Nursery

How is it possible that this year has flown by so quickly?  The days are long but the years are short!

During our Jigsaw sessions, we have talked a lot about the children’s transition into their new classes, with new friends,  different adults or even different schools.  He children have taken on board our discussions about growing up and changing over time and we had a fantastic time talking about all the fun things we have done and learnt this year.

Looking over our photos taken this year it is amazing to see how the children have grown, not just physically but also in their skills, their friendships and their abilities.  It was fun to reminisce about this year but mostly is was lovely to see the children’s excited faces when they were talking about their new challenges!

Just like our Very Hungry Caterpillar, the children started out with a hunger for learning, devouring all of the topic knowledge and skills this year.  Now it is time for them to rest in their cocoons, ready to emerge as the beautiful butterflies they have been waiting to become and fly off to their new adventures!

Thank you to all our parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles who have supported the children this year, helping them be ready for each day and encouraging them every step of the way.  We would not be able to do our job if it wasn’t for all of you!

Now, as a final goodbye for this year– we hope you all have a well deserved holiday, hopefully full of sunshine.  Best of luck for those families who are moving on to new adventures and for those returning next year… we can’t wait to welcome you back!

Love you all,

The Nursery Team xxx

We have had another lovely week in Nursery!

With the warmer weather we tried to make the most of the outside spaces and spent as much time as possible outside of the classroom.  We had plenty of time to explore cause and effect in the water tray as well as creating habitats for the small world animals while playing under the willow tree on the field!

In Literacy we read “What the Ladybird Heard at the Seaside” and it is a lovely crossover between our minibeast and seaside holiday topics! In the next few weeks, the children will learn to act out the story then change the characters and the ending in order to create their own version of the story.

The children enjoyed having their maths lessons outside, looking for 3D shapes in the playgrounds and our forest area. We were delighted to spot cubes, cylinders, spheres and cones!

We have continued with our Van Gogh art and the children are working hard to produce a class picture to display during the open afternoon.

How you can help at home:
Can your child spot different 3D shapes in their environment? Can they find a pyramid or a cone? When you are in the shops, can you spot any cylinders or cuboids?

We hope you have a lovely weekend!

The Nursery team xx

The teachers were very impressed with how well everyone took part in the different activities and by the children’s eagerness to try new games.  I think the children especially enjoyed the water race and getting wet to cool off in the hot sun.

The races went very well and everyone had a fabulous time.  We are extremely proud of how well the children coped with a very different type of day, how well they listened to our instructions and their ability to work together as team and demonstrate true sportsmanship!

We hope you have a fabulous weekend!
The Nursery team xx

This week we might not have enjoyed the best weather, but that definitely did not dampen the children’s excitement and engagement in their learning this week.

The children enjoyed listening to different fictional stories about spiders and this led to us focusing on facts about spiders during our science lessons this week. Not only did they compare different minibeasts to classify them as insects or arachnids, but they also gathered information about the ways different types of spiders hunt for their food.  The children were intrigued to learn about the Goliath bird eating spider from the Amazon Rainforest! Why not ask your child if they are able to tell you any of the facts they have learned this week?

In maths we have continued to work on number formation and the children have made good progress in being able to correctly form some numbers from 1-10.

Our art project is progressing very well and the children have enjoyed using a variety of materials to make their own version of Vincent van Gogh’s Starry night.

How you can help at home:

Choose a letter sound from the alphabet and have your child make a list of all the words they can think of that starts with that sound.  Who in the house can make the longest list?

It is almost impossible to think we are now starting the last half term of the academic year. We are incredibly proud of all the progress the children have made so far and we still have half a term to go!

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This week has absolutely flown by! It has been a fun filled week with lots of learning being consolidated and the children working as hard as always.

We have been looking at non-fiction texts about different lifecycles and the children enjoyed comparing the life cycles we have learned about.  We had class discussions about where you can find information about different topics and this led to us to talk about internet safety and knowing that we always have to ask a parent to help us when we are using the internet.

In maths, we have continued to develop our understanding of addition.  We looked at a variety of ways to work out the answer when  adding 2 single digit numbers together to find the total. We are very impressed with the children’s understanding of numbers.  They are becoming more confident when comparing numbers, recognising when a number is more, less or the same.

How you can help at home:  

Currently we are working on identifying initial sounds in words and thinking of more words that start with the same sound.  Can they make a silly sentence with words that start with the same sound as their name, e.g Lana likes lemon lollipops.

We hope you have a wonderful half term, full of family time and hopefully sunshine!

xxxThe Nursery team

It has been another fabulous week in Nursery with a range of activities and lots of learning happening in and outside the classroom.  The children enjoyed the sunny spells in the garden  and made the most of the water puddles  this week.

Carrying on with our growing topic, we have been looking at fiction and non-fiction books about different life cycles.  The children were fascinated with the lifecycle of frogs and we decided to explore this in more detail. When learning about different types of frogs the children discovered the multiple sounds frogs and toads can make! Not to mention that some frogs use their unique colouring to warn off predators while others choose to use it as a way to camouflage themselves.

In maths the children have continued to grow in confidence when looking at adding and taking away single digit numbers from numbers up to 10. They were experimenting with writing their own number sentences using mathematical symbols.

This week during PE we particularly focused on throwing and catching skills. The children were able to take turns with a partner to throw and catch balloons. We chose to use balloons because they move slower than large balls and this gives the children more time to arrange their bodies into the correct position to catch confidently.

How you can help at home:

As we continue to learn how to distinguish between phonics sounds, why not have a sound hunt at home? Ask your child to find as many objects or toys that starts with a specific sound e.g  S = sandal, slipper, scissors, spoon, stickers, sand, slime…

We hope you have an amazing weekend.
The Nursery team xx

Although we had a shorter week, it does not mean we have been doing less work. With the lovely weather, we made the most of our outside areas and chose to do our learning in the fresh air.

Continuing with our growing topic, the children have enjoyed learning about the lifecycle of the sunflowers and we have now linked it to lifecycles of animals.  In Jasper’s beanstalk, the children learned the sequence of the days of the week and this carries on with our current book, The very hungry caterpillar.  This is a much loved story and the children already know it off by heart, but it still offers a range of activities to embed their learning in a fun, familiar and engaging way.

In maths this week, we continued with our theme of more and less. In class children are able compare 2 numbers up to 20 and say which number is bigger or smaller.  They also did incredibly well in recognising + and – symbols and explaining what they needed to do for each symbol.  We have moved on to adding 2 single digit numbers together with a total up to 10 as well as taking away 1 or 2 from numbers between 1 and 10.

Our art project based on Vincent Van Gogh is also quite impressive! The children have used a range of media to create their sunflower artwork and they enjoyed the process of planning, adapting and finishing their art pieces.  In using a range of strategies, the children can experiment to find what they feel gives the most pleasing outcome.

How you can help at home:

Have a number hunt at home, in the shop or on the way to the park.  Can your child say what number is 1 or 2 more than the number they found? Can they say what the number will be if you had to take 2 away from the number they have found?

We hope you have a wonderful, sunny weekend!

xxx The Nursery team

In Nursery we have had another very busy, very productive week! The children have made fantastic progress in their learning and we are excited to share it all with you.

As part of our Summer Fun topic based on growing, the children have learned to recite and retell the story of Jasper’s Beanstalk. They  enjoyed learning the actions and sequence of the story and once they were confident to tell the story by themselves, they decided to change the story in order to make up their very own story.  Using their prior learning about growing sunflowers in class, they are now the proud authors of “Louis’ Sunflower” after they changed the main character in the story to a sausage dog called Louis who tends to a seed he found.  This collaborative project inspired the children to write their own individual versions of the story and we were all impressed with their creative ideas!

In maths the children further build on their learning from previous weeks to complete simple addition sentences.  They enthusiastically made use of various opportunities to practice their new skills in class and they have shown the adults just how much progress they have made already!

Continuing on with our PSHE learning based on relationships and friendships this week, the children were challenged to create a nature portrait in the forest of someone that is special to them.  They took great care to select the objects to use with the nature safe dough to create their representation of their loved ones.

How you can help at home:

Please find the links to a few interactive games the children have enjoyed playing in class this week to help them embed their new maths skills.

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/robot-more-or-less

https://ictgames.com/mobilePage/beeMoreOrLess/index.html

Have a lovely bank holiday weekend!
xxx The Nursery team

It has been another wonderful week in Nursery!  The children have been working exceptionally hard and made fabulous progress in their learning.

The children enjoyed our phonic sessions this week during which they had to find objects starting with the same sound.  Being able to identify sounds within a word is a huge step towards being able to segment words for writing e.g.  cat is made up of the sounds c / a / t.  

This week the children continued with their maths learning and took on a big challenge, being able to record their thinking using a number sentence!  They were incredibly proud of themselves being able to “read” the number sentence and complete it by filling in the answer.

The fun did not stop there and we had the opportunity to take part in the sponsored slide on Thursday.  The children were very brave to climb to the top of an inflatable slide and were extremely well behaved while waiting in line for their next  turn.  Thank you to the Friends of Merry Hill for organising this lovely activity!

Last but certainly not least, we celebrated Purple Up Day!  The children had lots of fun completing their craft activities to celebrate all our forces children. We were also very fortunate to have Lt Col Sawyers talk to us about the importance of keeping our bodies healthy and strong and we enjoyed taking part in the physical activities on the playground.   We all know that building resilience and being adaptable are important qualities for us all to succeed and our forces children have shown again and again that they possess these skills in abundance!  

We hope you have a wonderful weekend.

The Nursery Team xxx

April is the Month of the Military Child and each year we love taking the time to celebrate our military children here at Merry Hill. Service children can face challenges with parents in the armed forces. Yet these children are also an amazing asset to families, schools and the local community. The Month of the Military Child helps us remember this and helps us celebrate their achievements.

Did you know the official flower of the military child is the dandelion because its seeds are blown far and wide by the wind but it will always plant roots and blossom wherever it lands?

The children celebrate ‘Purple Up Day’ every April; purple is a colour used to represent all military services and shows unity with each other. This day is to celebrate the wonderful contributions our military children make to our community, bringing experiences from around the world. We celebrate our military children and thank them for their service.

Purple Up Day at Merry Hill this year is on Friday 26th April –  Please can all children come to school wearing a purple accessory on this day such as a hair ribbon, socks, cardigan or t-shirt.

It was lovely seeing all the children return to school on Monday and they all came back very mature and enthusiastic for the new term.  I am sure they have grown at least 2 inches during the break!

With the seasons changing and the weather warming up, we are now looking at spending more time outside in our garden.  We started this term by looking at the story The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle and the children were fascinated by the story’s explanation of how plants grow.  This led them to look at the  life cycle of a sunflower 🌻.  They watched time lapsed videos of seeds germinating and sprouting into seedlings.  They have looked at the different parts of a plant and after planting their own seeds, they researched what we need to give the seeds in order for them to grow.

In maths the children learned about “more” and “less”.  They learned the concept of adding and taking away 1 from a given number and then had to  record their learning.  They really impressed me with their number work and I am proud of the determination they have shown to complete such a tricky task.

As part of our growing topic, the children loved the idea of our sunflowers and we have extended it to include learning about Vincent Van Gogh and his beautiful sunflower paintings.  This week the children have used a range of mediums to draw their own interpretations of the famous painting! The children have created some incredible pictures that we will be displaying in class soon.

How you can help at home:

During everyday activities where numbers or counting automatically occur, ask your child to tell you what number will be 1 more or 1 less than the number they identified e.g How many chairs are around the table. How many would there be if we added 1 more? What number is 1 less than… ?  Practicing this and making it an automatic response will benefit children when they start looking at addition and subtraction later in the term.

As always, have a lovely weekend!
The Nursery team xx