What a great start to the New Year!! We have been very busy Penguins! We have welcomed several new faces into the Penguin family – and what a delight they are! It has also been wonderful to see how kind and caring the children have been to our new friends, showing them around the classroom, asking them to play and helping them at snack time. 

 

Literacy.

Love is in the air in nursery this half-term!! The children have been very keen to write letters to their special people or draw pictures for them. The progress in the children's mark making is fantastic! We are beginning to see clear shapes in drawings. For example, faces have eyes, nose and mouths! We also have names that are beginning to take excellent shape! We are very impressed! The children love our weekly messy marks session, and it is definitely inspiring more children to pick up a pen or pencil!

We have been on several phonic sound walks and sound hunts this half-term. It's imperative the children have solid sound knowledge before they begin to learn phonetically. We popped into Mrs Beynon's office, and we heard the phone ringing so many times!! We went outside and could hear so many sounds. It was busy! The children love putting on their listening ears and going for a walk! 

We have also been looking around our classroom to see if we can identify the initial sounds of objects we use every day! We are getting quite good at it!

 

Numeracy.

There have been a few birthdays this half term and that always sparks excitement about numbers!! The numbers 3 and 4 are very special in our class! The children are often curious about what they look like, what number comes before and after them. They love spotting the numbers around the classroom! 

Water play is also a big hit, daily! The children adore making potions – magic love potions most recently! They thoroughly enjoy pouring, filling, and emptying. They love to mix and stir too. The penguins are often in the water too, with the children making habitats for them and teaching them how to swim!! The children are very good at sharing and communicating, especially at the water table. 

With love being the most popular theme recently, the children have been making jewellery for their special people! They have been threading, measuring, counting and some have even followed a pattern! Very impressive!! I've put an order in for some!! 

 

 

Science

We have done a lot of cooking already this year!! We have made waffles - not plain waffles but LOVE waffles that left you feeling all warm and happy and so full of love!! We made a penguin banana snack that was so yummy and not forgetting pineapple cinnamon sticks!! Delicious!! The children have been chopping, mixing, cracking eggs, melting chocolate, pouring and most importantly – eating!!! We have had lots of discussions about how liquids turn to solids and vice versa. We have had the best time! 

We have also had little daily experiments with ice. Our penguins got stuck in the ice and we had to free them! We used differnt ways to melt the ice-cold water, warm water, hammers, brushes. The children found out that the warm water was the best method, and they freed the penguins!

 

 

 

Humanities

We had the best day celebrating “One Love One Nursery” this month. We wore something that made us happy to school, played instruments, and made delicious snacks! We celebrated friendships, togetherness and love. It was Bob Marley’s 81^st birthday – Miss Hale plays in a reggae band and treated us to amazing singing and drum playing! The children were enthralled! We made our own reggae band!! It was delightful! Inspired by Bob  Marley we made some delicious Jamaican snacks – pineapple sticks and ginger cake!! Yum!!

 

We have also spent some time learning about people who help us. We know that if we are unwell, we see the doctor, if there is a fire, we ring the fire brigade and if we need help, we ring the police. We were so lucky to have all emergency service workers come into school to talk to us about their special jobs. We were able to sit in their vehicles, hear the sirens and put on their uniform!! Wow!! We were definitely inspired and we have some future police officers, fire fighters and paramedics / doctors for sure!! A huge thank you to our parents who supported this and helped make it happen! We are so lucky!

 

Health and Well Being

We are a happy bunch in Nursery!! We have lots of laughs and giggles daily! The children feel safe and loved and this shows everyday when they come to school with a smile on their face!

We have weekly outdoor learning sessions. This term we have been taking part in the Big Bird watch and have been looking to see what birds we can see in and around the school We also made some bird feeders to put around the school for the birds to have some snacks!! The children had so much fun tying them to trees and placing them around the school!

This half term we have been learning a Welsh Twmpath dance ready for St David’s Day! We have been counting and clapping to the beat, working as team and skipping and jumping! It has been so much fun!

 

 

Expressive Arts

Well, every day is an expressive arts day in Nursery! We have very creative children! They absolutely love to make something for somebody! They are always very special masterpieces!

Most recently, we have had wonderful paintings of ambulances and fire engines! We have also had some space pictures and we almost definitely have family portraits!

We are currently learning Sosban Fach for St David’s Day and the children sing with much love and passion! They are trying so hard to learn the tricky Welsh words too! Da iawn pawb!