AUTUMN

In Nursery we have high expectations and challenge each child to achieve the best they can. We offer a balance of adult-led and child-initiated learning to ensure children make the best progress.

In the Early Years Foundation Stage children learn most effectively when they experience learning first hand, through meaningful interactions with others, through physical activity and through play. Our Early Years practise is based on on-going observations and assessments of the children within the curriculum.  The observations and assessments we make can be seen through our online journal Tapestry.

The Early Years curriculum emphasises:

Prime areas of learning:

• Personal, Social and Emotional Development
• Communication and Language
• Physical Development

Specific areas of learning:

• Maths
• Literacy
• Understanding the World
• Expressive Arts and Design

These 7 areas are used to plan your child’s learning activities. Children in the EYFS learn by exploring, being active and creative, both indoors and outdoors. Over the year, we will gather evidence through observations and children’s independent work, which will form a profile of your child’s learning journey.  You are welcome to come in at any point throughout the year to look at your child’s profile and we welcome contributions from home to assist us in tracking your child’s development. The education of your child is something we aim to do in partnership with you and as such parents are always welcome to discuss their child with staff.

For more information about these areas, please visit:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-outcomes

Our Early Years principles are based on the EYFS statutory guidance, four overarching principles of good practice:

• Every child is a unique child
• Children learn and develop well in enabling environments
• Children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships
• Children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates.

EYFS outdoor and indoor learning environment 

The children enjoy exploring and learning in our newly developed indoor and outdoor areas.

What can you do to help?

Physical Development

• To hold a pencil or other drawing tools correctly     
• To do jigsaws
• To use scissors 
• To use a knife and fork
• To move around safely

Social Development

• To go to the toilet independently
• To dress/undress him or herself
• To fasten and unfasten their shoes and coat
• To look after their own belongings
• To mix with other children

Mathematical Development

• To recognise and name colours, shapes, numbers.
• To sort everyday objects into groups
• To count sets of objects
• To help in cooking activities

Language Development

• To share books in a relaxed atmosphere
• To be given time to talk
• To sing nursery rhymes

Funky Fingers

Nursery is the first step in your child’s school life. One of the most important things to work on at this age is their fine motor skills. The reason why we work on fine motor skills at this age is because this is what helps them to hold a pencil, therefore getting ready to write. We prepare and carry out lots of activities to help children with this in the classroom. The most loved activity by all the children is making and playing with play dough. The children use skills such as squeezing, rolling, mixing, patting and pushing. All these skills are used by hands or fingers. You can make this fun by using music.

This is a link for something called dough disco by Shonette Bason. She uses play dough and shows you how to do this activity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-IfzeG1aC4

You can have lots of fun making your own playdough at home. Here is how to do it:

No Cook Playdough Recipe

4 cups of flour

1 1/2 cups salt

2 tbsp oil

1 cup water

Food colouring

Method

1. Put all the ingredients into a bowl then mix together with spoon.

2. Knead the dough with hands to form a firm dough.

Our Class Saint

The Holy Family

In the Early Years Foundation Stage the children are learning about family and how we are part of many important families.  The feast day for The Holy Family is celebrated on 30th December 2018.

Our first week in Nursery

This week, we have been getting to know our new friends and teachers. We have had lots of fun exploring our new classroom and the learning environment outside. We have been looking at how we are different to everyone else through the story of Elmer. We enjoyed creating our own Elmer elephants and naming the colours we used to create them.  

Argh me hearties!

All hands on deck, batten down the hatches and roll-out the big guns for International Talk Like a Pirate Day today. This light-hearted holiday started 20 years ago in the USA. It’s now held worldwide and even Barack Obama has tweeted about it!

What did we do?

This part was easy. We dressed ourselves as pirates and used pirate words in our best and loud voices. We made our own pirate flags for our pirate ships outside where we all walked the plank! We also made old treasure maps to go on a treasure hunt around the school. We had a jolly (roger) day. Arrr!

Here are some of the key words and phrases to help you be more pirate!

Ahoy = hello

All hands on deck = emergency

Aye = yes

Booty = stolen goods

Hearties = friends

Land ahoy = land spotted

Welcoming

In our RE lessons this term, we are looking at ‘Welcoming.’ To understand this topic, we have welcomed a new baby doll into our Nursery. The children discussed how we welcome each other then discussed how we could welcome our new doll. The children first gave a special name to the doll, Lottie. The children gave her this name so she knew she was precious to God. We then gathered for a collective worship to welcome Lottie into our school family. The children were very calm and each said, “Welcome to our school family,” whilst passing Lottie around the circle.