Thomas Willingale School and Nursery
Summer Term
Week Beginning 15th July 2024
Wow what a year! The children have developed so many lovely skills and made wonderful friendships. We are so proud of all the children this year. They celebrated their final full week with us having a lovely party with face paints, treats, jelly bath, coloured sand, water and party music.
The children loved dancing together, playing games and sharing snacks together!
We hope you all have a wonderful Summer and we wish everyone good luck in their new schools and classes in September!
Well done everyone! The Nursery Team.
Week beginning 8th July 24
This week the children have been excited about their very last Nursery music performance. On Tuesday the children did us proud by singing beautifully throughout the day. All their teachers were very proud of them!
During the rest of the week the children have been busy exploring pirates, playing with the pirate ships, listening to pirate stories and making pirate related craft activities including pirate hats and their own colourful pirates.
The children have also been busy practising their phase two letter sounds and consolidating their numbers to 10.
Next week we are all looking forward to our beach party on Tuesday and having a lovely fun day together, playing games and having party food together.
Wk beginning 1st July '24
This week, we had a special 'Aspirations Day,' where we thought about what we would like to be when we grew up. Children had the opportunity to dress up as their chosen job title and we did linked activities. We were also lucky enough to have a police officer and a prison officer come in and talk to the children about what they do and they brought in lots of special equipment for the children to see.
Our story of the week has been Rainbow Fish and we have linked it to our Happy Minds learning, talking about how important it is to share with one another. We have also made giant Rainbow Fish for our nursery. Our sound of the week has been 'l' and classes have done lots of linked activities.
In maths, we have been using positional language and linked this to treasure maps and pirates.
Next week, we will continue learning about the sea animals and learn more about pirates. We will also be consolidating our learning of our phase 2 phonics.
Week Beginning 24th June 2024
This week has been very short but very busy. The children have been busy learning about animals in preparation for our school trip. On Wednesday, the whole Nursery took as trip to Ashlyns farm and play barn. It was the hottest day of the year and the children were so well behaved, looking at
the animals, feeding the donkeys, goats and alpacas, having a picnic lunch and enjoying a session in the soft play. All the staff at the farm said how well behaved the children were! We are all so proud of them.
During our creative sessions and writing activities on Thursday, the children painted pictures of the different animals and completed farm reviews, giving Ashlyns 5 stars as an excellent trip and place to visit.
Next week, we will be looking at the letter sound l and exploring all our previous letter sounds.
Week beginning 17th June 24
Wow! what a fun week, the children loved their drama workshop all about fairy tales on Monday, they enjoyed pretending to be different characters to save the special story book.
On Tuesday the children had great fun being scientists exploring and investigating objects that float and sink, this was lots of fun.
The children have also had the opportunity to explore forces using ramps to investigate how fast and slow different objects can travel, they were introduced to the concept of making a prediction before trying out the objects. The children also had fun being creative and making fun turtle pictures.
During our daily phonics lessons the children have enjoyed exploring and leaning about the letter sound f and finally to end our week all the children made us so proud in the completion of their first sports day, all the parents and teachers were proud of everyone!
Have a lovely long weekend and we look forward to seeing you on Tuesday 25th June.
Drama Workshop
The children loved tricking the evil queen!
Forces
Which car is fastest?
clp3.mp4
Week Beginning 10th June 24
This week the children have been very busy learning all about the seaside, creating beautiful sandcastle pictures using shapes and collage materials. We were also very impressed with their drawing and writing skills this week as they created beautiful beach pictures using the felt tip pens, practising forming letters to label their pictures.
Kipper's Beach Ball has been our class story this week linking to our new letter sound b the children have generated lots of ideas and named a range of objects beginning with b. In our daily maths lessons the children have been reinforcing their number recognition and counting skills to 10 and beyond and have participated in practical number activities using their fingers to show different quantities when asked.
In the garden this week we have explored the kinetic sand and sea shells to create wonderful patterns and imprints, as well as playing in our ever popular sand tray.
Next week we are looking forward to our Drama workshops on Monday and our sports days on Wednesday afternoon at 1:45 pm and Thursday morning at 9.30 am. We will also be learning about the letter sound f and experimenting with objects that float and sink.
Wk beginning 3rd June
This week, we have been looking at different modes of transport and thinking about which vehicles we would use to go to various locations, such as to nursery and on holiday abroad. We have been using our 'You Choose' book to choose holidays and also read lots of transport related fiction and non fiction books, including 'The Train Ride.' Our sound of the week has been 'h,' which has also linked to helicopter related work.
In maths, we have been looking at 'long' and 'short,' measuring and comparing objects around the nursery is the longest or shortest.
The children are very excited with the new role play area, which is now a Vet's surgery, to link to our topic of animals. They have all fully enjoyed taking on roles, dressing up and caring for our toy animals.
Next week, our sound of the week will be 'b'
Wk beginning 20th May 2024
This week, we have continued our junk modelling to create buildings. The nursery children have also been taught how to use the Junior hacksaws and bench hooks to cut thin dowels, in order to create a wooden home as a team effort.
Our sound of the week has been 'r' and we have taken part in lots of linked activities, including creating rainbows, which has then led on to more learning on the colours of the rainbow and sequencing the colours. We have also been reading the story of 'The Three Little Pigs' to link to our houses that we have built.
Sadly, our sports days had to be rescheduled due to the weather, but we have continued to practise skills in preparation for our new dates in June.
After half-term, we will be starting our new topic of 'Animals,' which will also link to our nursery trip to Ashlyn's Farm. Our first sound when we get back after the half-term will be 'h.'
We hope that children have a lovely half-term break and we look forward to sharing their holiday news when they come back.
Week beginning 13th May 2024
This week, the children have been very busy, creating beautiful umbrellas using a range of materials linking to our letter sound u. To support our topic homes, the children have been investigating different habitats for animals. The children enjoyed creating pretty birds and counting ducks on a duck pond.
Practising using scissors is very tricky. This week, the children have focused on this skill to develop their cutting skills further following lines and shapes. To support our design and technology element of the curriculum, the children have worked together to create a range of special buildings and home using recycled materials.
Next week, the children are looking forward to sports day and using the small saws to practising sawing some wood to build one final class structure.
Week Beginning 6th May 2024
This week the children have been very busy practising their counting skills to 5 and beyond making lovely duck ponds and practising writing their numbers accurately.
To continue our daily phonics lessons the children have enjoyed learning the letter sound e, using the magnetic letters and flash cards the children have enjoyed saying each letter sound and matching each sound to the correct magnetic letter.
During our understanding The World topic homes we have enjoyed developing our ICT skills by making short programs using a start and stop command. First the children chose the pictures they would like and using their fine motor skills they dragged the image onto the scene. Finally they were excited to make their scenes move. Great job everyone!
As the weather has started to get warmer the children have enjoyed playing in the Nursery garden. Please ensure the children have a sunhat and water bottle ready for the hot weather.
Next week the children will be investigating the letter sound u and thinking about different animal habitats.
Busy Things - Moving Street
The children loved creating their own moving street scenes practising using the play and stop commands.
Week beginning 28th April 2024
This week, the children have been very busy developing their communication and language skills, through participating in a range of speaking activities. At the beginning of the week, the children used one of our most treasured books 'You Choose' to look at the page all about homes. The children were encouraged to extend their sentences through descriptions of their favourite homes and who might live there with them.
As the week continued, we explored the story 'A Squash and a Squeeze.' The children enjoyed the rhyming language and the repetition within the story. Once familiar with the story, the children used props to create their own versions of the story which were fantastic!
During our maths and geography lessons this week, the children have enjoyed exploring the programmable toys Bee Bots to plan routes on a map of the streets. The children are beginning to understand the commands forwards and backwards.
In our daily phonics lesson, we have introduced the digraph ck explaining to the children that, when two letters are placed together, they can make one sound. The children also learnt that this sound would only be found at the end of or in the middle of a word.
Next week, we are looking forward to exploring different famous buildings and the letter sound e.
Wk beginning 22nd April 2024
This week, we have been learning about what maps are and how they are helpful. We have taken part in lots of map orientated activities, including following a map of the school to take us to the Sensory garden. The children have had lots of fun using the programmable Beebots to follow routes too.
Our sound of the week has been 'k' and we have found all sorts of things around the nursery and in our every day lives that start with this sound. The children even made kites to link to our learning. We have also shared lots of stories, including 'The House that Jack built.'
We have been linking our maths to our map work, using positional and other linked language.
In P.E., the classes have been doing athletics, practising skills that will also link to our Sport's Day coming up next month.
Next week, we will be looking at the 'ck' sound and continuing to use positional language in our maths.
Week beginning 15th April 2024
Welcome back everyone! We hope you had a lovely restful break and are looking forward to the start of our Summer term!
This half term, we will be exploring our new topic all about homes. This week, the children have enjoyed naming different types of home, using the construction materials to make impressive buildings and developing their listening skills to construct a home using 2D shapes including squares, triangles and rectangles.
During our creative lessons the children have used a range of different shapes to construct their own homes. The children then enjoyed speaking about who lives in their homes. During our maths lessons this week, the children have been using 2D shapes to build houses and practise listening to and following instructions.
Our lovely role play corner has been changed with the children's help to a builders yard where they will be able to practise building and constructing impressive models using a range of materials. In our daily phonics lessons, the children have really impressed us with their knowledge of the letter c and we will continue this next week using the letter k.
This week, we have also been learning about Eid-al-Fitr, making mehndi patterns and Eid cards. Eid Mubarak to all those celebrating.
Next week, we will be exploring number writing and making lovely maps of the school grounds.
