Nursery Newsletter 14.5.18

Dear Parent/Carer,

The children had a great day at Barleylands on Thursday. They were able to experience a very bumpy tractor ride, visit the animals, feed the goats, stroke a snake and make some delicious bread rolls! A big thank you to all of the parent volunteers who came to help, the day would not have been possible without your support. Look out for photos from the visit later today. 

In small groups the children will be able to use photo prompts to talk about their day and we will continue to have a small world farm available to reinforce vocabulary. 

As you are all aware Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are getting married on Saturday 19th May at Windsor Castle. We are celebrating in school by wearing wedding headwear on Friday. Veils, top hats, tiaras, bowler hats & fascinators the bigger and brighter the better! It doesn't matter if they are home made or handed down from grandparents, we are looking forward to seeing all the pupils Royal wedding ready. The children will help to make scones that we can enjoy at our afternoon tea parties on Friday.

If you have any of your own wedding photos you would like to share with us to  please send them in to eyfs@broadford.havering.sch.uk. This would be a great way to support the children's discussion.

There school will be closed for pupils on the following days this half term.
25th May 
29th June

Mark Making/Creative
The children have large peacock feathers they can use to create their own painting pictures.

Mathematics
The children will be encouraged to add the right number of beads to the end of magic star wands. This will involve recognising numbers and counting accurately.

Physical
In their weekly PE lessons the children are using soft balls of different sizes to develop throwing and catching skills.

Communication and Language
Encouraging children to use simple sentences correctly.
Encouraging children to hold a conversation and respond to comments.

Understanding of the World
The children have been observing how our tadpoles have changed over the last few weeks. They are definitely growing and some have very thick tails yet. We are hoping we might see some legs appear soon!
The children will of course be celebrating the royal wedding which will allow lots of discussion about traditions and where we live.

In the home corner we will be giving the children opportunities to re-enact
experiences and talk about their home lives.

Personal and Social Development
We have been playing lots of simple board games with the children over the pass few weeks. This helps to develop turn taking skills and other social skills.
This week we are introducing castle and knights snap.

Kind regards,
The Nursery Team

Reception’s Beanstalks!

The Reception children have had a busy week getting ready to plant their ever growing beanstalks outside. First we had to weeds the flower beds (again), then we had to construct a bean frame. Constructing a bean frame was no easy task and involved lots of teamwork and communication skills.

Finally we were able to plant our beanstalks outside. We are hoping they grow taller than us and we get to taste some home grown beans later in the year. The children love working in our flower beds, and it sparks some great observations of the world as well as conversations. The children demonstrated fantastic reciprocity as they worked together. 

“I’ll hold this bit.” Preston 

“Are they going to grow to the top?” Maysa 

“It’s a bit wobbly!” Tele 

“Wow look at all those roots. It ran out of space.” Maggie M. 

Nursery - Barleylands Trip Tomorrow

Reminder: Nursery trip to Barleylands farm tomorrow

All children (AM and PM sessions) are leaving by coach at 9.15am and can be collected at 2.45pm. Children need to wear school uniform and comfy shoes to walk around the farm on. Lunch should be in a plastic carrier bag so this can be thrown away after the lunch session to avoid children carrying items all day. If it is a lovely warm day make sure the children have put on their suncream before coming to school and have sun hats.

We are looking forward to visiting all of the animals and making some tasty treats!

Jasper’s Letter

This week the children have been reading the story, Jasper’s Beanstalk as part of our Growing and Changing Topic. When the children returned from lunch they found a massive pile of mud, a spade and a letter! The children thought that Goldilocks had been back to our classrooms. Everyone was excited to read the letter and find out why they had been left in a mess. Quickly and excitedly, we opened the letter to find that Jasper had been trying to plant his own beans. He had to leave in the middle of planting and left a note apologising for the mess and asking for help, we decided to write instructions for planting beans and send them to Jasper!

Alder Class worked with their talk partner to discuss how to plant a seed. Next they discussed what a seed needed to grow. After they used their phonic knowledge to write a list of instructions for Jasper. Lastly, the children were enthralled to find out what happened to Jasper’s seeds as we read our story. 

“Look at that mess, I think it’s that Goldilocks again!” Danny.

“I know who Jasper is, he is a cat from our book.” Chloe.

Tadpoles, Tadpoles, Frogs...

The Reception children have been enthralled by the arrival of our new visitors, the tadpoles. Miss Poulter and Miss Tynan kindly arranged to bring some of our pond creatures into our Reception outdoor area. The tadpoles have been an amazing addition to our outdoor area and the children have loved observing and commenting on them. With magnifying glasses at hand, the children have been observing the tadpoles and talking about how they will grow and change.

As part of this terms unit of work, Growing and Changing, we have added the tadpoles and frog investigation area. The children will be able to make observations of all the developments they can see, while finding  out more about the life cycle of frogs. This is to encourage the children to talk about the changes that occur throughout the development and the differences between the stages from tadpoles to frogs. The children have looked at posters of the life cycle of frogs and commented that as the tadpoles grow they will become frogs. 

“ Tadpoles turn into frogs.” Awwal

“Do you know how I know they are tadpoles? I watched Ben and Holly and they had tadpoles and they turned into frogs!” Ellie-Maie

The Very Hungry Receptioners

Reception children were very lucky to have a special visitor come to visit them! As part of our ‘growing and changing’ topic, we have been developing our understanding of the world and learning about living things and their life cycles.

Paul came with his mini-beast workshop and the children enjoyed the interactive retelling of ‘The very hungry caterpillar’. The immersive workshop allowed them to discuss and develop their knowledge about minibeasts and life cycles whilst listening attentively and joining in with the story-acting. 

Mud Kitchen Fun - Worm hunt

The mud kitchen is always a fun option for the children to play and learn in.  A number of children from chose to explore the mud kitchen last week.  Thomas did some fantastic cooking and made a three course meal for the practitioner which included a 'Splendid Chocolate cake' whilst Steven, Janiya and Zuriel were searching for worms.  The children were delighted when they eventually found a worm.  Zuriel held it carefully whilst they all observed its features closely and sang the song "There's a worm at the bottom of the garden". Afterwards she carefully placed it back where she had found it, demonstrating care and concern for the living creature.

 

There's a worm at the bottom of the garden. 

And his name is Wiggly Woo. 

There's a worm at the bottom of the garden. 

And all that he can do. 

Is wiggle all night. 

And wiggle all day. 

Whatever else the people do say. 

There's a worm at the bottom of the garden.