2024 - 2025

Week beginning 16th December

This week at nursery we were very excited when our mummies, daddies, nannies and granddads came to nursery for our Christmas activity morning. We had fun using LOTS and LOTS of glitter to decorate Christmas tree decorations
chose gems, sparkly stickers and ribbons to make Christmas cards and coloured Christmas pictures to take home. We enjoyed decorating iced biscuits using coloured icing and Christmas sprinkles, but enjoyed eating them even more! We used pens, more glitter, sparkly stickers and glue to make calendars for next year and used 'special Reindeer oats' to make bags of reindeer food which we will take home and sprinkle on Christmas Eve to help the reindeer pull Santa's sleigh!
We've had a busy, fun filled and exciting term at nursery and are looking forward to the Christmas break and to another year of playing, exploring and learning.

 

Week beginning 9th December

This week at nursery we have been exploring everything to do with Christmas! In the curiosity corner we explored tinsel, baubles, stockings and decorations and decorated our own little Christmas tree. In the maths area we sorted baubles and tree decorations by size and colour and counted Santas and stockings and in the creative area we explored a range of sparkly, festive collage materials using them to create Christmas pictures. We developed our fine motor skills by cutting wrapping paper and wrapping up presents and by writing letters to Santa. We enjoyed dressing up in a range of Christmas themed clothes including Santa outfits, stars, Christmas trees and funny hats and had lots of fun at the hot chocolate station where we mixed, scooped and poured chocolate flavoured goop.

In the garden we enjoyed jumping and splashing in puddles, taking it in turns and watching what happened to the water. We made marks in shaving foam covering the windows and then used soapy water and squeegees to clean it all off. In the mud kitchen we explored texture and change, using our hands and tools to move shaving foam between containers and then adding water and paint to see what happens.

We enjoyed a stay and play session with parents on Wednesday, thank you so much for coming and I hope to see some of you again on Monday for our Christmas activity morning.

On Friday we built the Polar Express train in the garden and were surprised to see Father Christmas in his house when we arrived at the North Pole! Each child had a ticket and there was much excitement and “all aboards” as we boarded the train. There was a snowy tuff tray and even hot chocolate at snack time.

 

Week beginning 2nd December

This week at nursery we had lots of fun when we decorated the Christmas tree! We enjoyed looking through the big box of decorations, exploring them and talking about their colour, shape and size. We helped place them on the tree and were very excited when the lights were switched on. In the curiosity corner this week we explored boxes and tubes of all different sizes and had fun hiding in them, moving each other about in them and trying to fit ourselves and our friends inside them. In the creative area we explored colour when we mixed paints and used them to decorate large boxes and junk modelling and made shape patterns in shaving foam using our fingers and tools including paintbrushes. We particularly enjoyed making our own pizzas this week. We spread tomato paste onto pitta breads and carefully used knives to cut peppers and mushrooms to go on top before covering them all in cheese ready to take home and cook - yummy! We explored inside oranges when we cut them up before using squeezers to make our own fruit juice for snack time and listened carefully to adults when we used the toaster to make our own toast.

In the garden we used sponges, cloths and soapy water to clean the bikes, trikes and vehicle climbing frame in our role-play car wash and explored what happens when we pour water down tubes set at different heights and through bendy tubes, being fascinated when it came out the other end!

Week beginning 25th November

This week at nursery we have had lots of fun finding out about pirates! In the curiosity corner we explored pirate books and stories, treasure and maps. We played with small world pirate resources and built our own pirate ships using boxes and flags and made our own telescopes with cardboard tubes. We had lots of fun on Friday when we had a pirate themed day and all dressed up as pirates! We enjoyed sharing story sacks including The Colour Monster where we explored feelings and The Owl Babies, using the resources to act out the story. We used our creative skills to make junk models, working out ways to join the boxes and containers together and collages using glitter, sequins, gems and sparkles. We had a very exciting afternoon when some of our relatives came to our stay and play session and joined us in the home corner and construction area, shared stories with us and played in the water and on the climbing frame bus with us. We explored mini beasts and bugs after we found a real spider living in nursery, talking about their size, colour, how many legs they have and where they live. We were very curious to find ice in the garden one morning and brought it inside to investigate. We handled it, talking about what it looked and felt like, tried to break it up into pieces and found out what happens when it went in the microwave.

In the garden we made marks with coloured shaving foam, using brushes and our hands. We developed our early writing skills by making marks and drawing on the giant chalkboards before washing it off with sponges and water. We practised our gross motor skills by moving our bodies in a variety of ways in the grass topped equipment and on the climbing frames. We enjoyed using the vehicle climbing frame to pretend we were going to the shops to buy milk, sweeties and ice-cream!

Week beginning 18th November

This week at nursery we have been busy investigating! In the curiosity corner we explored magnets, working out what happens when we use them try to pick up metal and non metal objects. We looked at things through the magnifying glasses and used keys to try and open the different locks in nursery. We had fun wrapping ourselves up in foil blankets and hiding in the den the adults made for us in the book corner and developed our creative skills by using various materials to make collages, using tools including scissors and glue spreaders. In the mark-making areas we developed our early writing skills by mark-making on old greetings cards and putting them in envelopes before posting them in the post box. We explored using our senses when we played with playdough and looked at the patterns we made in shaving foam using our fingers and rollers. We demonstrated how we can follow rules and be safe when we used real tools including hammers, saws and drills and enjoyed acting out the Very Hungry Caterpillar using props. We explored size when we built giant towers, using the step ladder to reach the top and then measuring ourselves against them.

Despite the wet and chilly weather, we have continued to enjoy playing outside. We explored size when we played hide and seek in the garden by trying to fit ourselves into gaps including under the climbing frame and through exploring Goldilocks and the Three Bears story and props. We had fun investigating what happens when it freezes, exploring the ice that had formed in the puddles and looking at the bark on the trees. We enjoyed visiting Imagination Land where we moved in lots of ways and took it in turns to practice blowing bubbles.

Week beginning 11th November

This week at nursery we have been learning all about Remembrance Day. We painted poppy pictures using brushes and made hand prints poppies. We listened to Mrs Searle talk about how soldiers keep us safe and how some soldiers went to war but didn't come home and then we all sat quietly for 2 whole minutes. In the curiosity corner we explored people who help us. We dressed up as Police Officers, Firefighters and Doctors and used medical kits and stethoscopes to look after the poorly patients and animals. We found out about movement by rolling objects down tubes, looking at which moved quickly and why some things got stuck, pulling Mrs Bebbington on a sledge and by rolling car tyres around the garden. We had lots of fun pulling our friends around the garden in a sledge, working out that it was quicker when we used a bike and enjoyed pretending to toast marshmallows on a camp fire. We worked as a team to build, carrying and the giant blocks to another area before assembling them into a house and explored giant cardboard boxes seeing if we could fit inside. We developed our early writing skills by addressing envelopes and parcels and writing letters, talking about the marks we made. We had lots of fun exploring the hoover! We took turns in feeling what happens to our hands when the hoover was turned on and then helped to clean the carpet with it. We had an exciting afternoon when some of our mummies and daddies came to our stay and play session where we explored the garden together, played with the cars in the small world area and listened to our hearts! We enjoyed the Autumn sunshine when we visited Imagination Land where we moved our bodies in a variety of ways including crawling, scrambling, climbing, balancing and running. On Friday we took part in Children in Need by wearing spotty clothes, colouring Pudsey pictures and playing party games.

Week beginning 4th November

This week at nursery we had lots of fun when some of our mummies, daddies and grandparents came to our stay and play session. Together we painted, went on a bus ride and even danced! We explored making marks with paint using cardboard tubes and our fingers to create firework pictures and coloured chalk pens to draw pictures on the garden chalkboards, talking about what we had drawn. We developed our creative skills using sequins, ribbons, buttons and googly eyes to make puppets out of socks and made patterns with squeezy glue and glitter. We practised our fine motor skills by threading pipe cleaners into the holes in colanders and baskets and by using tweezers to pick up pom poms. We enjoyed exploring sound, listening to how our voices change when we shouted down large pipes and experimenting with the different instruments on the music wall. We enjoyed popping bubbles in the garden, jumping up to try and catch them. We have continued to love sharing books, snuggling up with our friends and the adults in the book area or on the sofa and have developed our turn-taking skills by playing card games including snap. We enjoyed pretending to be teachers, using books and phonics cards to act out our together times while our friends sat on their carpet spots. We used our imaginations to pretend the cooker in the home corner was a space rocket, hiding inside before peeping out under the lid to see what was on the moon!

Week beginning 21st October

This week in nursery we have been exploring the Room on the Broom story in the spooky curiosity corner. We tried on witches hats, cooked on the fire and made potions, acted out the story using the soft toy characters from the book and explored bugs and spider webs. We developed our creative skills when we used natural materials including twigs, leaves and feathers to make collages using words such as crunchy, soft and prickly to describe them. We shared books with our friends, snuggling up together on the sofa and used the large wooden blocks to build a house. We enjoyed building dens and pretending we were camping and going on a sleepover. We explored some pumpkins, using knives to cut them up and then looked at the seeds and inside, using words such as squishy, slimy and hard to describe them. We are going to dry out the seeds and then plant them next year to see if we can grow our own pumpkins; we're very excited to see what will happen!

In the garden we had fun mixing paint, shaving foam, pom poms and water to make magic potions and used tweezers to carefully pick out the pom poms. In the mud kitchen we mixed sand, mud and water to make mud bread, observing how the mixture changed in consistency when we added more water. We have continued to develop our gross motor skills by climbing, swinging and balancing on the garden equipment and by riding bikes and scooters. In the sand pit we used tools including spades and trowels to dig and move the sand and explored its texture when water was added. We explored concepts such as big and small by sorting different sized shapes in the tuff tray and naming them,and experimented with sounds by playing with the music wall. We enjoyed the Autumn sunshine by pretending the vehicle climbing frame was a camper van taking us on a trip to Wales!

Week beginning 14th October 

This week at nursery we have been busy developing our fine motor skills using tweezers to carefully pick up pom poms and by turning screws onto bolts. In the creative corner we safely used knives to cut play dough and at snack time we cut up our own fruit. We explored the marks rollers and brushes make when we dipped them in water and painted on paper and used our gross motor skills to roll car tyres and cable reels. We developed our listening skills when we followed instructions using the parachute. We enjoyed sharing books with each other and created and drew a friend in group adult time. In the home corner we cooked with natural resources including conkers, leaves and pine cones and had fun camping in the curiosity corner.

In the garden we explored cause and effect when we jumped in puddles and watched what happened to the water and mixed mud, leaves and water to make mud cakes which we cooked in the microwave. We continued to develop our early writing skills by using chalks to draw pictures and make marks on the giant chalkboards and looked at the marks a tyre made when we rolled it in shaving foam. We explored the shaving foam further, putting our hands and tools in it and then using it to paint the fire engine climbing frame before we washed it all off with bubbly water.

Week beginning 7th October

This week at nursery we have been busy finding out about Autumn and the changes in the world around us. In the curiosity corner we played in the Autumn natural resources shop where we explored conkers, pine cones, leaves, pumpkins, bugs and woodland animals using magnifying glasses to examine them closely. In the creative corner we developed our fine motor skills by rolling and modelling playdough and pushing various natural objects into it including feathers and conkers. We enjoyed painting, exploring the marks we made and the changes that happened when we mixed colours. In the construction area we used our imaginative skills to build rockets out of the giant foam blocks, glueing wooden bricks as a control panel to our finished models! In the maths area we counted objects, matching the quantity to the numeral and developed our pencil control skills by drawing round shapes with marker pens. 

We enjoyed playing in the garden where we jumped in bubbly puddles and poured water down tubes into the tuff tray. We had lots of fun developing our hand to eye coordination using the hosepipe to fill cups and jugs with water and filling a tyre to make a swimming pool! We continued to develop our early mark-making skills by using chalks to draw pictures and attempt to write letters from our name on the giant chalkboards. We have been busy developing our gross motor skills by running, scrambling, crawling, balancing, jumping and climbing and demonstrating how we take care of living things by gently handling and examining a worm. 

Week beginning 30th September

This week we have had lots of fun in nursery playing in the role-play hairdressers. We used the shower head, rollers, hair brush and straighteners to give the grown ups a lovely relaxing spa treatment! We especially enjoyed having a go at using Mrs Bebbington's real hairdryer and found it very funny when our hair blew everywhere. In the creative area, we painted boxes and junk, choosing which colours we wanted and then using a brush to carefully paint them. We explored making marks, rolling trains and other objects in paint before rolling them down tubes and seeing what patterns they made and used chunky chalks to draw on the nursery floor. We enjoyed sharing books and stories with our friends and the adults and had fun exploring what happens to our voices when we talk into tubes. We talked about what happens when we are poorly or hurt and explored the doctor's kit using the stethoscope to listen to teddy and the Gruffalo's heart. We were sad when we had to say goodbye to Mrs Smith, but we made her a beautiful card with lots and lots of glitter and sequins!

In the garden we explored what happens when we mix colours, using a squirty bottles and watered down paint to mix paint and look at the changes. We enjoyed finding out about the effects of movement, running round the garden with scarves to see what would happen. We enjoyed role-play, making mud ice-cream and going on bus journeys on the vehicle climbing frame. We had so much fun when we made our first visit to forest school. We carefully listened to, and followed, the rules. We explored the 'cave' (thankfully there was no Gruffalo inside!) foraged for leaves, looking at and talking about their different colours and sizes, and had fun pushing each other on the swings. We developed our gross motor skills by running, balancing on the ropes and climbing on the large wooden climbing structure. We spent the whole morning there and even had a picnic snack time!

Week beginning 23rd September

This week at nursery we had fun exploring technology. We investigated a range of technological items in the curiosity corner including telephones, calculators, CD players and walkie talkies and used tape measures to measure our bodies. We enjoyed finding out about light and shadows when we turned the lights off and shone the torches on the ceiling and in a den we made in the reading pod. In the creative area, we explored what happens when we mix colours when we painted pictures using paint and used our imaginative skills to make collages using pom poms, feather, tissue paper and glue. In the construction area we worked as a team rolling cars and other objects down planks of wood and guttering and used our imagination to design and build a bus out of the large wooden blocks which we then travelled on to visit the seaside.

In the garden we enjoyed jumping in puddles seeing who could make the biggest splash! We have continued to move our bodies in a variety of ways including swinging, balancing, jumping, climbing and sliding; this helps develop our shoulder and arm muscles which is important for when we late learn to write. We noticed how the babies were dirty so used cloths and bubbly water to wash them in the tuff tray and explored the marks our hands made when we dipped them in water and printed them on the blackboard.

Week beginning 16th September

At nursery this week, we have enjoyed the sunshine spending lots of time in the garden. In the role-play area we had an ice-cream shop where we sold and bought ice-creams, ordering yummy flavours including strawberry and lemon. In the mud kitchen we mixed mud, water and paint to make mud cupcakes carefully spooning the mixture into bun tins and in the sand pit we filled buckets and containers, scooping out the sand with spades. We have continued to develop our gross motor skills by climbing, swinging, jumping and balancing on the climbing equipment and practised our ball skills by throwing and catching a ball. We explored cause and effect, discovering what happens when we jump in puddles of water and developed our early writing skills by drawing on the large blackboards using chalks. We developed our fine motor skills by using tweezers to pick up pretend bugs and worms from the soil in the tuff tray and experimented with different sounds by playing with the music wall, the pots and pans attached to the fence and by making a band with Mrs Nixon!

Inside nursery, we have been busy in the construction area building structures with Duplo and balancing blocks to see if we could make towers as tall as us as well as using the giant wooden blocks to make a bus we could sit in. In the creative area we carefully used scissors to cut tissue paper, sellotape and ribbon to make collages and used our imagination to create junk models, sticking googly eyes on them to make monsters. We developed our hand-eye coordination by using pegs and tweezers to pick up pasta and we enjoyed using chocolate scented play dough and dried pasta to make hedgehogs. We have continued to develop our friendships, playing with one another in the small world area taking turns to play with the people and cars, rolling them down planks of wood to see what happens.

Week beginning 9th September

We've had another busy week at nursery! We've been developing our imaginative skills playing in the role-play market. We've taken it in turns to the shopkeeper scanning the food and the customer using money to buy items before putting it in our shopping bags to take it away, demonstrating our turn taking skills by waiting and sharing. We've been going on pretend picnics, had sleepovers where we snuggled under blankets and used shredded what in the home corner to cook dinner with. We have been practising our mark-making skills by using pencils, crayons and chalks to draw with, paintbrushes and water on the windows and paintbrushes to create paintings. In the construction area, we have been using our problem solving skills to build large scale constructions using the giant wooden blocks and the foam bricks, working as a team.X

Outside, we have enjoyed playing with sand and water in the tuff tray, adding different toys and using brushes to clean off the sand. In the sand pit we have been scooping, transporting and mixing the sand and on the giant chalkboards, we used chunky chalks to draw pictures. We were super excited to dig up potatoes that we planted in the Spring and were very careful when we found snails, holding them gently and looking at their shells. We explored our shadows, what happens when we roll things down pipes, what our voices sound like when we shout down tubes and what we can see when we look through them. We enjoyed making dens and hiding in them and moved our bodies in different ways, balancing, climbing, jumping, going up and over the bridge, running and chasing and playing hide and seek. We had lots of fun when we visited Imagination Land where we scrambled up the slope, went through the tunnels, hid in the tents, played in the house and danced on the stage.

The teachers at nursery are really impressed with how quickly we are learning the rules and routines of nursery and how well we are sitting and listening at story times.

Week beginning 2nd September

We've had a busy first week at nursery. The children who remained with us from last year have quickly settled back into nursery life and have been very kind towards their new friends who have been busy getting to know everyone and learning the nursery rules and routines. We are very proud of them all.

All the children have had great fun exploring the classroom, garden and all the exciting activities on offer. We are looking forward to having lots more adventures together!