Nursery

Today the Nursery children were part of Macaulay Outdoor Learning Day. We enjoyed many activities including  exploring environmental sounds, wet water slide play and  stick weaving. We tried some activities for the first time and some are our favourites.

Today the children  had their first experience to explore technology in their play using BeeBots.  Listening carefully to instructions, the children began to learn how to  programme the Beebots whilst they built their confidence and ability to  use  directional  language. Everyone was delighted as the Beebots  rotated and bleeped to signal a successful program sequence.

As part of our Act of Service the Nursery children decided to plant seeds in the flower planters outside  our  school, for  the community to enjoy. First we cleared the weeds and showed care and concern for the living things that we discovered. We planted special seeds that would attract bees and butterflies just before it rained. Then it  was time to wait for the flowers to grow.

WE LOVE BOOKS !!! To begin the celebration of the 25th World Book Week, we brought our favourite books from home to share with friends. We shared our book recommendations  before wrapping the books. We used our maths skills to measure the size of paper that we needed and controlled the stationery tools with confidence.  At storytimes, we read the reviews before we chose and unwrapped  each book with great anticipation .Finally we shared our books together..

We are all scientists !! Using our  building and balancing skills skills we made Humpty Dumpty a wall but evaluated it as not being strong enough because it had holes in it and revised our design. We familarised ourselves with the Nursery rhyme in our small world play before testing out our Humptys. We used our enquiry and prediction skills to think what would be the best protection for Humpty, cotton wool or tissue. What do you think that we found out?

Using all of our senses and critical thinking skills, we investigated eggs. What is the sound when we shake it? Are eggs fragile or hard to break? What is inside of an egg? Is the white oil, water or something else?

We enjoyed feeling the yoke and white. We didn't know that it would feel sticky and slimy.

On a beautiful, sunny Spring day the Nursery enjoyed Red Nose Day. We dressed in red clothes and as Superheroes for a busy day of fun activities. The children wrapped their eggs in red tissue paper in preparation for the Egg and Spoon Race. With great enthusiasm for this new experience despite a few dropped eggs, it was immense fun. Then we carefully mixed ingredients to  decorate our Red Nose biscuits, and not surprisingly we couldn't resist eating some of them! Finally, it was time to join in the EYFS Danceathon before the best dressed competition. We collected money and thought about all of the children and people that will benefit.

Today was another exciting session at Forest School with the Reception class.After revising the  revised the Forest School rules, we learned how to weave sticks. We listened and concentrated  until we finally decorated the stick. We enjoyed it so much that some of us made several sticks !

While learning about the Arctic, we looked at the work of the artist Jimmy Kamimmalik.  Using  pastels, charcoal and black pens, we carefully represented his picture of 'The Woman Who Adopted a Polar Bear'.

As part of our topic 'It's Cold Outside' the Nursery children looked for signs of winter and discovered frost but also that the ground was hard. The children wondered how the birds would catch worms to eat  during Winter and worried that the birds would be hungry. They decided to make bird feeders from lard and bird seeds and hang them around the Nursery playground. We read our bird spotter sheets to identify our bird visitors. We thoroughly enjoyed caring for the living things in our natural environment.

Today the Nursery children joined the Reception class at Forest School. After selecting the appropriate  clothing and footwear it was time to learn the Forest School rules to keep safe whilst learning outdoors .The most important one was to make sure that we had fun as we  explored the  different opportunities for learning outdoors. We particularly enjoyed digging and finding worms, exploring chalk through our senses and making marks. We also made delicious Rosemary soup in the mud kitchen. We learned that it is very important to put our clothing and footwear away correctly, ready for our next  fun, joint EYFS Forest School experience.

As part of our RE and Thanksgiving topic the children harvested the apples from the tree in our playground. We carefully picked the apples and collected them in the baskets before washing them. After reading our recipe, we chopped the apples and added sugar and cinnamon. Finally , we rubbed the butter and flour together to make the crunchy crumble topping. 

We read the the Creation story again and gave thanks  to God for the sun and rain that helps our food grow. The crumble was delicious !