As part of our expedition on Transport this term we have been looking at maps. Today during a maths related activity, Nursery were exploring a familiar route. First they learned about what a route is and then they used a map to guide them and thought hard about positional language including; forward, left and right. They walked the route and then explained how they got back to Nursery talking about familiar landmarks and beginning to use key words above. Well Done to our little Orienteers!
Today Nursery had an awesome day, expressing themselves in an African drumming workshop provided by Steve from Unbeatable Energy. The workshop was provided by our expert visitor as the whole of EYFS have been looking at African culture through the story of Handa’s Suprise in comparison to Little Red Riding Hood a more traditional tale. The children learnt to listen, repeat and keep a beat and experiment with different sounds as well as stopping in time.
We all had great fun and there were lots of smiles all round, especially when our parents came to watch and join in! What an experience, Nursery enjoyed showing off their new skills. Well Done Everyone!
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!
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!
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.
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…
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.
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
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….
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.
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!
