Christmas

We left out Christmas toy catalogues for the children to use to make a Christmas list. They looked through the catalogues, chose their favourite toys and cut them out. They then stuck them on their wish list. They loved having a look through the catalogues and chatting to each other about what Santa was going to bring them. 

Look on the tab ‘special days’ to see how much fun we had at our Christmas parties. 
https://www.westwood.leeds.sch.uk/special-days-3/

The children loved the various Christmas gift bags which were out in the classroom this week.  They filled the bags with various loose parts and other items from around the classroom,  and collected the filled bags together. They played together pretending to be Santa's helpers and getting ready to deliver the presents for Christmas.  They played imaginatively for some time, transporting the bags firstly to under the Christmas tree and then they lined them up against the wall.  There was so much lovely conversation to be heard and imaginary play taking place. 

Mark making - writing lists, writing messages in cards and writing on gift tags. 

We have been making lots of different Christmas crafts this week including wreaths and snowflakes. The children have loved getting creative and making them their own. They have used glitter and snowflakes and holly to decorate the wreaths. The children practised their scissor skills to cut out the paper. They then opened up the paper and it made a lovely snowflake!

We talked about the reason we celebrate Christmas and Christingles. We put oranges out with cloves and the children had a go at picking up the cloves and pushing them into the oranges. The classroom smelt beautiful and the children got a chance to practise their fine motor control.  

Christmas Sing-a-long

We had the best time performing our Christmas songs that we spent ages learning. We all sat beautifully on the carpet and enjoyed singing to our parents or carers. Mrs Gray and Mrs Kitching are so proud of you all for joining in and listening to the songs. Well done Nursery!

We had lots of fun decorating our Christmas tree. Lots of the children joined in and found lots of baubles and tinsel to put on. They got so excited by the Father Christmas statue and the post box. They can bring their own Christmas cards to put in the post box if they like. 

We had the best time watching The Great Christmas Robbery which was put on by a company who came in to put on a pantomime. Nursery sat so beautifully throughout the performance and loved being part of the school. They laughed at the jokes and joined in with the singing. It was lots of fun!

Developing  independence

Now that the cold and wet days are here, our children are becoming more and more independent in getting themselves ready to play outside. This is a really important learning opportunity for our children, so we encourage them all to ‘have a go’ and put coats on, take off shoes, put wellies on, and even change into a puddle suit!  Many children are doing a great job and now only need a little help to fasten their coat, put mittens on etc. 

Stick Man 

In the story, a little girl plays ‘pooh sticks’ with stick man. He floats down the river and out to sea.  We watched our Stickman float in the water, we used leaves to push stickman through the water.  He floated under the bridge. 

We made our own stick men using chocolate mini rolls and matchmakers. The children were given the mini rolls and matchmakers and told to create their own stick man. Some of them broke the sticks and made arms and legs, some tried to position the sticks around the mini roll and some tried to push the sticks into the mini roll. The children were very creative and loved eating them at the end. 

We have thoroughly enjoyed reading the story, stick man. We have listened to it as a class and then the children came and asked me to read it on their own. They took it in turns to have a look through the book. It was lovely to see them retelling the story. 

Whatever Next!
by Jill Murphy

We loved the story and wanted to go to the moon too! We used our imaginations, just like baby bear in the story.  We climbed into our rocket,

put on our space helmet, did the count down and Whoosh, we were off!

We had a picnic on the moon before heading back down to planet earth. 

Look at the great rockets that some of the children made.  We are learning how to use sticky tape to join things together. We found things outside to make a rocket with too. We did a count down. “5,4,3,2,1 blast off!”

We baked some star biscuits after listening to the story.  Baby bear saw millions of stars on his way to the moon! We all gave our hands a good wash before taking turns to stir the mixture, roll the dough and use the star cutter to shape their biscuit. 

Some great game playing today, using the skittles.  Some children were helped to wait for their turn, many were fabulous at helping to stand the skittles up each time and we’re learning to play together really well. 

Nursery Rhyme Week 

We love nursery rhymes in nursery but this week we are spending lots of time singing together, using nursery rhyme props and using nursery rhymes in our play. 
 

Incy Wincy spider - we played with spiders and large pipes in the sand.  Some children sang the nursery rhyme as they played, making spiders climb up and get washed back down.

We also played a game, the children did a great job recognising amounts of spots on the dice and moving the spider that many spaces up the drain pipe.  If they were unlucky and it began to rain, the spider was washed back down to the beginning. It was lovely to see our children developing an understanding of game playing, following instructions and keeping going until they had managed to get the spider to the top! 

Look at the “massive spider” that Elijah made!  He did a great job shaping the dough, adding legs and eyes until his spider was finished. 
 

I had made a spider web with tweezers for the children to practise their fine motors control. It had broken within half an hour so the children had a go at making their own using tape and scissors. They did a brilliant job and enjoyed making their own creation. They then practised their fine motor control and rescued the spiders from the web.                                                                  

Miss Polly had a dolly

We had a go at subitising using twinkle twinkle little star. The children came to explore the playing cards and had a go at subitising the amount on each card. They turning the cards over and counting the number. Some children needed a little support with counting but they all had a really good go. 

Bonfire night and the gunpowder plot 

We have been exploring the different ways to make fireworks. We made patterns and marks in the glitter and practised holding the paintbrush with a tripod grip. We made swirls and zig zags and wiggly lines. It was so much fun. 

We made our own bonfires where the children used red orange and yellow paints and ripped brown paper into different lengths. They loved making the bonfires and talking about why we celebrate bonfire night. 

The children are developing the strength in their fingers, hands and arms as they carefully rip and tear the tissue paper to make flames to add to our bonfire o our small world table.  

The children used brushes and shaving foam to paint the fence.  They used both small and large movements when painting.  ” up and down, up and down” the girls said as they painted. 

The children also explored shaving foam inside, they mixed and swirled   the paint drops in the foam

using wooden spoons and lolly sticks. We talked about the patterns we could see emerging.

Halloween 

We used one of the huge pumpkins from the carving competition to practise our fine motor control. We had some hammers and some golf tees and we practised hitting them into the pumpkin. It was hard work as the pumpkin was so strong, but we had a really good go and we could hold the hammer in one hand and the golf tee in the other. We ended up hammering lots and lots of tees into the pumpkin and managed to take it in turns. 

We had lots of fun with our water play outside and did lots of pouring and transferring. We loved tipping and pouring and talking about how much water each container needed to fill it up. The children were able to identify that the smaller containers needed the least water and the bigger containers needed the most water. They filled up the test tubes all the way to the top, the tipped it out and started again. They absolutely loved it. We tried to keep all of the children dry but some managed to get water everywhere!

“It’s full,” said Shannon once the test tube had been filled to the top. She then tipped it all out and the children jumped up and down in the puddles with their wellies on. 

We made our own giant pumpkin like the one outside. We used tissue paper, glitter and used our own imaginations as to what the pumpkin should look like. We took it in turns to have a go and we worked hard together ripping the tissue paper and practised our fine motor control.  

During one of our lunch breaks, the children really enjoyed watching the fish in our new pond. The children helped to make fishing rods using string and sticks and hung them over the fence. They loved it and stood there for ages seeing if they could catch any. 

We have also been exploring potions with the children and counting how many spiders or bats or witches blood we have put into the cauldron. We have used test tubes to tip and pour the mixture out and enjoyed getting messy. Francis said “it’s filled to the top.” Then we spoke about what the test tube looked like when it was empty.  

Frankie enjoyed playing the xylophone outside. He made lots of lovely tunes and played it louder and quieter. The children love making different sounds. I then found some children making different sounds with the pots and pans. Sam turned the big jug over and hit the bottom of it with a spade. It made a different sound to the smaller jug. They hit wood and metal and listened to the different sounds they made. 

Harry wanted to make a washing line, once he’d done this, it was very popular!  We used our fingers and thumbs to squeeze open the pegs to hang leaves, towels and fabrics on the line.