Welcome to Nursery at St Charles
It may be quiet In the streets of Newcastle today, but the chicks are out and about!
We put out food for a chick race and everyone had lots of fun watching them run! They didn’t get very far and there were no clear winners, but we had fun!
So we officially have 7 happy and healthy chicks! 6 boys and 1 girl. 2 eggs unfortunately did not hatch and one chick has gone to the chick hospital, for some physio. On Friday the chicks went to Mrs Bickle’s house for a sleepover. Today we learnt how to clean them out, fill their water and their food tray.
A few days full of activity. 6 eggs had hatched in total on Wednesday and two had begun to hatch on Wednesday morning. However, they struggled to come out yesterday so this morning I had to ring the helpline! The lady told me to help them hatch, I put the eggs in lukewarm water and helped them out of their shell. Today was touch and go, but they made it! We officially have 8 hatched chicks! Well done Nursery for being such good nurses!
We even got to hold the chicks this afternoon…
We have big news! Two chicks have hatched during the day. We came in and could hear them tweeting inside the eggs, then there was a crack, and then there was a hole. One hatched just before lunch and another just afterwards. They used their egg tooth to tap, tap, tap at the egg until they could make their way out of the shell.
Word of the day: shell
We have 10 eggs in an incubator. The temperature is 37.7 degrees. We have all had a good look today, they are on day 19 of their cycle and they should hatch on day 21. There is no movement, voices or cracks yet…. keep checking! Remember to update your diary! What will happen next?
This week we have now officially covered 5 sounds in phonics. We have all been introduced to ‘m, a , s, d, t’. We have been playing lots of phonics games to encourage letter recognition, listening for initial sounds and beginning to blend and segment CVC words. Look out – next week is ‘i’.
We have been preparing for the chicks by learning key vocabulary and preparing the area by making pictures and collages. There has been a lot of feathers used! Look out next week for a daily blog post to keep you up to date of the eggs’ progress!
World Book Day was a success with everybody getting into the spirit of things and dressing up/ taking their role very seriously! We explored the wordless picture book ‘Changes, changes’ by Pat Hutchins (author of Rosie’s Walk) and this fed into our block play. We changed the blocks from a ship, to a castle to a plane just like the characters in the story. If you want to get to know the story yourself there is lovely version on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6vtstMJCv0
In maths, we have been exploring positional and directional language. We created large routes in the hall using masking tape and had to use words like ‘forwards, backwards, turn’ as well as the language we explored last week ‘over, under, inside, beside, next to’.
Talk Homework: We are going to have the eggs/chicks next week. We will have a word of the day and will be monitoring their progress closely. The children will have a booklet to use at home and school everyday, they can draw what is happening, count how many eggs have hatched, and it would be lovely if you could scribe their comments too. Feel free to add anything you want to the book. Check the website everyday to see what is happening!
We have been reading ‘Stuck’ by Oliver Jeffers and thinking about the best ways to solve problems. This week has been full of different problems and the children have risen to the challenge.
Problem: Can you collect all the snow?
Problem: Can you make an obstacle to go ‘under’?
Problem: Can you make the biggest bubble?
Next Week: We start counting down officially for the arrival of the eggs (which will hopefully hatch into chicks). We will be preparing the children at school by using vocabulary linked with the chicks, explaining what will happen and watching clips of eggs hatching.
Talk Homework: Why don’t you talk about what might happen with the chicks? What will we need to do to help the eggs hatch? Have the children any other experiences linked with this?
This week we have explored Chinese New Year. We have had a fantastic time trying lots of different food in our restaurant – noodles and prawn crackers, egg fried rice. The children have enjoyed cooking in our restaurant kitchen, serving food (writing out menus and making sure everyone gets a bill!) and of course tasting the food and using chopsticks.
We have also been focusing on listening for initial sounds in our adult led task this week. In our phonics sessions we have been focusing on the ‘mmm’ sound.
Talk Homework: There are lots of ways you can help your child with early phonics skills. Singing nursery rhymes and encouraging your child to fill in the missing end of the line will help with their ability to identify rhyme. If your child is beginning to hear initial sounds play eye spy this week around the house – focusing on the ‘mmm’ sound but also introduce letters in their name.
We have been on so many journeys over the past two weeks. We have been on an adventure to forest school, so we made and packed our (essential) sandwiches to take with us.
We have been playing train stations, making tickets, going far and wide and exploring our story ‘Lost and Found’ as well as our new book, ‘The Train Ride’.
In phonics we have been exploring rhyme – with lots of rhyming stories and silly rhyming games.
In R.E we even celebrated a few weddings!
This week we have focused on writing our numbers – the children have been writing in flour and oats, large paper, and in the homecorner in the phonebook. We took the train to the cafe this week too – so everyone had lots of chance to be the cook, the waiter and the customer. We had a wonderful time – I ordered plenty of cups of tea and cake!
One of the most exciting things this week, however, has been watching as the daffodils opened. It took a couple of days but everyone was very observant, and went on draw and paint them with watercolor paints and pastels.
Talk Homework: Next week, we will be exploring Chinese New Year. The cafe will become a Chinese Restaurant and the children will have lots of opportunities to explore the traditions. Talk to your child about Chinese New Year – they can share their information or experiences with the class next week.
Nursery have come back with fantastic spirits! We have been estimating and counting , discussing journeys and transport, making paper planes, writing out tickets…
I think you have done fantastic job of coming back to school, let’s have a brilliant term…
Talk Homework: We have talked about getting on trains, buses and planes and how you might need a ticket. If you go on a journey this week, talk about how you are getting there, why you have chosen that mode of transport, how much it costs and how long it will take… I look forward to hearing how it goes!
Nursery 