Holy Family

Catholic Primary School

Nursery

Welcome to Nursery!

Class Teacher: Miss Batty

Teaching Assistants: Mrs Haries and Miss Channing

Just a few reminders as we head into the new school year:

The morning session starts at 8.45 and finishes at 11.45. The afternoon session is 12.25 till 3.25.
Make sure that children come to school in correct uniform, including ties.
Please remember to label children's clothes.

We are looking forward to the year ahead with all of you!

In FS1 during out Understanding the World session, we enjoyed exploring shadows. We used our mark making skills to trace around each others shadows, we also had a lot of fun using our gross motor skills to run away from our shadows.

we made shadows using our hands.

we used chalk to trace around each others shadows.

we tried to run away from our own shadows!

We loved our visit from Mr Dan the Circus Man in FS1! The children enjoyed taking part in lots of circus antics, and had a fantastic time watching Mr Dan's clowning. Our favourite part was getting to practice some of the circus acts ourselves, here is a sneak peak!

Welcome to the FS1 Circus! This half term our new topic will be exploring life in the circus. Look at our fantastic big top class room!

We had so much fun at our intra-school sports day raising money for the Good Shepherd Appeal. Take a look at all of the gross motor activities.

Beanbag throwing.

Pick up the objects.

Football.

More football (we really enjoyed this one!)

The obstacle course.

This one was so tricky!

We had to work hard on our balance.

We had to jump so high!

We used our bats to push the ball.

Here we are balancing the balls on the rackets.

We loved working as a team!

During our Good Shepherd Appeal, we talked about ways to be mindful. In class, we practised different ways to be mindful, and how to be calm.

We practised some meditation as a group, concentrating on our breathing to calm down.

We practised some meditation as a group, concentrating on our breathing to calm down.

We talked about different things we can focus on to be calm, like five things you can see.

One of the five things we could see in our classroom.

One of the five things we could see in our classroom.

One of the five things we could see in our classroom.

One of the five things we could see in our classroom.

Four things we can touch.

Four things we can touch.

Four things we can touch.

Four things we can touch.

Three things we can hear.

Three things we can hear.

Three things we can hear.

Two things we can smell.

Two things we can smell.

And finally, one thing we are grateful for. We agreed that a good thing is our friends.

In Nursery we have enjoyed talking about different jobs that the children can do when they grow up. Can you guess what they are going to be?

"I am a cleaner."

"I am a police man, I stop the bad guys!"

"I am a builder"

"I am a builder, I built this!"

"I'm going to be a teacher, show me 5 fingers!"

"I can be a baker"

"I drive the ambulance!"

"I am a climber- watch me!"

The children loved painting Kandinsky circles in the rain using big paintbrushes and colourful paint. Look at our fantastic artwork!

In Nursery we love learning outside in all weathers. Children loved splashing in puddles and practicing their gross motor skills in their puddle suits!

In FS1 we had a fantastic time celebrating World Book Day! We dressed up as characters, and had lots of fun learning about the story of101 dalmatians.

Still image for this video

We celebrated the start of Lent by adding our Lenten crosses to the school tree. We talked about and made special promises to mark the start of Lent.

We have had lots of fun this week in Nursery using our fine motor skills to make our very own flies. We chose to make our own flies after reading about the silly fly in "Doug the Bug That Went Boing" by Sue Hendra. We used pipe-cleaners to wrap around the pom-poms, and stuck on googly eyes too.

This week we have been working so hard on our writing in Literacy. Some of children wrote some interesting CVC words that we learnt about in our story "I Love Bugs" by Emma Dodd. Here are some of our writing superstars from this week, taking pride in their fantastic work.

Did you know that the children in Nursery are fantastic investigators? They have enjoyed using their enquiry skills to make observations of the different minibeasts, and even recording their findings too.

Can you guess our topic this half term? We are learning all about.... MINIBEASTS! We are having lots of fun learning about different creepy crawlies that hop, crawl and fly.

For children's mental health day this year, the children in Nursery enjoyed learning about growing. We talked about seeds and how we can look after seeds so that they grow into plants and flowers. The children loved planting seeds outside, and taking care of them. We also enjoyed creating some flowers through printing.

For Safer Internet Day, we have been learning all about how to stay safe online. We read the story of Digiduck and the Magic Castle, and found out lots of interesting things. We enjoyed talking about who helps us, and even designing our own avatars for the Magic Castle game.

We love reading! We love exploring lots of different books in Nursery, we have especially enjoyed reading about dragons this half term.

Take a look at our fantastic writing! We have worked very hard on our writing this half term, and enjoy practising this in all of our areas and with lots of different things. Here you can see us having fun using sand, chalk, paper and whiteboards.

Look at our fantastic learning about oral hygiene! The children loved brushing the teeth, cleaning off all the dirt and food, and making sure to feed the mouth healthy foods like fruit.

Nursery children have loved learning about their local area this term. We have talked about lots of different important places in Stainforth, such as the Colliery, our school, and the church.

In Nursery we enjoyed exploring the past through family photographs from the last 100 years, as well as looking at some precious artefacts. Children compared how sweet wrappers have changed over time, from Wilkinson's Pontefract Cakes sold in tins in the 1950s to Haribo Pontefract Cakes sold in plastic wrappers in 2022. We also compared how children's cough sweets have changed too, and that they must taste a lot better now!

Look at our fantastic investigating! The children enjoyed collecting different natural materials to make their own "nature" bracelets. They used pots to collect leaves, sticks and other things to add to their artwork.

We have had so much fun exploring the seasonal changes in our outdoor area! It's been brilliant crunching the leaves beneath our feet, looking at the changes in the trees, and of course squelching in the mud. Luckily for parents (and thanks to our puddle suits) we can come home mud-free!

In Nursery we have learnt that it is important to stay healthy! We talked about different ways to stay healthy, like exercising. We enhanced our home corner to include a home gym (something we became familiar with in lockdown!) to exercise in lots of different ways- take a look at what we have been doing.

This week we have been exploring our senses- can you see what we have been up to? We used our eyes to look at different materials, our fingers to touch the scratchy and soft things, our noses to smell the sweet cinnamon, and our ears to listen to different beats.

"These look fluffy!"

"It's so scratchy"

"It smells sweet"

"I like this sound, it is loud!"

"I can hear his heartbeat"

Our dungeons and dragons learning so far. We have explored eggs and what might live inside them. We learnt about dragon feeders, and made our very own to hang outside our classrooms. We even enjoyed exploring the dragon slime!

We learnt about freezing and melting! We used our prediction skills to talk about what might happen to the ice, and used our senses to investigate what happened when it did melt. We had so much fun being scientists!

Here is the new immersive classroom for our Dungeons and Dragons topic! We had lots of fun making Dave the dragon to fly through our classroom, and are so excited to explore the magical world inside our classroom.

Watch out- there's a dragon above you!

Watch out- there's a dragon above you!

We are on fire with our learning this half term!

Are dragons real?

Remember to "Keep" Reading!

Take a look at our fantastic work for Enterprise Week! We made gingerbread men decorations for your lovely Christmas trees.

First we mixed our ingredients to make our Gingerbread Salt Dough. We had lots of fun!

First we mixed our ingredients to make our Gingerbread Salt Dough. We had lots of fun!

Next, we painted our gingerbread men, we got a bit messy!

Next, we painted our gingerbread men, we got a bit messy!

Last, we added our decorations with chalk pen- we had to take lots of care with this part.

This half term we have been investigating floating and sinking, what might sink and what might float and really worked on our prediction skills. We even completed an experiment using things from our Fairy Tale story!

We celebrated Remembrance Day in FS1 by learning about the importance of the poppy. In the morning, we went out to the front of school for a special service where we said prayers and heard special and important words about why we celebrate Remembrance Day. In class, we made our very own poppies in honour of Remembrance. Some children also made poppy bracelets to wear to remember..

Looking at the poppies during our service.

For our Remembrance Service, we stood and listened to prayers and poems about Remembrance.

Thinking about the words "We Will Remember"

We made stained-glass window style poppies for our classroom window.

We made stained-glass window style poppies for our classroom window.

We made stained-glass window style poppies for our classroom window.

We made stained-glass window style poppies for our classroom window.

We used collage and our fine motor skills to make collage poppies.

We used collage and our fine motor skills to make collage poppies.

Using our threading skills, we made poppy remembrance bracelets out of "poppy petals".

Using our threading skills, we made poppy remembrance bracelets out of "poppy petals".

Using our threading skills, we made poppy remembrance bracelets out of "poppy petals".

Look at our learning and celebration of Black History Month.

We learned all about Rosa Parks and what it feels like to belong.

We learned all about Rosa Parks and what it feels like to belong.

We talked about our skin, and how people all around the world are different.

We talked about our skin, and how people all around the world are different.

We talked about our skin, and how people all around the world are different.

Take a look at our exciting Traditional Tales Classroom Environment. Can you spot any of our magical characters hiding in the classroom?

Here is our immersive Under the Sea Classroom in FS1! What is your favourite sea creature?

Welcome Back Prayer

Dear Father God,

Thank you for holiday times

For freedom, family and friends.

Help me to keep these happy times in my heart.

I am excited to start school.

To spend time with my teacher and school friends.

Help me to settle back into this school year!

Help me to learn, to grow in confidence

And to have lots of fun.

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