Nursery Home Learning

Home Learning Pack

You will find some extra ideas in this Home Learning Pack that has been put together by the Nottingham Schools Trust.

Hello everyone! Our page this week looks a little different as now Ms Paulson, after three months, has discovered how to create a subpage! So now you will find it easier to access the home learning pages and it will take less time hopefully for the page to load each time! I am also creating a page with ideas and activities to help your child get ready for starting school in September. If your child is coming to Haydn, please do look on the new page that has been specially created for you by the F2 staff - you will find it in the Children menu and it's called F2 September 2020.

Week Beginning Monday 15th June 2020

Hello again everybody! I hope you enjoyed finding out all about spiders last week. Were you able to answer the questions I gave you by the end? This week we're learning about a different minibeast.

I wonder if you can guess what it is? Here is a riddle to help you!

I travel very slowly

When gliding along the ground

I wear a shell upon my back

In your garden I am found.

Because I can't move fast

Getting places takes some time

But you can tell where I have been

As I leave a trail of slime.

What am I?

Have you guessed what minibeast it is? Yes, you're right! It's a snail!

Let's be minibeast detectives again only this time we're going to become snail experts! Your challenge this week is to find out the answers to these questions:

• Where do snails live?
• What do snails like to eat?
• How does a snail protect itself?
• Does a snail have eyes?
• Does a snail have legs?
• How does a snail move around?
• Do snails lay eggs?

Story of the Week

This week we are reading the story, Snail Trail by Ruth Brown. Ruth Brown is both the author and the illustrator so she writes the words and creates the pictures. In this story we get to see the world through the eyes of a  little snail who sets out on a trail - up a hill, over a bridge, into a cave. It sounds like the snail is travelling a long way but wait and see as things are not always as they seem!

Language and Literacy

• Talking Together

Where do you think the snail went on his journey? You have to look really carefully at the pictures for clues on each page. What can you see on the last page? Was it really a cave  where he curled up and went to sleep? What do you think the arch was that he squeezed through? Look at the story again and see if you can work out where he was in each part of the story.

Think about some of the journeys that you make with your grown ups. It could be a journey to the park or to nursery or even to the shops. Choose one of your favourite short journeys and make time to walk this journey together with a camera and a clipboard so you can take photos and make notes of the different things you see. Talk about what you pass on the way and jot down the key landmarks you see on route. When you return home, use all the information you have gathered to make your own map. Grown ups, introduce words that will help your child to give directions, describe a location and show where something is without pointing! It will be chance to practise some of the positional language you were using last week! The map you create can be a joint effort - encourage your child to mark make, draw and write labels with your support. You could even make a 3D map using blocks and small world models like the one below. We would love to see your maps when you've finished them. Take a photo and email it to admin@haydn.nottingham.sch.uk

Letter Sound of the Week

Let's look again at all of the letters and sounds we have been learning about so far this term. Look at the slideshow below and practise saying the  sounds as you see each letter.

Can you guess what our new sound is this week? Here's a story that might help - the clue's in the title!. It's called  The Lion Inside by Rachel Bright and Jim Field.

Oral Blending and Segmenting

Each week we are going to do some oral blending and segmenting activities. This will really help us get ready for starting school in September.

Grown ups, blending is the process of saying individual sounds in words and then running them together to make the word. For example, c-a-t and making cat. This is a vital skill for when your child learns to read.

Segmenting is the opposite skill. To segment you separate a word into the individual sounds. This skill will help your child as they begin to write. It's good to model blending and segmenting words with your child and if you think they are ready pick a couple of games to play with them every day, just for 2 or 3 minutes! Little and often is the way! You may be doing most of the blending and segmenting to begin with but if you keep going the penny will drop and your child will begin to join in!

Here's a game you can play.

Bossy Bear

Choose any soft toy or puppet to be your Bossy friend.

Start standing up and the bossy dog whispers into your ear, which you then say to your child. He will say things like ‘Put your hands on your h-i-p-s!’ One word of the order will always be in sound talk. Another example would be ‘Touch your t-oe-s! N-ow!’ or 'Put your hand on your h-ea-d'. You can make this game as active as you want! You can also use the sound-talking to give instructions to your child as part of your daily routines such as, 'Time to brush your t-ee-th' or 'Time to put on your c-oa-t and do up your z-i-p'.

When your child is ready, they can give you instructions! That means they're practising segmenting.

Mathematical Development

• Snail Races

Find some snails in your garden and race them against each other. Which do you think will win? Which will come first, second, third? Remember they are real creatures so always be gentle and put them back where you found them when you've finished.

• Spiral Patterns     

Create spiral patterns using a range of different small objects that you find around your house or garden. You could use dried beans, shells or stones.

• Maths Games 

Here are some games you can play together using a dice just like we saw in the Numberblocks video about number 6. They will help you to practise your counting and finding the total whilst having fun!

Grown ups, see if your child can say how many spots there are on the dice without counting. It's tricky with the bigger numbers but encourage them with the smaller numers to start with.

Animal Count

Create a field (using green material, paper or the grass in your garden) and a farmyard (using brown material, paper or mud). You will also need some small world animals - use whatever small toys you have, you can improvise! Take it in turns to roll the dice and collect that number of animals and put them in the field or the farmyard. Each time, the children should count how many they are addiing and then count the total. The winner is the first to make 10 in the field or the farmyard. For extra challenge it could be 10 in both.

Egg Box Game

You will need two egg boxes, a dice and objects to fill your egg boxes such as stones, playdough eggs, pom poms). Take it in turns to roll the dice and put that many objects in their egg bo. Then count and agree how any eggs you have altogether in both egg boxes. Write this number down. Repeat this four times. Compare the numbers you have written down. Can you put these numbers in order?

• Our World

Let's think about snails again! See if you can find any snails in your garden. Where do you think you would find them? Watch carefully what they do and where they go. Think of differnt words to describe the snails. What do you think they have been eating? Let's find out some more about snails by watching another episode of Minibeast Adventures with Jess.

• Look at the spirals on the snail shells. Use a paintbrush and some water to make your own spiral patterns on the floor or walls outside.
• If you have a paper plate you could cut it into a spiral shape. This is great fun and will help you practise your scissor skills!       

I know another minibeast that lives in the garden who doesn't have any legs. It's long and wriggly and likes to eat soil! Do you know who it is?

Wow! Worms are amazing! I love finding them on my allotment because I know they are so good for the soil and they help my vegetables to grow.

I can still think of one more minibeast who I find on my allotment. This one is always eating my lettuces. It looks abit like a snail but it doesn't have a shell. Do you know what it is? A slug!

Here is a picture of a slug: 

Slugs are a lot like snails - they are both gastropods. They both slide along on their podos which means foot in Greek. It's like they have one big, slimy foot! Because a slug doesn't have a shell it squeezes itself into places that snails cannot. You will often find them under stones and logs. Some gardeners get a bit fed up of snails and slugs because they eat their plants. Oh dear!

Week Beginning Monday 8th June 2020

Hello everybody hello! Welcome to a new week filled with lots of fun ideas and activities for you to do!

We are going to continue with our topic about Minibeasts and this week we are going to be finding out more about spiders. Do you like spiders? Sometimes people can be a little bit scared of spiders but the spiders that live in our country won't hurt you and they are very helpful and good at catching flies! They really are quite amazing and I hope you will think so too as you find out more about them!

Are you ready to be minibeast detectives and go on a spider adventure? Let's start with some interesting questions and see if by the end of the week we are able to answer them. You can become a spider expert!

• Where do spiders live?
• What do they like to eat?
• How do they catch their food?
• Can spiders fly?
• How many legs does a spider have?
• How many eyes does a spider have?
• Do spiders lay eggs?

Story of the Week

This week our story is called The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle. Eric Carle also wrote the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar which we learned about last week. If you would like to find out more about this author and the other books he has written, follow the link below which will take you to the Official Eric Carle website.

Language and Literacy

• Talking Together

I thought the spider's web was beautiful! It took her such a long time to make it! In fact, all day!  But then she caught her fly and went to sleep. Can you remember how the story begins? Early one morning, the wind blew a spider across the field... All day different animals offer her different things to do, things that they like doing themselves. What happens each time they ask her questions? Listen to the story again and see if you can join in with that part - The Spider didn't answer, she was very busy spinning her web. Can you remember what happens at the end of the story? I wonder why there is an owl in this part of the story?

• Be an Author - Make up your own spider story

You could try making up a story of your own! You could start with the same beginning. Your spider could be blown by the wind one day. The wind was so strong it blew the spider from her web... Make up your own story of what happens to the spider next. Where does the wind blow the spider to? Far away to another land? Maybe to a desert island? Maybe even into space!! Anything can happen in your own story! Ask your grown up to write it down for you and you could draw the pictures and be the illustrator! Give it a title and you have a book!

• Sound of the Week

Spider webs are so beautiful! Have you ever seen one in your garden? Or when you've been out on a walk? They look very magical after the rain or when they are covered in dew early in the morning.

What do you think our sound of the week is?  Have a look at the pictures below  - they all begin with...

w like at the beginning of web 

Can you draw some pictures of things that begin with a w sound? Geraldine the Giraffe will help you with some more ideas.

• Rhyme Time

Do you know any nursery rhymes about spiders? Here's one of my favourites, it's called Incy Wincy Spider.

You could  make up your own Incy Wincy rhymes. Here are some ideas to get you started...

• Incy Wincy spider climbed up into the trees

Down came the snow and made the spider ... 

• Incy Wincy spider climbed up onto a wall...

• Incy Wincy spider climbed up onto the bed...

Do you know this one about Little Miss Muffet? 

Mathematics

Before we begin our busy jobs, let's sing the Days of the Week song. What day is it today? Can you use different voices to say the day - whisper it, say it like a giant, say it like a little mouse. Can you clap the day - how many claps? 

This week we are going to look at some of the ideas from the White Rose Maths website for Early Years.

• Where is the fly?    

Throughout the story the spider gets lots of visitors. Have a look for the fly in each picture on this slideshow below. See if you can use some positional language to describe where the fly is. Positional language means saying where something is such as next to, under, above, behind and in front of and so on. You might want to practise using some of this language by playing a game with your grown up where you give each other instructions about where to put one of your teddies or favourite toys. Grown ups, it's good to model using this language and the more you do, the more your child will begin to understand it and then use it themselves.

Have you found out yet how many legs a spider has? Insects have 6 legs but a spider isn't an insect it's an arachnid. Arachnids have 8 legs. Next time you see a spider or a picture of one see if you can count all of it's legs to check. Say Eight is great! to help you remember.

Here's this week's episode of Numberblocks all about 8!

Spider Snack Time

Use your counting skills to create these delicious spider treats! You can make them out of all sorts of ingredients and can be savoury or sweet. You will need something round for the body - this could be a savoury cracker or a circle of bread topped with cream cheese, houmous or something else you like that the legs will squash into! For a sweet version, use a biscuit with icing or mashed banana. For the legs, pretzel sticks work well and raisins or chocolate chips make good eyes.

The World

Let's do some more finding out about spiders so that we can answer our questions from the beginning! There are lots of places to find information about spiders. You can read non-fiction books, you can look on the internet, you can speak to experts  and you can watch nature programmes and videos. 

Let's begin by watching an episode of Minibeast Adventures with Jess which is all about spiders. 

Out and About

Why don't you go outside and see if you can find any spiders in your garden or out at the park? Look out for webs and you may find a spider on it or nearby.

Minibeast Hunt

You could go on a minibeast hunt and look for all sorts of bugs that live in our back yards, gardens and natural spaces. Go on a bug hunt - Where to find minibeasts:
Minibeasts live in all sorts of habitats. Many prefer dark, damp spots in gardens and woods, so this is a good place to start your hunt. Use your best detective skills to track creatures down:
• Peek under large stones and logs to find woodland and millipedes.
• Peer into the cracks in tree bark and deadwood to find beetles and spiders.
• Poke your nose into long grass to see ants and grasshoppers.
• Look closely at leaves to discover caterpillars and ladybirds.
• Keep your eyes peeled after rain – can you spot slugs, snails and worms.

Remember – bugs are very tiny, so be careful if you pick them up and always put them back where you found them.
You can use this minibeast hunt sheet to tick off what bugs you can find in your garden!

Creative Activities

There are lots of different ways you can make your own spider and web. Here are a few ideas below for you to have a go at. Let's start with how the Very Busy Spider made her web - they are complex and detailed! You could have a go at drawing your web with chalk, crayons or pens.

Another idea from White Rose Maths ...

Play dough spiders are fun! 

Here's a link to a recipe without having to look back trough the webpage!

We are getting to the end of this week's activities and it's time to test your spider knowledge! Are you ready to see if you can answer the questions we asked at the beginning? Here they are again! Good luck!

• Where do spiders live?
• What do they like to eat?
• How do they catch their food?
• Can spiders fly?
• How many legs does a spider have?
• How many eyes does a spider have?

I hope you have a fun-filled week! Look after each other and keep active! See you again next week!

Week Beginning Monday 1st June 2020 

 Minibeasts 

This half term we will be finding out about 'Minibeasts' and looking in our back yards and gardens at all  the different bugs and creatures that visit and live there.

Story of the Week - The Very Hungry Caterpillar

We are going to begin with one of my favourite stories, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. Here is the beautifully animated film of the story for you to watch and listen to. You may also have your own copy of the book which you could read and share with your grown up later.

Language and Literacy

• Talking Together

What an amazing story! The caterpillar was very greedy indeed and ate through so many different kinds of food! Eating the right things helped him grow into a butterfly and eating the wrong things gave him a stomach ache! Can you remember what he ate? Look back through the story with your grown up and see if you can find out what he ate on each day. On Monday he ate through... 

Our days of the week song really helps us to remember the order that the days come - sing it to help you know which day comes after each one. How many days are there in a week?

Here's a reading of the book in case you don't have your own copy.

Can you draw a story map that includes all the different fruits and food that the caterpillar ate? Draw the different things he ate on each day! This will help you to remember the names of the different foods as well as the days of the week.

You could use this then to help you retell the story with your grown up or to another member of your family.

• What letter sound does the word caterpillar begin with? Practise saying the word and hearin the first sound - c,c,c - caterpillar. Yes it begins with a c sound and look! The letter c looks like a curly caterpillar!

Maybe you could make your own caterpillar that is in the shape of the letter c. Here are two different ways you can do this  but you can use lots of different things - stones, pasta, beads, slices of fruit - or you could draw the shape in your sandpit, in the mud with a stick, with a paintbrush dipped in water. You are very clever and creative! I bet you can find lots of different ways!

• Geraldine the Giraffe will help you to think of some different things that begin with the c letter sound.

Mathematics 

• 5 Little Caterpillars

I know a number rhyme about 5 Little Caterpillars. You will need to get your fingers ready so that you can join in. Count them carefully 1,2,3,4,5 - are you ready? Here we go!

• Magic 5

5 is one of my favourite numbers! There are lots of number rhymes using the number 5, such as 5 Currant Buns and 5 Little Ducks. See if you and your grown up can think of any more that you know.

• Tell Me 5 ...      
  • things that can fly
  • minibeasts
  • fruits
  • animals
  • colours
  • plants in your garden
  • items of clothes
  • vehicles
  • toys

It's time to meet the number 5 from the Numberblocks!       

The Hungry Caterpillar enjoys eating leaves. Collect 5 different types of leaves from your garden and see if you can put them in size order. Which is the biggest? Which is the smallest?   

Our World

Something quite amazing happened in the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar! The caterpillar went inside his cocoon and transformed or changed into a butterfly! Can you remember how he started out in life? Right at the beginning of the story, a little egg lay on a leaf... What happened next? When a caterpillar comes out of his egg he doesnt stop eating, not even to sleep! The Hungry Caterpillar grows and grows until one day... Do you remember what he does?  If you do, then you are very clever because you are explaining the life cycle of a butterfly! Here are some pictures to help you!

A Caterpillar and Butterfly Hunt

As we move into summer, gardens and parks are full of colour and life. Plants bloom in every shade, from red and pink to orange, yellow and blue, while butterflies and bees dart from flower to flower, drinking their sugary liquid called nectar. Can you remember how the butterflies sip the nectar?

Go outside into your garden or to the park and see if you can find any caterpillars or spot any butterflies.

Caterpillars

To find caterpillars you will need to think about what they like to eat.  They love meadows and wild gardens where there are lots of the types of leaves they like to eat. Look for holes in leaves and missing plant parts - these are clues that caterpillars may be around! A magnifying glass is useful as some caterpillars are tiny and sometimes you may see the butterfly eggs on the leaves. Remember to have you gentle hands as you lift the leaves and only look at the caterpillars you find rather than pick them up, they are fragile and some hairy caterpillars can make you itch or give you a rash.

Butterflies

Butterflies are easier to spot though often they flit around and don't stay still for long! Again be very gentle and the quieter and stiller you are the more likely you will spot them. Again think about the flowers that butterfles like to find nectar from. Here is a very useful link to the Kinder Gardening website where you will find more ideas and Butterfly identification activity sheets that you can use for your hunt.

There are lots more ideas and free resources on this website for fun things you can do outdoors with your children to help them learn more about nature and wildlife all year round. 

Make your own Life Cycle of a Butterfly

You could make a life cycle crown instead! We often make these in nursery as they are not only fun to wear but good at reinforcing the cyclical nature of a life cycle!

Something Yummy to Make!

• Fruit Kebabs

The Hungry Caterpillar eats through lots of different kinds of fruit in the story. Fruit is very good for us too and here is a recipe for you to make fruit kebabs using all your favourite fruits!

You will need a mixture of different kinds of fruit. Fruits that work well include

• melon
• grapes - sliced lengthways for young children
• strawberries
• kiwis
• pineapple
• banana, apple and pear if eaten straight away as they turn brown quickly

Large wooden skewers work best. Children will be able to help prepare the fruit with your help and supervision and then go on to put their own fruit onto the skewers. Soft fruits like strawberries and banana can be chopped easily with an ordinary eating knife and children can peel bananas and oranges independently. This is good for their fine motor development and they will be more likely to eat the fruit if they have prepared it themselves! 

Keeping Active

To finish with this week we are going to go on a Cosmic Kids Yoga Adventure!

Open up the link below and have a go at joining in with the yoga moves based on  the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

One last story! We have another Pete the Cat story for you to share! It's called Pete the Cat and the Missing Cupcakes written by James and Kimberley Dean. Sit back and enjoy!

I hope you have fun doing some of these activites this week with your families!

See you again next week!

Over to You!

Week Beginning Monday 25th May 2020 Half Term 

Making a Pirate Telescope

Okay, drop the anchor and take down the sail! It's time for you to make your own pirate telescope, just like Tom had in the story! I think it's an essential piece of pirate kit - you can't do without it. All you need is a kitchen or wrapping paper roll or a rolled piece of card, maybe from a cereal box. Think about how you're going to decorate it. Grown ups, this is a good opportunity to talk about how to make a repeating pattern (We call this an AB pattern) such as by colour, for example, yellow green, yellow, green, yellow green. Or by size, big little, big little, big little. You could create your pattern using felt tip pens, paints, stickers  or coloured tape. Here are a few to give you ideas. These ones have used two cardboard tubes, one slightly smaller so it can slide inside the other just like a real telecope!

Sleeping Pirates Game

The Night Pirates are as quiet as mice and as stealthy as shadows. For this game we are going to practise sleeping like pirates! Pick someone in your house to be the judge - it doesn't have to be a grown up!        

How long can you pretend to be asleep without moving? You can time this with a phone or some music.

Can you stay still for the whole song?

Walking the Plank

For this game you need to collect a set of 10 objects from around the house that won't mind getting wet! You are going to make each of these objects walk the plank and find out whether they sink to the bottom of the ocean or float away to safety. Make a numbered list of the objects to tick off as you wish. Next find something to use as the sea - the bath is a good idea! - and something to use as  the plank for the objects to walk down - this could just be your arm! Make the objects walk the plank. Which ones floated? Which ones sank?                         

Treasure Hunt

Treasure, telescope, Tom (the boy in The Night Pirates) -  all of these words begin with the same letter sound! Listen carefully - what sound can you hear? That's right - t. Grown ups, can you set up a treasure hunt using 5 or 6 objects or pictures beginning with the t sound? Choose a couple of things that don't begin with t and tell your child you are going to try and trick them! Maybe you could pretend to be Captain Patch! Hide the objects around your indoor or outdoor space and explain to your child that if they find and collect all the correct things they will get a prize! This could be a new story to read  or a special snack.

Before you begin, why not watch Geraldine the Giraffe go on a hunt around her house looking for things beginning with t.

Treasure Map

You could make your very own treasure map for your grown up to use! Draw a simple map of a room in your house or your garden. Hide something for them to find  and mark it on your map with a X. Follow the link below to find out how to make your map look like a real pirate's treasure map!

Make your own Pirate Ship
Have a look around the house for something you think will float, for example a margarine tub or a plastic bottle or lid. Grown ups,  if you have any corks around these will all help your pirate ship! 
Think about the design of your ship. Will it have windows?  What shape will they be? A good ship needs a mast and sail. All ships have a name. What will you call your ship? Finally your challenge is to see if your ship can hold 5 pieces of treasure! 

A Sea Shanty

Pirates enjoy singing a sea shanty. This is a song that helped them to do their work together whilst out at sea! This is one that you can learn and join in with!

A Last Pirate Thought - 10 Little Pirates

Look closely at all the 10 little pirates. Can you see the differences between them? How are some the same,  how are they different?  Look at all the patterns. They are all pirates but all very different, very special. Just like you.  Maybe you could make your own pirate outfit? 

This week's storytime from your nursery teachers

Week Beginning Monday 18th May 2020

TIME TO TALK

I hope you enjoyed that story. It's good to think about and remember what happens in stories. Can you remember some of the things that happened in The Three Little Pigs? Here are some questions for you to think about with your grown up.

• What did the first little pig build his house from?
• Which house do you think took the longest to build?
• Why wouldn't the pigs let the wolf into their houses?
• What did the wolf do when they wouldn't let him in?
• How do you think the pigs were feeling?
• What happened at the end of the story?

BE A STORYTELLER

Once you to get to know a story really well then you can retell that story yourself! This week we are going to do a project where we are going to think about all the traditional stories we have been looking at over the last five weeks and have a go at telling those stories for ourselves! Can you remember what those different stories are?  

Creating a Homemade Puppet Theatre

Using puppets to retell a story is really good fun! Your challenge this week is to make your very own puppet theatre (with the kind help of your grown up! ) and put on a puppet show! Once you have a theatre, then you can retell any story that you choose. It can be as simple as a cardboard box with a hole cut out for the stage. It can be any size so you could even use a cereal box! Really all you need is a frame for your puppets to move behind and then, of course, some puppets to tell the story!

Let's begin with the theatre. Here are some ideas to get you started.

NEXT COME THE PUPPETS...

Again puppets can be as simple as printed out pictures or children's drawings (and yours too - sometimes there are alot of characters to create!) cut out and taped onto sticks or toilet/kitchen rolls painted or covered to create characters. Here are some I made of the Three Little Pigs.

MAKING SCENERY AND PROPS...

You can use houseplants or glue tissue paper onto sticks or twigs and you have a forest for Goldilocks  or drape fabric for a river for the billy goats to cross. Use toys and everyday items to represent different objects in a story and draw or collage your own backdrops. I love this idea for an outdoor puppet theatre!

ADDING SOUND EFFECTS...

Sound effects can make the simplest of stage designs come alive! Blow in a bottle for the sound of the wind (or a wolf blowing down a house!), pour water from one container to another through a colander to create the sound of a stream or bang two pots together to make the sound of the goats hooves trip-trapping over the bridge! Keep your sound effects simple by using your body for percussion - clapping hands, patting knees and so on - and the sounds you can make with your voice - blowing, clicking, whooshing and more!

The most powerful thing you can do, grown ups, is role play the stories with your child. At first they may only take on a small part of the story but as they watch you and gain in confidence they will take on more for themselves!

And the most important thing you do is have fun! We would love to see any of the theatres or shows that you make - please email photos or videos to us at admin@haydn.nottingham.sch.uk. Please say whether or not you're happy for us to put them up on to the webpage. Thank you.

OTHER CHALLENGES FOR THIS WEEK!

Let's investigate!

The story of the Three Pigs is a great opportunity to talk about different materials and what things are made out of. Why do you think the wolf was able to blow the straw house down most easily? And why w

as he not able to blow down the house of bricks at all?

Go outside and look at some buildings. What do you notice? What is your house made out of? I wonder if it's made from bricks - I think it probably is! Bricks are very strong - I wonder what bricks are made out of? Let's find out! Watch this episode of Come Outside all about bricks. 

• So bricks are definitely good for building walls and houses! But walls are much stronger if the bricks are laid in a pattern - just like Auntie Mabel showed us. But not all houses are built from bricks as there are other materials that are strong too. When we choose what to make something out of we have to think about what it will be used for. I wouldn't want my pillow to be made from bricks or my saucepan to be made from wood or my wall to be made from feathers! Would you?
• Stand against a brick wall outside your house and ask your grown up to mark your height - how tall you are - onto it. How many bricks high do you think you are? Check by counting. Measure other things against the wall, like your teddy or another family member.
• Humpty Dumpty                                                                                                                                                 

I know a nursery rhyme about a wall and an egg that falls off it!  Do you know that rhyme? Yes, it's Humpty Dumpty! Let's sing it together!

• See if you can make up your own silly Humpty Dumpty rhymes. For example, Humpty Dumpty sat on a chair, Humpty Dumpty flew up in the air! Listen to the words air and chair - they rhyme! Try this one, Humpty Dumpty sat on a house...   I'm not surprised that Humpty cracked when he fell off the wall as egg shells are very fragile!

• A Feely Walk

Touch the bricks on the outside of your house. How do they feel? Some bricks feel   rough and some feel smooth. With your grown up,  go on a feely walk  around your garden or yard. With their help, close your eyes as you feel the different objects and think of words to decrsibe them. Are they rough or smooth? Hard or soft? Fluffy or prickly? Warm or cold? Take photos of things that you find, especially things that are too big to pick up such as tree trunks or lamp posts! Remember to only touch things that are safe and clean and wash you hands when you have finished.

• Texture Rubbings 

Make some texture rubbings using crayons and paper. Try making rubbings of leaves, flowers, bricks or tree bark and see if other people in your family can guess what the rubbings are of.

Over to you again!

Week Beginning 11th May 2020

Hello everybody hello! We hope you are well and are ready to find out what new stories and activities we have in store for you this week. Before we begin I have a special treat for you all. We are going to do our daily leader jobs with Mrs Thraves and Miss Howells from the Rainbow Fish room!

Story of the Week - Jasper’s Beanstalk

This week our story is called Jasper’s Beanstalk. It is written by Nick Butterworth, who wrote the Percy the Park Keeper stories and is illustrated by Mick Inkpen. 

Language and Literacy

Talking together - Isn’t Jasper funny thinking the bean would grow so quickly! I don’t think I will be getting any beans growing on my beanstalk until the summer time! My plant is still only small isn’t it?

• Listen to the story again and and see if you can spot the different tools that Jasper uses on different days - can you name them? Do you have any of these tools in your garden or yard?
• Think about what happens at the end of the story. What happens to the beanstalk? Does Jasper climb it? If so, where does he go? What happens to him? Can you and your grown up act out some of your ideas?
• Ask your grown up to make labels for the days of the week and see if you can put them in order. Think together about what happens on each day in the story and make a game of finding the correct day for when Jasper watered the bean, when Jasper dug up the bean, and so on.
• What did Jasper find in his garden on Friday night? These are creatures that like to come out in the dark and nibble at tasty green leaves. Can you remember? Slugs and snails. Both of these words begin with the s sound, like in snake and sausages! Let’s watch this week’s episode of Geraldine the Giraffe and see what she finds around her house beginning with the s letter sound.

• Isn’t Geraldine cheeky! Here’s a game you could play with the letter S and another letter - maybe the letter your name begins with? If your name begins with S, choose a different letter. Make 2 baskets or tubs, each labelled with 1 of the letters. Go on a hunt finding things that  begin with either letter but make sure you put your object in the right basket!
• Each time you find something, practise writing that letter or even the word as an extra challenge! I’m sure your grown up will help you.
• Set yourself the challenge of writing your name every day this week! Remember to start your letters in the right place. This will help you get ready for starting big school!

Mathematics 

• Kim’s Game - Make a collection of  6 different things from your garden and put them on a tray. Cover them over and ask your grown up to take one away without you seeing. Uncover them and see if you can guess what is missing. If this begins to get too easy, increase the number of objects. This is a great game to play with objects beginning with the same sound too or objects that are all the same shape. Grown ups, talk about the objects with your child as you play and what they are used for. Help your child to speak in full sentences by modelling language and encouraging them to repeat in a playful way. Have fun whilst they learn! 

• Counting whilst out and about - When you are next out on a walk, set your child challenges to count how many steps it will take them to reach different points on your journey. For example, how many steps to the next lamp post, how many steps to the red car, to the house number 14, and so on. After a few goes, ask your child to estimate how many they think it be before they do it? Were they nearly right? 
   
• 

• This week we are going to think about the number 4. Lots of you will be four now or nearly four so it’s a very special number. Let’s start by doing 4 claps, 4 jumps, 4 nods of your head and 4 taps on your knee. Brilliant! Now can you count 4 of your fingers and show them to your grown up? You could use just one hand or both hands. Here’s the numeral 4 and there’s a rhyme to help you to write it - Down and across and down once more, now you’ve made a number 4!                                     

Our World

• I noticed a few minibeasts in Jasper’s garden - did you? Why don’t you have a look outside in your garden or yard for worms, slugs and snails. I’ve noticed something similar about all three of these creatures - none of them have legs! How do they move about without any legs? What’s different about these creatures? Here’s another episode of Come Outside for you to watch all about snails. See what you can find out and I’ll give you a quiz when you’ve finished!

Snail Quiz

1. How do you know where a snail has been?
2. What  do snails like to eat?
3. What does a snail have on its back?
4. When is a snail’s favourite time of day?
5. Why do you think this is?

• Planting Seeds - Isn’t it amazing that seeds are so small, so hard and dry and yet they grow into something you can eat? Just plant them in the soil, then water them... then wait for them to come to life! First a shoot, then two leaves and then...who knows? All plants start from a seed. When you next eat any fruit or vegetables, see if you can see the seeds either when your grown up is cutting it open or when you take a bite! Maybe you could try planting some seeds with your family. If you don’t have any seeds, try planting things like carrot tops or avocado stones. Follow the link below to find out about more plants you can grow from kitchen scraps!
  

“No matter what you step in, keep walking along and singing your song. Because it's all good."  

Week Beginning 4th May 2020

Hello everybody! Welcome to the start of a brand new week and a brand new month! Now we are in the month of May and I hope you are ready to join in with some new and interesting activities. I love telling stories and today I am going to begin by introducing our story of the week. I wonder if you can guess what our story is this week? Here are some clues...

• It is another traditional story. 
• It takes place in a forest.
• One of the characters is a little girl with golden hair.
• Three of the characters are bears.
• All of the characters like eating porridge!

Can you guess?

Have a look at the front cover of the book and see if that matches what you are thinking! This story may be new to you and if so look carefully and think about what this story may be about.

Language and Literacy

• Time to talk - I hope you enjoyed that story, I know I enjoyed telling it to you! Now you’ve listened to the story, take some time to talk together about what happened. What do you think about what Goldilocks did in the story? Do you think she was right to go into the bears’ house without being invited? Do you think she should have eaten the porridge, sat on their chairs (breaking one!) and gone to sleep in their beds? I wonder if Goldilocks felt sorry for what she had done? If she did, what could she do to put things right?
• Be a storyteller! Once you know the story well, you could be a story teller yourself and tell the story to someone at home. Turn off the sound and use the pictures to help you tell it in your own words. Another way to do it would be act out the story - you could be Goldilocks and three of you teddies or toys cold be the bears! Or you could be Baby Bear! Try using different voices for the characters. What kind of voice would Daddy Bear have? You decide!
• Letter Sound of the Week - Can you remember what food Goldilocks eats in the bears’ house?  P, p, p... porridge. Can you hear the sound at the beginning of the word porridge? It’s the letter p - say it’s name and it sound. Can you think of any words that begin with p? Geraldine the Giraffe is back to help us. Watch the video and do your own hunt for things beginning with p! I loved seeing the photos that some of you have sent us of all the things you found on your letter hunts! You’re so clever!

Mathematics

• Goldilocks is another story where characters come in sets of three - just like in The Three Billy Goats Gruff last week! There is something else that is the same in both stories- the three bears and the three goats are different sizes, one small, one medium-sized and one large! Can you make collections of three things from around your house or your garden and order them by size from the smallest to the biggest? For example, 3 shoes, 3 socks, 3 stones, 3 leaves, 3 bottles, 3 boxes and so on. Talk about their size using comparative language such as smaller than, bigger than, shortest, tallest, biggest and smallest.
• Porridge Play - If you have a few spare oats, fill a shallow tray with dry porridge oats and put out a variety of different containers and implements such as scoops and different sized spoons. Invite your child to play at making some porridge for the three bears. Who will have the biggest bowl? Let them experiment with the different containers. Can they count how many spoons it Takes to fill each bowl or pot? Can they give and follow instructions such as, ‘Put four big spoons of oats in this bowl and then add 2 more’ and so on. At the end provide some small bottles of water and let your child observe the changes when they add water to dry oats.

• Play this Goldilocks I Spy and count the different characters and objects from the story.

• Let’s watch another episode of the Numberblocks together. This week we’re meeting number 2!

The World

• The Three Bears live in the forest. Think about the street where you live and the different people and families who live there too. There are so many different families and they come in all shapes and sizes! Some families have lots of people in them and some may have just two people but they are still families. How many people are there in your family in the house where you live? You might have more than one home. You might have a sister or a brother. Or you might live with just you and your mummy or daddy or with a grandparent. Talk about your family and think about how some families are the same and some are different.
• Here’s a book all about different families for you to share together. It’s called The Family Book and is written by Todd Parr.

• Draw a picture of your family and have a go at writing everyone’s name.
• Have a think about any neighbours on your street who may live alone, especially elderly people who may find it difficult to get out and about. It must be very lonely for them, mustn’t it? Think about how you may be able to cheer them up and let them know you are thinking of them. Maybe you could make them a card, draw them a picture or bake them some biscuits? Give them a little wave when you’re walking by - it will help to brighten up their day!

Have a lovely week with your families. Be kind to each other, keep active and be safe!

check here again next Monday for more stories and fun things to do!

Week Beginning Monday 27th April 2020

The Three Billy Goats Gruff

Our story of the week is another traditional tale called The Three Billy Goats Gruff. This story has been told over many, many years and you may have heard it before!

Before we begin let’s sing the Hello song again, just like we do in nursery!

In this story there will be these words for you to listen out for: meadow, bridge, trembled, bank, glee and patiently. There are also some phrases: It’s deal, and dish of the day. Talk with your grown up about what these words mean before you listen to the story.

Language and Literacy

• What clever goats to trick that mean troll! I hope they enjoyed some tasty grass in the meadow! Did you hear the words I gave you to listen out for? Why don’t you have a go at using them in sentences of your own this week!  
  Here are some things to think about: 
  What do you think a troll is? 
  Should the troll have let the goats cross the bridge? 
  How did the goats trick the troll? 
  What other stories do you know where the characters come in threes?

• Making a story map - It’s really fun to retell a story for yourself and making a story map helps you to do this. With your grown up think about what happens in each part of the story and draw a picture to represent this. It only needs to be a simple picture or marks to symbolise what is happening at each point. You can then start at the beginning of your map and tell the story in your own words without the need for a book!  Here’s one I found as an example. 
     
  
  
   

• Sound of the Week - Listen for the sound at the beginning of the words goat and gruff. What sound is the same in each word? Do you know? g -oat and g-ruff - it’s g. Watch this episode of Geraldine the Giraffe and see if you can find some things around your house that begin with the g letter sound. G is a cheeky letter because it doesn’t always make the same sound - what sound does it make in the word giraffe?

Mathematics

•  Billy Goats Gruff Game - Make a set of 10 paper or card stepping stones and write the numerals 1-10 clearly in each one. If you have a piece of blue cloth to be the stream, even better! Place each stepping stone on the ground in sequence leaving gaps between each according to your child’s size and agility. The idea of the game is for your child to move across the stepping stones To the other side in a variety of ways - jumping, hopping, tiptoeing and so on. Encourage them to call out the numbers as they land on them. Introduce instructions and questions that encourage them to solve simple number problems. For example, go forward 2 stones, where will you be if you go back 1 stone, how many do you need to move to get to the other side and so on.

• Counting sets of 3 - there are 3 Billy goats in the story. See if you can make sets of 3 things by collecting objects from around your house such as 3 pennies, 3 cups, 3 teddies, 3 hats and so on. Maybe you could make up a story about your 3 things such as Once upon a time there were 3 teddies who decided to go on a picnic as it was such a sunny day so they put on their hats - 1, 2,3 and packed their 3 cups into their basket... You can make your story be about anything you want- just count the objects as you tell it! 
                     
   

Play this ladybird counting game on your computer or tablet - happy counting!
 

Our World

• In the The Three Billy Goats Gruff story the goats cross a bridge to get to the other side of the stream. Have you ever seen or been over a bridge? Some bridges go over water, some go over roads, paths or train tracks and some go over valleys. Bridges need to be strong enough to carry their load and are built from different materials such as wood or bricks or iron. This reminds me of a song about a famous bridge in London, our capital city. Listen, you might know it already!

• Have a go at building your own bridge for your toys to cross. You could use Lego or Duplo, junk materials from your recycling, wooden blocks, card or paper Or a mixture of different materials! I wonder which would make the strongest bridge? If you made some puppets of the troll and the three Billy goats you could retell the story for your family. Remember that the goats are different sizes - one is small, one is medium-sized and one is big.

Out and About - on a walk or in your garden or yard. 

We are in the swing of Spring now!  Look at the trees and what do you see? Listen to the birds and what have you heard? Here are some things you can be doing this spring...

• A spring scavenger hunt
  • Listen for three spring sounds and describe each one. (Could be bird songs, insects buzzing, a breeze blowing in the trees, lawn mowers humming, pigeons flapping and more.)
  • Spot two different minibeasts that fly.
  • Find two different minibeasts that crawl or slither.
  • Find an ant. Is it carrying anything? Where do you think it’s going?
  • Look for a bumblebee and notice whether orange or yellow pollen has collected on its legs.
  • If you can find a stone or a log, roll it over and see what minibeasts are under it. Put it back just where you found it.
  • Find three different trees- do they have any new leaves or blossom?
  • Ask your grown up to help you record your findings. You could draw them, take photos or describe them. I would love to hear about what you find!

Over to you!

 Thank you for all the photos that you have sent us. It’s lovely to see that you are well and enjoying playing and learning at home. Keep yourselves busy, keep yourselves safe and keep in touch!

Week Beginning Monday 20th April 2020

Hello everybody. We hope you all had a lovely Easter weekend with your families and have been able to enjoy some of the beautiful sunshine we have been having.

Our first story this week is called

The Little Red Hen

It is a story about being fair and working together. Have a listen and see what you think! You will notice the first version is told by a storyteller without a book. This means you will need to use your imagination and see the pictures in your head. If there are any words you don’t understand, be sure to ask your grown up! 

Language and Literacy

• Poor little red hen! Those other animals were so lazy! Especially in the second story! Which story did you enjoy the most? Did you notice any differences between the two? Was there a duck in the second story? Did the hen bake bread in both stories? That’s interesting! Lots of traditional stories are retold in different ways - you might notice that with other stories.
• What do you think about the Little Red Hen eating the bread all by herself at the end? And what do you think about the other animals in the story? Do you think they were being fair? I think if I could write a new ending to the story I would give them a chance to say sorry and put right what they had done! What do you think?
• Did you know that bread and cake are both made from wheat that grows in the field? The little red hen took the wheat to the mill where it is ground into flour. Have you ever been to visit a mill? Watch this episode of Come Outside all about bread. You will find out lots of information!

• What letter sound does the word hen begin with? H-e-n hen - it begins with h. Here’s another Geraldine Giraffe video where she goes on a hunt around her house for things beginning with h. I wonder what she finds?

• Can you go on a hunt around your house like Geraldine and find things that begin with the letter sound h? Take a photo of the things you find and send them to admin@haydn.nottingham.sch.uk - we’d love to see you and the things you find!
• Grown ups, as you play and talk to your child encourage them to notice the sounds in words, first the initial sounds and as they get good at that, move onto the final sounds in words. Keep robot talking everyday objects! Weave it into instructions and daily routines for example, go and brush your t- ee- th, wash your f-a-ce and so on. This will really help them when they move into Reception next September so keep practising!

•  Can you think of any words that rhyme with hen? Here are some clues!
  • A number that comes after 9
  • Something you write with
  • A house you can build yourself
  • More than 1 man
  • A boys’ name

Mathematics

•  Let’s play a game of true or false where you have to decide whether the facts below are right or wrong. Can you tell your grown up which ones are true and which ones are false and how you know.
  • A square has 4 sides.
  • A triangle has 2 sides.
  • 2 is the smallest number.
  • A circle has no points.
  • 5 comes after 4.

• How many? Here’s a counting game to play around your house.
  • How many taps do you have in your bathroom?
  • How many chairs are there around your table?
  • How many clocks are there in your house?
  • How many rooms do you have in your house? Which room is the biggest? Which one is the smallest?
  • How many pillows are there on your bed?
  • How many steps are there up to the top of your stairs?
  • See if you can count all the way to 20! How long can you keep counting for?

Creative Activities

• We always sing this song in nursery in the springtime. Once you have learned the song, see if you can do some actions as you sing.

Make your own Little Red Hen by drawing around your hand.

Keeping Active

Don't forget the importance of keeping active and exercising your busy bodies!  Many of you may be lucky enough to have a garden where you can go outside and get fresh air or are able to go out for your daily exercise on your bike or scooter or even just on your legs! Even if you need to keep indoors, try to keep your bodies moving and plan in some daily exercise and energetic games. Here are a few ideas to get you moving this week!

• Fill the Bucket Water Game 

Provide your child with a cup and two buckets (one smaller, one larger). Place the smaller bucket a short distance from the larger bucket and fill the larger bucket with water. Have your child scoop water from the larger bucket and fill the smaller one. To make the game more challenging, put small holes in the cup or have your child dance as they move from bucket to bucket.

• Keep the Balloon Up 

Outdoors on a calm, windless day, or inside, have your kids use their hands or half of a pool noodle to keep a balloon afloat. How long can they keep the balloon off the ground? Use a timer or count to find out.

•  Ball Kicks

Balls are a staple for so many games and activities. Using different types and sizes of balls, have your child see how far they can kick, or play goalie in front of a wall or fence and see if your child can kick the ball past you.

Dance and sing along to the Animal Boogie. This is one of our favourites at  nursery!

Week Beginning Monday 13th April 2020

Happy Easter to our nursery children and families! I hope you’ve had a fun weekend together and that you’ve managed to enjoy some of the lovely sunshine we’ve had.

We have some more fun activities for you to do this week and our story of the week is

Mrs Mopple’s Washing Line

by Anita Hewitt

Language and Literacy

• I hope you enjoyed that story! Listen to it again and see if you can join in with the parts about the animals and what they are wearing. Here’s an idea - once you feel you know the story well, turn off the sound and retell it in your own words using the pictures to help you.
   
• Think about what letter sound the words Mrs Mopple begin with... m. I’ve found another Geraldine Giraffe video for you to watch all about the letter m. 

• Can you go on a hunt around your house and collect things beginning with m? Maybe you could send in a photo of you and your collection and I could put it on our web page to share with your friends!

• Did you look in Mrs Mopple’s kitchen? What did you notice? Did you see how she did her washing? What do your family use to do the washing? I think Mrs Mopple might have lived long ago in the olden days. What do you think?
• If it’s a nice day, maybe you could wash some of your toys’ clothes. All you need is a washing up bowl filled with warm soapy water, a short piece of washing line and some clothes pegs. Talk together about what weather is good for drying clothes and what you can do to make the clothes dry more quickly. 
  Here’s a song to sing whilst you work! Don’t forget to do some actions too!

This is the way we wash our clothes,     

Wash our clothes,

Wash our clothes.

This is the way we wash our clothes,

Early on Monday morning.

This is the way we rinse our clothes...

This is the way we wring them out...

This is the way we hang out our clothes...

This is the way we fold our clothes...

This is the way way we wear our clothes ...

Mathematics

• Pairing and counting socks - as part of helping with the laundry, encourage your child to sort and pair the family’s socks. Ask them how they know which socks make a pair and talk about the patterns and the different sizes. 
• Look out for other things that come in pairs or in twos and record them by drawing them.
• Whilst you’re taking your daily walk why not go on a number hunt? Spot numbers on car registration plates, on houses, on street and road signs. You could write some down in a notebook or take a photo of them. Maybe you might see a number 10 and then look for another number 10 somewhere else. What number house do you live at? Have you noticed anything about the numbers of the houses next door to you? I live at number 71 and the houses either side of me are 69 and 73. Do you have the same pattern?

The World

• What do you think Mrs Mopple was making for dinner? Have a look at the vegetables on her kitchen table. Maybe she was making vegetable stew or soup - what do you think?
• You could make your own vegetable soup for your family. Ask a grown up to help you follow this simple recipe.

Vegetable soup recipe for kids

Ingredients

• 200g chopped raw vegetable such as onion, celery and carrots
• 300g potato
• 1tbsp oil
• 700ml vegetable stock 
• Black pepper
• Crème fraiche and fresh herbs to serve

Method

1. Chop, peel and cube the vegetables.
2. Fry the vegetables in a little oil for a few minutes until they begin to soften.
3. Make up the stock.
4. Add the stock to the vegetables and simmer for 10-15 minutes.
5. Once the vegetables are tender, blend the mixture until smooth.
6. Season with black pepper.
7. Serve with a dollop of creme fraiche and some fresh herbs.

• What a windy day it was in the story of Mrs Mopple! Is it windy today? Look out of your window. How can you tell if the wind is blowing? Look at the trees, any washing on the line or leaves on the ground for clues. Why don’t you watch a weather forecast on television or on a weather app on your grown up’s phone and talk about what the weather will be like in the next few days.
• Here’s another episode of Come Outside all about a windy day!

When plants begin to grow, the world begins to turn green again. See if you can make a green spring time collage. Look around your house for any bits of paper or fabric that are different shades of green. Look in your recycling for green milk lids or wrappers. You can cut or tear your materials and glue them down to make a simple but beautiful collage - all different shades of green!

Story Time

Look out for your teachers sharing their favourite stories with you here. We will regularly add new recordings so keep checking this page! We will also be sharing some other recordings of beloved  stories that we have been sharing this year in nursery as well as some new ones! Watch this space...

Are you sitting comfortably? Then let's begin!

Week beginning Monday 6th April 2020

We  hope you’ve all had an enjoyable week with your families and that you are taking good care of each other. When I’ve been taking my daily walk I’ve noticed there have been lots of bears and soft toys in people’s windows - have you spotted that too? How lucky when we have been reading the Bear Hunt story!
 

This week we are going to be thinking about the arrival of Spring. Every day it gets warmer and the days are getting longer. Buds are opening, shoots are sprouting and the blossom is beginning to flower on the trees.

Spring is a season of new beginnings. Lambs are born, birds start to build their nests ready for the arrival of their chicks and the bees and the butterflies wake up from their long winter sleep. Along with spring comes the festival of Easter and if you’re lucky you might get a chocolate egg!
 

Our story of the week is perfect for the springtime! It’s called...

Dora’s Eggs

by Julie Sykes and Jane Chapman

Language and Literacy

• Did you listen out for the special words in the story? Talk together about the meaning of these words and see if you can use them in sentences throughout the week!
• Listen to the story once more, discussing the pictures and what is happening. Talk about how Dora is feeling in the different parts of the story and why. Why is Dora so unhappy with her eggs after she has seen all of the other babies?
• See if you can remember all of the different animals that live on the farm with Dora. Can you remember the names of their babies? A baby duck is called a …

• Watch this video of a real hen's egg hatching - it's amazing!

• Think together about the life cycle of a chicken. Invite your child to make a zigzag book about this. Fold a long strip of card to form the pages (you could use an old cereal box) and ask them to draw a different stage in the life cycle on each page. Help them to label the different stages.
• Let's practise some Robot Talking and moving all at the same time! Explain that you are going to robot talk a movement instruction and they have to guess which animal it is from the story - and then do the action! Here we go - p-e-ck like a (hen),        m-oo like a (cow), s-w-i-m  like a  (duck), l-ea-p like a (lamb), w-oo-f like a (dog),  r-o-ll like a (pig). Brilliant! You and your child could make up your own for other animals - h-o-p like a (rabbit) and so on.

• Egg begins with the letter sound e. Watch this short video from Mr Thorne Does Phonics and see if you can make a collection of things from around your house that begin with e.

Mathematics

• How many different animals are there in the story of Dora's Eggs? How many babies do each of the animals have? Who has the most? Who has the least?
• Thinking about the ducks in Dora's Eggs, sing the number rhyme 'Five Little Ducks' together. You could draw your own mummy duck, 5 ducklings and a pond so you can act out the rhyme. Here it is in case you  need a little help to remember the tune!

• Put together a numbers treasure basket to explore and talk about. Include clocks, calculators, rulers, mobile phones and much more. Where can you see numbers and numerals in your house?
• Collections of five - collect five small shells, five buttons, five pennies and five sequins, or any other combination of groups of five small objects. Muddle the objects up, sort them into groups and then place each item one at a time into an ice cube tray, an egg box or other suitable sorting tray, counting carefully one-to-one to five. Talk about what is the same and different about the objects. If you get really good at this you could use larger quantities to count.

The World

• Talk to your child about spring and Easter, thinking in particular about new life. Look out your window or in your garden for signs of spring. Look for new growth on trees and bushes. Spot spring flowers and blossom. Are there any birds making nests? Have any minibeasts such as bees and ladybirds woken up from their winter's sleep?
• Start a spring diary and add your daily findings to it.
• Think together about why we have eggs at Easter time. Can you think of any other animals that lay eggs? Watch this episode of Come Outside which is all about eggs. I used to watch these programmes with my children when they were little. They are so informative!

• You could make your own Easter garden with a miniature Easter Egg hunt! Use a tray with soil and stones, twigs and bark. You could make some little flowers and even a nest from twigs. Hiding things in your little garden will give you a chance to use words such as under, behind, next to, on top of and so on.
• There is a short video on CBeebies all about the festival of Easter where you can find out about a little boy called Toby who celebrates Easter with his family. Take a look!

• Maybe you could make an Easter card for your family. Often in nursery we do marble rolling on egg shaped paper or card using paint to make our cards or we make a moving egg shaped card with a chick inside just like the one below. Don’t worry if you don’t have a split pin you could use a paper clip or just glue it half open! This is also a great opportunity to practise writing your name as well as the names of the people in your family.

Creative

There are so many ideas for Easter crafts! Here are some for you to look at. 
 

• Egg Decorating - Eggs are not always easy to find in the shops at the moment so it may not be the year to do egg decorating! However if you do have some surplus eggs here are some beautiful ways of decorating them.

We hope you enjoy doing lots of these activities together. Remember the important thing is that you look after each other and enjoy spending time together. 

Here’s a song to finish this week’s activities! It’s one of my favourite songs to sing at Easter time and I know it’s also one of Mrs Thraves’ - I will miss doing our little dance together this year! If you want to send us any photos or videos of you doing the song and dance (or any of the other activities) we would love to see them! Remember to check this page next week (Monday 13th April) for more exciting things to do and learn!
 

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!

Week beginning Monday 30th March 2020

Each week, just like in nursery, we are going to share our story of the week with you. This week it will be:

We're  Going on a Bear Hunt

by Michael Rosen

Before we begin, see if you can find a teddy bear in your house to come and listen to the story with you.

Are you sitting comfortably? Then we will begin...

Here are some activities across different areas of learning that you could do linked to the story.

Language and Literacy

• Listen to or read the story once more, discussing the pictures with your child. Encourage them to do the actions to 'over', 'under' and 'through'.
• Ask your child to predict how long the bear hunt took and what they think the bear will do next. How did he feel?
• Talk about the different possible endings to the story. Ask your child to draw these and make up their own ending to the story. You could scribe this for them.
• Go on a teddy bear hunt around your house to create a collection of bears or soft toys. Explore lots of describing words beginning with the letter 'b' to illustrate different bears, for instance Big Bear, Bald Bear, Bubble Bear, Brown Bear and so on. You could repeat with the letter 't' and 'teddy'.
• See if you can find any other stories about bears and read them together - a Bear Book Hunt!
• Have a teddy bear's picnic in the garden or indoors. Write invitations to other members of your family, helping your child to write their name using their name cards in the resource pack. Maybe they could have a go at writing other people's name on the envelopes too.

Mathematics

• Using your collection of bears and soft toys, ask your child to sort them into order of size form smallest to biggest, shortest to tallest. Which is the biggest bear? Now ask them to use a tape measure to measure the height and the width (round the middle) of their bears.
• Use a box to represent a cave and ask your child to put their bear in different positions, for example 'behind', 'in front of', 'beside', 'in', 'over' and 'under'.
• Play Bear Beetle Drive . Provide a card with an outline of a bear for each player. Cut up duplicate bear shapes into six parts (two legs, two arms, a head and a body). Label all the parts with a number and a matching number of dots. The same labels should be put in matching positions on the outlines. Throw a die and match the appropriate body part to cover the bear outline. The winner is the first to complete their bear.

The World

• In a large tray  add soil or compost to make mud. Let your child explore the texture. Encourage them to use words to describe how it feels.
• Freeze water in a variety of containers, such as yoghurt pots, margarine tubs and a balloon if you have room. Place them in a tray or the bath and watch as the ice melts and changes shape.
• If you have a teddy bear or soft toy from your childhood show it to your child and talk about the similarities and differences between them.
• History of the teddy bear. Introduce the history of the teddy bear through the story of the US President Theodore Roosevelt. He went on a bear hunt and after three long days finally came across a very old, tired brown bear. He took pity on the bear and a clever political cartoonist at the time drew a picture of this. A shopkeeper who saw the cartoon took two stuffed toy bears made by his wife and named them 'Teddy's bears' and they became a popular toy worldwide.
• Find out about some real bears! Go to www.bears.org for useful information about different species of bears around the world including facts and pictures.

Creative Work

• Make puppets of the characters from the Bear Hunt story. Use card, paper plates or paper bags . Encourage your child to draw and cut out their creations.
• Create a Bears' Portrait Gallery, encouraging your child to paint or draw their favourite bears.
• Make some brown play dough together (if you have enough flour!) and make models of bears, talking together about the different parts of a bear's body. Go to https://theimaginationtree.com/best-ever-no-cook-play-dough-recipe/ for a good recipe and also lots of other ideas for play dough.

Bearobics

• Talk about keeping healthy by taking exercise such as aerobics or moving to music. Introduce 'bearobics' - exercising like bears! Try simple repeated movements such as stepping forward, backward, left, right, punching the air, bending the knees, and so on.
• Listen to 'The Bare Necessities' song and try doing the movements in time to the beat of the music.
• Watch this clip of 'The Bare Necessities' song on and see if you can copy Baloo and Mowgli's dance steps!

We hope you enjoy all of these bear related activities. Look out for your teachers reading some of their favourite stories on here over the coming days! There will be another story of the week to listen to and find out about next Monday (week beginning 6th April). Have a fun week! We all miss you very much!