Early Years

Reception's topic this half term was Our World. The children have been learning about their local and regional area and about other cultures from countries around the World.

As part of the topic, the children had a visit from musicians who performed a Music Workshop for the children to participate in and experience music and songs from other countries and cultures. They really enjoyed dressing up, singing, dancing and playing a range of musical instruments.

The children have learned a lot of new songs and love singing and performing them!

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Reception held their annual sports day this summer term and all of the children took part in the following fun events:

Pancake race
Angel of the North race
Beanbag race
Running race

Everyone had great fun cheering and clapping the children as they took part.

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Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Obstacle course
Beanbag target throwing
Balancing
Stepping logs
Balancing quoits
Penalty shootout
Bat and ball
Climbing frame
Tricycles and Scooters

All of the children in the Early Years had lots of fun and did very well in their events.

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Posted by B.Evans at 7:15 AM | Permalink

Nursery held a Stay and Play session especially for grandparents.

The topic this half term has been Growth and we have been learning about the growth and change of various flowering plants, vegetables, animals and humans.

Our grandparents were invited in to play and have a tea party with us. We made cakes the day before with Mrs Davidson's grandma who came in to help us bake the cakes. We had a super fun and messy time baking as you can see!

We really enjoyed having our grandparents in to play with us. We hope they come again soon!

Posted by L.Gillie at 9:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As part of out Growth topic, Mrs Dixon came into Nursery last week to introduce baby Ethan to us and to tell us all about the things that will help Ethan to grow up to be big and strong.

She showed us the scan pictures of Ethan so we could see how big he has grown since he was born. We also saw a few of the things Mrs Dixon needs to take care of the baby and learned about the things he does to help him grow. We found out that he needs lots of milk to drink and he even goes to baby exercise classes to keep fit. We had great fun trying out a few of the exercises in Nursery!

Posted by L.Gillie at 8:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The children in Reception will be learning about Growth this half term.

They will be learning about the growth of various plants, flowers and vegetables as well as the growth of humans and animals. The children will also be looking at how humans, animals and minibeasts change through looking at lifecycles.

Click the link below to see the range of key questions the children will be trying to answer through their investigation work.
Summer 1 'growth' Parent info.doc

Posted by L.Gillie at 6:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last half term the Early Years children were learning about Animals.
Nursery have had lots of fun with this topic and have learned about all sort of animals. They learned about pets, jungle animals, farm animals, animals that help us and ocean creatures.
We discovered that the children were extremely fascinated and interested in sharks! They loved to play the shark and fish maths game and wear the shark masks, pretending they were gobbling up the other little fish in the ocean and counting how many were left!
The children have taken part in a huge variety of play based activities to further their learning and interests of animals. Click below to see some of the activities they have been involved in.

The children also really enjoyed playing in our Vets roleplay area and they learned a lot about how to care for pets and how vets help animals that are sick.

Posted by L.Gillie at 12:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The nursery children who will be beginning Reception in September had a very special visitor and delivery this week!
The Bookstart Treasure Chests arrived at Nursery and inside the children received two reading books, a colouring book, colouring pencils, a pencil sharpener and some information about books for parents to read. The librarian from Pelaw Library came into nursery to read us a lovely story called: How do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon? This was very exciting for some of our nursery children as they are very interested in dinosaurs. Parents and carers were also invited in to share the story session and information about the Bookstart Treasure Chests with their children.

Posted by L.Gillie at 4:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nursery held it's first Stay and Play session for parents and carers last week and it was a huge success!

The Stay and Play sessions have been introduced to open up nursery to parents and carers to come in and play, learn and discover alongside their child in the nursery environment.

It gave parents and carers an insight into what their child does while at nursery and how they learn in the environment. It also gave parents and staff an opportunity to talk and share information about the children.

The parents had such a fabulous time playing in nursery... and so did the children! It was a very valuable experience for children, parents and staff. The good news for parents is that we will be repeating the session next half term too.

Posted by L.Gillie at 6:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As part of their topic on Animals, the children in the EYFS have been learning about animals that help people.

The children met Shoola the guide dog and her owner Susan. Susan explained to the children all about why she needs Shoola and how Shoola helps her around the house and around the local community. Susan told us all about Shoola's special guide dog training.

The children were very curious and asked Susan lots of questions about Shoola. They found out about Shoola's harness, her visits to the vets, what Shoola likes to do and what Shoola likes to eat and play!

The children really liked Shoola and didn't want her to go! Shoola got lots of pats and she especially liked her tummy patted. The children said she felt: "soft", "tickly", "cuddly", "furry" and "lovely".

Posted by L.Gillie at 7:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The early years children at Wardley Primary have been learning about keeping safe near roads from our visitor. The children learned how to Stop, Look and Listen before they cross the road, they learned songs and watched a puppet roleplay.

They can practise their road safety skills very regularly in outdoor learning with the various wheeled vehicles we have, sign posts and lollipop persons outfit!

Posted by L.Gillie at 9:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Early Years children have just finished their Goodies and Baddies topic for this half term. The topic began with a dressing up day, where the children came dressed as their favourite goody or baddy character.

The teachers then followed the children's interests and planned the topic around the children's favourite characters. The themes the children were interested in were: Princes and Princesses; fairy tale characters; Monsters; Winnie the Witch; and C Beebies characters such as Sportacus and Robbie Rotten, Finley the Fire Engine and Fireman Sam.

The topic ended with a visit from the Police Community Support Officer, who explained to us about being a goody in and around the community and about the dangers of strangers. Some of us decided we might like to be a Police Officer when we grow up! To see more about our Police visit, see Goodies in the community- Police and Fire-Fighters in the EYFS!

Posted by L.Gillie at 10:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

During our recent topic of Goodies and Baddies, we found out about Goodies in the community and learned about the fantastic work that Police Officers and Fire-Fighters do. To end the topic, the children really enjoyed having a visit from the local Police Community Officer. They learned all about what a Police Officer does and about keeping safe from strangers in the holidays. The children did some colouring work with the Police Officer and tried on some of the uniform too!

The children had a great time dressing up in our own Police and Fire-fighters costumes and role-playing the jobs. They even made a fantastic fire-engine to get to the emergency quicker and used old pipes as fire hoses!

A fantastic topic that was enjoyed by all of the children and lots of valuable information was learned.

Posted by L.Gillie at 7:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This half term the children in the Early Years will be learning about Animals.

Click on the link below to find out some of the key questions we shall be trying to answer with the children and how you can help to support your child at home.
Spring_2_'animals'_Parent_info.doc

Posted by L.Gillie at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The children in reception made the most out of the recent snowy weather.

They made sure that they were dressed for the snow and put on their coats, hat, scarf, gloves and of course, wellies!
They did snow dances; made snow angels on the ground by lying down and flapping their arms and legs; did snowy art work on the ground exploring the ways that they could use their hands, fingers and feet to create pictures in the snow; they made marks in the snow and wrote their name and other messages for each other; they went into role pretending to be ice skaters; and they enjoyed sticking their tongues out to taste the snow- the children described it as: "icy cold", "freezing", "melty" and "tickly". The children had a fantastic time in the snow.

We hope it snows again soon!

Posted by L.Gillie at 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The children in nursery have been very busy learning about sounds.

They have been learning to use their ears and listen very carefully to sounds in the environment. We went on a sound walk and took photos of all the different sounds that we could hear. We then played a very exciting game called drum outdoors where we explored all the different sounds we could make with a drum beater outside. It was very noisy! We have been learning the names of musical instruments and experimenting with the different ways they can be played and the sounds that they can make. We have discovering lots of new sounds we can make and we have been learning lots of new words related to sounds too.

Posted by L.Gillie at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wardley Primary Early Years children had a very exciting visit from a puppet character who told them all about the NSPCC charity and how they could raise some money to help children in danger. The children listened very carefully and took some little jobs home to do with their parents and carers in order to raise money for the charity.

Posted by L.Gillie at 9:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This week, the Early Years children have had their Christmas Parties.

We played lots of fun games and won lots of prizes. We did some excellent dancing. Callum from nursery even decided to try break dancing! We had a delicious party tea and then came the best part... we sang Jingle Bells and Santa came! He said we had been very good boys and girls and we got a brilliant present to take home.

Nursery a.m and p.m

Reception

Posted by L.Gillie at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Since the school was painted in the summer holidays the early years staff and children have been working very hard to turn our classrooms back into stimulating learning environments. Here is an example of some of the display work that has been created.
We are always changing our displays and we will post more on the website soon.

Posted by L.Gillie at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

On Monday 15th December, the Nursery children put on their Christmas Performance to the parents. This consisted of a selection of nursery rhymes the children have been learning since beginning Nursery and a few Christmas songs. A super performance. Well done to children and staff!

Posted by L.Gillie at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Over the last week, the nursery children have been engaged with a number of exciting Christmas activities. This included a Santa's Workshop, where the children were involved with making lists of toys, designing, making and delivering the presents on Santa's sleigh.

Continue reading "Nursery Christmas Activities" »

Posted by L.Gillie at 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On Friday 12th December, the Reception children performed a play called The Nursery Rhyme Nativity. This was a traditional nativity accompanied by a selection of christmas songs with nursery rhyme tunes. The children put on an excellent performance despite over half of Miss Gillie and Mrs Atkinson's class being absent due to chicken pox!
Well done to all the children and staff. A fabulous time was had by all!

Posted by L.Gillie at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

During 2007- 2008 the nursery children have had many exciting and enjoyable experiences both inside the nursery and outside in the garden. We always try to make learning as much fun as possible.

Continue reading "Nursery Fun" »

Posted by S.Sutton at 3:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The arts company Every Picture Tells came to work with the Early Years children to produce some art and craft work related to traditional stories. Firstly, the children listened to an alternative version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. A storyboard was used to help to tell the story and afterwards, the children had the opportunity to produce a baby bear picture. To finish off the visit, the children took part in a mini quiz: Guess the traditional story. The children were excellent at the quiz and guessed all the answers correctly! A fabulous time was had by all.

Posted by L.Gillie at 11:24 AM | Permalink