Nursery
Welcome to our Nursery Class Page!
Meet the Nursery Team
Our Key Workers
Mrs Taylor
Hello, my name is Angela. The children know me as Mrs Taylor. I am looking forward to spending time with you and your family and I hope you have a fun packed time at Nursery.
When I am at Nursery, I look forward to spending time as a whole group, sharing our adventures, ideas and developing stories. One my personal favourite spaces is the home corner, where I can learn a little more about you and your family. I love that we can create lots of wonderful stories in this area too! One day we might start acting out a story which we may add to the next day and the day after. We have lots of other areas and spaces for you to play and develop your own stories and narratives. I can’t wait to hear the stories you will act out.
At home I have a Grand Puppy who I love to play with and take for long walks in the woods. I like to garden and have an allotment where I grow lots of vegetables. I love to visit gardens too! I wonder what you will like to play with or where might visit?
Mrs Lawrance
Hello, my name is Nicola. The children know me as Mrs Lawrance. I am looking forward to spending lots of fun times with you at Nursery and sharing your own unique and special learning journey with you.
At Nursery, one of my favourite spaces is the art area, as I love being creative as well as getting a little bit messy. Here you will find lots of interesting paints and materials which you can use in lots of different ways. One day we might explore an object, idea or concept, and then we revisit it, deepening our thoughts and ideas. We have a delightful mud kitchen where you can use your imagination and be as creative as you wish and, there are some magnificent muddy puddles that appear from time to time that you will enjoy discovering. I cannot wait for you to join in the fun.
While I am not at Nursery, I have two children, who keep me very busy. We spend lots of our time having adventures and visits lots of exciting places. We like to go on bike rides and I might see you at soft play!
A Parent's Guide to Key Person's at St George's
INFORMATION FOR PARENTS
INFORMATION ABOUT OUR NURSERY
Nursery Booklet - September 2023 to July 2024
OUR CURRICULUM
Nursery Long Term Overview September 2023 - July 2024
EYFS Knowledge Organisers - Autumn 1
Curriculum Newsletter - September 2023
Curriculum Map - Super Me - Autumn 1
Autumn 2nd Half Term
Curriculum Newsletter - November 2023
Curriculum Map - Let's Celebrate - Autumn 2
INTRODUCTION TO OUR NURSERY PAGE
As well as Class DoJo, we will be keeping our parents informed of the learning and play that is happening in Nursery. So please keep checking back for all our up-to-date news.
Busy Doing Nothing!
You pick up your child up from Nursery eager to share in their news of what they have been busy doing that day and we are sure you will have heard this word - "NOTHING!". Well rest assure we will reveal the nothing right here!
I did nothing today!
Author - Unknown
When children come home at the end of the day,
The question they're asked as they run out to play
Is "Tell me what did you do today?"
And the answer they give makes you sigh with dismay,
"Nothing, I did nothing today?"
Perhaps "Nothing" means that I read a book,
Or ... with a teacher I got to cook.
Maybe I painted a picture of blue,
Or heard a story of a mouse that flew.
Maybe I wrote in my journal myself,
Or found a great book on the library shelf.
Maybe I helped a friend today,
Or went to my favourite area alone,
Maybe today was the very first time
That my scissors followed a very straight line,
Maybe I sang a song right to the end,
Or worked with a special brand new friend.
When you're three or four your heart has wings,
And "nothing" can mean so many things.
OUR NURSERY ENVIRONMENT
Our philosophy of teaching believes that children can show their learning in 100 different ways, a lot of which is through the arts, play and projects. We follow the seasons of the year and the interests and fascinations of our children. Our children take charge of their learning and we guide them as they use the skills we are learning about - both academic and higher level thinking skills while they play, create, explore and investigate.
We like to think of our classroom as our "third teacher". Parents and teachers are the first two teachers in our children's lives but we also believe that they learn from their environment, Our nursery room is set up so matter where they choose to go, learning will take place! Many areas of interest within our Nursery classroom are invitations to explore! Without any direction from their Nursery teachers, they learn skills through exploring their area. Our job, as Nursery Teachers is to guide and document so that we know what learning is taking place and what their and our next steps will be. Here are some photos of the different areas of interest/learning within our Nursery - both indoors and outside.
SUPPORTING YOUR CHILD'S LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT
Language Development
Ages and stages (speechandlanguage.org.uk)
Time to Talk - A Guide for Parents
Literacy Guides
Tuning into Sounds - A Guide for Parents
Learning About Print - A Guide for Parents
Toilet Training
A Parent's Guide to Toilet Training
We are aware that an increasing number of parents are struggling with their child suffering from constipation. Please find below a number of leaflets and booklets that you may find useful.
Constipation - Advice Sheet from ERIC
Advice Sheet - Children who will only Poo in a Nappy
When its Good to Go - A Wee/Poo Adventure
Dental Hygiene
Self Regulation
Self-regulation involves children’s developing ability to regulate their emotions, thoughts and behaviour to enable them to act in positive ways toward a goal. The rapid brain development which takes place in early childhood paves the way for the growth of self-regulation, which develops both through the maturing of the brain’s neural systems and through opportunities to practice. It continually develops through to adulthood, with further development of self-regulation taking place in adolescence. Self-regulation is now recognised as crucially important in young children’s development, strongly predicting children’s later success in relating to others and in their learning, while supporting lifelong mental and physical health.
A Parent' Guide to Self Regulation
Promoting Independence
30 HOUR PROVISION
30 Hour Provision at St George's
All Nursery aged children are entitled to 15 hours of free early education. At St Georges we provide this provision from 8.45 to 11.25 or 12.30 to 3.30 each day.
We also offer 30 hours of high quality free early education to eligible families. The 30 hours free childcare is designed to help working families by reducing the cost of childcare and to support parents into work or to work more hours. We believe that the additional time in our setting will also help to further develop your child’s readiness for school.
Should you wish to take advantage of this, our Nursery will offer 30 hours of high quality early education, run by a qualified teacher, between the hours of 8.45 am and 3.30. Lunchtime will operate during the day between 11.45 to 12.30 is not included. A small charge will be made for the lunchtime period.
Click below for further information and eligibility.
Childcare Choices | 30 Hours Free Childcare, Tax-Free Childcare and More | Help with Costs | GOV.UK
If you are not eligible for 30 hours funding then it should be possible (dependant on numbers applying) to offer you some paid sessions. Please enquire at the school office for details of the costs of these sessions.
NURSERY ANNOUCEMENTS
Mystery Reader Programme - Nursery
We are looking for volunteers to help us promote a love of reading through our Mystery Reader Programme and wondered if any parents, grandparents or other members of our Nursery families would like to sign up for our Mystery Reader Programme during the Spring Term. If you are already been a Mystery Reader you are more than welcome to volunteer. We would love to welcome you back.
Here's some more information about the programme.
On specific days we will welcome parents, grandparents, older siblings, aunts, uncles, neighbours, family friends to bring and read aloud your favourite picture book, nursery rhyme, poem or non-fiction book to the class. The children love it when their favourite family members are the Mystery Reader and all children benefit from an adult sharing their love of reading.
As this is a mystery, all information must be kept TOP SECRET from your child, including the date you are coming and the book or poem you will be reading. A week before you are scheduled to come in, we will send home a letter asking for five clues about yourself. These clues will be read to the class before your arrival to build up the surprise and keep the children guessing about who are Mystery Reader is. If you need help choosing a book, we are happy to help.
If you would like to take part in our Mystery Reader Programme or know somebody who would like to take part, please speak to your child’s class teacher so that a mutually convenient date and time can be arranged. A folder is also available to sign up to which is located in the Nursery cloakroom.
f you have any questions, please do not hesitate to your child’s class teacher.
We look forward to welcoming into our school for this very important mission.
OUR NEWS
LOOK AT WHAT WE HAVE BEEN LEARNING IN NURSERY!
Hello Autumn Term 2023
Week Beginning 6th November
Remembrance Day - Lest we forget!
Today we marked Remembrance Day in Nursery. We talked about the people who help us and all the brave soldiers and why we use a poppy to say "We remember!". We watched a short animation on CBeebies entitled 'Poppies' so the children could understand the meaning behind the poppies. that grew on the field after the war had finished. We looked carefully at the shape and colour of poppies and created our poppies of remembrance. The children decided what media and materials they wanted to created. We are extremely proud of their artwork. We observed 2 minutes silence (which is long time for us) and listened to 'The Last Post'. Some children sad the music made them sad while others said it made them happy because the music was beautiful. Other children said that is sounded like "thinking music." A grown up kind of day in Nursery.
"At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them."
Bonfire Night and Fireworks
The children have enjoyed exploring and sharing their experiences of Bonfire Night through a range of media and materials.
They have used paint and glitter in the style of Jackson Pollock. They enjoyed dipping their paint brushes in lots of paint and enjoyed flickering it onto paper or watching it drop. They added gold glitter to give the effect sparkling and twinkling fireworks. They had lots of fun but it was a little bit messy too.
The children also created Bonfire Night sculptures using sparkly play-dough and a range of loose parts.
Our Holiday News
It would be fair to say the children were very excited to share their holiday news yesterday. They couldn't wait. We had to stop the register so they could tell us before they exploded. We hope you enjoy reading their news. We are so proud of their drawings, they have really thought about the shapes and details they wanted to include.
The children have really enjoyed looking at the holiday photos. Now we are in digital age you forget the joy of looking at physical photos. They have enjoyed looking at them so much that we have printed them put and made a collage. Now the children can look at them and chat about them whenever they like. And they certainly are enjoying visiting this display every day.
Week Beginning 23rd October
Monday 23rd October - Leaf Man
Well! a Leaf Man's got to go where the wind blows!
We read the Leaf Man story by Lois Ehlert and then used our Autumn Treasures to create our very own Leaf Men. Please find pictures below of our Leaf Men.
This I do know:
Where a Leaf Man will land, only the wind knows.
So listen for a rustle in the leaves.
Maybe you'll find a Leaf Man waiting to go home with you!
Exploring Pumpkins
We have been exploring the inside of pumpkins by scooping out the flesh and seeds. The children could use a range of kitchen utensils to explore the insides. We have also been encouraging the children to be brave, to feel the inside of the pumpkins and descrive how it feels to them. Some children were happy to have a quick go while other children wanted to spend much longer and to make ice cream and soups and pumpkin latte's.
We have also enjoyed hammering golf tees into our pumpkins too and use tweezer to pick the pumpkins. What a lot of things you can do with a pumpkin!
A new interest emerges ...
Fairies
We wonder where this interest will take us ... but this week the children have enjoyed creating their own Autumn Fairies.
Our Story Vote
Mrs Lawrance has introduced the children to our book time vote this week in Nursery. At the end each day, the children choose between two books. They each get a Lego piece and place their brick onto a tower. The book with the tallest tower wins and we read that story.
Week Beginning 16th October
Exploring Autumn and Pumpkins
Tuesday 17th - Observational Drawings of Pumpkins
The children in Nursery have enjoyed completing observational drawings of a pumpkin of their choice. They have looked very carefully at their pumpkins, noting the markings they have seen and incorporated these into their drawings. They could choose paint, crayons, chalks and paint sticks to create their pumpkins. We are extremely proud of their observational drawings. Sending all our Nursery children a very big high five.
Wednesday 18th and Thursday 19th October
Our Autumn Treasures
We have been exploring the autumn treasures that our nursery families have collected while out and about on an Autumn Walk. These treasures have helped us to examine and explore and talk about the current season of Autumn. We have used magnifying glasses and tweezers to help with our investigation. We have recorded our results on a large roll of brown paper. We look forward to bringing our thoughts to you very soon through our autumn display. Please keep an eye out for it.
We have included our thoughts and observational drawings of our Autumn Treasures.
Friday 20th October - Harvest
We have been celebrating the festival of Harvest. we have been enjoying learning and performing our Harvest songs - "Five Peas in a Pea-pod Pressed" and "Driving my Tractor, which we have uploaded to our class page on Class Dojo. We hope you have enjoyed watching our little performance.
We began by exploring the festival of Harvest by watching Jo Jo and Gran Gran explaining all about the festival and how they celebrate this event. Next we read some story "Apple Cake" by Dawn Casey which helped us to understand that Harvest is a time to say thank you to God. We thought of what we are thankful for and used our paint sticks to create our thank you prayers. We hope you like our thank you prayers.
Week Beginning 9th October
Bravery Soup and Quest - World Mental Health Day
This week we have been exploring and promoting good Mental Health through a range of mindful activities. We practiced mediation and our mindful breathing by going for a walk in the enchanted forest. We also made patterns and marks in the sand and enjoyed the feeling of fine sand disappearing through our fingers and hands.
However, the main focus of the week was inspired by the story of "Bravery Soup" by Maryabb-Cocca Leffler. We enjoyed creating our very own Bravery recipes and then making the soup!
Then we completed our Bravery Quest just like the animals in the story. We loved doing this. Our nursery teachers loved that we cheered our friends on, giving them support and courage to help them complete the course.
Wednesday 11th and Thursday 12th October
Squiggle While You Wiggle - Side to Side Movements
As part of Squiggle while you Wiggle, we practiced our pre-writing patterns. We began by using our dance scarves to make large gross motor movements coming from our shoulders. Today we were focusing on making side to side shapes. These movements will help us when we are writing the letters A, E, F, L, T, t and the numbers 2, 4, 5, and 7. Once we have made the large movements of this pattern, we bring it down by making small movements with crayons. We make the movement over and over again to make those all important pathways in our brains secure. We continued to practice this pattern by enjoyed sticking dots on side to side lines (this activity to promoted our fine motor skills), painting vertical lines and using cars with pens attached.
Friday 13th October
Pumpkin Washing
It has been a hard day in Nursery! The day began with no welcome for the nursery teachers as the children were too busy shrieking with delight at the sight of the pumpkins. Bless the Nursery children as they discovered that washing pumpkins is not an easy job but now our pumpkins are sparkling and despite this hard work much fun was had by all.
Week Beginning 2nd October
Alma's Art - Black History Month
We can’t believe that it is October already. Today we have started to look at Black History Month and have used the work of Alma Thomas as a starting point. We read the story Alma’s Art by Roda Ahmed. Alma is a little known African American Artist who made her national debut at the age of 80. She used vertical lines and horizontal lines in all different colours to create her artworks. Alm a loved colours and used her artwork to celebrate all colours. Her artwork couldn’t have fitted in better as in Nursery we are exploring lines and now we can also celebrate the different colours too!
We have use a range of media and materials to create our artwork as you can see.
Our All About Me Boxes
We would like to thank you all for the All About Me Boxes you made with your child or children. In the very first few weeks they had a very important role to play in helping children settle into a new environment with lots of strange people. Children could access their boxes looking at the objects and people they loved as much as they needed to. Giving their photos cuddles and kisses and receiving the reassurance that you would be back soon and hadn’t forgotten them.
However, this week they have had another job to do. Mrs Lawrence has had the wonderful opportunity of sharing these boxes with the children. The children have had the opportunity to talk all about the contents of their boxes, their special people and their memories they have. Mrs Lawrence does not rush this activity as we realise how important this activity is in getting to know your child and for them to understand how important and valued they are to us and how we will always listen. So each child has the opportunity to talk for as long as they want about each object and or photo in their box.
Mrs Lawrence has scribed what they said and she is currently making a special record of their chat that we hope you will treasure.
The next job these boxes have is to create a family tree so we are hoping that you will give us permission to cut some of the photos up so we can create some family trees as explore the specialness of families, how each family is the same and different but they all share one special thing LOVE!!
I bet you didn’t realise the important role these boxes would play in the first few weeks of Nursery. Xx
Wednesday 4th October - World Animal Day
Today we celebrated World Animal Day. The day began by listening, singing along and dancing to Animal Boogie with our cuddly animals. Then we choose our favourite animal and made a face using a mixture of media and materials. We also watched Andy’s. Animal Safari and learnt some fun facts about the animals that we brought to Nursery . We ended our nursery session with a drink of juice and a biscuit which we shared with our animals. We had a really fun day.
Week Beginning Week 25th September
Talk About Birthdays Monday 25th and Tuesday 26th
This week we have been using the children's fascination in Birthdays to explore their understanding of numbers. The children have enjoyed using cake coloured playdough, cup cases, candles. cake decorations and birthday cards. These resources have encouraged the children to talk about numbers that are important to them. for example, "I am 3 but my brother is 7."
Our Name Study Wednesday 27th - Friday 28th
This week we have continued to explore our names by focusing on the initial sound. We began by reading the following stories - "My Name" by Supriya Kelkar and Becoming Vanessa" by Vanessa Brantley Newton. These stories started a discussion of why we were given the name we had so we asked our mummies and daddies to help us with this. We have been on a name hunt as well as focusing on the sound the initial letter makes, we have made some beautiful initial letter posters, made sparkly letters in the playdough, made rainbow letters and searched for our initial letters in the shaving foam. we certainly have been busy bees! Here are some photos of some of the activities we have completed this week.
Beginning 18th September
Tuesday 19th September
Squiggle While You Wiggle - Up and Down
Today we have begun to exploring our pre-writing patterns. We focused on lines – vertical ones. We made large up and down movements with our dance scarves and in the shaving foam. Then we began to make smaller movements using paint sticks and painting with cars. We really enjoyed making lines with the scarves to the music but some of us weren’t too keen on making lines in the shaving foam but we all had a go. Our nursery teachers were super proud of us. Making this shape will help us to write the number 1 and the letters l,i, or part of the letters in t, p, d, f, g,h,k, and b. See we are super writers already!
Exploring Our Faces
The children have been very busy exploring faces in Nursery in lots of fun ways. They have used a variety of different mirrors (some made us look funny) to look very closely at their faces. We have talked lots about our faces and learnt some new words like forehead, eyebrows, nostrils and eyelashes and used lots of describing words too like; long, short, big, small, squashy, soft, smooth and hard. The children have made faces by using loose metal parts in a frame, wooden face shapes on a circle mat, drawing their own faces on paper, and creating faces with playdough and by using colourful sticky sticks. What a lot of fun they have had!
Carys - "I did a purpley face that was smiling and I did a black pom pom for the nose because I want to make a small nose. And I did white eyes. I did sticks for the hair, it's long like my mum's and my hair."
Libby - "I made myself. I made a smiling mouth. This is the nose and this is for the snot. Them ones are eyes. This is bit is hair."
Beatrice - " They are my eyes. They are the sunglasses. That's the hair bobbles cos my hair is in a bobble."
Zachary - "That's my chin, these are my eyes, these are my cheeks and that's my hair on my head."
Evan - "Me. I can see milk. Eyes, my chin. These can be my ears. I need these for my hair. Did you know my Daddy has brown hair?"
Mason - "Eyes. What are these for? Ears. Our ears are here next to our eyes. I need some hair."
Using Loose Parts to Create Faces
Using Playdough to Create Faces
Using Wikki-Stiks to Create Faces
Week Beginning 11th September
Exploring Our Names
Today in Nursery, we have been exploring our names. We have looking very closely at our names and have explored the size and shape as well as listening to the sound the initial letter makes and counting how many letters in our name. We have made some beautiful name plaques with our dotty pens. Our nursery teachers think they will make a fabulous display. We promise not to keep them too long and will send them home soon.
To support us in recognising our names, we have also been playing a fishing game as well as using our hearts at self-registration.
Week Beginning 4th September
Hello and Welcome!
It has been a joy to start and welcome our new families into our Nursery class, at St George’s
The children are coming into nursery for their first day absolutely beautifully. We are extremely proud of them all. They are settling into nursery life well and it is fantastic to see how they are already building relationships with their peers and their nursery teachers. We have already seen how our children’s natural curiosity have led them to explore both indoors and outdoor spaces, discovering exciting corners, their willingness to try new things and becoming familiar with routines.
Welcome to a new Nursery Year!
We realise that the time has come for many grown ups around the world to trust their most treasured gift with complete strangers and you are no different as over the next week many of you will be trusting your special loved ones to us. We promise that we won’t be strangers for long and our nursery classroom will be flooded with 26 besties. We are so excited to make memories, learn lots and giggle the days away.
Our Promise to you is ….
To let them be little
Fill their hearts with laughter
Help them to grow their wings
Nurture their sense of awe and wonder
Inspire them to believe
Teach them to be kind
Care for them like they were our own
We have got this, we really have!
Lots of love from
Nursery xxxx
