Nursery

Welcome to Nursery!

Well, that was the strangest year ever! We didn't even get to say goodbye properly. I hope that everybody is ok and even though some of you will no longer be in Nursery, we look forward to seeing you next year. 

Remember it is important that you try to read with your child through the holidays and practice accurate counting but above all, have a great holiday, stay safe and have fun!

In Nursery, our main aim is to provide a safe and nurturing environment which in turn will enable the children to thrive and learn. We follow the ‘High Scope’ philosophy – we encourage the children to learn through active involvement with their peers and adults alike. Through engaging in open ended activities we hope the children will become independent, responsible and confident learners.

Our goal is to provide the children with a rich curriculum which meets the children’s interests and yet still provides them with memorable first hand learning experiences.

We want our children to have the best possible start to their learning journey.

Daily Tasks

Monday 13/7/20

Please help your child to practise writing their name again. Not many can do it independently so please write their first name in large letters, possibly with a light coloured felt tip or highlighter, and then get your child to trace over the letters with a pencil. Try to encourage them to use a three fingered tripod grip. If they can write their name independently, try to get them to write other letters. In Reception they will start to learn letters in the order: m, a, s, d, t, i, n so you could try them with these.

Wednesday 15/07/20

Please read a story with your child. Remind them about us reading stories to them in Nursery. Ask them if they can remember which stories we used to have. Which one was their favourite?

Daily Tasks

Monday 6/7/20

Please could you get your child to make a birthday card celebrating the 72^nd birthday of the NHS. If they are not familiar with the NHS, tell them about it, and that they have been helping to make people better, especially when they get Covid-19. They can do any design they want.

Tuesday 7/7/20

Please read a story with your child. If you have books at home, they can choose one of those. If not, look on our School Nursery page for links to books online. Talk with them about the pictures and what is happening.

Wednesday 8/7/20

Can your child help to sort out some washing? They could try and help to fold some clothes or put socks into pairs. If Wednesday is not a washing day, you could do this activity another day and just complete one of the others today.

Thursday 9/7/20

Can you watch some episodes of ‘Numberblocks’ on the BBC website with your child? Follow this link:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b08bzfnh/numberblocks

Start with easy episodes and see how they get on.

Friday 10/7/20

Sing some nursery rhymes with your child. They should know some of the ones we have learned so give them first choice. If you like, you could then try to teach them one you know!

Daily Tasks

Monday 29/6/20

Please could you get your child to help with a household task? It could be tidying their room, helping to dry up or washing vegetables/helping to prepare a meal. Emphasize that a job is easier when everyone works together to help out! Make sure that they are safe if helping to prepare food.

Tuesday 30/6/20

What objects can your child find around the house which can be used as musical instruments? They could tap pans with wooden spoons, blow through a straw or tube to see if it will whistle or bang on cardboard boxes. If you have any musical instruments, they could use them but it will be more fun if they make it up themselves. What music can they make?

Wednesday 1/7/20

We are going bowling! You can use empty plastic bottles, the insides of toilet rolls, small empty cardboard boxes or anything else you can find for bowling pins. If you don’t have a ball to bowl with, use rolled up socks. Set the pins up and get your child to try to bowl them over. Can they count how many they have knocked over? If your child is confident with recognising numbers, you could write numbers on the objects and ask them to say which numbers they have hit.

Thursday 2/7/20

Can you get your child to draw a picture of their favourite thing? It could be a toy or a pet or even their mam or dad! Talk to them about why it is their favourite and what it means to them. When they have done, they could try to colour it in.

Friday 3/7/20

Play follow the leader. Take turns to be the leader and the children have to either copy your actions or decide what they will do that you have to copy. Start off with things like walking, running, galloping, skipping, hopping, jumping and crawling. What else can they think of?

Daily Tasks

Monday 22/6/20

Please help your child to practise writing their name. Not many can do it independently so please write their first name in large letters, possibly with a light coloured felt tip or highlighter, and then get your child to trace over the letters with a pencil. Try to encourage them to use a three fingered tripod grip. If they can write their name independently, try to get them to write other letters. In Reception they will start to learn letters in the order: m, a, s, d, t, i, n so you could try them with these.

Tuesday 23/6/20

We are going to play hide and seek! Take turns to hide or seek, making sure that when your child is seeking, that they count up to let you hide. Try to get them to count to ten but they could go higher if confident. You could play inside or out.

Wednesday 24/6/20

Play noughts and crosses with your child! It could be inside on paper but you could use objects such as cups and teaspoons. You could play outside and use stones and leaves, making the grid from sticks.

Thursday 25/6/20

Can you practise counting with your child? They can count anything but please try to make it a mix of things which they can move and put in a straight line to count accurately and other items which they cannot move. (If they are not confident, keep the number of items they cannot move low – only 3 or 4). Every time, make sure that they say one number for each object they touch, not counting too fast or too slow. Start with numbers up to 5 and then, if they are confident and secure, try higher numbers.

Friday 26/6/20

It’s Friday! We are going to sit and chill with a nice book. Snuggle up with your child, get a story and read it together. Talk about the cover and ask them what they think it will be about. If it is an old favourite, ask them what they can remember. As you read through the book, talk about what they can see in the pictures.

Daily Task

Monday 15/06/20

Please watch:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/makes/moon-and-star-toast?collection=cbeebies-house-makes

and then have a try at making your own patterned toast using food colouring. You do not have to have shape cutters, just make your own shapes and patterns!

Tuesday 16/06/20

Try painting with water with your child outside. Use a roller or paintbrush with a bowl of water and get them to paint pictures on the wall or floor. It doesn't matter what they paint, it will dry and then they can paint another! They could try flicking or splashing the water to see the effect. If the 'picture' they have painted does dry up, try talking with them about why and how that has happened. Where do they think the water has gone?

Wednesday 17/06/20

I hope this is going to be fun! We are going to try some Laughter Yoga! Go to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JayooYSUIdg

Watch the video with your child and encourage them to join in. I bet you cannot watch it without laughing!

Thursday 18/06/20

The Duchess of Cambridge is going to lead an assembly on the mental wellbeing of children today at 11 a.m. Please click on the link below to watch.

https://classroom.thenational.academy/assemblies/

As you watch it, please talk about it with your child and explain what it is about. Talk with them to find out how they are feeling at the moment. Are they ok? Feeling nervous/worried? All will probably say that they are bored or want to see their friends but we want you to take this opportunity to get them to talk about any concerns they may have. We will then be able to talk with you about this when we do our weekly calls but if anything comes up which you feel the need to talk to us more urgently about, please contact school.

Friday 19/06/20

Today I would like you to look at 2D shapes. Help your child to draw common 2D shapes such as circle, square, triangle and rectangle. You may want to get objects for them to draw round like a tin of beans for a circle, a small square and a rectangular box and unless you have a toblerone handy for a triangle, you'll have to use your imagination! Talk about the square having four sides all the same length. The rectangle having two long and two short sides. The triangle having three sides and the circle has one curved side which goes all the way round. If your child is confident, you could try hexagon and octagon!

Daily Task

Monday 8/6/20

Please could you help your child to write their name. If they can write it independently, that's great but not all of them will be able to. If they cannot, please write their first name in large letters with a capital and then the rest in lower case and then help them to trace over the letters to practice, following the lines as accurately as they can. Try to make sure that they hold the pencil with a tripod (three finger) grip.

Tuesday 9/6/20

Please could you try to sing some nursery rhymes with your child? If you are not too familiar with them, you can use:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzc_Rd4TuYg

to help you. Your child should know some so see which ones they are familiar with. They could even teach you!

Wednesday 10/6/20

Today I would like you to let your child use your phone to record their voice. Model how to press the record button, say something into the microphone and then press stop. Tell them to say something while you record it. When/if they get confident (and you are confident enough to let them!) allow them to use the phone independently, pressing start, saying something into the microphone and then pressing stop. See if they can replay their recording independently. If they don't know what to say or are shy, then just get them to repeat what you say. They could even sing a song!

Thursday 11/06/20

In Nursery, we love 'We Are Going On A Bear Hunt'! Here it is a little bit different. We are going to do it with some Yoga exercises. Watch the video with your child and try to join in with the actions at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAT5NiWHFIU

Have fun!

Friday 12/06/20

You and your child are going to make up a story! Please visit:

https://www.onceuponapicture.co.uk/

You can choose any picture you want but I think 'Morning Surprise' or 'Girl and Dragon' may be good ones to start with. Look at the picture with your child and talk about what they can see. There are prompts under each picture to help you. Discuss the questions with them and see what they think has happened/is going to happen (It does say write a story but don't worry about that - just talk about it.) If they enjoy it, you could try another or just save that for different day.

Daily Task

Monday 1/6/20

Play ‘What’s in the box?’ by placing an item or picture in a box and then encouraging your child to ask questions to find out what the item is. For example, if a teddy bear, they might ask, “Is it a toy?” “Is it hard or soft?” “Does it have arms and legs?” “Can it fly?” “Does it move?” The rules could mean that you will just answer “yes” or “no” to these questions. If they find it too tricky, introduce them to the selection of items first so they know that you will be using one of them. Their questions then just have to narrow it down to find out which one. (Try to make sure that they don't just ask "Is it the teddy? Is it the pen? etc." Aim to have a limit of 10 questions. Consider keeping count using a tally such as adding 10 pegs onto a piece of card, placing 10 pieces of pasta in a bowl, 10 ticks on a piece of paper. Your child will then have to guess after the 10 questions have been asked. Repeat for different items.

Tuesday 2/6/20

Talk about subtraction/take-away when you’re eating. Count how many grapes/strawberries/crisps/sandwiches etc you have.As you eat them, talk about how the number goes down with every one you eat.

Wednesday 3/6/20

Could you help your child to make and develop your own role play area such as a shop, a house, a train, a castle, a spaceship, a hairdresser and have fun playing in it with your child. You could be a customer, a passenger, a knight or an astronaut. It could be just for one game or you could make it so it lasts longer. If you choose hairdresser and they get good at it, could they come and cut Mr Cleeves' hair because it is getting really long now!

Thursday 4/6/20

Can you look at some photographs with your child and talk about what you were doing together? The older the better but including the child themselves. If you do have some older ones, you could look at some of those as well so that they get an idea about times before they were born but the ones including them will be more relevant to talk with them about.

Friday 5/6/20

Please help your child to count some objects accurately. It could be anything; toys, lego blocks, pencils. Make sure that they say a number each time they touch an object so that the counting corresponds to them moving their finger along the row of objects. Also make sure that they say the numbers in order correctly, not missing or jumping any.

Daily Task

Monday 18/05/20

Please can you help your child to make a sock puppet. You can add eyes if you want but it does not have to be complicated - just show them how to put a sock on their hand and make it 'talk' by moving  your fingers and thumb. It will be better if you have one too and they can talk to each other. Any brothers or sisters can join in too. Get your child to make up a name and then pretend to have a conversation! Have fun.

Tuesday 19/05/20

Please can you talk about these pictures with your child and then see if they can say which order they should go in. What do the pictures show? What do you do first ? Next? And then? And so on until all pictures have been talked about. Emphasize the language of time. First, next, after that, then, finally.

Wednesday 20/05/20

A tricky one today! Can you help your child to count how many animals? There are lots so if they cannot manage all of them, can they count how many in each row? Whichever way they count, if they can write the number on a piece of paper, that would be great. If they cannot (and I'm not expecting many to be able to) could you write the number for them. Perhaps they could see if they can tell you what the two numbers are?

Thursday 21/05/20

We are going to do a science activity! Please help your child to experiment to find out which substances will dissolve in water. You’ll need a small transparent container (e.g. a glass jug, cup or bowl) and a range of substances to test (e.g. sugar, oil, salt, food colouring, rice, flour). Introduce each substance to your child, asking if they know what it is before telling them. Explain that if a substance dissolves, there will not be any left at the bottom when it has been stirred. Before dropping each substance into the water, ask the children to guess whether it will dissolve or not. Add the substance to the water and then let your child stir it. Look carefully to see if any is left and asking them if it has dissolved or not. Clean out the bowl and then try the next substance.

Friday 22/05/20

Please could you organise a scavenger hunt using different clues. e.g. initial letter, a colour or a shape.

If they can hear and say initial letters, fetch something beginning with a letter (but you must say it phonetically.)

Fetch something of a certain colour.

Fetch something which is a particular shape - try 2D shapes to start with - square, circle, rectangle, triangle.

Fetch something hard or soft.

Fetch something rough or smooth.

Fetch something heavy or light.

Fetch something shiny.

Fetch something long or short.

As they return with each item. Talk about it and see if it follows the instruction.

You can keep going as long as they find it interesting, repeating different clues but changing the colour or shape for instance.

Daily Task

Monday 11/05/20

I saw some tadpoles on my walk and took the pictures above. Can you remind your child about the frogspawn which we had in school. The frogspawn has now become tadpoles and they are still doing well in their tank at school. Can you briefly go through the lifecycle diagram with your child. Just highlight the stages of development - you don't need to go into any more detail. Tell them that ours are now all tadpoles and will soon be growing hind legs. If they want to, they could draw what they think they look like now or could just draw a frog and colour it in.

Tuesday 12/05/20

Please help your child to make a paper aeroplane. If you are not sure how, there are some pictures below to help.

You can then fly the aeroplane indoors or out. Talk about how far it flew, whether it was a long way or short. You could even try to measure the distance by counting footsteps and then compare the distance of different flights. Perhaps you could have a competition! Have fun!

Wednesday 13/05/20

Please can you take your child on a shape hunt. Give them a piece of paper and either get them to draw the shapes or draw them yourself. See if they can name them. They should have; square, rectangle (can they tell you the difference between a square and a rectangle?), triangle and circle. You could also try tricky ones like semi-circle and hexagon (but you are less likely to find hexagons on your hunt). Then go on a hunt, putting a mark next to the shape every time you see one. When you have finished, can your child count up how many of each shape they have found?

Thursday 14/05/20

In Nursery, when the children have had a drink at snack time, they have to wash their cup and then dry it. Could you get your child to do some cleaning jobs around the house? It could be washing or drying up (Don't give them your best china!), dusting or polishing or maybe they could help with hoovering if you supervise them closely. You could even get them to tidy their bedrooms and if you can actually get your child to do that, please come round to Mr Cleeves' house and get his daughters to tidy theirs too! 

Friday 15/05/20

Please can you try to play 'Simon Says' with your child? We have played in Nursery before. Just in case you are not familiar with it, if you say for example "Simon says clap your hands." then they should clap. If you say "Clap your hands." they should not do it because you did not say "Simon says. If they are clapping and you say "Simon says stop" they should stop but if you just say "stop", they should keep going because it was not Simon Says. Remind your child about what they need to do and then try with different actions, sometimes saying 'Simon Says' and sometimes not. See if they can do it successfully. (When we have tried in school, it was very hit and miss whether the children could manage so don't worry if they can't do very well but give it a try.)

Daily Task

Monday 4/05/20

Please can you play 'I Spy' with your child? You could try with the initial sound (remember to pronounce it phonetically). If that is too tricky, you could try;

colours - 'I spy something that is red/blue/green.'

size - 'I spy something that is big/small.'

shape - 'I spy something that is round/square/triangular etc.

Have fun!

Tuesday 5/05/20

As you may have seen, Mr Cleeves' carrot didn't work so he has had to start again. Can you update your child's 'carrot diary'? If it has changed at all, they could draw a picture (or take a photograph) and put it next to the one they did at the start to show how it has changed. If, like Mr Cleeves, your carrot has not changed or has gone rotten, you could talk with them about how things grow and what they think may happen and they could draw a picture of what they think it will look like when it has some leaves growing out of the top.

Wednesday 6/05/20

Today's task comes from a suggestion one of the mums made when I was doing phone calls yesterday. She suggested that you could get your child to make a collage. You can use any old pieces of paper, torn into little bits and then stick them onto a sheet of paper to make a picture. The picture can be anything you like but it will look best if it is colourful! If you do not have any glue, you can make glue by mixing a little flour with a little water and mixing it together to make a paste. (I do know that flour isn't exactly easy to come by but hopefully you could spare a bit). Have fun.

Thursday 7/05/20

Could you help your child to make a den, either in the house or outside in the yard or garden? It could be as simple as two chairs with an old blanket or sheet over the top. If it can be large enough, they could put some cushions in to sit on. Encourage them to make up a story about what it is; a castle, a bear cave, an inventors workshop, an alien spaceship, a superhero headquarters? Try to get them to use their imagination and let them take some toys into the den to play with. Perhaps they could have a picnic lunch in there! Again, any pictures which you could send would be great!

Friday 8/05/20

Today is VE day which remembers the end of the second World War in Europe. Can you draw and colour in a flag to remember the countries which were involved? It could be the Union Jack for Great Britain or it could be the flag of the country where your family come from originally. It's up to you!

Daily Task

Monday 27/04/20

Please go to Cbeebies bedtime stories:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b00jdlm2/cbeebies-bedtime-stories

Let your child choose some stories which you can listen to together. After each story, talk with them about what happened. Did they like the story? What was their favourite part? Was there anything they did not like? (It doesn't have to be done at bedtime!)

Tuesday 28/04/20

Please could you do some cooking or food preparation with your child? It doesn't have to be prepared specially, it could just be getting them to wash vegetables which you are having anyway, measuring out rice or pasta or helping to stir a meal. Obviously, care must be taken if they are cutting or if they are stirring hot food. It could be as simple as making a sandwich or as complicated as making a cake. It's up to you!

Wednesday 29/04/20

It is Captain Tom Moore's birthday on Thursday. Could your child make him a birthday card? It can be a picture of anything they like and then perhaps you could help them to write Happy Birthday and put their name in it. If you can, make it as colourful as possible. If you would like to share it with him, take a photo and put it on social media with the hashtag #MakeACardForTom and tagging it with  @captaintommoore so that he will be able to see it.

If they have not heard about him or what he did, please explain to them that he is going to be 100 years old (which is even older than Mr Cleeves!) and that he raised lots and lots of money to help Doctors, Nurses and all of the people who work in hospitals.

If you need any more help with how it works, look at https://www.you.co.uk/how-to-send-a-birthday-card-to-captain-tom-moore/

Thursday 30/04/20

This half term's theme is growing. Tell your child we are going to try to grow some leaves from a piece of carrot! (This will not grow actual carrots but you should get some leaves.) Cut about 3cm off the top of a carrot and place it in a dish on top of damp cotton wool. Keep the cotton moist (but not soaking) and in a few days, green leaves will start to sprout, meaning you can transfer them to a soil-filled pot. You could keep a growth diary, either by your child drawing the progress or taking photographs of any change which occurs. Whose will grow the tallest?

Friday 1/05/20

Can you practice counting with your child? They can count anything but please try to make it a mix of things which they can move and put into a straight line to count accurately and other items which they cannot move. Every time, make sure that they say one number for each object they touch, not counting too fast or too slow. Start with numbers up to 5 and then, if they are confident and secure, go to 10, 15 or 20.

Monday 20/04/2020

Normally, after a holiday and during key worker time, we would reflect on what the children have done during their time off. Please can you talk about anything special which you may have done with your child during the past two weeks. It could be a nice walk, playing a game, hunting for Easter eggs, watching a film or any memory which they can recall. You could then get them to draw a picture of what you have talked about. If you could take a photo and send it to us that would be even better!

Stay safe.

Tuesday 21/04/2020

Please can you practice using positional language with your child. You could use a toy and put it 'under', 'on top', 'next to', 'behind' 'in front of' or 'inside' a box. First, you could show them and use the correct language and then you could repeat the exercise, asking them to tell you where the toy was. See how many they can get right!

Wednesday 22/04/20

Please practice some pencil control with your child. If you have any tracing sheets left which we gave you then you could use those. otherwise, just draw a wiggly line lightly on a piece of paper and get your child to follow the line with their pencil. It doesn't have to be an actual drawing but it can be if you want.

Thursday 23/04/20

If you have enough washing up liquid or maybe bubble bath, try using it to make bubble mixture and then blow bubbles outside. Try one part washing up liquid to six parts water. Mix it carefully as you don't want the mixture to get bubbles before you dip in your bubble wand. For a wand, you could use a coat hanger, biscuit cutters, straws, pipe cleaners or even loops of string tied to a stick. As always, any pictures would be welcome to put on the website. Have fun!

Friday 24/04/20

Can you play a memory game? Gather a minimum of five small objects (they could be toys), introduce them and talk about them to make sure your child knows what each one is. Cover them with a tea towel or cloth and then take one away. Can they spot which one is missing? Repeat, taking away a different object each time. If they find it too easy, you could increase the number of objects there are but don't make it too tricky!

Happy Birthday James! Sorry if it is a little late. We hope you have had a lovely day.

Number

Please practice counting everyday as well. For some children, up to five will be enough. Others will be able to do more, up to ten and beyond. What is important is that they count accurately before moving on to higher numbers. You can count anything, toys, Lego, household items, claps, jumps or people it doesn't matter. If the objects can be moved, get your child to put the objects into a straight line so they know which they have counted. Get them to touch each object and say the number. Make sure they stop counting when they reach the last one. How many did they count? Make sure that they know that the number they counted to tells them how many objects or actions there are.

Daily Task

Please follow government guidelines at all times to stay safe.

Tuesday 24/03/20. Whilst the weather is good, take your child outside and talk about what you can see. If you have a garden or back yard, go out and talk about what they can feel. Warm or cold? Any wind? The sun on their face? Any birds or bugs? Make sure you let them do the talking but keep the conversation going. If it is safe, you could go for a walk in line with the government recommended 'One form of exercise a day' and talk while you walk.

Thank you.

Wednesday 25/03/20.

Last week we investigated floating and sinking. You could do some more experiments with your children. Gather some objects and put some water in the bath, bucket or the sink. Remind them that floating means it will stay at the top of the water, sinking means it goes down to the bottom. Now, as you take each item, talk about whether it would float or sink. What do they think? Put items in one by one, talking about what happens to each one. You could ask them for their ideas about why things float or sink. Don't worry about getting the 'correct' answer. In class, a lot of children said items sank because they were hard as that was a common property of some of our sinking items.

Thursday 26/03/20

In the pack we sent home, there are some pencil control sheets with dotted lines. Get your child to use a pencil to join the dots as accurately as possible. Try to encourage them to hold the pencil with a three fingered tripod grip (not their whole fist) using their preferred left or right hand. If you have coloured pencils, that would be fine.

Friday 27/03/20

Please could you help your child to draw a picture of their family. Can they check that everyone has two eyes, one nose, two ears etc. Talk about each person. Who is it? What are they doing?

Monday 30/03/20

Could you involve your child in helping to cook or prepare some food? They could help to make sandwiches, wash fruit or vegetables or something more adventurous such as stirring a mixture for baking. You could even take some pictures and send them to us at 

enquiries@brightonavenueprimary.org.uk Please remember to put your child's name and class on the email and then we could put them on the class page on the website.

Tuesday 31/03/20

Please could you get your child to draw a picture of Mrs Tough, Mrs Adamson or Mr Cleeves? (Or all three if they want!). You could even write their name and they could try to copy the letters of their name onto the picture. We would love it if you took a picture of their drawing and sent it to

enquiries@brightonavenueprimary.org.uk

We could then show them on our webpage. Make sure you put your child's name and class on as this is a central email address. 

We hope you are all well and managing. We are thinking of you all!

Wednesday 1/04/20

Please remember to read a story to your child and practice accurate counting every day.

It's Wild Wednesday! In school we would always go outside so, if you can do so safely and following government guidelines, we would like you to go for a walk. Talk about the things you can see whether natural or man made. Count how many objects you find. It could be red/blue cars, trees, people with hats on, anything. Please take pictures and send them to us: enquiries@brightonavenueprimary.org.uk and we will put them on the website. Stay safe.

Friday 03/04/20

Today, as well as having a story with your grown up and practising counting, can you remember any of the songs we sing in Nursery? Can you sing them with your grown up? You could try Twinkle Twinkle, Baa Baa Black Sheep or the Wheels on the Bus. It would be Fishy Friday in school so can you draw a fishy picture? It could be the sea or even a plate of fish and chips! We are missing you.