Celebrations
Our topic this term is ‘Celebrations’, including celebrating the changing of the seasons. This topic gives us a great opportunity to explore the subject of ‘Understanding the world’, where the children will learn about, and experience, changes in the natural world at this time of year. We also learn about the celebrations / festivals we have at home, as well as those in other countries and cultures. We will learn about the similarities and differences between festivals around the world. We will learn about: Autumn, Winter and Bonfire Night, Diwali, Remembrance Day, Birthdays and Christmas. This year we will be putting on a Nativity with the Reception children.
Some ways you can support learning at home:
Go on an autumn walk. Collect autumn leaves and use them to create a collage. Collect conkers and leaves to make patterns and practise counting.
Paint pictures of fireworks.
Talk about firework safety rules and why they are important.
Draw around your hand on paper and then design a mehndi pattern on it.
Look at old photos of celebrations (e.g. Birthdays, Christmas, Eid, etc) and talk about how you celebrate as a family. Talk to older relatives. Have celebrations changed since when they were younger?
Cook or bake at home, make some food for a celebration.
Make some decorations for a celebration at home.
Create your own poppy and think about who you would like to remember.
Welcome
Term 1
All About ME
Welcome to Buttercups Nursery at West Minster Primary School. We are so glad to have you join our community. I hope you have all had a lovely, restful summer break and are ready for a fun filled school year. To help keep you up to date, this will be updated termly.
This term our topic is “All about me”, where we will be celebrating individuality while focusing on settling in to school, learning the routines and getting to know our teachers and peers. We will begin learning straight away during our child initiated sessions. Children will have constant access to a wide range of resources, aiding their learning across all areas of the curriculum. We have spent a lot of time improving our Early Years, so there are lots of new and exciting things for the children to learn and explore with.
Please continue to check our Class Dojo for information about upcoming events, reminders and home learning. You can also use the messaging tool to contact Mrs Bell, this is the quickest way of reaching her although it may only be checked between the hours of 8:30-4:00 so please contact the office if your message is urgent.
We look forward to sharing the children’s hard work with you.
Term 5 Fantasy Land
This term in Nursery our topic is Fantasy Land 🙂
During the term we will be thinking about Superhero’s, Fairies, Space and Dinosaurs.
The children got off to an amazing start by dressing up as Superhero’s on their first day back after the Easter holidays.
Fire Safety!
We were lucky enough today to have David from the Fire Service come in and talk to the children about fire safety. The children loved hearing the story he read to them about the danger of matches and can now all tell you what number to ring in an emergency!
World Book Day
The children really enjoyed dressing up for World Book Day and we loved seeing them, especially those who shared their favourite books with us!
West Minster Nursery 2019-20
It’s always an exciting time at West Minster Nursery. The children have settled well into Nursery, learning the routines and enjoying using the indoor and outdoor areas.
We have begun our listening activities, which engage the children in games, stories and songs to encourage listening and language skills. We learn our numbers by using them in all our activities, from our Welcome songs to counting the cups at Snack Time. The children have started to make friendships and are learning the importance of caring and sharing.
Our topic this term is Celebrations – we read Room on the Broom and talked about our own Trick or Treat stories. We made firework pictures by splattering paint both inside and out. We celebrate the children’s birthdays with our birthday hat and we will be learning about Diwali – the Festival of Light.
Our Christmas production is The Wriggly Nativity – we have already started to learn our very bouncy songs and we look forward to you joining us as we share our show with you all. We will be making lots of decorations and Christmas bits which will soon adorn your homes! You are all invited to our Stay & Play Christmas craft sessions on Monday 16th December.
Spring Term
Next term in Nursery we are going to be learning about ‘All Creatures Great and Small’. This is an exciting topic that fits in nicely as winter turns into spring. The children learn about different animals through stories, exploring outdoors and watching as frogspawn develops into tadpoles and then frogs.
Our outside area is a haven for insects and birds – last year the children were very excited when a pair of ducks came to use our ‘pond in a tray’. We are also hoping to have some visiting animals throughout the term – watch this space.
Stories are a fantastic starting point for learning so we start each week with a different story about animals. These will include A Squash and a Squeeze, The Great Pet Sale, Commotion in the Ocean, The Snail and the Whale – to name but a few. The Nursery is equipped with different play animals for the children to investigate and use their imaginations when they act out the stories; build the animals homes and move and dance like the animals.
We are sure the children will have lots of fun exploring and learning about this interesting topic.
Creeping up to Christmas
This term’s topics are Celebrations and Sparkle & Shine so next week’s activities are a great combination of both of these.
The children will be making elves to hang on hoops to decorate the school hall – these are a beautiful decoration and will be a lovely Christmas surprise for parents and carers.
We will be reading the story of The Elves and the Shoemaker and talking about helping and being kind to one another.
Alongside this the children will be talking about and using shapes – squares, triangles, rectangles and circles – making arrangements and pictures. They will also practise writing their names – a very useful skill for signing Christmas cards.
We are very busy practising for our Nativity play and hope you will all be able to come to watch dates to follow shortly.
Autumn
This term we have been learning about Celebrations – birthdays, Halloween, Bonfire Night and we are working towards the big one – Christmas!!
The children are writing their own invitations, making party hats and cakes and you might have heard them singing some new songs. We have already started practising for our Nativity and hopefully the children are singing the songs wherever they go! The staff certainly are!
Dates for your diary
Parents meetings
Red Raspberries – Monday 26th June
Green Grapes – Tuesday 27th June
Blue Blueberries – Friday 30th June
Stay and Play fun day
Thursday 29th June – All welcome
Sports Day – Monday 3rd July
Graduation Ceremonies
Wednesday 5th July
Morning – 10am
Afternoon – 2pm
End of Term Party
Thursday 6th July
Fireman visit
A few weeks ago the children decided they would like the local Fire Brigade to visit them so together with the help of Mrs Kennedy they wrote a letter to them then we all went to the post box to post it.
They gave us a call and Miss Belcher organised for them to come to our school with their shiny red fire engine on Wednesday 21st June.
We had so much fun looking at all of the special equipment they have to use, we sat in the fire engine, tried on some of the special clothes they have to wear to keep them safe, heard the VERY LOUD siren and had a go at squirting the hose.
We would like to say a BIG THANK YOU to them for taking time out of their busy day to visit us.
A trip to The Fleet
On Monday we went for a walk to The Fleet. We had so much fun. Before we went we made a list of things we might see then we got on our coats and wellington boots and headed off.
We were so lucky when we were there. We saw a Heron, we heard a frog and then we saw lots of Moorhen’s and their tiny fluffy chicks and then mummy and daddy ducks and all their ducklings having a race on the water. The were very cute.
We are now making lots of things to put on a display about our trip to The Fleet.
Our new home
We have had a very busy term moving into our brand new Nursery but we are finally in and almost settled. We have had lots of fun exploring the inside and outside area and our teachers have been working really hard to make everything fun, bright and educational for us and we love it.
This term we have been reading lots of stories and doing some fun activities to go with the story. Our two favourite books have been The Mole who knew it was none of his business which has struck up many ‘pooh’ conversations and then we had Superworm which we all nearly know off by heart.
We had a visit from a lady who let us play on African drums. We made so much noise and had lots of fun banging out rhythms and beats.
During PE we have been practicing balancing, jumping off of small benches, throwing, catching, kicking, javelin and throwing balls into nets. We get very hot and sweaty but we are all doing really well.
If anyone has any old but useable Little Tykes type of cars they no longer use they would be gratefully received.
All creatures great and small
This term the children will be looking at and learning about lots of different animals.
We will be reading some of our favourite animal stories which include The Great Pet Sale, Commotion in the Ocean and Rumble in the Jungle.
Have you got pets at home? If so don’t forget to tell us all about them at school.
Oh help! Oh no! ITS A GRUFFALO!!!!!!!
The children absolutely loved planting beans this week and seeing the changes that are already happening. To go alongside Jack and the Beanstalk we have made our very own beanstalk height chart.
Next week we will be reading one of our favourite stories The Gruffalo….some of the activities will be playing Gruffalo snakes and ladders to teach us turn taking, making a giant Gruffalo using different materials and also looking at the different homes that the animals in the story live in.
Don’t forget its the last week of Term 3.
Run Run as fast as you can…….
This week the children have enjoyed reading the story of The Gingerbread Man. They have been decorating a giant Gingerbread Man, decorating their own Gingerbread Man cookies and sequencing the story.
Next week we will be reading Jack and the Beanstalk. One of the activities is planting our very own Beanstalks….
Please remember that Friday is PE day so children come to school in their PE clothes.
OFSTED
Following our Ofsted inspection we are delighted with the result of Outstanding for our Early Years Provision! Both the Nursery and Reception team work tirelessly to ensure our children receive the best start to their education. We look forward to more exciting times ahead.
We have a few spaces available in our afternoon sessions, feel free to contact us if you’d like to come and visit.
Term 3
The children have all settled back into Nursery really well and we have also welcomed some new children to both morning and afternoon sessions.
This term we are looking at Traditional Tales. So far we have read Goldilocks and the Three Bears and The Three Little Pigs. We’ve also been doing lots of fun activities around these stories.
Next week we will be reading The Gingerbread Man. One of the activities will be to decorate our own Gingerbread Man.
Term 2 Week 8
We have lots of fun planned for the last 3 days at Nursery before our Christmas break.
MONDAY – The children will be having their Christmas parties……don’t forget to wear your party clothes.
TUESDAY – All children are attending the morning session to perform their Christmas songs to their families.
WEDNESDAY – All children will be attending the morning session to watch the Staff pantomime.
We look forward to seeing you on Wednesday 4th January 2017
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all of the Nursery Team
Term 2 Week 7
This week we are going to be having lots of festive fun.
On Monday we are making something special for our family.
Tuesday all children are coming to the afternoon session to watch the pantomime, Aladdin.
Wednesday all our families are invited into Nursery to join us making lots of Christmassy things.
Friday we have a visit from SANTA!!!!!!!!
Term 2 Week 6
This week the children will be making Rice Krispie Reindeer to sell at the Christmas fair.
They will also be continuing to make lots of special Christmas crafts…….bring on the glitter!!!!