Dates for Your Autumn Diary

Summer 

Monday 26^th April – Pupil Progress Meetings (a chance to discuss your child’s progress)

Friday 28^th May – Pirates Day and Dress up (toys donation) & Break up for half term
Monday 7^th June – Return back to school
Friday 16^th July– End of term – 1.30pm finish

Finding all Possibilities 

The class worked so hard on their problem solving task to find all the different possibilities of decorating different coloured stocking with different coloured baubles. 

Trashion Show 

Thank you to everyone's involvement at home, the final products whether that be a bag, t-shirt or cape looked incredible! We are so appreciative of the time, effort and creativity that has gone into making these wonderful designs by recycling old clothes. To celebrate we had our very own Nursery catwalk, complete with music, lights and beautiful little models! Enjoy looking at some of their poses below...

Dreamcatcher - Design and Technology Focus

To begin the class explored pictures showing different styles of dreamcatchers in groups. They identified the shape, colours and decoration featured on the different dreamcatchers before evaluating one thing they liked and what they would change to make it even better. All the children could confidently identify the range of features from the pictures, some then benefitted from the support of their friends when discussing the strengths and changes they would make to the dreamcatchers. Afterwards they carefully listened to the instructions for how to make their own versions, every child independently used the hole puncher to make the holes and from this they developed their fine motor control when threading to create a web design in the middle of the circle and during the bead threading for the decoration.  To encourage their language development, the class also completed a ‘Making fun’ design sheet and they then shared this with the group using language of ‘first’ and ‘next’ to explain their design process.

Shape Hunt

Today we had such an exciting time exploring different 2D shapes that we could find around the classroom. We learnt that a 2D shape is flat and that this means you cannot pick it up. We tried to find examples of circles, triangles, squares, oblongs, straight lines and curved lines. We even found 3D shapes around the class and discovered that when you take a picture it becomes 2D! 

Advent Craft

We have begun learning about Advent and know that this is a time of waiting and preparing for Christmas. We have been exploring the significance of the Advent wreath and made examples through using paper plates and tissue paper, playdoh and we even made some on the computer! 

3D Shape Sorting - roll or not roll?

This week we were introduced to 3D shapes and what they were called. We carefully studied each 3D shape to see what 2D shapes we could see on their faces. After learning more about them we began to feel the shapes and discover which 3D shapes would roll and which would not roll, as we did this we sorted them onto the t chart.

Bear's Birthday Party

As part of our 'Birthdays' RE topic to think about Advent and the special birthday that we celebrate during this time, we celebrated Bear's birthday in class. We have been working hard all week to get ready for this special celebration by making birthday banners and party hats. We have had such a fabulous party day and enjoyed playing party games and eating party food. Bear and all of the Nursery class had a wonderful day filled with smiles, laughter and lots of love!

Autumn Craft: Making Nests 

After reading 'Hoot and Honk Just Can't Sleep' by Leslie Helakoski, the class have been exploring a range of nocturnal animals and their habitats. Based on this story we considered the criteria for building a good nest. We decided it should let the water through (so the birds don't get wet), be strong (so it doesn't blow away) and be comfy (so the birds can sleep). After this the children used a variety of natural and craft materials to design and build their nests. At the end they shared and evaluated their designs to the rest of the group by using the 'Sharing Your Learning' prompt.

Jude: It needs to be nice and strong with twigs to stop eggs from falling.

Olivia J: We need to make it warm with soft paper inside.

Brian: Put more wooden sticks on to make it even stronger for the birds.

Franky: Soft stuff inside the nest to keep the goslings nice and warm.

Oliver: We need more twigs so the wind doesn't blow it all away.

Theo: I am using brown material because the mother is laying brown eggs.

Friendship Fortnight 

We have read lots of stories this week to encourage lots of discussion and reflection about what it means to be a good friend to others, we particularly enjoyed the story 'Something Else'. During the fortnight we have made a friendship recipe using playdough to make models of characteristics that a kind friend would have and we have also made beautifully decorated hearts to give to a special friend. 

Theo: Penny is my friend because she plays nicely to me and we share and care.
Jax: Isaac because when I am sad he wants to play with me.

Elliott: Jacob because I love him.

Jacob: Luca because he finds me to play with me.

Remembrance Day 2020

In Nursery we made beautiful poppies to decorate our Collective worship table ready for our worship and 2 minute silence. During the worship we watched a very special video called 'Poppies' from the Cbeebies website and this helped us to understand how the brave soldiers must have felt during and after the war. Afterwards some children independently drew pictures about the video. 

Olivia: This is when it went all dark in the war then the bangs stopped and the sun and poppy came out and the bunny was happy again.

Finding All Possibilities 

The class worked brilliantly and systematically to find all the different possibilities of making the 4,6,8 or 10 numicon shape. They were given a rule of only being able to use 2 numicon shapes for each possibility. They started to understand ways of being systematic by starting with the smallest value first and working gradually up from 1.

Acting out a Baptism

We have been learning lots of new words related to baptism and to bring this to life we acted out a baptism in different groups. The children have been learning about the font, holy water, godparents and the baptism candle. They were especially excited to learn they joined God's special family after a baptism.

Bonfire Night - Colour Experiment

In preparation for Bonfire Night we performed a colour mixing experiment to explore the changes from primary to secondary colours. We added foam to water and then used food colouring on top, after this we added a fizzy tablet so we could observe the changes to the water as the colours mixed together.

Autumn Themed Maths 

This week's maths activities were built around the use of natural autumnal resources. For one activity the children were challenged to organise the different sticks by height order.

Maths Museums Autumn 

Whilst gathering concrete resources for the maths museum the class were interested in selecting different resources to represent a number in different ways and some even began adding in symbolic numerals! They also enjoyed trying to be organised and systematic in their presentation of the museum. It was a great start to exploring how to build a maths museum!

Say NO to Racism

In Nursery we came together today to say no to racism. We have also been learning about Evonne Goolagong ang how she kept trying and didn't give up when she faced her own challenges. We especially liked watching her play a tennis game!

Finding all possibilities - Problem Solving

After reading all about Mr Panda and his wonderfully colourful doughnuts, we had our first try in Nursery at some problem solving! We talked about how each of our possibilities had to be different, so we tried to remember to keep one thing the same and change only one thing at a time. We worked very hard to find all the possible ways of decorating the biscuits using 2 choices of colours for both the icing and sprinkles. 

Making ghosts and thinking about their emotions

The children were enthusiastic and engaged when listening to the instructions for how to make the ghost model. Afterwards most children could follow each instruction carefully with some just needing some support when cutting and drawing to gain greater control. When exploring a range of ghost expressions, the class were able to identify which one was sad or happy and they were interested in learning new words.  

Sadie: He is muddled up because he doesn't know anything.

Hugo: He is angry because a skeleton scared him.

Elliott: He is scared because he's afraid of people!

Goldilocks and the 3 Bears 

We have come to the end of our exploration into this traditional tale and the class have been retelling the story in their own words through using role-play in the 3 Bears' cottage area. They were so creative in how they independently chose their own props to enhance their role-play and they were all able to repeat phrases from the story to sequence the story. 

Maisie: My chair is now all broken! 

Jax: Somebody has been eating my porridge and it's all gone!

Hattie: Yucky this porridge is too cold!

Maths - sorting socks by size

To apply their skills in ordering and classifying objects by size, today the class were set a challenge to organise the socks by size and if possible into matching pairs too. Along the way the children gained precision in how to measure the socks and confidence in using language of small, medium, big, long and short to talk about their ideas. 

Mr Panda Story Maps

We have had such fun reading Steve Antony's Mr Panda's stories and to finish off our author study we created a story map in groups based on the book 'Thank you, Mr Panda.' The children began to use time language to order the main events and then they became illustrators as they each chose a character to draw. Using their drawings they could retell the story in their own words and to help their retelling they repeated phrases from the story. 

#Hello Yellow - Mental Health Day 2020 

In school today we have been raising awareness for young people's mental health through wearing yellow to support the Young Minds charity. Thank you so much for your generous donations to support this important charity! Today we made a calm jar to explore and watch how sometimes we can feel out of sorts and all mixed up inside but there is always a way of making our bodies and minds settle down again through talking and taking a breath. 

Maths - Numicon Staircase

This week the class explored making the Numicon Staircase from 1-5 for the very first time. They tried so hard and began to explore how the shapes are alike and different as well as working on their recognition of the shapes' numerical values. They also began to use the digit cards alongside the staircase and some children explored how to recreate the Numicon shapes through using pegs.

Steve Antony Author Study 

In English we have started looking at the fabulous author Steve Antony and started with the book 'I'll Wait, Mr Panda'. This book has taught us about how to us our manners and be patient when waiting for a surprise. We have really enjoyed the characters and particularly liked seeing the HUGE surprise doughnut at the end!! As part of this author study so far we have explored mark making to draw the characters, made paper plate panda faces and decorated doughnuts with paint and collage materials.

Theo: It's chocolate and banana flavour and it has lots of sprinkles! 

Isaac: It's chocolate with purple icing and it will taste sweety.

Tessi: It's really massize and it is yellow.

Franky: It's going to be delicious.

Maths - Making Big and Small Bear 

Through reading 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears' we have been focusing on using the language of size to compare big and small objects. From this we used different sized shapes to investigate how to make big and small bears. When making a choice about what shape to pick for each body part we needed to consider the shapes' size and properties. 

Maisie: Triangle is at the top and it is yellow.

Hattie: The arms are circles in the middle. 

Maths - Sorting between big and small

In Nursery we have been investigating the language of size and this has come about through reading 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears'. After looking and comparing different objects to say which was bigger and smaller, we began to categorise animal pictures onto the tchart. 

AllDay's Farm Visit 

We loved our visit from the farm and it taught us how to care for the different animals by thinking about their grooming and dietary needs. It was a great opportunity to meet and handle a range of big and small animals, we even met a chinchilla!

Collective Worship - Feast of St Robert Bellarmine

We enjoyed learning about St Robert Bellarmine and his life and from this we thought about our hopes and wishes for the year ahead.

Isaac: I'd like to get better at football because my Uncle is good at tackling

Jax: I want to get really good at doing my name
Tessi: I want to ride my bike without stabilisers 
Jacob: I want to be good at doing hard work

Ourselves - Expressions

During our first Nursery topic 'Ourselves' we have been exploring the different feelings we may experience. Through reading lots of stories we have introduced the Zones of Regulation, which helps us to recognise how we feel and we can now use the zones to talk to others about our emotions. We have really enjoyed experimenting with different emotions during circle time to play 'Guess the Expression'. As part of recognising our emotions we have also been using the playdough to form a range of facial expressions and share a time we have felt like this. 

Olivia: Mine is happy because I am happy when I go to Breakfast club

Tessi: My face is surprised when I get a surprise party

Maisie: My Mummy, Daddy, Nanny and Granddad make me happy