Welcome to Leigh C of E Nursery!

We are really looking forward to a new year at Leigh C of E Nursery and we cant wait to meet and get to know the new pupils and their parents. We have lots of exciting things planned over the year.  Please keep coming back to this page to find out what we have been doing. We will also post any useful information or links that may be of interest to you.

Over the year we will cover six themes, one per half term.  We will begin this Autumn term with the theme "Nice to meet you!" followed in the second half with the theme "Whizz, Pop, Bang!!".  In the Spring term we will cover the themes "Hello, can I help you?" and "Roots and Shoots" and then we will end with the themes "Where in the world is Barnaby Bear?" and "The Ugly Bug Ball" in the Summer term.  To find out about our themes in more detail please follow the link to look at our curriculum maps:

Please take a look below to see what we have been up to each week:

14th July 2017

What a very full week this has been.  We may be drawing nearer to the end of term but there is still plenty of learning and fun to be had.  We shared more stories with the children including one called Melrose and Croc which the children looked at in more detail and we discussed the friendship between the two  and the things that they could see and do at the seaside.  

The children continued making pirate ships but made individual ones rather than a large one which they continued building and using for most of the week.  They were so enthused by these that we kept these out for our beach morning.  Go to our gallery to see how much fun we had.

The beach morning went down a storm with the children all arriving with their suitcases packed with towels and swimming aids.  The children had such fun in our make shift beach, splashing in the paddling pool and making sandcastles on the beach.  They also enjoyed painting the large pasta  shells in doors and taking part in the beach themed maths and literacy activities.

The rising Reception children learned the sounds  x, nk and ng this week.  These sounds were also a bit tricky to remember so the children could benefit from practising them further at home.  We have now come to the end of Set 1 sounds so we will revise these next week and hope that parents will help to keep them fresh in the children's minds over the holidays for when they move up to the Reception class in September.

The week ended with an amazing 50th anniversary fete for our school.  The turnout was fantastic and it was lovely to see so many families.  

Next Wednesday we will be holding our end of term parents stay and play family event and we hope that you can all make it.  We will be having an end of year party on this day too.  On Friday the whole school will be attending the Year 6 leavers service at St James Church and as usual all children who are brought to class will be walking to and from the church with the rest of the school. Parents do have the option of taking their children directly to the church and staying with them to take part in the service and then taking them home from there.  However children who have walked up with us will need to walk back to school before being collected to go home.

Please check our gallery to see all the learning we have been doing this week by clicking on the link below:

7th July 2017

This week we continued with our sea theme by sharing the rhyming text 'Sally and the limpet'.  The children even had a go at making up their own stories based on the story we had read. This encouraged the children to want to learn more about the seaside.  

In the outside area the children played in pirate ships that they made using the large construction and they used the pirate tuff spot play to make up their own stories about pirates and sharks!!  They were very enthusiastic about this activity.  They also made jelly fish using tissue paper and pie trays.  The finished results were very good for independent work.  

In the inside area the children made boat images using cut out shapes and they matched numbered spades to its corresponding spotted buckets.  They also practised their previously learned sounds using the picture and letter matching activity.  They explored making marks with chalk and some children were able to write some of the sounds that they have learned. 

After looking at artists during transition day we continued this activity the following day by rolling marbles across paper after having dipped them in paint.  See the gallery for the effect.  The rising Reception children learned the sounds  z, ch and qu this week.  These sounds were a bit tricky to remember so the children could benefit from practising them further at home.

On Wednesday the rising Reception children spent the morning in Reception in preparation for next year. They were also visited by Miss Haslam on other occasions to become familiar with her.  She was amazed at how bright and well behaved they were at all times.  The children are a credit to their families.

Next week the children will be learning the sounds x, nk and ng and we will be moving further towards a seaside theme with our beach day happening on Wednesday morning.  Let's pray for good weather.  The children can wear summer clothes and can bring a small suitcase with a towel, swimming clothes, sun hat and glasses.  Please put lots of suncream on your child before they come to school as we will be spending lots of time outside.  

Please check our gallery to see all the learning we have been doing this week by clicking on the link below:

30th June 2017

This week we continued with our sea theme by sharing the rhyming text 'Jolly Olly Octopus'.  The children enjoyed listening to the rhyme and trying to guess which word would finish the sentence. We also spent lots of time singing nursery rhymes and sharing other sea themed stories.  The younger nursery children used the instruments to help them with their rhymes.

As a continuation to our discussion the previous week about which animals live in the sea we carried out a sorting activity to sort sea and farm animals.  The children were very good at categorising the two from each other.   We used play dough and sequins to create mermaid tails and the children made paper chains to create octopus tentacles for our large octopus.  

We further continued with our exploration of mixing colours by using the sensory balls to roll paint across the paper and talk about what we could see happening to the colours as they crossed each other.  The children also enjoyed using the wet cotton buds to trace the chalked lines and wash them away. Some children used the number frames and counters to find how many different ways that they could make the same number.  I was very impressed with how independently the children could do this.

The rising Reception children learned the sounds  w, y and th this week and their ability to recognise the sounds that they have covered previously is commendable.

Also on Thursday the children carried out sports activities in the hall due to the bad weather disrupting our sports morning.  The children were very good at following instructions and taking turns.  It was a change from our usual routine but this did not phase them.

Next week the children will be learning the sounds z, ch and qu and we will be moving more towards a seaside theme.  On Wednesday the children will be taking part in transition day.  The nursery 2 children will be spending the morning in Reception whilst Nursery 1 and those children who will be starting nursery in September will be spending time in nursery (parents are expected to stay with those children not already on our school registers).  All children are to come into nursery first and will be taken to Reception from there.  

Please check our gallery to see all the learning we have been doing this week by clicking on the link below:

23rd June 2017

This week we looked at the story of the Rainbow Fish as a continuation to the children becoming enthused last week with the sea and rainbows while we were learning about Noah's Ark.   The children used story sequence cards to show their understanding of the order of the story and we talked about how sharing enables us to be a good friend. 

We also talked about the types of animals that live in the sea and we created fish with sequined scales and used scissors accurately to create an octopus.  We also explored how we could create scales by dipping celery sticks in paint and  printing with them onto pre-made fish.

We continued with our exploration of mixing colours by using pipettes to drop different coloured paints onto each other to see which new colours we could make. The children also enjoyed the sensory paint bags where they could mix the colours and not get paint on their hands.

The rising Reception children learned the sounds  j, r and v this week and they revised the sounds u, b, f, e, l and h, by matching the picture cards to the initial sound that it began with.  I am very impressed with how more children are beginning to hear the initial sounds in words.

There have been lots of letters sent out this week.  Please be reminded that next week there is a new to nursery meeting at 6 pm on Monday which will outline the expectations for those returning to nursery next year, and a reading event straight after school on Tuesday.  It is also sports morning next Thursday where parents are invited to bring a picnic lunch to share with their child at lunchtime.  

Next week the children will be learning the sounds y, w and th and we will continue with the underwater theme.  We will pay close attention to rhyming activities and opportunities for playing music and creating rhythms.

Please check our gallery to see all the learning we have been doing this week by clicking on the link below:

16th June 2017

The children have been learning about the story of Noah's Ark.  We talked about the promise that God made when he placed the rainbow in the sky and we discussed what it means to make a promise to somebody.  

We learned songs based on the story and used them to help us to solve mathematical problems about counting in 2's and making pairs.  Some children made boats by selecting and joining appropriate materials to replicate the features.  

The children used the small world Noah's Ark to act out the story and some children even used the large outside construction equipment to build their own boat and pretend to be the animals boarding it.  

In our water tray we explored the concepts of floating and sinking by using different items to create rafts to help the animals stay on the water and in our creative area we manipulated different coloured playdough to form a rainbow.  We also painted a rainbow by copying a pre-made design and using the Rainbow song to orde the colours.  

The rising Reception children learned the sounds l, h and sh this week and they revised the previously learned sounds.  Next week we will learn the sounds j, r and v.

Please check our gallery to see all the learning we have been doing this week by clicking on the link below:

9th June 2017

Welcome back for the last term of this school year.  I hope the children had a well earned break and are ready for all the learning and activities that will be going on in the run up to the Summer holidays.

When we returned to school we noticed that out frogspawn had turned into baby tadpoles.  Some had even begun to grow their back legs and the children were eager to find out more about them.

We read stories about frogs and we explored their lifecycle.  We looked at the habitat of a frog and we created our own pond by remembering the features needed and used a wind up frog to add to the play experience.

We listened to rhyme and some children were able to create rhyming strings and write them.  The children especially enjoyed making our frogs with concertina legs in the creative area.

The rising Reception children revised the sounds that they had learned last half term and then learned the new sounds f and e.  I am happy with how the children have remembered the sounds for the letters from last half term..   

Towards the end of the week the children became enthused with the Noah's Ark small world toy and they were introduced to the song 'The animals went in two by two'. We will encourage this direction of learning by sharing with them the story of Noah's Ark next week.

Please check our gallery to see all the learning we have been doing this week by clicking on the link below:

26th May 2017

We have come to the end of the first half of the Summer term, and this week especially, the children have made themselves and the school very proud.  As parents are aware we had our Ofsted inspection this week and as usual the children showed great learning attitudes and impeccable behaviour.  

We continued with our minibeast theme and recapped the stories that we had learned in previous weeks.  We also let our butterflies go on the Friday as they had all hatched from their cocoons.

The rising Reception children learned the sounds u and b this week and they revised the sounds n, p, g, o, c and k, by matching the picture cards to the initial sound that it began with.  I am very impressed with how more children are beginning to hear the initial sounds in words.

The parent reading event was successful and I would like to say a huge thank you for all the parents who attended and shared stories with the children.  

The children deserve a well earned break.  I hope that they have a wonderful, safe and restful half term and I look forward to seeing them for the final half term of this year after the weeks holiday.  There will be a lot going on next half term so please keep checking marvellous me, emails and the website for news and information.

Please check our gallery to see all the learning we have been doing this week by clicking on the link below:

19th May 2017

Well we have had another full week of learning.  We started the week by reading the rhyme "There was an old woman who swallowed a fly".  The children enjoyed learning how to order the picture cards to retell the rhyme. 

We focused lots of activities around minibeasts including recognising, drawing and painting them. The children went on a bug walk around the school grounds and learned about the best places for animals to live.  On Thursday we were visited by The Zoolab who gave the children a chance to see some insects and small animals that they would otherwise not get to see. The children also had the opportunity to touch or hold these animals.  Check out our photo gallery to see how brave the children actually were.

The rising Reception children learned the sounds o, c and k this week and they revised. They are getting very good at recognising and saying their sounds.  If you would like to help with this at home and have access to you tube you can learn how to say the sounds by following this link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8m6YFr0gig

Please remember that next Wednesday, the 24th May Reception are holding a parent reading event in the afternoon.  We will be doing a similar activity from 10.45am on the same day.

Please check our gallery to see all the learning we have been doing this week by clicking on the link below:

12th May 2017

Well we have had another full week of learning.  We started the week with the story of The Bad tempered ladybird and the children enjoyed learning the repeated phrase "You wanna fight?" that the ladybird kept asking everyone.  This helped us to discuss what makes a good or bad friend.   The children also enjoyed using the stick puppets to act out the story.    

We focused lots of activities around ladybirds and minibeasts with counting spots and finding the total of two amounts, ordering numbers to 10 and making a variety of playdough minibeasts using the cut out features and googly eyes to enhance our play dough bodies.  

Some children led their own learning making toilet tube butterflies that could fly, designing their own small world backgrounds and building a car and following a map to go to London.  

The rising Reception children learned the sounds n, p and g this week and they revised  the sounds m, a, s, t, d and i, by matching the picture cards to the initial sound that it began with.   Next week we will be learning o, c and k.

Next week we will be learning the Rhyme: There was an old woman who swallowed a fly and building lots of learning into this.  We will be going on a bug hunt on the school grounds to see what we can find and on Thursday we will be having a visit from the Zoolab, who are a travelling minibeast and small animal handling experience.  If your child has any allergies or you are aware that they have a particular fear please see a member of staff before this date.  

On the 24th May Reception are holding a parent reading event in the afternoon.  We will be doing a similar activity from 10.45am on the same day.

Please check our gallery to see all the learning we have been doing this week by clicking on the link below:

5th May 2017

Our new starters have really settled in well this week and they are becoming confident members of our nursery setting.  We have all been very grateful for your understanding during the past few weeks.  

The children have really begun to get excited about our minibeast theme with lots of work around caterpillars this week, especially as our new caterpillars are making themselves at home.  There has been work around number ordering, drawing minibeasts, copying letters to create labels and playdough bugs this week amongst lots of other exciting learning.  The children were especially enthused by their trip to the school library where we found lots of books about minibeasts and borrowed them for our class library.  

The rising Reception children have so far learned the sounds m, a, s, t, d and i, and they are getting very quick at recognising them.

On Friday after the children had left Mrs Poole noticed that we have tadpoles in our pond.  We thought that they had died as we hadn't seen the frogspawn for a while but we now have baby frogs!!! Please take a look.  We will be creating a frog interest area for the children around this area.

One of the children became very interested in ladybirds this week so we are going to look at the story of The Bad Tempered Ladybird and build lots of learning of counting and addition using spots next week.  

Please check our gallery to see all the learning we have been doing this week by clicking on the link below:

28th April 2017

Welcome back for the Summer Term.  It has been lovely to see you all again and also to meet our new starters.  Can I say thank you to all of the children  and parents for being so understanding in the mornings while the staff help to settle the new children!  I am sure this experience will support them in their independence ready for when they move up to Reception in September.  

We have begun our new theme of minibeasts and we used the story of The Hungry Caterpillar to help us look at the life cycle of the butterfly.  

The rising Reception children have begun RWI sessions where they will learn the Phase 1 sounds. We will focus on three sounds a week and I will 'Marvellous Me' parents as we learn each sound so that you can support at home.  If you haven't signed up to this parent communication app yet then see Mrs Twigg in the school office for your individual code

There are also some new Wow!! sheets where you can write about any learning that your child has displayed at home.  These can be found on the parents noticeboard inside the class.  

We are very excited about our caterpillars in the classroom.  Please feel free to take a look.  We will be watching them as they go through their life cycle to become butterflies!

Next week we will continue to look at and take part in activities around the story of the Hungry Caterpillar.  We will look at the mathematical concept of symmetry, as in the symmetry of butterfly wings and we will be having a go at retelling the story.

Please check our gallery to see all the learning we have been doing this week by clicking on the link below:

7th April 2017

Well what an amazing end to our Spring term!! This week we were learning about the Christian celebration of Easter.  We began by reenacting the Palm Sunday event where Jesus rode into town on a donkey and the villagers waved palms to greet him.  We continued to look at the different events that led up to Jesus crucifixion and his ascension to heaven via simple bible stories and activities.  

We reinforced the phenomena of new life by taking a walk around the school grounds and looking for the signs of Spring using a tick sheet.  The children were very good at finding the items shown on the sheet.

Our plant sale was a success with us raising around £30.00 from the plants that we had grown in class.  We will use this money to buy something new for the class.  Thank you for all of your support!!

Finally we held our Easter Craft parent event.  The children and parents had great fun hunting the Easter eggs and getting involved in the activities and thank you all for being good sports and taking part in the egg and spoon race.  A big congratulations to Leo on coming first in the Easter bonnet parade.  

This week the children began to take an interest in the insects that they were finding in the outside area.  As a class we decided that we would begin to learn about minibeasts in more detail next half term.

I hope that you all have a lovely rest over the Easter and I look forward to seeing you again and welcoming the new starters in the Summer term.

Please check our gallery to see all the learning we have been doing this week by clicking on the link below:

31st March 2017

This week we looked at the story of 'Titch' and we created a prop box in order for us to play out the story and understand the characters.  We also began to recognise print and tried to copy some key words from the story.

We worked hard on our sound recognition and letter formation this week with some children beginning to write simple words by listening to the sounds they can hear.

The sunflowers that the children painted were extremely good.  The children looked closely at colour and shapes in a sunflower photograph before they began to paint.  They were encouraged to stop and think before moving onto other areas of their artwork.

In the water tray the children looked at and compared items that could float or sink.  They began to make guesses about what they thought might happen to an object before testing out their ideas.  

Next week we will be learning about the Christian celebration of Easter and we have our plant sale and family Easter event. I hope that you are preparing your Easter bonnets and limbering up for the egg and spoon race.

Please check our gallery to see all the learning we have been doing this week by clicking on the link below:

24th March 2017

This week we looked at the story of 'Jack and the beanstalk' and we created a small world setting to act out the story with toys.  We were very fortunate later in the week to have a large dolls house donated to us by My Little Angels Daycare which became a perfect giants castle.  

Some children built castles on large and smaller scales and used them to make up their own castle stories.

We used beans to help us to count and find totals of two amounts and Mrs Poole made a numbered beanstalk for the children to order their numbers.  

We practised our mark making of some of the letters we are familiar with my using water and paint brushes to trace chalked lines and to use our fingers in sand to form the letters.

We used a variety of flower heads to print different textures and patterns onto paper.  We discussed what happened when the colours mixed together and the different textures that we had created.

We talked about the importance of the female role models in our lives and we made cards to show them our appreciation.  We ended the week by focusing on Red Nose Day and why this charity event is held.

Next week we will be reading the story of Titch and building our learning around this theme. 

Please check our gallery to see all the learning we have been doing this week by clicking on the link below:

17th March 2017

This week we looked at the story of 'Oliver's vegetables' and we used small world toys to play out the story.  We talked about and created a class pictogram of the fruits and vegetables that we like the most and we sorted some fruit and vegetable picture cards into their categories.

We used cut shapes to create images of flowers and we named and described the shapes that we had used.   We also used this website to identify the parts of a flower and learn more about growth in plants: www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks1/science/growing_plants/play/popup.shtml.

We developed our fine motor skills by using hole punches to make holes in leaves and then thread them together and we used feathers to make marks in sand.  We used bean seeds to help us to add up two amounts by counting all.

Some children have also begun some more formal group sessions where they are learning the skills associated with the Read, Write Inc programme that Reception and Key Stage 1 follow, as they are showing that they are now able to begin to write some letters and simple words.

We ended the week learning about the celebration of St Patrick's day and we coloured in Shamrocks and watched and joined in with some traditional Irish dancing.

Next week we will be reading the story Jack and the Beanstalk and building our learning around this theme. 

Please check our gallery to see all the learning we have been doing this week by clicking on the link below:

10th March 2017

This week we looked at the story of 'The Enormous Turnip' and we used toys and masks to act out the story and some children wrote about it.  We also continued with our planting of various fruits and vegetables. 

We learned about the artist Arcimboldo and how he used vegetables to create images of people and other items.  We even created our own abstract paintings using his style.   We also created art work by printing with cut vegetables and paint.  

We used carrots to make marks in different media.  We dipped them in paint to make marks on paper and we also used them to make marks in soil.  We used the sounds pebbles to copy some of the letters.  We also practised our cutting skills by snipping different herbs and describing the smells.

We talked about how working as a team can help us to do some things better just like the farmer and his family when they pulled the turnip up and we introduced a new member to our class and supported this child to join in with our class and get to know the rules and routines by being good role models.  

Next week we will be reading the story Oliver's vegetables and building our learning around this theme.  We will also be having a green day next Friday for St Patrick's day and will be raising money for a charity by doing this.

Please check our gallery to see all the learning we have been doing this week by clicking on the link below:

3rd March 2017

Wow!! I can hardly believe how quickly this first week back has gone.  We have been so busy and the children have learned so much.  Our theme for this half term is called 'roots and shoots', which involves learning about different plants and vegetables, and how they grow.  We have already begun planting some flowers and vegetables ready for our plant sale at the end of term.

We began the week by reading the story of The Little Red Hen and we used toys to act out the story in the small world area and masks to act it out in the outdoor area.  We took part in counting activities using pretend corn cut outs and rhyming activities using rhyming picture corn cut outs. We also learned about the life cycle of a hen and its growth from an egg to a chicken.  We talked about how the cat, dog and duck were not very good friends for not helping their friend and thought about how we can be good friends. 

We had a visit from a local police officer who talked with us about her job and she let us try on her uniform.  We also celebrated Shrove Tuesday and St David's day this week.  We played with cornflour and flipped pancakes.  We even had a pancake race!  We painted and drew daffodils and we pretended to sell flowers in our role play florists.  Finally we ended the week by sharing some vegetable soup and bread rolls.  Next week we will be using the story of 'The enormous turnip' to build our learning around.

Please check our gallery to see all the learning we have been doing this week by clicking on the link below:

17th February 2017

We have come to the end of another busy half term.  The children have thoroughly enjoyed our 'People who help us' topic and all the fantastic activities that they have taken part in or created themselves.  

They particularly enjoyed taking some time this week to look back on their journals and the progress they have made during their time with us. Some children have even been able to tell us what they think  they would like to do or what they need to do to improve further.  Maybe they could share this with you for you to support them with at home.   

We hope that you have a rested half term break and we look forward to seeing you in a weeks time when we will begin our new topic of 'Roots and Shoots', which will be about flowers and planting.

Please check our gallery to see what we have been doing this week by clicking on the link below:

10th February 2017

As usual we have been learning lots this week.  We have been learning and talking about all of the people who help us. The children began with discussions about the roles that various services play and how they help the general public.  We created split pin puppets and used junk modelling to create the vehicles that these people use.  Some children drew their own pictures of police officers, fire fighters, catering assistants and refuse collectors and many children made up their own stories using the small world characters and the construction equipment.

The role play area became a baby clinic and the children showed how they understood how babies need to be cared for.  They were able to use fine motor skills to do up buttons and they weighed the babies and looked at the numbers on the scales.  When taking on the role of the doctor the children took details in the form of writing and wrote out prescriptions for the other children to read.  

We listened to rhyming stories and we played some matching rhyme games.  Some children were even beginning to give strings of rhyming words, for example, cat, bat, sat, mat, independently.

And finally we ended our week with our Valentines craft disco.  It was lovely to spend time with the families from the parent and toddler group and all of the children were fully engaged throughout the morning.  

Please check our gallery to see what we have been doing this week by clicking on the link below:

3rd February 2017

We have had a very busy week learning about building and construction vehicles.  I would like to say a special thank you to 'My Little Angels Daycare' for letting us use their building bricks and rocks to use in our outdoor area.  The children enjoyed designing their own plans and then using them to create their own constructions.  

We were also donated some building materials by two local trades people which helped us make our activities more realistic.

Inside the classroom we used the tiles and hammer shapes to create our own shape pictures and some children were able to copy the pre-made shape picture plans.  We also used the lolly sticks and blu tac to make 2d shapes with some children even using them to make 3d shapes.

We used the Duplo bricks in lots of activities like counting, comparing amounts, addition, matching sizes and building words and naming sounds, as well as building our own models.

We made up stories using the construction vehicles in the sand and we described the texture of a variety of building materials like gravel, rocks and pebbles.  And Finally we learned that in order to move a toy, like a digger,  it needs an energy source.  We learned that the energy could be a push, pull or a twist as well as using batteries.

Next week we will continue to learn about people who help us and we will be holding our own Valentines Disco and craft activities with the parents and toddler group. 

Please check our gallery to see what we have been doing this week by clicking on the link below:

27th January 2017

This week the children learned about the celebration of Chinese New Year and the story of the race to gain a place in the Chinese calendar. The children showed their understanding and recall of the story by acting it out using the animal masks and other props.  They also used the water tray to pretend to be the river and stick puppets in the small world area to retell the story.   

They pretended to serve each other in the Chinese restaurant and they used previous experiences of eating at restaurants to support this.

They practised using chopsticks to pick up small objects and to help them make marks in the red sand. They were very good at saying which number cards they could read and write as they wrote them in the sand.  We also used real noodles to create shapes and we developed our mathematical language of sizes by comparing the lengths of them.

Next week we will learn about the construction industry and its role in helping us.  

Please check our gallery to see what we have been doing this week by clicking on the link below:

20th January 2017

As the children enjoyed the shop so much last week we decided to stick with the theme of food. We used the text 'Handa's Surprise' to base our activities around.  

We created our own small world with the different animals and we used playdough to create fruits for the Lego Handa to carry in the basket on her head.  The children used the illustrations from the text to support them.

We created our own juicing station where the children used different tools to extract the juice from lemons, limes, oranges and grapefruit.  Some children were brave enough to try the juice! and we also had a fruit tasting activity where the children got to try and comment on the flavour and texture of pineapple, orange, pomegranate, mango, orange, grapefruit and lemon.  

In the outside area the children were working hard at making their own dens and using them to build stories around.

We have been continuing to play with the sounds in words and reinforcing our understanding of shapes and making arrangements with shapes.

Next week we will be looking at the celebration of Chinese New Year and will be creating activities around this theme.  The role play area will become a Chinese restaurant and the children will be learning to play at being chefs and waiters.

Please check our gallery to see what we have been doing this week by clicking on the link below:

13th January 2017

Well what a brilliant first week back at school. The children settled in really well and it was as though they had never been away! We started our topic by looking at shops and people who help us at the shops.  

We read 'The Shopping Basket' story as a class and then some of the children were learning how to retell story by following the illustrations and we played with the sounds at the beginning of words for example, crunchy carrots and tasty tomatoes.  Some children were learning to match objects that began with the same sound.

We looked at weaving and made paper baskets and we used the interactive shopping lists display to practice our number recognition and counting skills.

The shop has been a great hit and the children have been writing their own shopping lists and price tags and using real coins to pay for items.  We have decided to keep the shop open for another week due to it being so popular.

Next week we will be reading the story Handa's surprise and we will be looking at tropical fruits and comparing the climate in hotter countries to our current winter season and thinking about the clothes that we wear in the different climates.  If there are any particular fruits that you are not happy about your child tasting or playing with please let a member of staff know.

Please also check the newsletters, website and marvellous me regularly to keep informed of events within school.

Please check our gallery to see what we have been doing this week by clicking on the link below:

9th January 2017

A Happy New Year to you all!! I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and that the children are ready to begin another half term of learning.  This half term our theme will be Hello! Can I help you? which will cover learning about different services that support the public, and we will also develop our understanding of the celebration of Chinese New Year and St Valentines Day.  Whilst doing this we will be ensuring that we are building upon previous learned skills in all of the seven areas of learning for the Early Years Foundation Stage.   Please check our curriculum map by clicking on the link below.

Please also check the newsletters, website and marvellous me regularly to keep informed of events within school.

16th December 2016

Phew! What a busy week!  With the build up to Christmas underway we have been doing lots of crafts and learning around Christmas but we have also had lots of festive fun activities in and out of school.

On Tuesday we went to the Belgrade theatre to watch Dick Whittington and even became part of the theatres very own mannequin challenge.  You can see the clip on the Leigh School face book page. The children behaved amazingly and we were very proud of them.

Then on Wednesday some children stayed and joined in with the schools Christmas lunch and on Thursday we had a party in class with a special visit from the man himself!! Father Christmas!!  The children enjoyed telling him what they would like for Christmas and they all had their photograph taken.

We then ended the week with our parent activity day.  Once again it was a brilliant morning with parents joining in and helping the children with different activities.  We made decorations, played with shaving foam snow, counted the baubles on the Christmas tree, made Christmas cards and wrapped up presents in Santas grotto.  We even watched the Snowman which is an all time favourite of the parents and ours.

Despite having an action packed week its not over yet.  We are back on Monday for the last three days of our Autumn Term and lots more learning to do.  Get lots of rest and we'll see you next week!

Please see the gallery for photographs from this week:

9th December 2016

Can I begin by saying a huge well done to all of the Nursery and Reception children on their performance this week and thank you to the parents who all brought their children back to perform in the afternoon. The children have done so well to remember all of the songs and when to come on and off the stage.  I am very proud of them!

We are now finally able to start the Christmas activities and festivities in class and the children have been writing letters to Santa and playing in Santa's workshop.  Please let us know whether Santa replies to you!

Please look out for marvellous me's over the last few weeks of this term as there will be lots of things going on. 

Please see the gallery for photographs from this week:

2nd December 2016

This week has been full of rehearsals in readiness for our nativity performances next week.  When we have been in class we have been learning all about the nativity story. We even made our own stable in the classroom for the children to dress up and reenact the story.  The small world nativity scene also drew a lot of attention and we could hear some really good story telling going on. 

This week the children have also been looking for all of the shapes that we have been learning about and recapping their names.  Next week the children will need to tell us the properties of the shapes that they find.

We are really looking forward to our performances next week and we cant wait to make you all proud!

Please see the gallery for photographs from this week:

25th November 2016

Continuing with our Autumn theme and looking at day and night, this week we looked at day and night animals and used the Owl baby story to support this.  The children enjoyed making puppets and using them to act out the story and doing sorting activities around nocturnal and diurnal animals.  

The children are enjoying our role play rocket and they are enjoying using the resources to pretend to be items that they would need to go to space with. I especially like the colander as a helmet. 

Next week we will be focusing on the Christian story of the Nativity as we begin our rehearsals in the hall in readiness for our performances. I have a feeling that it will be a busy week. 

Please see the gallery for photographs from this week:

18th November 2016

This week we were learning about Autumn and we used the story of stick man to support this.  The children took part in counting and shape activities using sticks and other Autumn items.  They created transient art using leaves, twigs, pine cones and conkers and we also used these items to investigate floating and sinking.  We created 'Lost' posters by making marks indicating words which would describe what stick man looked like.  

As it was anti-bullying week we joined in with some activities that helped us to think about being a good friend and those behaviours that make us not such a good friend.  Some children began to listen for the initial sounds in words and matched pictures that began with the sounds m or a.  The children were also looking for yellow triangles this week.  A few more children moved from tracing their name to copying their name cards and we are also supporting the children to become more independent with moving from one activity to another.

We ended the week by raising money for children in need by wearing spots and we were fortunate to be given a children in need puppet theatre that had been used by a local nursery and the children enjoyed making up their own plays. Next week we we will be learning about day and night and looking out for blue rectangles in the mornings.

Please see the gallery for photographs from this week:

11th November 2016

This week we were learning about the recent celebration of Diwali.  We learned about the story of Rama and Sita by creating story boards scenes on the interactive white board and using puppets and dressing up clothes to act out the story.  We also made Diva lamps and looked back at the process and tried to arrange photo cards to recreate the sequence.  

We continued to learn our basic skills of listening for sounds, playing alongside others and number and shape recognition.  This week we were looking for blue circles and next week we will be trying to find the yellow triangles.

We ended the week by remembering the fallen soldiers who have died protecting our country and we held a minute silence in class and watched the cbeebies cartoon called 'Poppies', which was specifically made for this years Remembrance Day.  The children also made a poppy to wear.  

Please see the gallery for photographs from this week:

4th November 2016

What a brilliant first week back.  The children settled straight in as though they'd never been away.  Well done!  

The fire service visit was a great way to begin our Whizz, Pop, Bang! theme and the children got to sit on board and hear the siren.  They were very excited to see the firefighters but they still behaved brilliantly.  Please take a look at the gallery for the photographs.  

The children also went out for a walk in the leaves to collect sticks and leaves for our upcoming Autumn week and talked about what the leaves felt like and how the weather had changed.  There are also photos in our gallery that you can look at for this.

As bonfire night was coming up the children took part in lots of physical, writing and craft activities to reinforce what bonfire night involves.  We talked about staying safe around fire and learned the technique: STOP, DROP and ROLL!  Maybe I will see see some of you at the Leigh PTA event?

Inside the classroom the children were looking for red squares and I hope that this has helped the children to recognise their colours and shapes but as always we ask for your support to continue this at home.  Next week we will be looking for blue circles so keep an eye out!

I am also very impressed with a few more of the children moving from tracing their name to copying.  please keep practising and helping the children to develop their ability to hold a pencil and control it.

The children have also begun to learn the songs for the nativity performance which will be on Monday 5th December at 1:30pm and Tuesday 6th December at 9:30am.  I hope you are getting as excited as we are about seeing your child up on the stage! Please check the e-mailed newsletters, website and marvellous me regularly to keep informed of events within school.

Finally, next week we will be looking at and learning about the festival of light known as Diwali, as well as hunting for blue circles and continuing to count, recognise numbers, look at stories, improve our understanding of sounds and letters and our writing, but most of all we are going to have fun doing it and improve our ability to interact well with each other. Phew what a busy week ahead!!

31st October 2016

Welcome back to what will be a full and amazing half term.  I hope you have all recharged your batteries and are ready to learn.  This half term our theme will be Whizz, Pop, Bang! which will cover learning about religious festivals, night and day, light and dark and colour.  We will be building upon our basic skills that we began to learn last half term and we will begin to use 'Fred talk' much more to support our understanding of sounds in words. 

We also have the Christmas Nativity to look forward to and our visit to the Belgrade Theatre to watch this years performance of Dick Whittington.  We also hope to have another family crafts and activities morning before we break up for the Christmas holidays.  

Please check the newsletters, website and marvellous me regularly to keep informed of events within school.

20th October 2016

Well what an amazing first half term it has been in nursery.  Our topic 'Nice to meet you!' has come to a close and the children have learned so much about themselves and the others in the class.

They are now able to follow the rules and routines of the classroom easily and they have become familiar with the environment and the different activities and learning areas that they can use. 

I am impressed with how the children are beginning to recognise numbers and shapes and how they are all recognising their name.  Some have even learned to write some of the letters independently!!

But the highlight of this half term has to be the 'Stay and Play' session held today.  It was warming to see so many parents getting involved in their children's learning and I think that everyone who was there had great fun.  Please follow the link below to take a look at the photographs from the day.

We understand that some parents could not get away from other commitments but rest assured that there will be similar events throughout the year that you can attend.  

I pray that you all manage to have a restful week ready to come back for more learning and exciting activities next half term.

14th October 2016

This week the children have been learning and talking about homes.  They talked abut what their home looked like and they drew pictures, built large constructions and created junk models.   The children were also building up their knowledge of shape when considering the features of a home.

We continued to work on the children's listening skills and getting them to focus on the sounds that they could here in our game and we used the computer to play a game of opposites.  

This weeks Numberjack was number 5 and the children practised counting objects and using their fingers to show 5.

The class all attended the Harvest assembly and were a credit to themselves and to our school in that they were able to sit attentively throughout.  

We are very much looking forward to our 'Bring your parent to school' session next week to end this half term and we hope that you can join us.  

7th October 2016

This week the children have been learning and talking about their families.  The children could name the different people in their families and explain the role that they played withing the family.  They drew some lovely pictures to show this too and role played being different family members in the home corner.  

We also looked at putting shapes into their family groups of circles, squares, rectangles and triangles, and we played some games to promote listening and attention and the children's understanding of listening to sounds.  This weeks Numberjack was number 4 and some children were able to 'draw a chair and sit on it' to write the number.

The children have taken a big leap in their independence and attitude to their learning this week. Some children are beginning to come to school with fixed ideas of what they want to achieve that morning and they are using problem solving strategies to design,  build and review their creations.  They have begun to think scientifically about the things that they encounter and to develop a curiosity to want to explore further.  Please look at the gallery to see for yourself what they have been learning:

30th September 2016

This week the children learned to recognise and understand that there are different feelings.  We talked about why there are different emotions and shared times when we felt a certain way.  The children especially enjoyed changing the words to "If you're happy and you know it" to include lots of different emotions.  

We also looked at matching and learning the shape names with the turtle shells activity and we managed to get outside a bit even with the rain.  The children especially enjoyed using the slide.

I am very impressed with how well the children have settled to the morning activity of tracing their name, and the parents support with this is commendable.  They are also getting especially good at hunting out the Numberjacks and this week it was the sneaky number 3's that managed to escape around the classroom.  

Once again a full week of learning and lots of lifelong skills beginning to shine through.  Please look at the pictures in our gallery:

23rd September 2016

Another great week of learning where we focused on our bodies and how we grow.  We looked at all of the baby pictures that the children brought in and we discussed the things that we could do then and those that we can do now.  We also looked at how we are all different sizes and used objects to help measure ourselves.  Some children painted pictures of their faces and they used mirrors to help them place the features correctly and select the correct colours.  At the creative table some children also made stick people and talked about the people who are special to us and why.  This week the sneaky number 2's managed to escape around the classroom and the children helped to find them and give them back to the teacher and we began to practice tracing their names and learning the correct way to sit and hold a pencil when mark making.   It hardly seems possible that the children manage to get so much learning into their day.  Please look at the pictures in our gallery:

16th September 2016

Well what a brilliant first full week.  The children are getting so much better at understanding and following our class routines.  You would think they had been with us for weeks.  They have enjoyed looking for those cheeky number 1's around the classroom and they have been learning about the school and class rules.  They are getting better at finding their name cards in the morning and we have had lots of lovely artwork to put up on their working wall. Please take a look when you drop off and collect your child! The children have been using the in and outdoor environment and getting to know how to use and look after the resources. We saw a digger and the grass cutter which gathered our interest and we found lots of bugs outside and used magnifying glasses to look at them better.  Finally we took full advantage of the down pour on Friday morning by putting our wellies on and splashing in the puddles.  We have had an amazing week. Please look at the pictures in our gallery:

9th September 2016

The last few days have been brilliant.  Its been great to get to know the new children (and parents of course!!) and to see our existing children after the summer.  They have settled so nicely and with only a few tears which I assure you stop after a short while once you have left.  The children are getting used to the learning environment and the routines of the classroom and we cant wait to get going on Monday with the children being in everyday.  Please follow the link to take a look at the different things that we have been doing:

Fun learning games: