What a Wonderful First Half Term in Nursery!

What a fantastic start to the year we have had with our nursery friends! The children have settled into nursery life so well, becoming familiar with our new routines, learning about our behaviour expectations and building lovely friendships along the way. We have loved watching them explore their classroom, discover the different areas of provision and dive into the exciting learning opportunities on offer each week.

We have packed so much into our first half term! Let’s take a look at what we have been getting up to…

We have enjoyed our different nursery rhymes of the week, singing along, learning the actions and playing with the characters from the songs in different areas of the classroom. Our favourite was ‘Incy Wincy Spider’ and working out how to get him down the drainpipe in our water play! We also started our ‘Lending library’. Every Friday, every child takes a book home and reads it over the weekend before returning it the following week for a new book!

Marvellous Me!

We began our first topic, ‘Marvellous Me’, by exploring what makes each of us special and unique. The children enjoyed learning all about themselves, including their facial features, body parts, emotions, likes and dislikes. We talked about the similarities and differences between ourselves and others, celebrating what makes us who we are.

We then moved on to exploring families and the important people in our lives. The children loved sharing photographs and talking about their families, as well as creating their own drawings of the special people who mean so much to them.

Next, we explored the exciting topic of growing up! We looked at our baby photographs and compared them with how we look today. The children enjoyed spotting the differences and talking about how much they have grown and changed. We even became little mathematicians in our block corner, using blocks to measure our heights before working together to create a fantastic whole-class height chart on paper for our wall!

Letting the Children’s Interests Lead the Way!

To finish our ‘Marvellous Me’ topic, we followed the children’s own interests and ideas. We noticed a real excitement around birthdays, growing up and celebrations, so we decided to bring their ideas to life by planning our very own nursery party!

The children had so many wonderful ideas. They wanted to make cakes, design birthday cards, create party hats and, of course, have a party! We were delighted to support their curiosity and allow them to take the lead in their learning.

There was so much to explore, create and enjoy!

• Creative party hats: We designed and decorated our own party hats using 2D shapes and repeating patterns.
• Cupcake creations: We made cupcakes using playdough and explored imaginative baking in our mud kitchen.
• A trip to Big Bocs Bwyd: We visited our Big Bocs Bwyd to buy the ingredients we needed before making and decorating our very own cupcakes. What a wonderful real-life experience!
• Making sandwiches: We followed pictorial recipes to make our own sandwiches, developing our independence and learning to follow instructions.
• Party invitations: We designed our own invitations and hand-delivered them to teachers around the school. We were very proud to share our exciting plans!
• Sewing: We developed a new skill…sewing! We asked how we were going to decorate so made our very own bunting for the party!

And finally… it was time to party!

We came together for a fantastic nursery celebration, dancing, enjoying music and movement videos and having lots of fun with our friends. It was truly wonderful to see the children’s ideas come to life and watch all their learning, creativity and excitement come together in such a meaningful, real-life experience.

We were also very excited to celebrate Harvest this half term. The children worked incredibly hard to learn the song ‘Dingle Dangle Scarecrow’, practising the words and actions until they were ready to perform it to the rest of the school.

We were so proud of their confidence, enthusiasm and teamwork. What a lovely way to come together as a school community and celebrate Harvest!

We have had a wonderful first half term in Nursery, full of new experiences, exciting discoveries, growing independence and lots of smiles and laughter. From learning about ourselves and our families to measuring our heights, following our own interests and celebrating with a nursery party, the children have shown such enthusiasm and curiosity in their learning.

We are incredibly proud of how well everyone has settled into nursery life and look forward to seeing their confidence, friendships and skills continue to grow.

We hope everyone has a lovely half-term break, and we can’t wait to welcome our nursery friends back for another exciting half term full of fun, exploration and learning!