Nursery: Blog items
Nursery News: All About Me – Week 3!
Date: 2nd Oct 2024 @ 7:23pm
What an exciting week we’ve had in Nursery! As we continue with our "All About Me" theme, we’ve noticed our new friends becoming more settled, confident, and adventurous in their learning. It’s been wonderful to see friendships deepening and the children becoming more comfortable in their surroundings. This week, our focus has been on exploring our closest family connections and discovering more about the world around us, especially as we welcome the beautiful season of autumn.
Learning About Our Families
In circle time, we’ve spent the week talking about our families—who lives in our homes, what we like to do together, and how our families are all different but equally special. The children loved sharing family photos and stories, and it was a great opportunity to develop their Communication and Language skills, as they practiced speaking confidently and listening to their friends. These discussions also tied into Personal, Social and Emotional Development, as they help children understand their own identity and the important role family plays in their lives.
Exploring Autumn
As part of our Understanding the World focus, we turned our attention to the changing seasons, and this week was all about autumn! We’ve been observing how the leaves are changing colours, the weather is becoming cooler, and the world around us is transforming. During outdoor play, we collected leaves, pinecones, and twigs, sparking conversations about nature and how the world works. This exploration encouraged the children to use their senses to engage with the environment around them.
Creating Autumn Sun Catchers
In a burst of creativity, the children made beautiful autumn sun catchers using collage materials. Inspired by the vibrant reds, oranges, yellows, and browns of autumn leaves, the children selected materials to represent the season. This artistic activity not only allowed them to express their creativity but also supported their Physical Development by helping them refine their fine motor skills as they cut, glued, and arranged the different pieces. Their sun catchers now brighten our classroom windows, reflecting the beauty of autumn inside!
Maths Through Music: Nursery Rhymes and Numbers
In maths this week, we’ve been securing our understanding of numbers through the magic of nursery rhymes. The children had so much fun singing “The Ants Go Marching” and other number rhymes like “Five Little Ducks” and “Ten in the Bed.” These songs are a fantastic way to support Mathematical Development as they help the children practice counting forwards and backwards. By acting out the songs with props and fingers, they also engaged their bodies in learning, making the experience more memorable.
Looking Ahead
As we move into next week, we’ll continue deepening our understanding of ourselves and the world. We’ll explore more about the people we love, extend our knowledge of autumn, and introduce new activities that challenge and inspire the children. It’s a joy to see how much progress they’ve made as individuals and as a group, and we can’t wait to see what new adventures await us in Week 4!
Thank you for all your support at home—it’s been wonderful to hear the children share their nursery experiences with such enthusiasm.
Nursery News: All About Me – Week 2!
Date: 24th Sep 2024 @ 8:07am
Nursery News: All About Me – Week 2!
This week in Nursery, we continued our exciting "All About Me" journey, but with a special focus—welcoming new friends! We are delighted to welcome new children into our class. It’s been wonderful watching friendships bloom as everyone gets to know one another and we’ve been busy helping the children feel comfortable, confident, and connected in their new environment.
Friendship in Action
To support our new friendships, we’ve been focusing on activities that encourage cooperation and teamwork. Group games, such as parachute play and building with blocks, gave the children the opportunity to work together, share, and take turns. This links directly to Personal, Social and Emotional Development, as the children learn to interact positively with one another, build relationships, and understand the importance of kindness.
Exploring Emotions
This week, we’ve also started talking about feelings—what makes us happy, sad, excited, or even a little nervous. We used stories, puppets, and role-play to help the children explore and express their emotions, this has supported children to identify and talk about their feelings and build essential skills for emotional resilience and understanding.
Creative Self-Portraits
To further our “All About Me” exploration, the children worked on creating self-portraits with paint, crayons, and collage materials. This was not only a fun way for them to express themselves creatively but also a fantastic opportunity to enhance their fine motor skills.
Looking Ahead
As we wrap up Week 2, we’re looking forward to continuing our “All About Me” topic by diving deeper into the things that make each child unique, from their interests to their families. With new friendships forming every day, the classroom is buzzing with excitement and discovery. We’ll continue to nurture these new relationships and build a strong, caring community where every child feels valued and supported.
It’s been an amazing week watching the children grow closer, learn more about themselves, and, most importantly, make new friends. We can’t wait to see what Week 3 brings!
Date: 12th Sep 2024 @ 4:19pm
Nursery Weekly Blog WB 4/12/2023
Date: 7th Dec 2023 @ 2:48pm
This week in Nursery we have had an exciting visitor! On Monday Santa left us a letter telling us that one of his elves was making some wobbly choices and he needed the children in Nursery to help him to make some better choices. He left us a book as a reward for helping him. Sadly the elf has carried on making wobbly choices while he was in Nursery - swinging from the bunting and covering our Christmas tree in tissue paper to name just two. Hopefully next week he might make some better choices!!
We have loved welcoming in parents into Nursery this week for Stay and Play sessions - thank you very much to everyone who made the time to come into Nursery and explore it with your child - they loved it!
Please make sure you have returned your Tapestry consent form so that we can start to post your child's learning on the platform.
Nursery Weekly Blog WB 27/11/2023
Date: 30th Nov 2023 @ 9:21am
This week in Nursery we have been doing lots of fantastic learning about the traditional story The Three Billie Goats Gruff. here is a link to a video of the story that you could share with your child at home.
The children have done some fantastic paintings of the troll in the story making great colour choices when deciding what the troll should look like. They have also done some amazing drama learning outside based on the story and have built bridges in our block area. They have played musical instruments that they thought matched the sound that the characters would make and played a maths game based ion the story.
The children have also been busy practising their Christmas songs ready for their performance of the Nativity at the end of term.
Next week the children will find a surprise visitor in Nursery when they arrive on Monday - listen out for them telling you about some strage things happening in Nursery throughout the week!
We look forward to welcoming all parents into Nursery next week for our Stay and Play sessions when you will have the chance to do some Christmas crafts and explore the Nursery with your child!
Nursery Weekly Blog WB 20/11/2023
Date: 23rd Nov 2023 @ 9:22am
This week in Nursery we have been doing lots of great learning about the traditional rhyme Incy Wincy Spider. The children have loved making spider finger puppets and weaving webs both inside and outside!
We have done spider web maths and played parachute games with Incy as well as creating playdough spiders.
This week the children have chosen their first book from our Nursery library to take home and enjoy reading with a grown up. These books can stay at home for 2 weeks before we ask them to be returned and changed. Please can you ensure that the books are looked after at home as any damage will have to be paid for. Allongside this book the children are also having a weekly reading session in school using a book that is linked to their current phonics phase. This weeks book has been Incy Wincy Spider and the children have been spotting parts of the story on each page as well as spotting things that make a noise and talking about the weather.
Our next weeks learning will be all about The Three Billie Goats Gruff.
Nursery weekly blog WB 13/11/2023
Date: 16th Nov 2023 @ 9:29am
This week in Nursery we started off the week by doing lots of fantastic learning about the festival of Diwali - the Hindu festival of lights. We learned how families prepare for Diwali in their homes and how it is celebrated around the world. The children all made lanterns to decorate the Nursery with.
Later in the week we went back to our topic of Traditional Tales and did some great learning about The Gingerbread Man. We have sequenced the story, drawn our favourite part of the story at Tummy Time and played a memory game with the characters. To finish the week we all made and decorated our own gingerbread men and got to take them home to eat.
Here is a link to the story so that you can enjoy the story at home
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfKsgQX4OGQ
Next week we will be doing lots of learning about Incy Wincy Spider!
Nursery Weekly Blog WB 6/11/2023
Date: 9th Nov 2023 @ 11:07am
This week we have done lots of fantastic learning about the rhyme Baa baa black sheep.
Here is a link to the rhyme if you want to sing it with your child at home!
Baa Baa Black Sheep: BSL Signed Nursery Rhymes | CBeebies - YouTube
During the week we have done lots of learning about the number three and the colour black. We have been on a scavenger hunt to find as many black objects as we could - maybe you could look around at home for some more?
The children have made wooden spoon puppets and even shorn a sheep to practise their cutting skills!
In family groups they have told the story using a tough spot, played musical instruments and done yoga inspired by the rhyme.
Next week we will be doing great learning about The Gingerbread Man and the festival of Divali!
Nursery Weekly Blog WB 16/10/2023
Date: 19th Oct 2023 @ 1:18pm
This week at Greenhill it has been Curriculum Week and all the school ,including Nursery have based their learning on France. The children in Nursery have learned to say hello in French and started to learn to count the days of the week.
On Monday we made bunting by collaging French flags with different textures in the three colours. On Tuesday we learned all about the Eiffel Tower and created images of it at sunset using our fingers. On Wednesday we had a real treat and made crepes - we put chocolate on top - they were delicious! At the end of the week we looked at the artist Claude Monet and recreated his water lillies paintings using CDs and tissue paper.
After half term our new topic will be Traditional Tales after we have learned all about Autumn the first week back.
We hope everybody has a fantastic Half Term holiday and we look forward to seeing all the children again on October 30th.
Nursery weekly blog WB 9/10/23
Date: 12th Oct 2023 @ 12:23pm
This week in Nursery we have done lots of fantastic learning abased on the book 'We're going on a bear hunt!'. Here is a link to the story - I'm sure child would love to join in with it at home!
Michael Rosen performs We're Going on a Bear Hunt - YouTube
As well as having lots of fun putting actions to the story, we have done yoga based on the book, made playdough bears and made binoculars ready to go on our own bear hunt on Friday!
The children have also done some den building to make a bear cave - they were very brave to go inside!
Next week is our school curriculum week on France and we have lots of exciting activities incuding making crepes and constructing the Eiffel Tower!
Date: 5th Oct 2023 @ 4:54pm
This week in Nursery we have been continuing our learning on our topic "All about me!'.
We followed the Large Family through the book 5 Minutes Peace.
Here is a link to the story if you would like to share it with your child.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZMLURzv4Lw
During the week we had lots of fun learning songs about elephants ,sequencing the story and comparing the Large Familiy to our own,
Thank you very much to the parents who sent in photos of the children's family - the children loved sharing them with us!
The highlight of the week for lots of children was making marmalade toast. The children loved waiting for the toaster to pop then spreading the marmalade on the toast, They thought it was yummy!
Next week we will be going with another family on a bear hunt!
Date: 29th Sep 2023 @ 9:19am
This week in Nursery we started our new topic 'All About Me !' and we read the book 'My Mum and Dad make me laugh' to help us with our learning here is a link to a video of the book if you would like to share it with your child.
Read Aloud MY MUM AND DAD MAKE ME LAUGH by Nick Sharratt - YouTube
In the book Mum loves spots and Dad likes stripes - we decided which we liked the best!
We have created our faces using paper plates and had tummy time to help us with our fine motor skills.
We have also spent time learning how to care for our Nursery and all the equipment in it.
Next week we will be reading about the Large Family in the book 5 Minutes Peace and we would love it if your child could bring in a photo of their family to share in Family Group time.
Nursery Weekly Blog WB 18.9.2023
Date: 21st Sep 2023 @ 12:15pm
This week we welcomed in our final group of children into our Nursery. We are VERY proud of the way all the children have settled into their new class. We have started to learn new routines and how to care for our Nursery. All the children now have a Family Group and a Key Worker.
Next week we will be starting our Topic learning - 'All About Me!'- when we will be thinking about families and homes. If you have any photos of your childs familiy that you would be happy for us to share please give them to one of the Nursery staff.
Nursery weekly blog WB 3/7/2023
Date: 6th Jul 2023 @ 1:12pm
This week we have started our learning for curriculum week. We will be designing and making fruit kebabs to sell at our Summer Fayre. We started off by tasting fruit and deciding which ones we would like to put on the kebabs - evryone loved the strawberries! Then we wrote a shopping list so that we knew what to buy to make them - the children had some fantastic ideas. We look forward to making them next week.
Everyone looked super sporty in their sports gear on Thursday!
Nursery Weekly Blog WB 19/6/2023
Date: 22nd Jun 2023 @ 1:20pm
This week we have continued our journey around the world by visiting Pakistan. To support our learning we used the book P is for Pakistan .
Here is a link to a video of the book if you would like to share it with your child.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2DldoQIemY
We have learned lots of interesting things about the country and have been very lucky that Mrs Noor has shared a fantastic photograph album of her family visiting Pakistan - all the children were entralled by the pictures!
We have made a traditional truck and done some tasting of fruits that grow in Pakistan as well as making patterns with the sybols from the Pakistani flag.
Next week we will be continuing our learning about Pakistan and learning about how Eid is celebrated their.
Nursery Weekly Blog WB 12/6/2023
Date: 16th Jun 2023 @ 9:06am
This week in Nursery we have been continuing our trip around the world with a visit to Africa. We have used the book 'We're going on a Lion Hunt' to help us to develop our knowledge of what it would be like to visit there.
here is a video loink to the book if you would like to watch it with your child.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vh21Flkv3cs
We have done lots of learning about the sorts of animals we might find in Africa , looking at what they look like including the patterns on their skin. We have done animal yoga and used binocullars to spot animals in the wild.
Next week we will be going on a trip to Pakistan!
Nursery Weekly Blog WB 5/6/2023
Date: 8th Jun 2023 @ 1:00pm
This week in Nursery we have started our new Topic learning abou 'Where in the world would you like to go?'. The children had some fantastic ieas of where they would like to go - like New York and Disneyland.
We stared our trip around the globe in London using our book 'Hello London'.
Here is a video link to the book if you want to watch it with your child.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cWjUVISr24
We have created a range of images of the landmarks of London so that on Friday when we go on an open top bus tour we can see the sights from our seats. We are all very excited to have fish and chips at the end of the tour!
Nexrt week we are off on Safari in Africa!
Nursery Weekly Blog WB 22.5.2023
Date: 25th May 2023 @ 1:03pm
This week we have done some fantastic learning about butterflies using the book 'Butterfly Butterfly' Here is a link to the story if you would like to enjoy it with your child.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_UmTUvDoPA
We have created butterflies using hand prints, paper plates and even made a giant one with the parachute and made it fly around our garden.
On Wednesday we said goodbye to our own butterflies which we have watched grow from tiny caterpillars into big fat caterpillars then into their coccoons and finally emerge as beautiful butterflies. All the children were mesmerised by the beautiful creatures flying into the air - a fantastic moment I'm sure they will never forget !
All the Nursery staff hope that our children and their families have a fantastic holiday and after the break our new topic will be 'Where in the world would you like to go?'
Reception Weekly Blog WB 15/5/2023
Date: 18th May 2023 @ 1:20pm
This week in Nursery we have been doing lots of fantastic learning about Sunflowers.
We read the book Sam Plants a Sunflower. Here is a video of it if you would like to watch it with your child.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3GaW6C-Ik0
All the children have planted their own sunflower seed and will be bringing it home to look after as it grows.Lets see who's grows the tallest!
We have also been planting in our Nursery garden and are looking forward to eating lots of vegetables that we are growing in the planters.
We have done some fantastic paintings of sunflowers and made our own garden in a tray.
Next week we hope our butterflies will emerge from their cocoons and we can release them into the garden.
Nursery Weekly Blog WB 8/5/2023
Date: 11th May 2023 @ 12:54pm
This week in Nursery we have started our learning about plants. We have read the book Jaspers Beanstalk and started to think about how plants grow. Jasper wanted his beanstalk to grow and got very imaptient while he waited. We thought about howJasper was feeling at different parts of the story and occasions when we had felt like that - everyone was excited when it was their birthday!
Here is a link to the video if you would like to watch it at home.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jemrWJX7xJo
We have all been measured against our class beanstalk measuring chart so we can see who is the tallest and who is the shortest - adults and children!
We all had great fun playing the 'Bean Game' making up actions for lots of different beans like jumping beans and runner beans! Mrs Middleton's favourite was french beans when we had to shout 'oooh la la'!
Next week we will be doing some more planting - hopefully outside if the weather improves - and learning how to care for seeds so that they grow into healthy plants
Nursery Weekly Blog WB 1/5/2023
Date: 4th May 2023 @ 4:39pm
This week in Nursery we have been getting very excited about the forthcoming coronation on Saturday. We have based our learning on a lovely book called King Charles' Colourful Coronation - here is a link to the book if you would like to enjoy it withe your child
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvkN9c1jDlU
The children have made crown biscuits, a kings collage and even their own crowns. They have learned about the new kings life from being a bay and what will happen in Saturdays coronation.
Next week we will be doing lots of outdoor learning in out Nursery garden when we will be planting lots of seeds in the Nursery planters.
Nursery weekly Blog WB 24.4.2023
Date: 28th Apr 2023 @ 5:01pm
This week we have done some very exciting learning based on this weeks book 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' . The children loved the beautiful pictures in the big book that Mrs Middleton found and laughed as our catterpillar puppet ate his way through the pages. The children learned all about the life cycle of a butterfly through dama and in Maths began to understand how a butterfly's wings are symetrical.
We have loved welcoming parents into Nursery this week to see the chicks and caterpillars and share the fantastic learning we have done this term.
Next week we will be getting excited about the coronation of King Charles and will be doing lots of exciting learning in the build up to the big day!
Just a reminder that Nursery is closed on Thursday 4th May as it is being used as a Polling Station.
Nursery Weekly Blog WB 17.4.2023
Date: 20th Apr 2023 @ 1:14pm
This week in Nursery we have all been extremely excited to welcome some VERY special visitors. On Monday eggs arrived in Nursery and we carefully placed them inside the incubator and waited and watched hoping that they would hatch. On Wednesday we were delighted to see that the chicks started to hatch - boys and girls - and we loved watching them come out and start to grow.
Also on Monday we received our caterpillars. They were very small and we had to be very careful as we put them in pots with some food. They have already started to get bigger and fatter and we are excited to learn about what will happen to them in the coming weeks when we do lots of learning about the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar next week.
We look forward to welcoming grown ups into Nursery next week to meet the chicks and caterpillars and have a look at all the children's fantastic learning.
Nursery Weekly blog WB 37.3.2023
Date: 30th Mar 2023 @ 12:55pm
This week we have done lots of fun learning about the Easter Bunny. We read the book The Story of the Easter Bunny and got excited in case he visited us with his basket of eggs - we have made chocolate nests to put our eggs in just in case!
Here is a link to the story in case you would like to watch it at home!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP__j1Fviaw
We have decorated our own eggs using bingo dabbers, played matching games with decorated eggs and played hunt the chick outside.
After the holidays our new topic will be growth and change and we are getting excited for the arrival of chicks and caterpillars!
Nursery Weekly Blog WB 20.3.2023
Date: 23rd Mar 2023 @ 1:08pm
This week in Nursery we have been doing lots of great learning about old and new toys and what is the same and different about them. We have looked at some old toys , how they work and then made some toys of our own like them - some cups and balls and some penny spinners!
We have written shopping lists for the toy shop and painted our favourite toys as well as playing skittles and wheres the tedyy?
Our book this week has been The Toymaker, a lovely story about Matthew who makes dolls out of wood for his poorly daughter Mary to cheer her up. Many years later Mary comes back with her own daughter to the shop to find the dolls still in the cupboard. We used the story to think about different emotions.
Here is a link to a video of the book if you would like to watch it at home
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXwQNoGuev0
Next week our learning will be all about Easter!
