Lots of Learning
March 2023 - The Ducklings are here!
We are very excited to have 6 little ducklings in Nursery and Preschool. The children observed the duck eggs in the incubator before they hatched the next day. They are growing fast and already trying to escape from their cage and jump out! Children will be able to watch the ducklings grow over the coming week and learn how to take care of them.
March 2023 - Planting a Tree for the Queen's Jubilee
We very gifted two trees from Hertfordshire County Council to commemorate the late Queen's Platinum Jubilee. The children in Nursery were very helpful, digging the holes, planting and watering the new trees. We will make sure they are watered regularly! Please have a look at all of our hard work just as you enter the Nursery carpark.
https://queensgreencanopy.org/
March 2023 - Cooking
Our cooking sessions have been a real hit with children in Nursery. This week we made our own mini quiches and they were delicious! We talked about eggs and where they come from before learning to crack them into our bowls. We added vegetables and cheese before baking them in the oven. This was a lovely link to our core book 'Rosie's Walk' - all about a Hen who managed to avoid being eaten by a hungry fox!
February 2023 - Nite Owls
Following on from our core book 'Owl Babies', real life owls came to visit Nursery this week. Children loved meeting Whisper and Dotty the barn owls, Tango the scops owl and Monty the bengal eagle owl. They swooped over our heads and around the classroom, much to the children's fascination and delight!
February 2023 - Wellbeing Week
This week in Nursery we have been doing lots of activities around our wellbeing. Children really enjoyed our African drumming session. Alongside this, children particularly enjoyed taking part in yoga and making gingerbread people!
January 2023 - Lunar New Year
This week, children in Nursery have been getting involved in activities around The Lunar New Year. Snack time was very popular; with prawn crackers, rice noodles and sweet and sour sauce to try. Children learnt to make Chinese lanterns, have a go at mark making and enjoyed listening to the story of the Chinese Zodiac. Authentic clothes in our home corner were also very popular!
January 2023 - Baking Bread
Children in Nursery have loved making soda bread this week. They have carefully counted out the right number of spoons of flour and used their strong muscles to knead their bread. They were very excited to taste their creations and take the rest home to share with their families.
December 2022 - Winter fun in Nursery
With the rare snow flurry for this time of year, children in Nursery have been making the most of exploring the change in weather. They have loved making snow angels, using sleds down the hills and throwing the snow towards the sky, with great fascination!
November 2022 - World Nursery Rhyme Week
This year we took part in 'World Nursery Rhyme Week' in Nursery. Every day we learnt a new nursery rhyme and practised singing them throughout the week. Children were really engaged in learning the new songs and this led to lots of activities led by the children, such as; making their own fishing games, dressing up and pretending to be pirates and looking for treasure!
November 2022 - Children in Need
We raised a huge £566.67 for Children in Need in Nursery this year. Thank you to all those that filled their Smarties tubes with coins, took part in our 100 square competition and dressed for the occasion!
November 2022 - Remembrance
Children in Nursery have been learning about Remembrance Day. They watched a short video clip https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04p4zsl/poppies after talking to their key workers about the significance of poppies to help us remember. Children enjoyed drawing, painting and creating their own poppies for a display.
October 2022 - Diwali
Children have enjoyed learning about Diwali, the festival of lights. Some children chose to take part in activities such as; creating Rangoli patterns, making Diwali cards and dressing up in our home corner. Children also had the opportunity try new foods such as mango and naan bread during snack time.
October 2022 - Forest School
All the children in Nursery have now enjoyed their first Forest School experience. During the session the children were helped into their waterproof clothing and put on their own wellies. Once in our Forest School area, the children learned our new Forest school song and used sticks to drum rhythms on the tree stumps. We played Duck, Duck, Goose around the fire circle to help the children remember the rule, ‘We don't go across the fire circle’, and they demonstrated their kindness by ensuring everyone had a turn. The children went exploring around our Forest School area identifying red wool ‘dangers’ such as berries, prickly brambles and slippery tree stumps and learned the rule, ‘No pick, no lick, no sick!’ They also collected interesting natural materials, which they made into journey sticks after practising tying reef knots with cordage. We all enjoyed our warm juice and snack!
October 2022 - Making our Mark in Nursery
We have been reading the story 'Happy in our Skin' with the children in Nursery. The children have enjoyed creating self-portraits using loose parts and some children have even had a go at drawing themselves. This has developed into children's play through using chalk to draw around their bodies and then washing the chalky floor using water and paintbrushes.
September 2022 - Welcome to our new children in Nursery
It has been such a delight to welcome all our children and families into the Nursery for this new academic year. The children have settled incredibly quickly into the new setting and have enjoyed having free flow across both classrooms, our sand and water room and outside space. Here are a few highlights of the last few weeks.
July 2022 - Goodbye Butterflies!
The children in Nursery have loved reading the story 'The Very Hungary Caterpillar' and have been fascinated in watching the live caterpillars grow and change into cocoons. This week they finally made the change into butterflies. The children gathered in the garden to watch them fly off in search of food in the Nursery garden.
June 2022 - Sponsored Walk
On the hottest day of the year so far, the children did amazingly well navigating a tricky obstacle course around the field for their sponsored walk, raising lots of money for the Nursery. Weaving in and out of cones, balancing on logs and climbing through tunnels were just some of the obstacles they faced. After all that hard work they finished with a well deserved ice lolly and cold drink.
June 2022 - The Queen's Jubilee Celebrations
The children had a fabulous time celebrating the Queen's Jubilee at our Nursery party. They made crowns and flags for the occasion and enjoyed eating all the party food we had prepared. A very special guest made an appearance and children were hugely excited to talk to her whilst they ate their food and listen to a Paddington Bear story. Every child went home with a gift of a Platinum Jubilee coin, which they can keep forever to remember the event.
May 2022 - The Smartest Giant in Town
We have been further developing children's love of reading with our core book 'The Smartest Giant in Town'. The children have been exploring rhyme for a number of weeks and this story has really helped to develop this further. Children have been using their investigation skills to see if they can make a 'boat for a goat' using a variety of materials. They have also been dressing up in 'giant' clothes and using their measuring skills to compare different animal footprints.
April 2022 - Jack and the Beanstalk
Children have loved listening to one of our 'Core Books' Jack and the Beanstalk the last few weeks. We have been acting out the story using our most ferocious Giant voices, finding the lost golden egg using positional vocabulary, colour mixing to make green beanstalks and of course planting our own beans in the Nursery garden, hoping they will grow high enough for us to climb!
March 2022 - Eggciting News!
Children have been excited to see the hatching of five little ducklings to the nursery. It has been a fantastic opportunity for children to develop their knowledge and understanding of life cycles and lots of discussions have taken place, with children asking fascinating questions to satisfy their curiosity. We have made strong connections with stories and rhymes such as ‘The Little Red Hen’ and of course singing the children’s favourite ‘Five Little Ducks’ nursery rhyme.
January 2022 - Owls
This week the nursery children had a lovely visit from some beautiful owls. They were able to watch them fly and given lots of information about them which sparked lots of questions and discussions between the children and staff. Before they left the children had the opportunity to have a photo with one of the owls if they wanted too.
November 2021 - Fireworks galore
We returned after half term to lots of whizzing and zooming for firework night. We pretended to be a flickering flames as we whirled around with ribbons and streamers and used discussion around our creative fireworks to think about new words and sounds.
November 2021 - Remembrance
CBeebies produced a beautiful short, animated film entitled 'Poppies' to help convey the notion of Remembrance to our young learners. We watched this together and discussed the feelings that the rabbit character felt and how this links with people wearing poppies today.
November 2021 - Children in Need
Everyone used their group floor books to document 'Children In Need' and create a truly spotty dotty day. The children discussed their own actions and the importance of kindness towards others.
October 2021 - Our First Half Term Together
During the first half term the children have been getting to know each other, exploring their own interests and discovering new things. There was lots of different mark making happening as the writing and creative area was introduced and the cosy book became a peaceful retreat. We had a close look at Autumn and the changes happening around us and used pumpkins to discuss size and to make some spooky potions.
