Star of the Week!

Last week, Alfie, Isabella and Zoe were all awarded 'Star of the Week'! Congratulations and well done to all of you.

If You're Happy And You Know It!

We were all really happy when we celebrated the Queen's 90th birthday last week, so we thought this would be a good book to read next from our focus author!

Click here to find out more!

Jingle, Jangle, Jungle Instruments!

We have been inspired by jungle animal prints to create our own 'jingle, jangle, jungle instruments'!

Take a look at all our creations and see if you can guess which animal we based each one on . . . 

Let us know what you think!

Star of the Week!

Harley, Sienna, Oliver BH and Finley were all awarded 'Star of the Week' last week!

Congratulations and well done to all of you. 

The Queen's 90th Birthday Celebrations!

Last week when we had been looking at the Jewish Menorah, some of the children commented that they had candles on their birthday cakes. 

We reminded the children that the Queen had recently had her 90th birthday and that this weekend, there are going to be some special events taking place in London for her.

This is how some of the children thought the Queen might celebrate her birthday . . .

Missy - "She might have a party! She will get all of her friends"

Georgia - "She would dance - maybe Queen music!"

Sienna - "She would have a necklace for her birthday present"

We decided to have our own 

celebration for the Queen!

The children were invited to come to Nursery dressed in red, white and blue. We made red, white and blue bunting and we decorated crowns to wear. 

After looking at a selection of photographs of the Queen from a baby up until the present day, we enjoyed some cucumber sandwiches, and of course, we sang 'Happy Birthday'! 

Leyla - "It was the Queen's bithday. It's gonna be my daddy's birthday next. He gonna close his eyes and then open his presents!"

Willow - "The Queen might have some daffodils and have a birthday cake. I have a swimming pool party and when I get out of the pool there will be a birthday cake and there will be balloons and there will be bows on the house!"

Eli - "I will have party bags and party hats and I will have a birthday cake, a disco, slide and some presents!"

Oliver L - "When it's my birthday we go bowling and we don't make a birthday cake, we go and buy a birthday cake when I'm at my daddy's so I don't know which one it is!"

How do you and your family celebrate your birthday?

Let us know - we would love to hear from you. 

Star of the Week!

Last week, William and Willow were both awarded 'Star of the Week'. 

Congratulations and well done to both of you.

Faith Day

On Friday, we had a 'Faith Day' at school. 

In the Nursery we found out about the Jewish Menorah - which stands for light, wisdom and Divine inspiration.

Originally, the Menorah was a seven-branched candelabra beaten out of a solid piece of gold that served as one of the sacred vessels in the Holy Temple. It stood in the southern part of the Temple and was lit every day by the High Priest. Only pure, fresh olive oil of the highest quality was suitable to light the Menorah.

The seven lamps of the Menorah also allude to knowledge, with six of the branches representing human wisdom, guided by the centre branch of Divine light.

We have been creating our own hand and thumb print Menorahs!

We have also been finding out about Muslim prayer mats. 

Muslims are expected to pray to Allah (God) five times a day. They can pray anywhere, but are expected to do so in a clean place. For this reason, Muslims will use a prayer mat if they are not praying in the mosque (the Muslim place of worship). It makes the place where they put the mat a temporary mosque.

All Muslims face in the direction of the holy city of Makkah (Mecca) when they pray, and more specifically, the sacred cube shaped shrine, the Ka'bah, in the centre of Makkah.

After prayer, the mat is immediately folded or rolled and put away for the next use, this ensures that it remains clean. Prayer mats are decorated in various ways, including geometric patterns, floral patterns and pictures of 

famous mosques.

We have been designing some of our own . . .

Can you see which shapes we have used?

Would you be able to continue the 

repeating pattern?

What would your design look like?

Beautiful Butterflies!

Last week we were very excited when Cherry brought us in some lovely caterpillars to look at! 

This week we have been sharing the story of 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' and talking about the changes that caterpillars go through to finally become butterflies.

"First they go into a cocoon for two weeks, it's their home. Then they turn into a beautiful butterfly. But before they go in (the cocoon) they eat some food" (Colette)

We went outside to look for some natural resources to use to create our own beautiful butterflies . . . 

"The grass is the wings and the body is a twig"

"I got some leaves and then I got in the middle and then I get them to the side and that's how I make my wings. I found this pebble. I found these sticks to make antennae, the 

pebble is the face"

"I found these sticks - antennae, that's his body - a big stick, and these are the wings - leaves. I picked the others from the ground"

Perhaps you could create a beautiful 

butterfly too!

Over in the Clover

We have been continuing our animal focus and have shared another great book by Jan Ormerod and Lindsey Gardiner . . . 

'Over in the forest, 

in a cave so snug,

one cubby bear

gives his mummy a hug'

Click here to read some of the quotes from the children about this lovely count-along rhyme from one to ten!

Rain Catchers

What  a lovely sunny Wellie Wednesday. We talked about all the rain we've had recently and decided we'd like to measure how much rain falls over the next few weeks. Hopefully not too much! We recycled our milk cartons to make rain catchers or rain gauges. We used lolly sticks to measure the level of rainfall before decorating them with leaves,flowers and sticks.  

Look, what do you think of  our super rain gauges?

Swinging in the sunshine.

                    Can you spot the ladybird?

Star of the Week!

Last week, Lucy, Zoe, Ella and Theo were all awarded 'Star of the Week'!

Well done and congratulations to all of you.

Earthworm Watch!

Charles Darwin was fascinated by earthworm behaviour, he saw how soil cast up by earthworms had buried deposits on top of the soil. He studied earthworms for 40 years!

We have welcomed some earthworms to the Nursery . . . 

We had a gentle hold of them and found out a little bit about them before we carefully put them into their new home . . .

Earthworms are very important for farms and gardens. They mix the soil with air as they dig and eat. Their burrows let air and rain into the soil to help plants grow strong and healthy. 

An earthworm does not have eyes, ears, arms, legs, bones or teeth! They eat dead plants, seeds, roots, leaves and stems.

"I want to know how they can listen to the birds chattering and when they come down to eat them" (Grace)

"I wonder how they can see and know where they are going?" (Aisha)

"Are there different worms and different leaves?" (William)

We are going to look after our worms and watch their progress - and hopefully find out the answers to all of our questions!

What would you like to know about the earthworms?

Do you know any good songs or stories about worms that we could share together?

Let us know!

Happy May Day!

We have been finding out about the traditions of May Day - we were hoping to go out and celebrate on our lovely school field, but the weather had other ideas!

We danced around our May Pole inside the Nursery instead!

Some of the children brought in beautiful flowers from home - which we used for our observational art work . . .

We made comparisons between them and then explored an activity on the computer to arrange some flowers in height order . . .

We hope the sun will shine for Bank Holiday Monday!

Enjoy your day and let us know what you did - we would love to hear from you!

The Animal Bop Won't Stop!

'The animal bop just won't stop, so move your body from bottom to top!'

Take a look at our 

'Share A Story, Share A Smile!' to find out more about this great book!