We have enjoyed starting our “All about bears” project this half term. We made little books for “We’re Going On a Bear Hunt.” We explored the different environments in the story. We enjoyed making tasty bear faces with bread and cut up salad vegetables. We were very excited when our Home Corner was transformed into the three bears cottage, and have enjoyed playing there. We used the bear puppets to talk about our feelings. We loved playing with the porridge oats and making our own mixtures.

We are enjoying our topic this half term, “Off we go!”- looking at transport. We have our garage area to fix the bikes and write about repairs. We thought about new adventures for the Naughty Bus- in the baked beans, the snow and underwater in the jelly beans. We tried out mark making using shaving foam as well as in notebooks. We left water out to freeze in the very cold water and enjoyed exploring the ice.

In Nursery we have enjoyed getting ready for Christmas and learning more about what happens in Winter. We made cheese stars; we designed patterns for winter jumpers and shared Christmas stories. We also played with some special toys including Christmas skittles, cards and threading. We listened to the Nativity story and acted it out with the dolls. We also enjoyed celebrating Hanukkah together.

Diwali

We have enjoyed learning about Diwali. We dressed up as the characters and told the story. We drew pictures of our favourites, and made story books. We made divas with salt dough and decorated them. Chloe and Gabriel made a model of Rama and Sita’s palace! We enjoyed tasting Indian sweets.

Nursery Rhymes!

Nursery have been continuing with our Nursery Rhymes topic. We enjoyed printing with bricks to make walls for Humpty Dumpty to sit on and making our own collage Humpties. This week we have been learning the song “Cobbler Cobbler.” We played in the shoe shop outside and made labels for our shoes. We sorted the shoes into large and small shoes. We listened to the story of the Elves and the Shoemaker and dressed up as elves. We practised using hammers like the elves. We are continuing to learn about the routines in Nursery and making new friends.

Welcome back!

We have had a lovely welcome on our home visits from Nursery families and enjoyed getting to know the children in their home environments. The children are settling well in groups, trying new activities indoors and outdoors and making new friends. Our topic will be Nursery Rhymes and we have enjoyed singing songs we know and learning some new ones.

‘Peace at Last’

In the nursery this week, the children have been listening to the story ‘Peace at Last’ by Jill Murphy. They have been using the props to re-enact the story, and playing a listening game, matching the sounds that keep Mr Bear awake to the different objects. Some children read the story to their friends.

Weaving card

Throughout the week the children have been taking part in a range of activities to bring the story alive. They have been weaving with card to make blankets for Mr Bear.

Bonfire Night!

Last week for ‘Bonfire Night’ the nursery created their own bonfire using a selection of resources. In the afternoon we sat around the bonfire and sang songs about bonfire night, we also had hot chocolate and pumpkin loaf which we made during cooking with Joanne.

Firework Art!

This week we have been making our own firework pictures using a range of mark making and collage materials.

Take a look around the Nursery!

Acting out stories…

The nursery love stories and they are central to our curriculum, we listened to different versions of the ‘Three Little Pigs’ and then re-enacted the story, the children were able to take on the role of the different characters and were using the language from the story, supporting their story telling skills. We changed the story slightly, having two wolves to chase the pigs.

Role play opportunities in the nursery…

The role play area was set up as a vets surgery, caring for many of the animals found at willows Farm. Children were excellent at caring for the animals, taking their temperatures, giving them injections and bandaging them.

Opportunities for counting…

The children have had lots of opportunities to play dice games, rolling the dice and counting that number of egg in to the hens nest.

In maths, we have been counting and beginning to subitise. We played a game, rolling the dice and finding the corresponding piece of the wolf, some children can now recognise patterns up to six.

Cooking

The focus for cooking this half term, is food produced on the farm.

We used eggs from the hen, to make egg mayonnaise sandwiches, in the shape of a hen.

Making a Greek salad, with feta cheese, made from sheep’s milk.

We used goat’s cheese to make a tart, we added rosemary from our garden, it was delicious

We also made little pig faces for a healthy snack.

Making houses for the Three Little Pigs

Later in the week, the children using recycled materials to make houses, then we put them to the test. We tested them to see if the wolf could blow them down. There were so many houses, that the wolf, could not blow down.

Nursery trip to Willows Farm

Over the course of the first half of the summer term, the nursery topic was, ‘On the Farm’ the children visited, Willows Farm and had a great time, feeding the animals and stroking the guinea pigs in the Petting Area. They saw lots of baby animals. They ended the trip at the Peter Rabbit playground and despite the rain; they watched the Benjamin Rabbit show and had a quick ride on the JCB’s to escape the rain!