Ashmore Park Nursery

As we come to the end of another school year, we would like to say a huge ‘Thank You’ for all the personal gifts that have been given to all the staff as well as all the shared presents we have received.
We hope you all have a great summer holiday, and we all wish the children moving on to Primary School good luck in their new schools.
For all the children and families returning to us in the new school year, we look forward to seeing you on Monday 11th September 2023. Take care, from everyone at Ashmore Park Nursery School ☺️

This week the children have been harvesting the vegetables they have been nurturing as part of our project ‘we grow food to eat’. Great excitement was shown by the children as the potatoes and carrots were revealed from the soil. We really hope that this project has begun to help the children understand that the food we eat is grown and then it’s transported to the supermarket for us to buy. Some of the groups have cooked their vegetables and enjoyed eating them as part of their end of year project celebrations. Maybe we have some future master chefs amongst us!

As part of ‘Wednesfield in Bloom’ we were invited to make a scarecrow. Caroline and her children accepted the invitation and set about creating it using as much recyclable materials as possible. As you can see it was a very busy session for Caroline and the children but after lots of hard work the Ashmore Park Nursery School scarecrow was created. We even used preloved school uniform to dress the scarecrow. We hope you have spotted the scarecrows dotted around the community but just in case you missed it, we have added some pictures as part of our post.

The school currently has places available for September 2023.
Could I please ask our families to share our post so that we can notify our community. Your support would be appreciated☺️

On Monday we had a visitor to nursery, Angie came with a variety of animals to show the children as an end of school year treat. She brought a hedgehog, tortoise, owl, guinea pig, rabbit, and skinny pig. The children were able to stroke and hold the animals if they wanted to. A big thank you to all our parents who pay school fund as we were able to use your generous donations to pay for this treat.

Dear Parents
The Kingswood Trust invite you to join them at their Open Day where you can find out about school day visits, residentials, team days and volunteering opportunities.
There'll be plenty of fun for all the family too with...Pond Dipping, Animal Handling, Campfire Cooking and Trails in the Woods.
At Kingswood Trust they have many accessible paths and welcome assistance dogs.
Light snacks and a selection of hot and cold drinks are available for sale and they have undercover shelters as well as picnic benches.
There are toilets and handwashing facilities including outdoor hand-wash stations and they also have a defibrillator and first aid on site.
Their volunteers are on hand to help and show you around. Just ask at Woody’s Snack Stop if you would like to speak to them.
Any donations towards their charitable aims are always much appreciated. They very much look forward to seeing you.
To book your free ticket to the event, please follow the link:

100 years of Kingswood Trust - Our Centenary Open Day 15th July 2023 Discover Kingswood through the years - come in fancy dress, explore indoors and out, fun activities, competitions and displays.

This half term the children who are getting ready to move on to primary school have been exploring the concept of pattern using many different materials. They have drawn patterns, created repeating patterns with construction resources and shapes, and as we have had a delivery of caterpillar larvae recently, the children have started to investigate symmetry through looking at butterfly wings.

As a part of ongoing project work ‘we grow food to eat’ the children have been planting seeds and plants in our new planting beds in the front and back gardens. The children have planted radishes, cucumbers, beans, peas and pumpkins and now will be taking care of them and watching them grow over the next couple of months. Our potato sacks are doing well, and we are hoping to harvest them sometime during the last half term of the school year.

Today we have given out dental packs to all our families. These have been provided for free from Wolverhampton NHS Foundation Trust to support families of young children to develop good oral hygiene routines. There is a toothbrush, toothpaste, and a timer along with a leaflet that talks about how to take care of your child’s teeth. Encouraging toothbrushing and taking care of our teeth is very important for our overall health. We hope you will encourage your child to brush their teeth using the timer to show how long they need to brush for to make them really clean.

Today we have celebrated the coronation of King Charles III. The children have decorated crowns and have sat in the throne room to be ‘coronated’. We hope you like the photograph the staff have sent through your child’s Microsoft Team to mark this special day. The children and staff have also enjoyed having cake as a treat to celebrate. We hope you all enjoy the extra long weekend and would love to see photographs of your own celebrations so, if you get chance, please send them on your Team, to your child’s Educator. Thank you. We look forward to seeing everyone back in school on Wednesday.

Welcome to all our new children and families. The new children are settling into nursery and getting used to the routines and all the new resources available to them. They are getting to know each other and their Educator. We hope they all have a good week next week and enjoy our Coronation Celebrations on Friday 5th May.

Welcome to all our new children and families who have started nursery this week. Each half term the children have a key storybook and nursery rhymes to support their evolving literacy skills. This half term our older nursery children’s book is ‘Supermarket Zoo’ and for our younger children in Natalie’s morning group their story is ‘Whatever Next’. For the children who have just joined us the key story is ‘Monkey and Me’. Your child’s Educator will record themselves telling the story and send you a link to the story through your child’s ‘Microsoft Teams App’. They will also send links for this half terms key rhyme. Please check your ‘Teams App’ so that your child can enjoy listening to the story and practise the rhymes whilst they are at home. This will really help with their learning. Thank you.

Today we have celebrated Easter by finding matching Easter eggs outside in the garden, the children had to find the same pattern that was on their egg. They also played Easter games, decorated egg shapes and enjoyed hot cross buns. We hope you have a lovely holiday and we will see you back on Monday 17th April.

We hope all our families have a lovely Mother’s day on Sunday and that you enjoy the little keepsake card your child has made.

Today we celebrated World Book Day. We wore our pyjamas and had bedtime stories and hot chocolate. The children had previously voted for a story and today they listened to it being told by their Educator all snuggled up under blankets. The Children also enjoyed joining in with activities linked to the story. For example, some children went hunting in the garden or their classroom to look for things linked to their story. The children have really enjoyed showing their pyjamas to each other and noticing the different pyjamas that the adults were wearing too. We hope your child enjoyed their day and the book that Nursery has purchased ‘Bedtime for the Burpee Bears’ that came home with their book token today.

Well, we have all made it to half term, we hope everyone has a lovely restful week ready for the next half term. A gentle reminder that the children return to school on 28th February, we have parent meetings after school on Thursday 2nd March and we are celebrating World Book Day on Friday 3rd March. Remember the children and staff will be wearing their pyjamas for our bedtime stories on the 3rd so we can all enjoy our stories together.

In preparation for our World Book Day celebrations the children have been voting for the book they want to read on Friday 3rd March. They have used 5 frames to make their vote and they can then see which book had the most votes and would be the winner. Just a gentle reminder the children should come to school on Friday 3rd March in their pyjamas as we will be sharing their chosen books as bedtime stories.

The children who started in January are starting to settle in and get used to their new routine. They are having opportunities to investigate all the materials and resources we have in nursery and develop skills and knowledge about how they can use them. They are starting to build relationships with their Educator and the other children in their group. The children are doing really well, though they are probably feeling very tired.

This week we took our families for visits to Kingswood. This was a fantastic opportunity to spend a day exploring a natural environment, enjoying doing things together. The children got to try the rope bridge, to balance and climb the trees and experience the excitement of the zip wire. They also created mud to paint with and collected natures treasures to decorate a piece of clay to make a clay animal. Everyone enjoyed either a hot or packed lunch courtesy of the Kingswood Trust. Everyone got to meet the animals that live at Kingswood, stroking them and feeding them. We hope you had an amazing time and that you are inspired to visit Kingswood during the school holidays in the future.

The Educators have been thinking about how to evolve children’s knowledge of circles and circular objects. It is important that the children are able to explore shapes and be able to describe them as well as to name them. Interesting circular objects have been placed into each environment for the children to investigate and the adults to introduce language such as curved, edge, side and face in a meaningful way. We also wanted the children to have opportunities to create circles themselves through drawing, painting and using a large compass. The children have been talking as they investigate and have made comments such as...
“It’s a rounder shape”
“It’s round and round and round”
“It’s got a curb edge”
“It’s a circle, its curvy and it can roll”

What a wonderful week we have had celebrating Christmas with our families. The children retold the Christmas story to their families, sang songs and made a Christmas card and decoration. We have had a visit from Clive Chandler & His Puppets, he retold the story of Jack and the Beanstalk and today we have had our Christmas party and have had a very exciting visit from Father Christmas. He was very impressed with the children's singing!
We would like to thank our families for their kind words, gifts and cards, it is very much appreciated.
Finally the team would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
See you on Wednesday 4 January 2023.

As part of our Christmas celebrations, the children have been thinking about the tree in nursery and how it can be recreated in lots of different materials. We call the resources the children have been using ‘loose parts’ because they are open ended and be transformed by the children’s imagination into anything they are thinking about. We have offered straight and curved materials so that children can create their own tree. They have had to solve problems like fitting straight sided resources together to make the sides of the tree and think about how they can make the shape of the tree before decorating it.

In Caroline’s group the children have been learning about St Nicholas’ Day as one of the families in her group have been celebrating this festival. In many Western European countries, the 6th December is celebrated by the arrival of St Nicholas who leaves a small gift, sweets or gingerbread biscuits for the children. He leaves them gifts in a shoe, a boot or pillowcase for the children to find and enjoy.

The children have been listening to different versions of the story of Jack and the Beanstalk in preparation for Clive the Puppet Man’s visit on Thursday 15th December. Clive will retell this traditional tale to the children with his story box puppets. Thank you for your school fund contributions as your generosity helps us to offer these exciting experiences to the children.

Each half term the children have one story book which we focus upon so that they have a deep understanding of the text. We do this by immersing the children in listening to the story, acting out the story, using character puppets and sharing the story with parents through Microsoft Teams, so that they can listen to their Educator retelling the story as many times as they like. One other approach we use to embed the story is through drawing and retelling the story. Our story this half term is ‘Wake up Lydia Lou’ and this week the children have been sharing their knowledge of the story through drawing.

Thank you to our parents for attending our first 'Learning Together’ session since the pandemic. Ninety four percent of you attended across the week and learnt about subitising and how you can help your child at home. We have already had some photos through on TEAMS showing how you are helping your child learn at home. We hope you found the session both informative and useful. We look forward to our second ‘Learning Together’ session in the spring term.

Today we have been celebrating Diwali with the children. They have been learning about how people celebrate Diwali with special food, dancing and decorations. The children have danced to bhangra music, tasted poppadoms and bhajis and created mehndi patterns on an image of their hands.

Children’s physical development is very important. We recognise this and have ensured that our nursery routine reflects it. Children always meet outside, weather permitting, and have half an hour to run, jump, balance and play with other children before coming inside. Our environment is designed to offer opportunities for large arm movements through drawing and painting as well as using smaller items such as Lego, loose parts, and puzzles. Children have a second opportunity to be outside later in the session and we have resources such as trolleys and large plastic bottles filled with water so children have to use their large muscles to push and lift which all contribute to their physical development.

Our project work with the children this year is about growing food to eat. We hope to evolve children’s knowledge of where our food comes from and engage them in growing food too. We know it is important to look for opportunities which are meaningful to the children to engage them in learning, so we have been looking at pumpkins and squashes. Though children associate these with Halloween we wanted to investigate what children knew about them from observing and discussing. The children have been noticing the shape, colour and texture of the pumpkins and drawing what they see and then adding colour from a carefully selected range of watercolours.

Construction materials are a very important part of our environment at school. Construction materials such as wooden blocks, Lego, magnetic shapes, tubes etc. are in each Educators learning space. Playing with construction materials evolves many aspects of children’s thinking. It creates opportunities to develop children’s spatial understanding, which helps build knowledge of how different shapes fit together. Playing with construction materials also helps evolve knowledge about flat and curved surfaces, sides, edges and corners.

As part of our daily routines the children have registration each day. We use this time to evolve lots of different aspects of learning like coming together as a group, taking turns and mathematics. Children are being introduced to five frames where they put their photograph to show that they are ‘at school’. They talk about whose picture is next to whose, is the five frame full or not full and what to do when the first five frame is full. This daily registration session provides a meaningful context for children to develop understanding of mathematical language and the concept of ‘how many’ without counting using the skill of subitising. Our first Learning Together session for parents will be on ‘What is subitising’. We are looking forward to having parents back in school after two years where it has not been possible.

This week we are sharing a few photographs of our new children settling into nursery school. In the cloakroom area there is a board for each group with many more photographs for you to look at so please take a look next week, when you come into school. Have a lovely weekend everyone and see you all next week.

As we come to the end of another school year, which we can’t quite believe we have, we would like to thank you all for the lovely gifts and very kind words. We really do appreciate your thoughtfulness. For those children and families who are leaving us we wish you luck in your new schools and for those who are returning to us, we look forward to seeing you on 12th September. Finally, we wish you all a fantastic summer break.
Take care
The Nursery Team.

Dear Parents/Carers
We understand that it is a difficult time for everyone, with the cost of everything that we need to purchase to meet our family's needs, rising. We would, therefore, like to highlight food bank services, which are available to families in Wolverhampton.
Please access the following website for details:

Food banks and soup kitchens | City Of Wolverhampton Council For anyone needing extra support we have provided a list and map of local food banks and soup kitchens.

As part of their leaving gift and celebrations all of our children who will be starting Reception in September had the opportunity to visit Kingswood Trust this week.
A very exciting time was had by all, climbing trees, pond dipping, having a ride on the zip wire, stroking the pets and going on a woodland walk. We also fed some very hungry sheep!
A very big thank you must also go to our Governors who gave up their time to accompany us and made the trip possible.

The children are immersed in new stories each half term and this half term the children have been looking at ‘Three Billy Goats Gruff’’. The children become familiar with the story in a variety of ways and one of these ways is through drawing. As the children draw they recall the story in their own words and this can be done individually or as a group as the photograph of the large drawing shows.

Dear Families
Parents and guardians in Wolverhampton are being asked to ensure their children are up to date with the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, as latest data shows uptake across England has dropped to the lowest level in a decade.
The percentage of five-year-olds who have had both doses of the MMR vaccine in England is currently 86.3%, well below the World Health Organization’s target of 95% which it says is needed to achieve and sustain the elimination of measles. It also means around three in 20 children starting school are at risk of catching measles.
The virus is highly contagious, so even a small decline in MMR uptake can lead to a rise in cases. And, as international travel resumes, it is more likely that measles will be brought in from countries that have higher levels of the disease.
The MMR vaccine is known to give 99% protection against both measles and rubella. Children are offered two doses of the vaccine by their registered GP surgery, the first when they turn one and the second at around three years and four months, before they start nursery or school.
For more details on the MMR vaccine, visit www.nhs.uk/conditions/vaccinations/mmr-vaccine/.
If your child isn’t registered with a GP, you can find out how to do so at www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/gps.

Over time children are building their knowledge of what pattern is. Mathematics is all about patterns, both in terms of understanding quantity as well as what we more commonly understand as pattern. The children start by looking at patterns on their clothing and items in the environment, this knowledge evolves through their play with construction materials and the teaching of the Educators.

Children are playful with resources such as loose parts and we begin to see children’s sensitivity to pattern and ideas of symmetry. Over time their knowledge of pattern grows, and children imitate and create repeating patterns for themselves. Kirstie has set out resources for the children to explore the idea of pattern in many ways. It is important that children have a broad understanding that pattern can be created with a wide range of materials.

Dear Parents
The BBC have launched their 'Tiny Happy People' website, which aims to reduce the 'word gap' by supporting parents/carers to help develop their little ones' vocabulary in the home learning environment.

We have included the link to the website for your information:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/tiny-happy-people

On Thursday 26th May we celebrated the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. This was the first time since March 2020 that we have been able to welcome parents into school to spend some time with their child. This was such a special day, and we hope we have helped create memories of this momentous occasion in the UK’s history. The children, and hopefully parent’s too, enjoyed decorating their crown and having their photograph taken in the ‘throne room’. The special cakes and scones seemed to be enjoyed by everyone and we would like to thank all of you for your support, and for making it such a memorable day. We hope that you continue your Jubilee celebrations next week and we will see you all on the Monday 6th June.