Drumming Fun

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! 🙂

World Nursery Rhyme Week 2019

Our children love singing Nursery Rhymes all the time so when we found out it was Nursery Rhyme we decided to join in.

There was a different rhyme to learn each day and the children loved learning them, including some new ones.

Monday- Baa Baa Black Sheep

Tuesday- Down in the Jungle

Wednesday- Incy Wincy Spider

Thursday- Row Row Row Your Boat

Friday- Two Little Dickie Birds

Not only did we learn the original rhymes we learn different versions as well, such as Baa Baa White Sheep.

Baa baa white sheep, have you any wool, No Sir, no Sir, no bags full, none to mend the blankets, none to mend the socks, none to mend the woolly gloves and none to mend the frocks. 

We went on a special Nursery Rhyme Hunt round school following some clues. They took us everywhere trying to find out where to go next.

Each time we had to think which rhyme the clue was telling us about and we sang it to check we remembered the whole rhyme. Then we went to the next place to check we were right. The children did an amazing job of guessing which rhyme it was and also knowing all the words. We went singing all around the school before the clues took us back to Nursery.

The children in Nursery on Thursday with Mrs Woods got a super special treat when she brought her ukulele along to sing the Nursery Rhymes. The children then joined in with their own instruments. You can see the photos in the Floor Book.

What we been learning? 

• To recite as many Nursery Rhymes as we can and also different versions of the same rhyme. 
• To follow clues and think about what they are telling us to do next. 
• To play musical instruments alongside singing and the ukulele playing. 
• About the different sounds and rhyming words in Nursery Rhymes.

“If children know 8 nursery rhymes by heart by the time they’re 4 years old, they are usually among the best readers and spellers in their class by the time they are 8” Mem Fox, Reading Magic

How can you continue the learning at home? 

• Sing Nursery Rhymes with your children. If you are less confident with them yourself you can find them on Cbeebies here and on the World Nursery Rhyme Week page here. 
• Read books with rhyming words in them- Julia Donaldson books usually have rhyming words. Can your child finish the sentences with a rhyming word? Can they hear which word between two is the rhyming words? eg. The cat is black, It sits in a….. Is it sack or bed? 
• Play other rhyming games such as Cake Bake on Phonics Play. Click this link to find the game.  You will need the Username: PRINCE2 and the Password: EDWARD to access the site fully. 

Fireworks and Bonfire Night

When we got back to school everyone was excited about fireworks because it was Bonfire Night. We did lots of learning about what they looked like and what they sounded like. We tried to draw our own fireworks and represent them in different ways.

These two girls were reenacting their experiences of Bonfire Night using the small world characters and bonfire. Then we realised that the tissue paper flames crackled like fire when they were scrunched up. We thought about how we could add other Bonfire Night sounds. The girls started by using their bodies to make noises but then remembered we had instruments in Nursery they could use. They explored the different instruments to see which ones worked best.

We had a wonderful time outside where we experienced sparklers with our friends in Reception class (Thanks to Miss Boyd and Onyx class for the photos) We talked about what we could see and also about how to make sure we stayed safe around sparklers.

We also used outside to draw some really big fireworks. The rainy weather didn’t put us off. Some of draw fireworks that were bigger than us!

You can see more about our learning on Bonfire Night in the Floor Book.

What have we been learning? 

• To make representations of fireworks in different ways. 
• To listen to the sounds fireworks make and think of ways to describe them. 
• To think about how to be safe around fireworks and sparklers. 
• To make up our own stories based on our own experiences. 

How can you continue the learning at home? 

• Talk to your child about fireworks and ask them to think of words to describe them. 
• Make up stories together and then think about if any sounds need adding using your bodies, voices or instruments. 
• Play the fireworks counting game on this website. Fireworks Counting Can your child count the fireworks to 5? 

African Drumming Fun

We had a fab time when Rachel came to see us at school and teach us some African Drumming. It was a great way to start Black History Month.

 

You can see how much fun we had by the smiles on everyone’s faces.

Chinese Dragon Dancing

We love to learn about different cultures and celebrations and this week we have been talking about Chinese New Year. Before the break we watched videos of how Chinese New Year was celebrated and the children decided that they would like to create their own dragon puppets, dragon stories and to do a dragon dance!

We worked together to paint our dragon. We have not painted something this large for a while and we learnt that we needed to use different techniques to when we paint on the easel.

When we had finished painting our dragon we added glitter and fabric. Then the children decided that they would like to make drums to play as we danced like we had seen in the video. Everyone had their own way to make their drums, then we tested them to listen to the sounds they made.

We were all so excited to do our dragon dance and finally it was time to take our giant dragon to the hall. We danced to the music and moved up and down in time to do our dragon dance.

We had so much fun the children decided that next week we would like to learn about music and dancing from different countries. Check back to see what we get up to!

Singing at the City Hall

Today was our trip to The City Hall for our Singing Start project. We had a great time!

We set off from school and got the tram into town…

We got to the City Hall and had a look at the displays from the different schools. Then we joined in with lots of fun activities, like making our own instruments…

After lunch we all sat together to sing our songs with Martin and Luke…

We had a great day and all the children listened and joined in beautifully! A huge thank you to everyone who came, we hope you had a lovely time too.

A Singing Start Movie

Last term we were very lucky to have Martin Harwood come and sing songs with us as part of The Singing Start project. We learnt new songs, explored percussion, took turns being conductors and even made up our own songs. Click here to see what we got up to.

We even started an after school music club with children throughout school.

We had so much fun that we made a movie of what we did. Click here to watch it, we hope you enjoy it!

Chinese New Year

This week we have been celebrating Chinese New Year. We read non-fiction books and found out how Chinese New Year is celebrated. Then we thought about what we would like to do. We decided we would like to try some Chinese Food and definitely do a dragon dance! After reading the story of The Great Race we had races in PE. Yusuff was very interested in speaking Chinese so we learnt how to say Happy New Year in Chinese ‘Gung Hay Fat Choy’.

Here is our floor book with all our ideas ….

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We tried using chop sticks and learnt about different Chinese foods.

 

We tasted beansprouts, noodles, dragon fruit, chow chow and Chinese biscuits and snacks

 

Then we made our dragon. After looking at year 6’s amazing dragon, instead of using fabric the children decided they wanted lots of boxes stuck together.

We stuck the boxes together and then painted and decorated our dragon

 

Then we went up to the studio, listened to Chinese music and did our dragon dancing!

We had so much fun and we learnt to…

• taste different foods
• talk about how things taste and our likes and dislikes
• work together to make the dragon move
• use non-fiction books to find information
• move to the music, moving our arms up and down and walking forward (very tricky!)
• we learnt about other cultures and ways of life (we loved trying to eat with chop sticks!)
• we learnt about colours and textures as we decorated our dragon

 

A Very Rainy Day

Well Monday was a very rainy day. It was so rainy in Sheffield that even some of the buses and trams stopped running! But in nursery we like to make the most of the wet weather. Our new outdoor suits and wellies mean we can go out whatever the weather and we did!

We had lots of fun painting outdoors. We tried different paints, chalks and crayons on paper then put them in the rain to see what would happen…

“It’s washing it away”

“It’s getting it clean”

“It’s making purple water down the yard”

“That one int, that one is still there”

 

We also made some sounds and music with the rain.

In a tuff spot we put different containers and let them fill up with water. We then hit them to listen to the different sounds they made…

Do you go out when it is rainy?

There’s lots of fun to be had in the rain. You can splash in puddles, sprinkle paint in puddles to make pictures, build shelters, put out pans and let them fill up with water and listen to the sounds, catch the rain etc… Just make sure you’ve got coats and wellies on!

Trip to see The Chimpanzees of Happy Town

This week we went on a very exciting trip to see The Chimpanzees of Happy Town at The Crucible Theatre.

We had been getting ready by reading the story and learning all the songs and actions.

Click here to watch the songs and actions again with Polly!

We got the tram to the theatre. It was very exciting because it was some children’s first trip on the tram!

We loved seeing all the different instruments and joining in with the story…

How can you continue learning at home?

You could look for other books by Giles Andrea at the library, some of our favourites are Giraffes Can’t Dance, The Lion who wanted to Love, Rumble in the Jungle and Commotion in the Ocean

You could click on the link above to see Polly singing the songs and teaching us the actions again

You could talk to your child about what they remember about the story or ask them to draw a picture from the story, some children have already brought some in!

You could go and see the family performance at The Crucible in March, click here to find out more