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Nursery
Welcome to Nursery!
The Teachers in Nursery are:
Miss Clarke (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday),
Mrs Wooldridge (Thursday and Friday),
Mrs Bibi and
Mrs Rashid
Children and families we miss you all very much and we hope to see you soon!
Please stay safe and well!
Children, always do good listening to your families and do the right thing!
Families, keep praising and recognising good behaviour but ensure consistency and consequence for challenging behaviour. A time out zone ('Thinking Chair') works well at school, give your child 2 explicit verbal warnings and if the behaviour does not improve then they have thinking time for no more than 5 minutes. Once the 5 minutes is over, approach your child and explain why they had thinking time and then ask them for an apology, hug and move on.
Home learning during the school closures. We hope you find the following information useful! Stay safe and have fun learning together, at home!
Please follow the link below to a book called, 'Coronavirus A Book for Children'. This can be used to support your children's understanding of the current situation.
https://nosycrowcoronavirus.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/Coronavirus_ABookForChildren.pdf
Please restrict the amount of screen time. Make time to play with your child, have a conversation, share a story and sing a song.
Ensure your child has regular exercise and eats a balanced and nutritious diet to maintain good health and wellbeing.
Please follow the links below for some indoor exercise they could do. However, please utilise your daily exercise allowance as fresh air is just as important!
Encourage your child to think about how they keep healthy. Do they brush there teeth/ wash their body/ exercise/ eat a balanced diet?
Talk about what happens when we are healthy or unhealthy.
Through conversation, keep a daily health diary. Encourage your child to identify things they have done that is healthy. You can write it and they could draw.
Below is the eat well guide, displaying which foods we should be eating more of to be healthy. Use it as a conversation starter
with your child.
Begin everyday with, 'Wake Up, Shake Up!'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gUbdNbu6ak
For daily PE sessions:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAxW1XT0iEJo0TYlRfn6rYQ
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=go+noodle
Try these activities to support being active!
For ideas about nutrition:
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/healthy-eating-what-young-children-need
Develop independence skills during this time, ready for Reception.
Encourage your child to:
- Dress themselves,
- Pour a drink from a jug or
- Make simple food e.g. sandwich.
Free Play
Ensure your child has time during the day to play with what they are interested in. An adult can still be involved in this and create a wealth of opportunities to develop language and understanding.
Follow the links below to make the most of adult-child interactions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAFcJVJHLCU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJAgWdYM_og
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efeizNuuEo0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_-1O_rBLPU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBmzjPaDc28
Miss Clarke's Book of the week!
Share the story, 'Lucy's Blue Day' by following the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmrUV8v-KQg
Ask your children to talk about the story. Ask them questions about what happened in the story. Encourage them to draw a picture about the story. Ask them to hear, say and write sounds in words. Encourage them to write their name on their work.
This story provides a wonderful opportunity to explore the following themes:
- Retell the story.
- Order events in the story.
- Pause throughout the story to check for understanding e.g. 'Where...?' 'What..?' 'Who...?''When...?
- Ask questions to develop inference skills e.g. 'Why...?'
- Verbal/ body sounds to enhance the story.
- Describing words.
- Feelings.
- Discussions about what makes us feel, 'blue'. What do we do when we feel sad? It's OK to feel that way.
Miss Clarke's Activity of the week!
Create a worry doll using a wooden peg or wooden spoon. Talk about feelings.
Musical Activity!
Learn the song, 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_ShP3fiEhU
Movement Songs
Classic favourites like “I’m a Little Teapot” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6en-O5yF0o “Itsy Bitsy Spider” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_lCi8U49mY, or “If You’re Happy and You Know It” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71hqRT9U0wg are easy music activities. These songs have simple verses and actions that make the songs fun for kids.
OR…create your own movements for songs. Play any selection you like, and depending on the rhythm and tempo of the song, call out directions for the children to follow. Examples : reach to the ceiling, sway back and forth, march in a circle, wave your arms, etc.
OR…tape or staple long thin strips of crepe paper, or yarn to dowel sticks and let the children wave the sticks in the air to the beat of the music. Make sure each child has plenty of waving room, and have your own stick to lead the group.
You could listen to and encourage your child to join in with the Jack and the Beanstalk song. Follow the link below.
I'd like your child to create their own instrument! You'll be able to use household items to make your instrument. Once complete, explore and talk about the sounds the instruments make.
Can the children use the instrument to perform their favourite nursery rhyme?
Can the children experiment with the sounds they make e.g. can they make a loud/ quiet sound? Can they make a long/ short sound?
Can the children repeat a pattern using their instrument?
Can the children make up their own rhythm and song using their instrument?
Look at the pictures below for inspiration.
Fine motor/ mark making
Attach playdough strands (hair) to the head of a hairless baby and encourage your child to use scissors to cut the strands of hair. Support your child to hold the scissors comfortably and safely.
Collect buttons or beads and encourage your child to thread them onto wool/ sting to create jewellery. Theses could be given to family or friends as gifts.
Fill a food bag paint or food colouring and shaving foam. Encourage your child to make marks in the paint using a cotton bud. They colours create patterns, write/ copy their name, write letter sounds, write numbers or draw shapes.
Fill an empty spray bottle with paint and water or food colouring and water. Encourage your child to create art by spraying the paint onto large paper. The action of squeezing the trigger on the bottle will help to strengthen muscles in the hand.
If you reuse a spray bottle, please ensure it is empty and thoroughly cleaned before you allow your child to use it for this activity.
It's a nice idea to have bottles with different colours (red, yellow and blue) so that your child can explore colour mixing through this activity.
Weaving is a fun activity to help strengthen the muscles in your child's hand. Below are some images of weaving that you could do at home, using things that you may have in your home.
Using tweezers help to develop the muscles in the hands, ready for writing. The picture displays plastic tweezers, however, everyday household tweezers could be used or if they're too small, kitchen tongs or clothes pegs.
Your child could pick up pom poms, cotton buds, milk/ bottle tops, leaves or breakfast cereal pieces.
Threading is a wonderful way to strengthen the muscles in the hands, ready for writing! It is also a calming activity which promotes mindfulness. Below are some examples of things the children can thread, which can be found in and around your home.
Use cotton buds to paint with. Your child could trace their name, numbers or just free paint.
Encourage your child to make marks using this online tool.
https://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/have-some-fun/storybooks-and-games/make-your-mark/
Encourage your child to develop their use of scissors by snipping paper or cutting along patterns or even cutting fruit and veg.
Fun Activities
Painting in unconventional ways can be interesting to children.
This activity links to our story of the week.
Follow a recipe together to create honey biscuits!
https://www.booktrust.org.uk/globalassets/resources/time-to-read/2017/bumblebear-biscuits.pdf
Your child could create their own cave using papier mache! This then could be used to support the retelling of the story or enhance imaginative play.
Follow the link below for instructions:
https://www.tts-group.co.uk/blog/2017/07/10/make-papier-mache-cave.html
Your child could also create a larger scale cave:
Your child could create their own beanstalk collage using cotton wool, leaves, beans and other materials. An extension to this could be, they could draw what they would like to find at the top of the beanstalk.
Work as a family to create a really tall beanstalk using recycling materials like toilet/ kitchen roll tubes, cardboard boxes or milk cartons.
This is a great activity to develop your child's understanding and use of the language of size. For example, 'The beanstalk is tall. You are shorter than the beanstalk.'
Linked with our book of the week, you could explore a range of healthy fruit and vegetables by creating food art. Always discuss a balanced diet and what happens to our bodies when we do/ do not eat enough healthy foods.
Make the most of sunny weather; talk to your child about shadows! Put out some paper in the sun and display some of your child's toys or household objects to create a shadow on the paper:
- Encourage your child to trace the shadow.
- Talk about how shadows are created - shadows are created when objects block the light.
- Encourage your child to talk about the shapes the shadows create and their size.
- Talk to your child about/ research how the sun gives us light.
- Go back and trace the shadows at different times in the day to introduce your child to the orbit of the Earth.
Your child could create their own bunny to rein act the story, 'Everybunny Dance'.
Follow the link below for a video on how to make it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giqTWcq6nFk
If you haven't got access to paint at home, a fun activity to involve your child in is making paint!
Create colourful rice and then your child could use it to make a collage. Perhaps they could create a rainbow, which would lead onto a conversation about the heroes in our NHS.
https://myhomebasedlife.com/how-to-make-colored-rice/
A tip from Miss Clarke - try adding some flavour extract/ herbs/ spices to the rice to make it sensory activity. Tumeric, ginger and cinnamon work well!
Create a beautiful Spring blossom tree using a toilet roll tube.
Complete a jigsaw using this online tool.
https://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/have-some-fun/storybooks-and-games/jigsaws/
Explore colour mixing.
Add two paint colours into a food bag, seal and encourage your child to explore what happens when they squeeze and mix the colours.
Freeze water with paint or food colouring and encourage your child to paint with the coloured ice. Can they talk about what happens when the ice melts and the colours mix?
Make play dough with your child.
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/playdough-recipe
Do Dough Disco daily to keep your fingers and hands strong ready for writing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrBsNhwxzgc
Bake some delicious treats! Get the children involved in measuring quantities and making choices!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/collections/baking_with_children
Colour Recognition
It is really important that your child can recognise and name colours before starting Reception. Below are some activities to support this. However, learning colours takes time and happens over a long period of time, so my advice is talk to your children about colours as much as possible. When you're out, talk about the colours of cars, flowers, signs, people's clothes. When you're reading/ watching TV, talk about the colours of objects. When you're eating, talk about the colours of food.
Phonics
Work through this activity, can your child hear, say and write the first sound in words?
Work through this activity, can your child hear, say and write the first sound in words? You may need to model saying the word and emphasise the first sound. You may also need to model writing the sound.
Your child could create art on a large scale, perhaps outdoors. They could then be encouraged to hear, say and write the initial sound the hear in words.
Can your child listen to and identify the animal that makes the sound?
https://www.phonicsbloom.com/uk/game/whats-behind-the-door?phase=1
Can your child listen to and identify the sounds that words start with?
https://www.phonicsbloom.com/uk/game/odd-sound-out?phase=2
Draw round footprints and write different letter sounds. Encourage your child to stomp on a sound and they have to make the letter sound (if they do not know it then the adult says it for them).
Write letter sounds on cups (do not use capital letters and say the letter sound not the letter name), cardboard boxes or plastic bottles and encourage your child to kick/ roll/ throw a ball at them. Encourage your child to name the sound on the cup that they have knocked down; can they think of a word that starts with that sound? Can they write the sound in the air on paper?
This activity could be done with numbers also!
Encourage your child to look through magazines, leaflets and papers to find sounds/ words/ logos they recognise. They should then cut out the sound/ word/ logo and create a collage. You can talk about sounds being written as a capital letter if appropriate.
Access a booklet all about, 'a'.
Access a booklet all about, 'm'.
Access a booklet all about, 't'.
Access a booklet all about, 's'.
Access a booklet all about, 'i'.
Can your child identify words that rhyme?
Cut up cardboard toilet roll tubes and either write rhyming words or draw/ stick pictures on.
Pick two and say the words, remember to really emphasise the rhyme (cAT and bAT).
Ask your child, 'do the words sound the same or different?' If they recognise the words sound the same, ask them to make a choice out of two to find another word that rhymes.
If they do not recognise the rhyme, just do lots of examples and word play, including silly rhymes to tune them into rhyme.
Can your child recognise words that rhyme?
Can your child hear and say the initial sound in words? Extension - can they write the sound?
Can your child identify the initial sound in words? Can they match the spoken sound to the written sound?
Explore these interactive Nursery Rhymes.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/nursery-rhymes-a-to-z-index/z4ddgwx
most Nursery rhymes promote:
- Confidence
- Rhyme
- Retelling
- Maths skills
You could choose two to learn and then perform them to family members over Skype or Zoom!
It would be lovely for your child to teach their cousins or family members the songs and actions.
You can access a range of interactive books by following the links below.
https://www.seussville.com/explore/
https://www.storylineonline.net/library/
https://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/have-some-fun/storybooks-and-games/
Links to help you teach Phonic skills:
https://www.jollylearning.co.uk/
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/letters-and-sounds
https://www.activelearnprimary.co.uk/login?c=0
Enjoy Phonics!
https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/
Free to all during this time:
Username - march20
Password - home
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Qpn2839Kro
Name writing/ recognition
Your child could write their name by arranging beans. They could write/ copy/ trace their name and use glue to stick beans in the shape of the letters.
Below is an activity that could be done every day; it will help your child to recognise, make and write their name ready for Reception. This could be done on cardboard, paper, a whiteboard or on the pavement...use what you have got!
A link follows for you to access a ready made sheet.
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-t-2548502-editable-name-recognition-make-read-write-activity-mat
Maths
Your child needs to understand and use positional language. Follow the link below and talk about the position of the animals on the farm. Ask the following questions:
- Who is next to the pond?
- Who is above the barn?
- Who is inside the pigsty?
- Who is behind the fence?
- Who is on top of the tractor?
- Who is under the tractor?
- Who is on the pond?
- Who is in front of the hay bale?
Using different containers and rice/ pasta/ soil/ flour encourage your child to explore filling the containers and model talking about the capacity. Can they apply any new words from heir learning last week? Can they identify when something is full/ empty?
Using water (preferably colours using food colouring) and containers of different shapes/ sizes, your child should explore filing the containers with water and talking about capacity. Which is full/ empty? How do you know? What would happen if you put more water in?
You could even get cups of the same size and tape/ draw lines round them at different points. Your child could then fill up to the lines with water and then talk about which is full, half full and empty.
Using lego, duplo or blocks encourage your child to copy/ continue a pattern.
Ensure you talk about patterns being symmetrical (the same on both sides).
Your child needs to be able to talk about the size, height and length of objects. It is desirable that your child could order 2/3 objects according to their size, height and length.
Using lego, blocks, cups, boxes or green toilet roll tubes encourage your child to build beanstalks of different heights. Talk to your child about the height, use language such as tall and short. Compare the heights. Measure the heights and order the beanstalks according to their heights.
Your child being able to talk about and name shapes in the environment is important. Below are some activities to help develop this.
A nice activity is a shape hunt. You could do this in your home, garden or around your local area/ park. Encourage your child to spot shapes in the environment and talk about the shapes of objects. They could collect objects, draw them or just talk about them.
Your child being able to count objects and match it with the numeral is important. Below are some activities to help develop this.
Encourage your child to recognise numbers and then build towers using lego to represent the number. Encourage careful counting (touching each object and saying a number).
Encourage your child to recognise numbers and order them. Use milk bottle lids or pop bottle lids and simply write numbers on them. You could also use toilet roll cardboard tubes; your child could decorate them and write numbers on them and then they could be used to order numbers.
Explore some Maths challenges
Talk about and create shapes using this online tool
https://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/have-some-fun/storybooks-and-games/shape-game/
Create some shape stamps using potatoes. Can your child make marks with them? Can they talk about the shapes? Can they name the shapes? Can they make a pattern using the shapes?
A lovely and simple activity to support matching number to quantity.
https://www.mathematicsmastery.org/free-resources
https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/grownups/help-your-child-with-maths
https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/
Enjoy Maths!
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Search.aspx?Subject=16&AgeGroup=1
Transition to Reception
Use this checklist to help you target skills that would be desirable for your child to be secure in when transitioning to Reception.
Follow the link below to access an ebook all about starting school. This will help to explain to your child what will happen and answer questions that they might have.
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-c-7609-eyfs-starting-reception-ebook
Wellbeing
It's important during this strange time that you talk to your child about feelings and encourage them to talk about how they are feeling.
Below is an activity that will help support a discussions about how your child is feeling. Look through magazines for facial features. Encourage them to create their face. Discuss what colour their eyes/ hair/ skin is and encourage them to use the correct colours - encourage them to look in a mirror if that helps. Talk about how they position the mouth, if you're happy, you smile. If you're sad, you frown.
Below is an activity that might support this discussion. Hard boil eggs and each family member draw a representation of how they are feeling and talk about why they feel that way and how it manifests itself in their body e.g. if I'm feeling happy I smile. If I'm feeling angry I get hotter and get a funny feeling in my tummy.
https://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/publication/childrens-guide-to-coronavirus/
https://www.annafreud.org/what-we-do/anna-freud-learning-network/coronavirus/