Willow Class

 

20/12/2024

Hi there!

We have just come to the end of term 2 and there has been so much to learn and explore. Since returning after term 1, we have talked about all the different sights and sounds linked to various celebrations that happen during the Autumn and Winter, and also drawn our attention to the changing weather and season as it gets colder and darker. 

These have been our books of the week.

  

One of the events focussed on this season was Bonfire night. We talked about all the sights and sounds we would see and hear around us at this time and represented what we understand through some beautiful artwork. We decided to create our own fireworks by doing an exciting experiment using bicarbonate of soda, vinegar and coloured powder paint. It was great seeing the delight and surprise in the children's faces as they watched the ingredients react!

    

Our phonics focus has been musical sounds. Children have been learning to listen and identify musical instruments, use them to create rhythm alongside singing and have had new sounds introduced. We had a special visit from a teacher who can play the Euphonium. It was very interesting to listen and look at such a large, shiny instrument that made a very loud and different sound.

For maths we have been learning about shape and learned that we see them all around us and everywhere we go. Each week we introduced a new shape and used pictures of actual everyday objects to represent them. The children had the opportunity to explore shape further by using them to create faces. This was also useful in encouraging them to think about where to position facial features and  practice their fine motor skills by using scissors and glue to cut and stick.

Our core book has been the Gingerbread Man and with the practice we had with making faces, it helped us when making our own gingerbread men. The children really enjoyed listening to the story and were able to make it a favourite due to it's repetitive phrases and simple text. 

    

Our storytelling continued with a visit from a Pantomime company who brought the magical story of Cinderella to life. The children were invited to engage in an interactive experience that encouraged them to explore using all of their senses.

To bring the term to a close, we welcomed the Christmas season with.....

Decorations

 

Parties

.

 

Artwork 

 

Role Play

 

And our Christmas Nativity

All of Willow class wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Enjoy the break and we'll see you again in term 3. 

 

24/10/2024 

Hello!

Welcome to the first term in our nursery school year. It has been lovely seeing all our returning children and meeting our new families. Throughout the term, we have introduced a weekly book of the week. Our first few books supported children through their transitions into nursery, learning about routines and introducing self-care.

 

Our maths focus has been about learning to count, represent and identify the number three. We have used the story of 'Goldilocks and the three bears' to support this. The children have engaged in our morning maths sessions in which we have played games such as, finding all the items in the story that add up to three (using props) and taking part in a number hunt.

 

 

As the season of Autumn arrives, we have been talking about all the changes we see happening in the natural environment. We have supported this by reading stories, talking about the weather and looking at natural autumnal objects. Children have shown their awareness by using our weather board, talking about the different colours of leaves and sharing knowledge about where they have seen the natural objects.

  

 

 

And finally, we have celebrated the Autumn harvest by making pumpkin soup and baking bread. Children have found lovely ways through language to describe what they can smell, taste and feel during our cooking sessions. For our last day, we spent some time using our enhanced provision with a visit to the Wild Forest field to munch on our homemade bread rolls filled with jam - just like in our story 'Zed's Bread'.

 

See you next term!

 

24/07/24

For our final term in the school year, we have continued our learning about growth and thought about how much we have also grown as children. We have read 'Jack and the beanstalk' and used props to retell the story and have been talking about size and height.

We have drawn around ourselves and seen just how big we are. Such a surprise!

  

And last of all, we've waited a long time for our potatoes to grow. We enjoyed digging them up, helping to wash them and best of all - eating them!

    

And that's it! We have had an amazing time learning and growing together and making friendships. We in Willow class would like to say 'Goodbye' to all the children who will be leaving us to start the next chapter of their journey in school, we will miss you all. Have a wonderful summer everyone!

Willow class.

 

24/05/24

For our spring term, we began with a group of visitors in the form of tiny caterpillars that we have enjoyed looking after and watching grow. We have been reading books about the lifecycle of caterpillars such as 'Little Caterpillar' and 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'.

    

  

We all planted a sunflower seed and read a lovely story to support our understanding of seeds and growth called, 'Little Sunflower', and even planted potatoes! We've learned so much about how to take care of living things.

    

We've noticed the changing season, and celebrated spring and nature through art.

  

 

27/03/24

We have been quite busy this term with events to celebrate. We started off with making pizza's to support our exploration of shape.

  

For World Book Day we dressed up as pirates and read the story 'Pirates love underpants'. It was so much fun seeing everyone in their different outfits! We coloured in pictures of underpants and had a treasure hunt.

    

To celebrate Easter, we created and decorated an Easter tree and made crispy chocolate nests. We watched a video about how Christians celebrate Easter and looked at a book about eggs and all the different forms of life that start as eggs.

    

 

09/02/24

This term we have been learning about opposites and pattern. We have read a lovely, easy to read book called 'Faster, Faster, Nice and Slow'. This book has helped us to understand what the word 'opposite' means.

We have celebrated Chinese New Year, this year was the year of the Dragon. We cooked and tried noodles and watched a story that taught us of it's history.

  

 

20/12/23

This term our focus books have been Little Red Hen and Zed's Bread. Little Red Hen taught us where flour comes from and Zed's Bread taught us how bread is made. This book had some lovely gross and fine motor actions which we used to knead our dough.

   

 

We have celebrated a number of festivals, including Diwali. We all got to try naan bread and poppadoms.

   

 

We've talked about Halloween, some of the children shared how they dressed up as dinosaurs, pumpkins and skeletons and went out for Trick or Treat, receiving gifts of sweets.

We also talked about Bonfire Night, what we might see and hear, then used paint glue and glitter to create firework art.

 

To end the term we've celebrated Christmas with parties, a Nativity performance, stories and baking gingerbread.

   

 

20/10/23

Good afternoon,

This month we have been welcoming the new season of Autumn. We have been drawing the classes attention to the changes seen in the outside environment and each day introducing a natural item found during this time of year such as acorns, conkers, fir cones and leaves. We have encouraged the children to have a look for these items when out and about. Alongside this, we have read a book called 'The Little Acorn' which tells the story of the life cycle of an acorn.

 

 

We have also drawn the class's curiosity to a pumpkin. Each child took it in turns to hold and feel the pumpkin and have a go at guessing what they thought might be inside. We then made a soup using a squash and created a list of ingredients to add to it using the children's ideas.

 

 

 

22/09/23

 

Good Afternoon All!

For the past two weeks our focus has been on routine, learning how to be independent and celebrating what we can do. Our focus book has been 'Peace At Last' which is a lovely book with a simple repetitive text that the children have had fun joining in with. Alongside this, we have been reading books and singing action songs about going to bed, using the bathroom and getting up. 

 

Meet Anne-Marie! 21/09/23

Anne-Marie leads in Willow Class. She has worked at The Slade for a number of years and knows the community and school really w

ell. She also works closely with Catherine our school SENDCO and is passionate that all children can access our curriculum and get the support they need to flourish.