This week, we have been learning about mini beasts. Mini beast are very small creatures, so we have been using our looking eyes and magnifying glasses to carefully explore different places around school. We found ants, ladybirds, snails, slug, caterpillars.
On Tuesday, five special caterpillars arrived at schools. We were very excited and have been busy learning all about our new friends. We have learnt how our new caterpillar friends are going to change into a beautiful butterflies. Everyday, we have been watching them grow and have really enjoyed talking about the changes. We think they will form a chrysalis soon.
Beautiful Butterflies
Whilst school is closed, I will be updating the class page on a weekly basis with a weekly learning map and interactive activities. Please check back regularly for these updates.
If you have any specific curriculum questions during this period, please does not hesitate to send an email to the following address:
nurserycotton@hotmail.com
I will be checking this email on a daily basis.
It would also be fantastic to hear all about your home learning experiences, so please share any pictures or videos using the email address.
Please complete the daily calendar each morning, using the interactive videos below. As you work through each video discuss with your child the key questions in their home learning books.
Ask your child:
What day is it today?
What day will it be tomorrow?
What month of the year is it?
What the weather is like today?
To draw a picture of what the weather is like today, you can use the symbols to help.
How will they need to dress today?
What season are we in?
Remind your child to scribe what the weather is like in their home leaning book each day. Also discuss the structure of your day and what that will involve.
Below are some interactive phonics videos, your child will be familiar with these as they are used regularly in the classroom. Please use these resources to help your child's early reading skills.
Ways to use these videos:
Encourage your child to join in with the familiar songs.
Pause the videos at different points and ask your to make the sound
Find an item around your home with the same sound as the one played on the videos.
Please make use of the free subscription to the Phonics Play website whilst your child is learning from home. Nursery are working on Phase 1 activities.
Coronavirus Story - Supporting children to understand our current situation
At the moment we are all experiencing a very uncertain period of time whereby we are all unsure what is going to happen in the near future. Below is a link to a story which has been written specifically to explain the Coronavirus epidemic to younger children, and advise them on what they can do to help. Please remember that during this time, children could be confused and worried about the current situation, so this story may help them understand it a little better.
Just a little note to say how impressed we are with your home learning over the past three weeks. It has been lovely to see you continuing to practise that things we have been learning in school with your grown ups at home; we hope you have enjoyed the special challenges! Most importantly, we feel incredibly proud to see that you are continuing to be Stay at Home Superheroes, and though we miss you all everyday, we are are happy to hear that you at keeping safe indoors and creating special memories with your family.
Lots of love,
Miss Cotton
Boiled Egg Competition
Whilst we won't be uploading a learning map during the Easter half term, instead we have decided to have a special Easter competition. During the holidays, we would like you to spend some time designing & decorating a hard boiled egg. First, you will need to think about what you will transform your egg into, you may want to draw a design in your home learning book. Then,you can think about what materials you will use around your home to decorate your egg. Once you have designed and decorated your egg, email a photograph to NurseryCotton@hotmail.com no later than Friday 17th April. Mr Deane will choose the winning egg and a prize will be posted to them the following week!
Holiday Diary
During the Easter break, we would also like you to draw a picture in your home learning book each day of how you are feeling and the things you have been doing/going to do that day.
Easter egg ideas
Week 3 - Well Done Nursery C
Weekly learning map
Week 3 - Holy Week
Hi Nursery,
I hope you are all well and enjoying your time at home. It has been lovely to hear from you this week, I can see you have all been working very hard.
Please keep sending you amazing work to nurserycotton@hotmail.com
Biscuit recipe - Have a go at making your own gingerbread man!
Shape pictures
Language Enrichment activity - What are they doing?
Phonics - Red Group - CVC cards
Some great examples of the home learning activities this week! - Week 1
Weekly learning map
Week 1
Below is the learning map for this week. The learning map has lots of activities that can be completed using the resources from the home learning pack and/or everyday objects from around the house.
Your child will develop their pencil grip when developmentally ready. Some children will move progressively through these stages, others will skip over stages to achieve a tripod grip. It important you child also continues to develop their gross motor skills as well as their tripod grip with good control. The gross motor and fine motor activities on the learning map will support their development in these areas.
Nursery C have made a fantastic start! Over the last four weeks, the children have settled into Nursery and have begun to follow everyday routines. They have enjoyed selecting and using new and exciting resources in the classroom and have begun to develop good listening skills during carpet and small group activities.
The children are also developing their independence with everyday activities such as toileting, changing some clothes, putting on shoes and eating with a knife, fork and spoon. You may also notice they are becoming increasingly independent at home too! Please continue to support and encourage your child to complete small everyday tasks by themselves.
Our First Week!
Sorting everyday items and developing our emotions
Using natural materials to represent an amount
Every week, we take part in RE sessions. During the sequence of RE sessions, we will think about our own experiences, develop our understanding and reflect. After group time, we also continue to develop our thinking and learning within the Nursery provision.
Big Question - What can we do together?
During the session, we talked about our favourite activities with our friends and thought what makes a 'good friend'. Within provision, we worked really hard on developing our relationships with others especially when sharing our favourite toys.
It is more fun and exciting when we play together!
Big Question - What is a church?
We explored what a church is and talked about who we may visit a church with. We also used interactive resources to explore what you can see and do at church
"people sing songs"
"there is special water" - font
"we go with friends"
"Jesus"
"You get a book" - hymn book
We also practised singing some of our favourite hymns, just like we would at church with our family and friends.
This week, we have been looking at Autumn. We have been doing lots of interactive learning and exploration of our outdoor environment. We have also been on an Autumn walk to look for the signs of Autumn. On our walk we found orange, yellow, red and brown leaves, bare trees with little red berries and little brown pine cones. Back in the classroom, we have been sorting and categorising leaves by their properties e.g colour and by size. Some leaves were really tricky to sort as they were really colourful!
Leaf Sorting
Investigation Station
Fine motor
This week, we have been busy exploring the festival of light, known as Diwali. During the Hindu festival, people are very busy preparing their homes and community for the celebrations. In Nursery we have explored some of the Hindu traditions, such as eating traditional food, making diva lamps and creating our own Rangoli patterns. We also helped to clean the outdoor area with brushes, towels, water spray bottles and buckets of water ready for the celebrations.
Over the next few weeks, we will be taking part in lots of Christmas activities in the build up to Baby Jesus' birthday, known as Christmas Day. We have already been working hard in our Winter Wonderland; writing labels, decorating the Christmas tree, packaging presents and writing letters to Santa.
We have also been visited by one of Santa's special elves, his name is Buddy, he has been sent from the North Pole by Father Christmas!