With one more week to go before a very well deserved rest for all, Little Wenlock have been busy exploring our new outdoor equipment. Children have shown some great gross motor skills as they have moved along equipment and navigated their way over various heights and sizes of obstacle. Children have gradually built their confidence using the equipment and have challenged themselves everyday. They seem to be thoroughly enjoying another new area and it has been lovely watching them explore this over the last week.

Children have been busy making their very own rockets out of conkers and ribbon and then we watched to see who’s rocket made it the furthest when we used them outside. We have begun some Halloween craft with our spooky ghosts and our Halloween sun catchers. We hope you have started to notice them in the windows as you drop off and collect. Further to this, we have supported our fine motor development, creating our names using sticky dots and problem solving skills, creating rockets out of stacked dominos. The perseverance shown by the children was amazing to see and they have really impressed us all. They continue to try really hard learning new rhymes and songs and their signs of the week. Apologies for not keeping up with letting you all know what they are. I will put together a sheet of what we have done so far, but until then, please ask your child to show you ‘please, thank you, mummy, more, hello, goodbye and drink’, they are doing really well.

We hope you continue to enjoy the tapestry updates, we are slowly getting quicker at adding them during our busy fun filled days.

Sorry for the lack of update last week. We have been super busy in Little Wenlock, the time has flown!

Tapestry is now up and running and for those children who have brought back permission slips, you should have now received links to be able to view any updates. If for any reason you are not getting email updates, please let me know and we will have a look to see whether email links have been sent or accounts activated. We hope those who have been accessing the updates are enjoying seeing their children doing various activities. We hope to be able to keep up with all of our posts during our fun and action packed days because we love sharing the magic moments that your children are creating with you.

Last week, we continued looking at our topic ‘Let’s explore and Build it up’. The children enjoyed exploring our new construction area, moving stone from different areas, digging in the sand, building towers with the blocks and using the signs to direct the traffic. We also created a hedgehog house for our very own ‘Henry Hedgehog’ which the children have thoroughly enjoyed scavenging resources for…..now let’s hope for a real hedgehog to come and see us! Further to this, we built towers and houses from sticks and bricks, created plenty of tracks for our trains and cars to move around, discussing areas they passed and where they were heading and children enjoyed using apples off our apple trees to create some yummy treats in our sensory kitchen.

Children enjoyed making marks with Mrs Edwards, creating patterns and lines with their pens, and we introduced symmetry, giving the opportunity to make some symmetrical pictures both on paper and on the carpet area using loose parts.

This week, the children have explored all things Space. I must say this is one of mine, Mrs Edwards and Miss Phoebe’s favourites….and i think the same can be said about the children. We have read lots of stories about space, explored the solar system and we have had many little astronauts floating around our classroom. Children have created a milky way and our space station home corner will be accessible over the next few weeks. Following on from the enjoyment the children showed playing with the apples outside last week, we decided it was only fair to create a real apple treat and children had the chance to make an apple crumble which hopefully they shared with you when they brought it home. Enjoy some pictures of our best bits.

Another fun week has been had in Little Wenlock. We have had a lovely week learning all about how to recycle and why we should recycle. The children enjoyed a sorting activity where we recycled paper/card, plastic and fabric and we were so impressed on how well the children understood the differences in materials. They have spent the week trying really hard to recycle during our school day and they have all done very well recycling our food waste and paper. Children have also used fine motor skills to sort the sea and land spaces on planet Earth.

After introducing more new rhymes, it has been lovely to listen to the children singing these songs during their play. After asking for the playdoh this afternoon, it quickly turned into a very beautiful rendition of ‘cats in the kitchen’.

Further to this, we have now introduced a Makaton ‘rhyme of the week’. This is something we have often done through songs, but we feel it is a lovely way to offer an extra way for the children to communicate their needs. This week we have recapped some signs that we have used in the past such as ‘please’, ‘thank you’, ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’.

Next week our sign will be ‘more’. Parents can do this at home by clenching one fist in an upright position and using the opposite hand to slowly tap down on top of the fist. I will get round to posting these signs early next week and hopefully the children will show you what they look like too.

Children enjoyed a lovely forest school session this week and we have had lots of outdoor play in this lovely Autumn weather. I hope you manage to enjoy some more dry weather this weekend. Fingers crossed!

Wow, what a great start the children have had to the new term. All have come back with great enthusiasm and have thrown themselves into the activities we have had to offer. We have welcomed some new children to Little Wenlock, and we hope they enjoy their time with us going forward. We have introduced our new topics, ‘lets explore’ and ‘build it up’ for the term and let me tell you, we have some future builders on our hands.

Children have enjoyed making some healthy cereal bars (which we may or may not have accidentally overcooked, so we will be making again) but all children enjoyed mixing and weighing out ingredients. We have enjoyed exploring all things autumn and talking about the things that change and the things we see during this season. Children have shown great enthusiasm and resilience when looking at our numbers, shapes and colours and we have had lots of activities available to delve into the world of building.

From building the Three Little Pigs houses, making buildings from bricks and cement (shaving foam), creating some lovely junk modelling buildings or seeing how high we can build a tower, the children have explored lots of ideas and enjoyed discussing with their peers what they have done and working together to build.

Children have accessed some new rhymes, which hopefully they will share with you over the coming weeks. They seem to be really enjoying a variation and are loving all of the actions that go with them. They have also enjoyed exploring the new bug house and mud kitchen that have been kindly built and donated by one of the parents, so fresh air has been a plenty.

Over the next few weeks, children will be coming home with a letter asking for some information personal to them, what they like to play with, current interests etc. If these could be filled in and returned we would be thankful. This allows us to offer children continuous provisions that reflect their own interests and allows us to create learning opportunities that could develop areas of development for all children. We will also be reinstating tapestry over the next few days, so you can see what your child is getting up to and enjoying daily (we can tell you, it is always lots of fun!)

As the weather changes, and us accessing the outdoor area in all weathers, it would be beneficial for children to have a pair of wellies and an all in one waterproof suit if possible.

As always, our door is always open if you need to speak to a member of staff and we can’t wait to share all of our adventures with you for another year!           

Wow!! What a term! A massive well done to the children this term. They have accepted a change in staffing, they have engaged in so many activities and really pushed themselves to achieve great results. They have made excellent progress with their writing and making marks and they have all just been little superstars. We have celebrated the end of term with party games, snacks, watching the school talent show and also saying goodbye to Miss Malin-Freeth who helped us in nursery as she retires. We have had an incredibly action packed half term and I think we are all ready for a good rest.

A massive good luck to those children who are moving up to Reception in September, we are sad your nursery journey has come to an end but you will be absolutely incredible on your new adventure and I can’t wait for you to share your stories with us when we see you!

To the children we will see back in Little Wenlock in the new term, keep growing and being you and we look forward to welcoming you back in September.

And to everybody who have given cards and gifts to the teachers…..thank you! Those words don’t express the gratitude we all feel and being able to be part of your children’s journey is reward in itself, however we are all very grateful for all of the kind gifts we have received over the last week.

The only thing left to say now is…..School’s out guys!!! Go and have the best summer making memories and myself, Mrs Edwards and Miss Phoebe will see you in September!

I hope you are all enjoying this sunshine. At times it has been a little too hot for our liking, but the children (and staff) have taken the heat in its stride and made the most out of a very sticky and hot week. This week the children have enjoyed making sun catchers. They used their fine motor skills to create their masterpieces and then enjoyed playing with them outside seeing the shadows they made and the colours they could see on the playground. They have enjoyed making ice lollies, where we discussed the properties of water and how ice lollies are made. We talked about our favourite ice creams and what colours tasted nicer and then children had the chance to choose their own ice creams and lollies over a couple of days, which were all thoroughly enjoyed. Whilst the heat stopped play when it came to forest school, the children did get chance to design some pebbles in our shaded playground in order to make a pebble snake in our forest school area. It looks great already! Children have watched some dances from various countries and had a go at copying them. We discussed which was their favourite, what the people were wearing and the tempo of the songs. I think we have some future dancers in the room! All children have continued to enjoy their mark making and are really enjoying writing their names and creating patterns in various materials.

It is one week before our older children graduate from Little Wenlock, ready for their next adventure and one week until the younger children have a well deserved rest over the summer. The temperatures are meant to continue into next week so can parents please ensure children have sun cream applied and hats and water bottles are coming into school. Have a lovely weekend and we will see you ready to rock on Monday.