Nursery Blog
W/B: 18th July:
On behalf of myself and all the staff at Grange Valley nursery I would like to say a HUGE thank you to all of our wonderful children and parents. Today we have been completely overwhelmed by your generosity. This year has flown by and I hope the children have had as much fun as we have! Thanks again to everyone and enjoy your summer. We look forward to the children returning back to Grange Valley in September and we wish all our children going to new schools luck in the future.
We made the most of the sun in our final week in nursery. The children had lots of fun doing sports day. The children took part in a running race, a quoit race, an egg and spoon race and a horse race.
We finished the year with a fancy dress party.
Congratulations to all of our children who graduated on Friday. You were fantastic!
W/B: 11th July 2016
This week we made real pirate maps. We used teabags to stain the paper and then dried it out. The next day we drew our maps including mountains, rivers, caves, trees and most importantly x marks the spot. Thank you to all the children who made maps at home, they were super!
Outdoors we played pirate themed team games. We raced to see who could collect the most treasure, we raced to see who could walk the plank without falling off and we practised throwing the treasure to each other.
We made pirate flags. The children used chalk to draw a skull and crossbones.
After reading our story 'Pirate Pete' we pretended to go on our own pirate adventures to see what we could see.
W/B: 4th July 2016
Well done to our Stars of the Week
Our children have had lots of fun dressing up as pirates. They have been pretending to sail the seven seas in our role-play pirate ship.
In group time we played the Polly Parrot game. Polly introduced a range of pirate objects and we talked about them. Then he made us close our eyes while he stole one! The children had to remember which objects had been taken.
We used special pirate paper to make treasure maps. We drew mountains, rivers, sharks, trees and most importantly x marks the spot.
This weeks story was called 'Pirates Love Underpants'. The pirates in the story followed their map all the way to the golden underpants. The children went on a hunt around our environment to find golden underpants with letters on and they copied them.
W/B: 27th June 2016
Well done to our Stars of the Week!
W/B: 20th June 2016
Well done to our Stars of the Week!
This week we have had a wonderful time travelling the world. The children have enjoyed role-playing in our travel agents and airport role-play area. We have visited Australia, France, Africa and Italy. Take a look below at the activities we took part in on our travels.
Australia
France
Africa
Italy
W/B: 13th June 2016
Well done to our stars of the week!
Today we said goodbye to Miss Upton our student helper who has been with us since September. Thank you for all of your help Miss Upton, we will miss you!
On Thursday we watched the beginning of the England football match. The children joined in singing the national anthem and we went outside to practise our football skills. England won 2-1.
Thank you to everyone who completed our home task this week. It was great to see all the different stick people.
This week our theme was Stick Man. We read the story and the children were very excited to go out into the forest and find the Stick Man's family tree. The children each collected a stick and took them back to nursery to make their own stick person.
The children each decorated their sticks using wool, googly eyes and pipe cleaners. The children's stick people look fantastic on display in Yellow Room.
W/B: 8th June 2016
Well done to our Stars of the Week!
This week we have been learning all about summer. In the craft area some of our children made a sunshine.
Outside the weather has been beautiful and the children have enjoyed spending lots of time in our outdoor area.
Thank you to everyone who completed their half term task. The children enjoyed sharing their pictures with their peers at group time. It sounded like lots of our children had spent the holidays in their paddling pools.
A group of boys enjoyed being chefs in our mud kitchen. They made chocolate mud soup!
We found a frog jumping around outside. The children enjoyed watching the frog and they practised jumping like it.
On Friday we had a fantastic time celebrating the Queen's 90th Birthday. We had fun dancing, singing, playing games and eating our picnic.
W/B: 23rd May 2016
A fantastic day out at Farmer Ted's!
Well done to our Stars of the Week!
This week we have been learning about where vegetables come from. We watched a video to show the children how the vegetables are harvested on the farm and then brought to the shops for us to buy. We used a range of vegetables to make some soup, it was delicious.
This week the children have been using our new listening station. They have enjoyed learning how to use it and listening to stories and music with their friends.
On Friday our butterflies were finally strong enough to be released. The children watched as they flew off to explore their new environment.
Congratulations to all of our children for completing the Balanceabiliy programme well done everyone!
W/B: 16th May 2016
Well done to our Stars of the Week!
This week all five of our beautiful butterflies hatched out of their cocoons. The children were amazed at they watched them break out of their cocoons. We will look after them in their net for a few days before we release them into our forest area.
On Wednesday the St.Helens Healthy Schools team visited nursery to observe our snack routine. Our feedback was fantastic. They said our children are very independent and have a good awareness of hygiene. Well done children!
This week our theme has been the farm. Some of our children made these fantastic chick masks in the Creative Area with Miss Upton.
On Friday the childen brought the chairs outdoors. It was great to see all the different ideas the children had. Some children sunbathed, some children pretended they were racing cars, some children pretended to play school and some children just sat and chatted with their friends.
We are coming to the end of our Balanceability programme and next week the children will complete their assessment. It's great to see how the children's confidence and skills have developed over the 6 weeks.
W/B: 9th May 2016
Well done to our stars of the week!
This week we have been learning all about plants and flowers. We talked about the different parts and the children learnt what the roots do. We then planted some flowers in our EYFS garden.
The children followed instructions to make a grass head. Each child has brought home their grass head to look after. Don't forget to water it everyday and put it in the sun.
We planted beans just like Jasper did in this weeks story.
After all that digging and planting our children had very dirty hands. We talked about the importance of washing our hands and how we do it thoroughly.
We made flower pictures using different shapes.
Do you like Tayo's flower?
W/B: 2nd May 2016
Well done to our stars of the week!
This week our theme has been minibeasts. We went on a minibeast hunt in our school forest area. The children found worms, ants, spiders, woodlice, beetles, millipedes and snails. We carefully took them back into group to have a closer look using the magnifying glasses. Some of our children were very brave and they held them.
Some of our children practised their number recognition and counting skills in the Maths Area this week. They pegged the correct amount of legs on the spiders body.
Our caterpillars are growing really big now and soon they will be transforming into their chrysalises.
The weather has been beautiful this week and our children have been enjoying lots of water play.
On Frday our school took part in art day. In the EYFS we focussed on an artist called Jackson Pollock. The children had lots of fun splatting paint outside.
We are now in week 3 of our Balanceability course. Today the children were challenged to glide as fast as they could!
W/B: 25th April 2016
Well done to our stars of the week!
This week we welcomed our new pet caterpillars into nursery. The children have enjoyed talking about them and watching them as they have grown. They are excited to see the next stage of their life cycle.
We talked about symmetry and how butterflies have the same pattern on each wing. The children each painted a symmetrical butterfly for our nursery display.
We read 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' story. We used the fruit in the story to make fruit kebabs. It was great to see the children trying new fruits.
After talking about the life cycle of the Very Hungry Caterpillar some of our children drew some butterfly and caterpillar pictures.
Some of our children enjoyed playing a phonics game on our IWB. They were able to correctly identify the initial sounds in all the words. You could try playing this game at home:
http://www.crickweb.co.uk/Early-Years.html
Some of our children have recently visited the circus. Outdoors they set up their own circus training.
W/B: 18th April 2016
We would like to welcome all of our new children and families to Grange Valley Nursery. We hope the children have enjoyed their first full week.
Well done to our stars of the week!
This week we read the story 'George and the Dragon'. We celebrated St.George's Day by making St.George's flags.
We made St.George's cross biscuits.
On Thursday we celebrated the Queen's 90th birthday. We baked her a birthday cake and made crowns.
In group time we explored musical instruments and repeating rhythms.
Friday was our first Balanceability session. The children demonstrated excellent co-ordination.
FREE RUGBY SESSIONS
W/B: 28th March 2016
This week we have been learning all about spring. We went on a walk around our school environment to spot the signs of spring. The weather was beautiful and we found lots of buds, flowers, bees and birds.
We used our handprints and kitchen roll tubes to make some flower pictures for our spring display.
We hope you all have a fantastic spring break and we look forward to seeing everyone on 18th April.
W/B: 21st March 2016
Thank you to Dylan's Reptiles who visited nursery this week to teach our children all about snakes, lizards, chameleons, spiders, frogs and tortoises. Our children had a fantastic time learning lots of interesting facts and having the opportunity to stroke and hold the reptiles.
On Thursday we celebrated Miss Talbot's wedding. We talked about weddings and what happens at them and some children even pretended to get married to each other. The children enjoyed signing the guest book, toasting to the bride and groom, making button hole flowers and throwing confetti.
This week we talked about Easter and some of it's traditions. The children enjoyed making Easter cakes, making Easter baskets and going on an Easter egg hunt.
W/B: 14th March 2016
Following the children's interests from last week we set up a jungle vet role-play area. The children have enjoyed looking after all the poorly jungle animals and some of our children would like to be jungle vets when they grow up.
This week we have been exploring pattern. In group we used blocks to make repeating colour patterns and then some children made their own repeating pattern snakes.
This week our story has been Elmer. Elmer is a very colourful patchwork elephant. We talked about Elmer's different colours and we used paints to explore colour mixing. The children enjoyed guessing what new colours they could make.
The weather has been beautiful this week and the children have had lots of fun outside in the fresh air. Some children have been playing number games, some have been building racing cars and some have been making mud pies!
This week Book Fair visited nursery. The children enjoyed looking at all the new books on sale.
W/B: 7th March 2016
We have been reading a story called 'Rumble in the Jungle'. In the story we learnt the names of lots of different jungle animals. We talked about jungle animal patterns and we painted our own. Our display in nursery looks fantastic.
In our hall time we explored moving like different jungle animals. We practised slithering like a snake, crawling like a tiger and flapping like a parrot.
This week the weather has improved and the children have had lots of fun outdoors.
On Tuesday 22nd March Dylan's Reptiles are coming to visit our nursery. The children will have the opportunity to meet snakes, lizards, spiders, frogs, etc. The cost of this will be £2.50 per child.
W/B: 29th February 2016
Well done to our Stars of the Week!
This week our theme has been 'The Gruffalo'. We read the story in our forest role-play area and then the children used the masks and props to act it out.
On Wednesday we were shocked to find out the Gruffalo had visited our nursery. We found footprints, a claw, a purple prickle and some teeth. The children were sad to see the Gruffalo had gone away again so we all wrote signs to tell him to come back. We put them up all around our school forest.
It's been a rainy week and the children have had lots of run digging, jumping in muddy puddles and exploring puddles.
Take a look below at some of the other Gruffalo fun we have had this week...
World Book Day
On Friday we celebrated World Book Day. The children and staff came to nursery dressed in their pyjamas for our bedtime reading theme. The children each brought in their favourite story book from home and we shared these in group time. To finish off our morning we enjoyed toast and hot chocolate as we read a bedtime story.
Bedtime Reading Tips
- Sit close together when sharing a book and encourage your child to hold the book themselves and/or turn the pages
- Don’t be afraid to use funny voices – it’s a great way to make your child giggle. And don’t be afraid to sing either – they won’t care whether or not you sing in tune or know the words!
- When you talk to your child about what’s going on in a book, give them plenty of time to respond. Try to ask questions that don’t require just yes or no answers. For example, ask them what they think will happen next ask or about how a character might be feeling
- Sharing books isn’t just about the words - point to the pictures and relate them to something your child knows
- Using a puppet to act out a story can help your child to understand what's going on and learn how to pretend play. Why not pick a character from your book and use the puppet to show what they are doing? Watch the video below for more guidance.
- And lastly – make it fun! It doesn’t matter how you read with a child, as long as you both enjoy the time together!
W/B: 22nd February 2016
Well done to our stars of the week!
This week we have been taking part in our schools 'British Values' theme.
We have been learning about the role of the police in helping protect and fight crime. After learning about the role of the Police the children enjoyed pretending to be police officers in the role-play area and small world area. The teachers were very impressed with the children's report writing.
This week we have had lots of crimes happening in nursery! Each day we found different evidence and the children investigated handprints, footprints and fingerprints. We talked about how everyone has unique fingerprints and the children enjoyed checking their own fingerprints. On Friday we finally solved the crime, Mrs Gribbon popped into nursery to deliver our milk and the children noticed she had black ink on her fingers. We checked her fingerprints and they matched! Mrs Davies the police officer and the children chased her but she got away.
We have been talking about the importance of rules. We have made a new rule display and the children thought of all the rules. Our key group bears are going to be watching the children carefully to check which children are doing the right things.
In our hall time we played parachute games. The children had lots of fun listening for their names and running under the parachute.
W/B: 5th February 2016
Well done to our stars of the week...
This week we have been learning all about China and the Chinese New Year. We have been learning the traditional zodiac animal story and all about how Chinese new year is celebrated in China.
In the role play area the children have been pretending to work in the Chinese restaurant.
The children have enjoyed lots of Chinese themed craft this week. We have made fans, lanterns, masks and dragon puppets.
At the weekend Finlay was lucky enough to visit China Town with her family. She brought back lots interesting artefacts to show us including; chop sticks, a traditional dress, Chinese writing and photographs of the parade she saw. Thank you for bringing them in for us Finlay!
For our snack on Friday we had a Chinese banquet. It was great to see the children trying the noodles, rice, spring rolls and prawn crackers. The children ate it all up!
On Friday we celebrated Valentines. The children all wore their red party clothes and they had lots of fun dancing, singing and playing party games. Some of the children enjoyed writing cards and letters for their friends.
Today was a sad day as Miss Gerrard our student who started in September left us. Miss Gerrard has secured herself a teaching assistant job and was very sad to be leaving our wonderful children. Please come back and visit us Miss Gerrard!
We hope everyone has a wonderful half term holiday and we look forward to seeing everyone on Monday 22nd February.
Nursery Blog
W/B: 1st February 2016
Well done to our stars of the week...
Superheroes to the rescue! This week the children have had lots of fun dressing up like superheroes and role-playing in our bat cave.
In group we read a story called 'Superkid'. It was all about a school child who was secretly a superhero who saved the world! The children imagined they were a superhero and talked about the special powers they would have. In the creative area the children each made their own superhero mask.
Mrs Threlkeld visited nursery on Tuesday and she couldn't believe her eyes when she saw some of the children's fantastic writing and pictures. Some of the children are beginning to apply their phonic knowledge.
The children enjoyed our sensory play this week. They played with the slimy spaghetti and pretended it was Spiderman's webs. They pretended to wrap up the baddies.
The children have been busy in the creative area this week. They have enjoyed using junk modelling to build superhero vehicles e.g. planes, rockets and cars.
This week we introduced the BeeBots. The children were fantastic at programming them to move forwards and backwards. In group time the children raced each other.
W/B: 25th January 2016
Well done to our stars of the week ...
We practised matching number and quantity by counting out dinosaur eggs.
Mrs Barker brought in a dinosaur fossil for the children to explore. After this we made our own fossils using dough and we painted them. we pretended to dig for them in the sand.
We had a surprise this week when we found two dinosaur eggs in our nursery. The children were very excited and we discussed where they might have come from, what might be inside, how do we look after them, etc. The next day we found the eggs had hatched and the dinosaurs had left footprints all over the floor. We had some fantastic writing from this.
In our hall time we explored how we could move like dinosaurs. We crawled like a stegosaurus, stomped like a TRex and flew like a pterodactyl. The children shouted, "ROAR!!!" The children enjoyed pretending to be dinosaurs on the playground too.
In the Playdough Area we made dinosaur models. We used pasta to make them all spiky. Some of the dinosaurs had lots and lots of eyes!
Do you like our dinosaur craft? We used a range of media to create different textures. Some children used cotton wool to make a soft dinosaur and some used oats and pasta to make a rough dinosaur. Our display looks great!
W/B: 18th January 2016
Well done to our stars of the week ...
We went on a walk around the local area to look at different houses and homes. We looked at the different types of houses, the numbers on the doors and the different shapes they could see e.g. square windows and rectangle doors. In the afternoon we also spotted a missing cat poster to we helped look for that too!
Our story this week was 'The Three Little Pigs', the children enjoyed using the story props to act it out. Their favourite part was, "Ill huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house down."
We used paper plates to make piggy masks, the children enjoyed pretending to be the three little piggy's from the story, "Not by the hairs on my chinny chin chin."
The children have been working on a building site this week. They have enjoyed being builders and building walls and towers. They have also been building inspectors and architects drawing plans.
We went on a shape hunt in our nursery environment. We found circles, squares, rectangles and triangles.
The children enjoyed mark making in the glitter trays. Some children made shapes, some children wrote their names and some children wrote numbers.
In our hall time we explored moving in different ways. We slithered, shuffled, crawled and balanced.
W/B: 11th January 2016
Well done to our stars of the week ...
On Thursday night Elsa froze some of our toys! The children had lots of fun exploring how to melt them. They used warm water, salt, hammers and the sun.
Our favourite part of the week was using the streamers to dance to 'Let It Go'. Mrs Holcroft couldn't resist joining in!
At group time we learnt all about the Arctic and the animals that live there. The children had lots of questions about life at the Arctic.
We mixed paint and water and froze it. The children had fun using the ice to explore colour mixing.
Unfortunately it didn't snow for us this week so we made our own. It was very messy!
Do you like our new Elsa wands? The children waved their wands and turns the teachers into ice!
Do you like our new sparkly shapes? The children made lots of different shape pictures including; rockets, houses and robots.
Welcome to all of our new children ...
This week we went on a walk to spot all the signs of winter. It was a very cold day and we found some ice. The children enjoyed jumping in the muddy puddles like Peppa Pig! On the way round we hung up our bird feeders for the birds to eat during the winter months.
W/B: 4th January 2016
Well done to our stars of the week ...
We have been talking about winter and how there are no berries and seeds left for the wildlife to eat. We used raisons, nuts, seeds and lard to make winter feeders for the birds. We hung them all around our school whilst out on our winter walk.
We made snowflakes for our winter display. Ask your child to show you how to make them.
In our hall session we experimented with different ways of travelling. We practised walking, running, stomping, hopping, skipping, crawling and slithering.
We made a VERY glittery Elsa castle ready for our Frozen theme next week.
W/B: 14th December 2015
We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We look forward to seeing you all again on Monday 4th January. Thank you for all of our kind cards and gifts.
Fun at the Christmas party...
W/B: 7th December 2015
What a busy week! On Monday Santa asked us to write him a list of all the presents we would like for Christmas and to send them to the elves at the North Pole. It was great to see how the children's name writing and pencil control has improved. In the role-play the children enjoyed working at the Post Office.
This week the children have been practising our present wrapping skills. We wrapped some presents and put them under our Christmas tree.
Look how beautifully the children have been playing together this week ...
We hope the children enjoy our new library area.
Reminders:
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Tuesday is our Christmas Sing-along. Can afternoon children please arrive at nursery at 10:40am. Children will wear school uniforms and please ensure they have their Santa hat in.
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Wednesday is our party day, children should come to school in suitable party clothes and footwear. Please bring the party food you have signed up for.
Underwater Street Trip - 2nd December 2015
In the craft area this week the children made spiders, the teachers helped the children count 8 legs. Mrs Davies was a little bit frightened of them!
In Mathematics the children made pumpkin faces using different shapes. We used circles for eyes, a triangle for a noses and a rectangle for the mouth.
Some of the children were super helpers this week, they helped the teachers spoon out all of the seeds and watched as the teachers safely carved out a face.
We had lots of spooky sensory play this week. The children really enjoyed the gooey slime!
W/B: 12th October 2015:
Well done to our stars of the week!
This week we have been focusing on a story called 'The Little Red Hen'. The children enjoyed joining in with the repeated words, "Not I said the cat, Not I said the dog and Not I said the duck." Some of our children pretended to act out the story using the animal masks.
On Wednesday we made our own bread rolls. The children helped measure the ingredients, mix it up, knead the dough and roll it into balls. Our nursery smelt beautiful as the bread was baking in the oven.
On Thursday we enjoyed eating vegetable soup and fresh bread for snack, it was yummy!
It was wonderful to see some of our children playing in our farm role-play outside. They enjoyed singing Old MacDonald had a Farm.
We printed with vegetables to make our harvest crowns.
It was great to see the children writing shopping lists for the farm shop.
The children have been particularly interested in the sand area this week. We observed lots of sharing and turn taking as they built sandcastles.
W/B: 5th October 2015:
Well done to our stars of the week!
This week we got all got wrapped up and went out for an autumn walk in the woods. We collected a range of different coloured leaves, acorns, conkers, sycamore seeds and berries. Back in nursery we explored all the objects we had collected and used them to make some autumn craft.
In group time we looked at a range of autumn non-fiction books. We talked about the photographs and the titles on each page. The books gave us lots of information all about autumn time.
The teachers were super impressed with the children when they sorted the leaves independently first by colour and then by size.
The children used the leaves we collected on our autumn walk to make some beautiful collages.
In our hall time we practised balancing along the benches.
Take a look below at some of the other things the children have been doing this week...
W/B: 28th September 2015:
Well done to our stars of the week!
This week we have been learning all about a story called 'We're going on a Bear Hunt'. The children have enjoyed joining in with the repeating words and learning actions. In group time we explored the different settings from the story, we used special words to describe them.
Thick oozy mud!
Some of the children have enjoyed acting out the story in our role-play area. On Friday the bear came to visit us in nursery!
We used our binoculars to spot bears hiding around our nursery. Back in group we used words to describe the sizes of them e.g. big and small.
Take a look below at some of the activities we have been doing this week...
W/B: 21st September 2015:
Well done to our stars of the week!
This week we had lots of fun at our teddy bears picnic. We followed the signs and paw prints all the way through the woods until we found the picnic. We enjoyed eating jam sandwiches, cakes and milk and reading a teddy bear story.
In group time we introduced our key group bears. The children each filled him with lots of love by putting a love heart inside. We took turns to fill him with lots of fluff until he was nice and cuddly.
At the end of our teddy bear week we each made a teddy bear biscuit. We use a knife to spread the icing and we used raisons, buttons and laces to decorate it.
This week we brought in a special teddy bear from home. So we didn't loose them we each practised writing our name on a label, the teachers were very impressed!
Some children enjoyed making teddy bear masks in the craft area. They coloured them in and attempted to use the scissors to cut them out all on their own!
Take a look at some of the other things we have been getting up to in nursery this week:
W/B: 14th September 2015:
Well done to our stars of the week Max, Summer, Riley, Leon, Cohen and Frankie!
Thank you for bringing in your family photographs, we have used them in group time this week and the children have all proudly talked about their family members.
This week each child has painted their own self-portrait. They looked in the mirror to check what they needed to paint and what colours to use.
In group time we talked about the things that made us feel happy and sad. Some of the children used play dough to make happy and sad faces.
Look at some of the other things our children have been up to this week:
W/B: 7th September 2015:
Well done to our stars of the week Maria, William, Mia, Ayda, Spencer and Samantha!
On Wednesday it was a very special day for our queen, Queen Elizabeth is now the longest reigning queen. In nursery we made crowns, we wrote letters to the queen and in group time we watched a video clip from a long time ago when the queen was crowned in 1952.
This week we visited the school hall for the first time this year. The children were very excited and they enjoyed playing lots of different running and movement games.
On Tuesday some of the children were talking about their favourite colours. They used paint to explore colour mixing. They made their favourite colours; red and yellow makes red, red and white makes pink and red and blue makes purple.
It has been nice to see the children settling in and making new friends this week. Take a look at some of the things we have been doing in nursery this week:
We would like to introduce Miss Gerrard our new helper in nursery. She is going to be in nursery every Thursday and Friday throughout her childcare course at St.Helens college.
W/B: 2nd September 2015
What a wonderful few days we have had in nursery this week. On Wednesday it was lovely to see all of our older children happily skip into nursery with their friends. On Thursday we welcomed all of our wonderful new children, the nursery stuff were super impressed at how sensible and brave they were.
It has been a busy week for our children settling in and finding their way around their new environment. We have had lots of fun doing paintings, role-paying, making playdough cakes, riding bikes and lots lots more.
All the teachers are looking forward to the year ahead and we can't wait to learn all about our new children and do lots of exciting activities.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Nursery Staff xxxx
Take a look at some of the photographs of nursery this week:
Reminders:
- AM children will be taking part in their physical development session on Monday and PM children will be taking part in their physical development session on Friday.
- Please remember if you would like your child to have snack it costs £1.00 per week. Please pay this to Miss Talbot on a Monday morning, if you prefer to pay the half-term upfront it will be £7.
- Please ensure your child has a bag of spare clothes (pants/skirt, tshirt and underwear) in nursery each day, this can be left on your child’s peg if you prefer.
