Welcome to Nursery

Welcome to Nursery Information Booklet

Class Hero

School Heroes

Spring 2- Week 6 in Nursery:

HAPPY EASTER! 🐣 🐰

We have had a very fun filled Easter themed week. We have been baking, painting, colouring, drawing, crafting and so much more. Our favourite was when the Easter bunny left eggs in our Forest School. Inside the eggs, there was phonics letters that we have been learning. We matched them to the correct letter.

We hope you all like the Easter crafts that the children have been making!

Thank you very much for all of the amazing Eggs for our competition. Our Nursery winner was Olivia! Well done Olivia! 🌟

Thank you to all that came today for our Easter Egg hunt. It was lovely to see all of the children having so much fun!

We hope you all have a wonderful Easter! 🐣

When we return to school we are starting a new, very exciting topic. Can you guess what it is? 🚓 🚑 🚒

As always, thank you very much for your continued support,
Mrs Cook and Mrs Goodall

Spring 2- Week 5 in Nursery:

What a busy week we have had. Easter is in full swing in Nursery! 🐰

We started our week at Forest School, making Easter window catchers out of flowers. We have also been doing lots of different Easter crafts ready to bring home next week. The children have loved our Easter tuff spot. We have had a lot of Teamwork Tiger's this week working and playing together. 🐯

In maths, we have continued our learning on numbers and repeating patterns.

In PE, we have been taking part in teamwork games/ races. I was super proud of the children this morning in PE for their amazing listening and instruction following skills.

What a treat... the baby chicks have hatched in Reception. We were very lucky to hold the baby chicks. The children were very excited! 🐣 🐥

We have been very busy in phonics, learning new sounds, writing our letters, recognising our letters and Fred Talk. We have been writing our names and letters in lots of different ways but a favourite this week was definitely the light up board. ✏️

Home Learning:
Can your child decorate their own egg? 🥚
We will be holding a decorate an egg competition for all children. If your child would like to take part, they should bring their decorated egg into school on Wednesday 1st April. School Governors will choose a winner, on Thursday 2nd April, from each class who will win an Easter Egg.

EASTER EVENTS: 🐰
We are hosting an Easter Egg Hunt on the last day of school (Thursday 2nd April) . You are invited to come in to Nursery where you and your child will hunt for our Easter eggs around the school.

Morning Children's hunt will commence at 11am.
30hour and Afternoon Children's hunt will commence at 2:15pm.

We do hope you or a member of your family can join us on the day. If you can't make it please let us know in advance.

Chocolate Tombola – 🍫
On Thursday 2nd April, we will have a chocolate tombola. This will take place during the school day and all classes (Nursery to Year 6) will be able to take part. This is being organised by The Friends of Ellington, tickets are the usual 5 for £1.

A big thank you for your continued support,
Mrs Cook

Spring 2- Week 4 in Nursery:

We have had a very exciting and busy week in Nursery as you will see by all of the pictures. The sun has been shining and we have had lots of fun outdoors. We have been making our own puppet shows, putting performances on our stage, planting strawberries, mark making with chalk, water play, sand play and so much more. We have also had fun at Forest School making our own nature craft pictures.

This week, we have continued our learning on Jasper's Beanstalk. We have been doing observational drawings of our beanstalk, making our own beanstalks out of different loose part materials and so much more.

We have been learning about the importance of keeping healthy. We brushed the big pretend teeth and used the small toothbrushes. We have also been talking about eating healthy. We made our own paint picture using fruit and vegetables to print with.

In maths, our older children have been learning about the composition of number 5 and our younger children have been learning about the composition of number 2.

Our children, moving up to Reception in September, have been doing amazing in phonics. We will be learning two new sounds a week and your child will bring home the sounds that they are learning. On the homework sheet, along with different activities including letter formation, I have added QR codes. One of the QR codes, if you scan the code, it will take you to a video telling you all about the sound.

Home learning:
Can you use different resources around your house to make a beanstalk?

Have a lovely weekend, hopefully the sun will continue to shine!

Thank you, as always, for your continued support,
Mrs Cook

Spring 2- Week 3 in Nursery:

We have had a super week in Nursery!

Our new story is Jasper’s Beanstalk. The children have enjoyed learning about the story and watching their very own beanstalk grow! 🌱

We have painted our own beanstalk picture, coloured in bean plants, pretended to plant bean plants on our tuff spot and made our own beanstalk out of cubes.

At Forest School on Monday, we made our very own Spring blossom sticks! 🌸

In maths, our children moving up to Reception in September have been learning all about the composition of number 4 and our younger children have been learning about the composition of number 2. Composition of number is the foundational mathematical concept of understanding how smaller numbers (parts) combine to make a larger number (whole), such as knowing that 3 and 2 make 5.

We have been doing lots of different Mother’s Day crafts and baking. We hope you like what we have made! ❤️

Next week, our older children (who are starting Reception in September) will be starting their Read Write Inc journey. Read Write Inc is the phonics scheme that we follow in school and it is the start of your child being able to read and write. I will be sending out more information about this next week as well as phonics home learning to further develop your child’s learning.

Thank you for your continued support,
Mrs Cook

Spring 2- Week 2 in Nursery:

We have had a very fun filled week in Nursery!

A big thank you for all of the home learning/ weekend news. We have a lovely time on a Monday looking at Tapestry together.

Last week, when we planted our own bean plants, Mrs Goodall threw some beans out of our Nursery door... You will never believe what happened!!! 🫘

Mrs Cook caught it on our school cameras. A real beanstalk grew in our outdoor garden. We then saw Jack climbing up the beanstalk and he then chopped it down. The excitement on the children's faces was magical! A very exciting time indeed! 🌱

At Forest School, we continued working on our gross and fine motor skills. A very popular activity was making bird feeders for the wildlife 🐦 . The children showed great concentration when doing this activity.

We have had lots of fun indoors and outdoors this week, showing great Teamwork Tiger 🐅 skills! I am super proud of the children for how well they work together and join in class routines.

On Thursday, we celebrated World Book Day 📚. The children were very excited to tell us about their costume. We went on a book scavenger hunt around school, it was so much fun! The children also enjoyed telling stories to their friends on the carpet with the pretend fire.

In maths, we have continued our learning on number, shape, colour, ordering and comparing!

In PE, we have been working on our balancing skills!

For the children moving up to Reception in September, we are continuing to work on 'Fred Talk' 🐸 as well as writing our own name, using the correct pencil grip ✏️ and formation of letters .

For our children who will be staying in Nursery in September. We have continued our learning on building up our fine motor skills, especially cutting skills ✂️ .

Well done Nursery Superstars. Another brilliant week! 🌟

As always, thank you very much for your continued support,

Mrs Cook

Spring 2- Week 1 in Nursery:

What a busy first week we have had back in Nursery!

We started our week by looking at the pictures on Tapestry of what some of the children have been doing in the holidays. The children then drew a picture of their favourite memory from the school holidays.

We had a great time at Forest school, we used our gross motor skills to dig in the soil! Mrs Cook made us a new stage area in our outdoor garden and what a popular area it is! We have been acting, singing, dancing, dressing up and doing BIG movements with scarfs.

Our new story is Jack and the Beanstalk. We talked about what plants need to grow and then planted our very own bean plant. The children will be looking after their bean plant 🪴

The children have enjoyed playing teachers, using our nursery rhyme bag to sing songs.

In maths, we have continued our learning on numbers, ordering and sorting numbers, colours, shapes and patterns.

In phonics, for our older children (who will be moving up to Reception in September), we have been focusing on alliteration and Fred Talk. Fred is a frog and he can only say the sounds in a word and needs your child to help him read the word. Fred will say the sounds and children will work out the word. For example, Fred will say the sounds c–a–t, and children will say the word cat. This is Fred Talk: sounding out the word.

With our children who will be coming back to Nursery in September, we have been focusing on instrumental sounds. We have been matching the beat either slow, fast, loud, quiet etc. Mrs Goodall has also been playing an instrument and we had to match it to the correct instrument.

Home challenge:
Can our older children work on writing their name and Fred Talk at home. I have attached some examples of Fred Talk games and where we start our letters, it is very important that we start in the correct place to form each letter and to have the correct pencil grip.

For our younger children, could you work on fine motor activities to strengthen finger muscles. I have attached a picture of some examples.

Thank you for your continued support,
Mrs Cook

SPRING 2

Spring 1- Week 6 in Nursery:

What a wonderful half term we have had. I’m super proud of our Nursery superstars! 🌟

This week has been a very busy week indeed. We started our week at Forest School and in our outdoor area working on our gross motor skills! We even went on a Bear Hunt 🐻

In maths, we have continued our learning on numbers, shapes, colours, sorting and repeating patterns!

We have been learning all about Lunar New Year. We made our own lantern and dragon. We even did our very own dragon dance. We used different musical instruments and scarves. Our favourite part was trying yummy Chinese food. We all had a go at using chop sticks!

Yesterday, we had a fantastic time at our Valentine’s disco… as Fraser said “this is the BEST day EVER” we did lots of dancing, party games and had so much fun. Back in the classroom, we did lots of Valentine’s crafts and made yummy heart biscuits! ♥️

Half term reading challenge:
In the holidays, it would be great if your child could read a book/ books in a number of different places. Where could it be…
At the soft play? At the beach? At the park? …
We look forward to seeing the pictures! 📚

Your child will be bringing their waterproofs and spare clothes bags home today to be cleaned/ refreshed. Please could they be returned on the first day back to school after the holidays.

Well done Nursery. A very busy, exciting and fun filled half term of learning! 🌟

We have lots of exciting plans for when we return to school. Hopefully the sun will start shining soon!

Have a wonderful half term!

As always, thank you very much for your continued support,
Mrs Cook

Spring 1- Week 5 in Nursery:

We’re Going on a Bear Hunt…

This week, we have continued our learning around the story We're Going on a Bear Hunt. We have thoroughly enjoyed learning about the Bear Hunt. The children created a painting of their own bear and what a brilliant job they did. The children also worked very hard to make their own Bear Hunt story map out of different art materials. 🐻

We visited our school library, the children had a great time choosing a book and we shared lots of stories together! 📚

In maths, we have continued our learning on colours, shapes, numbers and ordering of size!

We have had a very exciting day today, Mr Bailey our IT teacher joined us in Nursery. We did a now-press-play experience where we listened to the Goldilocks and the Three Bears and Jack and the Beanstalk story, we followed the different instructions through headphones and acted the stories out. Mr Bailey also had some very exciting traditional tales apps on the iPads. As Mr Bailey was coming into school this morning, he caught Goldilocks, the Three Bears, the Three Little Pigs and Jack. He managed to take a video of them. The children were super excited! 🐻 🐷

In Nursery, we are always learning about the importance of hygiene and we have been specifically focusing on the importance of washing hands and brushing teeth. 🪥 🦷 🤚

Home challenge:
A fun challenge!
Can you find different resources around the house/outdoors to go on your own Bear Hunt? 🐻

ON THURSDAY 12TH FEBRUARY, we will be having our own ❤️Nursery Valentine's Disco ❤️ in school during school hours. The children are welcome to come to school in non uniform on this day.

Another fabulous week! ⭐️

Well done Nursery! ✨

Thank you for your continued support,
Mrs Cook

Spring 1- Week 4 in Nursery:

What a very busy and exciting week we have had in Nursery!

Our new story is 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt' our role play area has turned into the bears cave.

We collected different resources to make our very own bear hunt. The children collected grass, water, mud, leaves/ sticks and cotton wool for snow. We put the trays in the hall and the children had such a fantastic time exploring. Mila said "this is the best day ever!" 🐻
We then made our own sensory Bear Hunt bottles and our own binoculars.

As part of our maths learning, we went on a colour hunt in our nursery yard. The children enjoyed using the clipboards to tick off the colours when they found them. When outdoors, the children have been wearing their waterproofs and wellies. We have been working on our independence skills at school to put our waterproofs, wellies, coats and shoes on. It would be great if you could do this with your child at home to build their independence skills. We have also been doing lots of colour matching and sorting in the classroom and in our outdoor garden. We have also been focusing on numbers 1, 2, 3.

With our older Nursery children, we have been working on rhyming. The children had to find two picture cards that rhyme e.g. dog and log and what a fantastic job they did! 🐶 🪵

We have been working on our gross motor skills outdoors, the children thoroughly enjoyed riding around the yard on balance bikes. We have also been using the spades to dig. Indoors, we have been working on our fine motor skills!

Home challenge:
Can you go on a colour scavenger hunt with your child?

It has been great to see more and more Tapestry posts from home. The children get very excited to see themselves on the big screen and talk about what they have been doing.

On THURSDAY 12th FEBRUARY, we will be having our own ❤️ Nursery Valentine's Disco ❤️ in school (during school hours). The children are welcome to come to school in non uniform on this day.

Another wonderful week!

Well done Nursery superstars! 🌟

As always, thank you for your continued support,
Mrs Cook

Spring 1- Week 3 in Nursery:

WOW! What a week we have had in Nursery! A very exciting week indeed! To begin our week, we always share our Tapestry news. The children thoroughly enjoy looking at the pictures of themselves and their friends on the big screen, talking about what they have been up to at home!

We are continuing our learning on Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We have been retelling and sequencing the story. The children had great sensory play fun with shaving foam, whisks, spoons and bowls! We pretended the shaving foam was porridge.

On Wednesday, when we arrived at school, we could not believe it! All of the chairs in Nursery were knocked over, we were confused at what had happened. Mrs Cook checked the cameras and Goldilocks had been in our classroom! The excitement on the children’s faces was brilliant! We created wanted posters and put them around the classroom to see if anyone could find her. On Wednesday after school, Mrs Cook found Goldilocks in our nursery yard, she was feeling sad as she was lost. Goldilocks left us all some porridge and fruit and Mrs Cook showed her the way home!

Yesterday, we made our very own porridge. We added the porridge oats and milk and stirred them together, after the porridge was cooked we used the safe knives and cutters to cut our own fruit. The children were fantastic at cutting the strawberries, bananas and blueberries. The children then ate their porridge. Mmmmm, just right!

In maths, we have continued our learning on numbers to 3, shapes and this week a big focus has been around repeating patterns. We have also been making big, medium and small towers out of different objects, including duplo!

We have also been focusing on rhyming, looking at pictures and matching them if they rhyme.

As you can see by the pictures, the children have been enjoying exploring in the Nursery. Fantastic teamwork tigers! 🐯

Home Challenge:
Can you work on hand washing at home with your child. We are having a big focus in Nursery on washing hands as a lot of children keep forgetting to wash their hands after being to the toilet.

Can you work on making big, medium and small towers out of different objects with your child, focusing on the language big, medium and small.

Another wonderful week!

Well done Nursery Superstars! ⭐

As always, thank you for your continued support,
Mrs Cook

Spring 1- Week 2 in Nursery:

As you can see by the pictures, Nursery have had a very busy and fun filled week!

The children have shown amazing teamwork tiger skills, working together indoors and outdoors. The children have shown brilliant gross motor skills outdoors, especially riding on the trikes.

We have continued our learning on Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The children have shown great imagination skills in our Bears Cottage. We have been sorting the bears into big, medium and small bowls with the tweezers, picking the bears out of the sand.
We have also been focusing on ‘why’ questions:

Why is daddy bear angry?
Why is baby bear sad?

To make baby bear happy again, we worked in teams to make baby bear a new chair. The children talked about what they were going to do and what resources they were going to use. The children were so excited to try baby bear on the chair.

We also made houses for the bears out of magnatiles!

An exciting activity that the children enjoyed was going on a shape hunt around school!

Home challenge:
Can your child retell parts of the Goldilocks story to you?
Can your child spot any shapes around the house? Or outdoors?

On a Monday, we enjoy sharing Tapestry observations from home whether it be the home challenge or weekend news. The children love to see themselves on the big screen!

Thank you for your continued support,
Mrs Cook

Spring 1- Week 1 in Nursery:

I hope you have all had a wonderful festive period. The children have been so excited to tell me what they have been doing over the holidays.

We have had a fantastic first week back. The children have settled back very well and our new nursery children have been amazing. I am super proud! ⭐

The children have enjoyed exploring in the Nursery environment. As you can see by the pictures, we have had lots of fun!

Our topic for this half term is Once Upon a Bear. Our story is Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We have thoroughly enjoyed exploring in the Bears cottage.

The children were superstars in PE today. They showed fantastic listening skills and followed the different instructions! ⭐

Thank you for your continued support,
Mrs Cook