• Our Forest School!

Welcome to the Nursery Class Page!

Nursery Team:

Miss N Fletcher - Nursery Class Teacher / Early Years Leader

Mrs J Allen - Nursery Nurse

Mrs J Roberts - 1:1 Support Assistant

Mrs D Evans - HLTA (PPA Cover on Tuesdays)

Nursery Session Times:

Morning Nursery 8.15am - 11.15am

Afternoon Nursery 12.15pm - 3.15pm

Important Information:

Forest Friday

Forest School session - every Friday. Please send your child to nursery wearing wellies and weather appropriate, old clothing that is suitable for the outdoors (see 'Our Forest School' tab at the top of the page).

Library Visit

In Nursery we love books and want our children to develop a love of books and stories. Every Wednesday we visit our school library where the children can choose a book to take home and share with their family. Nursery Library is every Wednesday, please send your child's book bag on this day.

In Nursery we love to build relationships and work with our parents as much as we can. 'Walk-in Wednesdays' are a walk-in session every Wednesday where parents can stay and play alongside their child for the first 45 minutes of the session. It's great for our parents to be able to work alongside their children in our fantastic learning environment.

Barnaby Bear's Bedtime Stories

Our class bear is called Barnaby and one lucky child each week gets to take Barnaby Bear home to enjoy a weekend of fun, topped off with a story time with some of our favourite books. Maybe you could even enjoy them with a glass of milk or hot chocolate at bedtime!

We are a read-a-lot, talk-a-lot and sing-a-lot nursery. Our children are immersed in singing, nursery rhymes and quality texts / stories right from their starting point at school!

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Curriculum Design

EYFS Curricular Goals:

Our curricular goals provide a stimulus to enhance our children's imagination, creativity and curiosity. We follow our children's interests and plan various enhancements to the continuous provision that ensure broad and balanced coverage of the EYFS framework and enable our children to develop the skills required to achieve the EYFS milestones. All our curricular goals are underpinned by the importance of developing children's speech and language.

Please refer to the 'Files to Download' tabs at the bottom of the page for tips to help your child at home and our EYFS Curriculum Design Documents.

   ______________________________________________________________________________________

Our amazing learning environment...

Our learning journey in Nursery...

May 2023

This week our hook book is ‘King Charles' and we have been finding lout what the word 'coronation' means and what will happen at the King's coronation this weekend. We have all made a crown for our own coronation as part of our celabratory tea party on Friday 5th May. As historians, we have also been looking back and finding out about kings and queens from the past.

January 2023

This week our hook book is ‘The Smeds and the Smoos’.
We have loved the story and finding out all about the different planets, the creatures that live on them and the amazing names for the plants and fruits there.
We have been mixing purple paint and exploring purple playdough to make and paint the ‘Smoo-Smed’ baby!
As astronomers, we have been learning about space, exploring moon rocks and looking at non-fiction books about planets.

I wonder how many purple things the children can find at home? 💜

December 2022

Christmas has arrived in Nursery! This week is the start of December and we have arrived at Nursery to discover some very large, snowy footprints trailing through our classroom! After careful investigation we decided that some magic had taken place during the night! The story we have been reading this week in Nursery is called 'Little Robin Red Vest'. We found that all our story work had been displayed along with lots of beautiful festive decorations.

It has been a very magical week!

November 2022

Following the children's interest in their local food restaurant, and enjoying role playing based on their own first hand experiences, we decided to create our own 'McDonalds Drive Thru'. This has encouraged so much amazing learning. We have developed our communication skills and our gross motor skills by using the balance bikes to access the drive thru windows. We have used the language of numbers, counting, money, weight, size and we have also enjoyed mark making as we take each others orders.

This week our hook book is 'Room on the Broom'.

Following the children's keen interest in halloween and pumpkins this week, we have decided to use our left over pumpkins to aid our learning. We are developing our fine motor skills by using tweezers to pick out the pumpkin seeds, developing our language skills by describing and comparing the different varieties of pumpkins and developing our mark making skills by decorating pumpkins with paint! We have also enjoyed exploring and investigating the pumpkins, creating potions and recipes in the water area and mud kitchen!

As storytellers, we have also been retelling and making up our own version the story 'Room on the Broom' using story vocabulary and props such as brooms and cauldrons.

October 2022

This week our forest school was transformed into a pumpkin patch and we all went pumpkin picking!

As mathematicians, we used mathematical vocabulary to describe the size, shape and weight of the pumpkins. We also used our maths skills to weigh and pay for the pumpkins that we picked. As good team players, we worked together using our gross motor skills to stack, push and pull the pumpkins on the trailers and wheelbarrows.

Later, we worked with our adults in small groups to explore what is inside a pumpkin, discussing the flesh and the seeds.We carved out a hole in the top, hung the pumpkins by string from the trees to create bird feeders.

Our hook book this week is 'The Gingerbread Man'. As bakers, we decided to make our own gingerbread men. We looked at a recipe together, weighed out our ingredients and enjoyed smelling the cinnamon and ginger spices. We then used our fine motor skills to roll out the dough and cut out the gingerbread shapes. After waiting for them to bake in the oven, we enjoyed eating them at snack time.

Luckily our gingerbread men didn't run away!

September 2022

This week we are learning about the amazing season of Autumn! We have been outdoor explorers and collected lots of autumnal treasures! We’ve found conkers, sycamore seeds, acorns and lots of beautiful, brightly coloured leaves.

When we got back to nursery we enjoyed this week’s hook book story ‘Leaf Man’. We have decided to use our leaves to make our own leaf people! 🍁🍂

We are so excited to be back at school and starting a new school year! These first few weeks we will be settling into nursery, exploring the indoor and outdoor provision, getting to know each other and the routines of the nursery session. 

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

May / June 2022

This week in Nursery we are finding out about the Queen in preparation for the upcoming Platinum Jubilee celebrations. Our 'hook book' is 'What the Ladybird Heard on Holiday'. We have been finding out about some of the places in the story such as Buckingham Palace, London Zoo and other London landmarks. We have been looking at some photographs and objects from our story at our 'Conversation Station', retelling the story with small world props and making flags for our Jubilee Picnic on the last day of this half term. We are very excited!

This half term in school we have 'Careers Week' (16.05.22). We will be learning about many different occupations and things we might want to do for a job when we grow up. In Nursery, the children have been enjoing learning about people who help us. This week our 'hook book' is 'Zog' and we have been thinking about how Princess Pearl helped Zog throughout the story. We have been doctors and nurses, carrying out x-rays, using medical equipment and making people feel better.

We will be exploring other occupations by following the children's interests based on questions raised from our stories, discussions and through their play.

April 2022

This week we visited the library for the 1st time! We loved looking through all the different books that we could choose from and sitting down to look at them together in the Library. We can't wait to go every Friday and change our books!

March 2022

It is our last week in Nursery this week before the Easter break. Our 'hook book' this week is called 'We're going on an Egg Hunt!' We loved retelling the story with actions and counting the eggs that we collected. We are using our fine motor skills to use tweezers to feed the bunnies carrots, our scissor skills to cut out Easter bunnies and our creative skills to decorate eggs! This week the stories and non-fiction books on our daily book vote will be all about eggs, Easter and spring time.

In Forest school this week we are going to be going on our very own egg hunt, just like the characters in the story!

World Book Day 03.03.22

We had such a fantastic World Book Day last week Thursday, well done to all the children for taking part!

We went looking for more clues in the forest to help us find him and we enjoyed retelling the story with our masks and props!

January 2022

Welcome to our new January starters in Nursery! It's great to have you in Nursery and meet new families!

This week in Nursery it is 'Art week'. As artists, we have started creating some pieces of artwork to showcase stories written by one of our favourite authors, Julia Donaldson. We decided to combine different media onto canvas. We discussed our favourite stories and the characters we'd love to showcase such as; Zog, The Gruffalo, The Highway Rat, The Smartest Giant in Town, Stickman and characters from Room on the Broom. We collected sticks for the broomstick and the stick family from the forest school.

December 2021

This week in Nursery we have been getting very excited about Christmas! We mixed some ingredients the elves left us and it made reindeer food! We carefully sprinkled it around our forest school to hopefully guide Santa to us!

November 2021

This week in Nursery our 'hook book' is 'Stickman'. As mathematicians, we have been problem solving. In the painting area we have been experimenting by mixing colours together to make brown. We discovered that blue paint + yellow paint + red paint = brown paint! During circle time, we have been discussing Stickman's family and why families are so special and important to us. In Forest school we have enjoyed the story 'Stanley's Stick'. We collected sticks then used our imaginations to turn them into weird and wonderful things. 

Oh the fun to be had with a stick!

October 2021

This week in Nursery our 'hook book' is 'Funnybones'. As scientists, we have been learning about our bodies and the important job that our skeleton does.  We had used magnifying glasses to take a close look at x-rays, we have used cotton buds to make our own skeletons and as storytellers we have retold the story using props!

Today is National Poetry Day (07.10.21). In the Forest School today we have performed the poem 'Rumble in the Jungle' and 'The Animal Boogie'. We have made headdresses and used percussion instruments to have our own animal boogie!

September 2021

We are so excited to be back at school and starting a new school year! These first few weeks we will be settling into nursery, exploring the indoor and outdoor provision, getting to know our classmates and the routine of the session. 

We have enjoyed our first few sessions in our Forest School with the reception children. This week we listened to the story 'We're Going on a Leaf Hunt' then went on our own leaf hunt around the forest. We collected leaves in lots of different colours and textures and then stuck them onto paper to make Autumnal collages.

                                                     ___________________________________________________________________________________

July 2021

Today is the last day of our remote education and also the last day in Nursery for our class trainee teacher, Miss Clark. The children were set a secret mission this week to make her a good luck banner and we surprised her at the end of our class zooms today! She was so happy and will be missed in our class. Thank you and good luck Miss Clark!

As our Nursery bubble has unfortunately closed this week, the children are once again learning remotely. Along with taking part in dough disco and maths meetings, the children listened to this week's class story over zoom - 'Jack and the Beanstalk'. They were then challenged to draw / make puppets and props from the story in any way they wished. Then they could use these to retell their own version of the story, using all the fantastic story language. They have worked so hard! Well done everyone!

June 2021

As gardeners we have been learning about growing our own fruit and vegetables. This week we have returned to Nursery after our half term break to find that our radishes are ready to be pulled to eat! We washed them, cut them up into small pieces and some of us tried them. It's so amazing to be able to grow our own food!

May 2021

'The Scarecrows' Wedding'

As storytellers in nursery this week we have been retelling our class 'hook book' 'The Scarecrows' Wedding' by Julia Donaldson. To celebrate the end of a great half term we decided to have our own wedding! We made our own hats in the forest school on Wednesday and cut up own confetti in the finger gym. We've had a party afterwards to dance, sing and celebrate! It's been a great morning!

"This," they agreed, as they sprinkled confetti, On Harry O'Hay and his beautiful Betty, "Is the best wedding ever, the best wedding yet, The wedding that no one will ever forget."

As Bird Keepers, we have been learning about how to care for living things. We decided to make bird feeders for the birds that live in our forest school. We did this by threading cheerios onto pipe cleaners. Not only was this so much fun, it was a great workout for our fingers too! The bird feeders looked just like 'Superworm', a character from one of our class stories this half term!

As mathematicians we have been focussing on shape and measuring too!

April 2021

This week is National Gardening Week! In our Forest School we shared the story ‘Sam Plants a Sunflower’.

As Scientists, we decided to plant our own sunflower seeds just like Sam, taking it in turns to each plant a seed in some soil in our own plant pots. We gave them some water and took them back to nursery to keep looking after them until they are big enough to re-plant outside in our nursery garden.

We are currently enjoying learning all about minibeasts. As storytellers, we have been retelling the story 'The Very Busy Spider' and learning the nursery rhyme 'Incy Wincy Spider. We have also been developing our fine motor skills by using tweezers to save minibeasts from the spider's web that we discovered in our classroom!

March 2021

We are so happy to be back to school this week with all our friends and teachers! This week we have started creating our very own 'Bug Hotel' and 'Minibeast Mansion' within our Forest School area. They are a work in progress but we are having so much fun exploring the forest, collecting natural items to fill them with. We are excited to work like scientists and find out more about minibeasts over the next few weeks!

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Our Remote Learning Journey

W/B 1st March 2021

05.03.21 - Today the children found out about 'Thelma Three' in Ten Town. Today's challenge is to practise forming the number on a large scale whilst saying the rhyme: "Over one hand, over the next, stop and think which choice is best?" We talked about the importance of practising in lots of ways  - painting the number with water, using fingers to mark make in shaving foam, writing it large in the air with our fingers, mark making in rice, sugar etc! 

04.03.21 - World Book Day! To celeberate World Book Day, the children could dress up as their favourite book character at home, collect items around the house related to their favourite story or do an activity related to their favourite story. The children had lots of fun!

03.03.21 - Well done to Willow for winning today's number bingo during our virtual maths meeting!

02.03.21 - Today the children listened to the story 'Pirate Stew'. After listening to the story they were challenged to:

Make their own 'Scrubabdub Ship Wash' like the one in the story but call it a 'toy wash' to organise and wash the toys in their toy box.

Make their own Pirate Stew, talk about the ingredients and describe what it tastes like.

01.03.21 - Today the children found out about the 'i' sound. We looked at a picture of an insect and then looked what was inside the 'i' sound feely bag! The children were challenged to go on a hunt around their house to see what else they could find with the initial sound 'i'.

W/B 22nd February 2021

26.02.21 - Today the children found out about 'Tommy Two' in Ten Town. We sang the Tommy Two song and learnt the rhyme to help us form one correctly when mark making. Today's challenge is to practise forming the number on a large scale whilst saying the rhyme: "Hands round to knees then straight across please!" We talked about the importance of practising in lots of ways - painting the number with water, using fingers to mark make in shaving foam, rice, sugar etc! 

Tommy Two challenged the children to match up all the socks in the house into pairs!

25.02.21 - Today the children enjoyed the story 'The Gingerbread man'. After listening to the story the children were challenged to:

Make a gingerbread man - this can be baked, made from playdough, drawn or cut out.

Make the other characters / animals from the story.

Retell the story, remebering to chant the repeated refrain "run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me I'm the gingerbread man!"

24.02.21 - During our maths meeting today we had a game of number bingo. The children did so well recognising the bingo numbers. Well done to Holly who won today's game!

23.02.21 - Today we decided to explore our natural world, responding with words or actions about the things we see and feel. We did this by going on a texture hunt around our homes and gardens looking for things that are: 

The children did so well exploring all the different textures!

22.02.21 - Today the children found out about the 'a' sound. We looked at a picture of an apple and then looked what was inside the 'a' sound feely bag! The children were challenged to go on a hunt around their house to see what else they could find with the initial sound 'a'.

W/B 8th February 2021

12.02.21 - Today the children found out all about 'King One' in Ten Town! We sang the King One song and learnt the rhyme to help us form a one correctly when mark making. Today's challenge is to practise forming the number on a large scale whilst saying the rhyme: "From top to toe and there you go!" We talked about the importance of practising in lots of ways, not just using writing tools such as - painting the number with water, using fingers to mark make in shaving foam, rice, sugar etc! 

11.02.21 - Today the children listened to the story 'Animal Music' by Julia Donaldson. After listening to the story they were set a series of challenges:

Can you make their own instrument using junk found around the house?

Can you make up a rhythm with it?

Can you make up a song?

10.02.21 - Today we have had our 'Maths Meeting' and enjoyed a game of shape bingo!

09.02.21 - Today the children have taken part in 'Say the Sounds' activity.

 The children have been challenged to have a go at segmenting some of these words, taking on the role of Fred Frog and segmenting them into sounds: bed, hat, cup, hat, shoe, dog, pig. I hope the person who you play with can blend your sounds and find the correct object!

08.02.21 - Today the children found out about the 'm' sound. We looked at a picture of Maisie next to the mountains and then looked what was inside the 'm' sound feely bag! The children were challenged to go on a hunt around their house to see what else they could find with the initial sound 'm'.

W/B 1st February 2021

05.02.21 - Today the children found out all about 'Zero Pond' in Ten Town! We found out about why zero pond has NOTHING living in it, we sang the zero pond song and learnt the rhyme to help us form a zero correctly when mark making. Today's challenge is to practise forming the number on a large scale whilst saying the rhyme: "Start at the top nice and slow, all the way round and there you go!" We talked about the importance of practising in lots of ways, not just using writing tools such as - painting the number with water, using fingers to mark make in shaving foam, rice, sugar etc! 

 04.02.21 - To continue celebrating National Storytelling Week, today I read the children my favourite story - 'Zog' by Julia Donaldson. In the story Madame Dragon awards the pupils golden stars for completing their tasks. I set the children 5 of their own tasks in order to win 5 golden stars. Their tasks are:

How many times can you write your name in 1 minute?

How many strides is it from one side of your house to the other?

Have a go at putting your own coat on and fastening it up by yourself.

Run on the spot for 30 seconds as fast as you can. Feel your chest - talk about what you feel / notice?

Take a photograph by yourself of something in your house / garden and send it to me on class dojo.

I wonder how many golden stars you will earn? 

03.02.21 - Today we really enjoyed playing Rex's shape bingo game! The children were all ready with their bingo cards and it was so much fun we have decided to play again during next week's maths meeting! Well done to Ezra and Albie for winning today's game!

Don't forget to make a new bingo card for next week containing a circle, square, triangle and rectangle. Choose from the following colours to colour your shapes in: red, orange, yellow, blue, pink and purple.

02.02.21 - As this week is 'National Storytelling Week', myself and Mrs Allen decided to choose our favourite story each to read to the children and set them an activity linked to the story.

Today's story is Mrs Allen's favourite - 'The Paper Dolls' by Julia Donaldson.

Follow up activity:

Can you use your cutting skills to make your own paper dolls?

What will you name your paper dolls?

01.02.21 - Today we started our session with a dough disco to warm ourselves up. We then had a huge surprise! Over the weekend we have had a special delivery from the Natural History Museum! Rex the dinosaur sent the nursery children a letter thanking them for the postcards that they sent him 2 weeks ago! Here it is...

For today's task the children had to make bingo cards following Rex's instructions, ready for Wednesday's shape bingo game!

29.01.21 - Today the children were introduced to the characters who live in Ten Town. They are going to help to teach us all about numbers 0-10 and help us when writing numbers. Next week we will be finding all about Zero Pond. The children's task today was to make a 'Zero Pond'. This can be drawn, painted or made using whatver materials they wish. Remember, zero means 'nothing' so don't put any ducks or fish in your pond!

W/B 25th January 2021

29.01.21 - Today the children were introduced to the characters who live in Ten Town. They are going to help to teach us all about numbers 0-10 and help us when writing numbers. Next week we will be finding all about Zero Pond. The children's task today was to make a 'Zero Pond'. This can be drawn, painted or made using whatver materials they wish. Remember, zero means 'nothing' so don't put any ducks or fish in your pond!

28.01.21 - Today the children listened to the story 'A Squash and a Squeeze'. We talked about how in nursery we call exciting words 'wonderful words'. In today's story the author uses lots of wonderful words instead of the word 'small' (e.g. poky, tiny, teeny, titchy).

-Can you think of any wonderful words instead of the word 'big'?

-Can you hear any rhyming words in the story? (words that sound the same e.g. please and squeeze)

-Watch the video of the story again and this time whenever you hear words that sound the same wave your arms!

27.01.21 - Today we had a brilliant maths meeting during our zoom session. All the children had their number cards that they made last week and used them as part of our 'missing number' activity. The children were introduced to numicon tiles 1-5 and had to show the correct number card as I pulled a tile from the magic feely bag! They did so well at this! For today's follow up acvitiy the children had to find the correct amount of objects to match to each of their number cards e.g. 5 - five socks etc. They have done so well at matching the correct quantity to the numeral.

26.01.21 - "Ahoy, Me Hearties!" Today the children listened to the story 'Pirates Love Underpants'. Following the story they had to complete the following challenges:

Can you create a treasure map to guide a sibling or your parents to find something you've hidden in your house / garden?

Use pictures, arrows and symbols to help. Remember, X marks the spot!

Extra challenge: Can you follow a treasure map made for you by a grown up to find some treasure that they've hidden for you?

Have a swashbuckling time everyone!

25.01.21 - After today's dough disco, I showed Mrs Allen and the children some familiar logos and signs. Understanding that print carries meaning and recognising logos is very important for early reading. The children had a go during the zoom and then completed the following challenges:

Can you recognise any of these logos or signs?

Can you talk about them and talk about where you have seen them or what you associate them with?

Can you find more logos around the house and then talk about what they represent?

The children have done so well recognising the logos above and talking about what they mean to them. They have found so many logos in their homes and local areas too!

W/B 18th January 2021

22.01.21 - After playing 'Oral-blending'  I-Spy with Fred Frog on today's zoom, Fred challenegd the children to go on a scavenger hunt around their homes to find the following objects:

cup / c-u-p

dish / d-i-sh

tin / t-i-n

coat / c-oa-t

pen / p-e-n

brush / b-r-u-sh

toy / t-oy

boot / b-oo-t

bin / b-i-n

sock / s-o-ck

The children's grown ups segmented the words into sounds and the children had to blend the sounds together to say the word and find the objects. 

21.01.21 - Today the children watched a video of Fred Frog playing I-Spy with Mrs Allen. Fred sounded out the words and Mrs Allen blended the sounds together to say the colour word and selected the correct coloured object. The children were challenged to find these coloured objects to play the oral blending activity live with Fred frog on tomorrow's zoom session.

20.01.21 - Well done to everyone for today’s maths meeting! It was lovely to see everyone participating and using their own weather cards / resources. Here are today’s follow up challenges:

1. Uploaded on Class Dojo are our numbers 0-5. In some pictures you will see that Fred has been mischievous and taken a number away. Can you sing the missing number song and say in a sentence what the missing number is?

Challenge: can you use the words ‘more’ and ‘less’.
E.g. “I know that the missing number is ___ because it is one more than ____ and one less than ___”

2. Can you make number cards 0-10 ready for next weeks maths meeting. You will need them to join in with 'missing number'.

Well done and I’ll look forward to finding out about the missing numbers and seeing your number cards!

Missing Number Song (to the tune of Frere Jacques)

“Missing number, missing number where are you, where are you?

We are going to find you, we are going to find you,

Yes we are, yes we are”

19.01.21 - Today Mrs Allen read the children the story 'T-Rex on Tour'. Rex told the nursery children that he wanted to find out all about them! The children were set a challenge to look into a mirror and tell Rex exactly what they looked like, make Rex a postcard with a picture of themselves on the front and write Rex's name. We are going to send our postcards to Rex's address:

Rex, Dinosaur Museum, Fossil Lane, Doncasterosaurus.

Hopefully Rex will send the nursery children a letter back!

18.01.21 - We started our zoom session today with 'Dough Disco' to get our bodies and fingers moving, ready to learn! The children then had to guess the missing word that I left out of some of our favourite nursery rhymes and lines from familiar stories. They then had to complete their own challenge at home!

Can you present the missing word from these nursery rhymes and stories:

Five little monkeys jumping on the ____, one fell off and bumped his ____.

Baa baa black ____ have you any wool? Yes sir, yes sir, three ____ full.

Hickory dickory dock, the mouse ran up the ____.

Is there room on the ____ for a ____ like me?

I am a dragon as mean as can be and I'm planning to have ____ and chips for my tea.

The children worked so hard and did such a great job!

W/B 11th January 2021

15.01.20 - On today's zoom we learnt about positional langage. Using the rocket they made yesterday, the children positioned a chosen object in front of the rocket, behind the rocket, at the side of the rocket, under the rocket and on top of the rocket. They were then challenged to find other places around their home were they could place their object with the addition of 'in'.

14.01.20 - Today I uploaded a video of myself reading the children the story 'Whatver Next'. The children were set challenges linked to the story. They had to make a rocket (to be used in tomorrow'a zoom session), pretend to have a picnic on the moon and look out of the window tonight and see if they could see the moon. They have made some amazing rockets! Of course the children enjoyed today's snow too! They made snow people, snow animals and had fun having snowball fights!

13.01.20 - Today we all took part in our first vitual maths meeting on our zoom session. We really enjoyed singing the days of the week song, talking about the weather and singing number songs. The children's challenge was to make their own weather cards to use in our future virtual maths meetings. The children have been so creative!

12.01.20 - Today I set the children a challenge to see how many numbers they noticed within their indoor and outdoor environments. Its amazing how many numbers are all around us! Why don't you go on a number hunt next time you go on a walk in your local area, or in the kitchen while you eat your breakfast?