Welcome to a new year in Nursery! We have had a busy couple of weeks; welcoming back our older children and settling in 11 new children. There are now 17 children in our class. Our older children have been doing a fantastic job of helping the new children to find their way around our Nursery and we have been so impressed by how brave the new children have been at drop-off. Well done everyone – and grown-ups too – we know saying goodbye in the mornings isn’t always easy for you either!
Over the summer, we were very lucky to have had some improvements made to our wonderful garden. We have had a new, rather bouncy surface added in a large area running down from the tree, around the treehouse and almost all the way to the fence. We hope this will make the area safer when we want to set ourselves physical challenges, as well as making it a little less muddy! But never fear, we absolutely love mud and would never get rid of it all in our garden, as we feel this is a very important, real-world, sensory experience for the children. Not only do we have our mud kitchen, which continues to be a firm favourite amongst our budding chefs, but we now have the foundations of a proper digging area too! A huge thank you must go to the Flood family for donating several car tyres and to the Ryalls for organising the gifting and delivery of our new logs – thank you so very much for thinking of us! Do look out for even more improvements to the garden over the coming term…
Another addition to the garden has been our fantastic stage! We have already enjoyed several superb performances including repeated renditions of ‘Let It Go’!!
And we have been blessed with some lovely warm weather which has allowed the children to enjoy lots of explorative water play outside…
Back inside the classroom, the children have been getting to know the different areas of the Nursery. Our creative area has been particularly popular this week with many children choosing to design and create with the junk modelling materials. This area is set up to promote independence and imagination! We encourage the children to think about the different materials they might need for their designs and to ask us if they need something else that might help their design come together. Often, the children show fantastic perseverance and problem-solving skills in this area. Understandably, even the best laid plans don’t always come together straightaway, especially when you’re trying to create a rocket-ship complete with sleeping compartments!
Do look out for the Autumn term edition of ‘Nursery News’ which should have made it home to you yesterday; this is our termly newsletter which aims to keep you informed about upcoming events and provides you with some ideas for ways in which to support your child’s learning at home.
The first key date for your diary is this coming Friday (27th September) when the Macmillan Coffee Morning (more info here) will take place in the school hall after drop-off at 9am. Do come along and enjoy a slice of cake while meeting other St. Matthew’s families and raising money for Macmillan (any donation, no matter how small, is welcomed).
Finally, please remember to add your contact details to the sheet that our wonderful class rep (Mrs Robinson) has put up on the Nursery garden door – she will then be able to connect you all to keep you informed about events and give you a chance to get to know one another as part of the wider St. Matthew’s community.