Nursery Rhyme Week
In Nursery we celebrated National Nursery Rhyme Week. We sang Twinkle, twinkle little star, The big ship sails, 5 currant buns and Incy wincy spider, completing lots of activities based around these. We caught stars in the water tray, printed stars with paint, made junk model boats and build a pirate ship. Then we made currant buns and coloured currant buns, before adding peg legs to our spider bodies and making a spider spout in the water tray.
Diwali
In Nursery we have been learning about Diwali – the festival of light. We have also been making comparisons to how we celebrate Bonfire Night. We used clay to make Diwa lamps and decorate them, drew Rangoli patterns with chalks and made Mehndi patterns on our hands. We created rockets using junk materials and glued a shape rocket using 2d shapes. We finished the week off by making chocolate sparklers for snack!
Halloween Parent Craft Session
On Monday lots of parents joined us in Nursery for our Halloween Craft session. The children thoroughly enjoyed working with their family member, making spider cupcakes, mummy pictures, witches and cobwebs.
Goldilocks
Nursery children have been reading the traditional tale Goldilocks and the Three Bears. They played a maths number bear game, made mud porridge in the mud kitchen, built houses for the three bears and goldilocks, measured the bears using cubes, created playdough bears, decorated natural bears outside, made and tasted their own porridge and went on a bear hunt. They even had a try at ‘hot seating’ answering questions as a character from the story.
All Things Autumn
This week in Nursery we have been learning all about Autumn. We went on an Autumn walk to collect lots of Autumn treasures including conkers, leaves, pine cones and twigs. We then used these to make leaf confetti, thread leaves, print leaves with crayons, sort leaves by size and by colour. We practised rolling conkers down the hill and built a hedgehog house for the hedgehogs ready to hibernate for Winter. What a busy week!
Visiting the Hairdressers
We have been learning all about our bodies through our topic ‘Marvelous me’. We decided to visit the hairdressers in Wolsingham to see what a real hair salon is like, before coming back to nursery to set up our own hairdressers, creating a list of all the things we needed, enjoying role playing.
Picking Apples
On our listening walk we spotted lots of red and green apples on the trees in the wildlife garden. We carefully picked the apples and took them back to nursery to wash and slice for snack time. Yum, yum!
Library Visit
Every Friday morning we visit the library in Wolsingham. On our walk we always find something interesting to watch or discuss e.g. the show rides, builders fixing a roof, blackberries to pick. At the library we enjoy spending time together reading books, before bringing one home to share with our families.
Colour Monster
After reading the story The Colour Monster, we talked about the different feelings in the book, practicing making faces to match the feelings, discussing how to manage our feelings. We then made and decorated colour monster cupcakes.
Visit from A Doctor
Last week Leo’s Dad came to visit us in Nursery because he is a doctor. He does operations and he brought lots of the special clothes people who do operations have to wear. We really enjoyed trying them on and putting bandages on. We asked questions about operations and we learnt about what happens when you have an operation, e.g. you are put to sleep.
Fire Station Visit
On Tuesday we got the bus to Stanhope and visited the Fire Station to learn about fire fighters and people who help us. When we arrived the Police, an ambulance car and a Mountain Rescue team were also there. We looked around each vehicle and the people told us the job they did and showed us some of the equipment they use. We got to sit in the different vehicles and met the Mountain Rescue team’s dog. It was a great visit and we learnt a lot about how people help us.
Minibeast Craft Sessions
This week we welcomed parents and carers into nursery and reception to join us for a mini-beast craft session. Activities on offer included decorating a spider biscuit, making a mini-beast ‘grass head’ gardens, painting stones as our favourite mini-beasts and using cotton buds to decorate snail shells. After the crafts were finished, parents joined us in the nursery garden for mini-beast fun. Lots of worms were found and potions were made!
Squiggle While You Wiggle
Every week in nursery we get our flipper flappers at the ready, and join in with squiggle while you wiggle, making horizontal lines, vertical lines, circles and much more using our gross motor skills. We then transfer these early mark making skills onto paper developing our fine motor skills.
Beep Beep Day!
On Wednesday 24th April we celebrated Beep, Beep Day! Raising awareness of road safety. The children sang a song to help them remember to fasten their seat belts. They also practiced crossing the road safely, holding a grown ups hand, looking and listening.
Easter Parade
Across this half term Nursery children have been learning about Easter, the Easter story, examples of new life including the life cycle of a chick and looking at signs of Spring. They shared all of this and much more including singing and actions in their Easter Bonnet Parade. Parents were so impressed with the childrens singing, as were staff with the fabulous bonnets made by the children at home. The Easter Bunny even payed them a vist and left some chocolate treats.
World Book Day
To celebrate World Book Day nursery children came dressed up as their favourite book character. Matilda sang some songs for us, and the children enjoyed reading the books that they had brought in from home.
Tractor Visit
Last week a tractor came to Nursery. All the children thoroughly enjoyed seeing the tractor up close and looking at some of its parts. They also enjoyed sitting in it and having a turn at “driving”.
Train Ride
Thanks to Weardale railway, our EYFS children were treated to an experience of a train ride. They walked to Wolsingham station, had a safety talk about railway tracks and safety features, before boarding the train. On the journey they enjoyed looking out of the windows, talking to the train staff.
Pancake Day
We have made pancakes and enjoyed eating them at snack time. We played pancake pairs and everyone had a go at flipping a pancake. We really enjoyed our pancake races.
Chinese New Year
We have been very busy in Nursery celebrating Chinese New Year. The children learned all about Chinese traditions, before joining in with some of them. They went to the Spa to buy Chinese food, which they enjoyed in our Chinese restaurant. They made Chinese lanterns, paper fans, tried Chinese writing and learned some Chinese word such as ‘Ni hao’ and ‘xie xie’ which mean hello and thank you.
Role Play
In Nursey, our children love to get into role and use their imagination. This half term we have already had an ice world with an igloo and sledge. This week the children have shown a real interest in babies and caring for babies. With the children’s help and ideas, we set up a baby clinic, including baby beds, pushchairs and feeding equipment. They also set up a Chinese restaurant and have been practising using the language modelled by adults through play, to serve food, being the chef, waiter and customer.
Baby Visit
Following on from setting up our role play area as a baby clinic we had a special visit from baby Dotty and her Mam. The children asked lots of questions, and were given lots of useful tips for when they are playing with their babies, such as how to hold babies carefully, what they can drink, how to put on a nappy etc. Thankyou to Amanda and Dotty for coming to visit us.
Winter
Nursery children have had lots of fun learning more about Winter and celebrating Penguin awareness day. Activities this week have included; feeding the penguins using oral blending, playing in the snow, creating frozen art outside, writing names in the snow, making 3d penguins, learning a penguin dance, going on a winter walk to see the frozen river, drawing charcoal penguins and matching pairs of gloves.
French
In Nursery the children have started to learn French, with a focus on greetings. This week they learned how to say hello. Children then spent the rest of the week saying ‘bonjour’ and ‘salut’ to their friends and when answering the register.
Where in the World
In Nursery the children have started to learn about planet Earth. They have talked about where they have been in the world, sharing pictures from home of their travels. They went for a walk around Wolsingham looking at significant buildings, built towns in the building site and used marbles and marbling ink to create planet earth.
Dear Zoo
To start the new year we have been learning about zoo animals through the story Dear Zoo. We painted our own animals, wrote alternative descriptions and made our own book. We also made fierce lion masks, printed animal footprints with paint, built our own zoo with blocks and found the hidden animals outside.
EYFS Pantomime Visit
Nursery and Reception children had a fantastic time at Consett Theatre this week. They watched the pantomime ‘Jack and The Beanstalk’. It was great fun and the children joined in with the shouting, cheering, singing and dancing. The loudest screams were when two of the actors were squirting the audience with giant water pistols. The children’s behaviour was impeccable and staff were very proud of them all.
FUNdamental Movement
Fun in the Snow
We had so much fun when the snow arrived. The water had frozen and the children had a great time trying to smash it. They also played roly polys down the hill!
Halloween Parent Craft Session
We had an excellent response to our Halloween parent craft sessions. It was great to see parents playing and engaging with their children and having fun. They decorated paper plate pumpkins, made a puffy ghost, iced spooky biscuits and made a spider handprint. Thankyou to all parents who came along to join in with the spooky fun!
Skeleton Dance
The children have loved reading the story Funny bones. They drew their own skeletons and became very interested in naming the different bones in their bodies. We listened to and joined in with the skeleton song.
Halloween
We have been celebrating Halloween in nursery this week. We read and performed Room on the Broom, had broomstick races, went spider web walking, played rhyming soup, had spider races and made Halloween biscuits.
Listening Walk
When walking around Wolsingham the children were given a listening focus. They had to identify sounds that they could hear, and then see if they could spot where the sound was coming from. Was it a sound that they recognised? They heard a gushing river, cars driving, an airplane in the sky, a dog barking, birds singing and lots more. They spotted lots of holes in the ground at the forest which started a new line of interest as to who made the holes.
Hairdresser Visit
This week we were very lucky and got to visit salon 34 in Wolsingham. The staff welcomed us into their hairdressing salon so that we could see what happens when you visit the hairdressers. We had a try of using the wash basins, and sitting in the chair to have a blow dry. Whilst there we saw one lady getting colour painted onto her hair and another lady having her hair cut and dried. Our children had lots of questions to ask. When we got back to Nursery we made a list of everything we needed in our hairdressers, we then set it up and have had great fun styling our friends hair.
Nursery First Days
The children have had great fun in Nursery this week. They have met with old friends and welcomed some new friends. The areas have all changes, so they have had fun looking around and exploring the new nursery environment. We are really proud of how well the children have settled into nursery life.
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
This week we have been reading the story Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We have had fun acting out the story, mark making in porridge, making our own porridge to enjoy at snack time, building a chair for baby bear, collaging the three bears, measuring the three bears and sorting items from large to small.
My Family
In nursery we have talking about the people in our family, our special people. We looked at pictures of our families and discussed them with our friends. We then sorted colour houses, built houses using bricks, went on a walk to look at different houses, drew our family portraits and made gingerbread families.
Farming
In nursery we have been learning all about harvest and the role farmers play in this. We made scarecrow pictures, practicing tearing paper, played co-operation shopping games, learning to take turns, followed positional language instructions when playing with the farm animals, weighed grain exploring heavy and light, cut Weetabix with tools and made our own bread.
Pizza Faces
This week our focus has been ‘marvellous me’. We have talked lots about our bodies, what special features we have and the fact that it is okay to be different, as we are all different to look at visually. The children have been drawing self-portraits, taking care of their oral hygiene, (muddy bricks), and finding features on their faces. We finished the week off by making ‘pizza faces’.
Library Visit
We have now started our weekly visits to the local library in Wolsingham. The children walk to the library, where they spend time sharing books with their friends and adults, before choosing a book to take home. They can then keep their book at home to share with their family, before returning the following week. We believe it is vitally important to introduce a love of reading from a young age.
Conker Hunt
We went for a walk around Wolsingham in a search for conkers. We were very lucky and found literally hundreds. The children had great fun picking the conkers, and opening the shells with great excitement to see how many conkers were inside.
Colour Monster
This week we have been reading the book The Colour Monster. We have talked lots about how we feel, the different feelings that we might experience and how to control and change the way we are feeling. We made feelings jars, painted colour monsters using a splatter effect, painted symmetrical monsters, and decorated monster biscuits.
Fire Engine Visit
Thank you to the lovely firefighters from Stanhope Fire Station, who visited our nursery children with their fire engine. They told us what fire fighters do and how to call for help. The children had a turn at firing the water hose and a seat in the fire engine. One lucky birthday girl even got to sit in the driver’s seat and set off the siren!
Sports Day
Reception and Nursery children were joined on the school field by their families and friends to enjoy sports day, sharing their sporting skills. Families cheered on our children as they competed in running races, hurdles, egg and spoon races and collect the dinosaurs. Sports day was finished off with a refreshing lolly for the children and a medal ceremony. Well done to all of our sporting stars!
Pirate Day
On Friday we had a pirate fun day in our early years. Reception and Nursery children joined together, dressed in their finest pirate costumes and beach wear. They took part in lots of activities including walk the plank, splat the pirate, build a pirate ship, pin the patch on the pirate, making telescopes, drawing jolly roger flags and a treasure hunt to find the hidden treasure. They finished off the morning with a pirate feast and a water balloon cannon shoot.
Seaside
This week, in Nursery, we have been talking lots about seaside holidays and what we would expect to see and do at the seaside. We made lighthouses, patterns with shells, shaving foam ice creams and finished the week off by opening up our own fish and chip shop and ice cream van. The children enjoyed fish and chips for snack, in newspaper, and ice cream cones on Friday.
Car Wash
Nursery children had great fun in the sunshine this week. They opened up a car wash, it involved lots of soap and bubbles, brushes, sponges and our nursery trikes. They were super shiny by the end, however it was not a cheap car wash at £60 per car. Perfect opportunity for role playing, language and physical development.
EYFS Climbing Frame
The Nursery children were very excited to play on their brand new climbing frame this week. They had great fun, climbing, balancing and spinning on the new equipment.
Gym
Every morning as we do squiggle while you wiggle we talk about our arm muscles getting stronger. The children started discussing other ways to get fit, after discussions we opened up our nursery gym, where the children can come to practice and perfect lots of skills, while developing their gross and fine motor skills, balance, coordination, spatial awareness, perseverance and so much more.
Fruit Salad
After reading the story Oliver’s Fruit Salad, we talked about healthy foods, which fruits we have tasted and whether we like them. We prepared our own fruits using knives carefully to chop and slice. Then we opened up our role play café, for the children to come and be served their fruit salad snack. The following day we voted for our favourite fruits and completed a pictogram to show the results.
The Coronation
In Nursery, we celebrated the Kings coronation in style. During the week, we wrote invitations to our royal picnic, we painted King Charles silhouette pictures, prepared coronation cupcakes and sandwiches, decorated crowns and had a royal picnic.
Chick Visit
On Monday, Greyson’s Mum brought in a baby chick to Nursery. We found out the chick was 6 days old and was called Rubble. We learnt about what he eats and where he lives. We loved stroking Rubble. He was so soft and warm. He liked jumping out the basket and having a walk around in Nursery.
Our Five Senses
This week in Nursery we continued to learn all about our senses, specifically our sense of taste, smell and touch. We explored how we use our senses through lots of practical activities such as; mark making in scented flour, trying foods in a taste test and going on a sensory walk. We went on a textured hand walk and made herb soup.
The Senses
This week in Nursery we have been learning about our senses, specifically our sense of sight and our sense of hearing. We explored how we use our senses through lots of practical activities such as; a listening walk, a blindfolded obstacle course, clapping and listening to syllables in words, making our own musical instruments, making coloured telescopes to change what we see and lots more.
Sensory Walk
In Nursery, we have been learning all about our five senses. We decided to go on a sensory walk, visiting the river, caravan park, woods and the park. We took bags to collect natural treasures that we could explore further using our senses.
Goat Visit
On Monday, Rubie’s Mam kindly brought two goats into Nursery to show the children. One was a baby, only a few old and the other was an older goat who was like a pet. The children loved stroking the goats and asked some good questions about what they ate and where they lived.
Nursery Visit to Hall Hill Farm
On Tuesday Nursery visited Hall Hill Farm. The weather wasn’t very good, but we still had a fantastic day. The children enjoyed seeing, holding and feeding the different animals. They also enjoyed a tractor ride and playing in the soft play area.
Easter Egg Parade
On Friday, we celebrated our Easter bonnet parade in Nursery which was shared with parents and families. The children have been very busy learning Easter songs which they sang beautifully. Our parade started off with a catwalk in the fabulous Easter bonnets made at home. The children performed 5 little ducks, 5 little speckled frogs, Peter Rabbit, hop little bunnies and chick, chick, chicken. After the parade, the Easter bunny had sent us a letter, he had hidden eggs in the nursery garden, which we had to find and exchange for a real Easter egg. Well done to all Nursery children!
The Little Red Hen
We read the story The Little Red Hen. We decided to make our own bread so we wrote shopping lists, and went to the shops in Wolsingham to buy yeast and bread flour. We followed a set of instructions to make bread buns, which we turned into jam sandwiches for snack time. We have also been busy weighing the farm animals from the story, using the language heavy and light.
Red Nose Day 2023
To celebrate Red Nose Day 2023 and raise awareness Nursery children went all out in red. They came to Nursery in red clothes, rolled red balls down guttering, made red nose biscuits, created red nose faces with playdough, had a red nose and spoon race, and finished off with lots of fun and games in the school hall!
Tractor Visit
On Tuesday a tractor came to visit the children in Nursery. They were really excited. They talked about what job it does on the farm and named some of its parts, like wheels, lights and engine. Then all the children had a turn at sitting in the tractor and pretending to drive it.
World Book Day
To celebrate World Book Day in Nursery, we spent a whole week sharing our love of reading. We acted out stories that we had read, played ‘hot seating’ taking on the role of the characters and painted our favourite story characters. We made and decorated storyteller crowns which we wore whilst using our imagination to make up our own stories in a group, adding on a new sentence every time. On World Book Day, the children described the story they had come dressed as and we had to guess who they were. They then went on to make their own story books.
Nursery Pancake Day
On Monday, we celebrated Pancake Day in Nursery. We made pancakes. We ate pancakes and we tossed pancakes. It was really good fun but it was tricky to catch the pancake in the pan.
Goldilocks
Lots of our learning this week has been based around the story Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We followed clues using positional language to find bears hiding in the garden, painted teddy bear faces using a fork to create spiky fur, made bear faces using loose parts, compared sizes and ordered from big to small, made a bed for Goldilocks in the construction area and made our own porridge to enjoy at snack time.
Teddy Bear Day
On Friday, we brought our own bears into Nursery to spend the day with us. We started the day with Circle Time, introducing our cuddly toys to our friends, giving important information such as their names and where they live in our house. We then wrote labels for our bears in case they got lost in Nursery, we also measured the bears to see how many cubes tall they were. Our bears enjoyed snack time with us, sharing scrummy pancakes. We ended the day with a dance with our bears and sang Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear.
Chinese New Year
To celebrate Chinese New Year in Nursery, we read the story about the animals of the Zodiac. Then we had a try at Chinese writing, folding concertina dragons, decorating Chinese lanterns and cutting and gluing lucky red envelopes. We finished the celebrations with a Chinese feast of rice, noodles, prawn crackers and curry sauce.
Winter Birds
In Nursery we have been talking about the birds at winter, what they will eat when it is cold and frozen. We made bird feeders using bird seed, and hung them in our Nursery garden, we then watched and saw lots of birds enjoying our food. We fed the birds worms with tweezers and made rocking robin cards.
Christmas Crafts
This week we welcomed parents into Nursery to join in with Christmas crafts. There was a festive buzz in the Nursery as parents and children created pine cone Christmas trees, finger print wooden baubles and mitten hand prints. A huge thank you and well done to all parents and grandparents who came in to join our festive fun.
Odd Socks Day
We came to Nursery in odd socks to raise awareness of bullying and to celebrate differences. We talk about issues like this in nursery every day, discussing how we feel, how to deal with our emotions, how to celebrate differences rather than highlight them. Our favourite phrase in nursery is ‘It’s good to be different!’
Nursery Rhyme Week
The Nursery boys and girls dressed up on Monday and looked wonderful in their costumes. They enjoyed singing the rhyme that matched everybody’s costumes. They also practised “I’m A Little Teapot” and enjoyed doing lots of activities about this rhyme.
Our fancy dress winners were Greyson Profitt as Wee Willie Winkie and Charlie Taylor as Little Boy Blue.
Later in the week they wrote invitations to a tea party, made spotty cakes and sandwiches to enjoy at the ‘tea pots party’.
Children in Need
We had lots of fun in nursery to raise awareness of Children in Need. Children came into nursery wearing spots, they made Pudsey bear masks, rescued frozen Pudsey from the ice, counted pom pom spots onto Pudsey bear and ate spotty cupcakes.
Diwali
In nursery we have been celebrating bonfire night and Diwali, the festival of light. Children made comparisons between the two festivals discussing traditions. They made and decorated diwa lamps, painted mehndi hand prints, drew firework pictures and created rockets.
Listening Area
A huge thankyou to our Nursery families for supporting us with our sponsored yoga event. We raised over £300 which has helped to provide a relaxing and calming listening area for our nursery children. It is furnished with an armchair, side table, tonies box, with headphones and over 10 tonies for the children to listen to and enjoy. This morning we introduced stick man tonie to the children and joined in with the listening games.
Poppies
On 11th November we watched ‘poppies’ a video helping the children to understand the importance of Remembrance Day. They created a giant poppy to display and remember in nursery, along with transient art poppies.
Halloween
To celebrate Halloween we had a party in Nursery. The children came dressed up. They played pass the witches hat, musical statues, had broomstick races, spider races and a yummy Halloween feast.
Autumn Fun
This week in nursery we have been talking lots about Autumn, noticing changes that are happening around us. Children went on an Autumn hunt collecting natural objects. They then used these to make Autumn artwork and Autumn crowns. We have also harvested our fantastic pumpkins that we have been growing all year.
Puddle Jumping
In nursery we never let the weather dampen our spirits! We had great fun jumping, running through and splashing in muddy puddles. We used sticks to stir the puddles to make potions, we looked at our reflections, floated twigs in the puddles and never stopped smiling!
Lending Library
Our first ever nursery lending library was a huge success. Parents were welcomed into the nursery to look at and share stories with their children before choosing a book to take home for a week. The lending library will be open every Thursday at the beginning of the session, so books can be returned and exchanged. We can’t wait for the next one!
Yoga
Nursery children took part in a sponsored yoga event on Thursday and they were amazing! They began the session with ‘Namaste’ before practise and perfecting their yoga poses. They then completed Halloween themed yoga with Cosmic Yoga Kids. Children took home pictures of the poses they have been practising so they can continue to relax at home with family, showing family members how to perform the yoga poses.
Conker Hunt
Nursery children went on a conker hunt. They were very lucky and found lots of shiny brown conkers, and green spiky conkers still in their shells. On their walk, they also looked at signs of Autumn, talking about how the trees and weather was changing.
Music Lessons
In our weekly music session this week, nursery children explored the sounds that different instruments make. They learned how to stop playing on command, how to keep a steady beat, and how to adjust the volume of their instrument following hand signals. As always it was a feel good session!
Dough Disco
Every week in Nursery we do the ‘Dough Disco’. Children learn different moves to manipulate the dough such as squeezing, rolling, finger diving and making a ball. These fine motor manipulative skills are perfect for finger muscle development and finger discrimination, whilst developing early writing skills.
‘The Colour Monster’
This week in Nursery we have been reading a book called ‘The Colour Monster’. We have talked lots about how the monster was feeling and how we are feeling each day. We discussed how we could help our friends depending on how they were feeling. We had fun sorting colours, naming colours, making playdough monsters, painting symmetrical monsters, wrapping monsters in wool and chalking monsters outside.
Our First Week at Nursery
We have had a fabulous first week at Nursery! The children came back from their summer holidays and settled straight back into the routines. They have been busy exploring the new areas in Nursery, both inside and outside.
EYFS Sports Day
This week we had a fantastic EYFS sports day on the school field. Children were given the opportunity to showcase their throwing skills, running skills, balancing skills and much more. It was lovely to see families cheering the children on. At the end of sports day children were presented with a sports day medal and an ice lolly to cool down.
Caterpillars
After releasing our butterflies into the Nursery garden last week, this week we found caterpillars, and lots of them. They were spotted on a plant in the nursery garden by one of our children, upon closer inspection there were over 15 caterpillars and lots and lots of eggs. The children are hoping they will turn into a chrysalis over the weekend.
South Shields
We had a fantastic time at South Shields beach this week. We were very lucky, and the sunshine came with us! We visited the park, had a ride on a steam train, ate a delicious ice cream and then spent the afternoon splashing in the sea and playing on the sand.
Butterflies
Two weeks ago Postman Pat brought us some caterpillars. We have been looking after them very carefully and were amazed when they turned into a chrysalis. Seven days later and our caterpillars had transformed into butterflies. We were lucky enough to release our butterflies into the Nursery garden, and watch them on their journey.
Pride
In Nursery, we spend lots of time throughout the year talking about what makes us proud, we celebrate differences, and talk about the fact that it is ‘okay’ to be different. This week we have made colourful biscuits, talked about why we are proud of our friends, and why our families are proud of us. To celebrate, we joined in with the whole school to parade around the field in rainbow colours.
