Summer Term 1

Hello,

We hope you had a lovely Easter and a restful break. The children have been telling us all about their school holidays and have been eager to talk about what they've been up to.

Next week is 'Healthy Lifestyles' week. We have lots of exciting activities coming up, including a visit from a Paramedic and an activity to help 'Georgie Grub' to get rid of his germs. We will also be doing some activities related to our DrugAware programme. This involves emphasising the importance of staying away from the medicine/cleaning cupboard and making sure children are aware of how to stay safe with medicines.

At the end of last term, we decided to ask the children what they would like to learn about as we are placing more emphasis on following the children's interests. We had various responses, from space to chicken nuggets! But the most popular answer was 'animals'. Yesterday we asked the children what they already know about animals and today we asked what they would like to know (we have pinned up some of the responses on the nursery windows for you to see).

So this term we will have lots of focus on animals. However we have kept track of all of the responses and will incorporate the interests in some way - whether that be a theme week, an activity or trying to include more books based around their interests.

As you know we are now in the summer term which means that lots of you will be thinking about your child moving up to Foundation 2 (reception). We will keep you updated with details of transition and will send out a transition programme so that you are fully aware and can talk to your child about it. In nursery, we have begun to talk to the children about the possibility of them having a new teacher and new classroom as a small, initial preparation for the change.

Please note:

• We still have PE every Friday - please ensure your child wears appropriate PE clothes - no tights, no earrings. 
• The children still change their book on a Wednesday - please bring a book bag or reading folder

Thank you

Hello!

We hope that you all had a wonderful half term. We're now in the second half of the autumn term - time is flying!
For the upcoming week (w/b 11.11.13), our topic is 'Heroes'. As you know, Monday is Remembrance Day so we will be doing activities involving poppies, and talking about their significance - poppies will also be sold in school. During the week, we have lots planned including the children discussing every day heroes - leading to 'what I want to be when I grow up'.
Friday is Children In Need - the children will be doing activities based around Children in Need and Pudsey bear, of course. There are badges and wristbands available to buy in school and also within Nursery we will have our loose change Pudsey Bear.

The following week  (w/b 18.11.13) is a Languages/International theme week in school. In Nursery our language focus is Makaton, which uses signs and symbols. Perhaps you could ask your child to show you some of the words/actions they have learnt at the end of the week.
Our overall topic for this half term is 'Around the World'. We will be setting up different parts of the Nursery as different countries - and 'travelling' by a hot air balloon and a flying carpet!

Thank you to the new admissions parents that came for the settling-reviews last term - we hope you found it helpful. This term we have parents meetings for the parents of children who had started Nursery before the summer - we look forward to seeing you.

Now that the weather is getting colder, please ensure children are wrapped up warm as we do go outside every day!

Thank you
The Foundation One Team

Autumn Term

As you know the term is going very quickly and we have been very busy with our 'Opposites' topic so far. We have been doing rough and smooth collage, loud and quiet sounds, slow and fast movements, black and white (magic) pictures and happy and sad faces! The children have also been busy during Quiz time - we have been counting 1 - 5 and 1 - 10, looking at pattern and shape and also thinking about more/less and heavy/light (opposites again!). In our Phonics we have been doing listening activities, sound discrimination and getting to know the letters and sounds 's', 'a', 'p' and 'i'. The children are focusing really well.

We have had lots of lovely opportunities this term, such as meeting Bailey the dog from the 'Dogs Trust' and learning how to approach dogs safely and look after pets. We have also had a 'Magna' science show where the children got to see lots of exciting experiments.

A few reminders:

• Monday is diary day so please try and bring something that your child can talk about and use as a stimulus for writing - this can range from a conker, to a leaflet or ticket from an outing.
• Friday is our physical day so please bring your child in comfortable clothes.
• Please encourage your child to hang up their coat/attach name card independently.
• The children change their books every Wednesday, so please bring in the book bags and the previous book so we can swap them.

Our target for this term is to encourage the children to put their coats on by themselves - they are doing a really great job of this so far and it would be really helpful for you to encourage this at home too. Some techniques that can help with this: sitting the coat on a chair or putting the hood up to help children find the arms!

As always thank you for your continued support.
- The Foundation One Team

Welcome back!

We hope that you had a fantastic summer and made the most of the sunshine. We've already heard lots about the children's adventures, it sounds like they've been busy!

As you already know, our new group names are the Giraffes and the Parrots and the children have enjoyed looking at our new displays and puzzles for these. The helpful Hippos are also doing really well adjusting to full time nursery!

This week we are reading 'Monkey Puzzle' and will be doing some work for our Monkey Puzzle display so that you will be able to see the children's beautiful paintings and collages. For the rest of this term, our topic will be 'Opposites', a theme that will run through all of the curriculum areas. Perhaps at home, you can take advantage of any opportunities that might arise to talk about opposites. At nursery we will be thinking about lots - for example, hot/cold, tall/short, fast/slow, light/dark...

We will continue to update this blog with information, photos, important dates and special events so come and visit to see what's going on in the nursery.

 - The Foundation One Team

Finally the sun is shining!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Welcome back after the Easter holidays. I hope that you enjoyed all the lovely chocolate eggs. It is lovely to finally have some warmer weather and the sun is shining. The children love playing in our outdoor area and it has been lovely to start tidying our garden area. Please ensure that your child brings a sun hat to Nursery everyday and that they are wearing appropriate clothing and sunscreen. If children bring sunscreen to Nursery, they need to be able to apply this themselves. This term our theme is Growing and we have been learning all about Jack and the beanstalk. This week we have been planting beans and they will shortly be bringing them home to continue growing. We will also be sending home a diary sheet, so that they can record how their plant is growing. I wonder whose will be the tallest beanstalk. We look forward to seeing some photographs of the children's plant.
This term is obviously very important for the children who are preparing to enter our Reception class in September. Please look out for any important letters which will be coming home shortly.

Happy New Year

Wow, is it really February already? How time flies. Hopefully the snow and cold weather are behind us and we can look forward to the warm, sunny days of spring.
This term we are looking at Creative Arts around the World. We have been looking at Aboriginal dot paintings. The children enjoyed recreating their own pictures using cotton buds. We will be displaying the childen's work around Nursery and we will be inviting you to come in after half term to look at our Art Exhibition.
We still need support with our weekly library book change, so if you have any time to spare, please speak to Mrs Morledge.

An exciting autumn term!!!

Wow, how time is flying. It has been wonderful to welcome back our children, as well as beginning to get to know lots of new friends. This term we are learning all about animals. We started looking at jungle animals linked to the story Giraffes can't Dance. You may have seen our display of jungle animals developing in the Ladybird room. This week we have started to think about farm animals, linked to Old Macdonald had a Farm. The children have been playing with the animals and sorting them into farm and jungle animals. We have loved listening to the children's ideas and reasoning. One child said the giraffe goes with the elephant because they are friends. Our topic ideas are now displayed on our Parent's noticeboard so please have a look.
The weather has certainly turned unsettled this week. Please keep encouraging your child to try and put their coat on by themselves. We are currently having a coat challenge at the moment and we are encouraging the children to become more independent.
Next time we hope to show you some of our children's work.