Here We Go!

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Welcome to the first blog post of the new school year!  It is lovely to have the blog up and running again after such a strange six months.  Now more than ever, we hope the blog will help our parents and carers feel connected and up-to-date with all the wonderful learning through play that we get up to everyday in Nursery.

Although parents and carers can no longer come into Nursery at drop-off to take a peek at the invitations to play and the children’s display boards, we hope the blog will provide some insight into our Nursery environment.  We hope you will be able to find some time each week to show your child the photos on the blog and help them talk about their morning or day at Nursery.

Through our staggered start, we have now welcomed all of the children into Nursery.  We would like to extend a very warm welcome to all of our new families and we hope you and your children are starting to feel more settled as you become part of the St. Matthew’s community.  We are so proud of our 7 older children who have been so patient, understanding and, of course, incredibly kind and friendly towards the 18 new children who have joined us over the past couple of weeks.

The children have all been very busy exploring the Nursery environment, both inside and outdoors…

As their confidence begins to grow, we notice they become more willing to ‘have a go’ riding on the bikes…

…or taking on the challenge of completing a tricky obstacle course!

And, of course, we have all been getting used to our new routine: play-time, snack-time, garden-time, story-time, number-blocks, home-time or lunchtime & Little Acorns.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

World Book Day & The World Around Us

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The week before last, we celebrated World Book Day across the school and, in Nursery, we were visited by all sorts of story book characters including The Three Little Pigs!  The children absolutely loved playing in the pigs’ houses, so much so that they requested we keep them set up this week too!  A huge thank you to all our parents and carers for your amazing efforts in sending the children to Nursery in their costumes.

Of course we had to read the story of the Three Little Pigs several times but we also particularly enjoyed this alternative version by Eugene Trivizas and Helen Oxenbury:

The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig by Eugene Trivizas and Helen Oxenbury

You can revisit it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZpYMLp1LdQ

These stories, along with some lovely sunny mornings, inspired yet more building works…

The children are always fascinated by the world around them, whether digging for worms…

…or spotting the first signs of Spring in the school garden…have you noticed the beautiful tree covered with pink flowers at the school office entrance?

It inspired us to have a go at creating our own blossom tree pictures which are now decorating the classroom.  Do take a moment to admire them when you are next at drop off.

To help us look more closely at the features of the world around us, we have been learning about the artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser.  He liked to create paintings of the things he saw around him but he hated using straight lines!  Instead, he used lots of different shapes in his paintings.  This is what he looked like…

Image result for hundertwasserhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedensreich_Hundertwasser

And here’s one of his paintings…which shapes can you spot in his painting?

Image result for hundertwasserartexplorers.co.uk

We quickly spotted that Hundertwasser had used lots of circles when painting trees in his picture and we thought they looked a lot like lollipops!  Although he was a famous artist, we all agreed that each and everyone of us is an artist too!  So, we had a go at creating some of our own circle pictures:

Do look out for our Hundertwasser Art Gallery coming soon to a Nursery near you!

In the meantime, you can have a look at more of Hundertwasser’s paintings here…

We hope everyone is having a lovely weekend, see you tomorrow!

World Book Day

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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!

Yummy Pancakes!

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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!

Image result for pancakes lemon and sugar

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/6815/traditional-pancakes-with-sugar-and-lemon.aspx

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!”:

 

 

In My Heart

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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.

We hope everyone is having a lovely half term!

 

 

Messy Play and Healthy Minds

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Image result for children's mental health awareness week

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…

Image result for the colour thief book

Image result for the colour thief book

Image result for the colour thief book

Image result for the colour thief book

Image result for the colour thief book

We hope everyone has had a lovely weekend and managed to stay safe and warm in spite of Storm Ciara!

Noodles & Pandas

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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…?Image result for mummy and baby panda"

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!

Chinese New Year

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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.

Image result for gung hay fat choyWe 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?

Image result for 12 animals of the chinese zodiac list

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 hope everyone had a lovely weekend!

 

Welcome to the Spring Term!

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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).

Image result for tiger in the snow nick butterworth

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!

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

 

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.