Autumn 2015

 

We have made a fantastic start to our school life at St Thomas Of Canterbury and our parents should be very proud. The beginning of the term has been spent getting used to our new classroom and outdoor learning space, the class routines and the adults we are working with. We have spent lots of time making new friends and exploring all the exciting areas of learning through play.

 

We started the term with 'Nursery Rhymes' - something we are quite familiar with to help us settle in and feel comfortable. We made props and displays to help our learning and began to enjoy some new songs including the Grand Old Duke of York, Miss Polly Had A Dolly and Incy Wincy Spider. We love to sing to Baa Baa Black Sheep and had some fun changing the words to make it cheeky!

 

Our favourite stories have included the Gingerbread Man, the Three Little Pigs and Monkey Puzzle by Julia Donaldson. We have built homes for the three little pigs and acted out the story with our friends. This is one of our favourite video clips;

During the half term holidays we all re-charged our batteries and came back to school ready to learn!

 

Food

We started the term learning about our favourite foods. Stories like the Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle and Handa's Surpise really inspired our learning and we created some colourful art work which is proudly displayed in our classroom. The Hungry Caterpillar also helped to introduce us to the idea of number and we did lots of sorting and counting with all the different fruits. The story also inspired some very dramatic dancing on the carpet as we changed from wiggly caterpillars to fat caterpillars, then sleepy caterpillars and finally beautiful, graceful butterflies.

 

Handa's Surprise really promoted our language development and not only did we learn about some new animals and fruits, we also got the opportunity to try them - mango and bananas were the clear favourite but many of us also tried avocado and passion fruit. We enjoyed describing the texture of the fruit and whether it was sweet or sour, chewy or soft and mushy. We described the smell, the colour, the shape and the weight of the different fruits - maybe you could try this at home with different vegetables.

 

Following a vote on the carpet, when it came to choosing our favourite food there  was a clear winner - PIZZA! We decided to make a pizza restaurant in our role play area and used boxes and menus from a well known pizza shop! We loved taking orders over the telephone and serving people in the restaurant and this allowed us to practice our mark making skills for something 'real'. Some of the children enjoyed delivering the pizzas and used the bikes and trucks.

 

The highlight of the topic was making our own pizzas. We talked about our favourite toppings and helped Mrs Toher to make a shopping list of the ingredients we needed and she went to the shops to buy the things we needed. The pizzas tasted even better than Pizza Hut and we were really proud of ourselves. We love to try new food and have recently started to experiment more with our morning snacks. The most popular things have been pain au chocolate, bread sticks and houmous and cheese and crackers. We've also tried pancakes, waffles, dips and crudites and fruit smoothies.

 

Our favourite songs has definitely been 'I am a Pizza' - ask me to sing it for you!

Clothes

 

We are become much more independent in being able to look after ourselves, asking for the bathroom, washing our hands, eating our dinner and dressing ourselves. Because the weather has started to become cold and wet, we need to put on our wet weather clothes and wellies. The teachers encourage us to have a go ourselves and help us when we find it a bit tricky. Maybe we can start to put on our school uniform in the morning and our pyjamas before bed!

 

Weather

We love watching the seasons change. When we started school in September the days were sunny and warm but very quickly the leaves started to fall off the trees. We love collecting and handling natural objects such as conkers, pine cones and leaves and using them in our counting areas. 

 

As you can imagine, the best days are the rainy days when we can pull on our wellies and splash in the puddles. Please remember to make sure I have spare socks and underwear in my tray for days like this!

 

We've learned about where water comes from and what we can use water for. We've enjoyed playing with lots of different textures in the messy area especially the ice and snow. We've created rainbows and made rainmakers out of paper cups and rice and played them loudly and quietly, fast and slowly. 

Simply having a wonderful Christmas time!

 

The most exciting time of the year in Nursery is about to begin! 

 

Please don't get angry when we come home with paint, glue and glitter on our uniforms - we're having fun and learning lots!

 

We are welcoming some very special visitors into school in the last weeks of term including Father Christmas and Louby Lou and we can't wait. 

 

We are learning all about baby Jesus and his very special arrival in Bethlehem. We hope you are able to watch our Christmas Nativity when we re-tell the story of this very happy and holy occasion and use our talents to praise God. Watch this space for the premier!