Nursery - Art - Christmas Trees!
To kick off our Christmas preparations this week, the children accessed the craft table for our first festive project: creating Christmas trees! Each child was given a green triangle template to decorate. They used multicoloured glue and various Christmas sequins, carefully selecting which sparkly additions they wanted to use on their tree. This activity provided excellent practice in fine motor control and encouraged intentional design as they chose and placed each small sequin. The children particularly enjoyed the sense of community when they saw all of their completed trees standing up together, proudly spotting their own creation within the "magical forest" they had collectively created.
Nursery - Computing - Drag And Drop
This week, we moved beyond digital mark-making to introduce the new skill of drag and drop. Using an interactive screen, the children decorated a digital Christmas tree. The challenge focused on executing the new skill with precision. Children were encouraged to use their index finger or board pen for slow, controlled movements: picking up decorations, moving them to the tree, and accurately releasing them. This exercise successfully enforced precision and control, vital components of digital literacy. By practicing the sequence of pressing, holding, moving, and releasing, the children made great progress in mastering the 'drag and drop' function.
Pre-School-Our Nativity Performance
What an absolutely wonderful treat we had! Our brilliant pre-school and nursery children performed their annual Nativity play, and we could not be more proud. They were all so confident and amazing standing up in front of all the grown-ups, telling the Christmas story with such enthusiasm and charm. Every single child remembered their lines, sang their hearts out, and truly brought the magic of Christmas to life!
Nursery - Communication And Language - Decorating The Christmas Tree
The children in nursery class were full of excitement this week as we marked the start of the Christmas countdown by decorating our Christmas tree. This activity became a rich foundation for developing communication and descriptive language. While using their fine motor skills to carefully hang the decorations, the children spontaneously engaged in conversation, actively discussing the different sizes, shapes, and colours they could see. This provided a natural opportunity to expand their descriptive vocabulary. Furthermore, the excitement prompted the children to share personal experiences, talking about their own Christmas trees at home and sharing their thoughts and knowledge about Santa. The activity successfully promoted peer-to-peer communication and the sharing of imaginative ideas.
Nursery - Maths - Colours
This maths activity presented the children with multiple rich learning opportunities, all centered around a task of categorising coloured buttons into corresponding coloured bowls. This primary sorting task helped solidify their knowledge of colour, with children encouraged to vocalise the colour name or press the relevant sound button to confirm their selection. While immersed in this focused task, children also had the opportunity to build on their number language and quantity skills. Some successfully counted their buttons, and the activity naturally led to comparing quantity, using early mathematical concepts like 'more' and 'less'. Our older learners showed an extra layer of curiosity, spotting and becoming intrigued by the shaped buttons mixed in, prompting an introduction to different two-dimensional shapes. This simple activity proved highly effective in reinforcing colour, counting, and comparative language simultaneously.
Nursery - Music - Change In Tempo, Fast And Slow
In our music lesson today, the children focused on exploring the musical element of tempo, or speed, through hands-on play. We used drums as our instruments, instructing the children to practice drumming really, really fast and then really slowly. To support their understanding of the difference between fast and slow movements and speed in music, the children watched a visual video aid. This video featured a rabbit and a turtle, accompanied by corresponding fast and slow music. This multi-sensory approach successfully helped the children grasp the concept of tempo and how to control the speed of their movements while playing instruments.
Online Safety - Tracking Devices
Tracking devices were designed to help people find lost belongings, but they’ve also opened the door to worrying forms of misuse. This week’s #WakeUpWednesday explores how Bluetooth trackers like AirTags and SmartTags can be misused for stalking, bullying and invading young people’s privacy. Download your FREE copy here >> https://vist.ly/4f4u2
Nursery - P.E - Fruit Bowl Bowling
The children thoroughly enjoyed playing a themed game of bowling in our PE lesson today! We put a fun twist on the activity by using bowling pins that pictured various fruit from our story, Kitchen Disco. The main focus of the lesson was developing rolling skills and refining their aim to knock down their favorite pieces of fruit. The children loved the visual satisfaction of seeing the pins fall one by one. Crucially, they demonstrated fantastic perseverance with the challenge, especially when only a couple of pins were left standing. They skillfully practiced adjusting their aim and ball speed to eventually knock down the final pins, successfully linking their physical skills with problem-solving.
Nursery - Computing - Assigning Colours
In this computing lesson, the children continued to build their digital literacy skills using the 'Paint Projects' function on Purple Mash to create colorful fruit bowls, directly linking to our story, Kitchen Disco. The children were tasked with carefully assigning colours to the different fruits in their bowls. To do this, they relied on visual references—drawing on their prior knowledge from story time, snack time, and home life—to ensure they selected the correct colours for fruits like bananas, apples, pears and oranges. The activity strongly encouraged the children to select the correct colours for their chosen fruits, which enforced greater control and legibility in their digital mark-making. By focusing on specific colour selection rather than free choice, the children practiced intentionality and precision within the digital environment.
Nursery - Children In Need Day
Nursery class had a fantastic day celebrating Children in Need with a variety of engaging, spotty-themed activities across the provision. We kicked off the fun with a dance session alongside Pudsey Bear, where the children practiced their gross motor skills by copying his movements and challenging themselves to improve their jumping skills on the floor spots. For our fine motor activities, they worked on mark-making by creating spotty Pudsey pictures using dabbers and circle stickers, and they also practiced drawing circles on the blackboards with chalk. To end the day, the children enjoyed a special treat, sitting down together for a focused story time with Pudsey on the interactive screen. The entire day was a huge hit and a wonderful way to teach the children about helping others!
Nursery - Fine motor Skills - Leaf Tree
Our focused fine motor activity this week was to re-hang leaves onto our tree. The children's task was to carefully maneuver the string onto the branches. This activity was excellent for strengthening the pincer grip and fine motor control, as it required precision to hold and guide the small string. They demonstrated keen hand-eye coordination and concentration while successfully hanging their leaves, which is a key step in developing the dexterity needed for writing and self-care skills.
Nursery - Art - History - Poppy Creations
Today's lesson provided a meaningful introduction to the concept of Remembrance through a creative and collaborative Art activity, linking to an important moment in history. The children accessed the craft area to explore the poppy, a key symbol of remembrance. They used simple, sensory resources—red glue and red tissue paper—to create their own beautiful poppies. To mark the occasion, the children also participated in a challenging exercise during snack time: observing and taking part in a two-minute silence. While this was tricky for our youngest learners, they made a fantastic effort to maintain quiet and stillness. To further extend the theme of community and remembrance, we collaborated with the preschool children to create a handprint wreath. This collective piece of art will be placed at our school's adopted war memorial grave, providing a tangible way for the children to contribute to an important tradition of respect and memory.
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