Hop little bunnies

This week our topic has been all about Easter. We started the week reading the story 'We're going on an Egg hunt' and on Tuesday we went on our very own egg hunt. We received a letter from the Easter Bunny who said he had hidden some eggs in the nursery garden and the children had to follow the rules and find 1 egg each. Once they had found an egg they had to return it to their key worker and then all eggs were put in a basket and at the end of the session they had turned into a treat from the Easter Bunny. Even Reception joined us on the afternoon and what fun everyone had.

Each child also decorated their own egg using Easter resources or felt tip pens. Some of the eggs had some lovely patterns on.

We have also been doing some rhyming words this week as well as matching patterns on eggs.

Today was our annual Easter egg competition and we had some amazing entries. The winners of the morning children are Ethel Ross, Percy Atkinson and Declan Singleton. The winners of the afternoon children are Nate Gilbert, Theo-Lee Henry and Isla Maskell. Well done to everyone who created an egg, they were all eggcellent!

Our little rays of sunshine this week are Sheldon-Lee Norman as he has done a great job of tidying areas when he's done and tidied the snack area, picking everything up off the floor. Marley Hall as he has impressed me this week while creating a pattern on his egg picture. He told me it was “zig zag”. Theo Henry as he has had a great week and impressed us tidying up outside in the garden. Kai McManus as he has had a fantastic week and is settling so well into nursery life. He has been an absolute superstar! Lily Tranter as she has had a brilliant week and is settling so well into nursery life. Finally, Grayson Hicks-Henry for doing a great job at our matching patterns game. He was able to find all his matching eggs and is doing really well with our group activities. Well done to you all, what superstars!

We hope you all have a lovely Easter holiday and we will see you back at Nursery on Monday 28th April.

Welcome to our New Starters

This week we have welcomed some new starters into nursery and we are so impressed with how well they have settled into nursery life and how well the older children have looked after them.

This week we have been doing lots of enrichment activities to help the new starters settle. We have been exploring the musical instruments and also the song box.

We have also been completing some pencil control activities and scissor skills ensuring we understand all about scissor safety and how to use them correctly.

The weather has also been amazing so we have also made the most of it and enjoyed being outside without any waterproofs or coats on. Lets hope this is the start of our summer.

This weeks little rays of sunshine are for being such a kind friend. Erin Hodkinson has been chosen as she has been helping her friends follow our rules and helping them put bands on for areas. She has also been kind by helping a new friend read a story and helping a friend to balance on the wooden blocks. Then when reading our story 'Five Little Easter Bunnies' and they found the Easter eggs, Erin said “share, we have to share”. Lottie Bowman-Butterley has impressed me with her sound work this week. She found two sticks in the shape of a L and told me “it's my sound L, it's my name” super sound work. Nova Richards as she has been very kind and helpful to our new children this week. While doing a cutting activity she told me, “I'm showing her how to cut”. Thank you for being such a kind and caring friend Nova. Carson Jackson as he has been so kind and helpful with our new children this week. He told me, “I'm showing him how to build a house”. What a great friend and role model you are Carson, thank you for your help. Willow Mash as she was a kind friend this week. Willow and Erin played together in construction area building. They made a see saw and helped each other to use it by holding hands and taking turns on it. What kind friends. Well done to you all, what superstars!

Next week we are focusing on Easter in Nursery. Just a reminder we break up on Friday 11th April.

All about Mother's Day

We started the week recapping on our great farm trip and talked about what we saw and what our favourite part of the trip was.

Mother's Day has then been the focus of the rest of the week. We have made some lovely hand print cards and practised writing our names to give them to our mams or special person in our life on their special day. We have also drawn a picture of our mums and there have been some lovely pictures drawn by the children.

We have also been doing some enrichment activities this week including tap, tap, number songs and syllable clapping. Outside has been very popular this week with the lovely weather starting. The children have been trying to master the skill of the stilts.

Our little rays of sunshine this week are all for engagement in tasks. The children that have been chosen are Ethel Ross as she always tries her very best at everything she does and always gives everything 100% Ethel always joins in all activities and is so eager to learn. Keep up this great attitude to learning Ethel! Chester Pearson as he has had a fantastic week. Chester blows my socks off everyday with how engaged he is at group times. He sits with his legs crossed and focuses on the task at hand, rarely getting distracted by anything around him. Stefan Norman for great engagement during group time. He joins in with every activity and was especially good at our maths this week. He did some great subitising and could tell me we had five, two and four current buns without counting. He joined in singing all of the number songs and was able to show the numbers 1-5 with his fingers. Jaxon Comby as he did a great job at writing his name on the whiteboards and then on the paper. Destiny Dodds for doing a great job at joining in at group time. She tries her best to join in with the hello song and has a go at our group activities. When doing tap, tap this week she struggled at first but she didn't give up and kept trying and could then do it independently. She was so proud of herself when she had put the shapes on saying “I did it”. Elijah McGee as he was really engaged when writing his name. Elijah surprised me at how focused he was and how he formed his letters with support. Well done to you all what superstars!

Next weeks little ray of sunshine will be for being kind in nursery.

Final week on the Farm

We started the week reading the story The Enormous Turnip. This week we have tried some different foods and had to say if we liked or disliked them. We tried carrots, peppers, cucumber, celery and snap peas. We were very impressed that the majority of children tried them all and were able to say if they liked or disliked them. We also looked at where food comes from to get a better idea about some food we eat.

Weight was also a task this week using a variety of vegetables. We used the scales to see how heavy/light different vegetables were and asked the children to use the language when talking about the different vegetables. We also made some silly soup using the vegetables and farm animals. This involved us listening to instructions and trying to figure out what we should add into our soup using clues.

We then used the remaining vegetables to do some printing with. Some children explored by printing and others made pictures.

The farm today has to have been our highlight of the week. We were able to feed lots of animals such as sheep, lambs, donkeys, llamas and goats and we were able to hold lots of little animals such as guinea pigs, rabbits and chicks. We also had a tractor ride which was very bumpy. We are very proud of all the children who went and we all had a great day!

Our little rays of sunshine this week are all for being independent in different things. The children are Erin Hanmer as she tries so hard to be independent. Erin always has a go first before asking for help. She has been trying to zip up her own coat which is tricky with nursery coats but she never gives up. Sometimes even when you offer help to Erin she will tell you she can do it. Eric Hendry as he has tried hard this week to be independent at getting himself sorted to go outside, taking off his shoes and finding his waterproof suit and wellies. Declan Singleton as he was able to get ready for outside all by himself and only needed help with his zip. When coming back inside he was then able to put his shoes back on all by himself. He always has a try putting his coat on at home time as well before asking for help. Finally, Annie-Rose Conlon as she was a superstar when food tasting and tried everything “mmmmmm, yummy, yummy carrots”. When we recorded if we liked or disliked the food Annie did this independently, choosing the correct coloured pens and then made a mark in the box “My loved everything”. Well done to you all, what superstars!

The start our Farm topic and World Book Day

This week we have started our farm topic ready to go in a couple of weeks. We began the week by doing a mind map to see what the children already knew about Farms. We then discussed the role of farmers and all of the jobs they have to do on a Farm.

On an afternoon we have also been doing some threading and lots of different jigsaw puzzles.

On Thursday it was World Book Day and all of the children came to nursery either dressed as one of their favourite characters or in their Pyjamas. All of the children looked amazing. We did a catwalk for the children to show off their outfits and all of them fully embraced the limelight!!

Our little rays of sunshine this week are Carson Jackson as he has been very excited this week about what he was going to be dressed up as on World Book Day “I'm going to be Stickman, I need to collect lots of leaves”. He looked amazing on world book day. Megan Davies as she has impressed me when we carried out a jobs on the farm activity. She listened intensely and later in the day Megan remembered lots of jobs on the farm. Sohail Qayumi for coming back to nursery so well and doing a great job with his full day sessions. He has really taken an interest in jigsaw puzzles this week and was able to complete all of the puzzles independently. Elsie-Mae Westwood as she has been a superstar and taken everything in her stride when staying for lunch and her full days. Lenny Dobson for settling back into nursery life. He now explores areas of nursery independently and has no more tears. He is also starting to have some lovely play with his nursery friends. Finally, Louie Hopper as he has had a great week. I am really impressed with him. He has been using his listening ears at group time more and he impressed me during tidy up time where he went on a mission and tidied the garden toys away. Well done to you all, what superstars!

Next week we will continue our farm topic, having more of a focus on the animals.

What the Ladybird Heard

We started our week by reading the story of 'What the Ladybird Heard' and learning about animals that live on the farm. We sang Old McDonald had a farm and choose different animals to live on the farm. We also did lots of movements that linked to animals e.g. leap like a lamb, jump like a goat, gallop like a horse.

Following on from the story we also made our very own maps of the farm so the bad men wouldn't steal the fine prize cow.

We also played a game called Heads and Tails and the children were given a head of a farm animal and they had to find the matching tail. They were very good at this game. We also played guess the sound and the children had to listen carefully to some farm animals and guess which animal was making the sound.

Repeating patterns was our activity in maths this week. The children had to try and complete the ABAB repeating pattern and even try to spot the mistake in the different patterns. We used lots of different resources to make our patterns.

Our little rays of sunshine this week are Jaxon Comby as he enjoyed playing our farm sound game and tried hard to guess which animals were making the sounds. Erin Hodkinson for doing such a great job with her name writing. She really impressed me with how much she has improved when writing her initial sound and starting to form the rest of her name. Nate Gilbert as he made a great map of the farm. He took his time and carefully placed each animal on the map. He then followed the route of the two bad me telling me “to a gate round the pig to the fine prize cow, a X marking X marks the spot”. Isla Maskell as she has thoroughly enjoyed the story, What the Ladybird Heard. Isla made a fantastic map just like in the story. She was able to recall lots of the phrases from the story and was able to describe the route in which the bad guys took. Isla is also doing an amazing job at remembering the farm Makaton signs. Finally, Esmé Dickens as she has settled into nursery life really well. She is already starting to pick up on the rules and routines of nursery. Well done to you all, what superstars!

I hope you all have a lovely half term holiday next week and see you back at Nursery on Monday 3rd March