A little reminder from Miss Leutchford (our Year 1 teacher and English Coordinator)
“Next Thursday (5th March 2020) we will be celebrating World Book Day. The children are invited to come to school dressed as a character from their favourite book. If the children choose to come into school dressed as a character, we are asking them to provide a £1.00 donation to go towards the charity Book Aid. We look forward to seeing all of the different story characters”.
Please remember, dressing up is always optional as we understand that it is not for everyone. Coming to Nursery in your usual, everyday clothes is also absolutely fine!
It probably didn’t escape your notice that it was pancake day this week. So, of course, we simply had to make pancakes and eat them too! Unfortunately, the Ipad ran out of power just after we’d taken this photo, so you’ll have to take our word for it that they were delicious!
Can you remember the four ingredients we used to make the pancakes? That’s right; flour, milk, eggs and oil. We stirred the mixture up in a bowl and then the grown-ups carefully poured a little bit of the mixture into a frying pan – “to make them flat”. Can you remember why the grown-ups did the cooking and not the children?
When it came to eating them, we squeezed a little lemon juice over them and then sprinkled a little sugar on top. Finally, we rolled them up. Yummy!
The children were particularly intrigued by the lemons and several of them wanted to have a go at tasting a lemon slice. We all agreed lemons are very sour indeed! Can you think of any other foods that have a sour taste? What sort of a face do you make when you eat something sour?
Our key text this week had to be Mr. Wolf’s Pancakes which you can revisit here:
Can you remember how Mr Wolf’s neighbours knew the pancakes were ready? That’s right, they could smell a delicious smell all around the neighbourhood! Do you have a favourite smell?
In Nursery this week, the water tray smelt wonderful, thanks to these slices of fresh lemons and oranges. Of course, these ones were not for eating! We know that we only eat things in Nursery at snack time after we have washed our hands.
This week we have been talking to the children about why it is important to wash our hands before we eat something. We explained that we need to make sure our hands are nice and clean so that any germs on them don’t end up in our tummies as this can make us feel poorly. We also explained that germs are very sticky and they like to hide all over our hands, not just on our finger tips!
This is why we need to pull up our sleeves, use soap and make sure we wash the fronts and backs of our hands, in between our fingers and our thumbs too!
We enjoyed watching this NHS video which demonstrates how to get “happy, clean hands!”:
Last week, we read a lovely book called ‘In My Heart’ by Jo Witek which talks about times when our hearts might feel happy, brave, mad, calm, broken, heavy, hopeful, afraid, silly, shy and proud. You can revisit the book here…
We have also been talking to the children about how to use their sensory bottles to help them feel calmer when they feel angry, sad or overwhelmed. You can read more about the benefits of using sensory bottles to help children regulate their emotions here.
Don’t forget, your child’s EYFS Profile on Seesaw is accessible over the half term.
Please remember there is NO SCHOOL on Monday 24th February as it is an INSET day for teachers.
Those of you with older children at St. Matthew’s will probably know that it was Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week last week. Miss Manhire (who is our Year 6 teacher and KS2 phase leader) organised lots of events throughout the school to mark the week and to encourage a school-wide conversation about mental health. The theme for this year’s week was ‘Find Your Brave’ and you can find out more about it here:
One of the Characteristics of Effective Learning that we always encourage the children in Nursery to demonstrate is ‘playing and exploring’ which includes the idea of ‘having a go’. We want the children to feel safe and settled and brave enough to ‘have a go’ at activities and experiences that they may not usually try or come across.
This week, we wanted to give the children lots of sensory experiences. There is evidence to suggest that these sort of experiences are really important for brain development in the Early Years of life (you can read more about this here if you like…). These experiences can also have a soothing, calming effect which promotes self-regulation of our emotions. They can be very messy though, so don’t forget to put on your apron if you are trying any at home!
We have also been busy making our own calming, sensory bottles which look like a glitter-storm or whirlwind! The children have loved making these and we would be most grateful for any more donations of small (500ml) plastic bottles next week so we can ensure each child has a bottle to bring home. Thank you if you have already sent bottles in!
At story time, we read two of my favourites…
First, we read ‘A Color of His Own’ by Leo Lionni which tells the delightful tale of a chameleon discovering the importance of friendship for self-esteem. You can re-visit the story below and do remember to turn the sound off if you would like to read it aloud yourself.
Next, we read ‘The Colour Thief’ by Gabriel Alborozo which tells the thought-provoking story of an alien called Zot who decides to steal all the colours from planet Earth. The Nursery children quickly decided this was not a very ‘kind and friendly’ thing to do! Luckily, Zot meets a little boy who helps him realise just how sad he will make the people on Earth if he takes all the colours. What can you remember about the story? Look at the pictures below to remind you…
We hope everyone has had a lovely weekend and managed to stay safe and warm in spite of Storm Ciara!
We carried on with our Chinese New Year theme this week, surprising the children on Monday with a tuff tray full of noodles and chopsticks! But, everything wasn’t quite as it seemed and the children soon discovered the ‘noodles’ were actually long pieces of wool!
This didn’t seem to matter and they set to work happily chopping, pinching and scooping up the noodles into their bowls. Some of them even had a very good go at using the chopsticks! Well done Nursery, we are so impressed by your fantastic fine motor skills!
“Anyone for noodle tea?”
On Tuesday, Mrs Morris set to work in the kitchen making some real noodles! The children couldn’t contain their excitement and crowded around to watch her carefully boiling the water on the stovetop, putting the hard noodles in and straining the soft noodles out!
The children all listened very carefully as Mrs Morris explained what she was doing and reminded the children about how to keep themselves safe near the hot water and stove.
When the noodles were ready, Mrs Morris wondered if any of the children would like to taste them and, of course, the answer was a resounding yes!
“Yummy!”
“Delicious!”
“More, please!”
You can find out more about how Chinese New Year is celebrated, including some of the food that is eaten with chopsticks, in this lovely CBeebies video.
At story time, we found out about an animal that is native to China. It is black and white with black ears and black patches around its eyes. Can you guess what it is…?
We read the delightful story of Pi-shu the Little Panda by John Butler. It tells the story of a little panda and his mummy who are forced to find a new home when humans begin to destroy their natural habitat.
Pi-shu has to walk through the snow to find a new home but luckily his warm coat and his mummy keep him warm. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a video clip of this one for you to revisit at home but it is well worth a re-read if you happen to come across it in print. Instead, here’s a delightful clip of some panda bears enjoying a snowy day!
