Category Archives: Little Acorns

Ad-hoc bookings at Little Acorns

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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.

Festive Fun!

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It’s so hard to believe that we are already here in the final week of term!  It has been a really wonderful term packed full of playing, laughter and lots of smiles!

We are so proud of each and everyone of the children; they have all grown a little bit more everyday; not just physically, but also in terms of their self-confidence and independence.

We hope everyone has a wonderfully restful and peaceful Christmas and we look forward to welcoming the children back to Nursery in January.  There will be 7 new children joining us when we return.

PLEASE NOTE:

The Nursery Christmas Party will take place during the normal morning Nursery session this week on Wednesday 18th December.  If your child would like to wear a Christmas jumper that day or a special party dress, please feel free to send them into school wearing this.  If they would prefer to come to Nursery in their normal clothes that is also absolutely fine!  If you do choose to send them in in something special, please remember it will be a normal, messy morning in Nursery!

The Christmas Party is a chance for us to celebrate with our Reception friends.  We will spend about an hour in the big hall where we will play party games and do some dancing!  We will also be having some party food and drinks and we would be most grateful for any contributions you may be able to make towards this (please see the list of suggested contributions in the classroom).  Thank you!

The last day of term for Nursery will be this Thursday 19th December. This is also the last day for the Little Acorns.  Children in Nursery break up one day earlier than the rest of the school so we can hold an Open morning for the new children starting in January.

The first day back for the children will be Wednesday 8th January. This is also the first day back for the Little Acorns.  Again, we start back a little later than the rest of the school so that we can carry out home visits for the new children.

Thank you for your understanding.

As you may have noticed, the classroom is now looking decidedly festive!  Here are a few photos from last week…

Here’s our Christmas Post Office & Sorting Centre – the children have been hard at work, wrapping parcels, writing Christmas cards, stamping parcels and letters, posting them and even delivering them around the classroom.  It certainly feels like the busiest time of the year!

The large wooden car received yet another makeover this week…can you guess what it might be and who it might belong to…?

Our placing & arranging table was brimming with an inviting array of Christmassy colours and objects.  The children love to spend a quiet moment at this table which is always a feast for the senses…can you spot the snowman with his scarf?

The polar bears were out in force roaming around their snowy landscape.  At one point, they decided they wanted to roam further afield and come down from the table top onto the carpet.  It was a bit too far for them to jump but, luckily, the Nursery children were on hand to come up with some ingenious construction ideas to help them get down – well done Nursery, you are always so kind and friendly!

Have a lovely weekend everyone!  We are looking forward to the final four days of festive fun!

Let’s Go Camping!

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As people across the country looked forward to heading out into the cold, Autumnal nights to keep warm around the bonfire and watch the night-sky light up with fireworks, we were busy enjoying our very own firework display and campfire in the classroom!  Don’t worry, we all kept safe with the firework display provided by several youtube clips on the interactive whiteboard and the campfire consisting of wooden logs, orange tissue paper and lots of imagination!

Several weeks ago, we had noticed that the children were particularly interested in the idea of “going camping”.  So, we decided to support their learning through play with the creation of a campsite complete with tent, sleeping bags, camping pillows, camping chairs and, of course, torches!

The children absolutely loved their campsite and quickly set to work, rolling the playdough into sausages, ready to be cooked on the open fire…

…making sure there was plenty of firewood to keep the fire going…

…and even reading a story or two by torchlight in the tent…

Our camping chairs provided the best seats in the house for the firework displays…and a quick chat on the phone!

And the firework displays inspired our very own firework mark-making in coloured sand…

We read the story of Bernie Sparks and Rocky the Rocket on Bonfire Night to help the children understand about how to keep themselves safe on the real Bonfire Night.

And, following on from last week’s excitement 🎃, we also read the story of Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper.  This charming book tells the tale of Cat, Duck and Squirrel as they learn about friendship and sharing by working together to make their favourite pumpkin soup.

Image result for pumpkin soup story

You can revisit the story below.  Try turning the sound off and reading it aloud yourself.

The Little Acorns had a go at creating their own pumpkin recipes…

And back in the classroom, Mrs Morris came up with this rather novel use of an old pumpkin!

Have a lovely weekend everyone and thank you for all the wonderful contributions to our nature table – it is really looking beautiful! 🍁

How are the new Little Acorns getting along?

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This is a question I have been asked several times over the past couple of weeks! And the answer is wonderfully, of course!

For those of you who do not already know, Little Acorns is the name of the 30-hours provision we currently offer our 3 and 4 year olds here at St. Matthew’s.  If your child is in our morning Nursery class, you can also enrol them in our afternoon session which runs Monday – Thursday from 11.45am – 3.30pm.

The morning and afternoon sessions run continuously with the children staying at school for lunch.  You can pay for a hot school dinner or send your child in with a packed lunch.

If you would like to know more about what happens during the session, have a look at the outline of our Little Acorns day.

There is a fee for attending Little Acorns.  Depending on your circumstances, you may be eligible for funding to cover the cost.  You can find out more about this here.

If you have any further questions or might be interested in enrolling your child, please contact Louise Morgan in the school office: office@st-matthews.merton.sch.uk or speak to one of us at drop-off/pick-up.

Open Afternoon – Update

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We were very proud to hold an open afternoon for our Little Acorns afternoon session this week.  It was lovely to see some familiar faces and a pleasure to meet several families who will soon be joining us at St. Matthew’s.

A huge thank you to Mrs Morris and Mrs Williams, as well as the Little Acorns themselves, who welcomed us into their magical forest school.

If you would like to know more about what the afternoon at Little Acorns looks like, please click here: Little Acorns Afternoon

And if you would like to see a map of our Forest School, please click here: Little Acorns map.

 

Little Acorns Open Afternoon

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Click here to enlarge this poster

We will be holding an open afternoon at Little Acorns this coming Wednesday afternoon (12th June) for anyone who might be interested in finding out more about the 30-hours provision we now offer at St. Matthew’s.

Please feel free to share this information with friends who might be looking for a full-day Nursery place from September 2019.

And we would be grateful if you could email the school office if you are planning to attend the open afternoon so that we have an idea of numbers.

Thank you!

Little Acorns – 30 hours provision

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We are delighted to have been given the go ahead to pilot 30 hours provision at St. Matthew’s during the upcoming summer term.

There were 8 places available which have now all been allocated.

We have decided to call our afternoon session ‘Little Acorns‘.  We came up with this name as our Nursery class is officially known as Acorns Class, while our Reception class is known as Oak Class.

Further information about the new session can be found here:  Little Acorns @ St Matthew’s

We will be asking those parents/carers enrolled for Little Acorns to let us know each Monday morning whether their child will be having a school dinner or a packed lunch for the week ahead.  Thank you.

You can find the school lunch menu here: Menu April 19 – Oct -19

Please note, our morning Nursery session will continue to run as normal while we are piloting this additional afternoon session.