Week commencing 23rd January 2023 – Luna New Year

The great race is on and we are all winners in Nursery. This week our learning has been based around Luna New Year celebrations. We built on our knowledge of animals and explored how different people celebrate around the world, particularly in Asia.  We really challenged ourselves to master the chopsticks and tweezers – why don’t you test us at home!

Don’t forget to check out our photos – when we have a chance to look back and talk about our learning it helps us grow.

Week commencing 12^th December 2022 – The Snowman

What a fantastic week to focus on the snowman! For those of us who made it in, through all that wonderful snow, it was a real week of exploration and first hand learning about our book! The texture of the snow was just right for building our own snow people. We were amazed to see them last nearly a whole week – that just how cold it was! Inside we warmed up making snuggly beds in our home corner and having a hot chocolate party in the hall. Not without taking a moment to warm our hearts by writing winter cards for friends and family. We hope you liked them!

It has been a wonderful first term at school and we are just so excited to continue the adventure next term - see you on the 4^th of January!

Week commencing 5^th December 2022 – Family Winter Workshop!

It is almost the end of our first term in Nursery and what better way to mark it than a celebration with our families and supporters. We had a blast making decorations, hearing a winter story and performing a warming song. Of course the real highlight was roasting our marshmallows to make our own gooey s’mores!

The day was wonderful and we are so grateful to all those families who could make it out and support us. Please do talk to us about the pictures, it helps us recall and describe our experiences at school.

Week commencing 7^th October 2022 – Goldilocks and the Three Bears Continued

The chefs are in the kitchen and the learning smells great! From the mud kitchen to the home corner and especially in the porridge parlour, we have been very busy this week. Counting scoops and building muscles for mixing, as well as labelling our bowls and bags it has been non-stop in Star Class. The bears were so impressed with our recipe they even sent us resources to make our own paint. We are going to keep working on that next week - we will perfect those instructions in no time! Perhaps we might help with some of the cooking at home this weekend?

Don’t forget to look through the photos with me. Even when I’m not in the pictures it might remind me about some learning I want to share with all the family!

Week commencing 31^st October 2022 – Goldilocks and the Three Bears

We are back with a bang and a big bowl of porridge. It has been very exciting to meet the three bears and that cheeky Goldilocks! We have been focusing on size and counting. You won’t believe how skilled we are at recognising three - hops, claps, spoons, bowls, bears. What ‘threes’ can you notice when out and about this weekend? We are also starting to add lots of story language to our vocabulary so we can bring our own ideas alive. It has been a busy week but just like Baby Bears porridge it was, ‘Just right!’

Don’t forget to look through the photos with me. Even when I’m not in the pictures it might remind me about some learning I want to share with all the family!

October 2022 - Our first half term!

The first half term of Nursery is in the books! Time is flying and we can hardly believe what we have managed to fin in already. We are coming to school with big smiles on our faces and adults are so impressed to see us settle so quickly. Form giant bubbles to mud pies and castle building our imagination has taken us on a true adventure these past few weeks.

Over the half term take a look at these picture with me and see what I can tell you about my time at school. Do give me a little moment to rest because we will be right back, with cooking porridge for Goldilocks, after the half term!

Week Beginning 2nd May 2022 - Woodland Adventure

We had a lovely time at Gladstone park on Thursday we went on a scavenger hunt to see what interesting things we could find in the wooded area. We made nature bracelets, danced around the maypole and had great fun playing parachute games. We have many budding artist here at Mora, our fairy facies were pretty spectacular. I’m sure the fairies will be super happy with their new friends.

Week beginning 25^th April 2022 – The Odd Egg

There has been a real buzz and lots of quacks this week! We started the week looking at real eggs and comparing the size and colours. We had lots of interesting ideas about what might be growing inside. We remembered lots for fancy words like, ‘hatch’ and learnt new technical words too. Did you know eggs need to develop in an ‘incubator’? Ask us about it and we will tell you an incubator, “Keeps the eggs warm!” We have been curious about life inside an egg so created one big enough for the whole class. Inside the parachute we listened to the sounds around us. Back in the class room we welcomed two new ducklings, maybe you can help us think of some new names over the weekend.

Don’t forget there it is a short week next week. School is closed on Monday 2^nd of May for Bank Holiday and EYFS is also closed on Thursday 5^th of May, as our class will be used as a polling station. We hope to see lots of you at Gladstone park on Thursday morning (9:30am), ready for a family nature adventure. Please see parent mail for details.

Week beginning 21^st February 2022 – The Three Little Pigs

It was a windy week! In Star class we think it was probably the Big Bad Wolf huffing and puffing and causing trouble! Just like the little pigs in our story we have been busy building houses and exploring all sorts of materials. Some of them were no match for the wolf but you cannot blow us down so easily. We are working on resilience and also reviewing our work to improve it and make it better than ever.

This week we have been thinking a lot about the muscles in our mouths, growing strong cheeks to blow bubbles and thinking about how to change our lips and tongues to make different sounds. We might even practise at home in front of the mirror!

Don’t forget to review the pictures below with us, we love revisiting our learning with all of you!

Week beginning 7^th February 2022 – Penguin party time!

This week has been one massive celebration. Not only did we party with a penguin at very own tea party but we also had so much fun preparing music, food and drinks for the big event. From juicing citrus fruit for cocktails to creating masterpieces for our rainbow toast there was just so much learning to be had, and all of it was delicious. How better to celebrate the end of another amazing half term – Can you believe we are half way through the year now?

Do take a look at the fun we have had this week and don’t forget to talk to us about the pictures. Half term might be a nice time to look back at some of our previous learning as well.

Half term activity – Making Rainbow toast!

Ingredients:

• Milk
• Food colouring
• Bread

All you need to do is mix a few drops of food colouring to some milk and you have your rainbow paint. Decorate your bread and pop it in a toaster!

I wonder if you can write the first letter of your name on the toast?

Week beginning 31^st January 2022 – What we eat!

What a fascinating week we have had! Not only did we get an exciting invitation form a penguin but we also had a great time exploring all things food! When our Penguin friend told us there will be a party next week we got right to work on the menu. From discussing what we like to eat and hearing about friend’s different foods from home to chopping and prepping real food. Can you even believe we had time to mix up some salt dough to make play food for our home corner – we can’t wait to make our own paint and give it the finishing touches. We were so busy we almost made a huge mistake… Penguins don’t each cookies and vegetable soup! Luckily we figured out we needed to do some fishing to make sure there was healthy food for us all on the table. You won’t believe how brave we were when chopping and dissecting a real fish. It was messy bit the best way to learn about the anatomy of a fish.

Take a look at the fun we have had this week and don’t forget to talk to us about the pictures – what a great way to deepen our learning.

Week beginning 10^th January 2022 – Penguins!

It has been a fabulous but freezing return to Nursery. The children found a giant egg on Monday and we had all sorts of ideas about what it could be. We learnt that a creature can break out of its own egg and that is called ‘Hatching’.  Ask us what ‘hatch’ means and I think you will be impressed. Can you guess what hatched out of our mystery egg…. It came all the way from Antarctica, it waddles and is black and white. All that chilly learning made us think about what clothes we need for cold weather and we spent lots of time practising putting our coats, hats, scarves and gloves on and off. Check out our clever trick of putting our hats and scarves in our coat sleeves when we are hanging them up. Help us practise this at home and remember don’t do any of it for us – we are the experts now!   

Reminder – please make sure all children have a full bag of spare clothes at school. This needs to include, socks, pants, trousers, t-shirt, jumper. Everything needs to be labelled with a name if you don’t want it to get lost!

Week beginning 6^th December 2021 – Our Wonderful Winter Workshop!

What a wonderful winter workshop it was. We loved sharing activities, stories and songs with our families – thank you all for coming. Even mother nature couldn’t stop us roasting marshmallows on the fire and dancing to winter songs in the crisp fresh air.

For those of you who can’t get enough of our singing, singing and dancing head over to the Video Resource Centre where you can watch us again and again on the ‘Winter Videos and Songs’ playlist.

Take a look at the photos below and use them as a talking point. We still can’t stop talking about it at school!

Week beginning 29^th November 2021 – Super Subitising!

Another super week in the books! We have been out and about, adventuring around the school the past two weeks. What a great opportunity it was to practise our subtilising skills. That means, we are able to recognise small groups of numbers, without the need to count them. Ask us what we notice on our next walk together - we can even show you the numbers we see on our fingers. If that's not smart enough, check out how many ways we can make three, on our fingers. Ms Whittlestone is quite impressed with how creative we are with numbers these days! 

Reminder – Star Class Winter Workshop 6^th of December @ 2pm.

One adult is invited to join our nursery children for a winter celebration. We would love to see the morning children come back with an adult at 2pm also!

Week beginning 15^th November 2021 – Dentist training

We have been brushing up on all sorts of skills this week. After all the fine motor practise the past few weeks we were more than ready to open our own dental surgery. Managing the phones and appointments was a job in itself but with our budding talking skills we were up to the challenge. Once the clients were in, our dentists got right to the root of any problem teeth. We check x-rays and wrote down nurses notes to make sure there were smiles all round. Of course we wouldn’t be true dentists if we didn’t keep our own smiles sparkling. Check out our photos, but if you really want to see how amazing we are at brushing our teeth now we can give you a demo at home!

Don’t forget to check out our photo slide show and ask about our week!

Reminder – Next week is a short week. Nursery will close at 11:45 on Thursday morning and there will be no school on Friday.

Week beginning 8^th November 2021 – The Colour Monster.

Life is always a beach at Nursery and this week is no different. We have loved exploring the sandpit and digging up every last grain of sand on our hunt for treasure. And what did we do with the big hole we created? Filled it with water of course. Using our big muscles and even bigger brains we solved any problem thrown at us as we set out to fill up and transport the water pump. That isn’t all we put our super powers to outside this week. With rock music pumping and bubbles blowing we danced and swept our way around the creative area. Using our arms to swoop and our legs to steady us as we went, we created a mural worthy of the finest floor in the land.

From the biggest muscle to the finest detail we put our all into our learning this week. Don’t forget to talk to us about our discoveries this week. Telling you all about it makes it double the learning!

Week beginning 18^th October 2021 – How to Catch a Star.

Can you believe we have come to the end of our first half term in Star Class! We have loved every minute and we have definitely made the most of it. This week alone we have built fully functioning rockets (with microwaves and telephones to call home), had a bubble party, continued to grow our repertoire in our music classes and beat the coach at his own game in P.E. When you add in all the hard work we put into our normal working day; developing our communication and language, physical development, social skills and a million other elements …. you can see why we need a week long break.

Take the week to enjoy time with your family. Walks in the park, trips on the bus, cooking in the kitchen, whatever you get up to remember talking about it makes any activity an excellent learning opportunity.

We do love using natural resources in our EYFS space so remember to collect conkers, acorns and pine cones on your walks this half term. Our collection is growing!

It has been such a pleasure to get to know your children better. We look forward to continuing the Autumn term with them on Monday 1^st November 2021.

Week beginning 11th September 2021 – Aliens Love Underpants!

This week was all about pants! As soon as we knew the aliens from our class book were on their way it was all hands on spaceship-deck. We worked together to create a collaborative piece of art, or in other words a giant pair of pants. We think you will agree our textile skills are coming along, just like our mark making, climbing, exploration and so many other skills. It really is a good job we have been working on team work as it took the whole of EYFS to fill the tank for our new water pump. From watering cans to tea spoons we all helped transport the water across the playground. So it was only fair that we all took a turn pumping the water into the sand pit too! Stay tuned to see how we get on creating pools, streams, dams and more!

Take a look at our pictures and don’t forget to talk to us about our week in Star Class – it was out of this world!

Week beginning 27^th September 2021 – Whatever Next!

This week we have been to the moon and back, more than once! Just like Baby Bear from, ‘Whatever Next’, we used our imagination to explore the universe. With wellies for moon boots, not even the rain could stop us working with new friends to build rockets. When we weren’t engineering we were writing shopping lists and cooking up a storm to prepare our picnic. Of course there was hardly time to relax up on the moon. We were too busy cracking our home made moon rocks, experimenting with meteors and making craters in the moon dust.

Take a look at our pictures and don’t forget to talk to us about the super week in Star Class.

Week beginning 20^th September 2021 – Our first full week!

It has been a fantastic first week in Star Class and we have the smiles to prove it. From making friends to exploring new environments we have made the most of each and every moment. Don’t forget to ask your children about their first week and celebrate the amazing success of starting school. The learning has begun and we can’t wait for the adventures to come!

Week Beginning 28th June 2021 – Sports day!

This week was the big week and we had so much fun taking part in sports day! We loved hopping, skipping, throwing and racing with our friends. Check out the pictures of us in action and don’t forget to ask us all about it!

Week Beginning 7^th June 2021 – Our Subitising Safari!

It is already shaping up to be one big maths adventure this week. We are thinking about a really fancy word, ’Subitising’. That means we can recognise a number quickly without the need for counting. We are really sharpening these skills this week. Take a look at the subitising photos the children took on our subitising safari. See what number patterns you recognise at a glance.

Week Beginning 24th May 2021 - The Paper Dolls by Julia Donaldson

We can hardly believe this half term is over. It has been jam packed with exciting learning and the theme these past 6 weeks has definitely been 'growing'. We have grown as a class, as we welcomed new friends, and we have grown as individuals, as we absorbed so much new learning. From meeting the ducklings, as they hatched from their eggs, to planting and caring for our own flowers and grass. It has been wonderful to see each child take their learning in their own direction. Take a look at some of the highlights from this past week below.

Get some well-deserved rest and we look forward to welcoming you all back on the 7^th of June.  

Week Beginning 17th May 2021 - Errol's Garden

This week we have been reading a book called 'Errol's Garden' by Gillian Hibbs. We talked a lot about Errol's flat and compared it to our own homes. Having no garden is no problem when Star Class are on the case. We soon filled Errol's flat with paper flowers and plants. Even when the flat was full there was no stopping us - Next stop the roof garden! We were each in charge of one garden with space for five plants. Smelling and observing flowers and herbs we set to work arranging leaves and petals on our five frames. This was a great opportunity to look at the different patterns and number shapes we could create with our five objects. I wonder how many ways you can show your family 'five' at home. can you use two hands to make five? can you find five different leaves? Can you hop five times on one foot with five leaves in your hands? Wow, I think I need five minutes rest after that busy week! 

Week Beginning 10th May 2021 - Planting and Growing

What a fascinating week! After last week's woodland adventure we decided to bring the excitement of the park into our classroom. We carefully followed instructions to plant seeds, growing our very own grass hair. It might take a little while for our locks to start sprouting but we are keeping a careful eye on them, thinking about the sunlight and water they might need to survive. In the meantime we have been getting a real measure of our growing maths knowledge, learning about and embedding words for distance and length. We went on an adventure to find places near and far as well as measuring the long and short vines that sprouted from out magic bean pot. We even found out that our feet are growing nearly as fast as our brains!

Week Beginning 3rd May 2021 - Woodland Adventure

We had a lovely time at Gladstone park on Thursday we went on a scavenger hunt to see what interesting things we could find in the wooded area. We made nature bracelets, danced around the maypole and had great fun playing parachute games. We have many budding architects here at Mora, our fairy houses were pretty spectacular. I’m sure the fairies will be super happy with their new homes.