Welcome to the Nursery
Sunshine page
Welcome
Hello Nursery Friends,
We can’t believe it is our final half term before the summer holidays!
This term, we are looking at the topics of ‘Summer’ and ‘People Who Help Us’, and we have lots of exciting activities and learning planned!
Grown ups, please remember that we are always here to support our families. If you have any questions, would like any advice, or would just like a little chat, please phone us on the main school telephone number. We are always happy to talk to you.
Keep safe and look after yourselves ♥
Miss Rowland, Mrs Marsden and Miss McFall
Second Half of Summer Term
This is our plan for the next seven weeks
Pencil Control and Name Writing!
This half term we will continue to focus on pencil control and name writing. This will help us to prepare for starting Reception in September!
We hold our pencils and pens using ‘birdie fingers’.
We write our letters using the formation below (starting at the red dots).
We will also focus on becoming secure in numbers 1-5
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Reading the numerals
- Counting the quantities
- Showing the number on our fingers
- Counting out from a larger group
-
-
-
-
-
-
And being able to name the shapes:
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Circle
- Square
- Triangle
- Rectangle
-
-
-
-
-
-
The themes for the Summer First Half Term were Space and Transport.
We have taught the children to use their words to:
* Describe how to get to space (in a rocket) and use key vocabulary related to space (moon, stars, sun, rocket, astronaut)
* Name the different types of transport when shown a picture (car, bus, bicycle, train, aeroplane, boat)
Our key texts this half term have been:
The themes for the Spring Second Half Term were Growing, Fruit & Vegetables, and Spring.
We have taught the children to use their words to:
* Name two important things that a plant needs to grow (water, sunlight)
* Say the name of five fruits (apple, pear, orange, banana, strawberry) and five vegetables (carrot, broccoli, pea, sweetcorn, cauliflower) and sort them into the correct category
* Name some signs of Spring (new flowers/plants/leaves, baby animals)
Our key texts this half term have been:
We have also taught the children about Mother’s Day and Easter.
For British Science Week, we looked at balloons and the theme “Up, Up and Away!”.
The themes for the Spring First Half Term were Down on the Farm and Chinese New Year.
We have taught the children to use their words to:
* Name the different animals that you can find on a farmyard
* Say/make the noises that the different animals make
* Name some features that you can find on a farmyard e.g. pond, fence, tractor
Our key texts this half term have been:
We have also taught the children about Chinese New Year and how it is celebrated.
The themes for the Autumn Second Half Term were Halloween, Bonfire Night, Remembrance Day, Autumn, Toys, Winter and Christmas
We have taught the children to use their words to:
* Describe the signs of Autumn
* Say how they celebrate Christmas
Our key texts this half term have been:
We have also taught the children about Remembrance Day and how it is celebrated.
The themes for the Autumn First Half Term were Friendship, Ourselves and Our Senses
We have taught the children to use their words to:
* Name the features of their faces (eyes, ears, nose, mouth, hair)
* Say what they can see, hear and feel
Our key texts this half term have been:
Personal, Social & Emotional Development
One of our key objectives in Nursery is to learn to play kindly with our friends, sharing, taking turns and building on each others’ play and ideas. Some of the ways we learn this best are through role play and playing with our ‘small world’ toys. Here we learn to take turns playing different characters and to share the toys between us.
We also learn to follow our class rules and to understand why they are important for helping us to learn and make friends.
Our class rules are:
Listen to grown ups and each other
Talk quietly
Walk inside
Be kind
How can you help at home?
Spend some time playing with your child, whether it be role play (e.g. playing mummies and daddies or superheroes) or playing with their toys (e.g. dolls or Paw Patrol figures). Take it in turns to play with the different toys or to play the different characters. Encourage your child to share with you and build on each other’s ideas.
Mrs Walton’s top tips
Hi, My name is Mrs Walton and I am one of the Speech and Language Teaching Assistants here at Abbey Hill. You may have seen me working throughout the Foundation Stage Unit. I specialise in supporting children with language and communnication difficulties, 1-1 or in a small group.
Working closely with Speech and Language Therapists, I have been fortunate to develop my skills over the years and I am now in a position to offer training to teaching staff to further help support children’s communication and language development.
If you need any advice or just a general chat regarding your child’s language and communication development, talk to a member of the FS Staff and they will let me know 😊.
Talking together
No matter how old I am one of the best ways to help my speech and language development is to have some quiet time with me so we can talk, look at books together or sing nursery rhymes. It is always best to make sure the T.V is switched off and there is little background noise.
- I love playing make-believe games and enjoy it the most when you join in too. Make a pretend cup of tea with me or help make dolly better.
- Now my language is developing, it’s ok if I stumble or make mistakes in my talking, sometimes I’m finding the right words to say. Give me lots of time to talk and try not to draw attention to my mistakes.
- I love looking at books, please read to me and encourage me to join in and say some of the key words. It feels good to ‘read’ all by myself.
- I am learning how to say a variety of words through copying. Say the words to me how you would say them e.g. I say “I buyed the book” you say “yes you bought the book”
- I feel great when you are looking at me when I’m talking, it lets me know that what I have to say is really important. This will encourage longer sentences in my talking.
- Give me lots of opportunities for language by giving choices or asking open ended questions e.g. Would you like pizza or fish fingers for tea? My favourite part of the book was where the little girl finds her lost teddy…What was your favourite part?
Challenge!
We challenge you to put on your woolly jumpers and your wellies to go and find all things autumnal! Create a poster or a display of your favourite finds. This is a great way to get talking and learn new vocabulary!
You may find Conkers, Pumpkins, Crunchy leaves and Pinecones. You may also notice new sounds such as a squirrel rustling in the trees, a trickling of water or the whistling of the wind. See what you can discover this Autumn. Have fun!!!
Physical Development
In nursery, we work on developing our “gross motor” and “fine motor” skills.
Gross motor skills
These relate to the larger muscles in your body, and involve larger muscle movements. Using your legs to jump or your arms to throw a ball are good examples.
At school, we try to develop our gross motor skills everyday! Some examples of our activities to help with this are:
Climbing on the climbing frame and balancing equipment, riding bikes, throwing and catching a large ball, obstacle courses (running through cones, jumping in hoops, hopscotch etc.)
Fine Motor Skills
Fine motor skills relate to the smaller muscle groups, such as the ones in your hands and wrists. These help you to use tools and equipment like scissors and pencils and are very important in helping you to write.
At school, we try to develop our fine motor skills everyday too! Some examples of our activities to help with this are:
Using tweezers to pick up small objects, pegging socks onto a line, threading beads onto a string, doing inset jigsaw puzzles, stretching elastic bands onto boards, peeling stickers, using scissors to cut
How can you help at home?
There are lots of things you can do at home to help with your child’s physical development!
You can play chasing games in the garden or park or have different types of races (running, jumping etc.) You can throw and kick a ball to each other or make your own obstacle courses.
Inside the house, you could ask your child to see how many pegs they can peg on to a clothes hanger, or they could help you prepare a fruit salad by cutting soft fruit like bananas. Perhaps they’d even like to make a ‘cereal necklace’ – threading cheerios onto string!
Keeping Healthy!
Washing our hands
For all of us, washing our hands regularly has become so important. At School we teach the children to wash their hands for 20 seconds by helping them count to 20, or by singing a favourite Nursery Rhyme e.g. ‘Twinkle. Twinkle, Little Star.
The song below, also teaches the children the importance of washing their hands and how to do it.
Eating Healthily
In Nursery, we also start to talk about the different foods we have at snack time and the reasons why. They learn about eating fruit and vegetables, and that they help us to grow big and strong.
The songs below are great for sharing with the children.
Literacy
Reading
In nursery, our key goal is to help children develop a love of stories. Each week, we have a “Book of the Week”, which will be related to the topic, but we also read lots of other stories to help introduce children to rhyme and rhythm, alliteration and repetition.
At the beginning of the year, the focus is on listening to and enjoying the stories, and in joining in with repeated phrases or familiar parts of the story.
As the year progresses, we begin to be more aware of the way stories are structured. We might anticipate key events or phrases, or even suggest how the story might end! Afterwards, we will be able to describe the main characters, events and settings.
How can you help at home?
The greatest way to help your child is to share a book together as often as you can! Just before bed is a lovely time! Take the time to enjoy the story together, looking at all the pictures and making the sounds and noises that appear in the book.
You could also listen to stories online. Cbeebies offer a lovely range of bedtime stories!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b00jdlm2/cbeebies-bedtime-stories
Writing
In nursery, we build the skills to helps us write once we move into Reception. Our focus in nursery is on mark making and giving meaning to the marks we make.
We do this through all sorts of different media! Pens, crayons, chalks, paints, toys, sticks, even our fingers themselves!
Initially, children like to explore mark marking and might not necessarily give meaning to their marks. That is absolutely fine and all part of their learning journey! But as they become increasingly confident, you may notice that their marks begin to mean something to them. They might tell you that it’s a picture of you, or perhaps your house! Over time, they will continue to develop in their mark making and you may notice that they begin to use lines to enclose space and create shapes. They will often use these shapes to represent different objects or different parts of the picture!
Encouragement and praise goes a long way in building children’s confidence and can really help them to develop and experiment with their mark making.
In nursery, we encourage the children to begin using the ‘tripod grip’ when they are ready, or ‘birdie fingers’ as we call it at school. Our aim is that by the end of the year, most children are able to hold their pencil or crayon in a similar position to the picture below.
Maths
Lockdown Home Learning
Week 5: Friday 5th February
Click on each symbol below to join in!
Today is Friday.
Click on each symbol below to listen!
The story of the week is The Three Billy Goats Gruff.
The Nursery rhyme of the week is Three Little Goats.
The sign of the week is goat.
Click on each symbol below to listen and join in!
Today for Carpet Time, we are singing “Where’s the Goat?” Can you use your words to describe where the goat is? And can you join in with the song?
Activity:
Choose one of your toys and play “Where’s the Toy?” with your grown up. Sing the song and take it in turns of hiding it and describing where it is!
Today in Letters & Sounds, we are reading a rhyming story. Can you listen out for the rhyming words?
Activity:
Do you have any rhyming stories at home? Read one with your grown up. Try and join in with the rhyming words!
Today in PE, we are going to play ‘Traffic Lights’!
Activity:
To prepare children for writing, there are lots of activities they can do to help develop the muscles they will need to write!
Today’s activity is “Crab Walk”. This develops core strength for posture.
Find this activity and many more here:
https://teachhandwriting.co.uk/gross-and-fine-motor-skills-games.html
Today for Story Time, we are reading “Dinosaurs Love Underpants“.
Lockdown Challenge!
Can you learn to write your name?
Practise a little each day and see how much you can learn by the end of lockdown!
Don’t forget to use your “birdie fingers”!
(Two fingers and a thumb)
Daily Number Time!
Make flash cards (separate small squares of paper with each of the numbers or shapes drawn on) for:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Circle, Square, Triangle, Rectangle
Practice reading the numbers and naming the shapes every day! Perhaps your grown ups can hide them around the room and you go on a hunt to find them! How fast can you find the numbers and shapes and name them?
Practice counting to 10 everyday!
Practice counting 5 objects each day!
Goodbye and see you tomorrow!
Lockdown Home Learning
Week 3: Friday 22nd January
Click on each symbol below to join in!
Today is Friday.
Click on each symbol below to listen!
The story of the week is The Three Little Pigs.
The Nursery rhyme of the week is Little Bo Peep.
The sign of the week is sheep.
Click on each symbol below to listen and join in!
Today in carpet time, we are telling the story of ‘The Three Little Pigs’ using our character blocks!
Activity:
Can you make your own characters? You could draw pictures and stick them to a plastic brick or a wooden block. Or you could use some of your toys. Can you tell the story of ‘The Three Little Pigs’?
Today in Letters & Sounds, we are making ‘Silly Soup’! All of our ingredients begin with the ‘s’ sound.
Activity:
Can you make your own ‘Silly Soup’ at home? Choose a sound and go on a hunt for ingredients that begin with that sound!
Today in PE, we’re playing Simon Says!
Activity:
Can you play at home with your grown up?
Today for Story Time, we are reading “The Gruffalo“.
Lockdown Challenge!
Can you learn to write your name?
Practise a little each day and see how much you can learn by the end of lockdown!
Don’t forget to use your “birdie fingers”!
(Two fingers and a thumb)
Daily Number Time!
Make flash cards (separate small squares of paper with each of the numbers or shapes drawn on) for:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Circle, Square, Triangle, Rectangle
Practice reading the numbers and naming the shapes every day! Perhaps your grown ups can hide them around the room and you go on a hunt to find them! How fast can you find the numbers and shapes and name them?
Practice counting to 10 everyday!
Practice counting 5 objects each day!
Goodbye and see you tomorrow!
Lockdown Home Learning
Week 3: Tuesday 19th January
Click on each symbol below to join in!
Today is Tuesday.
Click on each symbol below to listen!
The story of the week is The Three Little Pigs.
The Nursery rhyme of the week is Little Bo Peep.
The sign of the week is sheep.
Click on each symbol below to listen and join in!
Today in carpet time, we are spotting the different shapes in a picture of a pig. This will help us to draw our own picture!
Activity:
Can you have a go at drawing your own picture of a pig? What shapes are the different features of the pig? Remember to use your “birdie fingers” when drawing (two fingers and one thumb)!
If you would like to afterwards, see if you can draw the wolf too!
Today in Letters & Sounds, we are playing ‘Noisy Neighbour’. Can you guess the sounds?
Activity:
Go on a “Listening Walk” around your house. Stop in each room, close your eyes, and listen. What sounds can you hear?
Next go on a “Listening Walk” in your garden. What sounds can you hear there? Are they the same or different to the sounds you could hear inside?
Today in PE, we’re going to “shake our sillies out”!
Activity:
Can you think of any other moves you could do?
Today for Story Time, we are reading “Say Hello to the Animals“.
Lockdown Challenge!
Can you learn to write your name?
Practise a little each day and see how much you can learn by the end of lockdown!
Don’t forget to use your “birdie fingers”!
(Two fingers and a thumb)
Daily Number Time!
Make flash cards (separate small squares of paper with each of the numbers or shapes drawn on) for:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Circle, Square, Triangle, Rectangle
Practice reading the numbers and naming the shapes every day! Perhaps your grown ups can hide them around the room and you go on a hunt to find them! How fast can you find the numbers and shapes and name them?
Practice counting to 10 everyday!
Practice counting 5 objects each day!
Goodbye and see you tomorrow!
Lockdown Home Learning
Week 2: Wednesday 13th January
Click on each symbol below to join in!
Today is Wednesday.
Click on each symbol below to listen!
The story of the week is The Little Red Hen.
The Nursery rhyme of the week is Baa Baa Black Sheep.
The sign of the week is pig.
Click on each symbol below to listen and join in!
Today in carpet time, we are looking at patterns.
Activity:
Can you have a go at drawing the three different patterns we have looked at today?
Spotty⚪⚪⚪ Stripy➖➖➖ Zigzag 〰〰〰
Don’t forget to use your “birdie fingers”!
Today in Letters & Sounds, we are clapping the syllables (or ‘beats’) in words.
Activity:
Have a little picnic (real or pretend).
What food and drink will you have?
Can you clap the syllables in the words?
Today in PE, we are moving like the Avengers!
Activity:
Can you think of any other moves you could do?
Today for Story Time, we are reading “The Tiger who came to Tea“.
Lockdown Challenge!
Can you learn to write your name?
Practise a little each day and see how much you can learn by the end of lockdown!
Don’t forget to use your “birdie fingers”!
(Two fingers and a thumb)
Daily Number Time!
Make flash cards (separate small squares of paper with each of the numbers or shapes drawn on) for:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Circle, Square, Triangle, Rectangle
Practice reading the numbers and naming the shapes every day! Perhaps your grown ups can hide them around the room and you go on a hunt to find them! How fast can you find the numbers and shapes and name them?
Practice counting to 10 everyday!
Practice counting 5 objects each day!