Nursery

As we continue our exciting learning journey in Nursery, the children have once again amazed us with their enthusiasm, creativity and growing confidence. This week has built beautifully on recent learning, with lots of opportunities for the children to explore new ideas, share their thoughts and take pride in what they can do. It has been a pleasure to see them so engaged across all areas of the provision.

In our role play area, the children worked very hard to transform our dinosaur cave into an animal jungle. Together, they thought carefully about the animals we might find living there and shared some fantastic ideas. The children were full of enthusiasm as they made paper chain snakes and vibrant multi coloured parrots to decorate the space. Their creations have helped bring the jungle to life, and the children are thoroughly enjoying exploring the area through imaginative play.

Our animal theme continued in Literacy, where we shared a wide range of stories about animals and their adventures. The children listened attentively and enjoyed talking about how the characters might have felt at different points in the stories. They also thought about how they would like the stories to end, which encouraged thoughtful discussion and creative thinking.

To give the children more time to revisit and explore the stories, we introduced story baskets for each one. These baskets included toys and props linked to the characters and events. The children have loved retelling the stories during their play, and some even created their own alternative endings. This clearly shows how well they have been listening and how confident they are becoming when sharing their ideas.

We also had a very special visit from the Year 2 children this week, who came to Nursery to share the stories they have been writing in class. The Nursery children listened attentively and showed what a wonderful audience they can be. It was lovely to see the older and younger children learning together, and the visit helped to inspire even more excitement about stories and storytelling.

In maths, we have been playing lots of games using dice. The children are now becoming confident at recognising dice patterns and are beginning to subitise numbers to three. This means they can say how many objects they can see without counting them one by one, which is an important early maths skill.

The children have also worked very hard during phonics sessions. This week, they learned to recognise the letter “t” and practised how to write it using our letter formation rhyme: Down her body and cross her shoulders. The children showed great focus and effort as they practised both recognising and forming the letter.  Here is a short video showing the pure sounds we use to support phonics learning.  https://youtu.be/nBFnAcXHOUQ

How you can help at home:

Create a small jungle scene using toys, drawings or household items. Talk with your child about the animals that might live there, what they eat and where they sleep. This supports language development, imagination and understanding of the world.

Share a familiar story together and ask your child to retell it using toys or objects as props. Encourage them to change the ending or add a new character. This helps develop listening skills, memory and confidence in speaking.

Roll a dice and ask your child how many spots they can see without counting. Then count together to check. This supports number recognition and early subitising skills in a fun and relaxed way.

We have loved seeing the children’s excitement and curiosity grow as the week has unfolded, and it has been wonderful to watch them take ownership of their learning through play, discussion and creativity.

Have a lovely weekend,

The Nursery team xxx

Another week has absolutely whizzed by in Nursery, and as always, lots of fun was had by all! The children have been busy, curious and full of excitement as they played, explored and learned together.  It has been a joy to see their enthusiasm each day.

In Literacy, we continued to explore the features of both fiction and non-fiction books. The children are becoming very confident at spotting the differences and love talking about what they can see on the covers and inside the books. We also carried on with our phonics learning, focusing on the sound “a” and practising how to write it. The children approached this with such positivity and were very proud of their efforts.

The children have worked incredibly hard on developing their fine motor skills this week. Through a variety of fun, hands-on games and activities, they have been building the important muscle strength in their hands and fingers that supports early writing. Threading, squeezing, pinching, mark making and playing with small objects were all firm favourites!

This week we leaned more into mathematical learning, and what better way to do that than with dinosaurs! We sang counting songs, practised counting forwards and backwards, and learned how to form our numbers 1–5. During child-initiated learning, the children enjoyed interactive games that helped them match numerals to the correct number of objects. They loved taking part and were very keen to show off their fantastic number knowledge.

Our role-play cave continued to be a much-loved area. We have been busy caring for our baby triceratops and diplodocus dinosaurs, who according to the children have now grown up enough to start eating real food! This led to a lovely activity where we made herbivore salads together. Some of the children were even brave enough to taste the kale and lettuce leaves we used.

Throughout the week, the children also enjoyed creative activities, construction play, small world play and plenty of outdoor learning, helping to build confidence, independence and teamwork. It has been wonderful to see their imaginations come to life across all areas of the classroom.

How to help at home:

Share a story together, look at both fiction and non-fiction books and talk about how they are different.

Practise counting forwards and backwards using toys, snacks or everyday objects.

Strengthen little hands by playing with playdough, threading beads or using pegs to pick up small items.

Next week we will be moving on to a brand-new topic (I won’t spoil the surprise just yet!), and we’re sure the children are going to love it just as much. Thank you, as always, for your continued support, we can’t wait to see what the next week brings! 😊

The Nursery Team xxx

Welcome back after the holidays, and happy new 2026!

It has been such a joy to see all the children return so settled, happy, and ready to learn. Our new starters have settled in wonderfully too , they have already formed lovely friendships and are confidently joining in with our classroom routines, making them a valued part of the team.

This week began with a very exciting adventure in our classroom! We worked together to build a cosy cave to keep the wild animals from our forest warm during winter. The children then went on a winter walk, collecting sticks and feathers to help the animals build their own den in the cave. To our surprise, when we returned to the classroom on Tuesday morning, we discovered a nest inside the cave with two huge eggs inside!

The children thought carefully about which animal might have laid the eggs. Their imaginative ideas included a unicorn, a dinosaur, a robin, and even a bat. We then discussed how best to look after the eggs, and the children thoughtfully decided that the most important thing was not to touch them and to stay very quiet so the babies inside would not be scared. Such kind and caring ideas were shared.

This curiosity led us to research animals that lay eggs. We discovered that animals with fur or hair usually grow their babies in their bellies (with the fascinating exceptions of the platypus and echidna!), while insects and animals with feathers, scales, hard outer shells, or slimy skin lay eggs. The children were completely captivated by this learning.

They were also fascinated by the skeleton parts they discovered in the classroom and loved working together to build a triceratops by fitting the bones together. 🦖

In maths, we continued exploring numbers 1–5, practising accurate counting, writing numerals, and matching numerals to the correct number of objects. The children showed great enthusiasm and growing confidence.

Our imaginative play has been a highlight this week. The children enjoyed role-playing in the cave and exploring different textures in the swamp tuff tray, creating their own stories and narratives through play.

How you can help at home:

Talk about animals that lay eggs and those that don’t. You could look at books, watch short animal clips, or even draw pictures of animals and sort them into “lays eggs” and “doesn’t lay eggs.

Practise counting objects around the house: toys, steps, spoons, or pieces of fruit,  focusing on numbers 1–5. Encourage your child to match the number to the correct amount

Build a cosy den using blankets, cushions, or boxes. Encourage your child to imagine who lives inside and make up a story together, helping to develop creativity, language and confidence.

Thank you for your continued support, we are looking forward to another exciting week of learning and discovery together!

Have a lovely weekend,

The Nursery Team xx

What a wonderful end to a fantastic term in Nursery! It’s hard to believe how much the children have grown and achieved in such a short time.

From the very beginning, the children settled in beautifully. They quickly became confident in the classroom environment, learned our daily routines, and showed us just how well they can listen and take part in their learning. It has been a joy to watch them grow in independence and enthusiasm each day.

We’ve had so much fun learning together. The children have enjoyed counting numbers, exploring patterns, and beginning to sound out words. We’ve laughed along with rhyming words and shared lots of lovely moments looking at both fiction and non-fiction books. Our play-based learning has been full of imagination too.  The home corner has been very busy, especially when the children transformed into caring vets looking after their animals!

To finish the term in the most magical way, we were incredibly proud of the children during our EYFS production. Our beautiful snowflakes shone on stage and showed so much confidence — what stars they all were! And as if that wasn’t exciting enough, we even had a special visit from Santa today, which brought lots of smiles and festive cheer.

We are so proud of everything the children have achieved this term and how hard they have worked. A huge thank you to all our parents and carers for your continued support,  it truly makes such a difference. Well done to all our Nursery children for an amazing term. We hope you all have a lovely, restful break and we can’t wait to see you again soon! 🎄✨

Lots of love,

The Nursery Team xxx

What a magical (and very busy) week we’ve had in Nursery!

After all the excitement of the Christmas fair last weekend, we came straight back in and kept the festive fun going. The children have been absolute superstars as we get ready for our Early Years Christmas production. They’ve been practising their song with the Makaton signs  and honestly, watching them all trying so hard has been such a heart-melting moment.

We’ve also been perfecting our snowflake dancing! There’s been lots of twirling, floating and giggling as they learned their moves. The children helped make their own costumes and snowflake wands too, and they couldn’t wait to try everything out during rehearsals with Reception. It’s been so lovely seeing their confidence grow each day as they remembered every little detail for the performance.

In between rehearsals, we squeezed in some messy, sensory fun. The children LOVED making their own melted snowmen in our turf tray. Using tri-grip pincers to pick up stones and carrots, they were busy strengthening those important fine motor skills without even realising… they were far too busy enjoying the squishy, snowy chaos!

Maths this week has been all about 2D shapes, and the children have blown us away with how much they’ve remembered. We didn’t just stick to circles and squares — no, no, we’ve been exploring diamonds, semi-circles, ovals, hexagons and even kites! It’s been wonderful hearing them start to describe what makes each shape special.

And of course, it wouldn’t be a December week in Nursery without a little creativity. The children finished their beautiful Christmas tree decorations from the FOMH Creation Station, and they also made a very special surprise for their parents… but lips are sealed for now!

How you can help at home:

Have a little wander around the house together and see how many of our special shapes your child can spot, maybe a diamond on the wrapping paper or a semi-circle on a cushion?

Pop on some gentle winter music and let your child show you their snowflake moves. They might even teach you a step or two!

Set out a small tray with cotton pads, buttons, sticks or any safe loose parts you have. Let your child build their own melty snowman and practise placing the pieces carefully.

Have a cosy, Christmassy weekend, we can’t wait to see what next week brings! 🎄✨

Lots of love,

The Nursery Team xx

The start of December has brought a wonderful buzz into our nursery as we dive into all things Christmas! The classroom is beginning to look beautifully festive, thanks to the children’s hard work making colourful paper chains. As we linked each strip together, we found ourselves chatting about the curved edges of the paper circles. This led us perfectly into exploring different 2D shapes. The children loved investigating each shape’s properties, proudly identifying vertices and counting the number of sides like true little mathematicians.

We’ve also been paying close attention to the weather as the seasons continue to change around us. Each day, the children help update our weather chart, noticing the colder mornings, the early sunsets, and those exciting signs that winter has well and truly arrived. They’ve become fantastic little weather-watchers!

Alongside all this, we’ve been learning about how to keep our bodies healthy. Brushing our teeth has been a big topic this week and there were lots of enthusiastic demonstrations! The children were so engaged, and many are now eagerly awaiting that exciting milestone… their very first wobbly tooth!

In PE, we’ve been practising a special dance for our upcoming Christmas production. The children are doing brilliantly, and their confidence is growing with every practice. We’re keeping everything under wraps for now though—no spoilers until the big show! And speaking of secrets, we have lots of other exciting projects in the works that we can’t reveal just yet… but all will be revealed soon!

To support your child’s learning at home, here are a few simple targets you can enjoy together:

 Go on a shape treasure hunt around your home or outdoors—how many circles, squares, triangles, and rectangles can you spot?

Practise brushing teeth together and talk about why it’s important. Encourage your child to describe the steps in their own words.

Look outside each morning and chat about the day’s weather: cloudy, sunny, rainy, frosty and maybe even predict what might happen next!

It’s been a joyful start to December, and we can’t wait to share more festive fun with you soon.

Have a lovely relaxing weekend,

xxx The Nursery Team

What a chilly week it’s been! ❄️ As the weather suddenly turned icy, we reminded ourselves how important it is to look after our bodies—lots of handwashing to keep those sneaky winter germs away, and wrapping up warm before heading outside to play. The children have been fantastic at remembering their hats, coats, and gloves!

On Tuesday, we set off on a mindful walk through the forest. The children walked quietly, listening carefully for the sounds of nature. We heard the wind, rustling leaves, and snapping twigs—but not a single bird! This got everyone wondering: Where do birds go in the winter?

Once we were back in our cosy classroom, we did a little research to find out how birds keep warm in the cold, wet winter. We learned that birds need plenty of food to give them energy when the weather turns frosty. So, we decided to help our feathered friends by making bird feeders!

The children had such fun mashing bananas and mixing them with birdseed to make bird cakes. They pressed the mixture into pinecones to create delicious, easy-to-eat treats. After freezing them to make them extra firm, we hung them outside—and we’ve already had a very grateful visitor who happily enjoyed the feast! 🐦

In literacy, we continued exploring rhyming words, listening carefully for the sounds at the end of words that make them rhyme. Concept Cat also came to visit this week, helping us learn new vocabulary—“through” and “side.” The children did brilliantly identifying when and where to use these words. Well done, everyone!

How you can help at home:

Encourage your child to practise writing numbers 1–5 (or higher if they’re ready). Then help them match each number to a group of objects—teddies, buttons, toy cars, anything you have at home!

Pick a word (e.g., cat) and let your child find something in the house that rhymes with it—or make up a silly rhyme if there’s nothing that matches!

Look out of your window or take a short walk to see if you can spot any winter birds. Talk about what they might need to stay warm and how your child could help care for wildlife.

We hope you all have a warm and cosy weekend. Stay snug!

What a wonderfully busy and exciting week we’ve had in Nursery! The weather certainly kept us talking. We began the week with bright sunshine and blustery winds blowing leaves around the playground then found ourselves splashing through sudden rain showers and finally ended the week surrounded by fluffy, magical snowflakes. The children loved noticing the changes each day and chatting about what the sky might do next.

In literacy, we continued our work on rhyming words, which has brought lots of giggles and brilliant thinking. We enjoyed reading Oi Frog and listening to Poo in the Zoo, and the children tried really hard to listen for the sound at the end of each word. They were very proud of themselves when they spotted rhyming pairs like “gibbons and ribbons” and “puffins and muffins” and we started making up our very own rhyming strings. Some of the animals in the stories were new to us, so we looked in non-fiction books to find out more about them. There was so much excitement as the children discovered new facts, and they were even more delighted when they realised they could write their very own fact books. We have some very enthusiastic authors in Nursery!

Maths was just as lively this week. We have been focusing on recognising numerals to 10 and finding groups of objects to match each number. The children are becoming so confident at using their fingers to show the numbers too. It’s lovely to see how proud they are when they get it just right.

We also spent some time outdoors helping Mr Johnson plant new saplings in the field. The children were incredibly enthusiastic gardeners, working together to dig the holes, place the baby trees inside, and cover them back up. Since planting them, they’ve been eager to check on them each day, excited to see how they might grow.

And then, of course, came the snow! Everyone arrived at school sprinkled in huge fluffy snowflakes, and the excitement in the classroom was contagious. We decided to test our scientific thinking with a snowy experiment. The children made predictions about what might happen if we brought snow indoors, and we set up two bowls—one inside and one outside—to compare after an hour. The children were amazed to see that the snow inside had melted into a big bowl of water while the snow outside stayed crisp and white. We carried on the snowy theme with some beautiful snowflake art, exploring different shapes and patterns with paint.

How you can help at home:

Choose an everyday object and see how many silly rhyming words your child can come up with.

Pick a number from 1 to 10 and find groups of objects around the house to match it.

Use snow or ice cubes to explore what melts quickest and why—try placing them in different spots and comparing.

What a brilliant week it has been. We can’t wait to see what next week brings!

We hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

xx The Nursery Team

What a lovely week we have had in Nursery! The children have been busy exploring, creating and learning in so many different ways.

This week, we talked about Remembrance Day and why it’s such an important time to pause and remember. The children showed great respect as we held our minute’s silence while listening carefully to The Last Post being played on the bugle. It was a very special moment.

Together, we made a beautiful poppy wreath using all sorts of materials. The children experimented with different techniques to colour and decorate the petals, some used paint, others tissue paper, and even crayon rubbings! Everyone worked so well together, and the finished wreath looks wonderful on our classroom wall.

We also watched the short story “Poppies” to help us understand why we wear poppies and how they help us remember those who served. The children had some thoughtful conversations about remembering and saying thank you. https://youtu.be/pv_ub7Be7oA?si=rDRrIpKoqF0YoW1F

Our story this week was the hilarious “Oi Frog!” and it had us all giggling! We loved spotting all the rhyming words and thinking of our own silly ones. We played lots of listening games to hear which words rhyme and which don’t, and we matched small objects that rhymed like cat and hat, or frog and log!

Some of us even started to make our own rhyming books, drawing pictures of rhyming strings. It’s been so much fun hearing the children play with sounds and words.  We have some brilliant little poets in the making!

We’ve been continuing our learning all about positional language — words that tell us where things are. The children have learned to use words like in, on, under, next to, in between, around, behind, and in front.

We played games where one child gave instructions and the other had to follow and there was lots of giggling when teddies ended up in funny places like under the chair or behind the teacher! Everyone is becoming really confident using these words.

How to help at home:

Here are a few fun ways to keep the learning going:

Rhyme Hunt: Pick an everyday object (like a “sock”) and see how many rhyming words your child can think of — even the silly made-up ones count!

Poppy Craft: Have a go at making your own poppy picture or collage at home using paper, fabric, or things you find in the garden.

Position Play: Hide a favourite toy and give clues using positional words like “It’s under the table!” or “Look behind the cushion!”

It’s been a thoughtful and creative week in Nursery full of teamwork, laughter, and learning. We’re so proud of how beautifully the children have engaged with everything we’ve explored.

Have a lovely weekend, everyone!
💖 The Nursery Team

What an amazing start to the new half term it’s been! The children returned to school this week full of smiles, energy, and excitement, ready to dive into lots of new learning adventures. It was wonderful to see them walk through the door with such confidence and enthusiasm to be back together again.

In Literacy, we have been enjoying the story Mog’s Birthday by Judith Kerr. The children absolutely loved hearing about Mog’s special day and all the funny little things that happened in the story. Inspired by Mog, we decided to have a bit of a “party week” of our own! The children got busy writing party invitations to Mog’s birthday, carefully thinking about who to invite and what details to include. The children also came up with their very own recipes for Mog’s birthday cake and of course, the best part was heading out to the mud kitchen to make it themselves!

In Maths, we’ve been learning all about positional language, words like: under, over, next to, behind, in front of, and between. The children have had lots of fun giving and following instructions to move around the classroom and playground, using these special words. We also learned some catchy songs to help us remember how to use positional language and you might even hear a few of these tunes being sung at home!

As part of our topic on celebrating different cultures and festivals, we learned about The Gunpowder Plot and why we celebrate Bonfire Night. The children were fascinated by the story of Guy Fawkes and his secret plan. They listened carefully and were eager to act out and retell the story with their friends. It was lovely to see their imagination come to life as they made bonfires with the wooden bricks, used the flour as gunpowder and pretended to be King James I. To finish off our week, we made our own fireworks using Pom Pom blasters! The children were very careful and followed all our safety instructions.  What a fun and colourful way to combine learning with play!

We are so proud of how engaged, curious, and enthusiastic the children have been this week. They have settled back beautifully into the nursery routine, and we can’t wait to see what the rest of the half term brings!

How you can help at home:

Make your own party invitations. Use paper, pens and stickers to create an invitation for a pretend party at home. Talk about the important information to include: Who is it for? What day? What time?

Positional language treasure hunt. Hide a favourite toy and give clues using positional words, e.g. “It’s under the chair!” or “Look behind the cushion!”

Make firework art. Use paint and straws to blow colourful paint fireworks across the page, or sprinkle glitter and sequins to make your own sparkling night sky.

Well done, everyone, for such a fantastic first week back. We hope you have a lovely weekend and we can’t wait to see what fun learning next week will bring!

The Nursery Team xxx

What a wonderful week it’s been in Nursery! We started the week with a real bang after watching fireworks light up the night sky. The children came into school on Monday, buzzing with excitement and eager to tell us all about the colours, shapes and sounds they saw in the sky. It was lovely to hear them describing the fireworks using such imaginative words, we even had some brilliant sound effects too!

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In Literacy, we listened to the story of Rama and Sita and learned about how the Festival of Lights, Diwali, began. The children were completely fascinated by the story and enjoyed talking about the characters and the message of good overcoming evil. This story inspired us to explore lots of fun and colourful Diwali activities throughout the week.

We made our own rangoli patterns outside using coloured rice, the children worked so carefully to create bright and beautiful designs. We also had a go at drawing mehndi patterns on our hands, practising swirls, flowers and shapes with great concentration. To finish off our celebrations, we even tried some Bollywood dancing! The children had such fun learning new moves, following the rhythm, and showing off their best dance poses.

In Maths, we practised counting objects and matching them to the correct numerals. The children also worked hard on putting numbers in order from 1 to 10, using songs, games and plenty of teamwork to help them remember.

For Art, we made our very own diva lamps using foam clay. The children rolled their clay into balls, pressed their thumbs in to make a space for a candle, and pinched around the sides to shape the lamps. Once they were dry, we painted them in bright colours and added a touch of sparkle,  They looked absolutely beautiful!

It’s been such a busy and joyful week full of colour, music and creativity.

How you can help at home:

Go on a colour hunt around your home or local park — how many different colours can you spot, just like the fireworks?

Continue practicing counting everyday objects such as conkers, leaves or toys.  Can you order numbers from 1-10?

Can you make your own fireworks night sky picture at home, drawing all the beautiful colours on a black background?

We hope you have a lovely, bright and happy half-term, everyone!

Best wishes,

The Nursery Team