Nursery

Nursery News 19.4.24

Welcome Back! This week we have welcomed some new children to nursery. The children have enjoyed exploring the environment and it has been wonderful to see so many play experiences being shared and great friendships being formed.

We have enjoyed being outdoors in the warmer weather. The children have been working hard in the construction offices, making plans for their buildings and structures. There has been lots of imaginary play, role play and working well together.

We have enjoyed team games and playing bingo. The children worked really hard at identifying and matching shapes to be the first team to fill their bingo board.

Have a lovely weekend.

The Lace Hill Nursery Team.

Nursery News 28.3.24

We began the week getting messy making shaving foam eggs. The children explored mixing yellow paint and shaving foam together and observed what happened. We have spent time outdoors in the garden playing in the sandpit, water area and mud kitchen. It was nice to see the sunshine.

We had a lovely time on Wednesday welcoming you into the nursery setting to spend time with the children in their environment. It was clear to see that they enjoyed sharing their experiences with you. We went to visit the local care home in the afternoon. The residents were pleased to see us. The children enjoyed sing them some songs and delivering Easter treats.

We finished off the week with an Easter egg hunt around the school field. The children were all very excited and eager to find the eggs. We would like to wish you all a restful Easter break and look forward to seeing you when we return in the summer term.

The Lace Hill Nursery Team

Nursery News 22.3.24

This week we have been exploring Easter and Spring. We have been sharing the text Dora’s Chicks written by Julie Sykes. Dora’s chicks go missing and one by one Dora goes looking around the farmyard to round all the chicks up and bring them back home safely.

The story has encouraged the children to use and develop their mathematical language. They have been adding small numbers together during our group times to figure out how many more chicks Dora needs to find.

We have seen some very colourful and creative eggs made in the playdough area. We have been looking closely at the different patterns we can make.

Outside we developed our mark making skills by creating giant Easter eggs with chalk on the floor. We then used the brooms with soapy water to wash the eggs away.

We have been dressing up as farm animals from Dora’s farmyard. The nursery has been full of chickens, pigs and cows!

We went for a walk around the school field looking for signs of spring; we saw buds on the trees, some daffodils growing and a bird carrying a stick in its beak to make a nest.

Have a good weekend

The Nursery Team 

Nursery News 15.3.24

Dear Parents and Carers

This week the children have been learning about the text Giraffes Can’t Dance. Gerald would love to join in with the other animals at the jungle dance, however he was not very good at dancing. Through perseverance and being willing to have a go, Gerald found that he could dance.

This is something that we always encourage the children to do during their play and during activities. If we don’t succeed the first time we will always try again. This gives the children a sense of achievement and builds up their resilience which is one of our school values.

The children worked really hard to create their own giraffe ears and they enjoyed wearing these when moving around the class room. The practiced walking very tall and slowly just like Gerald.

The children have been very creative in our play dough area and have made some very delicious pizzas. We used our senses to explore different herbs and how they had different smells to season our food.

Outdoors the children have been busy using their gross motor skills to make some lovely marks and drawing on the floor using chalks.

Have a lovely weekend.

The Lace Hill Nursery Team.

Nursery News 1.3.24

This week we have been reading the story The Great Race by Emily Hiles. As the New Year approaches each animal wants it to be named after them, but no one can agree who it should be. The Jade Emperor decides that there should be a race to decide the winner but who will win?

The children enjoyed taking on the role of an animals from the story and participating in jumping and hopping races in the classroom with the winners receiving a medal.

The children have worked incredibly hard to create their own blossom trees using twigs, different coloured tissue paper and glue. They were very pleased with their achievements and excited to take them home.

We have been practicing our mark making skills making willow patterns on paper plates and bowls which you will see displayed in the class room.

We have been working hard on developing our motor movement. The children have been engaging in a variety of dances and different gross motor movements. We have been practicing some different poses and trying to make these with our bodies. You may hear the children refer to some of the following bear pose, lizard pose, meerkat pose, penguin pose and lion pose.

Enjoy your weekend!

Nursery News 23.2.24

This week we have been learning about Lunar New Year. Through our focus story called Lanterns and Firecrackers, we have been learning about how the Chinese celebrate Chinese New Year. It has been a lovely introduction for the children, to learn about a family celebrating Chinese New Year, letting off firecrackers, watching lion and dragon dances, and hanging lanterns.

The children have enjoyed making their very own dragon puppets using paper and lollipop sticks. They worked really hard when using scissors and displayed good levels of concentration. In the role play area, we added a noodle bar and the children have been serving each other their orders from the menu and practiced using chopsticks.

In our mark making area, the children have been copying different Chinese symbols and writing their own messages. In our story we learnt that the colour red symbolises the colour of luck. The children have been exploring red rice and gold coins. We used little red envelopes to put the coins in and filled them up with rice. We have learnt that this year is the year of the dragon and we have been doing some dancing to traditional Chinese music. The children enjoyed making different shapes with their bodies using gross motor movements and pretended to be dragons when dancing,

Have a lovely weekend.

The Lace Hill Nursery Team.

Nursery News 9.2.24

This week has been all about pancakes and spreading love for valentines. We shared the story Mr Wolf’s Pancakes by Jan Fearnley. In the story Mr Wolf fancied some pancakes but he didn’t know how to make them. The children have been talking about recipes and what ingredients we need to make pancakes.

They enjoyed role playing in the home corner and using real life objects to make their very own pancakes. Some of the children got very messy having great fun with the flour. The children loved eating pancakes for snack and self-selecting the toppings, we found that we all had our own preferences and enjoyed different kinds of tastes.

We have been exploring valentines and been enjoying all things red in our tuff tray. We read the story Guess How Much I Love You which lots of the children seemed to be very familiar with. We all practiced stretching our arms to see how wide our arm span was.

We discovered how we could use tools and equipment to make flower potions and perfumes, the children worked hard with the pestle and mortar.

We wish you all a wonderful and restful half term.

Nursery News 2.2.24

This week we have continued to explore birds and how we can care for them, making the most of National Bird Watching week.

The children enjoyed using egg boxes to create another kind of bird feeder. They decorated them and added some wool so that they could be hung before filling them with bird seed. The children were very eager to take them home and hang them in trees in their gardens.

We have been developing our mathematical language and using discussing different sizes when sorting out feathers. We sorted them out in order of size talking about the shortest to the tallest.

The children worked together when playing with the loose parts to create towers and structures. We have enjoyed spending time outdoors using water and various styles of paint brushes and equipment to make marks.

Nursery News 26.1.24

Dear Parents and Carers

Our focus in Nursery this week has been ‘Caring for the Birds’. We started the week by learning why we need to feed the birds in winter and what birds like to eat.

We have made the birds a range of foods to eat. We developed our own fine motor skills by threading cheerios onto pipe cleaners to make bird feeders and then we made them some delicious bird cakes.

We have created an area in our garden for bird watching to see the birds that visit our garden in nursery. We made our own binoculars using cardboard tubes and added these to our bird watching station. We are beginning to become expert bird spotters, some of us are able to identify the different garden birds.

When we were playing outside we spotted a sparrow eating our bird cakes.

Our focus story is Percy the Park Keeper: One Snowy Night. The children have really enjoyed this

story and we have made a bed for Percy and all the animals that like to visit him.

We have been very creative this week, making some bird nests using the playdough and we made them extra cosy by adding leaves, sticks and feathers.

We hope you have a lovely weekend

The Lace Hill Nursery Team

Nursery News 19.1.24

This week in Nursery we have been continuing to learn about the season of winter. We are still enjoying the story ‘Little Ferns First Winter’.

Jack Frost has been visiting us our garden area has been covered in frost and ice all week!

The cold weather has provided us with opportunities to explore frozen water. We have painted blocks of ice and experimented with ways to break the ice to free items frozen inside.

We decided to do an experiment to see if we could make our own ice. We left pots of water outdoors overnight and in the morning the water was frozen.

We have been making igloos and snowflakes in the playdough area. We have some great Eskimo builders in Nursery.

We made beautiful snowflakes out of paper we tried really hard with folding and cutting the paper.

We hope you have a lovely weekend

The Lace Hill Nursery Team

Nursery News 12.1.24

It has been great to see all the children settling back into the nursery routines this week after a busy holiday period. We have welcomed some new starters, who have all done extremely well.

We started our week with some cold weather, this gave us lots of opportunities to explore ice and talk about the changes we observed.

We have been exploring the story Little Fern’s First Winter written by Jane Simmons. The story captures the magic, excitement and wonder of the first fall of snow. We have been discussing different animal habitats and how some animals hibernate in the winter to stay warm.

The children have loved investigating different small world areas with animals from different parts of the world, we even used shaving foam to create a snow scene. They have enjoyed using a range of media and materials this week using forks and paint to create their own polar bear paintings.

We have been using our imagination in the playdough area to warm up with a hot chocolate from our hot chocolate station. The children played really well together creating the most fabulous drinks for them to share together during their play.

We hope you have a lovely weekend.

The Lace Hill Nursery Team

Nursery News 15.12.23

Dear Parents/Carers

The children have had a lovely festive week. We have shared lots of Christmas texts some of which the children have brought in from home to share with their friends. They have really enjoyed listening to a variety of stories and learning lots of new narratives to assist their play.

We introduced The Story of Christmas and used this in the small world area, where the children have been recreating the nativity scene. This text is by Hayley Down and illustrated by Dawn Machell. It is a simple introduction to the birth of Jesus with beautiful illustrations and rhyming texts.

The children enjoyed making Christmas puddings with the playdough using the loose parts for the different ingredients. The week we enjoyed a delicious Christmas lunch together and got in the party spirit wearing own handmade crowns.

The children have worked extremely hard with practicing their Christmas Carols and where very excited to showcase this to all of you on Wednesday. It was lovely so see so many of you to come and join us for some Christmas Cheer.

We finished the week with a walk to the care home. Thank you to all of you that made donations for our hamper the residents where very thankful and enjoyed the children singing them ‘We Wish you A Merry Christmas’.

We would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year. We hope you have a restful break. Thank you for your continued support.

The Lace Hill Nursery Team.

Nursery News 8.12.23

This week the children have enjoyed getting festive and embraced our Christmas activities from wrapping gifts in our elf station and using play dough to make Rudolf. The children displayed good concentration skills, paying attention to detail ensuring Rudolf had his shiny red nose.

We have been exploring the texts Dear Santa by Rod Campbell and The Grumpy Reindeer by Clare Wilson. The children already know these stories well and they have been independently acting out and narrating their favourite parts with their peers.

This week the children have shown a real interest in the loose parts area and have created some beautiful Christmas trees and pieces of transient art.

The Children where treated to an amazing performance from Reception and Year One of their nativity show. They participated in this event with the whole school and we were all so proud of how beautifully the children sat during the performance demonstrating excellent bear poses and fantastic listening skills. Well Done Nursery!

They had a very special visitor from the Rotary Club of Buckingham and everyone was so excited to see Father Christmas and join in with singing some Christmas carols. The children were even lucky enough to receive some lovely gifts for our classroom.

Have a great weekend.

The Lace Hill Nursery Team.

Nursery News 1.12.23

This week we went off site around Lace Hill fields for a lovely Autumn walk and enjoyed the beautiful sunshine. The children really enjoyed exploring their surroundings and the world around them. We saw our shadows on the ground and had lots of fun making different poses.

The children have enjoyed lots of sensory activities and messy play this week, particularly with shaving foam and cake splats. We have been practicing our Christmas songs and the children have been working really hard for our up and coming carol concert. We will send out the songs in due course for you to practise with the children at home.

The magical time of the year is fast approaching and the children enjoyed getting out some Christmas decorations and putting up the Christmas tree. We will be enjoying lots of festive fun and activities over the next few weeks.

You may have noticed that we have been developing our cloak room area and we have introduced a lending library. We invite you to use this for your child to borrow a book and share this with your child at home if you wish to do so. Once you have chosen a book and shared this with your child at home you can simply return it and swap for another. It is so important for the children to foster a love for reading, sharing books together has a real impact on their learning. We hope you enjoy using this!
 

Have a lovely weekend.

The Lace Hill Nursery Team

Nursery News 24.11.23



This week in Nursery the children have enjoyed the text ‘Whatever Next’ written by Jill Murphy. They used props to imagine that they were in their very own rocket ship and took a trip to the moon with their picnic. This play extended in to the role play corner where the children interacted well with their peers pretending to make picnics and choose their favorite foods.

The children had the opportunity to make their own sandwiches this week. They worked really hard when using a knife to spread the filling and cut the sandwiches, before wrapping them up in tinfoil to take home and enjoy.

In the creative area the children have used junk modeling materials to make rockets. We practiced our counting skills to count backwards before the rockets blast off to the moon.

We went on a walk around the school field on a leaf hunt. We brought the leaves back into Nursery and sorted them by size into big, medium and small leaves.

Have a lovely weekend

The Lace Hill Nursery Team

Nursery News 17.11.23

The Autumn term is progressing steadily and the children have had a busy week continuing with celebrations and exploring Diwali. We have been extremely lucky with the fantastic activities the children have had the opportunity to participate in. Mrs Dasari provided the nursery with her own resources and equipment some of which came all the way from India.

The children made Diya lamps using clay and got very creative making Rangoli Patterns on the playground using some beautiful stencils and different coloured powder paints. We looked at the text Lighting a Lamp a story all about Diwali and Roma and Sita. The Children even had a go at cooking their very own coconut Barfi a Diwali sweet.

We had a lovely surprise from the Reception children this week who invited us to attend their show ‘Funny Bones’. The nursery children sat and watched their peers who put on a lovely performance, some of our children were very excited to see their siblings.

We finished off the week with some fine motor development to celebrate Children in Need. The children enjoyed using tweezers and pomp poms to help Pudsey Bear decorate his bandana.

Have a great weekend.

The Lace Hill Nursery Team.

Nursery News 10.11.23

We have had another fantastic week in Nursery full of amazing learning.

We started the week by recalling bonfire night. The children have been sharing their stories about bonfire and fireworks events they attended. We have enjoyed lots of creative activities this week making firework pictures, making marks in the glitter tough tray and making our own edible sparklers.

We have especially enjoyed listening to our story of the week ‘It was a cold, dark night by Tim Hopgood. The children have enjoyed hearing about Ned the hedgehog’s adventures. We started the week by creating a story map to help us remember the order of the story. We also learnt about animals that come out and explore at night time and what the word hibernation means.

We have been exploring the colour red and creating poppies using different materials for Remembrance Sunday

We have been learning some new sounds and playing some exciting games in our daily phonics sessions this week we learnt the sounds s and a.

As a special treat we made some hot chocolate for snack time. We all wrapped really warm in our coats and hats and enjoyed this outside.

Have a good weekend, see you next week

The Lace Hill Nursery Team

Nursery News 3.11.23

Dear parents/carers 

Welcome back, we hope you had a lovely break. This week we welcomed some new friends to our nursery and they have all done extremely well. 

We began the week with lots of Halloween fun and the children enjoyed a disco and party games. It was great to see them all dressed in their costumes and they embraced their roles and characters during lots of imaginative play. 

The children were eager to explore the environment and participate in lots of Halloween activities.

We have enjoyed sharing the text Room on the Broom. The children joined in with carpet games finding the characters from the story and putting them on the broom to join the witch on her adventures. They displayed good memory skills when engaging in this activity.

The children have had lots of opportunities to explore pumpkins and enjoyed scooping out all the insides and using one handed tools and equipment to carve them. We had a lovely tea party and used the pumpkins outside to pretend to make pumpkin soup.

Over the next few weeks we will be exploring different events and festivals like bonfire, Remembrance and Diwali. This gives the children the opportunity to learn and experience different cultures, religions festivals and traditions. Please share your family celebrations with us, this will enable us to share these activities and experiences with the children in the nursery setting and extend their learning and development. 

Have a lovely weekend 

The Lace Hill Nursery Team

Nursery News 20.10.23

This week we have been discussing the different seasons and how we notice the change in the world around us when the seasons change. The children have been paying particular attention to the trees and how the leaves are changing colour and falling onto the ground.

The children have been busy in the small world and construction area, making and creating models and working together with their friends to take it in turns. They have shown a real passion for building and constructing and we have enhanced our construction area outside in the nursery garden to follow their interests. They have shown great delight using the new resources to role play and plan their ideas.

Indoors we have created lots of fantastic cakes in the playdough area. The children have made cupcakes and a giant birthday cake. We served all the different cakes on our cake stand and pretended to have afternoon tea!

We met some new friends this week as some of the new children starting with us after half term came to visit. We were all very kind showing the new children where to find things and helping them with following our daily routines.

We have had a fantastic half term getting to know the children and observing the amazing learning that has taken place. We wish you a wonderful and restful half term.

The Lace Hill Nursery Team

Nursery News 13.10.23

This week the children have continued to explore the story Owl Babies, it has led to lots of discussions about owls. We have been sharing a variety of texts with the children including fact books to find out about all the different species of owls. During circle time we have introduced the zones of regulation to the children to encourage them to talk about their own feelings and different emotions they experience.

The children have shown a real artistic flair this week, making their own owl paintings to display in the nursery and making binoculars to take on our walks on the school field. It has been wonderful to see them create their very own masterpieces.

The children have been working really hard on their listening skills during phonics and are enjoying participating in phase one phonics games. We have been identifying the different sounds we can hear and enjoyed using musical instruments.

The children are amazing at coming into the setting and have really taken to finding their name cards for self-registration. We have been working really hard this week at remembering where all the toys and resources are kept at tidy up time. The children have been really helpful and done a super job, well done Nursery!

Have a lovely weekend!

The Lace Hill Nursery Team

Nursery News 6.10.23

This week the children have been focusing on the story Owl Babies written by Martin Waddell. The children have enjoyed listening and learning about the story. During carpet session the children have shown an interest in the beautiful illustrations that they can see in the story and joining in with the repeated refrains.

The children have enjoyed using natural objects to make nests for the owls. We used feathers to make marks in the porridge.

We have now begun phonics sessions in Nursery, our first activities will help develop careful listening skills. This week we practised our ‘best owl listening’ during our listening walks around the school. The children even made their very own Owl ears to wear.

Why not try this at home. When out in the local community or on walks at the weekend, encourage the children to tune into sounds with in their environment. Ask them what they can hear. Remember owls are very good at listening.

Thank you to those who have brought in contributions from your walks to add to our collection of natural objects. The children have really enjoyed collecting and showing their finds.

Have a great weekend.

Nursery News 29.9.23

This week the children have enjoyed participating in a wide range of activities around our story ‘Dear Zoo’.

We especially enjoyed decorating biscuits together and showed off our creative skills, using our own thoughts and ideas how to recreate their own animal from the Zoo.

We had fun at Dough Disco. This helps to develop the children’s fine manipulative skills and of course the children loved having a boogie!!

We can see the children’s confidence growing and some children have enjoyed sharing news.

In the cloakroom you will notice we have added a display board with all the children’s photos on. We invite you to share your child’s current interest with us using the post it notes provided. This will help us plan and resource the nursery setting with your child’s interests in mind.

Over the weekend if you enjoy a walk or visit the local woods please can you help us to collect objects such as conkers, leaves, twigs, pine cones.



Have a wonderful weekend

The Lace Hill Nursery Team

Nursery News 22.9.23

The children are continuing to settle into nursery life well and have enjoyed exploring our environment both inside and outdoors. They have been working really hard settling into the nursery routines and getting to know each other. We are learning all the names of our new friends and teachers. It has been encouraging to see the children becoming confident within the setting and independently selecting resources and engaging in activities.

This week the children have been exploring activities around pets. They have enjoyed sharing the story ‘Dear Zoo’ written by Rod Campbell. They have been delighted to find the puppy at the end of the story leading to sharing of news during carpet time of their own family pets. It has been great to see some of you sharing pictures with us on Tapestry.

We have introduced to the children a way of independently putting on their own coat. This is a technique where the children lay the coat on the floor, standing at the hood end bend down and put their arms in the sleeve of the coat. Once their arms are in place they then flip the coat over their head, on their coat is on. It has been fantastic for us to see the sense of achievement the children have felt in doing this.

We hope you all have a lovely weekend!

The Lace Hill Nursery Team

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Nursery News 14.7.23

This week in nursery we have harvested the last of our crops. Red and white onions, beetroot, chard and the last of our potatoes. The children have observed the life cycle of the plants, from planting the seeds, to planting out, to harvesting and finally after all the nurturing and watering, the eating.

We have continued to explore mini beasts and this week we have found so many. The warm weather is bringing the mini beasts out. We have found slugs, snails, spiders, butterflies, bees and lady birds. We went for a nature walk around the school field and used our senses to see, listen, touch and smell. We recalled our first Autumn walk and discussed the differences in the environment in the summer. We looked at all the different coloured flowers in the wild flower area and had a peak in the bug hotel and noticed a big brown moth in there. The children noticed the moth had symmetrical wings, just like a butterfly.  

We have been inspired by snail shells and have been exploring spirals. We have also been learning about other creatures that have shells and have enjoyed the books ‘The sharing Shell’ and ‘The snail on the whale’.

We have made a shell display and have been amazed at all the different size, shapes, colours and patterns on the shells.

We are so proud of our nursery children, it has been a pleasure watching each and every one of them grow in confidence, develop friendships, and enjoy learning through their play. 

We would like to wish you all a very happy summer holiday

From

Mrs Lee, Mrs Chapman, Mrs Standring and Mrs Dasari

Nursery News 7.7.23

This week in nursery we have been following the children’s interest in mini beasts. The children have been bug hunting and have found them in all areas outdoors. They have been digging for worms, turning over logs to see what bugs live beneath, watched as bee’s visit our flower bed and collect nectar from the flowers and found some slugs that we think have been nibbling our fruit and vegetables. The children have noticed spider webs under the climbing frame and watched in wonder as a spider climbed up the climbing frame post and walked upside down along a beam. 

The children have explored colour using paint, creating their own flower garden pictures. The children collected resources to print with, creating shapes and patterns. They have explored spinning a web using runny glue and glitter and freed the spiders from the giant spider web using tweezers. 

We ended our week harvesting our home grown potatoes and what a crop we had. The children lined the potatoes in size order from large to small. The line started at the raised beds and almost reached the nursery door – amazing! Our next harvest will be our onions and beetroot. From seed to plate with 0 miles. 

Well done nursery, all your watering and nurturing has produced a wonderful crop. You should be very proud of yourselves. 

Have a lovely weekend everyone 

From 

Mrs Lee, Mrs Chapman, Mrs Standring and Mrs Dasari 

 

Nursery News 30.6.23

This week in nursery we have enjoyed a week of sport activities. Each day the children took part in a race of the day on the school field. The children learnt to work as part of a team, to listen and follow instructions and to cheer on their peers. Each day the children grew in confidence and eagerly took part in the races, it was lovely to hear the children cheering on their peers. We took advantage of the large outdoor space and ended each sport session with circle games and dances.

The nursery 2 children have been spending time in the reception class and have enjoyed sharing their news about what they had been doing on their return to nursery. We had a mystery reader visit nursery, the children were delighted to find out it was Mrs Doherty from the Reception class.

We ended the week baking butterfly cakes. The children weighed the ingredients, watching closely as the scales reached 4 ozs for each of the ingredients and showed great patience as they waited their turn weighing, stirring and filling their cake cases. 

Well done nursery – what a great week we have had.

Have a lovely weekend everyone

From

Mrs Lee, Mrs Chapman, Mrs Standring and Mrs Dasari

Nursery News 23.6.23

This week the nursery children have experienced the sheer joy a cardboard box can bring to play.

During this wonderful play the children are aslo Junk modelling benefits children in many ways. For example, they can:

• use their imagination while developing their design skills and creativity
• develop their self-confidence as they are enabled to explore materials and how to use them
• develop their problem-solving skills and resilience as they build their junk models and use trial and error to make their model stand upright or fix materials together successfully
• get hands-on and learn about the properties of materials, such as the flexibility or toughness of plastic, fabric, cardboard and wood
• become inventors and ‘engineers’, exploring materials and their properties – for example, deciding whether a material is strong or bendy enough and fit for purpose
• develop their gross and fine motor skills, which helps them to manipulate tools better and supports the development of early writing skills
• communicate and work as a team as they ask a friend to hold a yoghurt pot in position while the glue dries or ask for advice.

Have a lovely weekend everyone

From

Mrs Lee, Mrs Chapman, Mrs Standring and Mrs Dasari

Nursery News 16.6.23

After the clear up of the flood we have enjoyed the return of the sun.

This week in nursery we have been learning all about bees. Did you know Bumble bees have different coloured tails? I didn’t and I have really enjoyed looking out for this fact every time I see a Bumble Bee.

We have shared the book ‘The Very Hungry Bee’ by Steve Smallman and Jack Tickle. The children have acted out the story taking on the role of the Bee, they have been exploring the sensory gloopy corn flour mix which turned into honey and trapped the small world bees, we have created bee stations, so the bees can come to nursery for a drink. We followed The Wildlife Trust instructions and used a shallow tray and placed a stone in it to enable the bees to drink without falling in. We also received a pack of ‘Go wild’ seeds which we hope to plant out next week to support the mini beasts.

The second half of this week has been so hot, we went out first thing and watered our very thirsty fruit and vegetables in the raised beds. We found some ripe strawberries which the children picked with care. We brought them into nursery, gave them a wash and enjoyed the sweet taste of a home grown strawberry.

The children have also been busy following their interests. We have had a lot of outdoor cooking in the sensory kitchen, fossil digging in the wild area, fun in the potion station and great problem solving during construction and obstacle course building.

The children have coped so well in the heat, well done nursery children.

Have a lovely weekend everyone and Happy Father’s Day to all our wonderful Fathers.

From

Mrs Lee, Mrs Chapman, Mrs Standring and Mrs Dasari

Nursery News 9.6.23

This week in nursery we have enjoyed being outdoors as usual. We have been busy in the sensory kitchen role playing cafés and parties, squeezing and mixing lemons and limes and natural resources. The children have really enjoyed our new addition of a microwave to add to our real resources.

We have been exploring items that sink and float and have been surprised with some of our predictions. We are going to continue this interest next week.

We have been on the school field and looked at the ever changing environment, the trees are full of green leaves, we can hear a lot more bird song and the mini beasts are coming out in the sunshine.

Our fruit and vegetable patch is progressing and things are starting to grow.

Have a lovely weekend everyone and take care in the heat

From

Mrs Lee, Mrs Chapman, Mrs Standring and Mrs Dasari

Nursery News 19.5.23

This week we have enjoyed being outdoors in the sunshine. There has been lots of imaginary play, role play and great friendships. We have enjoyed team games and super hero fun.

The nursery pigeons have finally fledged, with support from the nursery children. The children demonstrated how to flap their wings by jumping up and down and flapping their arms and shouting encouraging words like ‘you can do it’. The last baby pigeon took the children’s advice, stretched, flapped its wings and flew away.

The children have taken a great interest in birds after researching what bird laid the small blue eggs that Grace brought in. To support this interest, we have set up a bird display table. The children have been putting bird food out daily and making sure they have fresh water to drink and bathe in. They have enjoyed bird watching using our new binoculars. The children have spotted pigeons, a Magpie and starlings so far.

This week we have been thinking of ways to stay safe. This has encouraged great discussion about ways we stay safe at nursery. The children know we lock the door to keep us safe inside, we stay in our own classroom and outdoor playground and they don’t go in the kitchen where hot and sharp items are and we go home with mummy or daddy or a named person. Well done nursery for thinking of all the ways to stay safe.

Wednesday was National Numeracy Day. Nursery children were busy exploring numbers through games and puzzles, number songs and rhymes and finding hidden numerals outdoors.

Have a lovely weekend

From

Mrs Lee, Mrs Chapman, Mrs Standring and Mrs Dasari

Nursery News 5.5.23

We would like to welcome George and Oliver to our nursery family.

This week we have been busy preparing for the Coronation. We have put up our bunting and decorated the nursery. We even have our very own King Teddy that sits on his thrown. We have been exploring the colours red, white and blue. Using these colours we have colour mixed, sorted and matched, we have designed our own flags, made our own crowns, iced biscuits and built palaces from recycled materials. 

We acted out what it would be like to be King or queen for the afternoon. We built a carriage from milk crates, we waved from the top of the climbing frame and we had a banquet snack outdoors.

We hope the King has as much fun on his special day as we have had this week.

Have a lovely Bank holiday weekend everyone

From

Mrs Lee, Mrs Chapman, Mrs Standring and Mrs Dasari

Nursery News 28.4.23

This week we have been busy planting out our home grown beanstalks. Before we planted out we measured which bean stalk was the tallest. All but one of the beanstalks were roughly the same size but Caleb’s beanstalk was the tallest. We learnt that you need to be gentle with the tender stalks as they easily snapped. The children chose which area of the raised bed they wanted their beanstalk to grow, they dug the hole, placed the young beanstalk in, covered it gently and watered it in. Now we just have to be patient and watch our beanstalks grow. Next week we will be planting out onions and beetroot.

We have also been busy in our playground garden. The children have created a magical ‘Fairy garden’ by our big tree. Ruby wrote a note to the fairies and is hoping to see a fairy in there. The area was decorated with ribbons on the fence, sea shells in the house and glitter indoors and outdoors to let the fairies know that they are welcome. Little figures were added and some My Little Ponies as we did not have any unicorns.

We have everything crossed that the fairies will like the new house and will settle in.

Have a lovely weekend everyone

From

Mrs Lee, Mrs Chapman, Mrs Standring and Mrs Dasari

Nursery News 21.4.23

We would like to welcome Hailee, Hannah, Millie, Oscar and Roman to our nursery family.

This week we have enjoyed the wonderful weather, full sunshine, coats off and outdoor snack. We have been very busy looking for mini beasts, which led to excavating in the wild area and discovering dinosaur bones and teeth. The children collected all the fossils and gently washed them in warm water to remove all the debris. Once dry the children discussed which dinosaurs they thought they belonged to. The children researched using our dinosaur books and carefully matched the bones and teeth to the pictures in the books, eagerly sharing their thoughts and ideas.

The warm weather enabled us to set up a home corner outdoors. The children explored washing dolls clothes and hanging them on the washing line to dry. The children decided to take their babies on a bus trip and stopped off to visit various attractions. Having great fun at the beach, a zoo, a toy shop and many more.  

We transferred our tomato plants to larger pots, getting ready to plant out soon. Our beans have grown so tall; we are going to plant them out next week. Keep an eye out for our developing fruit and vegetable beds.

Have a lovely weekend everyone

From

Mrs Lee, Mrs Chapman, Mrs Standring and Mrs Dasari

Nursery News 24.3.23

This week in nursery we have had our usual change in weather throughout the week. We enjoyed our first day in the sunshine without our coats on, had a few rainy days and ended our week with strong winds. As usual we have been outside experiencing the changing environment. We have enjoyed colour mixing in water, we have explored how water travels to the drain no matter where you pour it in the playground. We took advantage of the windy day and created kites and experienced the changing winds as the kites suddenly changed direction, we popped bubbles as they flew in the wind so fast we could hardly catch them.

Our story this week has been ‘Jack and the beanstalk’. We have made ‘Jack’ cress heads, planted ‘magic’ beans, painted giants, created beanstalks from playdough and natural materials, acted out the story using puppets and story sack resources, we painted giant beanstalks, placed leaves on them and drew our favourite character climbing up it. We listened to music played on a harp, which the children found very relaxing and began to understood why the giant fell asleep listening to it.

We would like to thank Tim and Dave for weeding and topping up the nursery fruit and vegetable beds. We are now ready to plant and sow the seeds as soon as those sunny days appear.

Have a lovely weekend everyone

From

Mrs Lee, Mrs Chapman and Mrs Dasari

Nursery News 17.3.23

This week the children have been very creative in all areas of the nursery. From fabulous construction, exploring colour through paint, indoors and outdoors, creating transient art pieces, acting out our story of the week ‘Goldilocks and The Three Bears’, getting creative in the mud kitchen, taking care of babies, creating a camp, making potions and much, much more.

We have been exploring size, using the text language from our story. Big, medium and small. The children have matched bears by size and colour. They have matched cups, bowls and spoons to the size of each bear. Created a story board, cutting out the Goldilocks and the three bears and using the story refrains to retell the story.

The children have enjoyed playing in Goldilock's cottage corner in nursery and sitting in Daddy Bear, Mummy Bear and Baby Bear’s chairs.

We have been watching our sunflowers and vegetables grow and discussed which are big, medium or small.

Have a lovely weekend everyone

From

Mrs Lee, Mrs Chapman and Mrs Dasari

Nursery News 10.3.23

This week the weather has provided us with so much learning potential. Not only can we see the ever changing weather conditions but we can get out and experience it.

This week we have looked up at the sky and watched the snow flutter down, we have felt the gentle snowflakes land on our faces and tongues, we have looked at individual snowflakes and noticed the intricate patterns that each one has. We have made foot prints in the newly formed snow and collected the snow and have been able to manipulate it to form shapes. We used our ears to listen to the snow fall, it was so quiet, unlike the rain.

We have also noticed how fast the weather can change, from thick falling snow in the morning, to the sun coming out in the afternoon and melting it all away as though it had never been there. – Amazing

Keeping warm and sheltered indoors our sunflowers, peas, pumpkins and tomato plants continue to grow. The children have become keen gardeners, daily checking the compost and watering when dry.

Next week we will begin to measure our plants using a variety of measuring resources. 

Nursery News 3.3.23

This week we celebrated world Book Day. We dressed up as characters from our favourite stories. Children brought in their favourite books to share and we had a special visit from the year six children who shared books with the nursery children.

Our story of the week, this week is ‘The Three Little Pigs’, the children have enjoyed acting out the story using small world figures and puppets, exploring building a house using straw, sticks and a variety construction materials and blowing on their builds to see if they can withstand the force.

We have muddy pigs in compost outdoors and have built them shelters from natural materials.

In nursery the favourite character from the story has definitely been the wolf, there has been lots of huffing and puffing this week. The wolf figures and puppets have made friends and have been causing mischief together. 

What are the benefits of sharing a book?

Imagination and creativity, development of vocabulary, speech and language development, communication skills, builds and develops knowledge, increases concentration and can build empathy and social awareness.

To support this, the children received a book voucher and a Bookstart pack to celebrate a love of books.

This week there was great excitement when we noticed our sunflower seeds have just popped up out of the compost. There was lots of talk about how big their sunflower is going to grow.

Have a lovely weekend everyone

From

Mrs Lee, Mrs Chapman and Mrs Dasari

Nursery News 24.2.23



This half term we welcome Harrison to our nursery family.

This week has been all about pancakes. From pancake racing, (congratulations Evie for becoming our 2023 Champion of champions) to eating pancakes for snack and self-selecting the topping, crafting pancakes, creating pancakes from natural materials and ‘flipping‘ pancakes.

We researched what ingredients were required to make pancakes and discussed what toppings we liked and found that we all liked different things and had different tastes.

On Wednesday we were treated by every child confidently singing a self-chosen nursery rhyme in front of their peers.

On Thursday we began sowing our sun flower seeds. The children selected the ‘best’ seed which will grow the tallest of them all.  We discussed how we need to look after the seeds, the children watered them in and chose a good place in nursery for them to grow. We wait and see …….

We noticed that a lot of children had a haircut during half term. Discussions about where and who cut their hair took place. We followed the children’s interest and set up a hair salon in the home corner. There has been amazing role play taking place, using the resources with care and accuracy, turn taking, client care and lots and lots of language. We extended this learning through play by introducing a diary and post it notes to enable the children to book in appointments and to hand out appointment cards. 

Have a lovely weekend everyone

From

Mrs Lee and Mrs Chapman

Nursery News 10.2.23

Another busy week in nursery and the end of the spring ½ term already. We have had such a variety of weather conditions this half term. This week has returned to the cold and frosty start to the day and by the afternoon, we have had beautiful blue skies and sunshine. Every weather condition gives us the opportunity to explore the environment and notice all the changes and to feel and experience the weather conditions. The children have become aware of the cold and have noticed the impact on their bodies. They now recognise when their body or hands feel cold. This has enabled the children to independently return indoors when cold and to understand the need for gloves, hat and scarf to keep warm.

This week Nursery joined the school in taking part in National Poem week. The children performed their opposites poem to the Reception class. The children were so proud and really enjoyed receiving not 1 but 2 stickers each from Mrs Shepherd.

Friendships have continued to develop and groups of peers can be observed enjoying each other’s company in all areas of the nursery. It is lovely to hear the children great each other daily and to look forward to seeing each other the next day.

This week’s photographs are a selection of some of the learning through play that has taken place this week.

We look forward to seeing you all again week commencing 20^th February.

Have a very Happy half term holiday

from

Mrs Lee and Mrs Chapman

Nursery News 3.2.23

In nursery this week we have been exploring sound. We have used our ears to listen to environmental sounds and tried to describe what we have heard. We have been exploring loud and quiet sounds.

 We have been playing a variety of musical instruments, listening to the sounds they make and deciding if they are loud or quiet. We have shared the book ‘The animal boogie’ by Debbie Harter and played our instruments quietly when we thought the animal made a quiet sound ‘Sssssss’ and loudly when we thought the animal made a loud sound ‘ROAR’.

We have played the Soundtrack board game, we had to really listen to the CD to identify the sound we heard. 

This week we followed the children’s interest in role play and writing, by creating an office area. The children have really enjoyed this, acting out answering the phone, taking notes, using the keyboard and lots and lots of wonderful writing and mark making.

There has also been a lot of imaginary play, we have had dinosaurs roaming our outdoor area, a party in the home corner, with the table laden with party food and back packs, packed and ready for holiday destinations.

We look forward to seeing you all next week

from

Mrs Lee and Mrs Chapman

Nursery News 27.1.23

This week in nursery we have been sharing the book ’There was an old lady who swallowed a fly’. We have been learning sign language for all the animals, sequencing by placing the character figures in order that they appear in the story and thinking of alternative animals that could have been eaten.

We have followed the children’s interest in shapes, creating a shape table display. The children have been eager to find resources that have a shape and adding it to our display. We asked the children to look for shapes at home and we have had some wonderful feedback – ‘A square washing machine, with a circle door’ ‘A rectangle door’ ‘A diamond pattern on bedroom curtains’. We have also found shapes in everyday objects – cups, plates, books, paper, potatoes, fish cakes. Shapes are everywhere!  

We have had busy fingers this week, developing strength and coordination. We have explored hammering golf T’s into a foam base, mark marking shapes, patterns and letters using our fingers in sand trays, constructing with magnetic shapes and using our fingers to represent numbers during action songs and rhymes.

Have a lovely weekend

from

Mrs Lee and Mrs Chapman

Nursery News 20.1.23

This week in nursery we have enjoyed the cold and frosty days. This has given us lots of opportunities to sing and dance to ‘One cold and frosty morning’. The children have been recalling how to get dressed and what items we put on and in what order. We have been discussing wildlife in this cold weather and decided to make bird feeders. The children placed the feeders in the nursery garden and we have noticed they have already been eaten. The cold snap has provided us with opportunities to explore frozen water. We have painted blocks of ice and experimented with ways to break the ice to free items frozen inside and ways to thaw the ice, placing the blocks of ice in the sun and the shade. We have also enjoyed lots of Chinese Lunar New Year activities. The children researched the Zodiac animal for the year they were born. Our 4 year olds - the year of the dog and our 3 year olds - the year of the pig. They also learnt that this year is the year of the Rabbit.

We would like to say a huge thank you to Mrs Green for creating such an amazing realistic looking fire place in our book corner. It has really given this area the warm home from home feel that we strive for.

新年快乐

Happy Chinese New Year – 新年快乐 (xīn nián kuài lè)

From

Mrs Lee and Mrs Chapman

Nursery News 13.1.23

This week we welcomed Aaron, Charmaine, Logan, Matthew, Monty, Nelly and Tommy to our nursery family. All our nursery children are settling back into the nursery routines after a busy holiday period. 

We have spent time together, getting to know each other, listening and sharing our Christmas stories, following the children’s lead in play and making new friends.

As usual we have embraced the outdoor life and have been exploring large scale colour mixing using powder paint in puddles and riding bicycles’ to mix the paint and to create patterns and trails. The children have really enjoyed group games, Hide and seek, Super heroes and completing an obstacle course.

We shared the book ‘No-Bot’ The robot with no bottom, written by Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet. This sparked an interest in building robots from recycled materials, we had robots of all shapes, colours and sizes. We also had a 3-day project build of ‘No-Bot the Robot himself. This was a child initiated activity and the end result is amazing.

We have enjoyed taking part in action songs and rhymes and our nursery rhyme of the week was ‘The wheels on the bus’. We learnt that a bus has 4 wheels and the children were using their fingers to represent 4.

We were very lucky to be given 2 large cardboard boxes and it is always a privilege to observe the imaginative play and joy that a cardboard box can provide.   

We look forward to seeing you all next week

From

Mrs Lee and Mrs Chapman

Nursery News 16.12.22

What a busy but fun packed week we have had in nursery this week. We started our week with snow, and it continued throughout the week. This gave us lots of opportunities to explore the snow and ice.

On Monday we explored creating our own snow using shaving foam, creating ice creams with a variety of toppings. On Tuesday we had fun in the mud kitchen using snow and lots of natural materials to create meals and drinks. On Wednesday we built our very own snowman, having fun collecting snow and experiencing how the snow could be manipulated into a shape. We used one of our ‘snack’ carrots for his nose. On Thursday we created Christmas biscuits, getting in the festive spirit. In the afternoon the children performed in front of parents and carers, singing a selection of Christmas and seasonal songs. The children were amazing and we are very, very proud of them. On Friday we finished our week thinking about how we could help the birds to find food during the snow period. The children created bird food pine cone feeders. We also took part in a Christmas ‘Cosmic Kids’ yoga session. What a busy, creative and active week.



Have a lovely weekend from

Mrs Lee and Mrs Chapman

Nursery News 9.12.22

This week in nursery we have been outdoors as usual but for the first time this year we have experienced frost. On Monday we went for our last Autumn walk and had Beautiful sunny weather. We practiced our singalong songs outdoors, sang, danced and raced to keep warm. On Wednesday we woke up to frost, the children used descriptive language to describe what they saw and felt: Crunch, cold, white, frozen. We decided to do an experiment and left pots of water outdoors overnight and in the morning the water was frozen.



We noticed the frost changed the look of the items and structures in the nursery outdoor area. This gave us a whole new canvas to work on. We created woodland figures using natural materials, we made monster foot prints in the frost, we created patterns on the frosty grass and added colour to the ice and frost and watched as the colours mixed together. What a wonderful week we have had.

Have a lovely weekend from

Mrs Lee and Mrs Chapman

Nursery News 2.12.22

This week in nursery the children have really enjoyed going on a daily Bear hunt. Our nursery bear has been hiding outdoors each day, waiting for the children to find him. Our story of the week ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’ written by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury has been a big success. The children know the story so well they have been independently acting it out, narrating the story as they search for the bear using torches. Swishing through the long grass, swimming through the river, squelching through the mud, stumbling through the forest and pulling their clothes tightly as they go through a snow storm. Ending the story by finding the bear in our nursery cave.

We have also been researching bears and the children have learnt that baby bears are called cubs, Panda bears are endangered and some bears hibernate.

The children have also shown an interest in loose parts and have created some beautiful pieces of transient art.



Have a lovely weekend from

Mrs Lee and Mrs Chapman

Nursery News 25.11.22

This week in nursery we have enjoyed sharing the story of ‘The Tiger that came to tea’. We have made tea for the tiger, exploring filling, emptying, pouring and mixing herbs and spices, the nursery smelt wonderful after this activity. We have made sandwiches and buns and looked at vertical and horizontal stripes and thought about other animals that have stripes.

The nursery children have shown an interest in numbers and patterns and the Numicon has been very popular this week. Lots of problem solving on how to fill the Numicon board and counting to five using a variety of materials and formats.

Construction in all its forms is always popular and we have observed some wonderful ideas, planning, use of resources, sharing of ideas and working in partnership and teams.

Have a lovely weekend

Mrs Lee and Mrs Chapman

Nursery News 18.11.22

This week in nursery we started the week with a very foggy day. We discussed how to keep safe in the fog and what colours would be best to wear. The children enjoyed wearing their high viz jackets to keep safe and visible.

We have really enjoyed World Nursery Rhyme week. We started the week with The Big Ship Sails: We crafted boats and explored what materials float or sink. Tuesday was 1.2.3.4.5 once I caught a fish alive: We counted how many fish we caught in nets and used magnetic rods to catch the magnetic fish. Wednesday was 5 Little Speckled Frogs: We created salt dough frogs and bugs and explored colour mixing to create the colour green. Thursday was B.I.N.G.O: we watched a video of this song and danced and played along with our musical instruments. We also looked after our very own BINGO dog and created name labels for our other dogs. Today we ended our week with Twinkle, Twinkle, Little star: We practiced our scissor skills cutting out stars and added a Pudsey Bear to our star necklace to celebrate Children In Need. 

Nursery 11.11.22

This week in nursery we have been recalling bonfire night. We have explored creating fireworks using dry powder paint and sticks and created sparklers using sticks and streamers. We had a lovely surprise this week when the Reception children invited us to attend their show ‘Funny Bones’. The Reception children had created tickets to enable us to attend. We took our places and watched in amazement as the children acted out the story. It was lovely to see how confident the Reception children are and how well they all performed. The nursery children sat and watched their peers and clapped at the end of the performance. Well done all Early years children.

Our story of the week has been Owl Babies, the children have enjoyed acting out the story using puppets and created their own story boards.

Have a lovely weekend from

Mrs Lee, Mrs Chapman and Mrs Weightman

Nursery News 4.11.22

This week in nursery we have continued our love of the outdoors and have experienced the ever changing Autumn weather. We have been making potions, using coloured water and natural materials. We have been painting pumpkins and washing them, looking at the variety of colour, size and textures of the pumpkins. We have cut open our pumpkins to investigate what was inside, using descriptive language to describe what we saw, smelt and felt. We have saved the seeds to plant out next year. We are very excited to grow our very own Enormous Pumpkins in the nursery raised beds. We have also watched the very funny story of  The Enormous Pumpkin | English Language - Once Upon a Time - YouTube

Have a fun and safe bonfire and firework weekend

Mrs Lee, Mrs Chapman and Mrs Weightman

Nursery News 14.10.22

Getting to know each other

This week in nursery we have continued our love of nature. We have created our families using leaves to represent each family member, looking at size and order. We have used conkers to create patterns and shapes. We have counted our pumpkins, measured our pumpkins using tape measures and ordered them in size and we have tried to lift the ‘Monster’ pumpkin which has been described as ‘really. really heavy’. We have also really enjoyed exploring cooking with our Autumn treasure, making Autumn tea and soup.

This half term is all about settling in and getting to know each other. The children are amazing at coming in and organizing themselves. They are learning their peers names and friendships are developing. The children are self-selecting resources and activities to enhance their play and are remembering where the items are kept at tidy up time.

Well done nursery.

Have a lovely weekend from

Mrs Lee, Mrs Chapman and Mrs Weightman

Nursery News 7.10.22

Getting to know each other

This week in nursery we have had a lot of contributions to our autumn interest display. The children have really enjoyed collecting and showing their autumn finds. The children have been so confident to talk about their finds in front of their peers. We have had some wonderful descriptive language ‘crunchy, curled, old, long’ and recalling of where they found their natural treasures. We have noticed that the leaves are different colours and different shapes and that conkers go hard and acorns turn brown.

These natural resources have enabled a lot of counting, matching and sorting during play.

Wednesday’s weather provided us with the perfect opportunity to experience the wind. We made kites and raced round and climbed to the top of the climbing frame to watch them fly and twirl in the wind.

Have a lovely weekend from

Mrs Lee, Mrs Chapman and Mrs Weightman

Nursery News 30.9.22

This week in nursery we have been sharing the book ‘Where’s Spot?’ written by Eric Hill. The children have loved guessing who is behind each hiding place. They have matched the characters to wooden character figures and have played hide and seek to experience what it was like for Spot to hide and for Sally to try and find him.

We have been doing a lot of measuring, following the children’s interest. We have used tape measures, rulers, yard stick and built vertical and horizontal towers. We have also been measuring ingredients.

So many of our children are little transporters and envelopers, filling bags, purses, tins, pots etc, with as many resources from around nursery as possible.

If we cannot find anything at the end of the day we know where to look. Have you observed this schematic play at home?

Friendships are really developing now and it is always a pleasure to observe this.

Have a lovely weekend

Mrs Lee, Mrs Chapman, Mrs Weightman

Nursery News 23.9.22

Getting to know each other

This half term we will be getting to know each other and settling in to the nursery routines and expectations. We are all learning the names of our friends and the teachers.

Already we have noticed a change in the children and a confidence developing that comes from a sense of belonging. The children are confident to self-select activities and resources independently and can tidy items away, ready for the next day. Friendships are forming and there is lots of wonderful active learning happening indoors and out.

Well done nursery children.

Have a lovely weekend from

Mrs Lee, Mrs Chapman and Mrs Weightman

Nursery News 16.9.22

This week in nursery we started our week with a Stay and Play session, enabling our new children and families to meet the staff, explore our wonderful resources and to experience how our sessions run.

On Tuesday we opened our doors to all, starting our new school year. It was lovely to catch up with our Nursery 1 children and to see how well all the children settled in together.

Nursery Gallery