head, clap you hands, tap your knees and stamp your feet. Our younger children were tuning into hidden sounds and trying to identify and remember the order they were played. e.g, a rustling crisp packet, a door bell ringing and keys jingling. 

Thank you to all the parents and carers that came to the stay and play sessions, we really appreciate your support.

Next half term we are introducing a new lunch time policy. This will be emailed out to parents. We are hoping to work with our parents and carers to develop new healthier eating habits with our children. I have attached some packed lunch ideas and some useful websites that give great advise!

It may just be one small change to begin with but it is a step in the right direction. If anyone would like some help or ideas around fussy eaters, eating habits etc then please do come and speak to us

.Kids Eat in Color - Kids Eat in Color (follow on Instagram as well- fab ideas for fussy eaters!)

Lunch box ideas from the NHS

We hope you have a wonderful half term and we will see you on Monday 19th February.

Spring 1 Week 4

In RE this week we listened to the story of Jesus welcoming the children. We spoke about being kind and loving to everyone. The children then decorated their love hearts and spoke about people they loved. 

Our dance session focused on listening skills, playing lots of stop and go games. This is something you can practise at home, the children loved it! Run, stop, star jump, run etc. It really helped the children focus and tune in.

We have continued to develop our awareness of shape but this week we used shapes to make patterns. We revisit pattern work every term. We extended patterns by doing colour and shape e.g. red square, blue triangle etc. This is something you can also do at home. 

The children had great fun doing the 'push and pull' activities this week. This was linked to our topic of 'Up, down, all around'. We found items that we could push and ones that we could pull. We also had a game of tug of war!

Spring 1 Week 2&3

Apologies for the lack of photo's, our iPad was broken! We were still busy having fun!

The second week back brought snow and ice. The children loved running on the field and listening to the grass crunching under their feet. We did some mark making in the ice and we even brought the snow indoors to make an Arctic world for the animals.

We carried out some balloon experiments, linking to our core story the blue balloon. Also in the story, the balloon turns from blue to a multicoloured rainbow balloon. We decided to make some rainbow toast. The children used food colouring to decorate their bread before toasting it!

We also enjoyed some free painting this week and got rather messy!

Last week we continued with the painting theme but on a larger scale, developing our gross motor movements. 

We celebrated World Religion Day and carried out various activities over the week. We made sweet potato latkes and chapati's. We also tried boiled eggs, honey on bread and dates. They each had a symbolic representation. It was fantastic to see the children trying new foods and flavours. There were lots of questions and we explored our own Catholic religion and how it differs to others.

One of the stories we listened to was about the 5 pillars of Islam. Some of the children built their own pillars in the construction area after the story.