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Nursery NEwsletters
Nursery NEwsletters
2nd - 6th February 2026
This week the children had been learning all about Chinese New Year.
They have learned how it’s the year of the horse, red is the lucky colour and 4 is unlucky.
They designed dragon faces and then went on an impressive walk through and around the school as a Chinese dragon. The all walked holding some material in one long line with great teamwork. The dragon was very impressive to see coming through the school.
Afterwards, the children watched lion dance videos and had a go at recreating some of the lifts with the help of Miss Dale.
The nursery has now been decorated with the handmade lanterns, unique to each child, two impressive dragons - one made from material with a watercolour face, the other made from red paper chains. Both dragons were made by the children.
They have also been slowly learning 1-5 in Chinese, alongside using number tracing and symbol cards to recognise and draw the Chinese numbers too.
1 - ey
2 - err
3 - san
4 - shoo
5 - woo
In the water tray the children had rice noodles and pak choi to use and explore. We’ve had soups, spaghetti and all sorts made by the children through their use of imagination.
Alongside their learning of Chinese new year, the children have also been learning the Makaton signs for:
Good morning
Good afternoon
Drink
Play
Food
They have a growing wealth of knowledge of signs that are used throughout the day, everyday in nursery.
On Thursday; the children had the chance to dress up and share costumes of the people who help them. We had a variety of roles from mummy’s to builders to vets. The children used their learning of how God helped Jesus to feed the 5000 to think about and role play the people who help them in their lives. Great work everyone!!
We also have two superstars who received a headteachers award on Thursday afternoon! They worked with Miss Stacia and wrote
1+1 =2
2+2=4
All the way up to 10+10=20
Everyone was so proud of the two boys and all the hard work they do. Absolutely brilliant work by the both of them!
Ahead of the last week of term, the children are all super tired and have a cold of some sort, so we wish you a restful weekend ahead of the last week of term.
Miss Dale and the Nursery Team
26th - 30th January 2026
With the closure on Monday, it’s been a shorter week for the children, but a jam packed one nonetheless!
Tuesday started with bucket time.
The children sat beautifully for the bucket toys, enjoyed watching Miss Dale get mucky making bread and then took turns to fish the pipe cleaner fish. Their bucket time was in conjunction with their learning of Feeding the 5000.
Wednesdays maths lesson had the children ordering numbers to 10 by selecting the correct piece of numicon.
Some children found this a little tricky but they were helped by their friends to find the right piece. They also enjoyed singing Count Back Cat from 10 to support their learning of number order.
The nursery children also furthered their learning with shapes. Miss Dale put various shapes in the circle. One by one they were described by their properties and the children had to find the shape. They all did super well with this game and were able to help describe the shapes in terms of colour and size when they had a turn in charge.
At the end of each session, before lunch and at the end by of the day, stickers are given out to the children for good choices they have made. They are given in relation to our Catholic Social Teaching themes and each child is told why they are having a sticker. They have all been making excellent progress and are showing how kind they are to each other on a daily basis.
We hope you have a restful weekend,
Miss Dale and the Nursery Team
19th - 23rd January 2026
This week has been busy like always.
The nursery children have been independently practising their name writing during group time, whilst the other children have been working on their fine motor, maths and phonics skills.
The new children are settling in nicely and friendships are starting to build well. Our nursery children have been taking good care of the pre-nursery and are being good role models for behaviour and boundaries within the nursery.
The children have been learning of Feeding the 5000 this week, in which they made their own bread for toast and decorated fish for a display of their learning. They each took turns are learned of the quick process of making bread with a bread mix. The learned how to knead with a hand wave motion and then saw how their dough had risen while it sat on the radiator.
They also sand their RE songs again and are starting to get the hang of Father Abraham too.
In our celebration of the word sessions, the children's mission this week was to think to Jesus' kind words to others and use their own kind words to their friends.
They have all shown good choices this week in their play, general routines within the classroom and towards their friends. What a lovely bunch we have.
As ever, we hope you all have a lovely restful weekend,
Miss Dale and the Nursery Team
12th - 16th January 2026
Two weeks into the new term and we have had lots of changes in the nursery.
We are currently in the settling in phase for 5 new children, who have all proved to be wonderful new additions and really got to grips with their new class.
Each child had a wobble to start but have since shown how well they are settling and shown some good choices with their sharing, listening and making friends.
Amazing work by all our new children.
This week we have had bucket time three times, in which some reception and Year 1 children join us. Bucket time is to support attention building, language development and learning across different areas in a highly engaging and motivating session.
The nursery children get super excited every time the chairs come out and Miss Dale starts the session. They are currently on Stage 3 in which the children start to take turns for an activity.
They are learning that sometimes they don't have a turn and how to understand their emotions surrounding the situation.
We have also been doing lots of learning around the gifts given to Jesus by the Wise Men.
The children all know the three gifts by name and having been using their knowledge of younger siblings and role play games to discuss gifts we could give to newborn babies today.
They have also been singing lots of songs within RE.
Our God is a Great Big God
This Little Light of Mine
My Lighthouse
Father Abraham - Currently learning
All the songs have actions and the children love to be involved and sing loudly whilst dancing around. They are little superstars.
Lastly, each day we give out stickers from our Catholic Social Teaching.
We give them out for good tidying of the classroom, supporting each other to work towards a common goal, helping people when they find something tricky, looking after the animals/ insects they find in their environment (Shelly the Snail, worms in the garden) and other various things. The children are always told why they are getting the sticker they have too so they know what good choice they made.
We hope you have a restful weekend a head of another exciting week next week!
Miss Dale and the Nursery Team
15th - 19th December 2025
This week has been eventful for the class!
On Monday they had not one, but TWO nativity shows to perform! They were all little superstars with their singing and signing on the stage.
It is quite a scary thing to do, performing in front of lots of adults at such a young age and they were all brilliant!
We are all very proud of each and every one of them.
The rest of this week, the class have watched the KS1 nativity and the KS2 Carol service in the Church. Many teachers have spoken to the nursery adults to explain how well they sat and watched both shows.
Wednesday was Christmas Jumper Day and the children successfully covered the nursery in glitter, or unsuccessfully, depending on who’s doing the cleaning. Though the children did help clean a little by doing some vacuuming during tidy up time.
In between, they’ve had a lot of fun crafting, painting with water colours, dancing, singing and telling stories.
It’s been a super busy term for us all at CtK and the children are rightfully knackered.
We hope you all manage to have a restful Christmas Break.
We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
See you in 2026,
Miss Dale and the Nursery Team
8th - 12th December 2025
We are nearly at the end of the term and we are ALL feeling it. The children are having lots of fun with their learning but are also very tired.
At the end of each day, at least one child is having a Power Nap before home time.
Never the less, they have been doing lots this week...
Everyday they have a nativity rehearsal, with their first costume practise being today!
So far they have wowed us all with how amazing they’ve been at singing and behaving while practising.
In between, they have been loving their bucket time in class.
This week we have made shaving foam rockets and done flour shaking too. So far they have managed stage 1 and 2 very well. Next we will be working on turn taking to help their building attention span in fun, engaging and supportive ways.
The children have loved Reggie the elf getting up to mischief throughout the nursery and playing lots of tricks on them. They have also been exploring lots of crafts by making hanging snowmen, creating their own wrapping paper, pinecone Christmas trees and other bits.
We hope you have a restful weekend ahead of the final week of term 2.
Miss Dale and the Nursery Team
1st - 5th December 2025
The children have all been working super hard this week.
On Monday, they had the pleasure of decorating the Christmas trees in the Nursery. They helped put the baubles on the trees and then used the tinsel to make the home corner and small world more festive too.
Reggie the Elf also payed them a visit, he was kind for his first day but has been up to mischief since!
On Tuesday, the children learned of Advent and what an Advent wreath looks like.
Miss Dale used paint to teach them of the wreath and as they counted each candle, she splatted the paint! Much to the children's excitement, when they mentioned the last candle to be lit on the wreath, the one for the birth of Jesus, the shaving foam flew EVERYWHERE and made a huge mess! Afterwards, the children painted their hands green to craft a wreath with hand prints!
Reggie the Elf turned the water tray into a chocolate mess on this day, too. He added cocoa powder and chopped carrots to the tray as well, much to everyone's fascination and excitement.
Wednesday was full of crafting! Nathan made many paper chains independently which are hanging across the front of the classroom, with the classes Christmas colouring hanging from them also.
It was also Josh's Birthday celebrations on this day. Josh chose to have a dance party, the class sang happy birthday and were all treated to party bags with cake and surprises to take home too.
Savannah is to be given special recognition. The girls chose to empty the home corner into the classroom for a picnic and Savannah cleaned up most of the mess afterwards. She put everything away carefully and neatly using the pictures for help. She has shown great responsibility and care for her classroom. She has demonstrated the school values and values within Catholic Social Teaching. (Rights and Responsibilities, Family and Community)
Preparations for the nativity are well underway, with the children helping to make decorations and getting used to their costumes for the play.
We have also decided to learn the Makaton signs for 'We Wish You A Merry Christmas'.
Please practise this at home if possible. We use the Singing Hands version on YouTube.
We are only teaching the children 'We wish you a merry Christmas' signs due to the speed of the song.
They are doing so well with their Makaton learning. Our signs for the last two week have been:
Yes
No
More
Pain
We hope you have a restful weekend,
Miss Dale and the Nursery Team
24th - 28th November 2025
The children have started practicing their nativity with the Reception class this week.
Three times they have walked to the hall and rehearsed. In truth, they have blown everyone away by how well they sat, followed instructions and sang the songs.
We are so proud of all your children and how well they are doing. At home, please keep rehearsing or listening to the nativity songs to support your child's learning of the song. Some songs have actions which your child may want to share with you too.
In between rehearsals, they have been exploring our new home area, which now features a door, shop window, big mirror and moveable clock face. They have been dressing as doctors, superheroes, teachers and playing families. They have all been playing beautifully and using the helpful phrases before coming to speak with a teacher when something happens. Their independence in developing wonderfully.
The children have been developing amazingly so far this year and have been very inquisitive about everything they encounter, see, do and hear. They are all very curious little people with lots to learn share and explore.
We hope you have a restful weekend,
Miss Dale and the Nursery Team
10th - 14th November 2025
We have had quite an important week this week. The children have learned about the importance of odd sock day and how we accept everyone for who they are, that it is good to be different and how we make good choices for ourselves and towards/ with others.
They all crafted a pair of socks out of different materials. Each sock is displayed on a washing line in the nursery, reminding all those who enter that we accept everyone and everyone is welcome.
On Tuesday, the children partook in a 2 minute silence, learned of the meaning behind poppies and why we take the time to think of the people who fought/ fight to keep us safe.
They printed, painted and coloured poppies and fields of poppies for the rest of the day. In the afternoon the children further painted purple poppies to remember the animals who are/ were lost in battle too.
The rest of this week, the children have been really engaging themselves within their play, using lots of good thought within their constructing, telling in-depth stories, such as making planes out of chairs and materials in class for a nursery holiday. Their immersion in their play is wonderful to be a part of and assist within. They are making amazing progress in their development!
The children have now learned three more Makaton signs.
Overall the have learnt:
Please
Thank you
Help
Stop
Wash Hands
Toilet
Banana
Orange
Apple
All the children are really engaging with their learning and are always eager to learn more. We are super proud of each and every child!
We hope you have a restful weekend,
Miss Dale and the Nursery Team
3rd - 7th November 2025
For the first week of term 2, the children have done super well settling back into routine.
On Monday, the children started to squash the words that Miss Dale stretched.
We played a game where the doll was going on an adventure and needed certain items.
'The weather today is very hot, the doll needs hers h-a-t'
'What is a h-a-t?'
'HAT!'
This skill supports the children for their phonics learning in Reception next year. We will be repeating this throughout the year and building the stretch and squash activity into everyday routines, like:
'Go and get your c-o-a-t-s, please' or 'It's l-u-n-ch time.'
Tuesday had the children taking on different roles from the nativity story to start their learning about the birth of Jesus. They learned that it started with an Angel coming to Mary and asking her to have the Son of God.
Mary said Yes to God.
Wednesday had the children learning about safety for bonfire night. They learned about how we hold sparklers, where to stand for firework displays and that only adults can light bonfires and fireworks. They spoke about the different noises fireworks made, the colours and patterns they see and also took part in some firework themed crafts and chocolate making.
Lots of crafts were made by the children, some open ended, some with a more specific goal. The children had lots of fun playing together again and had lots to chat about too! It has been a busy week of socialising after the half term break.
We have been doing lots of nursery rhyme singing this week. The children have a board in the nursery that they can use to choose songs to sing throughout each day. We have a few fan favourites but they all like to pick a new one or two to listen to and sing as well. Singing helps with the children's language development and supports their development for their phonics in reception too.
We use a mixture of Singing Hands (Youtube), Mr Tumble songs and BBC nursery rhymes.
BBC nursery rhymes - https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/articles/zhwdgwx
Mr Tumble Songs - https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/curations/something-special-nursery-rhymes
We hope you have a restful weekend,
Miss Dale and the Nursery Team
20th - 24th October 2025
This week has been super busy for the children. They have been learning all about Diwali - The Festival of Light!
They have re-enacted the story of Rama and Sita, including building a bridge of blocks to rescue Sita. They have listened, explored and created lots of different pieces of artwork to display their learning and budding knowledge of different and important religious celebrations. They have been very eager and respectful within their learning.
Well done all!
On Wednesday the children all helped to make apple and blackberry crumbles! They first made the crumble with butter, flour and sugar. Afterwards, some children helped to heat the frozen blackberries in the staff room. Finally, Monrose put the crumble and apple, blackberry mix together in individual portions for everyone to try. Some loved it, some didn't, some only liked the crumble topping!
It was part of their autumn explorations as blackberries are autumnal fruits.
This term has been super long and the children are now super tired and in need of a well deserved rest. They have done lots of playing, crafting, chatting and developing of their skills this term. Every child has made wonderful progress in different areas unique to them and have all made the nursery staff very proud! They are all kind, helpful and brilliant little learners to have.
We cannot wait for another exciting term jam packed with fun and learning!
Enjoy the much needed half term and we shall see you soon!
Miss Dale and the Nursery Team
5th - 10th October 2025
Firstly, a special mention to Monrose. This week, the nursery finished their learning of the Creation Story. They created wheels which could spin and show each individual day of the story.
Monrose took her learning to the next step and independently drew fish and the sea with chalk in the outside area. She showed off her work to Miss Dale and Miss Smith. Furthermore, she went to see Mr Condon and recieved a Headteacher's Sticker too!
Amazing work Monrose!
Secondly, this week has been super busy for the children. They have been doing lots of learning around colour mixing, developing their finger strength during group work and even had their photos taken.
Wednesday's photo day showed off how good the children are. They walked amazingly around the school and sat beautifully well whilst each child had their individual photos taken. We were in the hall for around an hour having sibling photos taken, and yet the nursery children showed off their great behaviour the entire time by sitting well, listening/ following instruction quickly and they did not copy any poor choices that were made by others.
They were rewarded with an extra long play.
We would like to mention just how well your children are doing and how much they impress the nursery staff each day!
On Thursday and Friday, the children did some experiments. Thursday's experiment was, 'I wonder how it rains'. The children discussed the weather of the daily calendar and explored how the rain occurs with a fun, indoor shaving foam activity. They further discussed what to wear when it rains or snows too.
On Friday, the children will be looking at what happens to the pumpkin looking moulds when we add white vinegar.
We hope you have a lovely, restful weekend!
Miss Dale and the Nursery Team
29th September - 3rd October 2025
This week the children have been very crafty.
On Monday, they spray painted and sponge painted autumnal pictures. They used their growing colour mixing knowledge to mix colours to create purple, green and orange.
They created lots of fantastic autumnal pictures that have helped to decorate the nursery, their paper pumpkins are currently hanging all around the nursery, hanging from the fairy lights.
The children also used their animal knowledge to paint animal pictures in the correct colours for our Creation display. Some children used tissue paper to make fish for Day 5, others finger painted animals for Day 6. They are all starting to sequence the creation story in order of days, with some support from the creation story display that they have helped to make.
On Thursday, the children learned of Rosh Hashanah - Jewish New Year. They made sun catchers of Jewish symbols and found out that the Shofar is blown 100 times over Rosh Hashanah. They also learned about having apples and honey as part of the celebration, with a special prayer to say.
In between, the children have been listening to the story of 'Hello Autumn' and discussing the changes they see within autumn. Miss Dale showed everyone conkers and the children asked lots of questions.
The children have been playing really nicely in the past few weeks and though they may be starting to get very tired, it is not stopping their laughter, energy and imagination in their play.
Have a restful weekend,
Miss Dale and the Nursery Team
22nd - 26th September 2025
The children have been busy bees this week!
They’ve been doing lots of learning through play.
It’s officially Autumn!
The children have been helping to fill the nursery with autumn decorations, scents and creations.
We’ve been painting by shaking conkers in a box with different colours.
Baking through scents in the mud kitchen. It’s full of cinnamon, cloves and vanilla currently.
Going on autumn walks to collect signs of seasonal changes and talking about the change in weather as we complete the daily calendar and weather chart together.
If your child would like to collect conkers, pine cones, leaves of different colours and twigs to bring to nursery for crafts, they may.
In other learning, they used pegs to colour sort Pom poms in water. Some of the children enjoyed it so much that they kept resetting the activity to have another go.
They have also been learning the creation story step by step. We are currently on day 4 (sun, moon and stars) and have been creating lots of crafts and pieces of art to fill our RE display.
They have also been thinking super hard to answer lots of ‘I Wonder’ questions to develop their thoughts and knowledge around God and how we care for the world.
Each day, we are doing a colour monster check in to help the children with emotional regulation. The children use the colour monster teddies to support their regulation by picking one to cuddle when they are a bit mixed up. Most choose the green to help them become calmer. Some choose red because they like the angry impression that we do for the red monster.
The children have settled very well so far and we are super amazed by how wonderfully they play together each day.
Have a restful weekend,
Miss Dale and the Nursery Team
15th - 19th September 2025
The children have been settling into nursery over the last few weeks and starting to build relationships with each other.
We have had a strong focus on the Colour Monster, with different colours meaning different emotions.
Yellow - Happy
Pink - Loved
Red - Angry
Grey - Scared
Blue - Sad
Green - Calm
The children have helped paint a mixed up colour monster that is currently on display above the individual emotions too. This helps the children develop their emotional understanding and support their emotional regulation too.
We have also started to learn about the creation story and how God created the world and everything in it. The children currently know that God created everything and on the first day, he created darkness and light. They are currently learning about day with the sky to separate the water from above (rain) and the water below (seas)
Linked below are the songs and videos we have been watching and learning in nursery.
It would be useful if these are played at home too:
Creation Song
Creation Story
Our God is a Great Big God
Count Back Cat From 10
Days of the Week
Colour Monster Story
Alongside their playing, exploring and development of social skills, the children have been learning different Makaton signs.
They have learned:
Please
Thank you
They are starting to learn animal signs too:
Lion
Tiger
Hippo
Crocodile
Giraffe
Zebra
Elephant
Snake
We hope you have a lovely week,
Miss Dale and the Nursery Team
14th - 18th July 2025
Though this week has been chaotic with leaving assemblies, balloon surprises, special snacks and lots of messy play, it does not feel long enough.
The children have been amazing and though we are very sad to see some of them moving on to their very exciting next steps, we know they will have lots of fun in their new classes.
The children who are staying with us in nursery will get to meet and make lots of new friends this coming September and we are very excited to have them for another year.
Though this weeks news is short, we hope the video makes up for it. It is a mixture of photos from across this past year showing you the children's fun and hard work, their joy and learning comes in all aspects, mostly from perspectives the adults do not see. Observing how their minds work in approaches different tasks is very rewarding and we can see how much happiness they get from working things out for themselves and surprising their teachers too.
We hope everyone has a wonderful summer holidays and has a very happy start to their next school year in September, wherever that may be.
Miss Dale and the Nursery Team
ScreenRecording_07-16-2025 11-41-37_1.mp47th - 11th July 2025
The second to last week of term has been busy with sports day practise, end of year crafts and lots of playing. Busy, busy and so this weeks newsletter will be shorter.
The children have been dealing with their upcoming transitions to new schools, our reception class or saying bye to friends as some of the children stay in nursery for another year. From this there has been lots of change in the nursery and the whole class have had a lot of mixed emotions, some happy, some sad, some unsure.
Yet, they have been using their lovely manners, Makaton and been very kind whilst playing together.
On Wednesday, some of the children had a mini picnic in the outside area....with the help of some pesky wasps! Some of the children were unbothered, some of he children were a little scared but everyone handled it very well. However we know for the future that outside picnics are a 'no' from the children, they prefer sitting to tables.
With next week being the last week, the children will be bringing home some special surprises on Wednesday as we know the last few days of term will see spotty attendance with the upcoming summer holidays.
We hope you have a restful but sunny weekend,
Miss Dale and the Nursery Team
Miss Dale and The Nursery Team
30th June - 4th July 2025
This week the children have been refining their skills and knowledge to prepare themselves for their next steps.
They have been practising number formation, subitising and honing in their fine motor skills. We have had a particular interest in size order from biggest to smallest, with all the children being super focused and ready to learn/ put their skills into practise.
The children have also been super busy helping to ready the nursery for September by helping to clean and organise, supporting the adults and enjoying the responsibility of making the classroom nice for other children to use it too.
Though we have had a lot of nervousness for their next steps in our reception class, a new school or another fun year in nursery, the children have been practising their kind hands, kind feet and kind words well. They have been sharing better and being extremely considerate of other children's thoughts and feelings.
It is sad to only have two full weeks left of this year, which means we will be saying bye to some of our children as they move onto the next step in their young lives however, the next few weeks are going to be fun filled and exciting.
If you are planning to go away on the last day or two of school, please let Miss Dale know so she can prep your child's work to bring home a few days in advance so they do not miss out on showing you their accomplishments.
Have a lovely restful weekend,
Miss Dale and The Nursery Team
23rd - 27th June 2025
The children have been amazing this week. They have been doing lots of crafting, creating and making.
Monday had the children making explorer hats and learning the noises of different wild animals for international rainforest day. Some of the animals were super tricky, but the children tried really hard with their guesses.
Within RE this week, the children have learnt two stories:
Jesus walks on water - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U69Ag6wEyB0
The Lost Sheep - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ry2MaMyvGo&list=PL5aPdmniG3y_n7hXEKTV4qQnIeCe-p6Ws&index=112
They have also been learning the song, My Lighthouse, with a few actions too.
The children have amazed us with their knowledge and memories of the RE learning from earlier this term and previous terms too. They will have lots of stories to tell about God, Jesus and other religions too when they go into their reception classes.
Tuesday saw the children practising with watercolour paints. Some did savannah sunset scenes, others did Jesus walking on water scenes. Their finished pieces were brilliant. They furthered their learning with independant work at the making table. They painted princesses, spiderman and rainbows throughout the past few days, using the skills they learnt in their focus groups.
Wednesday PE was circuits, with a twist. Some children did the outside circuits and used their full bodies to work out. Other children used their hands and brains to create a healthy salad. The practised chopping skills with cucumber. Ripping skills with peppers and lettuce, and tasting skills with every salad vegetable they were given. They even learned how to remove the head of a lettuce without chopping it too. The little chefs really enjoyed their experience.
Thursday gave the children a chance to practise their blending skills. Miss Dale stretched words and the children pushed the sounds together.
d-o-g = dog
c-oa-t = coat
m-a-n = man
They use these skills in their phonics learning in reception. We are practising now though to help prepare them for a smoother transition. It is used in conjuction with the phase one books coming home too. Lots of booktalk helps them practise their language skills and give them the understanding to practise their reading skills in reception.
Please note: books are changed on a Friday, if I do not recieve the book back from the previous week, I will not be able to give your child a new book. If you have lost the book, please let me know as I have a list of the book names each child has on a weekly basis and I can give you the name of the book to look for.
If your child is staying in nursery in September, they are not taking books home, only the children moving into reception.
It is coming to the end of the year and the children are very tired. It may mean they pick up a lot of bugs or are a bit more restless. Not to worry, we are having a much more chilled time in nursery and are readying the children for their next steps, whether it may be reception or another year in nursery. If you have any concerns around behaviour or tiredness, please feel free to speak with me.
We hope you have a lovely restful weekend.
Miss Dale and The Nursery Team
16th - 20th June 2025
Wow, it has been a hot week!
The children have handled the heat much better than the adults in nursery though.
Throughout the week, there have been lots of water activities available to the children to explore. They have made potions with sliced fruits, glitter and scented water. They have cleaned a lot of the outdoor toys with warm soapy water and various items such as toothbrushes and sponges, painted the fences and worked out how high they can throw bowls of water too.
The children have also been doing a lot of experiments. On Tuesday afternoon, some made a rocky road. They melted a mixture of chocolate butter and golden syrup together, then crushed biscuits. In a bowl they mixed the melted mixture, biscuits and marshmallows. It made the nursery smell amazing, and I am sure it will equally taste amazing when they try it today.
Some of the children used several different items on Thursday morning to test if they sink or float. Miss Dale put some bits in a box to test and the children also expanded the test by grabbing other items from the outside area to test also. Their questioning and curiosity was great to hear and see.
They also tried to help explode a balloon on Thursday, but it did not quite go to plan. The children used their sight, smell, hearing and touch throughout the experiment however to explore what may and did happen.
Some of the children also did an RE craft independently. The activity was laid out, with an 'end goal' picture and the children could float to the activity if they chose. Everyone who chose to do the activity, did it extremely well. They did not all complete the desired goal, but instead showed their creativity off and used some exceptional reasoning as to why they chose to do what they did.
The children have been working super hard this week, as they do every week, and the nursery team have been amazed by their passion, creativity and dedication to all the learning they do!
Have a lovely weekend in the sunshine,
Miss Dale and The Nursery Team
AE25FE29226F49E7A8B99951B170E5A6.mp49th - 13th June 2025
Week two of the final term and all our children have certainly found their feet. If you walk past the nursery during the day, you'll probably hear lots of happy screams and giggles from all of our children. Their combined noise is something that cannot be missed.
Monday saw the children doing a pinwheel craft, that challenged their fine motor skills and gave them huge senses of accomplishment afterwards. Their beaming faces were wonderful to see.
They have been doing lots of maths and investigation work this week. Outside the children have had bottles and cardboard tubes attached to string. All week they have been pushing and pulling the items along the string to see how fast they can move. Each time they challenged themselves to make the items go faster, or race others.
Pre-nursery have been looking at numbers 1 and 2. They organised lots of manipulatives into the correct numberblock buckets and have been showing Mrs Sofia lots of versions of one and two in their small group work.
Wednesday's PE lessons saw two groups. One used their hand-eye coordination to shoot balls into different hoops, some on the floor, some were basketball hoops. The other group went onto the grass in the big playground and learned how to play tag. By the end of the session, they grasped the concept of the 'it' person changing with each tag.
In between all this work, the children have been exploring different crafts, the bible story of Paul and learning new songs. Their current song to learn is 'My Lighthouse'. Miss Dale is teaching them the simpler actions to the song in class.
With only five weeks left of the school year, lots of changes and transition work is happening within the nursery to prepare the children. Our nursery children who are moving into various reception classes have had information packs go home this week and will start having transition sessions over the coming weeks too. They have also had phase 1 reading books to take home to help them learn responsibility for school books and reading at home, but also lessen the transition into reception for September too. More information will follow as to any upcoming transitions too.
It was Nathan's birthday this week and despite the rain, it was a lovely day. Everyone appreciated the cake he brought in to share, and they all sand him happy birthday before he blew out the candles.
We hope you have a lovely weekend,
Miss Dale and The Nursery Team
19th - 23rd May
The nursery has become overrun with wild animals over the last term. The children have been learning about the types of different places animals come from, and crafting their very own nursery jungle too. They have made an elephant, monkey, snake, lion and toucan! They love making the noises of the animals, role playing, singing songs.....especially 'Down in the jungle.....where a great big gorilla is picking his nose'.
On Tuesday, all the nursery children were in the nursery for the morning session. Everyone who came in had their individual photos taken first thing, and we finished the session with a group photo outside. I must say, the children were great at listening and following instructions for both photos, though Miss Dale and Miss Smith did have to do some dancing, singing and funny faces behind camera to get a few smiles, as the camera and lights were a little scary sometimes.
The children have been great gardeners this term and have plated loads of flowers. They ave helped water the plants most days, using jugs, bowls and even the hose pipe. We have lots of sprouting shoots, and hopefully soon, lots of pretty flowers too!
Our pre-nursery children have been focusing on the book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. They have been doing lots of caterpillar based activities and learning about a butterfly's life cycle in small steps. On Thursday, they crafted their very own butterfly life cycle with the egg, caterpillar,chrysalis and butterfly in sequence. Amazing work!
The children have had an immensely busy term, with lots packed in. New children starting and settling in, language learning to help understand about the Holy Spirit that was sent to Earth and so much more. Our nursery children have also been doing reading practise with Phase 1 books in small groups each day. They have been doing lots of book talk. I.E. The front cover, the blurb and what it tells us. Talking about the characters, describing what they see and telling their stories from the pictures too. We have even started practising how to push words together when Miss Dale sounds them out.
We decided to remove the bikes from the outdoor space for the past week to give the children other opportunities of learning. They have had lots of painting, building and imaginative things to do instead. Spray painting art, water colour painting, cornflour bubbles, animal cleaning and much more. They have loved the new activities and having different experiences within their outdoor space too. They have been using lots of excellent language and questioning whilst using the activities given, some even came up with different uses beyond that of our intentions. It has been wonderful to see how they all think differently and using their skills too.
We are super proud of all the progress made by every single child since they started with us. We love seeing and hearing their joy and helping to deepen their understanding, play and ideas for the world around them.
We hope you all have a lovely half term, with lots of rest. Next term may be the last one, but it will be a long 7 weeks.
Miss Dale and the Nursery Team
12th - 16th May 2025
There is one full week left of this term, and it has been an absolute whirlwind!
Monday's busy day had some of the children practising how to write their names, some manipulating fondant into shapes, molds and other yummy creations too.
They came into Tuesday with the same energy levels, and showed off their fantastic language learning of how to say hello. They are learning tis in conjunction with their RE about how Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to be with his friends. The Holy Spirit allowed his friends to speak different languages to spread good news about God and all His wonder! Their knowledge about who Jesus was is astounding, so very well done to all the nursery children!
Tuesday afternoon gave our children the opportunity to make yogurt ice cream! One was berry and honey flavoured, the other was banana and golden syrup. Wednesday's taste test was very successful, with lots of the children asking for more.
Thursday had the children exploring the outside area without the bikes!
The instead rolled cars down a slide into a tray…..with lots of multi coloured paint. They equally enjoyed mixing the paint and rolling the cars faster and faster! They also created a beautiful tape resist art piece on the ground with chalk.
Experiments
The nursery children were treated to TWO experiments this week. The first had them smelling, listening and exploring a muddy creation. It smelled like chocolate, sounded like rain, and when squeezed, dried like mud! How amazing!
On Friday, they were dipping cocoa powder in milk and then touching it with a cocktail stick.
What happens?
Well, the cocoa powder suddenly dries and the milk is gone. The children were astounded by this!
Our pre-nursery children have been learning about the hungry caterpillar story. They have also been exploring a caterpillars lifecycle in small steps. Next week will show them how caterpillars become butterflies.
Finally, our nursery cohort have been exploring wild animals. They’ve read and learned the stories of Rumble in the Jungle and The Ugly Five. They’ve created a snake, monkey, elephant and lion, that’s hanging around the front of our class and they’ve also showed off their knowledge by matching the animal mouse to the wild animals. We have some excellent explorers!
We hope you have a restful weekend ahead of the final week of term!
Miss Dale and the Nursery Team
'
6th - 9th May 2025
The week has been quite short, like this newsletter as our focus for the children has been on developing their friendships, and seeing how everyone plays.
They have been playing lots throughout the entirety of the nursery and exploring all the areas and toys we have available for them, and coming up with some creative uses for the equipment.
The children have also been doing lots of planting to help brighten up our outside area. Each day, a group of children have been able to go and spray the sprouting flowers with water and take care of them. They cannot wait to see what colour flowers grow in their various pots!
On Wednesday afternoon, the children were given a surprise gift of a...BOX!
For us, it may be something to be recycled, for them its an adventure. They turned it into a car, plane, train, boat and even a coffin (for vampires). Their imaginations know no bounds and it is awe inspiring to witness.
We have been doing lots of work on recognising 1 or 3 in various forms. For this we do a mixture of sorting activities, singing songs such as 5 monkeys jumping on the bed, and small groups. The children are really good at supporting each other in their learning. We also watch a lot of numberblocks to help everyone learn in different ways.
Special shout out to Filip, who found subitising 1 and 2 tricky, but now is the first to recognise and subitise all numbers to 5 with confidence and speed.
Amazing work Filip, well done!!
Have a lovely, restful weekend!
Miss Dale and the Nursery Team
22nd - 25th April 2024
We may have only had a four day week, but the children have been super busy.
On Tuesday, the children shocked all the adults with how calm they returned to the school routine. We expected chaos with the newly returned energy level, post Easter holidays, but the children were super chill instead.
On Wednesday, the children practised their hand-eye coordination with different target practise stations. One had a big hoop, one had a small hoop and the third was a small game of ring toss. The children thought it would be easy and were shocked to discover that it was harder than it looked. They finished the session with some dances that required listening and instruction following. A favourite of ours is the rhythm dance by Danny Go.
Thursday brought chaos but the children all worked super hard and welcomed the new children wonderfully. It was wonderful to see how kind and friendly everyone was with our new children, it helped them settle nicely and calmly. We are super excited to have them in our nursery and see their characters flourish as they settle in fully.
Today may be the end to our short first week back, but we have lots of exciting things planned as we head into Term 5! Our nursery children have started delving into our phase 1 books to help their transition into reception come September. Our pre-nursery children have developed their language and communication skills too, and it has shown through their deepened interactions in their play with each other and the adults in nursery too.
We are blessed to have so many amazing children in our nursery!
Have a restful weekend,
Miss Dale and the Nursery Team!
In the lead up to Easter, the children have been up to lots of tasks to create some beautiful, unique and creative Easter cards. They have been doing lots of crafts including sponge dabbing eggs, paint flicking eggs, loose part crosses, using their hand outlines to craft the sunrise background for the cross, and spraying lots of tissue paper with water to create watercolour eggs too.
In between their crafting, they have had lots of fun n an obstacle course. They climbed, ran, jumped, balanced and slid through the outside course, using both the soft play, outdoor and natural resources available in the nursery
The children have been exploring and playing so well together this week and have made some amazing comments and observations on things. They are so invested in their learning and it is wonderful to see.
Lastly, we would like to say a huge farewell to Roxana!
She has been an integral part of our nursery this year, and though we are sad to see her going, we wish her all the best in her new nursery. We hope she makes lots of new friends and learns lots too.
She will be missed by everyone in our nursery.
Have a wonderful Easter holiday, and we will see everyone fresh and bright on Tuesday 22nd April.
Miss Dale and the Nursery Team
9BD77CF140204482A010469678FC1460.mp417th - 21st March
Starting off strong this week, we celebrated St Patrick's Day!
The children got super involved with lots of crafts from printing with peppers to copying rainbows. They had lots of fun looking for our cheeky leprechaun, who kept playing lots of tricks in the nursery.
He put glitter in the water tray, tied blankets to fences, threw money around and even trapped Mr Condon in his office!
Tuesday saw the children learning about Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. The children took part in an active story, which was a lot of fun! They lined up and listened to instruction to lay their 'coats' (high-vis jackets) for Jesus to walk across. Afterwards, some of the children helped by crafting palm leaves by cutting around lots of their hand templates and gluing them all together.
Wednesday brought lots of sun, so our PE lesson took us to the big playground. They first followed the lines and movement instructions around the playground, and they did so well, that they were rewarded with playing on the grass and equipment before going inside for toast and Bluey. It was a high energy day with lots of outside play in the warm sun.
Thursday brought some fantastic chick crafts by all the children, following from their learning about different baby animals. Their determination when they find things tricky, and offers to help each other is wonderful. They have certainly come a long way as a class and their kindness towards everyone is lovely.
Following their learning about spring changes, and our current story of 'Hello Spring', the children went on a spring walk and collected lots of bits of fresh grass, flowers and other spring signs. They stuck it all to a broom handle that was wrapped with tape. The handle was used to make a story of their spring walk, and it was fantastic to have a lesson in the sun!
Today's experiment will be outside and messy, we will be making bubble snakes!
Have a lovely weekend,
Miss Dale and the Nursery Team
10th - 14th March
This week the children have certainly got their energy back. They have been playing lots of running games and have enjoyed finding their lungs!
On Monday, the children helped with an Elmer display by drawing themselves, their friends and their teachers. They discussed what makes them different and were told why we should celebrate everyone, as it would be boring if we had 25 of the same person in the classroom.
On Tuesday, we revisited the story of the Good Samaritan. The children have amazing memories, for they were able to tell Miss Dale what happened, step by step. They remembered how we role played the story when they first heard it, and even used the same words and phrases to describe certain characters as when they first learned the story. We had lots of 'I wonder' questions throughout the story revisit, and the children were able to give well thought answers as to who was a good friend, or who was not and why.
Wednesday's PE session was a circuit, focusing on their balancing, crawling and ability to follow visual instruction for certain movements. The children thoroughly enjoyed themselves, repeating the circuit several times. Due to it being a circle, the children had to stop and wait at points for their friends in front. They were very kind to each other and it made us very proud to see how much they care for each other.
Thursday felt like a quieter day, with a big cut and stick session in the morning. In small groups, the children cut out lots of pictures and stuck them next to the correct season on a seasons wheel. Some found it a bit tricky, but they asked for help from both their friends and the adults. They were amazingly focused and tried super hard with their cutting skills.
It has been a fun packed, and very long week. The children have been amazing and have come so far. We cannot believe that we only have 2.5 terms left before a lot of them go into reception!
Have a lovely weekend,
Miss Dale and the Nursery Team
3rd - 7th March 2025
This week has been super busy! We have been baking, eating, creating, learning, helping and playing!
On Monday, the children made hot cross buns and learned of their importance for Easter. It may be a bit early for hot cross buns, however the children learned lots of skills about measuring, mixing, kneading, preparing and cleaning. They all worked super hard and produced some amazing tasting, smelling and looking hot cross buns.
On Tuesday, we had pancakes in celebration for Shrove Tuesday. The children tried a variety of chocolate spread, jam, golden syrup, blueberries and raisins on their pancakes. It was a very yummy treat, and the children learned of Lent and why we start with pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. In understanding of the Lent period, the children role played the parable of the Good Samaritan, taking turns to play each character and discuss what it means to be a good friend and care for each other.
Wednesday's PE was outside, and the children all played catch in pairs, we played the potato game, and did a dynamic warm up too. Their hand eye coordination is impressive and we are super proud of their hard work for PE.
Thursday gave us World Book Day, and lots of variety of pyjamas. We heard, and watched lots of different stories, made a patchwork Elmer, had a special Room on the Broom snack, and had lots of fun throughout the day playing in pyjamas.
Before lunch, the children did a balloon experiment, and discussed what may happen when they are feeling lots of big emotions, and the balloon blows all over the place.
There has been lots of fun, learning and laughter all week.
It has been a lovely first few weeks of Term 4.
Have a lovely weekend,
Miss Dale and the Nursery Team
24th - 28th Feb 2025
The first week back to nursery after a half term break can normally be quite chaotic whilst the children settle back into their routine, however, all the children have come into nursery every day and been amazing. We have been pleasantly surprised by how calm and happy they have been this week.
As usual, they have all been very busy. Each day, the children have been discussing and exploring a different career path.
We have looed at farmers, nurses, musicians and teachers. The children have made their own job roles throughout their play too, including coach/ bus drivers, chefs, doctors and budding engineers, who built an entire city out of blocks. Their creative imaginations have come up with all sorts of interesting scenarios and they enthusiasm in their play has been a joy to observe.
The children have been super focused on their numbers, speaking to each other and the adults about number orders and how '4 and 4 make 8' or 5 and 5 make 10', subsequently showing us on their fingers too. They have been using numicon, and matching lots of objects to the correct numberblocks too. Impressive work!
We have lots of exciting things planned for this term, as the children explore the meaning of Lent, and all of the special things involved in the lead up to Easter.
Lastly, home toys are left at home. Children who bring home toys to nursery will not be allowed to play with them for they may get broken, lost or be used by another child.
Have a lovely weekend,
Miss Dale and the Nursery Team
3rd - 7th February 2025
In nursery this week, the children have been doing lots of work with numbers and subitising to 5, and reading/ sequencing The Hungry Caterpillar.
They have shown lots of enthusiasm and determination in their learning and it has come across in their play too.
The children showed off their knowledge at the beginning of the week by sorting shapes. They listened to instructions and used their tweezers to pick the correct shapes in the correct order. Lots of finger strengthening exercises for their fine motor skill are showing major signs of development, to which the children should be very proud of themselves.
With it being Children's mental health week, the children have been learning about what their brains are used for, and have changed the name of the week to Brain Week!
They know that are brains help us to move our bodies, remember things, dream when we are sleeping and help us to feel our emotions.
Yellow - Happy
Blue - Sad
Red - Angry
Grey - Scared
Pink - Loved
Green - Calm
Each morning the children come up to the board, one by one, and tap on the emotion or emotions they are feeling in that moment. It was very interesting to see the children choose their emotions, some were mixed, some felt the same each day. A practise that we will be continuing and using in our daily practise to help the children identify and understand how they are feeling when they are mixed up and unsure.
Have a restful weekend, ahead of the last week of term 3.
Miss Dale and the Nursery Team
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