What an eggciting week we have had this week with the arrival of our hatching chicks. Out of the ten eggs that arrived we have nine very healthy chicks and we were very lucky to watch some of them hatch last week. We used this as a perfect opportunity to learn about the life cycle of a chick, looking at books and pictures to help us to understand more.

Once the chicks had been in the incubator for 24 hours we were able to move them to their new comfortable home, made warm and cosy by Miss Bramham who added lots of sawdust, food and water for the baby chicks. After a few days in their new home, growing stronger each day, we were able to take them out and have a hold. We were all very gentle and brave. One cheeky chick was having so much fun, he tried to escape and play with our train track!

After all of these lovely cuddles the chicks needed a little rest. Whilst they were resting, we got busy in our areas of provision and had all sorts of chick fun. We drew some beautifully detailed pictures of the chicks and even had a go at making our own playdoh chicks, learning lots of new vocabulary, such as, feathers, beak, wings, and hatch.

Over the past few weeks Nursery having been practising very hard for our Sports Day. They have learnt how to take part in races, waiting for the adult to say go before they leave and running as fast as they can to be first. They have also practised lots of gross motor skills including running, jumping and balancing. Well done everyone!

At the start of our Sports Day we sat in our lines, patiently waiting for our families to arrive and the races to begin.

Our first race of the day was a running race. We were super speedy as we raced to the cone and back, always remembering to give a high 5 to our friend before sitting down at the back of the line.

Our second race was the egg and spoon race. We tried very hard to balance the egg without it falling off and did amazingly well. Our year 6 helpers did a brilliant job of supporting the children.

The jumping race was great fun and we tried very hard to land on two feet whilst also moving forward.

We finished off with the beanbag race, which was a firm favourite and one which we had practised a lot in our outdoor area in Nursery. Our practicing paid off as many of us managed to keep our heads up and the beanbag balanced. Well done Nursery, you definitely deserved that big cheer at the end of the race!

We are so proud our you Nursery, you did incredibly well at our Sports Day and all showed wonderful perseverance and super sportsmanship, cheering for your friends. It was wonderful to finish out our special day with our families eating ice cream in the sunshine. Thank you to all of the families who attended.

In 3 YO Nursery the NELI text for the final week before half term was called Dinosaur Rocket. It was all about some dinosaurs who became astronauts and travelled to the moon. During the story we learnt the words moon, rocket, space, splash and astronaut. The story stimulated a lot of interest in rockets and space, with the children asking lots of questions. Following this interest we set up a space themed small world area which was an instant hit.

Our learning about space continued in the outdoor area as we became engineers and the children built their very own rockets to role play travelling to the moon. We talked about the different parts of the rocket, what we would need to wear and how to make our rocket fly. As we role played, we imagined what we could see in outer space and explored some of the planet names.

Indoors the children continued to enjoy role playing with rockets, so we had a go a creating our very own craft rockets using toilet roll tubes and pre cut shapes. As we crafted, the children named the shapes they would use and talked about which part of the rocket they would use them for. The became deeply engrossed in this play, developing a range of skills through it, including fine motor, communication and language, creativity and social skills.

Today as part of our well-being week, we took a few calm minutes to have a go at some cosmic yoga linked to our interests around space. The children were able to follow the instructions brilliantly and enjoyed moving and stretching their bodies. They were very excited to see an astronaut in space and used their looking eyes to notice lots of things about her and the spaceship.

Please see the link below if you would like to try this at home https://cosmickids.com/yogainspace

In Nursery we use a programme called Squiggle Whilst you Wiggle to support gross motor skills in preparation for mark making and writing. This week we have been learning ‘The Hump’. We danced along to a golden oldie, Mmm Bop by Hansen as we created the hump shape using flipper flappers.

This learning eagerly continued outdoor and on our smart board as the children using, chalks, paintbrushes and water and electronic pens on the board to recreate this shape.

This learning has been extended for some children to support development in fine motor strength and name writing. Mrs Bakhtari had lots of fun doing the Dough this week using playdoh and we have some fabulous children who are now beginning to write their names also. Can you help at home by encouraging the children to have a go at writing their name in birthday cards or letters to friends?

This week as part of our NELI programme, we have read the story Jack and the Beanstalk and learnt the words, decide, swap, follow and yell. The children have loved this story and have enjoyed talking about the key events at the beginning, middle and end of the story. Some of the children have also been eager to retell the whole book using pictures as prompts and the using the puppets to act out the story.

In our outdoor area a child found a bean which was a fabulous provocation for extending the children’s learning. We imagined that it was a magic bean and planted it before climbing up the enormous beanstalk that grew. Our favourite part however, was being chased away by the giant shouting ‘fee fi fo fun’ at us!. The children were excellent at recalling key events from the story and using the story language, ‘fee, fi, fo fum’.

After planting our bean plants a couple of weeks ago, we used the story as a stimulus to check on the growth of the plants. We used the language of size, taller and shorter to measure and describe their growth. We noticed that one plant was the tallest and the shortest one had very few leaves on it.

This week, many of us were very lucky to go on our Nursery trip to Tropical World. The children were very excited to board the coach to travel to Canal Gardens. On our journey we noticed sheep, trees, lots of cars and even Mrs Bakhtari’s house! Once we arrived, we spent some time exploring the plants, sculptures, pond and maze area before heading inside to discover lots of exciting creatures. Some of our favourite animals were the marmosets, the crocodile and the meerkats. We talked about their habitats and what they like to eat and need to survive.

Following our wonderful trip, we decided to get outdoors to do some mini east hunting of our own. We spotted some woodlice, spiders and greenfly. The children repeated some of the names of the insects and could even describe them. ‘It’s a greenfly, my Daddy knows it…. It’s green.’(Hugo)

We continued our learning about minibeasts this week by reading the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We then used cotton wool buds and paint to create a pattern on our butterfly cut out before printing it to make a symmetrical pattern. ‘It’s the same!’ Noticed Harper , commenting on the symmetry.

We have had a very busy week in Nursery this week, the sunny weather prompting us to get outside and in the sunshine. The children were fascinated by the beanstalks brought in by Mrs Garden this week and were eager to help plant them into our gardening bed. We began by reading the story Jasper’s beanstalk and looking at some beans, we then compared the beans to the new beanstalks before planting them outdoors. The children were very aware that we needed to look after them by watering them, making sure they had lots of sunlight and not letting anyone pull them out of the soil!

Our learning about growth continued this week as we read out text map How to Plant a Seed. The children read the pictures and identified their meaning before having a go at following the instructions to plant their very own sunflower seed. We can’t wait to watch them grow.

Many of the children have told us about their gardens this week and the seeds they have to plant. Please send in photographs of your gardening at home.

This week we have been reading the story The Boy and The Bear. In the story the bear is too heavy to play on the see saw with his new friend, this led to conversations about the word heavy and what this means. We explained to the children that if something has a heavy weight, it means that it will feel hard to pick up. During our carpet session we explored and compared items which are heavy and light. Delilah explained that her cousins is strong because she can pick her up and she is very heavy!

We continued this learning in our outdoor area as we went to hunt for objects which feel heavy. We found lots of heavy objects and discovered that some objects were so heavy that we need to work with a friend to lift them up. We then placed them in order from heavier to lightest.

Can you hunt for heavy objects around your house this weekend? Maybe you could find some light objects also and compare them using the words heavier and lighter, heaviest and lightest.

Yesterday we celebrated Earth Day by talking about our wonderful world and doing some cloud gazing. We relaxed in the outdoor sunshine and the children used their imaginations to spot different shapes in the clouds. ‘I see a crocodile!’ Shouted Solenne, whilst others spotted fish, aeroplanes and even dinosaurs.

We continued this learning whilst playing outside by thinking about how we can look after our wonderful planet. We all decided that picking up rubbish was a great was to start and also a brilliant way to have an extra tidy of our outdoor area! Well done everyone! I wonder if you could help do some litter picking in your local area one weekend.