Summer 1
As the weather has been so great, we have been enjoying lots of water play, indoors and in both back and front gardens. During the warmer afternoons, children took shade by building dens and enjoyed listening to stories on the beanbags.
The children have been learning how to look after our plants and what they need to grow. We grew some cress seeds and watched them grow in sessions.
We began looking at logos and noticing print around the room and building. The children were quickly able to recognise familiar logos and we have added some of these to our home corner. It was lovely hearing the children discuss where they have spotted the logos while out and about.
For careers week, visitors from Barnsley college came in and the children loves learning how to build a wall. This was great as a lot of our children already have a keen interest in construction, using tools and building.
We have been enjoying learning Incy Wincy Spider and The Very Hungry Caterpillar – looking for minibeasts in the garden. As The Very Hungry Caterpillar tries a range of different foods, we tried some of these foods too, making them into pattern kebabs.
We learned about different patterns, looked for pattern around the room and on our clothes. We made our own spotty and stripey pattern minibeast. Using fruit cards that are in The Very Hungry Caterpillar, the children were able to create their own continuous pattern.
It has been a great half term which almost all of it has been spent outdoors – with lots of exciting and real life learning tied in.
Spring 2
To kickstart our Farmyard Fun topic we enjoyed a visit from Ian & his farm. He brought a variety of farm animals for the children to meet. The children were able to hold guinea pigs, rabbits, chickens and ducks. The children learned about each of the animals and were able to brush and feed them. Meg the sheepdog enjoyed having her ball thrown on the school field. The children really enjoyed this experience and listened really well.
During small group times we listened to some farm animal sounds. The children have been comparing some farm animals by size and counting how may animals we have on our farm area.
To celebrate World Book Day, the children were invited to wear their pajamas for a cosy bedtime story day. We have been enjoying reading lots of stories inside and out.
We have been learning “The 3 Billy Goats Gruff” for our Talk for Writing text. The children have been exploring props and puppets while reciting the story. There was lots of “trip trapping over my bridge!” in the garden as we created our own bridges out of large loose parts.
The children have been developing their awareness of size while talking about the 3 Billy Goats and looking at the different farm animals.
As part of our learning was beginning to notice differences, we had a look at different people in our family and discussed the different hair colours we have.
Little City came to visit school where the children were able to dress up and enjoy lots of role play. Our little learners transformed into doctors, hairdressers, mechanics and enjoyed filling their trolleys with lots of food.
Towards the end of the term, some of our children visited Clever Kittens to aid their transition over after Easter Holidays. Some of our older children began their transition over to Clever Kittens which was very exciting! They have had great fun going over to visit Mrs Bradwell’s class and meeting new friends. We hope the fun continues!
Autumn 2
As we retuned it was bonfire night, we watched and listened to some firework sounds and moved our bodies like fireworks. We used string of wool to create our own bonfire pictures. We listened to the sound that some of the fireworks made “Bang!” “Boom!”
Some of the children noticed that there were no bird feeders in the front garden and thought the birds would be hungry, so we made some of our own using lard and bird food. The children did great at rolling the fat balls in their hands and were very excited when we put the feeders outside.
Our Talk for writing text this half term is “Twinkle, Twinkle little star.” During our group times, we listened and looked up above the world so high. The children were able to comment on what they could see and hear. This developed their ability to discriminate sounds in the environment. The children took turns to bake some star biscuits. The children really enjoyed this and were able to take turns, rolling, mixing, the ingredients all together while talking about keeping our hands clean. The children made 4 biscuits each and discussed who they were going to share their biscuits with. During our maths group times we have been discussing the different sizes of stars we could see and sorting them into order or smallest to biggest.
We were all very excited when it snowed! We went out to play in the snow, exploring the different textures and made snow angels. We took out some warm water to see what would happen to some of the snow when it touched the warm water.
During Road safety week, we looked at some different road signs and matched them together. We discussed the different shapes, colours and the meaning of the symbols on them. We made our own traffic light playdough and played some listening games “Stop & go!”
The dentist came to visit us in REY and brought us some toothbrushes. They talked about some foods being healthy and unhealthy and showed us how to brush our teeth properly.
Outdoors we used some of the tarps and clips to build dens in the back garden. The children were able to hide under the tarp from the rain. The children have also been enjoying our new wooden den in the front garden.
Then the Christmas fun began! We put up our Christmas decorations and the children have enjoyed dressing up in some star, snowman & tree costumes. There has been lots of singing throughout the whole month of December as we practiced for our Christmas sing along. The children did great singing and we loved having our families in to be able to join in with this. The children have made some Christmas cards, calendars and explored with lots of glitter! As the children have bee enjoying baking and making, we made some Christmas pudding crispy cakes and reindeer marshmallows for the Christmas fayre.
We are happy to have met with parents recently too to discuss how wonderful our little learners have settled into REY and the great achievements they have made. We are looking forward to welcoming some new children in January.
It has been a very busy half term with lots of fun packed in!
We hope all our families have a wonderful Christmas together and a Happy New Year to you all. See you in 2025!
Autumn 1
We have had a great and very busy start to the year. We have welcomed our new children into our setting and they are making great progress. The children are now settled and engaged in their learning.
We started our year by settling back into our new playroom as over the summer, the room has been made bigger. The children have responded really well to our bigger playroom and love all the new calm areas. We have been promoting “Choose it, use it, put it away” when it comes to tidying up and this as been working well.
We were reintroduced to our routines and welcomed some new friends into our nursery. We began to build friendships, learning new friends names. Our children have been learning the rules of the room and helping each others to follow these to keep us safe. We had a look at some photos of our families and what each other had been doing in the summer holidays. This was great to see and sparked conversations.
As part of self registration at the beginning of the sessions, the children select their own name card and move to our feelings board. Currently the children can choose from happy or sad. We have been talking about what may make us feel happy and what makes us feel sad throughout the sessions.
In the front garden and around the school grounds, we have been recognising the different colours of the leaves on the trees. We found some leaves on the ground and matched the leaves to the colour hoop.
We went on a walk to Barker’s Park, had a walk around the woods, gathered some different size sticks. We looked at the different colours in the leaves then had a play at the park. The children walked really well and had great listening ears!
Our returning children have been involved in Tiny Talkers group, which will run throughout the year. The children involved in these groups are making progress during the small groups with their communication and language skills through games and songs in a quieter space.
It has been lovely to get to know our new friends this half term and see the progress our little learners are making already. We will be having progress meetings with parents at the beginning on next half term. Dates are to be confirmed.
We hope everyone has a great October break!
