Nursery & Pre-School News 2023-2024
PRE-SCHOOL - Pre-School Graduation Class of 2024
A big THANK YOU to all our amazing Pre-School children who took part in our Pre-School graduation today. The children enjoyed telling all the parents and family members what they would like to do when they eventually leave school for good. From Doctors and Midwives, to Builders and Teachers, there was certainly a rich array of occupations! We wish all our children the very best as they start their primary school journey!
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery
NURSERY - Pirate School!
Continuing on with our pirate theme, the Nursery children have been practising their climbing, balancing and jumping skills as they walked the plank of the pirate ship. They have been creating a pirate greeting card for someone special and getting very messy creating a treasure map using marker pens and cold tea bags and painting pasta tubes to make jewellery for our treasure chest. Furthermore, the children have been learning how to wait and take turns whilst playing a pop-up pirate game. What a busy time we have had!
PRE-SCHOOL - Snails in their natural environment
This week we have been learning all about snails. The children have been outdoors to find snails in their natural habit. They have studied how snails move and have watched them move on black paper and perspex to see what patterns they make. We have also been practising our letter sounds by using a water pistol to squirt letters and simple words on laminated snail cards. We have also been making patterns by swinging bags filled with paint onto a giant snail.
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery
PRE-SCHOOL - Under The Sea!
This week we have introduced an aquarium to the children. They have helped turn the role play area into an aquarium by creating a small tank of under the sea creatures to put into the aquarium.
The children have been working together whilst using basic coding by giving each other directions of how to move around a floor map to collect a certain item.
The children have been painting bubble wrap to make a pattern on a jelly fish for our under the sea display.
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery
NURSERY - The Train Ride!
This week we have continued our transport topic with a focus on trains. The children listened to "The Train Ride" story and talked about train journeys they have been on. We got busy creating a train station and a train with carriages. The children had lots of fun painting cardboard boxes and cutting out paper wheels with scissors.
The children were provided with a train and blank carriages. They practised writing their names, placing each letter of their name in a separate train carriage.
We had lots of messy fun creating train tracks by dipping swimming noodles in brown paint. The children explored more mark making by dipping wooden trains in paint and moving them across the paper.
Finally the children explored making repeating patterns by sticking different shapes and colours on the back of trains to create carriages.
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery
NURSERY - Getting around by boat!
Last week, the Nursery children looked at travelling by boat. They helped the practitioners to create West Kirby Marine Lake in our role play area and we used different types of resources to create a rowing boat and a sailing boat. The children enjoyed dressing up in wet suits, Wellington boots and a life jacket. They also enjoyed taking bookings at the booking office for water sports. During Messy Play the children created their own sails using card, glitter, glue and dabber pens to attach to tin foil trays and explored how they would travel down guttering filled with water. In addition to all this they also explored floating and sinking, using different amounts of small world people to travel in their sailing boats.
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery
NURSERY - Getting around by bus!
Continuing on with our theme on transport, the children in Nursery have been concentrating on buses. The children have helped the practitioners to create a bus station where they have been able to take telephone messages, give out tickets and look at timetables. They have thoroughly enjoyed using a mapped out road to imagine being a bus driver taking their passengers to West Kirby, Hoylake and New Brighton. In addition to all this, they have also written their own names on bus tickets and counted pictures of people on to laminated pictures of buses. During Messy Play they have enjoyed exploring red jelly with pictures of different components of a bus hidden in it, singing the song Wheels on the Bus and making marks in gloop.
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery
PRE-SCHOOL - Making and Selling Clothes!
This week we have been learning about how to recycle clothing and material. The children helped to change our role play area into a clothes shop. Together they sorted patterned and plain materials onto the shelves in the shop and then made labels for the clothes.
The Children created their very own pattern on a piece of cloth which will be made into a rug for our book corner.
We finished the week with a fashion show, where the children used the materials from the shop to make themselves a piece of clothing and then showed it off on our catwalk. Whay fun they have had!
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery
PRE-SCHOOL - Recycling continued!
This week we have continued with our theme on recycling. The children have learnt how we can reuse card and paper to do lots of lovely activities. After reading the story "Whatever next" the children were provided with a variety of different sized boxes and asked if they could use their imagination to build something with the boxes. The children have also used crumpled newspaper to make patterns in paint and different lengths of cardboard tubes to predict which car would travel the furthest and fastest. We have also had great fun making our own paper by mixing pieces of paper and water with whisks, squeezing it, drying it and rolling it out to create new paper.
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery
NURSERY - Getting around by car!
This week in Nursery, we are focusing on cars for our mode of transport.
The children helped to create a role play garage using various resources and were encouraged to fix cars whilst collaborating with each other. They then played a game incorporating coloured cars and to roll the dice and pick a car that they will add their passengers to. The children enjoyed counting the bears and distinguishing between the colours. During messy fun, the children mixed gloop whilst making marks with small world cars and then washing them in soapy water using sponges and cloths. Finally, cars were created using craft materials and adding their own personalised number plate by making marks on sticky labels to represent their name.
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery
PRE-SCHOOL - Recycling Fun!
It's lovely to see all the children after our Easter break.
This week we have been learning about recycling and thinking of different the different ways we can reuse plastic bottles, tubs etc. The children created a boat and enjoyed putting it in the water tray to see if it would sink or float. Using plastic bottle tops and ribbons, they made their own wind charm for the garden. They have also made watering bottles and enjoyed watering the flowers outdoors.
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery
NURSERY - How we get around!
We hope you have enjoyed the Easter break. It has been lovely to see the children settle so well after their holiday.
We have introduced our new topic of "Transport". The children enjoyed listening to the story book and song "Journey home from Grandpa's" and talked about the different modes of transport they have spotted. The children have had fun using junk modelling resources to create trains, planes, buses and cars.
We had messy fun using shaving foam to represent clouds and explored toy planes, helicopters and rockets. The children enjoyed making tyre tracks using toy cars dipped in paint. They have experimented with floating and sinking using boats in the water tray.
Finally, we have made simple patterns using sets of traffic light coloured circles, such as red, green, red, green.
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery
PRE-SCHOOL - "Goldilocks and the Three Bears"
The story last week was "Goldilocks and the Three Bears". The children designed a 'Wanted' poster as Goldilocks had gone missing. We have also been exploring oats in the tuff spot looking at various sized bowls and spoons and using the scales to discuss heavier or lighter. The children have also been drawing the sequence of the story on a large roll of paper and collecting naturals found in our forest garden and sorting them into soft and hard.
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery
NURSERY - "Miss Polly had a Dolly"
This week, the Nursery children have been concentrating on the nursery rhyme 'Miss Polly had a Dolly'. With the support of practitioners, they have created a doctors' surgery, using resources such as appointment books, prescription cards, a doctors' bag plus doctors' and nurses' outfits. The children have enjoyed exploring different musical instruments whilst singing along to the rhyme. Continuing on from this, during messy play, they have bathed dollies using sponges and bars of soap and created their own pretend medicines with different coloured water. The children have also explored the contents of a doctors' bag, counting the number of stethoscopes, bandages and plasters.
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery
PRE-SCHOOL - "Jack and the Beanstalk"
This week in Pre-school we have been listening to the story Jack and the beanstalk. Following on from the story, the children participated in an eye spy game, where characters from the story were hidden around the room. The practitioners gave the children 3 clues as to what character they needed to search for.
The children have enjoyed planting runner beans and are looking forward to watching them grow and change over the next few weeks. We have been placing different sized beanstalks into the correct size order. Finally, the children have enjoyed playing the golden egg game, where they had to quietly hop, skip, walk and jump to a golden egg and take it to the other side of the hall without waking the giant who was sleeping in the middle of the hall.
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery
NURSERY - "Hickory Dickory Dock"
This week the children have been focusing on the nursery rhyme 'Hickory Dickory Dock'. They have sung the rhyme and then together we changed some of the words to fit in with our daily routine. Together with practitioners the children looked at pictures of grandfather clocks and talked about the pendulum and what it does. The children then set to work on creating their own clock using the resources that practitioner had provided. During Messy Play the children used their fine motor skills to control tweezers to rescue the mice from the jelly and mix playdough to create their own model mice. Following on the children collected outdoor findings such as stones and twigs to create their own clock faces and they used chalk to try and make marks for the numerals.
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery
NURSERY - "Dear Earth"
This week we have been reading the story 'Dear Earth'. This story is about a Grandpa talking to his grandaughter 'Tess' about his adventures. As Grandpa talked about Earth Tess decided to write a letter 'Dear Earth '. She imagined all the beautiful places on earth. Once the children had heard the story we talked about how many of the things we use every day can damage the earth. The children learnt about different materials and which ones can damage the earth. They used recycled materials to make an Earth. They have also learnt about different animals and sea creatures and helped decorate a display. We have celebrated World Book Day with 'Dear Earth'.
We have loved to see so many parents join us for stay and play.
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery
PRE-SCHOOL - The Gingerbread Man
This week we have been enjoying the story of the Gingerbread Man. After reading the story to the children in small groups, they were taken into the hallway where they were encouraged to work as a team to build a bridge over a stream (large planks, crates and blue material). The children then used character masks to re-inact the story in the correct order. We have also had great fun exploring the tuff spot tray containing flour, scales and mixing utensils to make our own gingerbread men. Children have also been counting the number of buttons on ginger bread men and selecting the correct numicon.
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery
NURSERY - Incy Wincy Spider
The topic in Nursery for this week has been 'Incy Wincy Spider'. The children were supported by the practitioners to create a construction role play area using plastic guttering, dressing up clothes and tools. A large toy spider was also present in the area for the children to use to re-enact it 'climbing up the spout' and being 'washed out'. We introduced some language about feelings by encouraging the children to discuss what emotions that Incy Wincy must have felt on his journey up and down the spout.
The children also engaged in a nature walk outside, on the hunt for spider's webs. Whilst searching using their binoculars and magnifying glasses, the children collected natural materials and created their own spider's web patterns on the floor.
During Messy Play, the children practiced their scissor skils by chopping up softened spaghetti and they were encouraged to make more web patterns too. In addition to this, they made spider shapes using kitchen roll tubes with the ends snipped to create spiders legs when they were printed with.
Finally, they took part in a counting activity involving pegging legs (clothes pegs) to spider's bodies to match the number of spots on the spider.
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery
NURSERY - Chinese New Year
This week in Nursery we have been focusing our learning on Chinese New Year. We have talked to the children about how Chinese New year is celebrated using pictures and photographs.
The children helped to create a Chinese restaurant in our home corner incorporating decorations, Chinese crockery, play food and chopsticks. They enjoyed pretend play being the customers, waiters, waitresses and chefs.
The children took part in a counting activity involving Chinese money wallets and coins.
We enjoyed exploring in noodles and watered down paint to represent sauce using chopsticks, scissors and bowls.
Finally the children were shown some Chinese writing and encouraged to make marks using chopsticks and black paint to represent the Chinese writing.
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery
PRE-SCHOOL- Valentines Day
This week we have been celebrating valentines day. The children have created cards for their families, making a symmetry heart using paint. The children have enjoyed cooking meals for each other in our love cafe. Together we played musical heart chairs to music. The Children have finished their week by making chocolate and banana muffins. What fun we have had.
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery
PRE-SCHOOL - Chinese New Year
Last week the children were learning about Chinese New Year. They used their phonic knowledge to write customer orders and make Chinese Food Menus. They also used recycled materials to construct their own Dragon and played a Yin Yang number puzzle game.
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery
NURSERY - Down on the Farm - Horses
We have continued our farm theme this week by introducing a new topic of horses.
The children have had lots of fun making their own Hobby horses using card, cardboard tubes and wool. The children were encouraged to talk about how their horse was feeling. We talked about different expressions such as sad, happy, excited and angry.
We set up a simple obstacle course with jumps and balls to kick. The children enjoyed using the Hobby horses they had made to trot along the course, jump over the tape and kick the ball at the end.
During Messy play, the children had fun printing with small world horses and some horseshoe sponges. We talked about horses having 'hooves' rather than feet. Next the children were provided with water troughs, red and green pompoms as apples and weetabix as hay bales. The children engaged in sensory small world play by pretending to feed the horses and were encouraged to create marks by mixing the various media together.
Finally the children enjoyed placing tails, eyes and mouths on pictures of horses and were encouraged to find the correct position using words such as 'on top', 'up' and 'down'.
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery
PRE-SCHOOL - Imagine That!
We had an amazing day at Imagine That! The children experienced how to make dry ice, slime and how to make a volcano erupt. They made snow, bath bombs and fridge magnets. They the explore the science area using their knowledge on forces and then they finished up in the role play are acting out different roles.
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery
NURSERY - Down on the Farm - Hens & Chicks
This week in Nursery the children have been learning all about hens and chicks! They have been creating their own hens using a folded paper plate which they have glued feathers to and then added a beak, a comb tail and finally some eyes using a felt tip pen. These hens were then used for another activity where the children were encouraged to stack cardboard boxes painted yellow to represent hay bales and shredded tissue paper to make some nests. Plastic eggs were then put in the nests and their paper plate hens sat on top! The children then took it in turns to collect the eggs, counting as they put them into a basket. They talked about who had 'more' eggs and who had 'less'.
In addition to this, the children engaged in some pretend play using Plastic eggs along with pots, pans, spatulas, spoons and egg cups in the water tray so that they could pretend to 'boil', 'fry' and 'scramble' the eggs. We talked about what different types of eggs that they enjoy at home with their families.
They also created some messy fried eggs using piles of shaving foam! The children added a yellow centre to the shaving foam using yellow food dye in pipettes to represent the yolks. Then they had lots of fun exploring the texture of the media using their hands. Some children attempted to write some letters of their names in the mixture too!
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery
NURSERY - Balancing Skills
This week the children have been practising their movement and balancing skills. They completed a circus obstacle course in the hall, walking along a line, walking on stilts, crawling through hoops and balancing rings. In the creative area the children have been busy using different materials and small tools to decorate an acrobat and place it in a wheel.
The children have also been playing in pairs with cards recognising and matching numbers and using iPads to play a game to help with letter recognition.
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery
NURSERY - Down on the Farm - Learning about cows
This week we have continued talking about animals on a farm and have focused on cows.
The children have enjoyed playing a counting game with a large dice. We have had fun counting the correct number of patches on the cows and encouraged the children to say which cow has 'more' or 'less' patches.
In small groups, the children participated in a game of Farmyard Bingo. They were encouraged to spin the wheel and wait for a turn.
We have had messy fun by rolling animals in the 'mud' using chocolate powder and water. The children pretended weetabix blocks were hay bales. We encouraged the children to sort the animals into families and talk about the similarities and differences between their own families. After the children had covered the animals in mud, they used sponges, cloths and towels to wash them.
Finally the children had lots of fun 'milking' the cows by squeezing and collecting the milk in containers.
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery
PRE-SCHOOL - Circus Fun Again!
This week we continued to learn all about the circus. The children watched some acrobats on the white board and studied how they moved. They explored different positions themselves. We drew around these positions and cut out an outline. The children then decorated these using a variety of materials and resources. Some materials let the light through and we discussed this. We have also been looking at picture cards and using pegs to highlight initial sounds. The children have also been recognising numbers and doing the correct number of acrobatic moves.
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery
PRE-SCHOOL - Circus Fun!
Last week, the pre-school children continued with their circus theme. They have been busy writing tickets to enter the circus. They wrote their name and numbers to say how many were off to watch the show. The children practised their throwing skills by throwing balls into an umbrella.
Using the musical instruments the children created their own circus band where they sang a song whilst playing their chosen musical instruments.
NURSERY - Learning About Sheep
This week in Nursery we have continued to talk about our new theme of farm animals and have been concentrating on sheep.
The children have engaged in a number activity involving a game with dice, cotton wool balls and two pictures of sheep. The children were encouraged to count the number of dots on the dice and place the same number of white pompoms onto the sheep.
We listened to the story of 'noisy farm' and using the animal puppets the children were encouraged to talk about the animals and their young.
The children enjoyed shearing sheep using shaving foam, pictures of sheep and mark making scrapers. Then we made tractor marks in different coloured paints across paper.
Finally the children had fun in a physical activity with white balloons representing sheep, using paint splatters they herd the sheep into their pen.
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery
PRE-SCHOOL - Circus Time
This week we have been learning all about the circus. We have discussed what we may see at a circus and have been hearing initial sounds in words all to do with the circus such as 'acrobat, tickets and clowns' In the room we have had our own tent and equipment which we have had great fun using. We followed rules to keep us safe whilst using balancing equipment.
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery
NURSERY - Farm Animals
The children have settled very well after the Christmas break and we have introduced our new 'Farm Animals' topic.
We have enjoyed listening to the 'Farmer Duck' story and talked about the role of tractors on a farm. The children had lots of fun painting cardboard with giant mark making tools to create a large role play tractor in Nursery.
The children had messy fun using paint rollers to paint large boxes to make hay bales. Then we talked about crops growing in the fields and the children used small vegetables to plant in rows in compost.
Finally we used our creative skills to make farm animals and tractors using junk modelling materials.
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery
PRE-SCHOOL - Christmas Preparations
This week the children have been getting their room ready for Christmas activities. They have set a dinner table up in the role play area ready for a Christmas lunch. Working together to set up enough plates and cups for all the children.
The children have been making Christmas lists for Santa, cutting toys out of a magazine and putting it on their list.
They have created their own lunch place mat and enjoyed throwing and catching snowballs.
They have also learnt about road safety and how to cross the road safely.
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery
NURSERY - Exploring the Colour Yellow
This week in Nursery the children have enjoyed exploring the colour yellow.
To begin our topic, a practitioner read our Big Book 'Come Along Daisy' talking about the yellow ducks in the story and other yellow things that the children could see in the illustrations.
They have joined in with making yellow playdough and have used this to mould duck shapes and have also used duck cutters along with yellow feathers to place onto pond-scene playdough mats.
The children also engaged in a 'Musical Chairs' style game where yellow pieces of card were laid out on the floor along with some other colours. Music was played and the children danced around the sheets of card until the music stopped and they were then encouraged to find a yellow piece to stand on.
Along with our yellow-themed activities, we have also been celebrating Diwali by sharing the story of 'Peppa's Diwali' and creating some Rangoli patterns!
Finally the children have supported 'Children In Need' by dressing in spotty clothes and doing a counting activity using Pudsey faces and pompoms.
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery
PRE-SCHOOL - Learning About Diwali
This week we have been learning all about Diwali. The children have created their own Rangoli patterns by drawing around their hands on black paper and colouring in with chalk and also by using pipettes with coloured water squeezed onto cloth. The children have also cleaned and decorated their home corner with lights and candles. After reading the Diwali story the children made their own puppets from the story and used these to cross a bridge which they had made from various construction materials.
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery
NURSERY - Orange is the colour!
We return to Nursery following our half term break focusing on Halloween and the colour orange.
We began by reading the story of 'The happy pumpkin'. Following on from this the children engaged in a creative activity of decorating a pumpkin using a variety of orange materials and using scissors to snip the papers.
We enjoyed making orange sensory soup using various ingredients such as pumpkins, orange jelly and pompoms. We then created orange puffy paint using glue, shaving foam and orange food colouring.
We took the children on an orange treasure hunt looking for orange items to collect in our orange spinning bowls. We were pleased to see the items and to talk about them afterwards.
Finally we played a pumpkin Toss game using orange play balls to throw into an orange pumpkin faced box. This was lots of fun and a very busy week for all.
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery
PRE-SCHOOL - Down on the Farm
We are continuing our theme on farms. This week the children are learning all about the animals we find on farms. We have been learning about what each animal produces and what their babies are called. The children have had great fun shearing sheep using foam and brushes and milking cows by squeezing a glove to measure how much milk they could collect. The children have also been using their gross motor skills to chase pig balloons using squatters into a pig sty and thrown eggshells filled with paint to make a collage.
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery
NURSERY - Our Homes
This week in Nursery we have been focusing and talking about our homes.
The children looked at a large book about 'homes' and we discussed the furniture we would see in different rooms. The children then created pictures of their homes by choosing their furniture and cutting out the pictures for each room.
We had fun practising our physical skills using balance beams and stepping stones to balance and jump off.
We created our own 'play cement' using sand and shaving foam . Then the children had the opportunity to build structures resembling houses using Weetabix and the cement they made.
We introduced the children to join in with the words and actions to anew rhyme 'when Goldilocks went to the house of the bears.
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery
PRE-SCHOOL - European Language Day
We started the week celebrating European Language Day, the Preschool children created West Kirby seafront and Hilbre Island using their knowledge of the local area. We then learnt about farms and how they work. Some farms grow crops whilst others farm animals. We have made 3D models using junk modelling to create barns, chicken coups and tractors. The children have also used large loose parts outdoors to make a tractor.
In cookery the children have used their mathematical knowledge to weigh ingredients to make pin wheels.
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery
PRE-SCHOOL - Marvellous Me!
This week we are looking at all the marvellous things we can do. We have been using large hard play to show how we balance, jump, crawl and climb to manoeuvre over the equipment. We have shown how marvellous we are by attempting to write our names and show our understanding of subsidising. We also went on a walk around school to find different natural materials to add to the play dough and use the scissors to cut it up. We have had a busy week and shown off our marvellous skills.
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery.
NURSERY - Thinking About Ourselves
This week in Nursery we have continued to focus on 'Ourselves'. The children have enjoyed drawing and cutting our face shapes out of paper. With support, the children have practised their scissor skills and followed instructions. We looked in a mirror to see what our faces look like and identified our features.
We have had lots of fun developing our physical skills by practising kicking a ball and rolling a ball to our friends. These games have encouraged us to learn each other's names.
We have had messy fun by dipping newspaper in runny glue to make papier mache. The children made island models in preparation for a new topic next week.
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery.
NURSERY - Exploring our Environment
This week in Nursery the children have been settling into their new surroundings, exploring their new environment and getting to know their key workers and their peers. We have been encouraging the children in helping to mix the ingredients for play dough and to create neutral-coloured paintings by rubbing the paint over the paper. The children have been joining in with familiar nursery rhymes and action songs and have also enjoyed exploring different ways of climbing and moving around the climbing frame.
For more photos click here for the Nursery & Pre-School class gallery.
PRE-SCHOOL - Exploring our Environment
The Preschool children have settled in really well and had fun exploring their environment and making friends.
