Welcome to Nursery

Meet the team

Mr. Mantle: Nursery teacher.

Mrs. Beard: HLTA.

Our driving questions are: Can you tell me all about yourself? What is this celebration about?

This term will be learning about: "All About Me and Celebrations".

All About Me
The photos below show the first focus of the overall ‘All About Me’ topic. The children were learning all about their own appearance were encouraged to describe how they look. The children were representing themselves on different coloured card as well as using lots of different materials to create an image of themselves. For an extra challenge the children were encouraged to use a mirror so their creations became even more accurate!

All About Me - My Family
The next set of photos below show the children taking part in activities about their family. This progresses on from the focus last week and incorporates the special people in the children’s lives. The activities the children took part in included making their own family tree, both inside and outside using creative materials as well as natural materials including twigs and logs whilst the children were outside. The children also took part in a lot of role play where they would act out being at home.

All About Me - My Hobbies and Interests
The current focus is all about the children’s hobbies and interests. We have found that the children love to express their favourite hobby through role play their own child-initiated play. Take a look at some of the photos of the children showing off their favourite thing to do. They include building, drawing, racing cars and much more!

Autumn

Once the children became settled into Nursery we started to learn about a new topic - Autumn. This allowed us to explore our wider environment including forest school and the school field. We investigated how the leaves changed colours in the autumn and what sorts of animals we may see. Take a look at some the pictures which shows how much we have learned about this season. 

Halloween

We learned about Halloween during the last week of this half term. The activities that we took part in were quite challenging but because of how much practice we get each and every day we managed to have a really good go! We carved some pumpkins, went on a pumpkin hunt in forest school and made skeletons from straws. 

Halloween party

The end of the week culminated in a huge Halloween party where we all dressed up, drank some witches potion and danced to some Halloween music! It was a great time for all of the children - especially those who joined us in September for the very first time! Take a look at all of our costumes - which one is your favourite? 

Diwali

We learned all about the festival of light (Diwali) during out first week back after half term. We all loved the activities the teachers had planned for us as we could use lights of bright coloured chalk, paint and felt pens to express ourselves and to make fantastic pieces of art. We now know that Diwali is all about music, dancing and bright colours. Take a look.

Bonfire Night

Linking with the previous week’s learning, we learned about fireworks and Bonfire Night this week. As we already knew about bright colours and how to decorate with them, we could create even more spectacular creations. Using black paper and chalk really showed our knowledge of fireworks and the wonderful night scene that they create.

Nursery Ryhme Week

Although the theme for this half term is ‘Celebrations’, we couldn’t say no to not being involved in Nursery Ryhme Week. Each day we learned a new Nursery Ryhme so that at the end of the week we could perform them on stage to all of our parents. They were very impressed! To further enhance our knowledge, all of the activities were based around each Nursery Rhyme that we were learning.  

Birthdays

To continue this half terms topic of celebrations, we learned all about birthdays. All of the Nursery children are either three or four years old. The main focus of this week is that it was Luke the tiger’s third birthday and at the end of the week we had a huge party to celebrate!

Winter

In preparation for Christmas, we are learning all about the season of winter. Some activities were about Christmas to inspire the children ready for the festive season. We have been learning all about what water turns into when it freezes and how ice turns back into water. After this week the children and teachers are all very excited about Christmas.

Spring Term

This term we will be learning about: Frozen and Fantasy Worlds and Growing and Changing.

Our driving questions are: Can you tell me as much as you can about castles? What happens when you get older?

Frozen Worlds

For the first week back the children were introduced to the concept of frozen (not the film!) We learned all about how water freezes into ice and how it melts back into water. Thankfully the children already knew how to keep warm when playing outside. Their favourite activity was watching Mr. Mantle pour hot water down the slide to melt the ice. 

Rapunzel

Rapunzel was a great opportunity to teach the children a traditional tale which links closely to the topic. The children saw how the teachers have turned the Nursery entrance into a castle as well as the home area which now has torches either side of the door and other castles out of the window display.

Knights and Princesses

Each week this half term is very similar to the previous one. This gives the children opportunity to learn in much greater depth about castles and other fantasy tales. The children continued to take part in activities that helped their understanding of concepts such as short and tall castles. It was also interesting to learn that boys don’t always have to be knights and girls don’t always have to be princesses. 

Dragons

As a hook in to Chinese New Year we learned all about dragons this week. The children were fascinated about how some dragons still exist. We used this as inspiration for all our creations this week so that the children were prepared for Chinese New Year. 

Chinese New Year

This week the children were fascinated to learn all about Chinese New Year. After last week, everyone was ready to learn about another culture. The highlight of the week was definitely the food tasting and cooking. The children tried noodles and rice as well as other traditional Chinese food. Children’s imagination really came through this week as they made paper plate lanterns as well as Chinese dragons.

Fairies

The penultimate week saw the Nursery children learn something very closely linked to our fantasy half term topic - fairies! The children had already mentioned fairies occasionally as they make slight appearances during our Knights and Princesses and Dragon weeks. As their interest was already hooked, the children loved the learning this week more than they already do.

Magic

To finish off this half term’s learning, we learned all about witches, witches and all of the magic they are capable of. The children loved getting into role play and pretending to put magic spells on the adults in the room. Their favourite area was the Play Dough table as a sneaky wizard kept leaving his magic wands there!

The Three Little Pigs and The Big Bad Wolf

For the first week back after half term we learned all about The Three Little Pigs and The Big Bad Wolf. The children always respond well to this story and it creates many opportunities for a wide range of learning such as experiments about weight and some very imaginative art creations. Take a look!

Sheep and their lambs

This week the children learned all about sheep and their baby lambs. This relates directly to our half term topic. The children loved being able to see the difference between a sheep and its babies. The activities were very popular with the children, especially those that involved cotton wool! The highlight of the week was definitely making sheep and lamb marshmallow cakes. Have a look!

Cows and their calves 

Following on from last week the children began to learn all about cows and their baby calves - continuing out new life theme. The children loved making artistic creations that looked like a cow pattern. The construction area was very popular as the children have enjoyed making barns for the cows to sleep in. 

Planting 

This week the children have had the opportunity to learn all about new life in the form of plants and flowers. The children already know how to plant a seed and what makes a plant or flower grow but to see it first hand has really helped the children. 

^{Summer Term}

This term we are learning about: Pirates, dinosaurs, superheroes as well as people who help us and the seaside.

Pirates

For the first two weeks back we are learning about pirates. The home area has turned into a pirate den and there are even some pirates looking through ship windows into the class. The children are loving creating ‘walk the planks’ and their very own pirate ship. 

Dinosaurs 

This week the children are learning all about dinosaurs. The children always choose to play with dinosaurs even when it is not the topic of the week so the children were instantly engaged in the activities that were set up. The children had a go at making dinosaurs made of bumpy scales and built pens for different dinosaurs to rest in. 

Superheroes

For the final part of this half term we learned all about superheroes. The children loved this topic as they all could tell us lots about their favourite superhero before the learning about them. Activities involved lots of role playing, creating superhero shields as well as copying superhero dance moves on the big screen.

People who help us - Police

The first week back after half term was all about the police. It was important to teach the children that the police are here to help us rather than people to be scared of. The children made junk model police stations and noted evidence to help the police. Take a look!

People who help us - Doctors

We have been learning about doctors this week, as an extension to the people who help us topic. The children really enjoyed taking part in all of the doctor themed activities this week, especially role playing as doctors and patients.