This half term we enjoyed our learning, which was all linked to Bears!
As part of ‘Understanding the World’, we learnt all about different bears and their habitats. We enjoyed finding out what they eat, where they live and facts about their bodies too. Following our bear hunt story, we had great fun taking part in our own bear hunt outside, listening carefully to the clues about materials they were hidden near.
In phonics, we have been developing our rhyming abilities. We have enjoyed rhyming stories as well as playing rhyme games to help us listen carefully and tune into what we can hear in the words. We have also begun letter of the week, where we focus carefully on a letter, its name and the sound it makes. We especially enjoy sorting our mystery objects by initial sound. As mark makers, we are loving our guided drawing time. We have created some fantastic pictures by looking and listening carefully to the instructions.
In PSHE we focused on the concept of challenges. We learnt that, to get better at something, we need to practise, “keep on trying, don’t give up!”. We talked about how sometimes we might feel sad or frustrated when we can’t do things, but when we keep on trying we will feel extra proud of our achievements.
As mathematicians, we have been exploring the concept of ‘whole’ and ‘part’ through our familiar number rhymes. We have learnt that we can break up a number in lots of different ways, but put it back together and it makes the whole again. We have also become very confident at simple patterns including body patterns and knowing what comes next on a pattern strip.
As artists we have created some wonderful work – we used forks to create our own bear faces and then add details. We also worked hard on our ‘bear in the woods’ work. For this, we mixed white or black with our colours to create different shades of green and brown for our woods. Then we added our bears which we had drawn or painted. Our teachers are so proud of the end result!
Spring 2 – 2025
As gymnasts we have been looking at different ways of travelling across the floor and on the mats. We have also been learning different ways to jump off the benches, including pencil and star jumps.
As communicators, we have been learning lots of new vocabulary linked to our theme Transport. Whilst we were learning about boats, we used the book Brilliant Boats and we learnt the words propellor, anchor and oars.
As explorers we have been investigating the properties of water and learning how it can travel. We have loved using the guttering and buckets to move the water. We are very good at pouring. We now have our water wall all set up outside.
As artists we have been creating our paper plate seaside pictures. First, we used paint to make the beach and the sea, and then we drew and cut out pictures, such as fish, boats etc to stick onto our plates. Some of us even used our recycled materials to make a lighthouse.
We love to build with the crates from our den building shed. We have been creating pirate ships. We are very sensible when we carry the crates, working together as a team.
We have had two special events at Nursery this half term. First, we had World Book Day, where we dressed up as different characters. One of our friends brought in a special book, where he was the main character in the story. We also celebrated Mother’s Day, with a special craft breakfast. We worked together to make a love bug to take home.
Autumn 2024
As mark-makers, we have enjoyed practising our drawing skills in our ‘Squiglet’ sessions. We have drawn lots of pictures, including spiders, snowmen and polar bears.
As artists, the children have created observational drawings and paintings of poppies. We worked as a team to create a large Elmer the elephant collage for our display wall. The children were extremely focused, filling in their square on the drawing. The children also explored what happens we mix red, yellow and blue paint together. We used vehicles to mix the paint, rolling the wheels through the different colours. The children loved this activity.
As readers, we have focussed on the stories Elmer, The Owl and the Little Star and non-fiction books about Diwali and Bonfire Night. We created a story map retelling the story of Elmer and this helped us to remember the sequence of the story. We also used puppets to help us to retell the story Can’t You Sleep Little Bear.
We used our hands to mould playdough into different animal shapes such as elephants. We added pipe cleaners and small counters to make eyes and trunks.
As speakers we have been talking about our experiences of Bonfire Night. We shared what we had seen, heard and smelt.
We had lots of fun at our Nursery Christmas Party. We played lots of different games, including musical statues, musical bumps and musical chairs. We had to listen carefully to the music and act when the music stopped.