This week in Nursery we have been learning about Lunar New Year. The children have taken part in a range of activities which included; Looking at similarities and differences between numerals, making Lunar New Year inspired dragons, and finally acting out the story of the Great Race using shadow puppets!

Recently in Nursery we have noticed that lots of our children are passionate about vehicles of all shapes and sizes! To support this interest, Mrs Fleck collected together as many books as she could find about different kinds of transport and added them to an old fashioned suitcase. There was much curiosity about the suitcase when it appeared in Nursery and the children have been fascinated by the books inside! We learned lots of new and interesting vocabulary, for example 'excavator', 'transporter' and 'stretch hummer limmo'(!) and the children were buzzing with conversation about which they had seen before and what each vehicle was for. It also inspired lots of imaginary play with different vehicles, and after talking about different tyres some children added them to the painting table so we could see the tracks more clearly. We are looking forward to seeing what kind of books will appear in the suitcase next time!

Yesterday we celebrated, 'This is Me!' Day. We talked about how we are all different but all very special and we all have different skills. Some of our teachers showed off their talents; Mrs Huskinson played her guitar, Ms Chappell showed off her rollerskating skills and Mrs Glindon showed us how to tap dance! The children all had brilliant ideas about things they are good at and showed off dancing, gymnastics, singing and cartwheeling skills. They also told us other things they are good at, including 'Helping Mummy with the washing' and 'Running really fast!'. After this, the children made pictures of their skills to show to their Reception class teachers on Thursday.

Last Friday was Science Day in Nursery. We began the day in the school hall with a special STEM ambassador guest speaker called Ethan. He talked to us about the ways we can look after our planet and we shared what we had learnt when reading 'Greta and the Giants', a story about climate change. In Nursery, we found out about Daniella Dos Santos, a British Veterinary Scientist and her role looking after pets and other animals. We had fun pretending to be vets ourselves and we took turns to care for the animals. We also thought about our own bodies and all the special jobs it does, creating a class poster together. The children showed curiousity and enquiry skills throughout Science Day, well done Nursery! 

It has been a bug-tastic week in Nursery! The children visited the bug hotel in our outdoor area, and thought about what the mini-beasts living nearby might like in their home. They collected sticks, leaves, soil, pine-cones and grass to add to the mini-beast's habitat - not forgetting lots of minibeasts to introduce to their new and improved home! The children showed curiosity and kindness this week, well done Nursery!

It has been a fun filled and busy end of term in Nursery. The children decorated 'nature eggs' in our outside area, collecting grass, sticks, daisies and leaves to decorate their eggs. They also made Easter cards, tearing yellow tissue paper to make their Easter chick. The children rounded off the term by working together to make Easter nest cakes, melting chocolate and mixing in rice crispies. Yummy!

Yesterday we had a lovely day in Nursery learning about Ramadan and Eid. We were very lucky to have two parents and one of our lunchtime supervisors come in to talk to the children about what our Muslim families do during Ramadan and how they celebrate Eid. We learned:

• That Ramadan lasts a month and starts with a new moon. We looked at cycles of the moon and enjoyed trying to recreate them with jaffa cakes!
• During Ramadan, Muslim adults and older children don't eat or drink between sunrise and sunset to help them understand how people who don't have enough food must feel and to be grateful for the food they have. We learned that Muslim people often break their fast by eating dates, and tried some ourselves!
• Muslim people think a lot about how to do good deeds during Ramadan. We thought about ways that we could be kind to our friends and other people.
• At the end of Ramadan is the celebration of Eid al-Fitr where Muslim families come together to celebrate, wear special clothes, eat lots of lovely food and give each other presents.

Ramadan Mubarak to all our families celebrating!

Last week in Nursery, we had lots of fun learning all about the Lunar New Year, and the Chinese traditions and customs of the festival. We learnt about the lucky colour red and why manadrin oranges and red envelopes are exchanged over the celebrations. In small groups, the children learnt how to make a dragon puppet - folding strips of card and using lollipop sticks. We listened to dragon dance music and banged on drums and cymbals's creating our very own dragon dance. A great way to welcome in the year of the dragon!

This week in Nursery we have been practising sharing fairly. We read the story 'The Last Marshmallow' by Grace Lin, which is about what two children did when they had three marshmallows to share. Then we practised sharing gem 'sweets' out, saying "One for you, one for me." We talked about what we could do if there is one left over. The children's ideas included:

• break it in half and share it
• put that one away
• get another one
• give that one to your teacher!

What fantastic ideas! This would be a brilliant thing to practise at home. The sign for 'fair' that we used to support this learning can be found here: https://www.signbsl.com/sign/fair and we used the third sign along!