Whether the children in Nursery have been with us since last year or only for a few weeks we are so pleased and proud of the way they have developed and grown in their time with us. They have been superstars. We have made this special video to look back on our year in Nursery and to say WELL DONE EVERYONE!!!!!!!
Summer gives us the opportunity to experience new things compared to when we visited the Secret Garden in Autumn, Winter and Spring. The children who have been with us all year have started to make their own observations of the changing seasons and are always on the look out for something new.
Week 1
After the holidays the Secret Garden had changed a lot. We went to have a look and were surprised to find grass that was taller than us! We also found some new flowers were growing.
Week 2
Now we were getting better weather we decided to go and look at the clouds and see what we could see. Miss Parker had a book called It Look Like Split Milk which gave us lots of ideas about what shapes we might be able to see. We had to use our imaginations to think what they could be.
Week 3
We had all noticed there were more flowers growing around school so we went off to look for them. Most of the ones we had seen were on our way into Nursery so today we didn’t go to the Secret Garden we went round to see if we could find them. When we found them we collected them so we could make some special Nature Crowns when we got back to Nursery.
Week 4
This week we took the watercolour paints with us and found our favourite things in the Secret Garden to paint. We had to look really carefully to try and make it look the same, thinking about the shapes we could see and the colours.
The Last Week
Sadly we then missed a week of visits to the Secret Garden because our bubble had to go into isolation again. There was chance for one last visit the Secret Garden though and we decided that we would like to have a celebration picnic up there to celebrate all of our wonderful Secret Garden learning and experiences this year.
We continued with our weekly visits to the Secret Garden throughout Summer term as well, even a rainy day didn’t put us off. Our term started with questions about if the dinosaur who had visits Nursery before the Easter break would be hiding up there. Once we found evidence that he had the children always talked about the dinosaur when we went up there and wondered if we’d see him again. Sadly we never did but you never know, maybe one day he will come back.
Week 1
We went in search of different types of leaves and did some leaf rubbings to record what we found. We were also on the lookout for if the dinosaur had been there and if his portal was in the Secret Garden. Thankfully we found both!
Miss Parker decided to set her iPad up in the Secret Garden to see if we could capture the dinosaur on film. Look what happened. Not only did we capture some film of him but he left us another note. If you want to see the whole story look on our Summer Learning post here.
Week 2
Everyone was still very excited about dinosaurs so this week we decided to tell dinosaur stories in the Secret Garden and act them out. We hoped that our dinosaur could see us and enjoyed the stories too.
Week 3
When we got to the Secret Garden we found some secret symbol messages. It was lots of fun trying to find them all but then we had to think what they might mean too. What did you think they might mean? I wonder if you can write your own secret symbol messages to leave somewhere.
Week 4
We had lots of fun searching for different types of footprints this week. First we had to find them and then find a friend with the same footprint to match them up. Our teachers then challenged us to see if we knew which animal had each footprint. There were some even the teachers had to check when we got back to Nursery.
Week 5
It has been raining quite a bit this week so we decided to make the most of it and do some mud painting. We had to make our own mud paint and then decide what we wanted to draw or write with it. We used sticks to be our paintbrushes in the mud.
Week 6
After all the talking we’d been doing in class about caterpillars and tadpoles we decided to go the Secret Garden to see which other minibeasts we could find up there.
What a great time we had in the Secret Garden each week. The children do really look forward to their visit and it has become a valuable part of the week in Nursery when the children get to spend time in nature and learn to appreciate what is around them.
It was hard to believe that it was Summer term already when we returned after the Easter break. We welcomed more new friends to Nursery. Just like those before them they settled well and it quickly felt like they’d always been with us.
We were keen to see if our dinosaur had returned and there was lots and lots of talk about where he could be. We quickly got our answer when we went to the Secret Garden and found footprints. The theme of dinosaurs and if we’d see our dinosaur kept returning throughout the term. It also led us onto thinking about other animals and how we looked after them.
Our learning then led us onto caterpillars and tadpoles after we were lucky enough to have both in our classroom. We went for a Bug Hunt in the Secret Garden and found out about other minibeasts as well.
Some of our other learning……
Here are some photos of us following not only these whole class interests but our own as well. See if you can spot someone you know.
What a wonderful term full of learning and fun. The Nursery teaching team are so proud of everyone for being such superstars during their time at Nursery. Well done everyone!
We missed our weekly Secret Garden Visits when we had to stay home but Miss Parker made sure there was at least one outdoor nature activity each week so we kept on going outside even through the coldest months. We were excited when we got back to Nursery to resume our weekly visits to the Secret Garden.
Week 1
On our first visit back to the Secret Garden we just took the time to look and see what had changed since we were last there. We noticed, “The leaves are coming back…”. We noticed some flowers growing as well and a birds nest.
Week 2
How Many Greens Can You Find? was the focus of our next Secret Garden adventure. Some of us thought there was only one green before we went but we quickly changed our mind once we started looking. How many greens can you find?
Week 3
We went back to the Secret Garden to see if the leaves had all appeared now and we had an Easter Hunt too. We had a great time exploring all over the Secret Garden trying to find them all. Our teachers kept asking us what we could see so we could practise our subitising skills (knowing how many there are without counting each one). We are getting really good at it now. Children were saying things like, “I can see one egg and two bunnies. That makes three”.
We always have a great time in our Secret Garden and the children are keen to go up there and see what adventures we’ll have every week. Its been a great way of learning about the seasons and nature alongside lots of other learning as well. I wonder what adventures we’ll have up there next…….
Spring term looked a little different for all of us in Nursery. Most of us had to stay home so we stayed safe and do our learning with Miss Parker through Tapestry and Zoom. It was great to be able to stay in touch everyday and continue with our learning, although the emphasis stayed, as always, on having fun and being able to play. A few key worker children continued to attend their Nursery sessions with Miss Hukin, Miss Beckett and Mrs Mason. They also kept in touch with all their friends by attending the Zoom sessions and doing the same activities. Everyone was a superstar making the transition again to Home Learning and we are thankful for all the hard work families put into making it a success for their children.
We were very excited when we were able to return to Nursery in March. Everyone was ready to get back and see all their friends again. Although our home learning was able to keep learning happening, we were unable to recreate playing with friends and the children were eager to get back to this. It was wonderful to see them pick up where they left off with such enthusiasm. It was like we’d never been away!
We were also able to welcome lots of new children to Nursery for the end of Spring term. Unfortunately their starts had been delayed due to lockdown but they were all excited to join us and made a wonderful start to their time with us in Nursery.
We collected all the ideas about our learning in our Floor Book.
As we broke up for Easter, we were all excited to see what Summer term would bring and if we’d ever see the dinosaur again!
We’ve had a wonderful time in Autumn half term visiting our Secret Garden each week. It’s been great to see the changes that have happened through Autumn and as we go into Winter. We’ve also had a different focus each week for us to think about each week.
Week 1
We went to look for different Autumn colours in the Secret Garden. We had to look carefully to find the right shades of each colour.
Week 2
We went to the Secret Garden again this time to look for treasures. We were allowed to have a look round and find objects which interested us to take back to Nursery to explore further.
Week 3
This time when we got to the Secret Garden we found some Secret Symbols. We have to think very carefully to think what they might mean and who might have put them there. When we got back to Nursery we tried to write some Secret Symbols of our own.
Week 4
We noticed that the trees had started to look a bit different. We were a bit unsure whether the trees were dead or not. When we got to Secret Garden we looked for buds on the trees and used the Twig ID sheet to try and work out which tree it was. We learnt the trees weren’t dead they were just having a rest for the Winter.
Week 5
We practised our counting in the Secret Garden this week. Everyone was given a cup with a number (and the correct number of dots on) so we could see if we could count the correct number of objects into the cup. We were allowed to use whatever we could find in the Secret Garden.
Week 6
This week we made some new friends to look after our Secret Garden for us over the Christmas holidays. Little did we know they’d be looking after it for a lot longer than that. We had to use our hands to make the clay stick to the tree which was a bit tricky on a cold day and then search for objects to make the face.
We love our trips to the Secret Garden and can’t wait to get back up there soon to see how it has altered as the seasons have changes. What do you think it will look like there today?
We do also love listening out for our robin when we go up the Secret Garden. You can often hear him singing his song and if you’re lucky you can sometimes see him too.
We had a great time learning in school during Autumn term. Miss Parker followed the ideas of the children to guide our learning themes. Lots of what we learnt more about came from our observations of the world around us.
Have a look in our Floor Book to see what we have been learning about… Pumpkins, Fireworks, Poppies, Diwali, Light and Dark, Hibernation, Trees, Christmas and the Nutcracker ballet. Click on any of the pictures to see them enlarged.
You can see some close ups of our Christmas pictures here. We had so much fun with so many special events happening. Can you remember which your favourite was? A visit from Santa, it’s snowing!!!, our Christmas parties, our Christmas performances, decorating the tree, telling Christmas Stories.
Unfortunately the nursery bubble has been closed for the last 14 days and we’ve all had to stay at home. That has not stopped some fabulous learning though and the Nursery bubble have carried on their hard work at home.
Some children made some fabulous rainbows. Look at the different ways they chose to make them. I wonder if you can think of any other ways to make a rainbow. Other children chose to look for all the colours of the rainbow around their house. We learnt to sing the rainbow song as well.
Lots of children loved the challenge of drawing a picture of Gary the Snail. They watched videos of him and then had a go at drawing him. Look at their amazing efforts. We can’t wait to show Gary when we get back to Nursery.
Lots of children sent photos of them playing Kim’s game where you hide and object and someone has to try and remember what is missing. Do you think you’d remember everything in these collections?
There was lots of sorting objects by colour and size. Some children even had a go at counting them to see how many they had in each pile. Could you sort objects like this?
When Miss Parker set the challenge to find out what floats and sinks from your house, some children showed us what they found. I wonder what floats and sinks in your house.
Lots of children loved having a shape hunt around their house. I wonder if, when we’re allowed back out, they could find the same shapes out and about. We also watched a Numberblocks episode with shapes and one little girl drew her house using all the shapes she knew.
Miss Parker loved seeing all the potion making when the days activity was to see if you could make a potion and come up with a Halloween spell to say. I just wish you could hear the videos that were sent through (These are only snapshots taken from them)
Lots of children said they were enjoying the daily story videos and some children showed us their favourite books from home. We also did a special LIVE Storytime each Friday over Zoom.
And there was so much more happening at home. Look at everything else the children shared with Miss Parker here. There’s long jump, more Numberblocks fun, story time, cutting with scissors, an Autumn bag, lots of colouring , making tea and getting dressed ourselves and more….. See what else you can spot happening.
Miss Parker and all the nursery TAs are very proud of you for coping so well at home and continuing with your learning even when you couldn’t come to Nursery. Well done everyone 🙂
We’re really looking forward to seeing you all soon back at Nursery.
Take care and stay safe 🙂
We had a great time this week when we had an African Drum session in Nursery. Paul brought his drums to school and helped us learn about the different sounds we could make with them. It is all part of our learning for Black History Month in October.
It was very tempting to just bang as loud as we could on the drums but we learnt to listen carefully and to play the drums loudly and quietly. We tried to play the drums quietly to make them sound like the rain falling outside. Then we played them loud like the thunder. We also learnt to play the drum in a different way moving our finger tips across the skin to make it sound like the wind blowing.
Paul thought we were doing such a good job that we learnt how to play a rhythm on the drums. We had to count to three and bang the drum before shouting, “hey!” It was hard to begin with but everyone kept trying and we got it in the end.
Miss Parker was very impressed with how well everyone listened and followed the instructions. It was also the first time some children had been down to the big hall so a big well done to them for being brave and going somewhere new.
When we got back to Nursery we decided to link the learning we’d done in the Hall to our learning this week about Sticks. We took it in turns to make noises with the sticks and to play a rhythm just like we’d done in the Hall with the drums. Some children even worked out a brand new way to make a noise using the sticks and rubbed them together.
Well done everyone! 🙂
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