Clay Animals and The Songbird Cafe

5th March 2025Elouise Chadwick

Crew Chadwick has enjoyed taking part in some great ‘outdoor crew’ sessions this week, led by Mrs Jackson. In our first session, the children enjoyed sculpting clay into different animals. Take a look at some of our creations…

Our number one rule in Class 1 is to be kind, therefore we loved our next crew activity. We got to make bird feeders for all of the local birds and hung them in our Norton Songbird Cafe. Within minutes of them being hung on the tree, a beautiful robin was already feasting away! Looking after nature is something we spoke about in our last expedition, ‘How do we show we care’. It felt great, carrying out this act of kindness.

Crew Chadwick would like to give a BIG shout out to Mrs Jackson for planning and resourcing such great activities. We loved it! Thank you 🙂 xx

Art makes us happy…

5th March 2025Elouise Chadwick

In case study two the children have been answering the question ‘What happens to plants as they grow?’ Not only have the children been scientists in this case study, but we have also been inspired by Vincent Van Gogh and his series of ‘Sunflower’ paintings.

Each child did a great job mixing powder paints to create a large petal that we later turned into a bigger piece of artwork. We are looking forward to sharing the finished product with families at our celebration of learning event.

This week we have been working on our own versions of Vincent Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflower’ painting. The children have mixed different colours and shades to create a desired effect. I think we may have some budding artists of our very own in class 1!

PE lesson in Class 2

5th March 2025Emma Powell

We loved our PE session this morning where we practised lots of skills at a series of stations. We travelled across and jumped off of different apparatus. We worked on our ball skills, kicking a football and dribbling around cones and also using basketballs to bounce balls to ourselves and our partners. We also practised Yoga poses that we have learnt recently. It was great fun and was brilliant to see children challenging themselves and moving with great control and confidence. A great effort by everyone in Class 2 today!

Teamwork makes us Bloom.

2nd March 2025Sarah Winkley

Over the past few weeks Nursery have been working hard as “Artists” to create a petal each or as a duo, in preparation to be used as part of their final product for this expedition. Through our stories “Little Sunflower” by Igloo Books and “Sam Plants a Sunflower” by Kate Petty the children gained inspiration for their artwork as they learnt how a sunflower grows and blooms. They have been investigating and exploring techniques using both paint and collage. The children have grappled with the effects that they could create using ready mixed paint and different brush strokes or manipulations of their paint brush. Some children chose either medium of paint or collage, whilst others chose to create with both. Here are some wonderful examples;

Upon completion of this beautiful artwork, the children worked collaboratively to first build their own sunflower for each nursery group, and then as a collective of Nursery as a whole merging both groups petals (later to be revealed on their final product at our celebrations of learning). Just look at the children’s beautiful work!

Morning Nursery’s Sunflower
Afternoon Nursery’s Sunflower

Crew Outdoors

27th February 2025Claire Goodyer

Crew Goodyer have had a lovely week taking crew outdoors and enjoying some early Spring sunshine!☀️ Mrs Jackson led our crew on Tuesday when we made some wonderful clay animals and this morning we walked around our grounds looking for signs of spring. Being out in the fresh air and sunshine is a great way to start each day.

Fitness Fun in Class 1!

27th February 2025Elouise Chadwick

The children have been showcasing their physical skills this week in P.E. This includes, balancing, jumping, dribbling and negotiating space. We had fun whilst keeping fit…

Spring is beginning to be sprung.

24th February 2025Sarah Winkley

To hook Nursery back into our current expedition “How do things grow and change?” Today we took a nature walk as part of our second case study “What happens as a plant grows” to see if the children could spot any signs of growth in our environment. The children donned their finest pair of imaginary magnifying goggles and used all of their senses to investigate the signs of spring around our campus. Here is the evidence that we found…

The children found a variety of springtime flowers beginning to grow including daffodils, crocus, daisies and snowdrops. They also heard the sound of “birds tweeting” and felt the “warm sunshine” on our faces “making us feel hot”. The children also found some mini beasts waking up to start their springtime journey.

Also the children payed tribute to a past member of staff whilst examining her memory garden, by laying daisies that they’d picked, on the special pebbles. A beautiful thought and act of kindness. A wonderful and purposeful Mindful Monday.