For Arts Week (the last week before half term), we looked at Monet's Waterlily Pond picture. The children enjoyed finding out about Claude Monet and his paintings. We read the story about Katie visiting (and jumping into) this picture - a story by James Mayhew. They counted and recorded numbers hidden underneath lilies and made lily tea lights. The children created  sounds of the items in Monet's painting (running water, footsteps on the bridge, a croaking frog) and drew a picture of the pond. They experimented with chalks to blend the blue and green shades of the water, painted a lily pad and attached a raised bridge to their painting. 

What an exciting week nursery children are having. On Wednesday morning they saw one chick hatch. Then when they came into class on Thursday there were now 8 chicks hatched in total. Lots of cheeping from the chicks and cheery nursery childrens voices could be heard all day in nursery,  as the children watched and learnt about the chicks. One more egg needed help hatching on Thursday and is a bit poorly... Mrs Beard phoned the farmer and we were told to wait and see how it gets on overnight. So only one egg has not hatched at the moment.

The children have counted the eggs and practised writing numbers 1 - 10; They have counted how many chicks have hatched altogether - how many are boys & how many are girls; they have been choosing a name for the first chick; they have prepared the brooder box and moved the fluffy chicks across to their new home; they have read stories about hens and chicks, sung chick songs and even learnt the chicken dance. It's been a very busy week so far!

This morning in Nursery, Kelly (the farmer) brought us 10 living eggs to look after. Inside each egg there are baby chicks growing. They are nearly ready to hatch. At the moment the eggs are kept warm and safe in the incubator. We can't wait to see what will happen next!

On Thursday 25th January the whole school celebrated 'Music Day'. In Nursery, the children started the morning with 'Busy Fingers', making straw flutes, lolly stick clappers and elastic band string drums. Mrs Beard showed the class different instruments (brass, string, percussion and wind instruments) and some children got to have a play! (Parents, check out your 'Tapestry' entries or visit the display in our classroom to see some great pictures!) The children enjoyed a noisy boomwhacker (plastic tube instruments) and singing session. In the classroom they listened and expressed their feelings to different genre of music (with a weather theme), through dance, paint and drawing.  The children decided their favourite song was Bill Withers 'A Lovely Day'  - and as adults picked up their children at the end of the morning, we got them to join in with our dance to this track! :-)

What lovely angels we have in Nursery!  Last week the children presented their 'First Christmas' Nativity story as part of our EYFS production. The children performed, played, sang and danced their way through a stunning performance - well done to them all on their first appearance on Roebuck stage!

We are now gearing up for Christmas in Nursery. In maths, the children are practising counting forwards (advent calendar) and backwards (countdown - how many days in Nursery before the end of term?), also learning the words and actions to the song: 'The 12 days of Christmas'. In literacy we are recording 'the First Christmas' story in individual booklets and looking at Christmas phonics (letters and sounds) as well as singing songs about 'S-A-N-T-A! The children are enjoying producing some great  art & carftwork too - painting Santa, making cards, calendars & gifts. We are looking forward to visiting the church to sing carols, watching the end of term panto ("oh yes we are!") and our Christmas party.

Nursery has been busy learning about 'Harvest' and 'Autumn' over the last few weeks. They have enjoyed finding out about, looking at, chopping & printing vegetables. They learnt days of the week after reading the story 'Oliver's vegetables'. This week they have started thinking about the season of autumn - they have been on an autumn walk collecting leaves, pine cones and sticks. They enjoyed experimenting with mixing colours to paint their autumn leaves.