The Chronicle

In Dormice this week we have been practising routines and being more independent, developing our self-help skills. One of these skills is putting on our coats. We place the coat on the floor, stand at the hood, push our arms through, and then flip it over our heads. Some of us have already mastered this, so now we’re working on doing up our own zips.

After that, we hold hands with our friends and head outside to play imaginatively with the bricks, create an obstacle course, or scoot around on the trikes.

We do get tired, so some of us take a little nap after lunch. Then we’re all ready to go again, whether it's playing with bubbles, building, sorting animals, or looking at a book, there’s always something to do.

Badgers and Hedgehogs have been celebrating Autumn’s abundant harvest with a week full of pumpkin partying. This gave us a perfect opportunity to focus upon Maths since it involved: sequencing; capacity; fractions; shape; addition; and subtraction.

We halved a plump orange pumpkin and counted all the seeds hiding in the squishy, slimy pulp. Then we made curved moon slices and chopped them up into cubes. Next, we softened the pumpkin by boiling it in a pan. Then we blended the pumpkin until it was nice and smooth. After that, we measured and mixed a gooey muffin batter before stirring in the velvety pumpkin puree. Finally, we spooned the pumpkin batter into cake cases and popped them into the oven.

We waited patiently whilst the egg timer trickled 15 minutes, until the muffins were ready. Then we shared out the muffins at snack-time and gobbled them up in our very own ‘Harvest Feastival’. They tasted absolutely delicious!

We then used the pumpkin seeds and a dice to add on for more and to take away for less, showing our calculations on a tens frame.

We’ve been perfectly potty about pumpkins all week long!

We also remembered to thank God for providing food for us and the birds and animals to share, during this season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.

Our nursery children always enjoy their music lessons. Every week, they work with specialist teacher, Director of Music, Mrs Olden, in the school hall. They take part in fun, structured music based activities that support their learning. On Thursday morning, they confidently sang Big Red Combine Harvester before accompanying Mrs Olden with a variety of percussion instruments including the djembe drums, maracas, tambourines, finger cymbals, cabasa and the agogo.

Our Little Crackers’ music lessons are one of a number of specialist-led sessions the children benefit from across the week. The tailored activities adding another dimension to the children’s development across the EYFS early learning goals.

The youngsters love making music, and it is amazing to see how it boosts the children’s confidence and gives them a chance to shine as they show us what they can do.

Thank you for continuing to bring your children to the Gables door at 8:30am in the morning. This has greatly improved the start of the nursery day and limits footfall through the main entrance.

We understand there may be times when you need to use the front door. In such cases, please ring the Nursery bell only, not the Reception bell. A member of staff will answer the intercom and come out to your child as soon as possible. There may sometimes be a short delay before a staff member can leave the nursery, so please be patient and wait in the outside foyer.