Nursery
As a family, we live, love, learn and celebrate with Jesus
Welcome to Nursery
Please find some suggestions below for learning activities you can do with your child at home should you be in self isolation
A warm welcome to a full and exciting Spring term!
This half term’s topic is called Mini Beasts, where the children will be immersed in a range of activities and experiences which will enable them to engage in all areas of the curriculum in a fun and stimulating way.
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Mini beasts Magnifying glasses at the ready! Let’s creep and crawl and find them all!
Mini beasts are all around, Some up high and some on the ground. All are waiting to be found!
We’ll look at books to find out what bugs do, Then we’ll go on a search and make a bug zoo. It will be so much fun for EVERYONE! |
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Personal, Social and Emotional Development |
This is one of the most important areas of learning for Foundation Stage and activities will be planned around the needs of the children with the focus of establishing positive, respectful relationships whilst developing self confidence and self awareness. We follow the Jigsaw PSE scheme. This half term the topic is ‘Healthy Me’ which will focus on making healthy choices |
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Communication and Language |
The children will have the opportunity to listen to a range of stories and poems and will be encouraged to join in with well known phrases and anticipate what will happen next. Small group times will provide the chance for the children to listen to each other and build up their vocabulary to express their feelings and experiences. We use the Wellcom scheme to support and enhance speaking, listening and comprehension activities for some children. |
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PD |
Along with the continued focus of developing self care (toileting, washing hands, independent dressing) the children will also be shown how to use equipment safely and correctly, eg scissors, pencil grip, and will have a range of opportunities to practise. The children will use their PE hall time to explore different ways of moving, as well as using the outdoor equipment to build gross motor skills with bikes, climbing frame and digging. P.E. will be on Tuesday mornings for Nursery children. |
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English |
The key text this term is The Hungry Caterpillar, where the children will describe main story events and characters. Children will also use non fiction books to research information about mini beasts. Phonics groups will continue each morning, with children working on Phase 1 of Letters and Sounds to develop general sound discrimination, alliteration, oral blending and segmenting. |
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Maths |
Teacher led activities will focus on number recognition, 1-1 correspondence, making comparisons between quantities, number conservation and the concept of 1 more, as well as ordering items according to length and using comparative vocabulary. Child initiated learning will enable the children to investigate and explore various aspects of number, shapes and measures with adult support. |
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Understanding the World |
The children will explore the world around them, asking questions based on how and why things happen. We will explore the different habitats of mini beasts and consider how we can look after these creatures. Children will be encouraged to investigate our school environment and talk about and question the things they have observed. |
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Expressive arts and design |
The focus this half term is increasing children's awareness of sounds and rhythms by singing songs and action rhymes, using body percussion, listening to music and developing a ‘sounds vocabulary’. In Nursery, the children will be using instruments to explore and make sounds as well as responding to rhythms through movement. We shall also be using a variety of materials to create our own collage characters and models. |
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RE |
Our R.E. topic this half term is Sorrow and Joy. The children will : • understand that we are capable of hurting others and that we should always try to be kind to each other. • know that we can say sorry when we hurt someone, but we need to ask Jesus to help us to do this. • know that Jesus forgave those who hurt him and know that we can forgive other people when they hurt us; • know that we need to ask Jesus to help us to be kind to others. |
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Trips /Visits |
We shall be going for a Spring walk around school this half term, so we will need wellies! A letter will be sent out nearer the time. |
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Home Learning |
- Share a story with your child. Discuss the events, setting, characters. Ask questions such as 'What do you think will happen next?' Let your child turn the page. - Look at numbers/ shapes in the environment. - Practise putting shoes and socks on and off. - Practise putting own coat on and fastening. -Share the weekly Wednesday word Gospel reading with your child.
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Additional Information- Every Friday we celebrate Star of the Week, and share our learning achievements. Star of the Week is celebrated by taking Hooray Henry home for the weekend!
We ask for children to record their adventures with Henry in the book with drawings or photographs, and then bring him back on Tuesday so we can share the book with the class.
Shining Stars
It is important that all the amazing things your child does at Nursery are shared with you at home. Equally, we are keen to hear about any significant achievements your child makes outside of Nursery so we can gain a wider, more complete picture of your child. Therefore, each half term we will be sending home ‘Shining Stars’ so we can celebrate your child’s successes outside of Nursery. We look forward to displaying our stars in Nursery.
If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to come and see me.
I look forward to working with you and your children this term.
Kind regards,
Mrs Piggott
Mrs Piggott - Teacher. Miss Pratt - Nursery Practitioner.
Our Morning Prayer
Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
We offer you our day.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
Guide us at work and play.
Help us to love each other,
So that we may be,
On Earth and then in Heaven,
Your Holy Family.
Amen
Each morning we share how we are feeling
We have a positive attitude to learning. We always try our best and never give up, just like Brown Rabbit.
We tried some of the fruit from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We cut up and tasted apples, pears, plums, strawberries and oranges. Yum!
We loved celebrating World Book Day! We dressed up as favourite characters and showed our favourite stories
We have had so much fun learning about The Very Hungry Caterpillar! We read the story and retold it using toys. We counted out beads to make a caterpillar body. We even painted and decorated plates to make our own caterpillar display
We came into Nursery to find a tree growing from the ceiling! We decorated it with fingerprint caterpillars.
As part of our learning about Lent, we read the story of The Big Pancake. We retold the story in groups using small world characters.
To celebrate Lent we participated in our Ash Wednesday Mass. Fr. Norbert and Fr. Tony put ash on our forehead in the sign of the cross and we sung hymns and made our Lenten goals. When we got back to class we did some Ash Wednesday activities. We put our Lenten goal footballs in our Lenten goal post!
We enjoyed doing our Daily Mile in our pyjamas to raise money for the HFFA!
As part of our celebrations topic, we learnt about Mardi Gras! We made our own Mardi Gras parade floats using junk modelling.
We have been learning about how to stay safe on the internet! We discussed how to use computers, tablets and phones safely and to always tell our grown up if we are not sure what to do! We made our own posters to advise others how to use the internet safely
We have been learning about Kodomo no Hi (Japanese Children's Day) and to celebrate, we painted fish, made carp kites, coloured in pictures and thought about what each of us are good at.
We love reading in Nursery! We have new indoor and outdoor reading areas so we can read everywhere!
We love having music with Mrs Kee! This week we explored different instruments and played them in time to music.
We used torches to explore whether light would travel through different objects.
We have been learning about Judaism. We looked at some Jewish artefacts, mixed orange paint to paint a Menorah and used lollipop sticks to create the Star of David. We also coloured in pictures of Jewish artefacts and used a counting Menorah.
As part of our celebrations topic, we have been learning about weddings. Some of the children brought in pictures of family weddings.We discussed the pictures and similarities and differences between them.
As part of our learning on weddings, we designed our own wedding outfits using collage materials.
We asked questions about what we'd like to know about weddings such as 'how do people get to weddings?' We worked together in small groups to answer these questions using felt tip pens to draw our answers.
As part of our Celebrations topic we had a party for our class puppet Clive's birthday. We made birthday cards, decorated biscuits and made a party hat. Some parents came to help us!
In RE we have been learning about the story of 'Jesus and the Little Children'. We acted out the story in groups.
We have been reading 'Stickman'. We enjoyed making our own Stick People using fabric to make clothes.
We are so lucky to have Mrs Kee to teach us music. We enjoyed singing, tapping our rhythms and playing instruments.
We enjoyed visiting the pantomime. We saw The Snow Queen. We had ice cream during the interval and a picnic lunch after the show.
As part of Christmas Around the World Day, we learnt about Christmas in Poland. We decorated baubles, tried a Christmas wafer, looked at different Polish Christmas dinner and decorated fish with scales to show how some Polish people keep the scales to bring luck in the new year. Leo showed us where Poland is on the map and taught us some words in Polish!
We enjoyed our Christmas Jumper day and eating Christmas Dinner together.
Thank you for coming to our Nativity!
We enjoyed performing our Nativity Show in front of the whole school and then in front of our families and Fr. Norbert. The children were amazing and we are so proud of them!
We used tubes, paint, pom-poms and fabric to make a snowman.
As part of our learning on 'The Gruffalo' we made Gruffalo crafts. We used cereal boxes, paints and paper to create our own Gruffalo faces. We also created a Gruffalo mask using cardboard and coloured pencils.
We went outdoors on a Gruffalo Hunt! We retraced mouse's journey during the story and found the different characters in their homes. We marked them down when we found them.
During our outdoor walk, we observed the effects of the cold weather. We noticed we left footprints in the frosty grass and the outdoor water tray was frozen solid!
As part of Friendship Week, we listened to the story of Elmer. We made our own Elmers and considered how we can make our friends happy like Elmer.
Some of our grown ups visited us for our Phonics Morning! They helped us complete some fun phonics activities.
We have been learning about Diwali. We listened to the story and acted it out using masks
We have been learning about Remembrance Sunday. We made poppies to think about the brave soldiers
We have been learning about fireworks. We used pompoms to dance like fireworks. We listened to the 1812 Overture and used crayons and black paper to make marks in response to the music.
We made firework pictures by printing with tubes and adding a sprinkle of glitter!
As part of Black History Month, we have been learning about Africa through the story of Handa's surprise. We enjoyed African dance, making animal masks of characters from the story and trying exotic fruits from the story!
This week we explored our torches. We used coloured foil to change the colour of the light. Some of us noticed that the light gets smaller the closer it gets to the paper. Great thinking!
We were lucky enough to have a visit from Fr. Tony. We sang him two of our favourite hymns and asked him some questions so we could get to know him better.
We have been learning about the story Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? We have enjoyed reading the story, retelling the story using puppets, going on a hunt for the characters from the story and exploring how important our eyes are to help us do tricky challenges!
We supported CAFOD's Brighten Up for Harvest day by dressing up in bright clothes and bringing in food for a local food bank. We thought about how important it is to help people in our community and be kind like Jesus.
We have been reading Polar Bear Polar Bear What Do You Hear? We have been learning about the Arctic and ice. We have done several experiments using ice, exploring how ice is hard, cold and melts when warmed up. We made igloos for the polar bear, learnt about how blubber keeps polar bears warm and saved our toys from being frozen by Elsa's magic!
We enjoyed our Welcome Mass which we celebrated with Fr. Norbert and our families.
We love reading with our Reading Buddies!
We have been learning about Brown Rabbit. We tried really hard to persevere in tricky activities
We went on a Sound Walk around the school. We used our good listening ears to hear all the different sounds around school.
We went on a tour around the school. We visited Mrs Linnane, Mrs Willcocks and Mrs Cullen in the office, the hall and dining room and every classroom. We enjoyed waving at friends and siblings in the other classes.
Our first weeks at Nursery
