Trotts Hill Primary School and Nursery
Welcome to Nursery
During the term we will be looking at the topic of 'Ourselves', and celebrating, Divali, Fireworks night and Christmas.
We have been thinking about our senses this week. We read the story Handa's Surprise and then we used our senses to look, touch, taste and smell the fruit. We also had a selection of different smells to see if we could distinguish them. We also had to match the objects with the senses that we would use.
The children visited the Forest School and this week they explored the area, looking at the leaves, pond and the aftermath of the wind! They needed to collect sticks so that they could make some hedgehogs.
This week in nursery we have been exploring shaving foam and using our senses to smell, look and touch it. The children had lots of fun, riding the vehicles across their hands and making tyre tracks with the shaving foam.
This week we went on a sensory walk around our beautiful school grounds. We noticed that the leaves were falling off the trees and changing colour. We heard the birds singing in the trees. We watched the man cutting the grass and could smell it once he had finished. We also noticed the berries on the tree and in the bushes ready for the birds to eat.
This week in nursery we started to explore our outdoor environment. The children went on a walk and collected some leaves. Once back in the nursery they printed with the leaves, to make a display on our autumn tree.
What a wonderful time we had on our sports day. We managed to avoid the rain! We took part in a sprint race, a balancing race and an obstacle race that our parents joined in with. We had great fun!
This week in nursery, we had a wonderful treat. Wild Science came to visit and Callum bought some wonderful animals and insects to show us. We were able to touch them if we wanted to and we learnt lots of facts about them. Callum bought, a gecko, millipede, gerbil, rabbit, snake and frog.
This week in nursery we have been reading the story Pirates Love Underpants. We designed our own underpants, played a game to find the matching underpants and watched and learnt a song from the NSPCC learning about our private parts and how to help keep ourselves safe.
This week in nursery we have been cutting out jelly fish to go with our topic of Under the Sea. The children worked very hard to cut the long tentacles and attach them to the head.
This week in nursery, we completed the Beanbag Challenge. We had to balance beanbags on different parts of our body. We had to walk a certain number of steps forwards and backwards too. We had to throw and catch the beanbags and even had to try and clap before we caught it. This was a challenge!
Week beginning 20th May 2024
This week we have been reading Jack and the Beanstalk in Nursery. Linked to this, we made our own prints with leaves by painting them and printing them onto paper, and by making leaf rubbings with crayons.
Week beginning 13th May 2024
This week we read the story Oliver’s Vegetables. We then sorted fruit and vegetables into separate baskets naming each as we put into the basket. We said we didn’t have many vegetables and suggested what else could go in. The children had the opportunity to draw different vegetables and also to cut potatoes to make chips during CIL.
Week beginning 6th May 2024
This week Nursery have been reading 'The Tiny Seed' by Eric Carle. We planted our own tiny seeds that we hope will grow into big, tall sunflowers! We filled out pots with compost and watered the seeds independently. We are excited to watch them grow.
Week beginning 29th April 2024
This week in Nursery we have been learning all about frogs. The children had the chance to paint the life cycle of a frog. Starting with frog spawn, next a tadpole, then a young frog and finally into an adult frog. They did really well at capturing the likeness of all of the different stages of a frog's lifecycle.
Week beginning 22nd April 2024
For Earth Day today we completed some different fun activities in forest school. We collected dandelions and used them to try and dye some play dough yellow. It worked a little bit but not as well as we hoped! The children had fun making stick cakes with the play dough when it was finished. We also tried painting with mud as well as having our usual CIL time in the forest area.
Week beginning 15th April 2024
This week Nursery have been strengthening their finger muscles by doing dough disco activities - manipulating the dough to music - patting squeezing, pinching, rolling and poking the play dough. This is to make our wrists, hand and fingers strong ready for writing.
When we’d finished working to music we manipulated the play dough to make a person.
Week beginning 18th March 2024
This week Mrs Spendlove brought her two chickens into visit Nursery. We talked about different animals that lay eggs and the children asked questions about the hens. We visited them outside and the children were able to stroke them if they chose to. Well done for being so gentle Nursery! Bessie and Goldie loved visiting you.
Week beginning 11th March 2024
We have been thinking about people who help us this week, linked to our nursery rhyme: Miss Polly had a Dolly. We watched a video from Mrs Spendlove’s friend, Dr Izzy. Dr Izzy told us a bit about her job as a doctor who works with children, and then we thought of some questions to ask her. We played doctors together during CIL time, using bandages and slings to make each other feel better!
Week beginning 4th March 2024
This week we have been learning the nursery rhyme, Humpty Dumpty. During maths today we spoke about inside, behind, in front and in between. We used eggs and a basket to act out the positional language.
Week beginning 26th February 2024
This week we have been thinking about the number 6. The children in Nursery played a game where we had to build a bear. We had to roll the dice to see which number we had and found the relevant piece of the bear. The children played really well, just needing support with some of the numeral recognition.
Week beginning 12th February 2024
This week we have been thinking about Lent. We tasted pancakes, make pancake faces, made four and water pancakes so that we could have pancake races. We discussed why Christian observe Lent and what it means to them.
Week Beginning Monday 5th February 2024
This week we have been learning about Lunar New Year. We have read the story of the great race and engaged in many Lunar New Year Activities.
Week Beginning Monday 29th January 2024
This week in forest school, Nursery worked in our outdoor area completing some different activities. They hammered a leaf onto a piece of fabric to make a print, used clay to make small animals and minibeasts and completed CIL outside (they were very busy doing lots of digging!).
Week Beginning Monday 22nd January 2024
This week in Nursery we have been thinking about warm colours. We talked about what colours you might see in a fire 🔥. We named red and yellow and mixed the colours together to make orange. We all had the opportunity to explore mixing independently. Some children chose to make collages using warm colours in choosing time.
Week Beginning Monday 15th January 2024
This week in forest school we were busy making a den! We all collected the biggest sticks that we could find and leaned them again the largest stick. We all worked together and felt very proud of our finished den.
Week Beginning Monday 8th January 2024
This week we had our first chilly forest school session of the year. Nursery enjoyed having their CIL in the forest area today, using the rope swing, learning about different kinds of birds, exploring the mud and ice and making bird feeders with apples and seeds.
Autumn Term 2023
Week Beginning Monday 11th December 2023
This week Nursery performed their Christmas production: 'We're going on a baby hunt'. They all did very well and the Nursery team are so proud of them!
Week Beginning Monday 4th December 2023
This week Nursery used the bikes to practise their gross motor skills of pedalling, manoeuvring around our friends, manipulating the stepper and scooter. We had a really good try, using perseverance and determination.
Week Beginning Monday 27th November 2023
This week we are thinking about Advent and we looked at how and why advent us celebrated.
We looked at pictures of advent wreaths and what the candles represented on the wreath.
We then designed our own wreaths using paper plates, tissue paper, pom poms and card for the candles.
The children did very well and spent time on them.
Week Beginning Monday 20th November 2023
This week the whole of nursery went to our forest area for the first time. We discussed the forest area rules and made sure we were wearing puddle suits and wellies. Some children completed an activity making bird feeders using cheerios and pipe cleaners. We had a lovely time!
Week Beginning Monday 13th November 2023
As part of our Diwali learning, nursery have been making their own Rangoli patterns on the interactive whiteboard. We talked about how Rangoli patterns are symmetrical which means they have to be the same on both sides.
Week Beginning Monday 6th November 2023
This week in forest school we had a lovely time exploring the forest area with our friends from Reception. Children were free to play in the woods and gather different natural resources in baskets. We found lots of different kinds of mushrooms, leaves and berries.
Week Beginning Monday 30th October 2023
In Nursery this week, we have been practising our counting. Children have been representing numbers using different resources and practising number recognition starting with number 1. We also looked at recognising the number that represents how old we are.
Week Beginning Monday 16th October 2023
Today we were very lucky to have a visit from Miss MacDonald, a Reception parent, who talked to us about her role as a children’s nurse at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
She talked to us about her job looking after children and showed us some of the equipment and resources she uses. We were then allowed to play with these things during CIL. Nurse MacDonald's visit has really inspired our children. Thank you from all of us.
Week Beginning Monday 9th October 2023
This week we have been celebrating World Mental Health Day - or 'Hello Yellow' day. Children came to school dressed in yellow. We made hearts and letters for a display using yellow resources. We read books about kindness and positive behaviour and then we learned all about Zones of Regulation. These are new areas in our classroom that support us to think about how we are feeling, understand those feelings and to learn strategies that aid us in regulating our emotions and behaviours. All of these things can help our overall mental health.
Week Beginning Monday 2nd October
This week in Nursery we have been talking about houses. We worked outside in the construction area to build houses. We talked about needing walls, doors and a roof.
We could use any construction resources but the children chose small building bricks and stickle bricks.
Some of the children continued this during choosing time and made an amazing town out of different resources.
Week Beginning Monday 25th September
This week Nursery worked on their gross motor skills. They had a lovely time using the bikes on the KS1 playground.
Week beginning 18th September 2023
This week in forest school we investigated apples! We sung a song about apples falling off an apple tree, and explored the insides of apples using tweezers and magnifying glasses. During CIL we printed with the apples to make paintings.
Week beginning 11th September 2023
This week Nursery have been settling into their classroom. We have been busy making friends and exploring our indoor and outdoor resources!
This week in nursery we played a matching game about what you find at the seaside. We looked at many pictures of things you do when you are at the beach. We also spoke about the importance of water safety. We found the differences between 2 beach pictures and looked at pictures of a beach from yesteryear.
This week in nursery we learnt about road safety and using our scooters safely on the pavements. We learnt how to cross the road, waiting patiently for the cars to stop, how to manoeuvre our scooters safely around obstacles and the importance of wearing helmets. We had lots of fun!
This week in nursery we had a visit from Wild Science. They bought animals for us the look at, stroke and hold. These animals included a gecko, a breaded dragon, a guinea pig, a millipede and a snake. We had a wonderful morning.
This week in nursery, we have been looking at the story Pirates Love Underpants. We looked at all the different designs and then made our own.
This week in nursery we have been thinking about jellyfish. One of our activities was to practise our cutting skills and cut out jelly fish. We all tried really hard and what a wonderful display we made.
We had great fun in nursery this week. We explored the rollers and made very big pictures to develop our large gross motor skills.
This week in nursery we have been ordering by height. We used beanstalks to do this as we were reading the story Jaspers Beanstalk.
We went on a shape hunt this week for one of our maths lessons. We found many 2D shapes both inside and outside in the nursery garden. We made a tally chart when we found a shape. If we saw a shape that wasn't on the piece of paper we drew it on ourselves. We had so much fun and found lots of shapes.
We have had a fun week learning about frogs. We have watched a video about the life cycle of the frog, watching the frog lay her eggs and how the frog is formed. We made life cycles of frogs using our cutting and sequencing skills. We also painted pictures of the life cycle, thinking about the different stages, thinking about the colours and size to make the different representations of the life cycle.
This week in nursery we have been getting ready for the coronation. We have made bookmarks of King Charles and Queen Camilla, the Grenadier Guards and the union jack flag. We also made crowns, bunting and flags to fly and take home.
Continuing our growth topic, we have been looking at baby animals. We looked at many different animal babies and paired them with their mum, learning some new vocabulary. We focused on chicks and ducklings, looking at the differences between their beaks and feet. We cut out the different pieces of the chick and then used our fingers to push the split pins through the paper to attach the different parts. We were very pleased with the results.
We are thinking about growing this half term and to introduce the topic we bought in photographs of when we were babies. We discussed the differences of what we looked like and all the things we couldn't do then but we can now.
This week in nursery we have been thinking about Easter. We have read the Easter story, designed Easter eggs and made stain glass windows in the shape of a cross. We were all given the opportunity of tasting a Hot Cross Bun and finally we made Easter nests using chocolate, rice krispies and mini eggs.
We have continued our topic of nursery rhymes, this week it is Incy Wincy Spider. We made spiders on paper plates using black handprints and 8 fingers. Once they had dried we made holes around the plate and weaved the white wool to represent the web. We now have spiders in their webs.
in Forest School this week, we looked for signs of spring. We then painted or drew flowers that we found on our spring walk.
This week in nursery we have been learning about Humpty Dumpty. We made a large Humpty Dumpty looking at the shape of the wall, his body and his arms and legs. We sang a counting song about Humpty Dumpty and then did some maths work. We had to find the matching numerals to put Humpty back together again.
In nursery this week, we celebrated World Book Day. We all dressed up as characters from nursery rhymes or our favourite book. All children dressed up and we had a variety of different costumes. We made a display on our classroom door of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. The children had to colour in a star and then cut it out and place it on our display. We had lots of fun!
This week in nursery we have been thinking about Lent. We have made pancakes and had pancake races. We tried pancakes with lemon and sugar and we made pancake faces using different textures.
We have been exploring our new construction area. We have lots of different natural materials and the children are being very imaginative. They have made cakes, with sprinkles and icing, An ice cream shop, selling lots of different flavours and Roblox.
We have been thinking about cold colours in nursery this week. We thought about which colours made us feel cold and the first one we thought of was white - because of snow! We also discussed the colours blue and green and then made our own pictures using the different shades of blue, green and white.
This week in nursery we have been celebrating the Lunar New Year. We read the story about the great race and ran our own races in the playground. We made lanterns and celebrated the Year of the Rabbit, by making some rabbits. We finished off the week by playing the drums and cymbals to Chinese music and performing the Dragon dance.