I expect you have all been wondering whether or not the carpet we discovered in the magic room last week was actually magic after all?  Well…of course it was!  Thankfully, everyone remembered to bring their imaginations to Nursery this week, so we were able to set off on our magical flying carpet adventure!

First, we read the story of My Granny Went to Market by Stella Blackstone and Christopher Corr.   You can revisit the story in the video below.  The text is clearly visible so you might like to turn the sound off and read the story yourself.  Please note, the story finishes at 2.57 and there is some advertising after this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P61tyqTntpI

At the start of the story, Granny buys a magic carpet from a man in a market in Istanbul.  So, we decided to head off to Istanbul to see if we find out where she bought the carpet.

We used Google Earth to fly from Nursery to the market in Istanbul.  The children were amazed by the visual sensation of flying over the globe and it was delightful to see their reactions!

If you would like to try this again at home, open up Google Earth and enter St. Matthews CE Primary School, Cottenham Park Road, London in the search bar.

You will ‘fly’ into school where you should be able to spot the Nursery garden (we think the circle is the table in the mud kitchen) and the red roof of the classroom!

We knew we needed to go to a market in Istanbul and a quick Google search soon informed us that The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul is one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world.  So, we entered ‘Beyazıt, Grand Bazaar, Kalpakçılar Caddesi, Fatih/İstanbul, Turkey’ into the search bar – if you just start writing ‘grand bazaar’, it should appear in the drop down! Then, we fastened our seatbelts, buckled up our helmets and held on tight as we flew up, up and away on our magic carpet all the way to Istanbul!

When we came down to land, we were amazed to discover that the roof of the Grand Bazaar was also red – just like the Nursery roof!  But this time, it looked like “pop, pop” (aka bubble wrap).

Next, we lifted up the little man symbol and dropped him onto the roof of the market.  This took us straight inside and we were able to have a look around! We spotted lots of magic carpets and carpet sellers along with lots of other beautiful things to buy!

We also had a look at another famous building in Istanbul: The Blue Mosque.  We found out that a Mosque is where Muslim people go to pray.  And we also found out that many of the people who live in Istanbul are Muslim and their religion is called Islam.

https://www.departures.com/travel/istanbul-blue-mosque-trip

We learnt about a special time called Ramadan when Muslim grown-ups fast during daylight hours (they don’t eat or drink) and they do good deeds such as giving money to charity.  This year, Ramadan started on 13th April and will finish on 12th May with a celebration called Eid al-Fitr.  We also looked at two very special small carpets – which looked very much like the magic carpets we had seen in the Grand Bazaar!  However, these are not flying carpets – they are actually prayer mats.  And they are traditionally used by many Muslims to make sure the place where they are praying is clean.

While using our good looking eyes, we spotted something in the middle of the dark blue carpet.  Can you remember what is was?  That’s right – a compass!  A compass helps us to find our way, by showing us which way is North, South, East and West.  This is very important for Muslims who want to point the top of their prayer mat towards a special place called Mecca.  It might also be handy for us to have a compass on our next magic carpet ride!

Our play in the classroom this week was very much inspired by the buildings we had seen in Istanbul…we built towers, cities with spires, bridges and, of course, homes for dinosaurs!

We also used the technique of wax resist printing to create our very own mini magic carpets, inspired by those we saw in the Grand Bazaar.  We used a stencil to draw shapes with a white crayon onto a piece of white card.  At first, the shapes appeared to be invisible and it wasn’t until we rolled the ink onto the card, that the magical shapes were revealed!

Please note, not all of the children have created a magic carpet yet as we had a very busy week!  We will continue with this lovely activity next week and everyone will get a chance to make one.  We were especially busy because we started our mix-up sessions and we are very proud of the Nursery children for being so brave, confident and welcoming towards to the Reception children.  Well done Nursery!

Have a lovely long weekend and see you all on Tuesday!

Welcome back to the Summer Term in Nursery! We hope everyone had a very restful break and was able to enjoy seeing some more family and friends once again.  The children have all come back to school with lots of enthusiasm & smiles. It is really lovely to see them all so confident & settled and we are looking forward to a term full of sunshine (hopefully!) and lots of exciting learning through play.

This term, our learning through play will be inspired by the topic ‘Ticket to Ride’.  We will also be continuing to focus on developing our Phase 1 phonics skills and getting ready for the transition to Reception.  You can find out more in the termly overview here: ticket_to_ride

Of course, we will continue to keep a close eye on the children’s particular interests and encourage them to follow these in their play too.  This week, we noticed lots of picnics, cooking and tea making!

And many of the children continue to be fascinated by volcanoes and lava!  Here are some of them working together to create their very own lava field:

Our focus story this week was ‘Bradley and the Magic Carpet’ by Julian Hilton and Jacqueline East.  You can listen to the story again in the video below and even meet the author at the end!

At the very end of last term, when I was looking for something in the magic room, I came across a large bag that I had never seen before, hidden away at the back of one of the cupboards.  I pulled it out and it was covered in dust – it must have been there, undiscovered, for a very long time!  Inside, was a rolled up carpet.  This week, I showed the children and we unrolled it very carefully and very slowly.  You won’t believe it but it was actually an old, bold carpet with tassels on each end and a picture of “Baby Jesus land” on the front!  As you can probably imagine, there really was only one conclusion we could draw: we decided it must be a magic carpet, just like the one in the story!

Next week, we will be finding out if it really is a magic carpet, so don’t forget to bring your imagination with you to Nursery on Monday!

Finally, many of our invitations to play this week encouraged the children to explore the names and properties of 2D shapes.  Knowing the names of the 2D shapes (for example, circle, triangle, square and rectangle) and being able to talk about what they look like (for example, how many sides they have) will really impress your Reception teachers!

We used lots of different 2D shapes to make pictures of our own houses and we talked about the numbers on our front doors.  Can you remember the shapes you used to make your house and can you remember the number on your front door?

Finally, here’s a tricky challenge for you to try at home.  You will need your good looking eyes for this one!  Have a look at the photo below.  Can you spot the shape that is the odd one out in each column?  And can you explain the difference between a square and a rectangle? Good luck and see you on Monday!

Here we are at the end of the Spring Term! We are very thankful that we have been able to spend these last few weeks together in school and we are looking forward to lots more learning through play, and hopefully good weather, during the Summer Term.

This week we learnt about the Easter Story and I was so impressed by the children’s fantastic knowledge and their ability to express their ideas about Jesus:

“Jesus died because he loves us”

“Jesus knew all along that he was going to die”

“Jesus died and then he was alive and then he died”

When we learnt about the Story of the Nativity at the end of the Autumn term, we watched a lovely CBeebies clip of an artist drawing the story in sand.  Here he is again, this time drawing the Easter Story:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vjfpXBJRCc

As part of our learning about the Easter story, we completed our Lenten Project which, this year, involved walking a virtual Pilgrams’ Way.  We took on the challenge of walking the 90 mile route from Southwark to Canterbury on our lovely school field.  Thankfully, we were able to combine all of our steps together and we had some help from the Reception children!

While walking, we encouraged the children to think about some of the things they are thankful for and we used their ideas to create some special and individual Prayers for Easter…

“Dear Lord, thank you for my mummy and my daddy, Amen”

“Dear Lord, thank you dinosaurs, Amen”

“Dear Lord, thank you for my brothers, Amen”

You will find your child’s Prayer for Easter on the back of their printed Easter egg which we sent home yesterday.  Please do take a moment over the holidays to share it together.

We also found out about some of the different things people do to get ready to celebrate Easter:

The Little Acorns made some of these delicious cornflake-chocolate nests and, as we are all so kind and friendly in Nursery, they made enough for everyone!  Thank you Little Acorns!

We also printed our own beautiful Easter eggs using shaving foam and drops of food colouring to create a marbling effect…

Aren’t they gorgeous! Do have a look in your child’s book bag, if you haven’t already, as we sent these home yesterday.  On the back, you will find your child’s Prayer for Easter…

We ended the week with an exciting Easter egg hunt in the garden!  The children were set the challenge of finding 100 missing Easter eggs and, guess what…they did it!

Finally, we were so very impressed by the amazing Easter creations that many of you sent in!  They were put on display and admired by Mr Quinn, Mrs Warner and Mr Norris (our site manager).  Well done everyone!

We hope you all have a wonderful Easter.  Thank you again for all your amazing support and we will look forward to seeing you when school reopens on Monday 19th April.