Spring

Our very own concert in Nursery

In Nursery, we’ve been thoroughly enjoying a wonderful ten-part series featuring the BBC Philharmonic orchestra, which brings famous stories from around the world to life through the power of music. We have listened to tales such as Jack and the Beanstalk and The Three Billy Goats Gruff, discovering how different instruments can be used to create mood, excitement, and character within a story. Inspired by this, we were delighted to have our very own live concert in Nursery this week! Martha kindly brought in her violin and played some beautiful music for us, the children were absolutely amazed. We found out about the different parts of the violin, how it is played and why it is so important to handle instruments carefully and with respect. It was a fantastic musical experience that truly captured the children’s imagination. 🎻✨

The Big Schools Birdwatch

Our Nursery children loved taking part in the Big School Birdwatch, joining in with great excitement and curiosity. We set up special birdwatching stations both indoors and outdoors, giving the children lots of opportunities to spot and learn about different birds. They even made their own binoculars to help them on their birdwatching adventures! As part of our learning, we talked about what birds like to eat and how we can help care for them, before getting hands-on by making bird seed pizzas and seed cakes. It was a wonderful way for the children to explore nature, develop their observation skills, and learn how to look after the wildlife around us.

We also had great fun rolling a dice to see how many seeds we needed to give the birds, carefully counting each one in our game “Hungry Birds.” This playful activity helped us practise our early counting skills while learning more about how to care for the birds that visit our school grounds.

Be sure to look at our beautiful bird painting gallery, where the children worked incredibly hard to think carefully about the texture of feathers and how birds’ claws might look and feel. Their artwork shows wonderful attention to detail and a growing understanding of the natural world around them.

The Three Little Pigs

We really enjoyed reading the traditional story The Three Little Pigs. The children loved taking on the roles of the three little pigs and the big bad wolf, thinking about what the characters might say to each other. They explored the story through play by building houses for the pigs using crates, tyres and bricks and testing whether they could blow down the weaker houses. In our make-and-do area, the children designed and built their own houses, thinking carefully about which materials would be the strongest and why. We also had great fun using spaghetti, wooden pegs and playdough to create even more pig houses.

Lola's Listening Rules

Listening is an important skill for young children to learn. When children learn to listen well, it helps them to learn in many other ways too, such as improving their concentration, thinking and speaking skills.

In Nursery, we use a small soft-toy leopard called Lola to help children practise their listening. Lola helps to capture the children’s imagination and encourages them to take part and focus on what is happening. She also helps children understand what it means to listen carefully and to be listened to.

Lola says a good listener...

* looks at the talker

* tries to sit still

* tries to stay quiet

Lola's rhyme.

I'm a good listener, look at me,

Lola has taught us, can't you see?

Now who's the best listener?

Lola, use your paw - 1,2,3,4 !

PSHE

In PSHE, we have been learning about emotions and how our words can affect others. We carried out an activity using two apples. One apple was passed around the circle while we used unkind words such as, “Your skin isn’t nice and shiny” and “I don’t think you will taste very nice.” The second apple was then passed around and we used kind words like, “You look tasty and juicy” and “Your skin is beautiful and red.” When we cut open the apples, we could see the difference on the inside. This helped us understand that words can hurt or help, even if we can’t see it straight away, just like how our words affect our friends.

A Super Start to the Term

We have had a great start to the new term and the new year. The children have settled in well and have been enjoying a range of hands-on activities, including painting, building, and practising their cutting skills with scissors. It has been wonderful to see their enthusiasm, creativity and focus as they explore and learn together.