Welcome back to Nursery and welcome to the new starters! We hope you settle in really quickly and we can't wait to get to know you all. 

If you have any questions please feel free to come into Nursery and ask Mrs Brown, Mrs Gray. Mrs Caradice or Mrs Norton. 

Dinosaurs!!

This half term we are so excited to be learning all about dinosaurs and what happened when they existed!! We found an egg on the field and we don't know what is inside it!? Do you have any ideas what it could be? 

We hope it's not a real life dinosaur otherwise we will be terrified!

We will be learning lots about Dinosaurs this term and exploring through play. We cannot wait!

This week we have started to learn about Dinosaurs. We have looked at detailed pictures of Dinosaurs and then picked our own colours and painted our own dinosaur. They look really good! We also made our own fossils using salt dough. We made our own salt dough then made an imprint onto the dough. We then let it set and we painted it when it had dried. You can come into our classroom and see them if you like. 

We went outside and pretended to be dinosaurs. It was so much fun!! We stomped about and made loud noises. We then ran around chasing each other. We made big movements and small movements. Our favourite dinosaur was the t-rex, the scariest of them all. 

Harry and the Bucketful of Dinosaurs

This week in Nursery we have been reading 'Harry and the Bucketful of Dinosaurs.' We have loved reading all about Harry and how much he loves his dinosaurs. We all had a favourite dinosaur. Make sure you ask us and we will be able to tell you. 

We had a really fun week and have learnt a lot about different dinosaurs. One of our favourite activities was trying to help the dinosaurs escape from the ice eggs. We used different things and experimented to see which was the most effective. Hot water melted the ice but the spoons helped to chip away the ice. We had lots of fun!

Tyrannosaurus Drip

This week we have read the story 'Tyrannosaurus Drip' which is all about a T-Rex who is scared of everything, which is very unusual for a T-Rex! We all loved listening to the story at carpet time and some of us were able to make predictions about what might happen to the dinosaur in the end. We have done lots of activities based on this story. Our favourite was making a giant dinosaur collage using different materials from tissue paper to card and coloured paper. We talked about how to make it brilliant before we started then we all shared our ideas. This was really good for our speaking and listening skills and taking it in turns.  

We then made shape pictures of dinosaurs using our knowledge of different shapes. Each time we chose a shape we had a go at naming it and had a little bit of help if we got stuck. We then dipped it into our favourite colour paint and created our own amazing shape dinosaur. It was lots of fun! We also had a music lesson where we used musical instruments to make different dinosaur sounds. From loud stomping noises with drums to quiet flapping noises using a tambourine. We all took it in turns and experimented with the different instruments. One of our favourite noises were the maracas. We decided these sounded best as a running dinosaur chasing his prey!

We then had a mission to take part in as we had to go outside and go on a safari. The museum had asked us to find out more about dinosaurs so we had to go back in time and get explain to the museum what we had seen. We had to write down our findings on a piece of paper and send it to the museum. We saw so many things from dinosaur eggs to sleeping dinosaurs and scary dinosaurs chasing their prey! We think the museum were very happy with what we had found. 

We also then had a discussion about dinosaur facts. We talked about the main features of different dinosaurs and why they were so strong when they were alive. We each got a fact card and had a go at talking about our dinosaur. 

Finally, we made a paper plate dinosaur using a paper plate cut in half and added spikes or spots if we wanted to. We then painted our dinosaur or coloured it in if we preferred. We loved this activity as we could make our dinosaur as colourful as we liked!

We have had a great week in Nursery and cannot wait to find out what will happen next week! Everyone is settling in well and getting used to all the different areas to play in. 

Dinosaurs Love Underpants

This week we have read Dinosaurs love Underpants. It is one of our favourite books as it is so funny! We had a go at counting by pegging underpants onto a washing line. We also practised our fine motor skills to peg the pants on. 

We also had a go at painting and cutting out silhouettes of dinosaurs to make a beautiful picture. We used watercolours to create a background like a sunset and then cut out dinosaurs on black paper. They look so lovely and will be put up in our classroom for everyone to see. 

One of our favourite activities to do was to use tweezers to count the pom poms into the dinosaurs mouth. We found a number, had to say what number it was and move the correct number pom poms into the mouth. It was so much fun and we really practised our number recognition, our counting and our fine motor skills.

We did lots of maths this week which we loved. We found a giant dinosaur footprint and then guessed how many multilink cubes it would measure. We wrote down our predictions and then measured it. We put the cubes down one at a time until they went from the toe to the heel and then counted them. Some of us were really close!

Bagel time!

We have enjoyed our bagels this week! We come into the classroom, settle in and then get to eat our bagels. They are so delicious and everyone has enjoyed eating them! We look forward to coming in so we can get our bagels. 

Chinese New Year!!

It's Chinese New Year this week and they celebrate it in China. They make lots of yummy food and have dances and parades with Chinese dragons. It is so much fun! 
This year it is the year of the pig. You can work out your animal by the year you were born!

We have invited our parents or carers into school to help us make a paper Chinese dragon. We can't wait to see what they look like.

We had a dragon head and tail and then we made a body by folding paper a couple of times. We then stuck two lollypop sticks to the body and decorated it.  

We have also written invitiations to our parents or carers to invite them to make the chinese dragon with us. We practised how to hold a pencil and wrote our names using our name cards. We then decorated them. They look so good. 

We have also made Chinese paper lanterns. We chose our favourite colour then folded it in half. We then cut strips into it practising our scissor skills making sure we didn't reach the edge of the paper and then we stuck it together. We then decorated it. They look so lovely hanging up in our classroom. 

We then made cherry blossom fans and talked about why cherry blossom is significant in China. They look so beautiful and we loved getting messy making them. We also practised our fine motor skills by doing Chinese calligraphy. It was very tricky but really good fun. 

The end of the Dinosaurs!

This is the final week before half term and we have been really busy learning the last little bits about Dinosaurs to finish off our topic. We have loved this topic and exploring all about the prehistoric era. We have loved pretending to be dinosaur explorers and dinosaur hunters using our binoculars in the role play area. 

This week we have been busy practising our fine motor skills by holding our pencils correctly. Mrs Gray and Mrs Brown have been so impressed with how we have improved and we are practising as much as we can. We had a go at writing our names on dinosaurs. We found our name cards and chose our dinosaur then with support wrote our names. 

We also built a dinosaur nest using pipe cleaners and a colander. This helped us to practise our fine motor skills as we had to carefully thread the pipe cleaners through the holes and it wasn't easy. We then chose our favourite dinosaur to put into the nest so he had a home. 
We also went outside and did some throwing and catching. We practised with different sized balls and stood at different distances from each other. We started to get really good towards the end. This is really good for our gross motor skills so any practise at home would be brilliant. 

We then made stained glass window dinosaurs! We used tissue paper, sticky back plastic and a black dinosaur outline and stuck it all together. You can come and have a look at them as they will be up in the classroom soon!

Thank you for your support this half term. The children loved having you come into school and make Chinese Dragons with them. We have also had a great time learning all about dinosaurs and we are excited to start our new topic after half term all about Growing!