Goldstone Crescent
Dunstable
Beds
LU5 4QU
Phone: 01582 662600
Email: office@willownursery.co.uk
Nursery News 11.10.2021
NURSERY NEWS
11th October 2021 – Edition 238
Find out About
A. Stay and Play for Little Nursery- A reminder
B. What the children are learning this week.
C. Parking.
A. Stay and Play for Little Nursery-A reminder
The Little Nursery Staff would like to invite parents of our current Little Nursery children to ‘Stay and Play’ in Little Nursery. Parents are welcome to stay and play within the morning sessions from Monday 11th October to Thursday 14th October. The session must be one of your child’s regular sessions. Parents can stay from as soon as we open at 8:45am to the end of the morning session at 11:45am if they wish.
B. What the children are learning this week.
We use our newsletter to share information about what the children are learning at school. We do this so you can take an interest in current topics and maybe support this learning at home.
This week though, I’d like to talk about the whole class grouptimes that we are teaching at the moment.
In Big Nursery, we plan to teach the children five grouptimes across the week. Children attend in different patterns: some do 5 mornings, some do 2 ½ days M-W, some do 2 ½ days W-F and some do 5 full days. We arrange children into groups across the week to ensure they all experience the 5 different grouptimes.
Children have free choice to move around the school both inside and outside during the majority of the session time. In the morning we stop and come together at 11:00am and split children into 3 groups for grouptime. Grouptime is 25 minutes long. These are our current groups.
Music- The children will experience 10 music sessions that are carefully planned to build on what they have learnt in previous sessions. The staff had training from the De Capo music organisation. We use De Capo materials , music, songs, picture cards, beat cards, etc. to teach children music skills through singing, movement, using instruments and playing rhythm games.
Oxford Reading Tree- Oxford University Press publish a reading scheme to help early reading. We have a set of picture cards to introduce the main characters in the storybooks. The children discuss the detail in the pictures. The staff tell a story about each picture. Staff write a caption under the pictures for the children and staff to read together. We have some whole class size books for early readers which the
staff read with the children. (We have a number of Oxford Reading Tree books in our library that the children can re-visit by themselves.)
Theraplay Sunshine circles- sunshine circles are planned activities to encourage children to listen carefully, take turns and join in with co-operative activities. These activities help children’s wellbeing. (Children currently have 2 sessions per week of Theraplay)
Big Books- We have a good selection of children’s storybooks (such as The Hungry Caterpillar and Elmer the Elephant) that are big enough for the whole class to share at the same time. Staff read the stories to the children, discuss the text, look at the pictures, and play some rhyming games with the children.
Little Nursery also have a grouptime at the end of each morning session. However, the attention span within the Catkins age children is much more varied. With the very youngest children we aim for grouptime to last for about 3-5 minutes. Those who are a little more experienced join a group for a slightly longer grouptime, generally between 10-15minutes.
At the moment the Catkins the grouptime sessions are:
Lift off to language- A program of activities to encourage Two year olds to become more confident using language. The sessions are planned to give all children the opportunity to speak and be listened to.
Music time: Children learn nursery rhymes and songs, they play along with basic instruments such as shakers and bells, and they dance to different kinds of music.
Story time: Staff choose books to share with the group that are suited to their age and development level. Lots of simple stories, with short texts and interesting illustrations.
Theraplay games- Games to support Well being, social interaction and being kind to each other.
Finger rhymes and counting songs: Children can learn basic counting skills through nursery rhymes like Baa Baa Black Sheep: Using fingers to represent 1,2,3 bags of wool, or from learning songs like ‘Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed’ where one monkey jumps off the bed in each verse and the number of Monkeys reduces by one in each verse. This is the beginnings of teaching subtraction!
C. Parking.
Please can all parent’s consider the needs of our neighbours when parking your cars in the area local to the school. Please do not park across neighbours drives. We try to maintain good relationships with our neighbours. We are not able to control what happens outside school, we can only suggest that parents park with consideration.
