Autumn Term 2023

This half term the children have been settling into the Nursery routine and experiencing a variety of learning within the classroom. The children have been developing within the prime areas of learning: 

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

Communication  and Language

Physical

Autumn 2 

6th November 2023

This week the children in Nursery have been learning about the celebrations of Bonfire Night and Diwali. The children had a great time mixing and using powder paints on the playground. They practised their fine motor skills by drawing different shapes and listening to the different noises that fireworks make to extend their vocabulary. We also enjoyed learning about Diwali, the children made their own diva lamp, explored rangoli patterns and mendhi patterns for their hands. They also enjoyed tasting onion bhajis and popadoms as part of their snack. They loved the story of Rama and Sita they acted this out on the stage which we have introduced to the Nursery provision. 

Week beginning 13th November 

We have had an amazing week in Nursery. The children have started developing their very first Mantle story. The children used the outside area to explore and collect resources. They then used these to develop a woodland within the classroom, this included painting, play dough modelling, leaf rubbing and printing and making marks. The children used their imagination to become different parts of the woodland and observe the woodland animals in their habitat. It is so exciting to begin our mantle story together, I wonder what will happen next week?

Week beginning the 20th November 

In our Mantle story this week we were introduced to the character of Mummy Bear. Mummy Bear is feeling very sad. Her children need a house to live in and she can’t find one anywhere in the forest. The children became a team to create some ideas to show Mummy bear. They used the resources in the room to share their ideas. They have done this through, drawing, building, cutting and sticking.
 

Outside this week we have been thinking about subitising. This is the skill of knowing how many, without counting. The children have been using their skills to recognise the amount and then matching it to a number and collect the right amount in the outdoor area. 

Week beginning 27th November 2023 

What a fantastic week we have had in nursery. In our mantle story the children became a team of builders and needed to get started on making Mummy bears three houses. Using drama they created their tool boxes and made sure they were ready and safe to work. They practised the skills of measuring, using hammers and building walls. They used diggers, dumper trucks and cranes to transport the bricks in the small world area. We hope mummy bear likes the houses we have created for her children! 
 

This week we also welcomed lots of parents into nursery. We had a lovely day sharing the work that the children have been doing and talking about the different learning we are focusing on. Thank you to all of the families that came along, we are looking forward to lots more opportunities for families to spend time with us in nursery, in the future! 

Week beginning 11th December

This week the nursery team of builders had a problem. A storm caused a fire in the 3 houses they had built for Mummy bear and the fire was getting bigger and bigger! The team needed to call the fire brigade. They created phones so they could call the emergency number, they made sure that the  fire fighter was protected and made fire engines to use in the story. The children then went into role as fire fighters and put the fire out so that everyone was safe. This week we have also been deepening our knowledge about the number 3. We have created 3 snowman prints 3 noses and even 3 buttons. In the outside area we have been exploring the ice and how to transport across the playground. The children have used their imagination and created their own story of transporting the presents to Father Christmas. 

Today was also Christmas jumper day and we all took part in the Santa Dash where the children were searching for Santa’s presents around the room. It was great fun and the children did a brilliant job!

Week beginning 11th December 2023

This week the children have been preparing for Christmas. They have loved practising for their performance, making ‘hot chocolate’, wrapping presents, using their maths to decorate Christmas trees and making their own decorations. The children have loved using the outside area to create Santa’s workshop and worked as a team to transport the gifts. We hope you can come and join us on Monday so you can enjoy the show. 

Week beginning 18th December 2023

We have had a wonderful Christmassy week in Nursery. The children have really enjoyed Christmas crafts, Christmas games, seeing Santa and learning about the Christmas story. We hope you all have a magical Christmas and look forward to seeing everyone again in 2024! 

Spring Term 2024

Week beginning 15th January 2024

This week the children in nursery have been developing their ‘Understanding of the World’ skills and knowledge while exploring the season of winter. The children have been introduced to vocabulary such as, chilly, frozen, icy and frost. They have started to use these words within their work. They used paint, glue, scissors and different textured paper to create snowy scenes and imaginative role play about arctic animals. We also took advantage of the icy weather to explore freezing and melting. The children loved exploring the large blocks of ice and finding ways to break or melt it. 

Week beginning 22nd January 2024

In nursery the children have been extending and using their knowledge of winter to explore different animals that may live in a cold climate. They have looked at different footprints and predicted what animal they think it could be. They have also used their cameras to observe the animal and record their findings. Alongside this they have been developing their mathematical skills by practising to subitise to three and exploring the numberblocks though the mastery in maths programme. In phonics we introduced the ‘a’ sound. The children are becoming much more confident to identify the initial sounds in words. Nursery have loved using the clipboards and paper this week and the role play kitchen has turned into a restaurant each day where the children are independently making marks to take orders. If anybody would like a full English breakfast or an ice cream then Nursery is the place to be!

Week beginning 29th January 
 

As part of our development of Understanding the World and Expressive Arts and Design, this week the children in nursery have had a problem. There is a polar bear in the forest and he is very grumpy as this is not his home! The polar bear protectors needed to find out where the polar bear lives and also find a way to get him there. They explored and discovered this within the nursery, using cold colours, painting ice and looking at maps of the world. The children have now discovered that polar bears live in a very cold place called the Arctic. They explored how ice is made, how it feels and what polar bears eat.  Using their knowledge of polar bears they began to plan the best way to get the polar bear in his enclosure so he could travel back to the Arctic. The children made marks and drew pictures to explain their ideas, developing their communication and language, fine motor and story telling skills. Next week we will be putting the plans into action and making the journey to the Arctic. 

Week beginning 5th February 

This week the Polar Bear Protectors in nursery have needed to transport the polar bear back to the Arctic. The team checked their plans and decided which method to use. Some team members had a vote and we used our estimating skills to share which idea we thought had the most votes. We then practised our one to one correspondence to count the exact number. Next the team got to work to create the enclosure, making sure there was food and drink for the polar bear to have on the journey. The journey to the Arctic was long, the team travelled over the sea and decided a aeroplane would be much quicker and safer than a car. Once we arrived in the Arctic the team safely let the bear go, he was happy in his natural habitat. Our mantle story this term has supported nursery to develop their understanding of a cold climate and how it looks different to where we live. They used their fine motor, mathematical and communication skills to make decisions and work as a team. 

Week beginning the 19th February

We have had a very exciting week in nursery. This week we have been learning about different celebrations. We started the week exploring pancake day, we used our messy play to mix the mixture and explore the texture of the batter. We were even able to try some pancakes for ourselves. Next we looked at Chinese New Year and found out that this year was the year of the dragon! We used our role play kitchen to cook Chinese food and even practised using chopsticks. Grandma Fantastic is a friend of Nursery who introduces new vocabulary and she taught use the new words ‘wok’, ‘chopsticks’ and ‘bean sprouts’. We enjoyed using the creative area to make our Chinese dragon prints. Outside on the playground we introduced the balls to practise our balls skills. Nursery have enjoyed kicking, throwing and catching with their friends. At the end of the week we were really lucky to welcome Dominic, a volunteer for the St Johns Ambulance. He was able to share some of the equipment that they use to help people. He also showed us how to use bandages and how doctors would check our hearts with a stethoscope, how hot our bodies are with a thermometer and our eyes with a small torch. Nursery have loved this visit from Dominic and took this into their own play. We would like to say a special thanks to Dominic and St Johns Ambulance for this fantastic experience. 

Week Beginning 26th February

This week we have started our new Mantle story and have become a team of gardeners. We have looked at the equipment gardeners use and introduced the new vocabulary of rake, shovel, spade and fork. We have used our knowledge of shapes to create our flower beds and learnt how to plant and care for vegetables and flowers. We now know that seeds need soil, light and water to grow. Gardener John and Mrs Blossom have given us the very important task of looking after the garden and we know how seriously we need to take this job as it is such a special place. 

Our Mantle work this week has supported the children to develop their knowledge of spring, growing and vegetables. We have also supported the children’s mathematical skills by linking our work to shape and size. As part of our ICT work the children have also had the chance to draw flowers using the iPads. They have done a fab job of these! The children have had a fantastic week in nursery and we are looking forward to seeing how the garden grows!

This week we also sent reading books home with nursery for the first time. Please follow the link to the website and scroll to the bottom to watch the video about reading a book with your child at home. 

https://www.woodrowfirstschool.co.uk/reading-1/

Week beginning 4th March 
 

In the nursery Mantle story this week, we had a problem. The gardeners discovered that something had been in their garden overnight and destroyed their vegetable patches. Some of the carrots had even been eaten! The team worked very hard to get the gardens back together and decided to put up cameras and cctv to try and capture what had happened. Through our understanding the world and expressive arts and design work the children explored the different cameras, which were new and old and used their design skills to make their own. The children’s communication and language was enhanced through their role play as the team and we introduced the vocabulary of destroyed, damaged and broken. After watching the cctv footage through our drama the children drew what they thought they saw. I wonder what it could be that is eating all the carrots?

Week beginning 11th March 

In nursery this week we discovered that the rabbits have been destroying and eating the carrots in Gardener John and Mrs Blossom’s gardens. They were not happy and decided that the gardens should have “no more rabbits! “. The team created posters and put them around the gardens so the rabbits knew they could not enter. However, the rabbits were hungry and there wasn’t any food to feed their families. The team knew they needed to help the rabbits but they also needed to keep Gardener John and Mrs Blossom happy. What should we do? The team decided to create another garden just for the rabbits so they could grown them some food and give them a place to burrow. This kept everyone happy and meant the rabbits did not go hungry. The children have developed their creative work this week by making their own rabbits and gardens. They created beautiful ribbon threaded flowers to develop their fine motor control and creativity. We concentrated at looking at two points of view to support the children skills to listen to two different ideas. They also loved making their own posters and demonstrated early writing skills. Great job team! 

Week beginning 18th March 2024

This week we have been exploring the wooded area in role as gardeners, using the tools to create and plant flowers and also splashing in muddy puddles and rolling down hills. We have also been exploring the celebration of Easter and enjoying a focus on maths through our family learning sessions. The children have loved shopping in the fruit and vegetable shop, discovering which objects are heavy and light and using their creative skills to make Easter crafts. It has been a lovely term and the children have worked very hard in nursery. We hope you have a lovely Easter break and look forward to welcoming you back to nursery soon.