Bonfire and firework fun

Remember, remember the fifth of November,
Gunpowder treason and plot.
We see no reason
Why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot!



 

 

We talked in circle time about Bonfire night and why we celebrate with bonfires and fireworks.Whilst talking about it the children brought up about how dangerous fire is which led us to talk about safety around fires, matches and fire works.

 

 

We used different media to mark make firework images with lots of conversation about the noises and colours we might see and hear.

 Building our own chocolate bonfires was so much fun we couldnt wait to take them home, so after our special Bonfire Night lunch with rocket lollies we ate them.

Harvest Time

We have celebrated harvesting our vegetables and looking at their shape, size and texture.

We have used lots of different tools to make models and decorate our vegetables.     

We looked at the different vegetables and the printing we could do with them. A favourite was making lots of long lines using broccoli as a brush.

St Williams Catholic Primary School invited us to join in their harvest mass in church. We collected food to take to Vincent House for those people in need.

Autumn has arrived

We have been exploring the autumn season and how it changes the world around us.

We have looked at the green colours of summer on the trees and how they change to gold, orange, reds and brown and then watching the leaves fall. Together we took prints and experimented in changing the colours and turning ourselves from a green leafy tree to a tree that changes colour and looses its leaves.

ARGH a spider!!

Look what we found in our bin. Our whole day changed and became centred around our new friend.

After spending some time looking at our spider we watched the cartoon Spider by Graham Ralph (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnqVbBzntzY)  and thought about what the song was saying.

I like bunny rabbits, I like frogs.
I like pussycats, and I like dogs.
Talking to a tiger is like falling off a log.
Being friendly to the animals is easy!
I've got a couple of hamsters in the garden shed;
One's called Sebastian, and the other's called Fred.
I've even got a teddy bear I take to bed!
Being friendly with the animals is easy!

chorus:
But, a spider in the bath, a spider in the bath!
A creepy crawly, creepy crawly spider in the bath!
I know he's only there because he wants to have a laugh!
With hairy legs and beady eyes that terrify and tantalize!
But, a spider in the bath, a spider in the bath!
A creepy crawly, creepy crawly spider in the bath!
I know he's only there because he wants to have a laugh!
I thought I'd put it down the drain but now he's climbing up the chain!
Spider in the bath!

 

After a while we all decided our spider wasn't scary and just wanted to play. So how could we make his time with us fun?  We found him a house, looked on the internet to see what spiders liked and built him his own home. He didn't seem to like the sausages we had for lunch but at least we shared.

 

After a busy day looking at the sizes of different spiders , counting legs, matching numbers to quantity and talking about what we could do to make our spider happy one of the children wanted to take him home to play at his house.

 

Now we aren't scared of spiders because " we know he's only there because he wants to have a laugh!" 

A visit from Harold the giraffe in the Lancashire Life Education Centre

Today we have had a visit from Harold from the Life Education Centre and what fun we had.

 

Taking Care of Ourselves

 

Harold and his friend came to see us and told us all about Harolds preparation for his day going to nursery. The children helped him prepare himself  looking at the items in his wash bag and understanding what they are for and why we use them.

 

 

After a busy day when we are all tired Harold explained how we all need a good nights sleep to rest our body ready for the next day ahead. During this time we watched the stars and sung our favourite song twinkle, twinkle little star.

 

Before seeing the other children Harold sung his song about how special we all are. Thankyou Harold and his friend for sharing your day with us.

 

 

 

 

 

From pirates in boats to pirates that fly in orange Lancaster bombers!

Wow what a week we've had. Our Sparkling pirates have continued their journey not only checking the materials their treasure was made from but weighing to see which were the heaviest and lightest and how many pieces weigh as much as hedgehogs and rabbits !!

Every Pirate needs a hat. We've used our cutting skill to design and create. We decided what sort of a pirate we wanted to be. Between us we wanted to show our different interests in the pirates we wanted to be. We were shape, sparkly, pattern, fluffy feathered,  scary pirates with one thing in common we are all very busy and could find lots of treasure.

 As the week has progressed another of our interests came into play with our own flying pirate. Any guesses what next week we might be doing???

"Are you taking another picture? Me too say cheese"

Ahoy it's Sparklers Pirates

Wow what fun we're having with Jake and the Neverland Pirates.

The children's passion and interest in Jake and his friends has seen us change or reading corner in to a reading boat and what fun we're having in there. We've been looking at and reading lots of stories Jake and the Pirates, Pirates love Underpants by Claire Freedman and Ben Cort, The Singing Mermaid by Julia Donaldson, Mermaid by Cerrie Burnell, Shark in the Park by Nick Sharratt.

Through our books the children have and are continuing to develop the area.

We now have telescopes which are used for playing eye spy just like Timothy Pope in the story Shark in the Park.

We've created an image of ourselves as a pirate, looked at rhyming words, repeating phrases from familiar stories and created our own treasure maps which turned into individual story maps about finding hiden treasure.

We have each got a tresure box containing our very own treasure we have found as well as counting the big box of treasure that was hidden in our classroom.

Our pirates have explored different materials of treasure using magnets and scales counting and describing what they pick up and how heavy or light their treasure is.

Spending time at sea has leant itself to lots of number rhymes singing 1,2,3,4,5 once I caught a fish alive, 5 little speckled frogs and 5 little ducks went swimming one day.

So keep a look out Sparklers Pirates are still on their journey of discovery so beware!!

"Just make a mark and see where it takes you"

#dotday #makeamark

 

International Dot Day

 

This week we have celebrated International Dot Day through the story The Dot. September 15th is the anniversary of the publication of Peter H. Reynolds’ The Dot, in 2009 on this date, teachers and educators started celebrating International Dot Day which became a day
for classes to explore the story’s powerful themes:

bravery, creativity, and self-expression.

 

 

 

   

 

The story The Dot celebrates the power of creative teaching, it tells the story of a caring teacher who reaches a student in a creative way. In the book the teacher dares the  resistant Vashti to “make her mark.” Vashti’begins with a small simple dot on a piece of paper. Encouraged by her
teacher, she sets off on a journey of self-discovery, letting her creativity bloom and,
ultimately, inspiring others. you can see a short video of the story here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5mGeR4AQdM

 

 

          

We have been very busy making our own marks with a variety of media, counted dots and circles, hunted for circles in out environments, used the interactive whiteboard to make musical dots and marks ,explored circles, patterns and colour mixing.

The start of a fun filled year ahead

         



I hope you have all had a lovely summer and are ready for the new nursery year ahead. As we have all had a long break the thought of getting up is going to be tough as the days get darker but we have lots of things planned ready for us all. We have started the year by concentrating on getting back into routine, welcoming our new children and staff and looking at ourselves and our families.

                                                   

Could you please send in or email a photograph of your family and pets if you have them. The children love to share with us all about their families and especially the wide variety of pets they have.

Below is an overview of what we are looking at this half term and dates of events will follow.