The King’s Pants!

5th May 2023Sarah Winkley

This week Nursery have been enjoying two days of exploring and being immersed in our own micro expedition “What’s a Coronation all about?” based upon our text ”The Kings Pants” by Nicholas Allan. We learnt that King Charles, will be King Charles the third, as there were two other Charles that were Kings before him many years ago. We have listened to royal military marching music, looked at Royal Guards and observed what musical instruments are played during ceremonies. Then we practised and acted out our own parades.

Our thoughtful Thursday Crew was based around if we were a King or Queen for the day, what rule would we make? Some of the responses included ”Have chocolate for breakfast”, ”Only eat healthy food”, ”Clean all of the house everyday”, ”Be kind and gentle”, ”Don’t drive the bikes too fast”, ”Try our best”, ”Help our friends” and ”make everyone laugh”.

We thought about how we would like to celebrate and talked about parties that may be happening this weekend. Nursery made cupcakes and decorated them for a special surprise!

Our cupcakes were decorated with Red, White and Blue sprinkles – Just like the Union Jack.

Outdoors we took part in a Coronation Hunt, looking for key items and symbols of royalty… we enjoyed dashing around to find them and learnt lots of new words linked to the coronation, such as Septre, Red Arrows, Carriage, Bearskin Solider, Union Jack, Parade and Coronation.

Finally our Big Surprise was a ”Right Royal Tea Party” with a special visitor…see if you can spot him? We had juice in china tea cups and had special treats including our own cupcakes that we created. It’s been a very fun week and we have certainly worked hard, to get smart. Nursery would like to wish King Charles lll a very happy coronation! Long live the King!

We are storytellers.

27th April 2023Sarah Winkley

Nursery have been immersed in the story of Little Red Riding Hood this week. We have been identifying the main characters, thinking and talking about what they are like and comparing the Wolf and Red Riding Hood. We have been retelling the story in a host of ways including sequencing using story stones…

We have experimented with role play and acted out the roles of our key characters in small groups using story language and we were fabulous!! Look out for our videos on Dojo!

Making our own transport.

19th April 2023Sarah Winkley

Nursery have been experimenting this week with building our own vehicles from large deconstructed materials. We have been teamwork tigers, helping to source, fetch and carry the different parts. The children have been building upon each others ideas, particularly after the inspiring visit from the vintage bus and seeing what our reception classes have created throughout the week also.

“A Truck”

“A Boat”
”A Train”
“A Bus”


“A Monster Truck”
“A Helicopter”

Vintage Vibes!

19th April 2023Sarah Winkley

This week Nursery have been lucky enough to have had a visit from a vintage, red, London bus to kick off our new expedition on “Would you travel by wheels, wings or other things?” The children were very excited to climb aboard the double decker and were interested in examining key features of the bus acquiring lots of new language such as…

Indicators…
Number plate..
Petrol Cap
Drivers cab and step
Identification number
Grill
Hub caps and finally
Stairwells and pole.

The driver kindly played along with an imaginary trip to the seaside, pulling the bus forward and backwards in the car park to allow the children to experience the sound and buzz of the engine. He also sounded his horn and let the children experiment with the bell. Nursery sat on both the lower and the top deck of the bus and looked out of the windows to see what they could see.

Such a beautiful day for a visit to the seaside!

Final Touches and Bear-ginng our farewells!

3rd April 2023Sarah Winkley

The finishing touches have been added to our bear cub, with Olivia completing his head and each child from the foundation stage putting their hand print on his back as part of our community crew. All that remained to do, was for the logos to be attached and the bear to be varnished before Crewso began his journey to Leeds to join the Leeds Bear Hunt for the summer.

Crewso said his farewells to Norton and began his journey all shiny and proud, to represent the children of Norton Campus!

He was excited to meet his new temporary crew when he arrived in Leeds, stopping for a minute to take in the view of the River Aire across Rose Wharf in the sunshine. Then he happily climbed the stairs and joined his pack ready to be situated in his new home somewhere in Leeds City Centre. He’s going to let us know exactly where he is soon, so that we can all go and visit him! Have fun Crewso! #leedsbearhunt #leedsbearhunt2023 #leedshospitalscharity

It’s Bearly Believable…

30th March 2023Sarah Winkley

But yes, Norton Infant School has it’s very own Bear Cub – Crewso!

A short while ago, I launched a competition to design a limb or part of a large fibre glass bear cub in aid of raising funds for Leeds Children’s Hospital, who are currently supporting one of our families. Below is Bruce, who has found the very first bear on the Leeds Bear Hunt Trail, at Leeds Hospital whilst receiving his treatment.

We have received some beautiful, thoughtful and intricate entries for the competition from most year groups across the campus and I am very proud to announce the artists taking part in the design and decoration of our very own bear cub are…. Ava from 6SO, Evelyn from 4TE, James from 3LG, Olivia in Class 4, Isla in Class 2, Alarna in Class 1 and Lily-Mai in Nursery. As the project forms part of a legacy from our 2022 Foundation Stages Autumn Expedition of “How do we care for the bears?” Every child in the Foundation Stage and Nursery will be contributing their hand print to the final design also.

The artwork on the bear has commenced and each child has been carefully following their designs to produce an outstanding piece of art, which will be displayed in Leeds City Centre over the summer. Everyone is invited to visit our bear and take part in the Leeds Bear Hunt and feel proud that we have contributed to this fantastic event in aid of such a worthy cause. These children are activists making a difference to their community and we are incredibly proud of them. With teamwork and collaboration anything is possible! Here is a sneak peak of what has been happening….

Keep your eyes peeled for the finished bear over the coming week, before it makes it’s trip to Leeds for it’s temporary home over the summer during the trail. After the trail has finished the bear will return to us at the Infant School to live in our EYFS outdoor space as it’s forever home. There will be more fund raising events happening throughout the rest of the school year, to contribute towards the sponsorship of our bear cub, to raise money for the Leeds hospitals charity. As always your support is greatly appreciated and we are truly thankful that we can make a difference together as a community. For more information follow #Leedsbearhunt #Leedsbearhunt2023 #leedshospitalscharity

All tired out….

23rd March 2023Sarah Winkley

Nursery got their chicks home to roost today in our Nursery building. We have excitedly watched them hatch over the past week, tying in with our learning of the hen life cycle. The children have loved to watch the process and are enjoying watch the chicks grow and develop. I think it got all too much for them at lunch time and they huddled under the lamp to keep warm and rest.

We have some special visitors…

20th March 2023Rebecca Kendrew-Jones

The children in EYFS are very excited by the arrival of 14 chicks that are two to three days from hatching!

We are going to be watching them very closely to see if we can see any eggs with cracks or wobbling meaning the chicks are starting to make their way out into the world. It’s going to be great fun looking after them over the next two weeks!

Red Nose Day Fun!

17th March 2023Sarah Winkley

Nursery have enjoyed a day of Red Nose Day themed fun and learning. We have used our motor skills to fish for red items in the water tray, decorated Red Nose Biscuits, designed, cut and made superhero masks, made funny red rose faces on sticks and taken part in a special red nosed themed crew with the parachute practising our teamwork skills. All of the children looked amazing in their red clothes and especially designed T-shirts for the school competition, raising money for such a good cause.

Animal Cruelty v’s Kindness.

17th March 2023Sarah Winkley

During our Thoughtful Thursday Crew this week, Nursery were thinking about animal cruelty following on from our learning about how we can care for animals. The children experienced a toy dog fastened inside a cage, who was crying and whimpering. It was cramped and dark. The children empathised with the dog and were outraged about how he was been treated and his needs not been met. The children consolidated their learning by suggesting what the dog would need to meet his needs, make him happy and live a healthy lifestyle. Some children even linked the dogs emotions to our zones of regulation, suggesting that the dog would be in the blue and red zone.

The children showed kindness towards the dog and suggested that ”he should be let out” and “allowed to play” and ”go to the toilet” or ”have a drink and some food”. We decided to rescue the dog and when the children let the dog out, Nursery cheered. The children wanted the dog to live with our other toy dogs in our tuff tray with comfortable surroundings. ”He’s now in the Green Zone” one of the children remarked. Amazing work Nursery!