Bonfire Night Traditions and Celebrations.

4th November 2023Sarah Winkley

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!

Expert Visitors

31st October 2023Laura Parsons

We had a visit before our march from Mr West and Mr McLaughlin – from Askern CRY Food Bank and St. Peter’s Church to give us more information about the foodbank we are supporting and the difference we are going to make to our community.

Celebrating Harvest Festival.

13th October 2023Sarah Winkley

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!

World Mental Health Day Crews.

10th October 2023Sarah Winkley

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!

KS1 Community Meeting

8th October 2023Laura Parsons

We were really lucky this week that National Poetry Day was on the same day as our community meeting! In crew we have been sharing, writing and performing poetry in preparation for today. Instead of our usual ‘news from the crews’ we had our very own poetry jam. It was brilliant to hear the children performing the poetry they have been enjoying this week to all of the other crews.

Thank you for an awesome community meeting 😀

Mrs Parsons xx

Thoughtful Thursday – Life skills.

5th October 2023Sarah Winkley

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.