Tag Archives: Being Imaginative

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!

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!

 

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! 🍁

Festivals of Light

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Welcome back to the second half of the Autumn term!  We hope everyone enjoyed a restful half term break.  As the dark nights draw in and the leaves start to change colour, we have been encouraging the children to notice the different coloured leaves in the garden.  If you find any red, yellow or oranges leaves when out and about this weekend, please do bring them into Nursery for our Nature Table.  Thank you!

There was great excitement this week as many of the children were looking forward to spending time with their families, celebrating a certain festival that involves special costumes, decorating homes, eating sweets and lighting candles! 🎃

In Nursery, we take every opportunity to find out about different cultures and religions so, this week, we decided to find out about a celebration that also involves costumes, decorations, sweets and candles: the light festival of Diwali.

Unlike Halloween, Diwali is a religious festival.  It is celebrated every year by Hindus all around the world.  First, we read the story of the Ramayana which tells the tale of Rama and Sita, who defeat the ten-headed demon king, Ravana, with the help of the monkey king, Hanuman.  The children all agreed that Ravana was “not very kind and friendly”!

Image result for rama and sita story

You can re-visit the story in this CBeebies clip:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/stories/lets-celebrate-diwaliperformance

During Diwali, Hindus light diya lamps to symbolise the victory of light over darkness, just like in the story of Rama and Sita.  They also wear special clothes, decorate their homes and eat lots of special sweets!

Meet Jessica here to find out more about how Diwali is celebrated.

We had a go at dressing up ourselves!

Retelling the story of the Ramayana:

And we practised our mark-making within this beautiful Rangoli pattern!

We hope you’ll understand that we decided to leave all the sweet-eating to you at home!  Have a lovely weekend everyone 😊