“Heal the World… Make it a better place”.

3rd February 2026Sarah Winkley

Yesterday Nursery were hooked into learning for our second case study, How Can we power our vehicles without damaging our world? Through the medium of role play. Nursery staff pretended to be planet earth and a car. The Earth explained to the children, all of the wonderful things that it gives to help us and animals live happy lives including; water, air and food.

Then along came a car, with its polluting clouds of fumes and smoke! It refuelled at the petrol station and was busy tootling around creating more and more pollution.

Sadly all of the cars smoke and fumes began to make the earth poorly…

The driver of the car, then stopped to think about how they could make a small change to help make a difference to the world and help the world to get better and for us to have cleaner air… By walking to places more.

The children were so immersed in the roleplay, that they continued the role play in their free flow play, thinking about the fuels we use to power our vehicles and which vehicles used fuel to make them work? They talked about “diesel”, “petrol” and “electric” cars.

This week the children are also exploring a pollution play tray linked to our thoughts of saving the earth. They have began to explore what happens to the rainforests by large vehicles causing deforestation and how the warming gases and fumes make the ice caps melt that the polar bears live on.

Nursery have been inspired to think of small changes and little ways in which we can help, through our key text “Please Help Planet Earth” a Ladybird eco book. We have found that we can turn off taps, save electricity by turning off lights when we’re out of a room, we can recycle rubbish and place all rubbish in bins, we can plant flowers for the bees and butterflies, we can grow our own vegetables to save the rainforests from being turned into farms, we can help to feed the birds and most importantly we can walk to more places or take a bus or a train to help keep pollution fumes lower. Beautiful work Nursery!

Go, Go, Nursery’s boats.

2nd February 2026Sarah Winkley

Last week Nursery children were immersed in learning about all kinds boats introduced through our key text “Go Go Pirate Boat”(which is a melodic text that tells a story, to the familiar tune of Baa Baa Black Sheep, drawing on the children’s previous phonic knowledge and helping them to create new Nursery rhymes of their own). We began by focusing on the two boats in our story using pictures to support our understanding, these were a rowing boat and a pirate ship. We noticed the similarities and differences between the boats and unpicked key vocabulary, using physical movements to activate our learning pretending to use or be a sail, a hoist, oars and the plank.

The children made up their own boat themed stories using our tales tool kit resources, thinking of their own problems and solutions of what happened to “Sharon” the mermaid and “Captain Pirate Underpants”. The language, ideas and enthusiasm was infectious! The children worked hard to revisit and recall all of the story using repetition. Great work!

On Wise Wednesday the children were encouraged to think carefully about what other vehicles or vessels go in or on the sea? They went on a gallery walk around Nursery and observed several different vehicles, some which were familiar and others that they didn’t know of, including a kayak, a submarine, a cruise ship, an oil tanker, a fishing trawler, a speedboat and a hovercraft. The children engaged in some thoughtful conversations about the vehicles using clues from the pictures to guess what that type of boat would be used for.

Afterwards the children continued their previous learning of making a list, being encouraged to think of the initial sound of the sea vehicle. Look at out our beautiful drawings.

Wheels, Wheels, Wheels.

18th January 2026Sarah Winkley

This week Nursery children have began exploring their first case study into our new expedition “We are on the move – Would you travel by wheels, wings or other things?” In this case study we are focusing on what vehicles move by wheels, wings and other things? We started with wheeled vehicles with the help of our primary text “Car, Car, Truck, Jeep” by Katrina Charman. We learned the “Car, Car, Truck, Jeep” song which is sang to the tune of one of our familiar Nursery rhymes, Baa, Baa, Black Sheep. At the end of the week the children were filmed singing part of the song (which included wheeled vehicles) and this was shared with parents via Class Dojo – check it out!

To activate the children’s learning we shared photos of their own experiences on wheeled vehicles, here are a few.

We also engaged in transport themed yoga where the children used their physical skills to hold poses pretending to be a car, a train and a boat.

We played Vehicle Pass the Parcel, where the children sang as they passed around the bag before taking out a vehicle, attempting to name it and making the sound that it makes. To deepen their understanding of some vehicles the children matched their pass the parcel toy to emergency service vehicles using photo cards.

To consolidate our learning we drew a car, following step by step instructions, using lines both straight and curved and circles. We were very careful in our observations to try and copy our teacher as accurately as we could. Our drawings were amazing!

We were challenged to build vehicles indoors and out using all kinds of construction materials.

Our maths learning focused on parking a number of vehicles in a car park and counting each mobile, to check how many there were in the spaces? We were challenged to think about how many more we could fit in the car park too.

And in our creative moments we collaged a car from our choice of coloured papers and glue, which we will display on a stand to make it look like it’s driving along on its wheels. We also learnt how to finger paint and created vehicles such as a car, a lorry and a train using different parts of our fingers.

To demonstrate all of our new knowledge we finished the week by creating a list of wheeled vehicles. We each took turns to think of and draw a different vehicle and were encouraged to think of and say the initial sound to label the vehicle on our list.

What a fun filled week it has been. We’re excited to explore vehicles that go in the air next.

The Bus was for Us!

14th January 2026Sarah Winkley

During our first week back Nursery experienced a very exciting hook week to power up our new expedition, We are on the move – Would you travel by Wheels, Wings or Other things?

We had a very exciting Vehicle Showcase on our school grounds to support our hook week text The Bus is For Us by Michael Rosen. In the text the children explored various modes of transport that were available for people to travel by, both real and imaginary. To bring the text to life the Nursery children observed a range of real life vehicles or modes of transport that move around our local community including; a tractor, a camper van, an old american Sheriff car, a fire engine, an old vintage car, roller skates, a scooter and a mobility scooter! The children were so excited to look at the vehicles and sit inside/on some of them. The talked about the appearance and colours of the vehicles and picked out key features, such as wheels, mirrors, lights, fuel cap/bottle and special features such as ladders and raised roofs!

Nursery also went on a short trip to the Junior school to make traffic observations. They were excited to count and see various modes of transport that moved up and down the busy road. We saw a van, a post van, several cars, a bike, someone walking and a dog, birds flying, lorries and two trucks. Finally after a little wait we were even lucky enough to see a Bus!! “The Bus is for us, the Bus is for everyone!”

We then thought carefully about what we had seen and placed lollypop sticks to mark a simple tally, which helped the children to remember the different kinds of vehicles.

Each day we are encouraged to walk to school to stay healthy and help the environment, we complete a Travel Tracker to record this. When we were completing this in hook week, the children were encouraged to consider how they move through their journey to school, is it by wheels or other things?

Finally to race to the finale of our week Nursery were asked to come to school on their bikes or scooters as an alternative to walking or driving. The children were so excited to share their bikes and scooters with us.

What a wonderful hook week and first week back it was to chase the Christmas blues away and accelerate our learning into their latest expedition.

Remembering and letting our lights shine.

11th November 2025Sarah Winkley

This week Nursery are thinking about cultural celebrations/traditions and have been exploring Diwali and Remembrance Day.

We began the week by hooking the children into Diwali, the Hindu celebration of light, by immersing the children in special Indian music and entering Nursery in the darkness, lit only by Diya lamps. The children were so excited and soothed by the atmosphere as they drew pictures of the diya lamps. They listened carefully to our key text “Binny’s Diwali” by Thrity Umrigar and learned that the lamps are traditional and used as decorations to guide in luck and light and warn off any darkness.

We have also paused to remember and celebrate the fallen and serving armed forces on Remembrance Day, by listening to an age appropriate story “Lest We forget” by Kerry Brown during our Tranquil Tuesday Reading Crews. The children came to school dressed in patriotic colours to show their support for the cause and made donations to the British Legion. Nursery have drawn some beautiful pictures of Poppy’s using their observational, considering shapes and simple details including colour.

All Things Bright and Beautiful.

15th September 2025Sarah Winkley

What a “Marvellous” hook week Nursery had last week! As part of our first expedition “Marvellous Me” the children shared parts of their personality that make them “the same, but different” to each other. To begin the week we all dressed in our favourite colour, we were all very bright and beautiful, very much like the rainbow.

Over the next couple of days the children brought in their favourite toys, certificates or props from a hobby to share with their friends during Crew and explain a little bit more about what they like and are interested in. Here are a few;

On Thursday we shared photos of our families and spoke about who our special people are. The children loved to see their photos up on the big screen or being held up. We played a short guessing game to see if we could work out whose family it was? There were also lots of beautiful pets that featured in the photos – We were all excited to see them.

Friday saw us finish our hook off with a teddy bears picnic. The children brought in their favourite friend in the form of a soft toy or teddy and we shared a delicious brunch together in the sunshine. We sang nursery rhymes and some tried croissants and fruit juice for the very first time. It was just lovely.

“Loving Lions“ Settle.

8th September 2025Sarah Winkley

During our first official week back with all Nursery children together, they have been focusing on being kind, like “Loving Lions” through carefully chosen texts. The children have began to play co-operatively and alongside each other with more respect and kindness. We have focused on sharing toys and resources and praised the children when we have seen this in the areas of provision. Children continued to familiarise themselves with the environment and begin to follow routines with increasing ease.

Here are a few photos to show how well the children are settling in, having fun and becoming Crew and getting used to routine and the expectations for the beginning of their school journey.

Taking part in fun, active listening Crew games such as the Animal Freeze Song.

Beginning to play collaboratively or being “Teamwork Tigers”. Over the week we heard lots of children say; “You can play with me” or “I will help you” or “Can I play?” We are beginning to make new friendships.

Next week we begin our first ever learning expedition… how exciting! I wonder what it could be about?

Nursery’s introduction to Crew.

2nd September 2025Sarah Winkley

This week Nursery have began to learn what Crew is? And how we take part in it?

We have circled up using our special circle song and we have began to become more familiar with our Crew leader’s. Each crew has the name of a bird as their Crew name and a little pet to help the children to understand being kind, helping them to focus and concentrate whilst take turns to speak. We wonder if you can guess the names of our Crews?

Our focus this week is one of our core principles “ Being Kind”. We are teaching this through a host of stories about kindness and friendship, in particular “Kind” by Axel Scheffler where the key character is lion. This links to our characteristic’s of effective learning character’s, where we encourage the children to show kindness like a “Loving Lion”. Being kind underpins everything we do at Norton Infant School, especially in the Early Years as it helps children to build strong bonds and relationships with each other and staff. This character trait is essential for learning those early social skills, how to treat others, how to play fairly and respectfully and how to look after each other and our Nursery. Let us know if you catch your child being kind – Look out for reward stickers and certificates to praise their acts of kindness this week.

Did you guess our Crew names?

That’s right Crew Puffin’s, Crew Blackbirds, Crew Penguins and Crew Robin’s.

EYFS Community Meeting

4th July 2025Emma Powell

Our postcard winners this week…Some amazing examples of being kind, working hard and getting smart.

Well done to everybody – you are all amazing.

EYFS Community Meeting

20th June 2025Emma Powell

Well done to all of our postcard winners today…..we had lots to share and celebrate!! We heard some lovely examples of children leading their own learning, being creative, doing teamwork and persevering with tasks. Another fabulous week in our Nursery and Reception classes.