This half-term, we have been exploring the story Stardust by Jeanne Willis. We have listened carefully to the story, answered questions about what is happening, developed our understanding of the key characters and events, as well as explore the key vocabulary in greater detail whilst exploring our Nursery provision.

We have really enjoyed retelling the story using our Stardust small-world area. We remembered the special words, ‘star’, ‘win’, ‘wish’ and family whilst we used puppet characters to re-enact the story. This week, we had a go at some different activities linked to the story’s special words to consolidate our learning.

Family

We used the magnetic shapes and wooden dolls on the light box to explore our special word ‘family’. We experimented with the different shapes and how we could arrange them to create enclosures to represent our homes. As we built, we talked about our own families and then used the wooden dolls to represent them. Luca told his friends, “This one is Mummy, this one is Mum and this one is me!”. Toby showed us a wooden doll and said, “My sister’s name is Erica”. We used lots of lovely vocabulary linked to family and developed our understanding of our special world as we played alongside one another.

Wish

We explored our special word ‘wish’ by creating our own wishing wands within the creative area. We have been busy developing our joining skills by using glue and tape in different ways this term, so this invitation provided chance for us to apply what we have learnt. We used tape to attach our lolly sticks to the stars and then added collage materials by thinking carefully about where each material would go and then spreading PVA. We listened to one another as we talked about what we would wish for.

Selimo shared, “I wish for a teddy bear”. Yahya said, “I wish I was a Marvel Avenger”. Eva then said, “I would wish for a flying saucer”. Holly told us, “I wish I could have a wishing well. I wish that it was in my garden, I would ask for a swimming pool!”.

Star

We used yellow highlighters and black paper to create stars in the night sky to explore our special word ‘star’. We experimented with how we could use different marks, lines and shapes to create a starry sky. We then had lots of fun using a UV torch to light-up our night sky and make our stars glow. “We are all made of stardust”, said Toby, remembering one of the key phrases from the book.

Win

This week at Nursery, we played board games to further develop our understanding of our special word ‘win’. We particularly enjoyed playing the shopping list game in small groups and this prompted lots of discussion around winning at games and how it doesn’t matter if we win or lose, it’s about having fun with our friends.

We have loved sharing our Stardust story at Nursery and developing our range of vocabulary through different exciting ways! We will continue to explore the story throughout this half-term. Please see Tapestry for some suggested home learning activities linked to the Stardust story.

We had a fantastic time visiting our local Library! We love sharing stories at Nursery and were very excited to walk to Moor Allerton Library to look at all of the wonderful books they have in their children’s section for ourselves! We enjoyed our walk to the Library and looked around to see what we could notice along the way. We spotted birds and so many squirrels that they were tricky to count! We all walked very sensibly, held onto our grown-ups’ hands and stayed on the paths. We couldn’t wait to get inside once we arrived and we were greeted by Maddie the Librarian, who showed us to the children’s area.

We started our visit with an introduction by Maddie, who explained that we are welcome to visit anytime. She told us that we could come back with our families and ask for our own library cards, so that we can choose books to borrow and take home to share. Maddie gave us our own Nursery class library card and we were very excited to hear that we could take some books back to school!

We listened as Maddie read a story called, ‘There’s a Bear on My Chair’ by Ross Collins. We all listened well as she told us the story and some of us joined Maddie to look more closely at the illustrations and talk about the story.

It was then time to explore all of the beautiful books on offer to us! Some of us knew exactly the type of book we were looking for and others were happy to explore and find a book that caught our eye! We enjoyed listening to our grown-ups as they read to us and together we talked about the books we shared. It was very quiet and peaceful as we all got stuck into our wonderful stories with our special people! We handled our books carefully and did a wonderful job at putting them back in the correct places at the end of our story session!

Some of us chose a book to borrow with our library card and take back to Nursery. Toby had the special job of giving Maddie our library card so that we could check them out! We learned how to scan our books so that the Library knows that we have borrowed them. We were very excited to take them back and share them with our friends at school!

Throughout the week, we enjoyed sharing our library books together. We did a fantastic job at choosing different stories that sparked our interest. We knew to handle the books with care and to turn the pages one by one carefully.

What a wonderful experience we have had in visiting our local Library! Thank you to our families who were able to join us on our trips, all of your help was much appreciated.

Unfortunately, our second visit to Moor Allerton Library did not take place due to the weather conditions. We will arrange another family library session and share the details with our Nursery families as soon as possible. We still had a fantastic morning filled with excitement as we wrapped up warm and explored the snow and ice in our outdoor area together!

This week at Nursery, we have focused on two very important life skills – listening and kindness. We introduced our helping hands big question for this half-term, which is, ‘How can I show that I can listen?’. We also joined the rest of school in participating in Anti-Bullying Week by joining in with Odd Sock Monday and thinking about how we can be kind to one another.

Odd Sock Monday!

On Monday, we came to Nursery wearing our fantastically colourful odd socks! We had lots of fun spotting the different socks on our friends and spent time thinking about how the odd socks are a bit like ourselves; unique, individual and interesting! We also developed our sense of community by reflecting on how we had all joined in with this special day that represents kindness and friendship.

Remembrance Day

We worked together to create a beautiful poppy wreath as an act of kindness to mark Remembrance Day. We used Autumn fruits and vegetables to print our own poppies, before gluing them onto our wreath. We took our wreath up to the school hall and joined in with a beautiful moment of reflection as we looked at all of the poppies made by our classes in school. When it was our turn to share our reflections, we talked about choosing kindness and being kind to our friends. We were incredibly proud of the children, who showed great empathy and kindness as we marked this day together.

Introducing our 3 Year Old Nursery Lending Library!

This week at Nursery, we were introduced to our lending library. We were all given our own book bag and had the opportunity to look through the books and choose one that sparked our interest. We took our books home to our families to share together. Our Nursery children love listening to stories at school and we are looking forward to hearing about how the library books are shared at home too! We can return our library books and swap them for a new one on Mondays and Thursdays.

Listening Walk

As an introduction to our helping hands big question, we went on a listening walk in small groups around our school grounds. Listening carefully to tune into and identify environmental sounds supports our literacy development and is an important aspect of our phonics learning. “My shoes are making a scratching sound”, said Zayan. “I can hear the children in my sister’s class”, said Amelie. “The door banged”, said Molly. Some of our families also had a go at doing a listening walk at home, thank you to everyone who joined in!

Planting Kindness

This week, we also collaborated with our Reception friends to add some kindness bulbs into our outdoor area! We each added a ‘sprinkle of kindness’ to our bulbs and listened to one another as we spoke about what kindness means to us. Some of our responses included, “We are kind to our friends”, “Kindness is an hug” and “Kindness makes us happy”. We talked about how we will watch our kindness grow as the bulbs later bloom into beautiful flowers.

On Friday, we filled our planter with soil, used tools to dig and planted our kindness bulbs. We waited patiently and took turns as we worked together to plant them. We can’t wait to see our kindness bulbs bloom into beautiful flowers and we hope that they will remind us of when we sprinkled our kindness onto them.

Thank-you, Zaha, for bringing in your favourite book to share – what a kind thing to do! We all enjoyed listening to the ‘Invisible Story’ together, which linked well to our exploration of kindness this week. We love to learn about the stories that children enjoy reading at home and enjoy sharing them as a group at Nursery -please continue to do so!

This week at Nursery, we have had lots of fun learning about Bonfire Night and starting off our exploration of light and dark through different firework-themed learning experiences. Some of us shared our home experiences of Bonfire Night with our Nursery friends and teachers. We all expressed our own creativity by using different media and materials to create our own artwork.

Printing Fireworks

We were invited to have a go at using pipe cleaners and paint to print fireworks onto black paper. We experimented with using different colours within our art and some of us explored how we could press our pipe cleaners into more than one colour to create new effects. As we printed, we shared our own experiences of seeing fireworks around us as we engaged in conversation together.

Firework Finger Gym!

We really enjoyed trying out this week’s firework-themed finger gym! Many of us returned to repeat the activity on a number of occasions. We used paintbrushes to sweep the sand to find the hidden fireworks underneath. We then explored how we could manipulate our paintbrushes to make different lines, shapes and patterns in the sand.

Large-scale Chalk Fireworks

We continued to practice making marks, lines and shapes to represent fireworks whilst exploring our outdoor provision. We had lots of fun using different coloured chalks to create a firework sky on the large blackboard. Creating our fireworks required us to use gross-motor movements with our arms and we continued to use talk to share our own experiences of Bonfire Night.

Keeping Safe on Bonfire Night

This week at Nursery, we also learned about how to keep safe on Bonfire Night, with the help of Fireman Sam. We were introduced to his Bonfire Night safety tips and learned about how we can enjoy bonfires and firework displays safely. Some of us then shared these helpful tips with our families at home too. We enjoyed playing alongside and co-operatively with our friends with our new small-world Fire Station to further develop our understanding of how we keep safe on Bonfire Night.

Sharing our Home Experiences

Some of us shared our home experiences of Bonfire Night on Tapestry. We all loved looking at the photographs together and the children showed pride when talking about their own experiences. These photos prompted many of us to join in with what we had seen on Bonfire Night as we compared our own experiences. Thank you to our families who shared some fantastic photographs from the night!

What a fantastic first week we have had in our exploration of light and dark. We have enjoyed trying out lots of different Bonfire Night themed activities, which were made much more exciting by sharing our own experiences of seeing fireworks around us.

This week at Nursery, we have had lots of fun celebrating Diwali together with our friends and families! Throughout the week, we had a go at a variety of different Diwali-themed activities and on Tuesday afternoon we celebrated together as we welcomed some of our special people to our Diwali stay and play.

Exploring colour and pattern

We noticed, copied and created bright patterns throughout our week at Nursery. We enjoyed looking at rangoli and mendhi patterns before having a go at making our own! We experimented with using a variety of different media and materials to create our patterns, which included chalk, crayons, sequins and coloured rice.

Party clothes!

We enjoyed wearing bright and beautiful outfits this week at Nursery. For our Diwali stay and play, we dressed for the celebrations!

Celebrating with family and friends

We had a fantastic time at our Diwali stay and play! We enjoyed creating our own patterns, sharing Diwali stories, experimenting with coloured rice and using brightly coloured crayons to create our own artwork. Thank you to our families who were able to join us for the celebration!

Sculpting clay diya lamps

We particularly enjoyed using our hands to sculpt pinch pots and make them into diya lamps for Diwali. We then carefully selected different shiny sequins to decorate our pots. We finished them off with a tealight candle and took them home to light at night time.

What a fantastic week of celebrations we have had at Nursery! We are looking forward to seeing everyone again when we return after the half-term week.

This week we had lots of fun learning about traffic lights in Nursery! We started by sitting together and sharing what we already know about traffic lights. We looked at a photograph as a starting point, which prompted our discussion. Here is what we already knew about traffic lights:

• Zayan: “Red means stop. The black pole holds up the lights”.
• Eva: “Green is go”.
• Yosef: “Amber”.
• Selimo: “They tell us to ‘stop’ and ‘go'”.
• Ryan: “Children need to cross the road at the line with a traffic light”.
• Milan: “Traffic lights for buses”.
• Ryan: “They are for cars”.
• Luca: “It won’t be safe without traffic lights”.

We learnt that the very important person who invented the traffic light was called Garrett Morgan. We discovered that he lived a long time ago in a place called the USA. We now know that the traffic lights that he invented have three lights on them, and we linked this to our own knowledge of the traffic lights that we have seen around us in the local area. Many of us are very interested in transport and so learning about his important invention really sparked our interest!

Traffic Light Printing

Twinkle Twinkle Traffic Light

Throughout the week, we learnt the song ‘Twinkle twinkle traffic light’ and continued to practise it. On Wednesday, we had a special performance of our song and filmed it for our families. You could share the video together at home and practise singing it together. During our performance, we proudly displayed our traffic lights and pointed to the colours as we sang.

This week at Nursery, we learnt why Garrett Morgan is a special person in history and learnt more about traffic lights. We enjoyed singing and painting together this week as part of our learning about this important invention. Look around when you are outside and see if you notice any traffic lights on your travels!

We started our week by sharing exciting stories about going on Autumn treasure hunts over the weekend! We looked together at photographs of us searching for Autumn treasures with our families, talking about where we were and what we found. “I didn’t walk to find things, I used my bike!”, said Luca excitedly.

We brought our bags back to Nursery, filled with wonderful Autumn treasures to share! During our key worker group times, we took turns to share what we had found. We listened to one another politely, excited to see what our friends had found. We waited for our turn to share, talking about where we went, with who and showing our friends what we had found. We remembered the names of some Autumn treasures and joined in with group conversations where we used our senses to describe the objects. “This smells minty!”, said Zayan confidently.

We used our Autumn treasures within different activities in provision. We enjoyed making conker patterns using the conkers that we had collected. We started by copying different patterns and then started to make our own patterns and shapes! We used pine cones to develop our fine-motor skills by wrapping string around them for our finger gym activity.

We continued the theme of reusing things within our play by using cardboard boxes as a mark-making material. We used colourful marker pens to add marks, lines and shapes onto the cardboard as a different drawing surface. We explored how layering colours could change the colours on the cardboard. We shared the large mark-making surface and showed care and consideration, making sure that we didn’t draw over someone else’s work. This developed as a keen interest throughout the week, so we kept going!

We further developed this interest in mark-making on surfaces other than paper by introducing pumpkins on the painting table! We really enjoyed using paintbrushes to add paint to the pumpkins, layering colours as the week progressed. We showed fantastic levels of concentration as we painted and this was another firm favourite of the week!

We have had a busy and fun-filled week at Nursery exploring all of the wonderful things that Autumn gives us!

This week at Nursery, we have been noticing signs of Autumn around us and looking closely at beautiful Autumn treasures! We spent lots of time enjoying fresh air and sunshine as we explored Autumn in the natural world around us and got creative as we used Autumn materials within our artwork.

We started our week by looking at some pumpkins in the art area. We asked ourselves questions like, ‘Which shapes might we draw?’ and ‘Which colours might we need?’. We selected crayons and made marks on our paper. We learnt how to observe closely and keep looking as we draw to form accurate shapes. We added more colours to create detail within our artwork. Our masterpieces are now displayed in our gallery! Some of us also created large-scale pumpkins with chalk outside, where we practised making large circular movements with our arms.

We enjoyed exploring woodland within our school grounds by going on Autumn walks with our key workers this week. We went on an Autumn treasure hunt, which we found incredibly exciting, as we found lots of wonderful Autumn treasures on the ground. We noticed that the leaves were lots of different colours and looked closely at the different shapes we could see. We filled our bags with what we had found and brought them back to Nursery to explore.

We then used our leaves to do some leaf printing. We selected different paint colours to incorporate the variety of colours we had seen within the woodland and used paintbrushes to swirl them together within the printing trays. We then carefully placed our leaves in the paint and then put them onto our paper. We used a roller to press the leaves down and then took them off to reveal our leaf prints on the paper!

We have all taken an Autumn bag home to fill with Autumn treasures that we find when out and about. We will then bring our bags back to Nursery next week and share the wonderful things that we have found! We will use our Autumn treasures within different Autumn-themed activities. We can’t wait to see what you have collected!

This week at Nursery, we continued to think about ourselves as we get to know one another, by focusing on the people in our lives who are special to us. Throughout the week, we joined in with lots of different learning experiences that helped us to share who is important to each of us. We have also continued to settle into our Nursery routines and explore everything on offer to us at Nursery.

Family Photos

Thank you for sharing your beautiful family photographs with us on Tapestry. It was wonderful to see the children beam with pride as we looked at them as a group. The photographs inspired the children to talk about their home experiences and name the people who mean the most to them.

Once we had shared our family photographs, we put them on display in our home corner. This encouraged us to talk about our special people and represent our home experiences within our play. Some of us were inspired to talk about the foods we eat at home as we enjoyed cooking in the home corner.

Making Friends

We have enjoyed playing together and thinking about who our friends are this week. We were all spotted having a wonderful time together exploring different ways to play! We spent time talking about friends and friendships, which helped us to think about who we enjoy playing with at Nursery, leading to lots of talk about who our friends are when exploring provision.

Showing Kindness

Our big question for this half-term is, ‘How can I show kindness to my friends?’. We celebrated where we showed kindness to one another by talking about it together. We were spotted showing kindness this week!

Creating Art Together

We were eager to join in with some collaborative mark-making on large paper this week! We all showed careful concentration as we experimented with creating different marks on our paper. We used lots of lovely language as we talked about our drawings. We represented things that are important to us within our drawings, which included ourselves, sunshines, spiders, cats and the Hulk!

We have had such a busy week at Nursery this week and we have all really enjoyed getting to know each other better by learning about the people who are special to us!

This week in Nursery, we continued to get to know one another and thought about what each of us unique as we settle into our routines. We started to think about ourselves as a group to develop our sense of community. We are becoming more confident at joining in with our key worker group routines, which include welcome activities, snack times and tidy up times.

This week, we worked collaboratively to create our one body as we explored our school vision together – We are one body of many parts and together we love, learn and flourish. We started by drawing around one of our friends to create our body, who had to keep very still as the pencil traced around him!

We then cut out our body shape and put it onto our painting table. We thought about the colours we wanted to use and worked together to choose and pour each paint colour.

Then it was time to paint! We were all very eager to have a go and patiently waited for our turn. We all experimented with the paint and paintbrushes to add a variety of colourful marks onto the paper. We explored dabbing the brush and using different arm movements to create lines, swirls, circles and zig-zags with paint. Some of us explored what happened when we mixed different colours together and were very excited when new colours appeared! We also swirled different paint colours together on the paper to create new effects. We showed wonderful levels of engagement and concentration as we worked out what we could achieve with our paints and paintbrushes!

We talked about how we had all joined in to create our one body, looking at our painting and seeing it as the many parts. We developed our understanding of how we can work together to create beautiful things! When our painting was finished, we looked at it again and thought about how it represented each one of us as a part of our Nursery community. We are really proud of our finished masterpiece!

You could have a go a similar activity at home to help your child understand that they are part of a family community too. This could be a picture containing a drawing from everyone or making up a story where each family member tells part of it. We have also asked for family photographs to be shared on Tapestry, so that we can continue to get to know one another and share the special people in our lives. We will display these in our home corner to inspire the children to represent their own experiences in play.