Autumn Term 1 - September 2023
A huge welcome to all the children in Nursery, whether they are new or returning to us! We hope that you had a fantastic Summer break and are ready to have lots of fun learning with us again. This half term is going to be a wonderful time for us all to get to know each other once more or for the first time. It will be a time to return to our Nursery routine (or learn our Nursery routine) and the activities we enjoy. It will also be a time for us to take part in new activities and have lots of fun learning along the way!
We now have Mrs Verhun with us (who is an experienced Early Years professional) to help with your learning and have lots of exciting activities planned for the first half of the Autumn term.
Please check below for more information about this half term and don't be afraid to ask either me or Mrs Verhun if you have any questions.
Book for Autumn 1 - Owl Babies by Martin Waddell
We will be learning all about the Owl Babies who are waiting for their mother to come back one night. We will find out how the Owl Babies feel to be left alone and talk to the children about how they think the baby owls feel without their mother. Will mother owl come back? How will the babies react? In connection to the story we will learn new words and find out about foxes and mice and anything that might be scary in the dark. We will practice talking about the owls, make some of our own owls and might even have a surprise owl visit to support the children's experiences.
While the children are settling into their new routine we will be encouraging them to learn new skills and helping them to use the new tools that they will have access to while at nursery. Through the use of paints, pencils, chalk, collage, playdough and clay we hope the children will start to become confident and creative. Using these materials should also help to develop their fine motor skills in readiness for early writing/mark making.
Topic - Skills and Tools / Autumn
Maths
For maths we will be concentrating on finger numbers up to 5 by singing lots of finger rhymes up to 5. Alongside this, we will be helping the children to number items in order from 1-5. The children will have activities to support their growing understanding of these areas and hopefully have some fun while doing so. The first half term will also be used for staff to complete base line assessments in order to assist the children in their next steps.
'God the Creator' and 'God our Father cares for us' will form our Religious Education this half term. The children will engage in group time, prayer and quiet time, to reflect on these topics, during this half term. We will also support their learning through mark making, arts and crafts and singing. The children will start to engage in saying or singing their daily prayers (with adult guidance).
RE - Creation and God loves us.
Week 1 and 2 in Nursery - getting to know each other and settling in!
All the children (new and returning) started back on Tuesday 5th September and are starting to settle in well. We have been working on getting back to our routine and will be learning and remembering our class rules over the coming weeks. It has been wonderful seeing how some children are renewing their old friendships and also making new ones. It is also amazing to see how much the children have grown over the holidays and it is fantastic getting to know the new children too! Please see below for some photographs from our first two weeks!
Starting to investigate what's in our classroom!
We have been finding out about Autumn, making owls, painting and learning to take turns. We have aslo had a birthday to celebrate and shared cake with our friends. Well done everyone!
For our Mission week we used glitter and glue to decorate hearts and crosses to represent how we are, 'Learning to live by Faith (crosses) and to be known by Love (hearts)'. We can add to this display over the coming weeks. We have started to learn our Creation song (with actions) and have started to learn how to make the sign of the cross and try to sit quietly when it's prayer time. The weather was wonderful so we took a walk to the field to look for twigs, grass and leaves to make owl nests. We even found some ivy and blackberries! What wonderful things God has made for us. We are very grateful!
Week 3 and 4
We have continued enjoying getting to know each other and investigating the nursery space, inside and outside. The children have been continuing their learning about the Creation Story and making books to show what God made on each day. We have enjoyed learning the Creation Song too! We have written a Thank you prayer to God as part of our RE learning (to show we are Grateful) and have talked about how God created us all! Lots of painting has been done of autumn leaves and we have collected our pumpkins from outside. The children were surprised by how heavy they were! Please see below for some photos of our learning. We hope to have Tapestry accounts ready very soon!
The Creation Story and what God created. The children learning about God's generosity and practicing their fine motor skills too!
Our pumpkin harvest. Wow the pumpkins are very heavy! Thank you God for helping us to grow them.
Our last week before half term.
The children have all been fantastic this half term and have settled in brilliantly. Please see below for photos from our wonderful owl visit from Feather and Furs! Thank you so much for being so wonderful and engaging with our children!
