Rain, rain, go away, come again another day!  This is actually something you will very rarely hear us say in Nursery quite simply because we love to go out in the rain!

The children have been working hard to remember the three things they need to do before heading out in the rain:

1. Put your boots on…

2. Put your coat on (and have a go at doing up your zip! – perhaps a grown-up can start you off…)

3. And make sure your hood is up!

Well done! Now you’re ready to play in the rain! ☔️☔️☔️

Our favourite thing to do in the rain is jump in muddy puddles of course!  We were also fascinated by all the different colours and effects we could create by sprinkling powder paint into the puddles…

Back in the classroom, we have been reading lots of familiar stories to help the children feel settled at Nursery while getting used to our daily routine.

Here are two of our favourites which you might like to revisit at home.  Try turning the sound off for this one (Harry and the Dinosaurs go to School) and read it yourself as the video plays…

Lots of the dinosaurs seem to have made their way to our school too!

We always love reading the wonderful story of Owl Babies by Martin Waddell.

Here’s a delightful animation of the story which you might like to share together at home.

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

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Just a reminder that The PTA Light Festival will be taking place this coming Friday (11th October) between 6pm and 8pm. This is a delightful, magical event and a real highlight of the school year.  It takes place at school, with a light parade on the field after dark!

We are very lucky in our current Nursery class to have such an international group of children with families coming from all around the globe; even as far away as Japan and Chile!  After all that travel on the high seas last week, it was perhaps not surprising to hear the children’s conversations turn to their own personal experiences of travel – often on airplanes.

This week, the children were amazed to discover an actual airplane had landed in the classroom over the weekend and it was ready to whisk them away on holiday!  They all knew just what to do; packing their suitcases in the home corner (the phrase packing the kitchen sink certainly springs to mind!), ensuring they had their passports and boarding passes, before putting their bags through the X-ray machine at security!

Earlier in the week, we had an ex-student carrying out some work experience in the class.  He came to school dressed very smartly in a suit and looked quite the part working in security!

Once on the plane, they carefully put their bags into the overhead lockers and settled down in their seats with their seat-belts fastened.  For those passengers lucky enough to have first class tickets, a slice of cake and a neck cushion awaited them in the special seats.  There was even a curtain separating them from the economy seats!

The pilots did a fantastic job of checking the flight plan, radioing through to air traffic control and managing some superbly smooth take-offs and landings!

We used real-life footage of pilots in the cockpit to help them with their in-flight training!  The background noise from the footage actually made the children’s play experience even more authentic, with one child whispering “this feels really real!”

For the long-haul flights, there was also a trolley service, serving teas and coffees and £5 tubs of Pringles!

On one of our stopovers, the older children found time to visit Mrs Bibby in the Reception class.  She read us a story and talked to us about what it will be like when we go into Reception.  Thank you Mrs Bibby!

What a wonderful week we have had; flying all around the world to so many far-flung destinations! Bon voyage to all our lovely families as you set off on your travels, real or imagined, this summer… 🌞

We can hardly believe there are only three days of term left!  We hope to see many of you at the Open Evening on Tuesday and at Sports Day on Wednesday.

We have been spending lots of time outside over the past couple of weeks; enjoying the lovely weather and being appreciative of our wonderful garden!  The children have been challenging themselves on the tricky climbing frame and thinking about how to keep themselves safe by waiting for their turn.  We even had a numbered ticket system in place!

The children have also been working together to create this beautiful art installation!  When it’s finished we might use it as the backdrop for our outdoor stage which, lately, has been giving the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury a run for its money!

Earlier in the week, we had to say some sad goodbyes to two of our Nursery children, who have moved to a new home and school in Denmark.  We were so sad to say goodbye but we also shared in their excitement as they set off on their new adventure overseas! We wish you the very best of luck!

Much of our recent learning through play has, in fact, been inspired by taking trips to foreign lands! We have been reading lots of fantastic stories about travelling by sea to distant destinations.

One of those stories was ‘Jack and the Flumflum Tree’ by Julia Donaldson which tells the tale of three friends (Jack, Stu and Rose) who set sail for the island of Blowyernose to find a cure for poor Jack’s Grandma who had been suffering from a nasty bout of the woozles!

You can listen to the author reading the story here:

http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/julia-donaldson-jack-and-the-flumflum-tree

As it’s quite difficult to make out the words in that video, you might also like to read the story yourself, using this one…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOcDPtsFL9I

Another story we read was the classic tale of “Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak…

You can re-read that story here – do remember to turn the sound off and read it yourself as the voiceover and background sounds could be a bit scary or at least check it out for yourself first before playing it…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk3H_WkD2gI

And of course, we couldn’t miss the opportunity to read one of the most famous boating stories of all, that of Noah and his Ark.

We absolutely loved this musical adaptation of the story…

All of these stories inspired us to have a go at making our own boats using junk materials.  We thought carefully about which materials would make good boats; e.g. plastic tubs or  cardboard egg boxes?  We knew that cardboard “melts” in water so we eventually decided that plastic tubs would make better boats.  Well done Nursery!

Our scientific thinking continued later in the week as we set about exploring the floating and sinking properties of a whole range of objects.  We used words like “heavy”, “float” and “sink”.  Can you remember something that could float and something that sunk?

Why not carry out your own floating and sinking investigation at home, perhaps in the kitchen sink or in the bath at bath-time.  Sesame Street have produced a family newsletter with some lovely ideas for you to try out at home:

https://cdn.sesamestreet.org/sites/default/files/media_folders/Images/Stem_Sink_FamilyGuide.pdf

The video referred to in the newsletter (Rocco’s Boat) can be found here:

https://www.sesamestreet.org/toolkits/stem/sink-or-float

At the end of the story of Noah’s Ark, the dove returns with a leaf in it’s beak to let Noah know that it has found dry land.  Quite incredibly, some rather unusual leaves have been growing on a new tree in our classroom.  When it first arrived, it was completely bare, without any leaves at all.  But each time someone in the class did something particularly kind, a leaf suddenly began to grow on the tree!  We decided to call our new tree ‘The Kindness Tree’ and, over the course of the week, we have watched in wonder as each new leaf has started to grow! It is perhaps no surprise, given how kind and friendly we all are in Nursery, that our new tree is now bursting with new life.

If you would like to know a little more about these individual acts of kindness, take a closer look at the leaves next time you are in the classroom…

On Monday morning, the children discovered something rather strange in the classroom;  Mr Gumpy had been to visit over the weekend and had left his boat behind!  It was moored at the dock, but neither Mr Gumpy nor any of the other characters from the story were anywhere to be seen!  Without them, how could the story possibly come to life?

Fortunately, on a table nearby, the children discovered a rather exciting invitation to play; mask-making resources for all the different characters in the story.  They quickly set to work, carefully choosing a character, using the scissors independently to cut out their masks (we were so impressed!), asking for help when necessary and especially when it came to cutting out the eyes and, finally, attaching a lolly stick with masking tape.

Before long, Mr Gumpy’s boat was once again teeming with all the animals and children from the story and, just like the story, we all agreed, he needed a much bigger boat!  After much splishing and splashing, the boat began to look at little worse for wear but, luckily, Mrs Morris found a large cardboard box in the shed to replace it.  Hopefully, Mr Gumpy won’t notice the difference when he comes back to collect his boat!

Next, we carried on with our Splish, Splash, Splosh topic by reading another story about some animals who end up getting rather wet.  This time we read the story of Mrs Wishy-Washy’s Farm.

You can re-read the story here; do remember to turn the sound off and read the story aloud to your child yourself…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cizS3vyV8ks

Later in the week, I had to pop out of the classroom for a moment and, according to the children, Mrs Wishy-Washy herself arrived as soon as I left, sat on my chair and read them all a story!  She had already gone by the time I came back but, as I’m told, she was rather bossy and very cross.  I wonder if any of the children can remember why she was so cross?

You can find out more about Mrs Wishy-Washy and what made her cross here:

We had lots of fun, retelling the stories of Mrs Wishy-Washy and, of course, she made a few more appearances as the week went on 😉.  Thank you to Miss Leutchford for letting us borrow her gorgeous puppet theatre to help us with our acting.

Our final visitor of the week was a rather special one.  It was completely unrelated to our topic and entirely child-initiated and planned!  Last week, one of the children and I happened to be talking about tortoises as pets and I mentioned that Mrs Shaffer (our Nursery helper every Friday) has a pet tortoise.  This child came up with the rather wonderful idea to ask Mrs Shaffer if she might be able to bring her tortoise in to meet us.

After remembering to ask Mrs Shaffer herself, entirely unprompted by me, the visit was agreed and this Friday, we were indeed visited by 52-year-old Herbert, the tortoise!  The children were so keen to meet him that they took it upon themselves to sit down around the edge of the carpet, without any instructions at all from us!!

Mrs Shaffer had brought juicy nectarines and strawberries for the children to feed Herbert, as these are his favourite foods but, he was so much at home in Nursery, that he ignored his food and spent a good half hour roaming around the carpet.  Miss Manhire got quite the shock when she popped in looking for props for the Year 6 production!

When I asked the child, who had initiated and organised the visit, how the experience had been, she smiled broadly and replied ‘great’!

A huge thank you to Mrs Shaffer for bringing Herbert in to meet us and for all the amazing help she gives us each week – we don’t quite know what we would do without her on a Friday!