What a fantastic week we have had in Nursery!
This week we have continued our learning about traditional tales, exploring a range of well-known stories and comparing them with more modern books. The children have been developing their understanding of what makes a story a traditional tale and have become very confident at spotting some of the key features. They know that traditional tales often begin with “Once upon a time” and end with “They lived happily ever after.” We enjoyed listening to different stories, discussing the characters and settings, and talking about how traditional tales have been passed down through generations.
As part of our traditional tales topic, the children have been helping to create our exciting new role-play area. They have shown great enthusiasm and teamwork while painting the walls to create a magnificent castle backdrop. The children were involved in making decisions about what resources should be included, choosing dressing-up clothes, small world characters and a variety of traditional story books. It has been wonderful to see them sharing ideas, cooperating with their friends and taking pride in helping to create a space that will inspire imaginative play and storytelling.
In our maths learning, we have continued to link our activities to traditional tales. The children enjoyed counting, sorting and comparing objects from different stories. We explored mathematical language such as more, fewer, same, big, bigger and biggest while comparing characters and objects from familiar tales. We also practised counting carefully, recognising numerals and talking about patterns and size through fairy tale-themed activities. The children particularly enjoyed using story props to support their mathematical thinking and problem-solving skills.
In phonics, we have continued learning new sounds and this week focused on ‘l’and ‘ll’. The children had lots of fun making up silly sentences and listening carefully for words containing the /l/ sound. We practised identifying whether the sound appeared at the beginning, middle or end of words, helping to strengthen both listening and early reading skills. The children are becoming increasingly confident at hearing sounds in words and applying this knowledge during their play and learning.
We have also been busy becoming authors! The children have been writing and illustrating their own books, drawing upon the stories we have shared together for inspiration. They thought carefully about their characters, settings and story ideas, and worked hard to represent their thoughts through pictures, marks, letters and words. It has been lovely to see their confidence growing as they develop their early writing skills and begin to understand that print carries meaning.
The highlight of the week was undoubtedly our whole-school trip to the Radlett Theatre to see The Cat in the Hat. The excitement began long before we arrived, with the coach journey itself proving to be a huge adventure! The children loved travelling together and were full of anticipation as we approached the theatre. Once inside, they were captivated by the atmosphere and thoroughly enjoyed watching the story come to life on stage. There were lots of laughs, smiles and excited conversations afterwards as the children shared their favourite parts of the performance. It was a wonderful experience and a fantastic opportunity for the children to enjoy live theatre together.
We are incredibly proud of how engaged, enthusiastic and creative the children have been this week. They have embraced every opportunity to learn, explore and work together, making this a very special week in Nursery.
How you can help at home:
Read a traditional tale together and talk about how you know it is a traditional story. Can your child identify the characters, setting and the special beginning and ending?
Go on a sound hunt for the letter l. Look around your home for objects that contain the /l/ sound and discuss whether it is at the beginning, middle or end of the word. Challenge your child to think of their own silly sentences using lots of l words!
Use maths in storytelling. Count objects from a favourite story, compare sizes of characters, or ask questions such as “Who is the biggest?” or “How many bears are there?” to reinforce counting and mathematical language.