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Nursery

Staff: Mrs Ward  / Mrs Hart / Mr Jordan / Mrs Kalawska 

Contact info – nicky.ward@panshanger.herts.sch.uk

Remember to go on to Tapestry for regular updates . 

Welcome to Panshanger School and to our Nursery class. On this page we post photos every half term sharing updates on the activities and learning the children are completing. 

Preparing for Reception

We understand that all children develop at their own pace, and that we’re all learning from birth. When it’s time to start school, some children will need more help than others.

There are key skills* that schools expect children to be learning before their first day. Practising these will make your child’s journey to Reception as positive as possible.

If your child is already at nursery, in pre-school, or with a childminder, those professionals will work with you and your child to help get them ready.

There’s lots you can do at home to build your child’s confidence and independence, helping them feel emotionally and practically prepared to start school.

*We are calling this document the ‘Starting Reception’ definition. Some people/organisations refer to this as ‘school readiness’.

Starting Reception (2.46MB)

 

Please visit the Starting Reception website for further information.

 

Spring 1

This half term Nursery have been very busy exploring Traditional Tales. These have included The Three Little Pigs, The Billy Goat’s Gruff, Goldilocks and the Three Bears and Little Red Riding Hood.

We enjoyed role playing in the house of bricks, the wolf couldn’t blow the house down! The Three Bears house had bowls of porridge and chairs for us to try, and the wolf was sleeping in Granny’s bed when we visited as Red Riding Hood!

We also enjoyed baking biscuits to take to Granny’s house in our basket, they were very tasty.

We also explored the story Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you Hear? We heard different animals making different sounds in our ear, then we described them to each other.

After reading We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, we explored going under, over, across and through different areas in the classroom. We went under the table, over the stool, across the mats and through the tunnel.

Autumn 2

Nursery have really enjoyed their Let’s Celebrate topic, exploring Halloween, Diwali, Birthdays and Christmas. We printed firework pictures, after looking at the story ‘Binny’s Diwali’, and seeing how Diwali is a festival of lights. As the evenings drew in, we explored the concept of light and dark, looking at owls as nocturnal animals and reading the book Owl Babies. Our class teddies celebrated their birthdays and we made them birthday cupcakes, which we all enjoyed!

We have been focussing on activities that support the children’s fine and gross motor skills such as threading beads, manipulating playdough and using tweezers. We also had some sessions with some of the Stevenage Football coaches, who came to teach us some fundamental PE skills such as moving around in a large space in different ways, running, jumping, jogging and walking forwards, and backwards.

During December, the children also enjoyed visiting our new role play area, Santa’s Workshop, where they could dress up, wrap gifts and decorate the Christmas tree.

The term ended with our early years production of “Barmy Bethlehem”, we were so proud of Nursery as it was their first time singing and dancing in front of an audience and they were amazing! We also enjoyed a trip to the panto, to see Sleeping Beauty, meeting Santa, who came to read us a story, making Christmas cards and a nursery class Christmas lunch.

Autumn 1

Nursery have had a really great start at school and have settled in really well. The children have adapted well to our new routines, made some new friends and are beginning to realise the importance of playing together kindly and sharing fairly. We have had great fun exploring our setting, playing both inside and outside.

This half term we have focused on helping to develop the children’s independence, encouraging them to change their own shoes, put on their own coats and access our resources independently. 

We enjoyed our topic ‘Who am I?’, talking about ourselves, our families and our homes. We drew our self portraits and displayed them on the wall in our portrait gallery.  We explored the jobs that people around us have and were very lucky to have a visit from the local police officers, who let us sit in their car and listen to the siren!

One of our favourite books this half-term has been The Gruffalo and we made playdough Gruffalos using different materials for his prickles, wart and eyes! We have also enjoyed dressing up as the Gruffalo too!

Outside we have enjoyed riding the trikes, climbing and swinging on the climbing frame and playing in the mud kitchen, creating some interesting recipes!