Class Blog

Week Commencing 28th June 2021

This week we are focusing on healthy eating, allowing the children to understand what it means to have a balanced diet and that all foods fit into different catergories such as protein and dairy. Each part of the food wheel has a recommended amount and the children can talk about different food, their health benefits and how much of each food we should eat.

Monday is always our facilitation day where we get to access the new provision and we have been very busy. 

In our messy tough spot tray we got to explore different citrus fruits using equipment which is good for our fine motor skills such as squeezers and graters. We loved getting all of the juice out and we even found some pips which we like to try and grow.

Again with a focus on our fine motor activities we used scissors to cut and snip mint leaves which we have grown in our school garden, our classroom has smelt divine all day! 

We also sorted fruit and vegetables into their two catergories, we spoke about the different food, where it grows and whether we like it or not, I was very surprised to have so many children who love cabbage! 

We then had a fruit bowl full of fruit which we had to sort into groups and talk about the numbers in each group comparing them and saying which had more or less or if the number was the same.

We then sorted foods into two groups healthy and non healthy and this allowed us to discuss the importance of some food compared to others.

In PE we were 'beans' and we had to do different motions for the different beans such as running, stretching and curling up on the floor.

We then finally made fruit kebabs and used knives to cut the fruit carefully and then threaded them onto a skewer, they were really yummy!

Next week we are learning all about the Olympics! We cannot wait.

Lots of Love Miss Davies and Duckling Class x

Week Commencing 21st June 2021

This week we are focusing on cleanliness, hygiene and safety. It has been lovely to hear the children speak so rationally about different areas of their learning, they are making links and can articulate why they think we do certain things.

We begun the week with a subject that not only us on Duckling Class have spoken about alot but the world, all about hand washing. We read a story all about 'Super Soap', we have lots of Super Soaps in our classroom, by the sinks and in the toilets. We were very confident to talk about when we needed to wash our hands the importance of hand washing to prevent the spread of germs.

We know that germs are so small that we can't see them so we used small grains of black sand to represent germs on our hands, the children were fantastic at talking about how long we wash our hands for, what we need to use to wash our hands successfully and how we wash our hands. We really enjoyed watching the 'germs' travel down the drain and could imagine that what real germs do when we wash our hands.

On Tuesday it was all about our teeth, we begun discussing that we currently have milk teeth and our milk teeth will fall out eventually bit that is okay as they should to make way for our adult teeth. We discussed how we brush our teeth and the children then sequenced pictures to show the correct way to brush your teeth and we know we should brush our teeth before bed and when we get up in the morning. We know that we should visit the dentist and that a dentist looks after our teeth and uses many machines and tools to help keep our teeth and gums healthy. We also talked about the fact that some food and drink isn't good for our teeth and we should limit these things, the children then catergorised items into two groups, one group which is good for our teeth and the other things which could lead to unhealthy teeth.

Road saferty skills are vital to the children and something which they will use everyday, we read a story all about Super Cat and his super senses, he always came to the rescue to remind the children of his road safety rap and the 4 important things we much remember when crossing the road.

We then worked with Mrs Gardiner on the road rug, she was a vehicle and we were pedistrians and we had to cross the road correctly, we used pelican crossings with traffic lights, zebra crossings and even a lollypop lady. The children were excellent at remembering the rules of road safety and acted out how to cross the road safely so well. I hope they share with you all of their knowledge.

It has been a fantastic week and next week we are learning about healthy eating and different foods.

Have a lovely weekend, Miss Davies x

Week Commencing 14th June 2021

It has been another busy week in Nursery class this week and we are continuing to learn more and more each day! We have really enjoyed having the train track out in the provision this week and we have worked together as a team to make our own train track around the classroom.

We have also used the Ipads to complete different online games, the children showed good knowledge of how to navigate an Ipad and could also discuss how we use an Ipad safely.

We have also had the Potato heads out which we have loved and we got to make our own designs and then we made our potato heads by cutting out pieces and sticking them down.

For PE this week we had to navigate through the 'lasers' and make sure we didn't touch them to make an alarm go off, we showed lots of skills crawling, rolling and bending carefully. We loved it that much we have asked to have it on the playground on Monday.

In maths we have focused on our number formation, firstly we did some digit dancing, then used our number formation rhymes to practise writing our numbers in the sand before writing them with a pencil.

Next week we will be focusing on hygiene and cleanliness and how we look after our self 

Speak to you next week,

Duckling Class x

Week Commencing 7th June 2021

It has been lovely to be together again after a half term a part, it has been lovely listening to the children telling us all what they have been up to and I am glad the children are able to get out and about making memories. It has been a welcome pleasure to have all of this glorious sunshine and we have loved learning in our outdoor area this week, we began the week discussing sun safety and what we have to do when it is sunny or very warm.

This week we have been learning about ourselves and our bodies, we got to use the sun and our shadows to talk about how our shadows differ but have many similiairities but we then looked closely at our own features using mirrors to discuss how we are all different and unique and what an amazing thing that is!

We also found lots of different minibeasts scurring around outside they must have been enjoying the sunshine too! The children then got lots of different resources and made homes for the animals to live in. The children showed so much care for the minibeasts and made sure they were very careful and did not hurt them. Some of the children also thought they might be hungry so went and got leaves, grass and flowers incase they wanted any. 

Just before the end of last term I changed the role play area to a brand new tea shop and the children have loved making tea for their friends, taking their orders and providing them with cakes and sandwiches which they have made. The children's narrative has really blown me away and it has developed so much in such a short period of time. 

We have also had a new small world area, we have a new town which contains a house with a variety of families, lots of vehicles on the road and a forest along side. The children have absolutely loved it and it has allowed them to role play their own first hand family experiences and it will tie in nicely with our focus next week of families. 

A part of learning about our bodies has meant the children have learnt all about the five senses, what the senses are and where we use these senses. The children then were able to independently place concepts in relation to senses e.g. you listen to music etc...

We will be changing one of our topic displays next week so we have been drawing our own self portraits sensibly choosing the correct colours to draw and carefully using the mirrors to add details correctly to our face. We then used various materials to make our own 'little self' and they were amazing!

It has been another busy and fantastic week in Duckling class 

Have a lovely weekend, Miss Davies x

Week Commencing 24th May 2021

This week is Waterside's school artist week and we have been given the artist Jackson Pollock. We have done lots of work inspired by Jackson Pollock and done it in various ways during the week. We have had the very best week and I cannot believe we have all been together for a half term already with only one half term to go before the children begin their journey into reception. 

On Monday we began to learn who Jackson Pollock was and how he made his art, we love that he puts his canvas and paper on the floor and expresses his self through his colours. We were fabulous at talking about different pieces of his work and what the colours said about his feelings. We could see that he uses different shades, colours and techniques and this is something we are going to continue to develop our understanding of during the week. 

We began the week looking at colour mixing and how the three primary colours can be added together to make other colours, we did this by using our fantastic colour glasses and experimenting with the coloured lenses. The children were fantastic at predicting what colour they thought the two colours were going to make. We also discussed shades and tints and how white makes colours lighter and black makes colours darker.

In the classroom we independently accessed the provision and used the paint dabbers to make our own Jackson Pollock inspired work, we loved watching the colours merge together to make new colours.

We also had Jackson Pollock inspired colouring sheets which we had to colour carefully staying within the lines and look at our fantastic pencil grip and control, we have made so much progress with this over the last half term.

On Tuesday we had our exploration painting day, we all came to school in our old clothes and shoes for a day of really understanding how Jackson Pollock created his masterpieces and we were ready to get messy! We made our own painting studios in the classroom and in the outdoor area and created group work and our own individual pieces. We used different colours, shades and tones of paint and many different tools and techniques and we got very very messy! We used spray bottles, whisks, toothbrushes, potato mashers, syringes, rollers, paint brushes, spoons and ice cream scoops and many other different items. We are so proud of our work and we cannot wait to see all of it hanging up on our art display.

Week commencing 17th May 2021

It has been another wet week for us but that has again not stopped us from learning and exploring. This week we have continued our learning around the farm and have looked at farm animals, where they live on the farm and the names of their young. The children were fascinated to found out that their were farms which have turkeys and albacas.

We began the week with talk about different animals in different pens, comparing the number of animals and discussing what happened when we added or took animals away.

We also matched animals such as cows, ducks, bees and cows to where they live on the farm and in the environment independently the children cut out farms animals and stuck them into the places they live.

We have also been learning new vocabulary such as the names of young farm animals such as piglet, calf, duckling and chick. The children understand that the animals are not just called babies but they have their own names when they are young. We are encouraging the children to use the correct vocabulary when referring to the animals on the farm. The children were also fantastic at matching the mothers to their young correctly. 

We have been very lucky this week as Reception have been off we got the pleasure of having a soundpots session with Mrs Davies, she was blown away by the children and how responsive they were and confident in a sharing their own idea and thoughts. The children are so excited to have soundpot sessions next year when they move into Reception.

We have been working on our communication skills again this week and had to guess what was in the box using our sense of touch, the children used some great descriptive language and made some fantastic guesses of what they thought they were touching. Mrs Gardiner had made gloop which is a strange texture and allows for lots of language. We have asked to have gloop in our messy toughspot when we come back from half term.

We have also enjoyed looking at Miss Davies' stories, talking about what we think is going to happen from the illustrations and listening to stories and joining in the repeated refrains. 

For next few weeks we are really going to be focusing on our ball skills, we have been practising how to catch and throw a ball and it is something we need to continue to work on over the next few weeks to help us to improve.

Although it has been raining we did find some time where we could go out and learn in our outdoor area, we have our fingers crossed that the sunshine will appear this week. We used the large construction resources and other equipment in the provision to work together as a team to build various things using our imagination.

Next week is Art week and we are so excited for the week we have planned  We are studying the artist Jackson Pollock.

He was a very messy painter so we have asked the children to wear old clothes on Tuesday so we can get messy and explore without worrying about getting our uniforms ruined. We are going to explore many ways to produce art like Jackson Pollock and then we ae going to make a fantastic display in the corridor. We cannot wait to show you next week 

Have a lovely weekend, Miss Davies x

Week Commecing 10th May 2021

Well we have had a lot of rain this week, it is alwasy glorious sunshine when I let the children into school and dismiss at the end of the day and then it seems to rain when we want to get out in the outdoors to learn. We were so interested in the huge puddle that filled at the bottom of our play ground, we had lots of discussion about it, we think it was that deep it would have gone past our ankles and made us very very wet!

For the next two weeks our learning is going to be based around 'The Farm', we are going to do lots of things such as looking at what animals we would find on a farm, what those animals eat and where they like live, what jobs happen on the farm and also develop our vocabulary around animal names and their young.

We are using a rhyme as our stimulus as we do for every topic that we focus on, our rhyme is 'Old MacDonald', something which we are confident to sing to it is perfect for us to refer too. 

As I said in my dojo message to you all this week we are focusing on the correct pencil grip and the children to begin to be confident to write their name with the letters in the correct order. To help to develop pencil grip we have been tracing over various lines this week, these lines could be straight, wavy, zig-zag or even curly. We showed great concentration staying on the lines and holding our pencils in a correct tripod grip.

We are also going to be making a super farm display in the corridor for everyone to see our fantastic learning so we have been using various materials to make different animals we would find on the farm. We have a really good understanding of staying within the lines and taking our time as we create.

On Tuesdsay when it was very heavy rain we did our afternoon learning inside so Miss Davies had a great idea of us doing some dancing and yoga. We are very good at dancing rhymically and also following the instructions on screen. It is something new and something that we absolutely loved and will continue to do each week 

This week we have also been learning all about Eid and we send lots of best wishes to all of her families celebrating this weekend. 

We hope you all have a lovely weekend. 

Lots of Love Miss Davies and Duckling x

Week Commencing 3rd May 2021

I hope you all had a lovely 3 day weekend although it may have been a wet one. Just like that it is May and we are still waiting for the spring weather to arrive. This week we are focusing on how to plant a seed, how to make a seed grow and the cycle of life for a flower.

We ordered the parts of a flower into the correct order, starting with the roots, then the stem, leaves and the flower head with petals. We also ordered pictures to show the plant cycle, I was very impressed with the children's vocabulary and knowledge of plants this week. The children also know why Spring is a perfect time for plants to begin to grow and what they need in order to grow. I was also very impressed with the children's connections to the end of flowers lives, the children really understand that a flower dies as autumn arrives and the temperature begins to fall. 

We have been busy in our independent learning accessing the provision in the classroom, we have been recognising logos and talking about where we see them and what they are. 

We have also shown great team work completing difficult puzzles together and discussing where we think each piece goes, we were very proud of ourselves when we had finished.

It has been a week of strange weather, we frequenctly changed our weather chart from windy to cloudy to sunny and raining but we have still be outside learning in our outdoor provision being as busy as usual exploring learning and having fun.

This week we really enjoyed playing 'cake bake' a rhyming game on www.phonicsplay.co.uk where the children have to find the words with rhyme with the picture of the bowl to make the perfect cake, the children are very confident with rhyme and they loved completing the recipe to finally bake the cake. 

Friday was number day and everybody came to school with clothes that had numbers on and Miss Gaskell challenged every one to bring the biggest potato and the longest carrot they could find to school. I have never seen such big vegetables but after all of the children had brought in their carrots and potatoes we crowned our winners 

Bruce brought in the biggest potato, I have never seen a potato so big!!

With the longest carrot it was Sophie who was the winner!

We had carrots and potatoes in abudance so we took them all outside and the children did many maths activities with them such as ordering them by length and height and then weighing them using scales.

In our classroom I put out as many number activities I could find, the children love our math sessions and they enjoyed all of the different activities they could do. We used cubes to make the number blocks, some of use even made the number blocks in the teen numbers! We used dominoes, counting the spots and subitising how many spots we could see. We then did lots of colouring by numbers which the children absolutely loved and they took their time to colour perfectly within the lines. It was a great day full of number learning!

Next week we are going to be focusing our learning on 'Old MacDonald' and the farm. Have a lovely week and we will speak to you again on Friday 

-Miss Davies and Duckling Class x

Week Commencing 26th April 2021

What another fantastic week we have had in Duckling class, we have been very busy again and I could see by Friday afternoon how tired all of the children were, luckily everyone has an extra day this weekend to enjoy 

We have been working hard on recalling the days of the week and being able to say what day it is today, what day it was yesterday and what day it will be tomorrow. It has only been a few days but the children have really started to embed their knowledge. The song below is what we use in school and I think it has really helped the children.

This week we have been focusing on initial sounds in the environment and I was very impressed with the children's ability to match objects to their initial sound. 

In maths this week we have been matching a number to a quantity using number blocks, the children could match the counters to the numeral and some could even match the quantity to numbers all the way to ten!

We have continued to focus on the season of Spring but also talking about our previous learning of the other seasons which we had been learning about, we then started to make links and comparrisons between each season. It was lovely that during the week the children came into school to tell me what signs of spring they had seen such as blossom, flowers, the leaves beginning to grow back onto the trees and also hearing birds beginning to sing again. In our classroom we wanted to update all of our display boards with new learning and new work so we used different media to make various things which we see in spring. We are very creative in duckling class and we made some fantastic pieces of work to go onto our display 

As always we have been very busy in our independent play both inside the classroom and outdoors, we have done lots of things such as ring games, exploring musical instruments and singing, using the obstacle course and experimenting with ways of moving, making patterns, practising our name and number writing, building, ordering numbers, using playdough and role playing. We are always so so busy!! I have put another photo gallery below for you to enjoy and to see all of the fabulous things we have been doing. 

See you next week where we are learning all about how to plant a seed and how to make it grow into a flower! 

-Miss Davies and Duckling Class x

Week Commencing 19th April 2020

Wow what a fabulous week we have had in duckling class, the children have come back after the half term eager to learn and we have had lots of fun learning and getting used to our new routines and expectations. Over the Easter holidays I have been in school transforming our magical classroom and I know that as we haven't been able to have parents in school this year that you like to see what the Nursery classroom looks like, I will keep updating our blog as the clasroom changes and evolves 

We have spent the week exploring our new environment and getting to know myself and Mrs Gardiner better, it has been lovely to have Mrs Gardiner at school after such a long time and I know she has loved every minute of being with the children  The children have really adapted well to our new routines and have showed what super friends they are by playing so well together. 

This week I have been observing the children and completing task to see what our next steps are, I have been very impressed with the children's pencil control when writing their name and pre writing shapes. We will continue to focus on this for the next term.

It has been glorious in our outdoor area this week as the children have been learning in the sun, we have been doing lots of activities such as balancing on an assault course, playing in the laundrette, building and role playing in the doll's house.

We have done many things inside too such as playing in our new pet grooming role play area, reading stories, colouring and drawing, using scissors to cut out shapes, weighing objects, matching numerals to a quantity and lots more. I have attached a photograph display slide at the bottom for you to look at all that we have been doing this week 

On Friday it was our whole school value day where we could come to school dressed in a colour to match our school values, we had lots of children wearing lots of bright colours! Each year group had a value to focus on for the day and we had the pink value of 'friendship'. We discussed what it means to be a good friend and how we can be a good friend to others, I was very impressed with the children's thoughts and ideas and I have told them one of my favourite catch phrases I use reguarly:

We then made ourselves using different media as we are good friends and our work has gone on to our Early Years Display which is in the corridor. The children are all budding artists and Mrs Gardiner was so impressed with the work the children produced. 

Next week we begin our half term focus of 'spring and new life', I have lots of excited things planned for the children and I know we are going to have another amazing week! 

If you have any questions or need anything at all please Dojo me at any time, have a lovely weekend.

Lots of Love Miss Davies 

Week commencing 29th March 2021

Hi everyone, 

Another term has passed us by in the blink of an eye!

We've had a short but sweet week of learning this week in Nursery. 

This week we've spent some time learning about the Easter story. 

We've practised our name writing skills - we are getting really good at this now! 

We've been busy getting creative to create a nice little treat for our grown-up's. 

We've been getting busy constructing together too! We are making the most of this lovely weather whilst we can! (before the snow arrives!) 

On our last day we enjoyed some golden time together - the children decided that they wanted to make some cakes and play lots of games - so that is exactly what we did! 

We made some cornflake cakes and played all day long. 

We finished our day by celebrating our class superstars of this week!

Dojo champions:

Waterside values certificates:

Maths certificates:

A big 'WELL DONE!' to each and everyone of you.

I am so proud of all of the children in Ducklings class. You are all real superstars!

I have loved working with your children and watching them shine at Waterside.

They truly have been a pleasure to teach - each and every single one of them. 

Have a lovely spring break.

I will miss you all so very much.

Take care and stay safe.

Lots of Love, Miss Finn

Week commencing 22nd March 

Hi everyone, 

I hope you've all had a good week. 

As it was the first day of spring on Saturday 20th March,  we started our week off with a lovely walk around the school grounds to spot some early signs of the new season. 

We have been talking about these changes for some weeks now so the children were super at knowing what to look out for. We were lucky with the cold weather to spotted a birds nest in the trees, some birds, some daffodils and daisies and some new leaves beginning to grow. 

The children were also super excited to be on the big children's playground! 

We helped to develop our fine motor skills this week by practising some pencil control patterns. 

We also used different tools to scoop beads into eggs and to play with our playdough, we painted and we coloured in.  

We spent some time creating some lovely spring creations using paint and glitter. We used different tools to create different effects. 

We enjoyed playing ring games and songs together. This is definitely one our of favourite activities. We especially love the hokey cokey! 

For maths this week we have worked on our counting skills and understanding that quantities change when something is added or taken away. 

Another BIG 'WELL DONE!' to our superstars this week:

Dojo champions
 

 Our waterside values certificates

Our maths award certificate

A big well done to all of you for your OUTSTANDING learning this week. I am very proud of you. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week. 

Love Miss Finn 

Week commencing 15th March 2021

Hi everyone, 

I hope you are all safe and well. 

Time has flown past this week - we have busy in Nursery, having lots of fun. 

We have spent time this week learning all about the Spring time. We know that on Saturday 20th March it will no longer be Winter - it will be Spring. 

We have been learning all about the different changes to expect during the spring time.

We decided to sow some seeds of our own to look after and to watch grow. 

Some of us chose to plant some tomato plants and some of us chose to plant some different kinds of flowers. 

In maths this week we have been continuing to develop our counting skills and have worked hard on different methods of representing numbers. 

For phonics this week we have been beginning to sound talk some short words by segmenting and blending the letter sounds together. Our Ducklings have been trying really hard at this - I have been so impressed.  We have also spent time reading some Spring themed stories together during our guided reading session. It makes me so happy to see them so excited and enthusiastic toward books and reading together. 

For writing this week we have been using the cars to trace over different pre-writing shapes - this sort of activity really helps us to develop our gross motor skills which in turn help to develop our fine motor and writing skills.  

We've also developed our fine motor skills using the tweezers to pick up small objects, practising our cutting skills and also playing with the playdough.

We had lots of fun singing and playing ring games together this week. The children have a new favourite - The Hokey Cokey! We had SO MUCH fun together doing this. So many belly laughs and full-face smiles! 

For P.E. this week we were Superheroes working hard to save everybody from the baddies! We practised running, jumping and mounting steps. We had lots of fun with this!

& of course we had a fantastic day dressed as super heroes for comic relief on Friday.

We practised telling jokes and making each other laugh. Which wasn't hard for our Ducklings - they are all little comedians.  

Finally, I would like to say a really big 'WELL DONE!' to our Dojo Champions and to those who achieved our Waterside Values certificates this week. You truly are Superstars! I am very proud of you. Keep up the amazing learning.  

Have a lovely week! 

Miss Finn

Week commencing 8^th March 2021

Hello everyone,

I hope you are all well and have enjoyed a week of slightly warmer weather.

We have had a wonderful first week back in Nursery – the children have settled back in beautifully.

This week we have been discussing and noticing the changes in the weather – spotting the signs of spring approaching us. 

The children have blown us away with their current knowledge – we have been really impressed.

This week has been Science week.

We have spent a short time each day doing some fun, science related activities.

We have enjoyed discussing what it means to be a scientist and decided that we are all curious little scientists. We have loved exploring the magnets and discovering what they stick to and what they do not stick to. We have explored what happens to skittles in hot water – the children really enjoyed this activity and shared some great ideas. 

We have done some art relating to the ‘people who help us’ – we created some firemen and some doctors.

We have enjoyed creating some surprises for our lovely Mummy’s. We hope that you have enjoyed them as much as we enjoyed creating them. 

In phonics this week we have continued to work on initial sounds and on rhyming words. We’ve used our rhythm sticks to tap out the syllables in our names and created silly sentences together.

Some of us have continued to develop out segmenting a blending sounds to create words. I have been really impressed as this is super tricky business for our little ones.

In maths we have been completing various activities working on our counting skills, numeral recognition and 2D shapes.   We linked our maths in with P.E. this week, we jumped, hopped, ran and skipped to the different numerals. It was lots of fun.

Finally, I would like to say another BIG ‘WELL DONE!’ to our Dojo champions and to the children who received a Waterside Values certificate this week. I am so very proud of you - keep up the amazing learning. 

Have a lovely week!

Miss Finn and the Nursery Team

Week commencing 1st March 2021

Hi everyone, I hope you've all had a nice week. 

This week in Nursery we have continued to learn about 'people who help us'. We learned all about the Emergency services and who to call if there is an emergency. We had some great discussions and learnt a short song to help us to remember. The children picked it up really well - we were very impressed. 

We enjoyed and discussed a lovely story 'Real Superheroes' to support our learning about all of the wonderful 'people who help us'. We have some very proud little ducklings in our class - very eager to share their grown ups' job role with everybody. 

We practised our writing skills throughout the week - we practising our pre-writing shapes and traced over our names using paint and pointillism. 

for maths this week we have been working on our counting and number recognition skills. The ducklings are truly fantastic - I am always so impressed by their amazing maths skills. 

We've been developing our fine motor skills through practising cutting and colouring in. 

We celebrated World Book Day in Nursery this week. We all wore our pyjamas, got comfy and read our favourite stories throughout the day. I loved hearing all about our Ducklings' favourite stories and their reasons why. 

It's so great to see them so excited about reading and so eager to read and share their stories with one another. 

Throughout the day we read and explored four different books together and completed activities based around these. 

We shared our favourite books together and discussed what happened and why we love them so much. 

We created fruit kebabs. We tasted different fruits like the ones in Handa's surprise. 

We got crafty - making different spring and farmer duck creations. We also did some hot-seat activities relating to Mr Big story - exploring the importance of friendship and how we might feel in different scenarios. 

We had P.E. outside this week. We worked on gross motor skills and on balancing. We love to play different games to warm up such as "duck-duck-goose" and "beans". The children have improved so much at these games since we started P.E. - I know I say it all the time but they truly are superstars! Their listening and understanding skills are just phenomenal. 

A few parents have asked me about P.E. - we shall still be doing P.E. on a Friday for now. Only, we will now be doing our P.E. lessons using our outdoor provision. As you all know - the children LOVE P.E. day - we are all excited for it all week! 

Last but definitely not least I would like to celebrate our Waterside Values Super stars and our Dojo Champions for the week. A BIG 'WELL DONE' from all of us for always showing our values and showing amazing learning. 

I am so very proud of you all. Keep up the fantastic learning. 

We are very much looking forward to everybody returning to school on the 8th March. We can't wait to see you all. 

If you have any worries or queries about your child's return, please feel free to get in touch. 

Have a lovely week. 

Miss Finn and the Nursery Team 

Week commencing 22nd Feb 2021

Hi everyone. 

We've had a really busy first week back in Nursery. 

This week we have begun to learn about some of the 'People who help us'. The children loved exploring the different job roles and they all really impressed us with what they already knew. We based some of our other provision activities around different people who help us too which was great in encouraging interest and discussion. 

We spent time reading our favourite stories together.  The children are getting really good at being able to recall stories and some are beginning to be able to retell using the illustrations. It's really lovely to see them all enjoying stories so much. 

We enjoyed painting different people who help us.

and we spent some extra time recognising our own names. Nursery are getting really good at this now. 

Nursery have enjoyed getting imaginative and working as a team in making new homes for the Dinosaurs

For maths this week we have been developing our counting skills using the 1:1 principle - touching/moving each object that we count. Some of us have also worked on matching quantity to numerals using the pegs to identify the correct numerals. We have continued to work on identifying different 2D shapes. 

This year group have really blown me away with their maths skills - they are all fantastic. 

We spent time talking about our favourite Nursery Rhymes. We sang these together and alone in front of our friends! Their confidence is AMAZING! Particularly in comparison to the beginning of the year. They have been enjoying exploring the sounds of the different instruments and playing them along to the rhythm of their chosen Nursery Rhymes. 

In P.E. this week we pretended to be people from the emergency services such as fire officers, paramedics and police officers.

We talked about our different ideas and then worked together to create our own obstacle course. We slid, slithered, jumped, ran and hopped our ways around. The children are really enjoying P.E. lessons. 

Last but not least, I would like to say a BIG 'WELL DONE!' to our superstars for this week. 

Dojo champions:

School - Ahmed 

Home - Hadisa

Waterside Values certificates:

School: Poppy

Home: Alfaidi

Very well done to all of you for being simply outstanding. We are so proud of you all. 

Next week it is World Book Day on Thursday 4th March. 

We invite the children to attend in their pyjamas on this day - more information for this will follow. 

Have a lovely week. 

We look forward to seeing everybody return to school on 8th March. 

If you have any worries or concerns about your child's return to school, please do send me a message to raise this. I am always here and happy to help.

 Miss Finn and the Nursery Team 

Monday 22nd Feb

Welcome back!

I hope you have all had a lovely and restful break and that you are all safe and well. 

We have missed you all lots in Nursery and we are looking forward to another fun packed half term with you! 

Please rest assured knowing that we are careful in following COVID guidelines and cleaning the classroom at regular intervals throughout the day. We are all in this together - please feel free to get in touch at any point via ClassDojo or our class email address - ducklings@watersideprimary.org.uk 

We can't wait to hear all about the exciting things you have been up to during half term - please do send in any photos you would like to share with the class. Doing so really helps to promote your child's communication and language skills when sharing with their friends. 

Here's to another great half term ahead. 

Miss Finn

Week commencing the 8^th February

…and just like that another half term has passed us!
I cannot believe how quickly the time has flown since the start of the New Year.

Although this half term did not start as we originally planned, our Ducklings have all adapted so well to all of the changes thrown at them. I am so proud.

At school we have kept things as normal as possible. We have continued with our busy learning schedule and of course made sure we have had lots of fun whilst doing this! At home we have kept our learning exactly the same as we are doing in school. It has been so great to see such dedication and positivity towards our home learning.

This week we have learnt about Valentine’s day and we shared some photographs to talk about the people that we love and the reasons why. This task melted my heart a little bit! The Ducklings each have such a beautiful nature. We also got imaginative and created some different magic love potions in the messy area. Some children used all sorts in theirs! Such as unicorn eyelashes and rainbow juice!

We also learned all about internet safety with Buddy the dog. We learned a little song together to help us know what to do if we are ever unsure. Ask your ducklings all about it.

We have developed our fine motor skills this week by creating our lovely surprises for our grown-ups. We have been practising writing our names, we have been enjoying the graffiti writing areas (by the way your ducklings number formation graffiti is fantastic!) and we have been threading different 2D shapes. We also tried something new this week – we tried ‘squiggle whilst you wiggle’ this is a really fun activity practising our mark making on a large scale to develop our gross motor skills, which will in turn develop our fine motor skills. We had lots of fun with this!

In maths this week we have been continuing to develop our counting skills and developing our 2D shape recognition.

In phonics we have continued to develop our listening skills. We have been working on copying rhythms, rhyming and alliteration as well as the syllables in our names and different words. We have begun to focus on letter sounds at the beginning of words.

This week we have also learned all about Shrove Tuesday – and what better way to learn about pancake day than to make and eat pancakes!? We had fun measuring and mixing and we tried all sorts of different toppings!

At the end of this week we began to learn about Chinese New Year. We learned all about the story of the different animals and had fun exploring this through our small world area. We tried some different foods such as prawn crackers, chow mien and fortune cookies. AND we had lots of fun in P.E. having different animal races to compete for the New Year name and exploring Chinese dancing.  

Our Dojo Champions this week:

Our Waterside Values Certificates this week:

A big well done is deserved by all of our Ducklings- as I have said many times you have done so well during these strange times and I am so proud. Keep smiling and keep up the fantastic learning!

I hope you all have a fantastic and restful week off – enjoy yourselves and stay safe.

I am available via dojo and our class email ducklings@watersideprimary.org.uk should you need anything at all.

Take care and I will see you all soon.

Miss Finn 

Week commencing 1st Feb 2020

Hello everyone!

I hope you've had a lovely week. 

We have been busy as ever in Nursery and Learning from home. 

This week we explored the Arctic (The North Pole)
We looked at the different animals that live there and learned a little bit about polar bears. 

We have had lots of fun exploring our new Puppet Theatre role play area. The children really surprised me with their amazing story telling skills! Little superstars!

For maths this week we have spent time sorting shapes! The children were amazing and recognising different 2D shapes and had loads of fun feeding the different shape monsters. The children at home did the same activity using an online game and were absolutely super at this too! We also spent some time reading different maths stories. The children in school particularly enjoyed "There was ten in a bed". We acted this out and sang along, too! Some of the children really made us 'WOW!' with their ability to recognise and sort numerals into order. 

This week we have explored the story "Polar Bear, Polar Bear what do you hear?" the children really enjoyed this story and were very good at exploring the different animal sounds.  I caught some of them reading the story to each other by the end of the week - they enjoyed it that much! 

We did lots of activities to help us to explore Children's Mental Health Awareness week this week. We explored some different feelings we might feel and we learned and discussed some different tips about how to stay happy and healthy and what to do if we feel a bit worried or just a bit different to how we normally feel. The children were fantastic I am so proud of them.
We chose to write letters to our friends who are learning from home/at school or to other people that we miss to tell them how we feel. We talked about different foods that keep us healthy and about what makes us as individuals happy and healthy.

We talked about some of the different ways we can express ourselves and explored them- we explored the instruments and singing and we created some artwork based on how we were feeling. We also based our P.E. around the importance of staying active and around different emotions - how we move differently depending on how we feel. 

Our Waterside Values Certificates this week:

A big "WELL DONE!" to Adam, Ammar and Poppy for achieving our Waterside Values certificates this week. You are simply AMAZING. I am so proud. Keep up the super work.  

Our dojo superstars this week: 

A big 'WELL DONE!' to Leo and Sophie for getting the most dojos in school this week. 

& a huge 'WELL DONE!' to Rumaisa and Kaven for getting the most dojos home learning this week! 
You are incredible!  I am so proud!

Next week is our last week before school closes for half term so lets make it a good one!
Stay safe. 

Miss Finn and the Nursery Team  

Week commencing 25th Jan 2021

Hello everyone. 

Another week has flown past us in Nursery this week - time really flies when you're having fun.

This week worked on rhyming words and alliteration skills - the children are getting really good at this now. 

We practised our writing skills using feather in paint - very fancy! We used wax crayons to write secret messages and paint to reveal them.

We continued to work on our fine motor skills making patterns, marks and playing with the penguins. 

We got messy and creative with the clay this week. I can't tell you what we were making - It's a surprise! 

We enjoyed our music lessons with our teddy bears this week.  

We had lots of fun in P.E. pretending we were penguins - waddling and sliding. We pretended the footballs were our eggs. We practised rolling, throwing and bouncing. 

Finally, I would like to say a big well done to our Superstars this week for being that extra bit amazing. 

Well done!

Next week we will be learning all about The Arctic (The North Pole) and the different animals that live there. 

Our rhyme of the week next week is "It's raining, it's pouring." 

and we have got an exciting new Puppet Theatre role play area! The children are so excited! 

I hope you all have a lovely week. 

Miss Finn

Week Commencing 18th Jan

Hello everyone,

I hope you have all had a lovely week, both at home and at school.

We’ve been busy as ever in Nursery this week.

We practised our Nursery Rhyme of the week, all week this week- the children always amaze me at how quickly they pick these new rhymes up.

We spent some time exploring the instruments and singing our favourite rhymes.

The children know all of the words to so many rhymes and show such SUPER confidence which is fantastic.

We spent time developing our fine motor skills by making different towers with the stacking cups, practising our mark making and cutting skills. We had fun cutting different textures- some of them were really tricky!

We have spent time this week learning about penguins and where some live- the Antarctic/South Pole.

The children really enjoyed exploring our Antarctic small world area and learning all about penguins- ask your child to tell you something that they have learned.  They really impressed me with how quickly they picked it up.  

For maths this week we have been exploring measure- we have been looking at size and weight using the scales and different measuring tools- as well as practising our counting skills to feed the penguin and continuing to develop our understanding of positional language. 

For music this week we created our own sound makers and had lots of fun exploring the different sounds we could make using different objects to fill our containers. We then used our sound makers to support our phonics. We created a thunderstorm using body percussion and our sound makers as a team. This was lots of fun! 

Nursery were super in their first P.E. lesson in the hall this week- we were really impressed and they had lots of fun! 

We played some different games, explored some different ways of using our bodies to move around and we created an obstacle course to practise our positional language.

Another fantastic week had! 

Another big 'WELL DONE!' to our two superstars this week for showing our Waterside values and for super maths skills.

We are so proud of you. 

I hope you all have a lovely weekend and I look forward to another fun week in Nursery again next week.
Miss Finn  

Week Commencing 11th January 2021 

Hi everyone,

I hope you’ve all had a nice week.

I would like to say a big well done to every single one of our ducklings- you have all adapted so well to all of the recent changes! I am so proud of you all. 

This week we have all been doing the same learning- both from home and at school.

We had fun playing ‘Who am I?’ using our super communication and language skills to guess. Some of us got the whole family involved! 

We began our learning about our local area- Joiners Square. The children really enjoyed exploring and discussing familiar places.

We also created some art work based on our Local Environment- some bottle kilns and some mugs and plates in the style of Emma Bridgewater. :-) The children did an excellent job this for our new classroom display.

We followed a recipe together to make some play dough, then used this for a dough disco! It was lots of fun and this really helps to develop our fine motor skills.

We did guided reading together in small groups together, each group explored one of our treasure chest books for this half term- 'Snowball'.

We have been exploring technology using our Interactive Table to access stories and Nursery Rhymes. We also explored our Interactive white board to practise our writing skills. The children are getting very good at using technology!

We had a lovely music lesson this week where we explored the rhythm sticks and used the scarves to wiggle, wiggle, wiggle and FREEZE. The children had lots of fun and giggles with this.

For maths this week we have been practising our counting skills. Some of the children were able to match the objects to numerals which was absolutely fantastic. I have been blown away with how amazing our Ducklings are at Maths this year. I have a class full of Super Stars!

This week we have given 3 Waterside Values Certificates in Nursery for our Ducklings and one Amazing Maths certificate too! I’m sure you will join me in saying a BIG “WELL DONE!” to our Superstars for their amazing learning this week. I am one very proud teacher!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

See you on Monday! Miss Finn