Worth Valley Primary School

Welcome to nursery!  We welcome back children who were in nursery last term as well as welcoming new children and families to our nursery family.  We will spend the first few weeks settling in and developing relationships as well as building confidence and self esteem as the children settle in to nursery routines.  We will be learning about Dinosaurs and Autumn as the season changes over the next few weeks.

We like to use a Hygge approach in nursery where we embed a calm, cosy and purposeful learning environment.  You will notice that lighting is low, twinkly lights are placed around the room, there are cosy areas as well as calming music playing to help the children remain calm yet be purposeful in their play.

Over the next few weeks we will be starting the movement programme Squiggle Whilst you Wiggle.  Children will be using flipper flappers in a range of ways to help develop their gross motor movements.  This programme helps children develop their coordination and early writing skills.

learning info for parents AUTUMN 1Autumn Term 2024

Nursery went to Birchfield Ice Cream Farm in Harrogate to go Pumpkin Picking.  A great day was had and we all picked a pumpkin to take home!  We read the story ‘Pick a Pumpkin,’  we talked about Harvest and we made Pumpkin Soup with a range of Autumn vegetables. It was delicious!

Autumn 2

This half term Nursery children will be exploring different Autumn and Winter festivals such as Diwali and Christmas as well as learning about Bonfire Night.  We will also be learning about Light and Dark and reading stories such as ‘Owl Babies’ and ‘The Fox in the Dark.’ We will be joining in with World Nursery Rhyme Week as well as joining in with the whole school Christingle Service at St John’s Church in December.  We will be learning about the seasonal changes that take place as we move towards Winter time!

learning info for parents AUTUMN 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a brilliant day at Hesketh Farm.  Nursery and Preschool children have had an amazing day!  We saw lots of animals and baby animals, fed the goats and the horses.  We held a chick, collected some eggs, stroked and brushed some guinea pigs, mixed the milk for the calves and then we fed the calves with the milk.  We had a tractor ride with Farmer Chris, enjoyed a paddock walk and even spent time playing in the playgrounds and the sandpits.  The children were superb!  A great day was had by all!

 

learning info for parents SUMMER 2 learning info for parents SUMMER 1

We are so excited our butterflies have hatched from their cocoons!

Spring 2 2024

We have enjoyed exploring the texts of Julia Donaldson in nursery this half term and we have been learning about different festivals and events such as Holi, Ramadan and Easter.  Reverend Tracey and Reverend Jon from St John’s Church came to talk to us about the Easter Story and we learned how Christian’s celebrate Easter time.

We also read Jack and the Beanstalk and we planted some beans.  We were amazed when they started to grow!  We learned that plants need sunlight and water to grow.

We were lucky to have a clay artist visit us in nursery.   We had so much fun.

CLAY PP

We celebrated International Day of Hygge by walking around the school grounds looking for signs of Spring as well as baking and sharing buns together.  What a lovely day we had.

HYGGE PP

 

Spring 1 2024

Happy New Year!  This half term we have been exploring Antarctica and learning about Emperor Penguins. We have welcomed new children and families in to nursery after the Christmas break and the children have settled in really well which is brilliant. The older children have helped the new children settle in which has been really lovely to watch! We have followed some of the children’s interests on penguins and have planned some work around this for the first few weeks of term.  We have explored ice over several weeks this half term and even used ice and snow in our play outside when we had some snowy and very cold days.  We have also learned about Chinese New Year.

learning info for parents EYFS format FINAL (1)

 

 

Photo Album - ANTARCTICA

Maths in Nursery

Maths in Nursery

We have been learning about Chinese New Year in Nursery.

Chinese New Year PDF

Art in Nursery

We have used brusho and water to explore colour mixing with pipettes.

Spring 1 Art in Nursery

 

 

 

Hi everyone welcome to the webpage for nursery!

Autumn 1 2023

A brilliant start this year in Nursery.  We have been settling in, developing confidence and making new friends.  We have been exploring Dinosaurs and Autumn this half term.  We have been doing lots of singing and we have started our movement programme Squiggle Whilst you Wiggle.  We have been counting, subitising, exploring 2d and 3d shape as well as looking at repeating patterns and exploring prepositions such as under, behind, on, next to, above, below, in front.  We have been developing our listening skills as we sit together at carpet time.

Don’t forget to take a book from the lending library and read this with your child repeatedly over the week.  By the end of the week see if your child can retell the story and use some of the language in the story.  We know that reading stories can also help with language development as well as developing other early literacy skills so snuggle up with your child and enjoy these stories together.  Please feel free to change your book every week.  Don’t forget to sing the rhyme of the week that your child brings home too!

We used apples, flour, sugar and butter to make a yummy apple crumble together.  We let it bake and then we all shared it together.  It was delicious!  We also made dinosaur biscuits earlier in the term.

We have been taking part in a movement programme called Squiggle whilst you Wiggle where we use our flipper flappers (pieces of material) to make big movements with our bodies. We then practise these movements using different tools when we are outside.  We are having lots of fun and developing our gross and fine motor skills.

Autumn 2 2023

We look forward to reading Pumpkin Soup together the first week back after half term as well as making pumpkin soup, painting and decorating pumpkins and learning a Bonfire Night poem as we look forward to celebrating Bonfire Night.  We will be weighing pumpkins and comparing different sizes of pumpkins in our maths work. We will also be learning new songs about pumpkins and fireworks.

 

Stickman focus.  We love this story in nursery! We made our own Stick family using sticks the children had collected with string and googly eyes.  We also used these sticks to make 2d shapes and to make marks with paint.

 

 

During the last few weeks of term we are exploring the Christmas story, singing lots of Christmas songs and creating lots of Christmas crafts to share with our families.  We look forward to making our own Christingles with glow sticks and sweets to hold during the Christingle service at St John’s Church.

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summer Term 1

This half term we are exploring minibeasts in nursery!  We have been reading stories and singing songs about Minibeasts and we have been watching our caterpillars grow and change.  We have celebrated the King’s Coronation as well as Earth Day.  We have welcomed new children in to nursery and they have settled really well.

 

 

 

Spring Term 2

This half term we will be exploring some of the texts written by Julia Donaldson starting with The Gruffalo.  We will also be looking for signs of Spring as we move towards the end of the half term.  We will be celebrating International Hygge Day and Pancake Day at the end of February as well as learning about the Hindu festival of Holi in March.  We also look forward to celebrating and learning about the Christian celebration of Easter.

 

January 2023

Happy New Year!  We have welcomed new children and families in to nursery after the Christmas break and the children have settled in really well which is brilliant. The older children have helped the new children settle in which has been really lovely to watch! We have followed some of the children’s interests in penguins and have planned some work around this for the first few weeks of term.  We have explored ice over several weeks this half term and even used ice and snow in our play outside when we had some snowy and very cold days.  We have also learned about Chinese New Year.  The children loved learning facts about this festival that is celebrated in January and could recall lots of facts when our headteacher came to visit!

Don’t forget to take a book from the lending library and read this with your child repeatedly over the week.  By the end of the week see if your child can retell the story and use some of the language in the story.  We know that reading stories can also help with language development as well as developing other early literacy skills so snuggle up with your child and enjoy these stories together.  Please feel free to change your book every week.

Autumn Term September – December 2022

Hi everyone welcome to the webpage for Nursery.

The nursery children have been settling in brilliantly over the last few weeks.  They have been joining in with different activities as they have been exploring the nursery setting and they have been developing relationships with their teachers and their new friends.  Mrs Page, Miss Coppack and Miss Horner and I are very pleased with how the children have settled in and how their confidence has developed.  Well done!   Some of the children have showed an interest in dinosaurs so we have been focusing on reading dinosaur stories over the last couple of weeks and we have explored sludgy dinosaur swamps and have been learning new songs and rhymes about dinosaurs.  Don’t forget to sing these rhymes with your child when they are sent home.   We sing all of the time in nursery so please join us in singing with your child as much as possible as singing rhymes is brilliant for language development as well as being a fun activity you can engage in with your child.  We have been doing lots of counting and learning about different 2d shapes as well as learning some of the names of different dinosaurs we are using in our play.  We will be moving towards observing seasonal changes as we learn about Autumn.  Look out for your special bag that will come home so you can collect some Autumn treasures to bring in to show us over the next few weeks.

Don’t forget to take a book from the lending library and read this with your child repeatedly over the week.  By the end of the week see if your child can retell the story and use some of the language in the story.  We know that reading stories can also help with language development as well as developing other early literacy skills so snuggle up with your child and enjoy these stories together.  Please feel free to change your book every week.

 

We made dinosaur biscuits to eat together.

The Police came to visit this week!  We learned lots about the job that they do!

We have been learning the names of 2d shapes so we went on a shape hunt!

We learned about the celebration of Diwali. We talked about how Diwali is celebrated and we made diva lamps with dough and made our own rangoli patterns with clay and gems.

     

 

 

 

 

Summer 2022

After the Easter break Nursery welcomed some new children who have settled in really well.  They have been settling in to routines amazingly and the teachers and children have done lots of work to ensure the children feel safe, secure and are most importantly happy.  The children are making and developing new friendships and making relationships with the staff members in the early years team.  A brilliant start to the summer term. Well Done!

Our topic is Minibeasts and over the next few weeks we will be sharing different stories about minibeasts and learning new minibeast rhymes.   This week we have been reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar and we have been learning the days of the week.  Our new pet caterpillars arrived this week too so we are learning about why we need to look after them and we are excited to watch them change and grow over the next few weeks.  We are excited to see how they change into a butterfly!  Watch this space for the photographs.

 

Week 1 Caterpillars                   Week 2 Caterpillars                  Week 4 Cocoons                    Week 5 Butterflies

After the Spring Bank Holiday we will be settling back in to nursery routines and continuing to develop our relationships with teachers and peers.  We are starting with the topic People Who Help Us which will lead into learning about The Farm later in the term.  Watch this space for information about the Nursery and Reception trip to Hesketh Farm at Bolton Abbey on Thursday 21st July.

We will be doing lots of lovely transition activities with the Reception team as the older children in nursery get ready for the next part of their journey in their Reception class in September.

In Nursery we are always singing.  We sing nursery rhymes every day and we send a copy of the new rhyme of the week home so please encourage your child to sing it with you.  We also have a focus story each week which is read every day so by the end of the week they will have learned some new vocabulary and they should be able to retell you the story at home so ask them to tell you about the story of the week.

The children can bring home a story book to share at home and re read over the week.  Please spend time with your child reading the story every day over the week so that your child becomes familiar with the story.  Enjoy spending time looking through the illustrations, discussing what you and your child can see.  Enjoy spending this quality time with your child as we want to develop a love for reading and sharing stories with your child at this young age will help to develop this.  Please ensure that the book is returned in the plastic bag it went home in.  Many thanks.

In Nursery we have access to regular outdoor play daily so please ensure that your child has a change of clothes just in case they get muddy or wet when playing in the different areas of provision inside and when in the outdoor area.

Oracy and developing vocabulary is a huge focus for us in Early years as our aim is to help our children be the best communicators that they can be.  Sharing stories together and singing lots of nursery rhymes will help to develop this language.  We have introduced vocabulary flowers with targeted new words on that we as adults model to the children with the aim for the children to start using this vocabulary.  Look out for vocabulary flowers coming home.  These are the words we are focusing on so please encourage your children to use them at home too.

All of the Early Years children had a lovely walk down to our local church St John’s just before the Easter holidays to spend time with Reverend Tracey where we learned about the Easter story.

We have lots of fun in nursery.

 

Top tips to get ready for reading

1. Share Nursery Rhymes

One of the most valuable things you can do to get your child ready for reading at nursery is to share traditional nursery rhymes together. There’s a wealth of nursery rhymes to choose from and they all offer a variety of pre-reading skills.

Nursery rhymes are fantastic because they:

Familiarise children with the features of a story e.g. character, setting, plot, structure (a beginning, middle and end).

Explore rich and unusual vocabulary (e.g. ‘tuffett’ and ‘curds and whey’ in Little Miss Muffett).

• Create a strong foundation for early phonics through rhythm and rhyme.
• Can be a sociable activity and encourage early communication – adults and other children can join in the words and actions together.
• Spark a child’s imagination showing that words and pictures can be fun.

2. Explore Signs and Logos

As children begin to explore the world around them, they start to make associations between signs and logos they see and the idea that they hold meaning. Your child’s teacher will be exploring environmental print like this at nursery to encourage pre-reading skills.

Look for and talk about logos, labels and signs at home or out and about: on cereal packets, toy boxes, shops, posters, street signs and so on. You can even have fun cutting out logos and seeing how many your child begins to recognise or talk about even though they can’t decode text yet e.g. “Lego” or “Weetabix”.

3. Play I Spy Sounds

Helping your child to get ready for reading at nursery can be great fun! A game that everyone enjoys is “I Spy”. When children first start this game, they will need lots of extra support as they start to make connections between sounds and objects – a strong basis for learning to read later on. It’s useful to scaffold each game with a topic, such as “Animals on the Farm” to give your child a context.

• First, hide some farm animal toys or pictures in a box or bag.
• Next, choose one and without letting your child see it say: “I spy with my little eye, I can hear with my little ear, something beginning with c – and it goes “Moo! Moo! What is it?”
• Give your child lots of praise if they say the right answer and plenty of encouragement if they don’t. If they do struggle you could choose two animal toys and ask what noises the animals make before asking the question again.
• One day, you won’t need to do the animal sound and your child will learn c is the initial letter sound in cow

4. Understand First Phonics

When you talk about letters with your child, such as playing games like “I Spy”, try not to use the alphabet names, such as in the ABC Alphabet Song. At nursery your child will be encouraged to use the letter sounds introduced in phonics (e.g. /a/ for apple and /sh/ for sheep). This will give your child a great foundation for learning to read with phonics at school.

5. Talk Together

Speaking and listening is critical in laying the foundations for early reading and writing.  How we engage and communicate with our children in the first few years of life directly impacts their reading. Research shows that the more words a child knows at an early age, the more proficient they are at reading challenging texts later on.

Conversations in the home encourage thinking skills, concentration and patience. These are great building blocks in the learning to read process.

6. Share Books Together

Children who read for pleasure are more likely to succeed academically. Children will be sharing stories and books at Nursery on a daily basis. You can help your child get ready for reading at nursery by encouraging an enjoyment of reading at home too. Aside from online and high street book shops, libraries are a perfect way for children to experience the joy and independence of choosing their own books to read.

7. You Are a Reader

Why should a child choose to read if they don’t notice significant adults in their lives reading? Make sure your children see you reading and perhaps talk about why you’re reading (if it comes up naturally). And what is the point of reading if a child doesn’t understand why reading is important. Think about how you read in everyday life and how you can show your child that it is important: reading instruction manuals, reading the news, finding out information, making a cake, online searching, reading a novel for pleasure, and so on.

8. Your Child’s Name

One of the first words your child will recognise and read is his/her name. Initially, at nursery, your child is likely to have a peg with their name on it. This is often accompanied by a photo of their face or a familiar picture so they don’t worry when they can’t yet read the word. It won’t be long until your child begins to recognise the first capital letter and soon all the letters in their name.

9. Creative and Imaginative Play

Play is critical in early child development. In terms of getting ready for reading at nursery, role play is one of the most important activities a child can do.

When children play at taking on the role of another person or character, they begin to re-enact real-life scenarios or elements of a story. You will notice that your child starts to mimic phrases that they have learnt with a variety of expressions. As your child role-plays in this way, they will learn the power of language. All these things are a fantastic foundation for learning to read.

 

Useful Links

Classroom Secrets- https://kids.classroomsecrets.co.uk/category/eyfs/

Cbeebies Radio- https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/radio

Nature Detectives- https://naturedetectives.woodlandtrust.org.uk/naturedetectives/

Red Ted Art- https://www.redtedart.com

The Imagination Tree- https://theimaginationtree.com

Numberblocks- https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/numberblocks

Alphablocks- https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/alphablocks

Jolly Phonics- https://www.jollylearning.co.uk/resource-bank/learn-the-letter-sounds/

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