This week, we have been finding out about Chinese New Year and how this special time is celebrated around the world. The Chinese Spring Festival celebrations for New Year officially began yesterday, on January 25th, and will last for 11 days, ending on February 4th.
We read the story of the zodiac which tells how the Jade Emperor invited 12 animals to race across a wide river so that the order of the zodiac could be decided. The animal who won the race would have the first year named after it, the animal who came second would have the second year named after it and so on…
Can you remember who won the race? And who came last?
If you would like to revisit the story at home, this CBeebies clip is a good one to watch:
Next week, we will be finding out about how Chinese New Year is celebrated and the preparations that take place in people’s homes.
Within the children’s own play this week, we have noticed a particular interest in construction of all sorts!
We have been very impressed with just how challenging the self-set projects have been, both inside and outside in the garden; where the ongoing construction looks set to rival the Great Wall of China!
We have had such a super start to the Spring Term in nursery! Our older children have impressed us all by settling back into the classroom quickly and happily. They have also been doing a wonderful job of looking after the 7 new children who have joined us since the start of term. We are very proud of how thoughtful they have been in welcoming the new children and showing them what happens during our mornings at nursery.
Our new children have also been impressing us with how well they have settled into their new classroom and how brave they have been when saying goodbye to their grown-ups. We would like to wish all of our new families a very warm welcome to our Nursery and we hope you are already beginning to feel part of the St. Matthew’s community.
This term, our topic will be ‘Out & About’. We will be reading lots of stories about getting out and about in the big wide world! I will shortly be sending home our Spring Term edition of Nursery News which will provide more information about the topic and give you some ideas of activities you might like to try at home.
This week we have been reading lots of snowy stories, despite it having been a rather wet and stormy week in West Wimbledon! We read the stories of Tiger in the Snow (by Jack Butterworth), Snow (by Sam Usher) and When Will It Snow? (by Kathryn White).
You can revisit ‘When Will It Snow?’ with your child here – I would highly recommend you turn the sound off and read the story aloud yourself.
Although it doesn’t look like it’s going to be snowing anytime soon at St. Matthew’s, it does look like we will have some chilly mornings next week which will hopefully lead to some frost and maybe even some ice in the garden…
Talking of ice, some of the children came back after the Christmas break talking about the Frozen 2 film. Their excitement inspired us to create this snowy castle landscape to support their imaginative play…
As well as this sparkly tuff tray, filled with glitter and coloured sand to encourage the development of their mark-making skills…
Despite the lack of real ice and snow this week, we did have plenty of rain which produced something the children absolutely love…
They were thrilled at the chance to get their wellies on and get out & about in the puddles!!
Jumping, wading, squelching…
Sweeping, sloshing, pushing…
Creating, swirling, mixing…
Who knew puddles could be such fun? Why, Nursery of course!
Did you know… …you can now make ad-hoc bookings at Little Acorns?
Perhaps you have an appointment, your usual childcare has fallen through or you just fancy an afternoon to yourself; then why not book one of our afternoon sessions where your child will enjoy forest school, messy play and mindfulness!
The sessions run from 11.45am (directly after the morning Nursery class) until 3.30pm in our wonderful St. Matthew’s setting with our fantastic Nursery Nurses (Mrs Morris & Miss Lizzi).
Sessions cost £30 and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis so please speak to Miss Cronin asap if you would like to book! We look forward to welcoming your child at Little Acorns.
We read the story of the zodiac which tells how the Jade Emperor invited 12 animals to race across a wide river so that the order of the zodiac could be decided. The animal who won the race would have the first year named after it, the animal who came second would have the second year named after it and so on…
