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Nursery News 13th June 2022

NURSERY NEWS

13th June 2022 – Edition 264

Find out About

A. Platinum Jubilee Bank Holiday- A reminder.

B. End of term arrangements.

C. What the children are learning about this week

D. Summer Reading Challenge.

A.Platinum Jubilee Bank Holiday- A reminder.

Willow Nursery School will be closed on Monday 27th June, 2022.

B. End of term arrangements.

The last day of term in July 2022 for all children will be Thursday 21st July.

On Friday 22nd July school will open only for the Big Nursery children that are leaving us. The session is likely to be a ‘morning only’ session. More details will follow.

C.What the children are learning about this week:

The theme in Little Nursery is ‘at the café’

In Little Nursery and Catkins, the children will be using their imagination as the classroom is transformed into a café. There will be tables and chairs arranged for the children to sit at and enjoy pretending that they are really at a café. There will be menus for the children to help them decide which meals and drinks they would like to have, as well as clipboards and pencils for them to take orders from their friends. Mrs. Brinkley will model language that they might hear and use in a café, she will ask them questions and encourage the children to keep the conversation moving forward. Children will be given the opportunity to make their own sandwiches and eat them in the seating area. They will choose which bread and filling they would like, answering simple questions about their favourite foods, likes and dislikes. Mrs. Cashmore will support the children with using utensils to spread their butter and sandwich fillers using age appropriate utensils.

Outside, Mrs. Watson will be promoting positive behavior and supporting the children with conflict resolution. She will encourage the children to think about how to solve problems such as two children wanting the same toy.

The theme in Big Nursery is We’re Going On a Bear Hunt

In room one, Mrs. Patterson will be reading the story of We’re Going On a Bear Hunt with the children so that they are familiar with the story line. The children will then be invited to take part in a sensory retelling of the story using a range of resources as props for the children to walk through and over. It is a wonderful way for the children to act out the scenes in the book and bring the story to life.

In room 2, Miss Skai will make binoculars for the children to use when looking for bears. Miss Skai will show the children a map that she has made that shows landmarks from the story We’re Going On a Bear Hunt. The children will be invited to create their own map using different media and materials. They can then use their binoculars and follow their maps to go on a hunt of their own, in school.

Outside, Miss Howe will be playing a word hunt game, the children will have a sheet with pictures on. They will need to look for the words in the garden that match the pictures on their sheets. The children will be asked to write the words that match the pictures on their sheets. This will support the children with their letter recognition and formation when writing.

D. Summer Reading Challenge

Summer Reading Challenge

The Summer Reading Challenge is an annual challenge run jointly by The Reading Agency and public libraries. This year the theme is Gadgeteers, with a science and engineering themed challenge, supported by the Science Museum.

Children are encouraged to read whatever they like for the challenge, recognising the importance of reading for pleasure in increasing empathy and improving well-being, as well as in children’s educational success.

The Challenge v Children must be members of the library service. Join the library here or go to your local library.

• The challenge invites children to read any six library books or more during the summer holidays.
• Families can sign up for the challenge at any library, at any stage in the summer from Friday 22 July.
• Children can borrow books or read our e-books, magazines and audiobooks available from our Virtual Library
• Children collect rewards for the books they read – a bookmark for reading 2 books; a pencil for reading 4 books; a certificate and a medal for reading 6 books.
• Children aged 4-16 completing the challenge (6 books) will be entered into a lucky dip at their library for the chance to win a tablet computer.

Events

• Science workshops run by Sublime Science will be taking place in libraries in August, with mixed demonstration and hands-on science – including gooey slime!
• The popular John Kirk who entertained us last year, returns with more online entertainment in the form of science Story Hunts.

There are limited spaces and booking opens on 11 June at 12pm at: https://linktr.ee/centralbedfordshirelibraries Further details of all activities from www.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk/summer-reading-challenge

Nursery News 6th June 2022

NURSERY NEWS

6th June 2022 – Edition 263

Find out About

A. Platinum Jubilee Bank Holiday- A reminder.

B. Keeping Children Safe in the Heat.

C. Our School Rules.

D. What the children are learning about this week

A.Platinum Jubilee Bank Holiday- A reminder.

The government decided that the Platinum Jubilee would be marked with an additional Bank Holiday for everyone, making the 2nd and 3rd June, 2022 Bank Holidays. Schools, however had already set our term dates. We were advised that we need to choose an additional day to be closed, so that school staff and pupils can benefit from the extra days holiday. Willow Nursery School will be closed on Monday 27th June, 2022.

B. Keeping Children Safe in the Heat.

We are now moving into the last part of the school year. Summer brings it’s challenges, one of which is keeping the children hydrated. The children should all have their own water bottles and we remind the children to drink frequently. We would like to ask all parents to donate a box of ice pops. We have a freezer in the classroom. When it is very hot we can then ask all the children to sit quietly in the shade or inside for a few minutes, to have a break from the sun and eat their ice pops. This has worked very well in past years. The children enjoy the treat.

C. Our School Rules

At Willow we have some very simple School Rules that we use with the children. Our rules are positive telling children what they should do when in our school. The Big Nursery children are very familiar with our school rules. Little Nursery may still be learning them. We use our rules daily, to help children understand our expectations. We use the rules globally, for example explaining that children should always have listening ears when an adult is talking to them at Grouptime. We use the rules to give specific advice. For example if a child begins to sprint along the library corridor we use the rules as an immediate reminder calling ‘Walking Feet!’ Here are some explanations as to how we use our rules.

Little Voice. We need to use our little voice at school to help us learn and concentrate. I sometimes use this before an action. ‘We need to line up for lunch, but we need to use a quiet voice.’ We can maintain a quiet purposeful working atmosphere.

Looking Eyes. We need to use our looking eyes to learn what is happening around us. I ask children to use their looking eyes to look at the storybook at grouptime. This way we can get and hold the children’s attention.

Listening Ears. We need to use our listening ears to enjoy stories, listen to our friends and teachers. I use this to regain everyone’s attention during a group activity, or to quieten down noisy individuals!

Kind Hands. We need to use our kind hands when sharing toys with other children and putting our toys away. If a child snatches a toy from another child we say ‘oh you need to remember to use your kind hands!’ –this often distracts the children and calms them.

Walking Feet. We need to use walking feet inside school otherwise we may run into other children and hurt them and ourselves. A child moving from quick walking, into a jog and then taking off into a sprint along the Library corridor will be reminded: “Use walking feet.” It can be used to slow the children’s movement down, maintaining a safe environment.

Our rules are used to maintain an ordered environment. The staff at Willow do not let any inappropriate behaviour go unchallenged. Some children take longer than others to learn how to behave appropriately at school. All children are individuals, which we celebrate. Children come from a wide variety of home environments, which we must embrace. Our school is a community of individuals, like the rest of society. Our job as parents and educators is to nurture and mould children into the young people we aspire for them to be.

We currently have some tricky situations to deal with in Little Nursery. They are not unusual in our Nursery by any means. We usually have to deal with difficult social issues such as these at least once in every academic year. But for parents of a 2 or 3 year old it may be it is the first time your child is mixing in a group socially without you. Children are exposed to language and behaviours from other children, that they may not see in their own homes. So, as a staff, we try to reduce incidences of inappropriate language or behaviour that the children exhibit. We talk to children and explain that they should not say those words in school, or physically hurt others. It may take some children a few years to learn that swearing is not appropriate in school. When my daughter first heard swear words I was very clear to teach her that yes, we know these words exist, but as a child you should not use them, and it would ultimately reflect badly on her if she did.

Unfortunately, I do not have a magic wand to eradicate all the parts of the children’s behaviour that is undesirable. So we spend lots of time promoting behaviour that is desirable, and praise individual children when they work in our positive social framework. As part of a community children have to learn to deal with difficult situations. The situations children face potentially become more difficult as the children grow older. Part of our role is to teach children to be resilient, to make good decisions and contribute to society in a positive way.

D. What the children are learning about this week:

The theme in little nursery is The Hungry Caterpillar.

In Catkins, Mrs. McGrath will be showing the children that they can paint using different media. She will be dipping fruit into paint and stamping the fruit onto paper. The children will use some of the fruit that is featured in The Very Hungry Caterpillar story. Mrs. McGrath will discuss with the children the different colours that they can see on the fruit as well as the colours of the paint.

In room three, Miss Gaffney will be supporting the children with their writing skills. The children will have the opportunity to look at their names and then try to form the letters themselves. Miss Gaffney will encourage the children to write as many letters of their name as possible, but will focus mainly on the children’s initials. Each letter will be written on separate circles and when the task is complete they will be pieced together to create their own caterpillar names.

Outside, the children will be expressing themselves through music and gaining control of their whole body through continuous movements. Mrs. Brinkley will show the children how to make their own streamers using sticks collected in the garden. The children will then be encouraged to wave their sticks around as they move to the music.

The theme in big nursery is the Royal family and London.

In room one, Miss Howe will be playing London Lotto with the children. They will take it in turns to find the London landmarks in the game that match those that are on their boards. London Lotto will help the children learn the landmarks and famous features of London.

There will also be a group read of Busy London for the children to take part in. The children will focus on understanding the key concept of reading from left to right and top to bottom.

In room two, the children will be working with Mrs. Patterson to make and decorate crowns. Children will build on their fine motor skills with cutting, colouring and sticking to personalize their crowns.

There will also be pictures of the Queen for the children to reference as they paint her portrait. Children will be encouraged to paint with increasing detail, remembering to pay close attention to The Queen’s hair, facial features and jewels.

Outside, Miss Skai will play a London landmark quiz game with the children. The children will look at lots of pictures of various landmarks around London. Miss Skai will use these images as prompts to quiz the children on what they have learnt so far this week. While the children are taking part in the quiz they will be developing their

communication skills as well as building an understanding of different questions and instructions.

Nursery News 23rd May 2022

NURSERY NEWS
23rd May 2022 – Edition 262
Find out About
A. Chicks and Butterflies Hatching.
B. Big Nursery Art session with a professional artist.
C. Reminder –Half Term.
D. What the children are learning about this week

A. Chicks and Butterflies Hatching.
When we arrived at school on Tuesday morning, 3 eggs had hatched during the
night. At first, the chicks feathers are wet and it takes a few hours for them to dry out
and fluff up. They tend to clamber over each other, and sit on each other, as they
first begin to move about. On Tuesday the children were able to see the rest of the
eggs beginning to crack open and the chicks making their way out of the egg for the
first time. We now have 10 chicks! Miss Skai has been looking after the chicks this
week, as they are very little. They do grow very quickly, so this week, when Miss
Howe is in room 1, the children will have the opportunity to carefully hold a chick,
with adult guidance.

Our Butterflies have also hatched. We have seen the
lifecycle of the caterpillar. The tiny caterpillars have
grown over time. They have spun their fragile cocoons,
and transformed into butterflies. They hatch from their
cocoons and gently puff up their wings. Miss Skai will
release the butterflies with the children on Monday in the
Nursery Garden.

B. Big Nursery Art session with a professional artist.
Charly will be in Nursery today working with the Big Nursery children. The children
will bring home their artwork on Monday if their work is dry. We predict that the
artwork created on Monday afternoon will be still wet by going home time, so some
paintings will go home on Tuesday.

C. Reminder -Half Term
The school is closed from Monday 30th May to Friday 3rd June for half term break.

D. What the children are learning about this week:
What are the children learning about this week?
The theme in little nursery is flower shop.
In Catkins, the children will be painting pictures of daffodils. They
will have a vase of flowers on the table to use as a reference and
Miss Tyler will talk to the children about how flowers grow and
the colours that they can see on these flowers. The children will
paint their own interpretation of the daffodils.
In room three, there will be a flower shop role play set up for everyone to explore. In
the shop, the children can buy and sell different flowers and gardening tools. Miss
Gaffney will support their play and expand their vocabulary through modelling
speech and stretching their imagination.
In the link, the children will be using paper plates and wool to create colourful and
sensory tulips. The children will have support from Mrs. Watson to wrap wool around
the templates, which will build upon their fine motor skills.
Outside, Mrs. Brinkley will be focused on forest school activities, such as; making
dens, building pretend campfires and singing songs while sitting on logs. The
children will also work on their fine motor skills by snipping leaves that they find in
the garden and wrapping wool around sticks.
The theme in big nursery is growing – chicks.
In room one, Miss Howe and Mrs. Cashmore will be
supporting the children with taking
care of the chicks. The chicks will
be big enough for the children to
hold, and the children will learn
what the chicks need to stay happy
and healthy. Miss Howe will also
work with everyone using different
media and materials to decorate a photo frame keepsake
to remind them of the time they spent with the chicks.
In room two, Mrs. Patterson will have painting materials available so that the children
can create portraits of the chicks. Mrs. Patterson will bring one or two chicks into
room two for the children to look at and paint realistic images. She will encourage
pupils to look at the colours of the feathers, legs, beaks and eyes so that they can
paint with increasing detail.
Outside, Miss Skai will be working with the children to plan
and construct their own kites. There will be a range of
materials to use and after the kites have been made,
children can use the open space to fly them. Miss Skai will
talk to the children about the best weather to fly a kite and
about local areas that you might see lots of kites being
flown.

Nursery News 16.5.2022

NURSERY NEWS
16th May 2022 – Edition 261
Find out About
A. Eggs Arriving
B. Big Nursery Art session with a professional artist.
C. What the children are learning about this week

A Eggs Arriving.
How Egg-citing!
This week we will be receiving a delivery from ‘Living Eggs’.
The eggs arrive almost ready to hatch, so we hope by
Tuesday or Wednesday we should see the chicks beginning to
hatch out from their eggs. We keep the chicks for about 10
days so that the children can watch them grow, and learn
about how to care for them. We plan lots learning
opportunities around the eggs/chicks over the next two weeks.
Updates to follow……

B. Big Nursery Art session with a professional artist.
On Monday 23rd May all Big Nursery children will have the opportunity to take part in
an art workshop with a professional artist.
Charly, from Colour and Craft Parties will work with children in small groups to
produce their own acrylic on canvas artwork. Each child will work at their own easel.
Charly will show children how to create a specific design, step by step, and the
children will paint alongside her. Your child will then bring their artwork home. We
can’t wait to see the paintings!

C What the children are learning about this week:
The theme in little nursery is Dear Zoo.
In Catkins the children will be listening to animal
sounds that are played to them on the iPod. The
children will listen to the sounds and see how many
they recognise. The children will play a game called
Sound Lotto with Mrs. McGrath, they will listen to the
animal noises that are played to them and try to
name the animal that makes the noise.
In room three, Mrs. Watson will set up a pet shop for the children to play in.
they will explore the role of shop keeper and customer as they use the tills
and write shopping lists. The children will also work towards matching images
of animals with animal toys.
In the link, Mrs. Brinkley will have an array of recycling for the children to craft
box models. They will be encouraged to make homes for animals in the pet
shop. Mrs. Brinkley will talk with the children about the materials that they are
using and the animals that the homes are for.
Outside, Miss Gaffney will be moving around the garden looking for
characters from the Dear Zoo story. She will encourage the children to look
high and low to see how many animals they can find.
The theme in big nursery is growing – chicks.
In room one, Miss Skai will be playing the Chicken Out
game with the children. The focus for this game will be
for the children to wait patiently and take turns. The
children will need to find matching pairs of animals,
every time they find a pair, they will place a chicken with their farmer. This
lovely game will build on the children’s memory recall to find animal cards that
have already been turned over.
In room two, Miss Howe will support the children with writing their whole
names on their work. Children will work towards forming their letters correctly
and holding their pencils effectively.
The children will be using different media to make their own chicks to bring
home. They will be able to create a chick using lollipop sticks, paper and glue.
They will have the opportunity to create another chick using yellow paint and
forks. The children will be shown that they can make similar items using
different methods.
Outside, Mrs. Patterson will have a washing line set up for the children to
wash and dry the clothes for our dollies. They will be shown how to peg up
their freshly laundered dolls clothes on the line and encouraged to hang them
up by themselves. There will be a lot of water play outside, so please
remember lots of spare clothes.

Nursery News 9th May 2022

NURSERY NEWS
9th May 2022 – Edition 260
Find out About
A. Welcome back to Mrs Davies
B. Parentline
C. Summer Safety.
D. Some Dates for Your Diary.
E. What the children are learning about this week

A. Welcome back to Mrs Davies
Mrs Davies has now returned and is fully recovered from her
time in hospital.

B. Parentline

Click here for a link to the flyer 

C. Summer Safety.
I would like to share with you some tips for the summer term. We still go outside
everyday, but we do limit how long children can go outside if it
is very hot. We encourage all children to drink plenty,
reminding them that their water bottle is always available. We
do encourage children to come inside for a rest in the shade.
We are very lucky in that our school remains fairly cool in the
summer, with lots of windows for ventilation.
We would ask you to apply sun protection cream to your child
before they attend morning or afternoon sessions. If your child
attends all day and you wish your child to have additional
cream applied at lunchtime, please send a bottle of sun
protection cream into school (please pass it to their Keyworker) and we will store it
safely in the classroom, out of the children’s reach. This cream should be left in
school. Ensure their name is on it. Staff will assist children to apply sun protection
cream at lunchtime. Please do not leave sun protection cream in your child’s bag.
We do not want children sharing their cream with their friends. One year we found a
pair of children applying it to their teeth to use as toothpaste.
Please provide your child with a cap with their name on when
the weather is sunny. Remember 2, 3,and 4 year olds cannot
always remember the whereabouts of clothing that can be
removed. Consider what you would like your child to wear at
school for safety. Children are still climbing and riding bikes so
long sundresses and strappy sandals are not always practical!
Messy Play: As the weather improves we take more and more activities outside.
More water is used and play can become much messier. Please ensure clothes are
play friendly and send in spares as children can become soaked if they pour water
down their clothes, even with aprons on! Wet sleeves are a constant problem– One
way to help solve this is to send your child into school in short sleeved clothes.

D. Some Dates for Your Diary.
2022 Summer term and school holidays
 Half term from Monday 30st May to Friday 3rd June – School Closed
 Monday 27th June – Additional Willow Jubilee Holiday – School Closed
 Thursday 21st July. Summer term ends.
 Autumn Term begins Monday 5th September 2022

D. What the children are learning about this week:
The theme in Little Nursery is mini beasts.
In Catkins, the children will be working towards shape recognition and
repeating simple patterns. The children will look at the patterns that they see
on butterflies, they will try to recreate the simple colour pattern that they see
on the wings.
In room three, the children will participate in a shared read of Feely Bugs with
Mrs. Watson. This is a lovely book that has a different sensory insect on each
page for the children to explore. At the end of their story, the children will
colour in their very own Feely Bug picture.
In the link, the children will be learning about different painting techniques.
Mrs. Brinkley will talk to the children about the various ways which marks can
be made. These techniques will include using fingers, marbles, sponges and
rollers to explore ways to make marks with paint.
Outside, Miss Gaffney will use clay and shells to help the
children create their own snails. The children will look at some
real life snails to take inspiration.
The theme in Big Nursery is life cycles.
In room one, Miss Skai will be talking to the children
about the butterflies that they are helping to grow. The
children are very excited to learn about and see the life
cycle of a butterfly. Miss Skai will also ask the children
to join her with a group read of The Very Hungry
Caterpillar.
In room two, Miss Howe will work with the children on writing their own
names. The children will be given a circle for each letter in their name. When
they have written their entire name, they will piece together the circles to
create a caterpillar name card. This will support the children with their fine
motor skills as well as recognizing the letters in their name.
Outside, there will be a huge focus on the mud kitchen and the children will be
encouraged to bake and create mud pies using soil and different utensils. The
children will also have the chance to splash around as Mrs. Patterson will
provide a lovely area for the children to play with water toys. Aprons will be
provided but please remember to provide plenty of spare clothes.