Winnie's Amazing Pumpkin (and other stories)

This week we are reading Winnie's Amazing Pumpkin by Valerie Thomas and Korky Paul. The children are really enjoying this story.

Some of the children will talk about what they would do with a magic wand. We are exploring the outdoors to find more signs of autumn with scavenger hunts and other activities.

Our magic maths work this week is about counting. We are really working hard to practise our counting skills. Some of us are counting our fingers, others are counting beads and others are counting pegs out of a larger group.

Our Reception children have started their phonics sessions and they are doing really well. We have learned lots of letters so far and we are already reading lots of words! Don't forget our phonics meeting for Reception parents every Friday at 2.55pm.
So far this term we have read The Gruffalo, Percy's Friend the Hedgehog and My Friend Bear.

Welcome Back!

We have had a really good start to this year in Early Years. The children are settling in well.

We have already read "Tiddler" and "My Friend Bear" and this week we are reading "The Gruffalo" by Julia Donaldson. We are spending this week in the outdoors, exploring the environments around our school. If your child has their own waterproofs and wellington boots they would be useful to have in school.

New School Year!

I hope that you are enjoying the summer holidays! The weather seems to have finally caught up with the time of year too, even if it is only for a few days.

Thank you for all the lovely cards and gifts we received at the end of term. They were all very kind and thoughtful.

Some of the Early Years staff have been in school during the holidays getting things ready for September. I thought you might like to see some photographs of the changes we have made...



Small World



Phonics Challenge



Transient Art



Writing Area



Construction



Maths Challenge



Reading Area



Investigation with a Seaside Theme



Creative Area



Creative Challenge



Games Table



Role Play



Malleable



Investigation with a Magnetic Theme

I hope you like the new set up and I hope you are all having a lovely summer!

See you in September!
Miss Dews :-)

Week 4: Hansel & Gretel

This week's story is Hansel and Gretel. We will continue looking at the features of traditional tales. We are going to have lots of opportunities to explore different ways to make a picture, counting, mark making and writing. We will have potion making in the outdoor area, reinforcing our learning about capacity. There will also be lots of mark making and writing jobs to do outdoors. Lots of the children have been interested in making maps over the past couple of weeks. We will be using the story to explore this further, looking at different types of maps, following directions and instructions and creating our own maps and plans.

Ways to help at home
Have a look at Google Earth or a similar website. Can you find your house? Can you find the school? What do they look like from above?

Uniform
One or two parents have asked about missing uniform, particularly cardigans and jumpers. Please would you check your child's uniform in case they have accidentally taken someone else's jumper or cardigan home and please would you make sure uniform is clearly labelled with your child's name. Thank you.

Parent Meetings
Appointment sheets for parent meetings will be up in the Nursery porch next week.

Week 3: The Three Little Pigs

This week we have been reading the Three Little Pigs. We have used the story to find out about materials. We have built houses and tested them to see which is the strongest (the wind was provided by a hair dryer - a tropical wind, not North East England wind!). Some of us have written our own versions of the story and drawn pictures of the characters.

Remember that we are off on Monday for the Bank Holiday.

We are running a Squiggle, Phonics, Writing and Reading session for Parents on Wednesday. Please speak to a member of staff to sign up.

Week 2: The Gingerbread Man

This week in Early Years we are reading "The Gingerbread Man", retold by Mairi Mackinnon.

Each Key Worker has lots of different activities planned, including testing gingerbread men to see what will happen if they get wet, acting out the story, finding out about healthy and unhealthy foods and visiting the local shops to buy ingredients for their gingerbread men.

Ways to help at home
If you want to help at home this week, you could talk about ways you stay fit and healthy in your house. What sorts of things contribute to a healthy lifestyle?

Photograph orders
The group photo orders were sent home on Wednesday. If you would like to order one of these photographs, please return the order form and money (cash/cheque/details on the order form) by next Wednesday (29th April).

Reminders
Please make sure Reception children have their PE kit in school every Friday. They need to bring their reading books and homework bags on Thursdays and Forest School restarts on Wednesday this week.

Summer Term

This half term we are going to read some traditional tales, including Little Red Riding Hood, The Gingerbread Man, The Three Pigs, The Frog Prince and Jack & the Beanstalk. We will be learning about the features of traditional tales. In Magic Maths we will be exploring capacity, length, weight, money, time, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Diary dates will go out on the newsletter on Wednesday next week. We have arranged several parent sessions this half term and there are a few other things happening. I will put the dates on here too as soon as they are confirmed.

We hope you have had a lovely Easter and look forward to seeing you all next week!

Festivals

This half term we are looking at different festivals. We have found out about Chinese New Year. We watched Let's Celebrate on CBeebies about a little girl called Abbie and her family as they got ready for Chinese New Year. The programme followed them as they showed us how they celebrate Chinese New Year too.

This week we are going to make our Mothers Day cards. We will be reading a story about a mum and the Reception children will be looking at another nonfiction book.

Thank you for all the responses to our Parent Session Questionnaire. I will be looking at the results and the suggestions and planning a few parent sessions for the Summer Term. In the meantime, if there's anything you would like to know about your child's progress, please do not hesitate to contact us in school or make an appointment with your child's Key Worker.

Penguin Small & Mr. Wolf's Pancakes

Well, as I didn't manage to update the blog last week I thought it would be worth sharing some of the things we did...
We read Penguin Small by Mick Inkpen. It is the story of the North Pole penguins who are fed up with the polar bears so decide to swim to the South Pole to get away from them. However, Penguin Small is left behind because he can't swim and is terrified of water! He meets a snowman and travels with him on a little iceberg to an island, where they meet lots of creatures, including a Neverwozanoceros... (yes, it was read a total of fifteen times last week to the various groups of children!!!!) Eventually Penguin Small ends up being friends with a whale who encourages him to learn to fly.
We had lots going on in the Early Years Unit last week. The Reception children have been practising their addition skills and learning how to write number sentences. They have also been writing the story of Penguin Small (some of them are in the corridor by the classroom) and talking about the beginning, middle and end of a story. The Nursery children have been doing Squiggle Whilst You Wiggle, Magic Maths (they made a BIG maths mess on Friday morning!) and exploring the new messy area. We have all been looking at patterns too. The children have been really clever and can make some repeating patterns now!

This week we are reading Mr. Wolf's Pancakes by Jan Fearnley. Mr. Wolf asks for help to make pancakes but no one will help him. He eventually manages to figure it out for himself and his "friends" want to help him to eat them... However, Mr. Wolf has a much larger meal than he original planned...
We are going to have pancakes for our snack time during the week. The older children will be writing some instructions to help Mr. Wolf make his pancakes. We will be exploring different joining materials in the junk modelling area, making snowflake patterns on the overhead projector with doilies, creating Olaf and Elsa pictures on the easel and playing a game to match the number to the right quantity of spots - among other things!

Please remember that it is our Celebration Assembly on Friday morning at 9.30. Parents and carers are invited to attend. If your child is receiving an award we will let you know on Monday.

Reception parents: please remember that it is normally PE on Fridays (although not this week due to the assembly). Children need to have their PE kits in school.

The Ugly Duckling

This week we will be reading The Ugly Duckling. We will be using the story to talk about similarities, differences, outward appearances and personalities.

We are working with our Key Person this week. We will be doing lots of activities based on our own interests. I will post photographs of some of the activities through the week or next weekend for you to see what we have been up to.

We Are Wearing Out the Naughty Step

Our story this week is "We Are Wearing Out the Naughty Step" by Mick Inkpen. It is about a family who seem to get into trouble a lot and one day Mum has had enough...

We will be using the story to talk about the way we should behave in school/nursery and at home. We will talk about rules and being kind to each other.

We have several challenges around the unit this week. We will be developing our cutting skills again, using the scissors to cut out pictures, shapes and along lines accurately. In Magic Maths we are going to look at patterns so there will be some pattern challenges to do too.

Wish Tree
If you are able to provide baby wipes, boxes of tissues and cheap shaving foam we would be very grateful. Thank you!

Debutots
Clare from Debutots is in school on Tuesday and Thursday mornings this half term. She will tell us a story each week. If your child normally attends in the afternoon they are still welcome to join us on a Thursday morning from 9.30-10.15am. Please speak to a member of staff for further information or to arrange this.

The Rainbow Fish

This week we are reading the story of The Rainbow Fish. We will be talking about sharing and what it means to be a good friend.

We will be practising our cutting skills and making sure we use and carry the scissors safely.

There has been a lot of interest in sticks over the past week so we will be collecting some from the outdoor area. We will decorate them and turn them into magic wands and lots of other items.

DVDs
There will be an order list for the Christmas DVDs in the Nursery porch. They cost £5 and payment must be received with the order.

School Places
A quick reminder that if your child is due to start Reception in September this year,  you must apply for their school place via the Durham County Council website before 15th JANUARY. Please make sure you have confirmation that they have received your application.

Non Uniform
Non uniform day is on a Wednesday in Early Years. Please remember to bring your 50 pence to put into the box. This money is used to pay for all sorts of different things for the children.

PE
Friday is PE day for Reception. Please do not forget to send your child's PE kit with them! We have a few spares in school but the children feel much more comfortable in their own clothes.

Homework
Please return your child's homework bag on Thursday morning. Reading books should be brought to school each day.

Through the Magic Mirror

This week we are starting our theme of "Ourselves and Others" and we will be reading "Through the Magic Mirror" by Anthony Browne. It is the story of Toby who is fed up with everything. He walks through a magic mirror and things are amazingly different... there are lots of very strange things happening inside the mirror.

We will be spending lots of time working with our Key Person this week. We will be talking about all the things we have done during the Christmas Holidays.

If you want to help at home this week you could talk about how your child is feeling and why. When do they feel happy? Scared? Sad? Surprised? You could use a mirror and encourage them to pull different faces for each of the feelings.

Don't forget we're back at school and nursery on Tuesday, 6th January.

See you then! :-)