Over the past week Nursery have also been learning about the Hindu festival of Diwali, celebrated as “The Festival of Light”. We had an Expert Visitor come into Nursery to read our key text “Chapatti Moon” by Pippa Goodhart and model how to make Chapatti’s with the children after our first attempt to grapple with chapatti making didn’t quite go to plan – it is harder than it looks! The children had lots of fun making their chapatti with Mrs O’Donnell and used their listening ears to carefully follow instructions.
Just look at our beautiful work….
Nursery were also immersed in lots of different provision throughout the week to demonstrate how Diwali is traditionally celebrated. We learned lots of new vocabulary, such as Diva’s, Rangoli, Mehndi, Nann, Poppadoms and Spices. The children had lots of fun exploring, experimenting, tasting and creating.
Brilliant learning Nursery, celebrating other traditions and cultures! You have been Go For It Gorillas, Persevering Parrots and Teamwork Tigers.
On Friday 10th November Nursery learned about and celebrated the tradition of Remembrance Day. They watched a short video about the meaning of the day and why we wear poppies as a mark of respect and remembrance. The children learned that the poppies were the first flower to grow on the fields after the war. Teachers modelled how to make our own poppies using loose parts and also how to create a field of poppies, using paint and an apple to print in provision. Just look at our beautiful work!
For snack we also made our own Poppy toast. We used our fine motor skills to spread the jam. The children were encouraged to think about the shape of the toast and why we were using Strawberry jam to decorate it? Some of the words the children used were; “Because it’s red”, “Because it’s red like a Poppy”, “same colour as the flower”, “because it’s yummy!”
To draw our celebrations to a close we read a story called “Thank you for the Little Things” by Caryl Hart to inspire and encourage the children to be thankful for the duty and service of the fallen and our current serving servicemen and women. Finally we watched a beautiful, poignant and child friendly animation about the tragic effects of war lived through the eyes of animals, which the children empathised with and received well. Some of their words were “Sad”, “Upset”, “Scary”, “They’re hiding”, “Frightened of the bangs”, “Like fireworks”, “Foggy”, “Cloudy”, “Poppies grow”, “Soldiers hat”, “Happy again” and “it’s safe now”.
As part of our on-going expedition of “What do stories Tell us about Autumn?” Nursery have continued to learn about autumn life and animals, as well as celebrations that happen in late autumn. This week through our story “It Was a Cold, Dark Night” by Tim Hopgood, Nursery have explored how Hedgehog’s hibernate through the winter. Ned, the Hedgehog in our story was looking for somewhere to live and hibernate. Check out our story via this link…
Nursery were encouraged to explore and investigate how safe the place Ned finds to live, really is? We were thinking about the traditions and celebrations that happen around Bonfire Night. Many people or organisations build bonfires in open spaces, which Hedgehogs might think are a good place to hide and hibernate under the bonfire wood piles. It is our job as a community to check for the Hedgehogs before lighting fires to save the creatures who are just trying to stay warm and cosy.
This led to further thinking about what bonfire night is. Nursery learned all about Guy Fawkes and that that we celebrate the 5th of November to remember the foiling of the Gunpowder plot. Words the children used to explain this were “naughty Guy tried to blow up houses”, “Guy was going to explode” and “Guy got caught by police, put him jail”. To bring the historical figure to life the children made Guy sock puppets. We stuffed socks with straw, glued on goggly eyes, drew on his moustache, face and hat. They did a great job!
As part of our Wise Wednesday Crew Nursery investigated ways in which we can keep ourselves safe during bonfire night by watching a short video of Blippi and exploring a feely bag of protective clothing. They learnt the catch phrase “Fireworks are great, stand back and give them space”.
As part of our Thoughtful Thursday Crew the children passed around and investigated an unused Sparkler. They described it as “Pointy”, “Rough”, “smooth”, “hard” and “bendy”. The teachers then modelled how to safely hold and dispose of a lit sparkler outdoors. There were quite a few of Nursery children who had never seen a sparkler before. It was an exciting experience for them.
Next we all tried a traditional bonfire night food “Parkin”. The children used these words to describe how the parkin tasted…. “Too salty”, “Too Sour”, “Sticky”, “Chocolatey”, “Like Gingerbread men” . Everyone tried it, which was great as it is always nice to try new things.
The children’s homework was to take home a Sparkler to enjoy and experience with their parents and to send in a photo along with any words the children had used to describe their what they saw, heard or felt. Here are the results…..
Words used to describe their experience were; “golden”, “yellow”, “cool”, “sparkling”, “sparkly”, “bright”, “like fire”, “like stars”, “fizzy”, “pshhh!”(when it extinguished in the bucket), “white”, “dangerous”, “burny” and glittery”. Awesome learning Nursery and everyone was very Fire safety conscious too – Well Done!
On Thursday 12th October, Nursery celebrated their first Harvest Festival. We have been learning about religious celebrations in Autumn time, as part of our on going expedition “What do stories tell us about Autumn?” We recently made “Gruffalo Crumble” using autumnal ingredients which have been harvested and began our explorations from there. The Children watched a short programme explaining what Harvest Festival is, during their “Thoughtful Thursday” Crew. Nursery parents very kindly donated food to help us celebrate Harvest Festival and we looked at the different kinds of foods that grow in fields and are made from harvested ingredients.
Nursery then read a couple of pages from a non fiction text titled “Festivals through the year – Autumn” by Anita Ganari. This text told us that traditionally Christian’s donated food to decorate the church and feed people who didn’t have enough food. We also found out that there is an ancient farmers tradition, where people would make Corn Dollies with the last pieces of corn from the Harvest. These dollies would be hung in barns and farmers kitchens until the end of the winter and then replanted into the fields the following season as seeds to make more corn and bring good luck. Nursery had a go at making their own corn dollies.
Finally as our celebrations drew to a close, we talked about how we would donate all of the food we had collected to the local food bank in Askern, to help local families within our community. We are very proud of our efforts and grateful for the huge generosity of our families – Thank you for helping us to make this possible. Just look how much food we “harvested” to donate!
Nursery spent their “Tranquil Tuesday” Crew time outdoors today to mark World Mental Health Day. The children discussed why being outdoors makes us happier and how being happy is good for our brains to keep us healthy. We played “copy me” games, where an action was modelled first by the teacher and then repeated by each child together as a group. Next the children took turns to model and their crew mates copied their actions. We finished our Crew session by singing Nursery rhymes, loud and clear for all to hear!
Today Nursery dedicated their “Thoughtful Thursday” Crew to learning the life skill of putting on their own coats. These skills are essential for teaching independence, boosting confidence and developing gross motor skills in young children. We have a special song for doing just this in Nursery, which we practised and then I modelled step by step, just how it was done. The children also learned how to turn their sleeves the correct way after removing their coats, as this is a real issue for little people as they often end up inside out, making it tricky to put it back on. We practised several times.
At “playtime” significantly less help was needed to help the children put on their coats. It is a skill which we will continue to practise in school and I hope the children are encouraged to do this idependently at home also. Well Done Nursery! You are “Go for it Gorillas” and “Persevering Parrots” also.
This week Nursery have been creating Gruffalo’s hats, (as part of our second case study “What do you see if you take a stroll in autumn?”) using a variety of 2d shapes. Nursery have been learning about matching shapes and using language such as “Pairs” and “The same”. The children have thought hard about the names of the shapes and how many of each shape they will need when creating their Gruffalo’s faces to match the model… They have done a wonderful job so far, here are a few!
Last week the Nursery children were learning about the different kinds of animals that live in woodlands, through our story “The Brave Little Owl” written by Penny Little and Sean Jullian. We are very fortunate to have a beautiful wooded area within our school grounds, just behind Nursery. So we went to explore the woods and see if we could spot any autumnal animals on a woodland animal hunt.
Children checked off the animals from their list and named them. We also found some natural treasures within the woodland such as feathers and dandelions which sparked some curiosity and interesting questions. Well Done Nursery.
As part of our expedition of “What do stories tell us about Autumn?” The Nursery children have been thinking about wildlife and how the birds will feed as the weather changes. Nursery have made their own bird feeders using their fine motor skills, threading cereal onto pipe cleaners. We then hung them onto the trees and bushes around Nursery. During our Thoughtful Thursday Crew we have also examined bird seed and filled up see through bird feeders to hang in Nursery’s garden, so we can watch the birds feed.
Since the return to school nearly two weeks ago, Nursery have been working hard on becoming familiar with each other and staff, learning new routines and settling into school life – we have all done superbly well. However Nursery needed to learn what a Crew actually means, as it is their first time in school; we had to learn “What is a Crew?”
Through the modelling and explanation of our HOWL’s the children have discovered that we are all expected to Be Kind, Work Hard and Get Smart. Children have been building relationships with both staff and their crews through crew games and activities. Everyone tried hard to be collaborative and inclusive, working as a team, sharing and being kind to each other. We have learned how to form a Crew Circle using song, as that’s always a good way to make routines fun! Check out our Crew building activities:
We played “Fill Up the Bucket” where each Crew had to pass coloured balls, backwards along the line and place them in the bucket with their final crew member. The children loved this game and enjoyed racing to see which crew could empty their starting circles first. We also changed positions to allow children to adopt different roles in the game.
We brought in our own special soft toys from home and began to celebrate how we are all different and like different things. We told our crew members all about our toys and then played a game of “Bounce the Teddy” encouraging the children to pass their special toy on to a friend and understand that sharing is caring and to trust their crew mate with their treasured toy. The children really enjoyed this activity and did very well in sharing and understanding that their toy would be safe and looked after.
We finished our crew weeks with celebration parties from Mr Dan. He made us all feel good and laugh. The children loved his tricks and learnt how to spin a plate! We have had the most amazing two weeks and have enjoyed getting to know each other better. We are Crew!
