Thomas Willingale School and Nursery
Autumn Term
Week Beginning 11th December
Wow! What a week full of festive fun. We could not be prouder of our Nursery classes performing their Christmas concerts to their families on Tuesday and Wednesday. The children sang beautifully and performed each action with great enthusiasm.
Throughout the week, the children have completed various festive activities including Christmas counting, making beautiful Christmas stockings and looking inside a special Christmas box of goodies to develop their language and communication skills.
We have continued to read a range of festive stories including The Gruffalo's Child and will continue to read festive stories next week.
A quick reminder that Nursery finishes for the Christmas holiday on Wednesday 20th December at 2 pm.
Wk beginning 4th December '23
It has been a very busy but festive week in Nursery, culminating in our party day on Friday. We had a visit from Corky, who entertained and amazed the nursery with a range of interactive acts. Classes also played party games and enjoyed party food with their friends. Somehow we also managed to fit in a Santa Dash in our garden!
The children have enjoyed not one but two Santa visits this week! The children have loved every minute of it!
Next week we will continue our festive activities and the children are looking forward to performing their Christmas songs to you all on Tuesday 12th December at 9 am and Wednesday 13th December at 2.45 pm. We look forward to seeing you all there.
Week beginning 27th November '23
The weather has definitely become colder this week and we have developed our learning on Winter, Advent and Christmas. We have looked for signs of Winter outside and even got to see snow falling on Friday! Also on Friday 1st, children were chosen to put our first Christmas baubles on our Advent Christmas Trees.
We have taken part in lots of Christmas activities and our nursery is now looking very wintry and festive. Nursery classes have also helped to decorate the main school halls with the Christmas puddings and Christmas trees that we made.
We have shared plenty more Winter themed stories, including our story of the week, ' Guess how much I love you in the Winter.' In maths, we have reinforced our recognition of numerals to 5 and matched numerals to objects. We have also tried ordering numbers in preparation for starting our Advent Calendar.
Next week, there are lots of exciting things happening in nursery and in school, including our Christmas party next Friday!
Wk beginning 20th November '23
This week, we learnt about Hanukah and have looked at a Menorah candle holder and talked about how Jewish people light the candles each night in Hanukkah. We used our hands to make prints for the Menorah.
In our Happy Mind, we have been thinking and talking about how we show kindness, bravery and teamwork at Nursery. Children thought really carefully about what we do at Nursery. They also enjoyed dancing to the Happy Minds song.
In music, we have been practising our songs for our concert and have enjoyed experimenting with the musical instruments.
In maths, we have continued to reinforce our numbers and have focused on the circle in shape, exploring our nursery to find real life examples of it.
The children have enjoyed sharing lots of stories and, with the weather turning, we have been reading lots of winter themed books.
We finished the week with 'Crazy Hair Day.' The children looked amazing and thank you for all the kind donations.
Next week, we will be sharing, amongst others, 'Guess how much I love you, in the Winter' and talking about the changes we see as this season begins.
Week beginning 13th November '23
This week, we have been learning about Diwali and have made beautiful Rangoli patterns, as well as colourful Diva lamps. We have also embraced 'Children in Need' and learnt all about why we have this special day each year. The children have taken part in lots of linked activities, including making play dough Pudseys, ordering Pudseys according to size, cutting out Pudsey cupcakes and using tweezers to put pom pom spots onto Pudsey's bandana.
In maths, we have reinforced the numbers to 5, singing 'Five Little Speckled Frogs,' as well as recapping the names of our 2D shapes: circle, triangle, square and rectangle, going into more detail about their properties. Children have reinforced their computer and motor skills, using the interactive whiteboard to play a variety of curriculum linked games.
We have also enjoyed visiting the library and sharing stories with each other, learning how to open and care for books and developing a love for reading.
Week Beginning 6th November 2023
The children have had a very busy week learning about Remembrance day and their Birthdays. The children have used different collage materials to create individual and class poppy pictures, wreaths and crosses. These have been displayed around the Nursery and in the school hall.
To support their learning about birthdays, the children have talked about how old they are and have loved making Rice Krispie cakes, learning to follow a recipe and notice changes to mixtures. To develop the children's fine motor skills, they have made Poppy bracelets and pasta bracelets practising their counting skills as they thread.
In Literacy, the children have enjoyed listening to the story Kippers Birthday and watching the Poppy animation on CBeebies to join in with the two minute silence at 11 am on Friday 10th November.
Next week, we will be learning about Diwali the festival of lights and creating beautiful Rangoli patterns in the Nursery garden.
Week Beginning 30th October 2023
Welcome back everyone! We have had lots of fun this week exploring pumpkins, printing spooky pictures and creating sparkly firework images.
The children enjoyed scooping out the pumpkin flesh and seeds and we showed pictures of pumpkins in the fields and seeds to show where they originally came from.
Thank you to all the families that shared updates of their half term activities on Tapestry. The children enjoyed sharing these in class.
Next week we will be thinking about Birthdays and Remembrance day.
Week beginning 16th October 2023
This has been a very busy week. The children have explored the main school consolidating their understanding of colour through taking part in a colour walk and enjoying a lovely story about colour in our main school library.
In Maths this week, the children have practisied recognising numbers using an interactive game and reinforcing the 2d shapes square, circle, rectangle and triangle through sorting and matching activities.
In Literacy this week, the children have been practising holding their pens correctly to carefully write their names. There has been great progress this half term, we are so proud of you all.
Next half term, we will be learning about lots of different celebrations. We wish you all a very restful, safe half term and look forward to seeing you all on Monday 30th October.
Wk beginning 9th October '23
Our story of the week has been 'Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?' and we have enjoyed retelling, sequencing and illustrating the story. It has also been Black History week in school and we have been following the story of Jo Jo and Gran Gran. This included watching a special episode of Jo Jo and Gran Gran, which told the story of Gran Gran moving from Saint Lucia to England during the Windrush period. We have used this to support our learning.
This week, in Happy Minds, we have been looking more at our brains and what they look like. As a whole class, we constructed a brain using play dough. The children were then given the opportunity to create their own brains during learning time.
In maths, we have been learning all about the 'square' using mathematical language to describe its properties. We have also been learning about the number three and counting out three objects, as well as linking these to the numeral itself.
We have painted beautiful rainbows, consolidating our understanding of colour.
Next week, our main text will be 'The Great Rainbow Chase' and we will be looking at the 'rectangle' and the number four.
Week beginning 2nd October 2023
We have embraced Autumn this week, carrying on with our learning of what happens during this season, and we have introduced what animals we might see and made links to where we might see them, highlighting the forest as a home and talking about our local Epping Forest. We have learned about animals such as deer, squirrels, hedgehogs, foxes and owls and introduced the words 'nocturnal' and 'hibernate.'
The nursery have shared lots of stories, including stories linked to Autumn and forest animals. The children have been officially introduced to the shape 'triangle' and we have had fun creating art work linked to shapes, as well as Autumn and forest animals.
Next week, we will be sharing the story 'Brown Bear, Brown Bear what can you see?' and continuing our learning of shapes, introducing the 'square.'
Week beginning 25th September 2023
This week, we have continued learning about colours and have introduced the season Autumn. We have talked about what happens to the trees and looked at the colours of the leaves that fall. The children have created some lovely art work linked to this, as well as for our story 'Dog's Colourful Day.'
We have also started our new P.S.E scheme 'Happy Minds,' introducing the characters Betty and Bertie. We've been learning about our brains and how each time we practise something our brain develops.
Our shape of the week has been the circle and we have been identifying objects from around the nursery that are this shape. We have also talked about a circle's properties. Our number of the week has been 'one.' We have counted out one object, decided which groups have only one object in them and had a go at writing the numeral 'one.'
Next week, we will be continuing to learn about Autumn and sharing linked texts, as well as our stories of the week 'Brown Bear, Brown Bear' and 'You Choose.' We will be going on to the number 'two' and learning all about the 'triangle.'
Week beginning 18th September 2023
This week, we have continued with our learning on colours, incorporating yellow and blue. We have completed lots of sorting activities linked to colour, as well as mixing yellow and blue to make green! We have also painted fantastic portraits of ourselves, thinking carefully about the colours that we have chosen to match our features.
We have counted our children and spoken about how many friends are in that day. We have also played counting games and songs to reinforce this.
In Literacy, we have read lots of stories together and our focus stories this week have been 'Colour Monster goes to School' and ' Dog's Colourful Day.' The latter follows the story of a dog, who keeps getting more spots on his body due to rolling on the grass or from jam splatting on him and so forth.
Next week, we will be reading 'Orange Fish, Green Fish.' We will also be formally introducing our 2D shapes.
Week beginning 11th September 2023
This week, the children have completed their first full week of Nursery. The children are settling well into their new routines and making lots of new friendships. The children have enjoyed playing in the garden and playing inside the nursery classroom. This week, the children have created colour pictures to start our colour display, they have drawn lovely pictures for our mark making display and have begun painting self-portraits, using a mirror to help them identify their facial features.
We have shared lots of stories together, including 'Colour Monster goes to school' and 'Lulu's First Day in Nursery.' Each class has also counted their friends at registration time, as well as discussing what day of the week it is.
It was our first whole class P.E session with our coaches this week, where we continued joining in with mixed games and football skills. Our Music teacher also came in to give us our first music session, where we sang some familiar nursery rhymes.
Next week, we will be concentrating on the colour blue and finding things around the nursery that match that colour. We will also be looking at shapes, naming and describing them and finding objects that are that shape.
Week Beginning 4th September 2023
Welcome to Thomas Willingale Nursery. We have enjoyed meeting all the children throughout the week. They have settled well in small groups and have enjoyed exploring their new nursery environment and meeting some new friends. Next week, we will come together as a whole class and children will establish new routines and form new friendships. We hope you all have a lovely weekend and we look forward to seeing you all on Monday.
Quick reminder
The adults for Red Apple Class are:-
Mrs May, Mrs Carter and Mrs Andrew
The adults for Green Pear Class are:-
Miss Oliver, Mrs Brown, Miss Bishop and Mrs Bevan
