Welcome to Nursery

Welcome to Nursery Information Booklet

Summer 1 Curriculum Map

Class Hero

School Heroes

Summer 1- Week 1 in Nursery:

Wow…Wow…Wow!

What a very busy and exciting first week back we have had! We welcomed 3 of our new friends into Nursery. The children have been showing our new friends our Nursery and they have settled extremely well into our class! 😃

Our topic this half term is People Who Help Us and what an exciting topic it is! Each day we learn about the people who help us, their roles and responsibilities!

We have been extremely lucky to have exciting visitors this week. Douglas’ daddy and some of his firefighter friends from Pegswood Fire Station visited our school on Wednesday. The firefighters told us all about their job role and the different equipment that is in the fire engine. The children all had a turn in the fire truck and used the hose to knock the wood down. What a fantastic morning we had! 🚒 🔥

Yesterday, we were extremely lucky to have Fraser’s Mummy in Nursery. Fraser’s Mummy is a Nurse! Fraser’s Mummy told us all about her role as a Nurse at the hospital. She also brought lots of different doctors/ nurses equipment. Fraser’s Mummy told us what each of the pieces of equipment were for and we had a go at some of them, using teddies as our patient. Fraser pretended to be a doctor and bandaged Emmy’s arm! Well done Fraser! The children were very excited to hear all about the role of a Nurse. We have even made our own doctors/ nurses hats! 👩‍⚕️ 🩺

Next week, we have more visitors coming into Nursery and we also have some pre recorded videos of the different people who help us who could not make it into school. I wonder who will visit us next week… 👮‍♂️

In maths, we have been learning all about the concept of heavy and light. The children listened to the story Dear Zoo and then weighed some different pretend animals on the weighing scales! ⚖️

Our children who are moving up to Reception in September have really impressed me with their phonics learning and name writing! ⭐️

As you can see by the pictures, we have had a wonderful week exploring both indoors and outdoors. We have been colouring, drawing, building, snipping leaves, dressing up, pretending to be different workers and so much more. The children thoroughly enjoyed painting on our new Perspex screen and having fun in our new solar fountain! ⛲️

The children have loved playing in our new People Who Help Us role play area, dressing up and role playing with their friends! 👮‍♀️ 👨‍🚒 👩‍⚕️ 👨‍⚕️

Our reading area has also been updated into a very cosy reading den! 📚 🍃

A brilliant week Nursery superstars!
Well done! 🌟

STAY AND PLAY…
We are delighted to invite you into our class on Wednesday 20th May to see Nursery in action! This is a lovely opportunity for you to spend time with your child and join in with a range of activities together.

-Children who attend Nursery in the mornings: parents/carers are welcome to come into school from 10:30am–11:30am.

-Children who attend Nursery all day, and those who attend the afternoon session: parents/carers are welcome to come into school from 2:00pm–3:00pm.

Now that the weather is improving, we are looking forward to spending more time outdoors and enjoying lots of water play. Please could you ensure that your child always has a spare change of clothing at school (including underwear and socks).
A big thank you, as always, for your continued support.

Have a wonderful weekend! ☀️
Mrs Cook

Summer 1- Week 2 in Nursery:

What a fantastic week we have had in Nursery. As you will see by all of the pictures, we have been very busy bees! 🐝

The children have thoroughly enjoyed our People Who Help Us topic! We started our week by having a special visitor... a Police officer. The Police officer told us all about his role and another very exciting role that he does which is a Police diver. He also brought lots of different police hats and uniform for us to try! What a fantastic time we had. The children were very excited to try on the different uniform and hats. We even made our own police badge!

Mr Hodgson told us all about his role as a Head teacher and the children asked lots of different questions.

Unfortunately, we could not get a visit from a dentist so they sent us a video instead. The dentist told us all about her role, the tools she uses and the importance of looking after our teeth. We used the big pretend teeth and the laminated teeth to work on our fine motor brushing skills.

We also had a video from a vet. The children were very excited to learn all about the role of vet, the equipment that vets use and we even watched a video of a dog getting his nails cut. We then pretended to be a vet with our pretend animals and equipment.

The children have been doing observational paintings/ drawings of the different people that help us, they have been using water spray bottles to put the pretend fires out on the perspex, using puppets in our puppet theatre, making our own emergency services vehicles out of junk modelling, dressing up as doctors/ nurses, firefighters and police officers in our role play area and so much more.

We have had lots of time outdoors and enjoyed our time at Forest School, making our own nature pictures.

In maths, we have been learning about positional language and the concept of long and short by using cubes to measure the pretend animals.

STAY AND PLAY…
We are delighted to invite you into our class on Wednesday 20th May to see Nursery in action! This is a lovely opportunity for you to spend time with your child and join in with a range of activities together.

-Children who attend Nursery in the mornings: parents/carers are welcome to come into school from 10:30am–11:30am.

-Children who attend Nursery all day, and those who attend the afternoon session: parents/carers are welcome to come into school from 2:00pm–3:00pm.

Now that the weather is improving, we are looking forward to spending more time outdoors and enjoying lots of water play. Please could you ensure that your child always has a spare change of clothing at school (including underwear and socks).

A big thank you, as always, for your continued support.

Have a wonderful bank holiday weekend! ☀️
Mrs Cook

Summer 1- Week 3 in Nursery:

This week in Nursery we have started a new story… Supertato! 🥔

We have had great fun reading the story, learning about the different characters and that cheeky Evil Pea. I hope the Evil Pea doesn’t get up to some tricks in our classroom next week… ❌

In maths, we have been learning all about the concept of tall and short. We used different objects, items and we even measured our friends!

We have had a very big focus on fine motor skills in Nursery including improving our scissor skills, writing our name using the correct letter formation, using shaving foam to write our letters and so much more. We even explored with the musical instruments! ✏️ ✂️

We have also worked a lot on sharing and turn taking games. We played a new game where we had to roll 2 dice and follow instructions. This helped with our colour recognition, number recognition, using tweezers and taking turns! ⭐

In PE, we have been taking part in lots of different races and team games in preparation for our Sports Day! 🏃‍♀️ 🏃‍♂️

STAY AND PLAY…
We are delighted to invite you into our class on Wednesday 20th May to see Nursery in action! This is a lovely opportunity for you to spend time with your child and join in with a range of activities together.

-Children who attend Nursery in the mornings: parents/carers are welcome to come into school from 10:30am–11:30am.

-Children who attend Nursery all day, and those who attend the afternoon session: parents/carers are welcome to come into school from 2:00pm–3:00pm.

We also have our Nursery school trip on Thursday 25th June to Northumberland Zoo (you should have received a letter with more information about the trip).

A brilliant week Nursery superstars! 🌟

Thank you for your continued support,
Mrs Cook

Summer 1- Week 4 in Nursery:

What an exciting week we have had in Nursery! 🐝

We have continued our learning on the story Supertato. You will see by the pictures that we have had lots of fun taking part in Supertato activities. The Evil Pea from the story has been playing tricks on us. He captured some of our veggies and sellotaped them onto our window. He has also been in different areas of our classroom when we were not there! Danny had a fantastic idea to make traps to capture the Evil Pea. The children made their own traps out of junk modelling. On Thursday, when we arrived at school…the Evil Pea had been captured!!! Great job Nursery! ⭐️

On Wednesday, we were extremely lucky to have Lottie’s Mummy in Nursery. Lottie’s Mummy is a Scientist! Lottie’s Mummy told us all about her role as a Scientist. She also brought lots of different equipment. Lottie’s Mummy told us what each of the pieces of equipment were for and we used them to be little scientists. We used pipettes to make pretend medicine and we also learned all about the importance of washing our hands. Lottie’s Mummy brought a very special machine in to show us the importance of washing our hands and getting rid of germs! 🦠 Lottie was a superstar little scientist helping her mummy. Well done Lottie! 🌟 What a fantastic afternoon we had. The children were very excited to hear all about the role of a Scientist. Thank you very much to Lottie’s Mummy! 👩‍🔬 🦠

In maths, we have been focusing on the concept of capacity!

In phonics for our older children who will be moving up to Reception in September, we have been focusing on 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. Fred Talk is a very tricky concept to learn but once children learn the concept it gets much easier. I have attached a picture of examples of Fred Talk. On the phonics home learning sheets, there is also a QR code that you can scan and it will play different Fred Talk games that can be accessed at home.

STAY AND PLAY…
We are delighted to invite you into our class on Wednesday 20th May to see Nursery in action! This is a lovely opportunity for you to spend time with your child and join in with a range of activities together.

-Children who attend Nursery in the mornings: parents/carers are welcome to come into school from 10:30am–11:30am.

-Children who attend Nursery all day, and those who attend the afternoon session: parents/carers are welcome to come into school from 2:00pm–3:00pm.

Thank you for your continued support,
Mrs Cook

Summer 1- Week 5 in Nursery:

What an incredible week we have had in Nursery!

We began the week at Forest School, where the children collected natural materials and created their very own crowns. 👑 It was wonderful to see their creativity and teamwork shine through.

Throughout the week, we have been busy both indoors and outdoors, taking part in lots of exciting activities, as you will see from the photos.

A huge thank you to everyone who attended our Stay and Play session. We had such a fantastic time welcoming you into Nursery and sharing some of the wonderful learning experiences and activities the children enjoy each day. We hope you enjoyed your time with us as much as we did!

On Thursday morning, we were extremely lucky to welcome Mr Bailey into Nursery. He taught the children all about technology and introduced us to some exciting superhero apps on the iPads. Mr Bailey also brought along his green screen, which was a huge hit! The children chose which superhero they wanted to be, dressed up in costumes, and selected their own backgrounds to create some amazing superhero scenes. Everyone had such a fantastic time — even Mrs Cook and Mrs Goodall joined in with the fun!

I cannot believe we are already at the end of another half term. We only have one more half term to go before some of our children make the exciting move up to Reception. I am incredibly proud of all the children and the progress they continue to make each and every day! 🌟

We have lots of exciting events and activities planned for next half term including Sports Day, Summer Fair and our trip to Northumberland Zoo!

Thank you, as always, for your continued support and encouragement — it is greatly appreciated and plays such an important part in the children’s learning and development.

Have a fantastic half term!

Mrs Cook and Mrs Goodall

Summer 2- Week 1 in Nursery:

We have had a very busy and exciting first week back after the holidays! 🐝

The children loved looking at the photos shared on Tapestry and talking about the adventures they enjoyed during the break. We spent time discussing our favourite holiday memories before drawing pictures to capture those special moments.

Our new topic this half term is Mad About Minibeasts! Our role-play area has been transformed into a minibeast investigation station, and the children have had great fun exploring and investigating throughout the week. Our focus story is The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and we have been learning all about the life cycle of a butterfly. The children painted their own caterpillars and have taken part in a range of exciting minibeast-themed activities. We also have a very special surprise coming next week! 🐛🦋

In Maths, we have been practising ordering numbers to 5. Our older children have also begun learning about 3D shapes and have enjoyed exploring their properties.

The children have been fantastic while practising for Sports Day, showing great enthusiasm and determination. Fingers crossed for plenty of sunshine next Friday! ☀️

For the children moving up to Reception in September, we have been focusing on Fred Talk, letter formation and letter recognition. So far, the children have learned the following sounds:

m, a, s, d, t, i, n, p, g, o, c, k, u, b, f, e, l, h

If you could continue practising the recognition of these sounds at home, it would be greatly appreciated. If you scan the QR code on the phonics home learning sheet, you will be able to see how each sound is taught in school.

Upcoming Events

🏃 Sports Day
Nursery and Reception will complete their Sports Day activities at 9:00am on Friday 12th June, and parents/carers are warmly invited to come and watch.

📚 New to Reception Meeting
For children moving up to Reception in September, our Welcome to Reception meeting will take place on Thursday 18th June at 9:00am.

🦁 Northumberland Zoo Trip
Our Nursery trip to Northumberland Zoo will take place on Thursday 25th June. The children are already very excited!

🎒 Move Up Morning
Children moving up to Reception in September will take part in their Move Up Morning on Thursday 2nd July. This will give them the opportunity to spend the morning in their new Reception classroom.

🎪 Summer Fair
Our Summer Fair will take place on Friday 3rd July from 2:00pm until 4:00pm.

If you have any questions about any of our upcoming events, please do not hesitate to ask.

We hope to see you next Friday for Sports Day!

Thank you for your continued support.
Mrs Cook

Summer 2- Week 2 in Nursery:

Wow! What a week we have had in Nursery! 🐝

We have continued our learning based on the story The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Together, we sequenced the story and then retold it as a class. We have also enjoyed lots of exciting Hungry Caterpillar activities in the classroom, which the children have thoroughly loved.

We have been busy with a range of craft activities too. The children did a brilliant job sequencing the life cycle of a butterfly! 🦋

We were very lucky to have Rock Steady visit our school for a special assembly. The musician, Chris, was very talented. He introduced us to a variety of instruments and then played each one for us.

Year 5 have been taking part in a Nature is Art project, and we were delighted to see all of their fantastic artwork displayed in our Forest School area.

In Maths, we have continued learning about numbers, ordering numbers, and exploring the composition of each number.

A huge thank you for your support and encouragement during Sports Day. Mrs Goodall and I are incredibly proud of our wonderful Nursery children – they are all
superstars! 🌟

Upcoming Events

📚 New to Reception Meeting
For children moving up to Reception in September, our Welcome to Reception meeting will take place on Thursday 18th June at 9:00am.

🦁 Northumberland Zoo Trip
Our Nursery trip to Northumberland Zoo will take place on Thursday 25th June. The children are already very excited!

🎒 Move Up Morning
Children moving up to Reception in September will take part in their Move Up Morning on Thursday 2nd July. This will give them the opportunity to spend the morning in their new Reception classroom.

🎪 Summer Fair
Our Summer Fair will take place on Friday 3rd July from 2:00pm until 4:00pm.
If you have any questions about any of our upcoming events, please do not hesitate to ask.

Thank you for your continued support,
Mrs Cook

Summer 2- Week 3 in Nursery:

I cannot believe how quickly this half term is flying by!

We have had another very busy week in Nursery. We have continued our learning around the story The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and we had a very exciting surprise this week!

A special delivery arrived at school, and we couldn't wait to find out what was inside the box. To the children's delight, it was our very own caterpillars! Over the coming weeks, we will be observing the butterfly life cycle first-hand and watching the different stages of their transformation. The children have been eagerly checking on the caterpillars every day to see how much they have grown! 🐛

We have also been putting our creative skills to the test by making bug hotels using junk modelling materials. The children have produced some fantastic creations, and they should all be very proud of their hard work! 🕷️ 🪱

At Forest School, we created beautiful natural collages of butterflies and caterpillars before heading off on a mini beast hunt. The children loved exploring the outdoor environment and searching for different insects.

We have spent lots of time enjoying the sunshine outdoors this week. As the weather continues to improve, please ensure your child has sun cream applied before coming to school, as we will be spending plenty of time outside over the coming weeks! 🌞

In maths, our older children have been learning about the composition of the number 3, exploring the different ways it can be made. Our younger children have been investigating the concepts of big and small using a range of 2D shapes.

Over the next few weeks, members of the Ellington Primary School staff will be visiting Nursery as our Secret Readers. Each member of staff will bring along their favourite story to share with the children. This is a lovely opportunity for the children to become familiar with the wider school staff ahead of their move through school. This week, our secret reader was our Year 3 teacher Mrs Morris! 📚

We have continued learning our Read Write Inc. Set 1 sounds, and we now only have a couple left before we have learned them all! I have been incredibly impressed with the children's enthusiasm and hard work during our phonics sessions.

It would be great if you could continue to support your child's phonics learning at home by practising sound recognition, Fred Talk and letter formation. The home learning sheets include QR codes which link directly to the sound lessons, making it easy to practise together. This continued support will give the children a fantastic head start as they prepare for Reception in September.

Next week, we will be focusing on mini beasts, with a different mini beast and story each day.

Home Learning
Could you go on a mini beast hunt with your child and see what you can find? It would also be wonderful if the children could learn an interesting fact about a mini beast to share with their friends back at Nursery.

Upcoming Events

🦁 Northumberland Zoo Trip
Our Nursery trip to Northumberland Zoo will take place on Thursday 25th June. The children are already very excited!

🎒 Move Up Morning
Children moving into Reception in September will take part in their Move Up Morning on Thursday 2nd July. This will give them the opportunity to spend the morning in their new classroom and meet their Reception teachers.

🎪 Summer Fair
Our Summer Fair will take place on Friday 3rd July, from 2:00pm until 4:00pm.

If you have any questions about our upcoming events, please do not hesitate to ask.

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

Summer 2: Week 4 in Nursery:

What a busy week we've had! 🐝

We started the week with a wonderful visit to Forest School, where the children enjoyed going on mini beast hunts and creating their own mini beast homes.

Throughout the week, we've been learning about a different minibeast each day. The children loved listening to stories, taking part in a variety of creative craft activities, and exploring each creature in fun, hands-on ways. We even pretended our spaghetti was worms! 🪱

Yesterday, we had the most fantastic day at Northumberland Zoo! The children thoroughly enjoyed travelling on the big bus, taking part in activities with the zoo keepers, watching the birds of prey display, seeing the magnificent snow leopards and many other amazing animals, as well as spending time in the soft play area. The Nursery staff are incredibly proud of all the children for their excellent behaviour and how sensible they were throughout the trip.

In Maths, we have been learning about the composition of the number 4.

We have also continued developing our fine motor skills and have been writing our names and forming letters.

Our secret readers this week were Mrs Dougan and Miss Patrick who both work in Year 3.

Upcoming Events:

🎒 Move Up Morning
Children moving into Reception in September will take part in their Move Up Morning on Thursday 2nd July. This is a wonderful opportunity for them to spend the morning in their new classroom and meet their Reception teachers.

🎪 Summer Fair
Our Summer Fair will take place on Friday 3rd July, from 2:00pm until 4:00pm.

🌈 Colour Run
On Monday 13th July, we will be holding a Colour Run for all children from Nursery to Year 6.

Nursery children who attend AM sessions only are welcome to return to school at 1:45pm if they would like to take part.

The Colour Run is a fun, non-competitive event designed to encourage children to be active while enjoying a colourful, high-energy experience. The main aim is simply to have fun!

Children should come to school wearing:

A white T-shirt (for maximum colourful effect!)
Shorts, leggings or tracksuit bottoms
Sunglasses, if possible
As the children run around the course, staff will gently throw coloured powder over them. The powder is non-toxic and safe to use. Powder safety information can be found here:
https://runningimp.co.uk/brochures/colour-powder-safety-and-cleaning-information-overview

There is no cost to take part, and we hope everyone will join in. The run will begin at 2:00pm, and parents and carers are very welcome to come along and watch. The event will finish at approximately 2:30pm, after which children may leave with their parent or carer. Ice lollies and soft drinks will also be available to purchase after the run. Please remember to give consent for your child to take part via the MCAS app in the Trips section.

If you have any questions about our upcoming events, please don't hesitate to ask.

Thank you, as always, for your continued support.

Mrs Cook

Summer 2- Week 5 in Nursery:

Wow! It's hard to believe we only have two more weeks left of the school term, and we have so many exciting events coming up! Please take a look at the photograph attached to this post, which outlines everything that is happening.

We have thoroughly enjoyed the sunshine this week. We've spent lots of time outdoors and at Forest School. The children have been true Teamwork Tigers, helping Mrs Cook and Mrs Goodall lay bark to create new paths in our Forest School area. We had so much fun working together!

Our caterpillars have now turned into chrysalises. Mrs Goodall carefully moved them from their tub into the butterfly net, and we are checking every day to see when they emerge as beautiful butterflies.

This week, we have been focusing on different minibeasts. The children have loved learning all about them through stories, activities, and creative crafts.

Our Secret Reader this week was Mrs Richardson, who teaches in Year 3. She shared one of her favourite stories with us. We also enjoyed a visit to the library, where Mrs Goodall read some lovely stories to the children.

I am extremely proud of our wonderful Nursery children. They arrive each day with big smiles on their faces, eager to learn and explore. We always have such great fun in Nursery, and I can't believe the school year is almost over!

The children who will be moving up to Reception in September thoroughly enjoyed their transition morning. It was wonderful to see their excitement as they spent time in their new classroom.

We now have just two more weeks to go, with lots of exciting activities still to come.

Thank you, as always, for your continued support.

Have a lovely weekend!

Mrs Cook

Summer 2- Week 6 in Nursery:

Wow! What a fantastic year we have had in Nursery. We only have one more week to go!

The emotions are already running high as we prepare to say goodbye to our wonderful children who are moving up to Reception. Although they are only going next door, they are about to begin an exciting new chapter in their school journey, and we couldn’t be prouder of each and every one of them! 🌟

What a wonderful week we have had, making the most of the gorgeous sunshine! ☀️

This week, we have been learning about the importance of staying safe during the summer, particularly when visiting places such as the beach.

On Monday, we thoroughly enjoyed watching Reception’s Graduation dress rehearsal. It was lovely to see how confident and grown up they all looked! 👩🏻‍🎓 👨‍🎓

We also had a very special visitor in school – Lia Cataldo! ⚽️ The children loved meeting her and hearing all about her football journey.

Our favourite part of the week was our amazing Tiddlywinks experience. The children were absolute superstars and took part in a wonderful morning of activities linked to our story, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. 🐛

We were also delighted to see our very own butterflies finally emerge from their chrysalises. We released them into the wildlife garden, where they could spread their wings and begin their new adventure. It has been such a magical experience watching the life cycle of a butterfly in real life, and the children have loved every moment. 🦋

Next week is our final week together in Nursery, and we have lots of exciting activities and special memories planned.

Please see the attached photograph for details of all our upcoming events. 📸

We hope you all have a wonderful weekend enjoying the sunshine. ☀️

Only one more week to go!

Thank you, as always, for your continued support throughout the year. It means so much to us, and it has been a pleasure to be part of your children’s Nursery journey.

Mrs Cook and Mrs Goodall