Nursery – Squirrels

Our Amazing Work!

In Nursery we’ve been learning to write. The first step of teaching our children how to write begins with large arm movements. This allows children to strengthen their entire arms and even their core muscles.

We approach our writing through a multisensory method to encourage children’s fine motor control. We use many multisensory methods such as sand trays, chalks, play dough and peg boards. We always encourage mark making throughout the Nursery year within our creative area. This multisensory approach ensures our children can build up their muscles within their hands ready for writing.

When we first learn to write we firstly start by tracing letters sing our fingers. Once we have mastered these movements, we then begin tracing our letters using a pencil, crayon, or pen. Finally, we practise writing independently.

Tip: Lots of children naturally tend to hold a pencil or tall crayon up high, so encourage them to hold it closer to the tip for better control. In Nursery we refer to our pencil grip as Birdie Beak.

Here are some photos of our amazing writing!

Forest School

We are so lucky to have a woodland area in our school grounds! In Nursery we have been taking the children outside for weekly activities in this area.

We teach the children about nature and the environment. We have a ‘base camp’ area and when our activities draw to a close we always come back to this area.

Forest School is also a place for children to assess risk, in a safe environment. This challenging play helps develop self-confidence, competence, emotional resilience and a sense of independence. We always aim to use the natural outdoor environment in order to:

• Develop social and communication skills
• Promote learning through exploration and discovery
• Learn about insects, animals, plants and trees
• Promote team work and problem-solving skills through making dens and other woodland structures

Here are a handful of photos from our most recent activities in our woodland area.

In Nursery, we have two guinea pigs. They are called Cookie and Coco. Our guinea pigs are boys, which in guinea pig world, we call ‘boars’. Female guinea pigs are called ‘sows’.

Cookie and Coco both have a smooth coats and are friendly boys. They love to squeak and whistle when their vegetables are being prepared. The boys love going in their hideaways and generally getting up to mischief.

Here are some photos of Cookie and Coco

Welcome back after the summer holidays. We hope you all had a lovely and busy break; a special welcome to all the new children and their families who are joining us this term.

This term our topic will be ‘All About Me’ and we will be learning about how we look, things we can do, what we like, our families and exploring our senses. We will focus on the story ‘You Choose’ which is all about personal preferences.

Pick up times at Nursery
The nursery session timings are as follows:

• Morning session: 8.45am to 11:45am
• All Day session: 8:45am to 2:45pm

If you wish too book your child into nursery until 3:15pm there is an additional charge for this 30 minute session. Please inform the office if you’d like to book this session.

The nursery doors are opened from 8:40am to allow time for parents to help settle the children and to allow time for parents to talk to staff.
Please can we ask you to pick up your child at these times stated above so that Nursery staff can have time to prepare resources and plan ahead for the next session in nursery.

Forest School

We have Forest School every Wednesday morning with Mrs Caine. Please ensure your child has a Forest School kit in school which is clearly named. You can imagine trying to locate the owners of any un-named uniform is like finding a needle in a haystack!

Thank you for your continued support and co-operation. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask.

Mrs K Wilkes – Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday

Mrs C Caine – Wednesday

Autumn Term 

Forest School

We are so lucky to have a woodland area in our school grounds! In Nursery we have been taking the children outside for weekly activities in this area.

We have a lovely log circle where the children are taught about nature and the environment. This is our ‘base camp’ area and when our activity is drawing to a close we always come back to this area.

As the term goes by we will aim to use the natural outdoor environment in order to:

• Allow children to develop their independence.
• Build self-esteem and self-confidence.
• Initiate learning for themselves.
• Manage and control risks independently.
• Develop social and communication skills.
• Promote learning through exploration and discovery.

Here are a handful of photos from our most recent activities in our woodland area.

All About Me!

‘All About Me’ is our Autumn term topic.  Through this, our learning is based on the book ‘You Choose’. The children have really enjoyed this topic as they have been able to express themselves and their personal preferences.

As a class we have made our very own street with houses, cars, animals and we’ve even chosen what job we’d like to do. Our street is called ‘Rainbow Street’.

Here are a handful of photos of our learning in Nursery.