Spring 2
This term, we have been learning all about seasonal changes between Winter and Spring and all the changes which take place in the garden. We have also learnt about different celebrations including Lunar New Year, World Book Day and Comic Relief. The children enjoyed dressing up and dancing. We have started to learn about life cycles starting with a frog.
As artists, we have been painting and printing to create our rain cloud pictures. We have also been using different collage materials and paint to create birds nest pictures. We have enjoyed using different techniques to create our pictures.
As scientists, we have been observing the weather, and we found out about how it rains. We made a rain cloud in a jar, and it was exciting to see the rain fall through the cloud. We also made simple kites and explored how they flew on a windy day. We also practised using our fine motor skills to use different tools to pick up and collect blue rice, as well as using scissors to cut blue materials.
As storytellers, we have been learning to orally retell stories. One of our favourite stories was Rosie’s Walk. We used puppets and props to retell the story. We also loved exploring the bread mix and moulding it with our hands. Furthermore, we added herbs and seeds into the dough- we were bakers for a day!
It has been lovely to see our garden area changing and to see signs of spring. We love to play outside – especially exploring the properties of water in the water tray, ordering the numbers from our number trolley and building with the crates. We also help to look after our outdoor area – helping to sweep up the leaves.
Spring 1
As part of our Winter Garden theme this term, we have been reading lots of stories, including One Snowy Night, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt and Robin’s Winter Song. We have loved spending lots of time outdoors, looking at the world around us.
As scientists, we have been exploring the properties of ice, and finding out how water changes into ice. The children loved feeling the ice and looking for ways to help the ice melt to find the treasure inside.
Outdoors, the children have enjoyed exploring pushing and pulling different vehicles. We set up obstacle courses for the children to manoeuvre their vehicles around.
We went on a walk around school, looking for signs of Winter. We looked at the bare trees and we found some snowdrops. We also stood quietly, looking for birds as part of the RSPB Bird Watch. We saw lots of different birds.
As storytellers, we have been learning to orally retell the story We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. We used puppets and a sensory tuff tray to help us remember the main characters and the different settings in the story. We then made our own story maps, which we used to help us to remember the sequence of the story.
The children enjoyed making marks in the snow. They used twigs to make patterns, as well as using their feet to make marks.
Autumn 2
This term, we have been learning all about special celebrations such as, Diwali, Remembrance Day, Bonfire Night and Christmas. The children have enjoyed finding out about how people celebrate different festivals. We were so proud of the children’s paintings of poppies for Remembrance Day. We couldn’t wait to display them!
As artists, we have been using different printing tools to make marks. The children particularly enjoyed marble rolling to create our Diwali and firework pictures. The children had to use their hand-eye coordination to try and control where the marble rolled too. The children had to really concentrate so that they didn’t lose their marble onto the floor.
As artists, the children have also enjoyed having the freedom to choose what they would like to paint. The children are able to choose if they wish to use a thick or thin brush and what colours to use. Painting rainbows was a popular choice.
In our weekly PSED Jigsaw sessions we have been learning about kind hands. We discussed how we could use our hands to help our friends such as helping them to zip up their coat or tidy their toys etc. We made colourful handprints and we wrote down the children’s ideas onto the hands.
We have also been thinking about how we can help to care for the birds in our garden area. The children helped us to make some pine cone bird feeders. They loved using their hands to mix in the seed. We took the pine cones outside and we have hung them in our garden. Please look out for them.
Wow, what a busy half term we have had in Nursery!
We have been learning all about ourselves and helping our new friends to settle and feel happy to come and play every day. The children have been learning how to use our different play areas. We use the saying “choose it, use it and put it away”. We are getting much better at tidying our toys away.
We have been exploring outside and looking at all the changes taking place. We went on an Autumn walk around school – looking at how the leaves were changing colour and falling from the trees. We used our wheelbarrow to collect lots of leaves and sticks to make pictures with back in Nursery.
Also, we have loved watching the construction of our new SEND unit which is next to our outdoor area. We have seen the diggers, making large holes, by scooping out the soil. We have also seen the digger moving lots of stones with the scoop. It has been so exciting to see all the different changes and we have added construction toys to our malleable tuff tray, to allow the children to act out what they have seen.
As artists, we have enjoyed our Squiglet drawing club. We have been using our whiteboards and pens to draw lots of animals and minibeasts including a bee.
As well as this, we have been learning to orally retell the story The Enormous Turnip. We then used some turnip in our vegetable soup which we made. We added butternut squash, potatoes, onions and lots of other vegetables. The children helped to carefully cut up the vegetables and then we added water and a vegetable stock cube. The soup tasted delicious!
Summer 2025
As part of our Food this term, we have been reading the stories: – The Little Red Hen and The Shopping Basket. We have been sequencing the stories and orally retelling them to each other, using the props on our Story Shelves. We also read The Tiger who came to Tea. Towards the end of the term, we thought about how the seasons were changing again into Summer
Our P.E sessions have been outdoors this term. We have learnt to play the Baked Bean game to warm up our bodies before learning lots of new skills. We have been learning how to use equipment off our P.E trolley such as balls, hoops and quoits
As artists we have been using our hands to make handprint hens. We also printed over fruit templates to make a fruit silhouette. We also used the playdough to make Tiger faces. The children were amazing at tearing orange and black paper to make a tiger collage.
We have also been using our fine motor skills to carefully cut out different parts of a windmill and then we used hole punches and split pins to join them together to make a moving windmill.
As mathematicians we have enjoyed our shop role play area. We have been writing shopping lists and using 1p coins to buy the food. On our funky fingers table, we used the tweezers to add the cereal hoops to the Numicon and then we counted them.
We had lots of fun at our Father’s Day Breakfast. It was lovely to see the children playing lots of different games with their dad’s.
As writers we have been using our phonic knowledge to spell simple 3 letter words such as sun.
This term we have been learning all about the insects which we find in our garden and how the flowers grow.
As explorers we have been identifying lots of different minibeasts.
We learnt all about the life cycle of a caterpillar. It was amazing to see the 4 stages.
We have also been naming the different parts of a plant. We loved playing with different flowers and taking them apart.
As mathematicians, we have been practising and applying our counting skills. We really enjoyed the I spy counting minibeasts activity.
As Artists we have been creating pictures using different media and techniques. First, we made some leaf rubbings using wax crayons.
Then we used paint to minibeasts onto the leaves.
We have also been practising using our fine motor skills. We had to use the tweezers to help the insects escape from the spiders web. It was lots of fun.
As readers we have been sequencing the story. The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We couldn’t believe all the food which the caterpillar ate.
