Phoenix Nursery School

This week the children have watched the release of the butterflies. They have seen first hand the process of change that the caterpillars have experienced, from larvae, to caterpillar, to chrysalis and finally to butterfly. The children have nurtured them by feeding them fruit like they eat and now the cycle begins again with the release of our ‘painted lady’ butterflies.

On Friday 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:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/100-years-of-kingswood-trust-our-centenary-open-day-15th-july-2023-tickets-591233263607?aff=oddtdtcreator

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.

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.

Our project this year is ‘We grow food to eat!’ Each term we have been looking carefully at different fruits and vegetables and thinking about how they grow and where they grow. In January some of the children planted some pea seeds. Just like the rhyme 5 little peas they grew and grew until we noticed there were flowers on the pea plant and from the flowers grew some pods. We picked some and opened them up to see what was inside…we found 5 little peas!! The children tasted them to see how sweet they are.

This week in Nursery Debbie’s group have been looking at length and height. Debbie’s ribbons were all mixed up and needed sorting by their size. We compared the ribbons to find out which one was the biggest or longest and which one was the shortest. Everyone helped to sort them. Well done!

This week we have taken delivery of some caterpillar larvae so that the children can experience the transformation of a caterpillar to a butterfly. Claire’s children have been closely observing the caterpillars and then recreated them in clay. The children have noticed lots of features of the caterpillars and reproduced them in their clay models. Working with clay over the school year means that the children are now very skilled at shaping the clay to represent their thoughts and ideas.

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. 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 TEAMs of this special day. The children and staff have also enjoyed have 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 TEAMS to your child’s Educator. Thank you.

The new children in Debbie’s group have been settling in well. They have been exploring the nursery, discovering all the resources and making new friends. Have a lovely bank holiday.

This week as part of project work Claire’s children have been closely observing the inside of tomatoes. The children are increasingly knowledgeable about the process of planting seeds and watching them grow but also noticing seeds in fruit.

The children discussed what they could see inside the tomato, noticing the many seeds and their shape and size making comments such as they are small and curved. Clay was then used by the children to represent their ideas about seeds and the form of the tomato. They pressed their fingers into the clay to crate a place for the seeds to sit which the children then created by pinching and rolling small pieces of clay.

Thank you to all our families who made the puppets that were sent home during the Easter holidays. We can see how much the children enjoy playing and retelling the stories that we have each half term. Don’t forget to look at your TEAMS app for this half term’s story and rhymes that Claire and Debbie will send you. If you click on the link sent to you, your child can listen to their teacher telling the story and also listen and learn our new rhymes.

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 the Monday 17th April.

This week we had a visitor in school, his name was Clive, and he brought his magic box of puppets with him. He re-told the story of Jack and the Beanstalk using his wooden spoon puppets and we joined in with the familiar parts of the story, especially Claire’s children as this book has been the focus story this half term.

Debbie’s group have been acting out the story they have been looking at this half term. The story is called ‘Dear Zoo’ and is full of different of types of animals. The children now know the story and all the different sounds the animals make and this week had the chance to bring the story to life by being the different animals In the story. Please look at the TEAMS app as Debbie has sent a link of her telling the story so your child can listen to it at home.

Over the last few weeks at nursery, during project time we have been talking about the food we eat and have been attempting to grow some of our own food to connect with our project
‘We grow food to eat’

At nursery we have planted radishes, peppers, onions, carrots, beans, tomatoes, peas, potatoes and apple seeds that are from the apples at snack time and potatoes. We have been noticing each day the changes that have been happening to our seeds e.g., their growth and height just like the beanstalk in our story Jack and the beanstalk.

Yesterday we got our greenhouse ready and planted some of the seeds that were getting too big for their tiny pots and also looked at some of the root systems of the plants which were very interesting. It is important to take time to look at what happens underground as well as above. We will continue to care for them and water them each day.

The focus story for Claire's children this half term is Jack and the Beanstalk. This week the children have been creating castle's like the one in the story with the blocks.
They have been balancing blocks to make tall towers like the castle in the book, using language such as "big and tall" when talking about their structures.

This week in Nursery we have been focusing on using the paint easel. We looked at pictures from our key text Dear Zoo and painted the animals from the story. We are learning to be more independent when using nursery resources. We put our apron on, attached the paper with the magnet and then use the brush to paint on the paper creating shapes and texture to represent the different animals. We were very creative.

On Thursday 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. 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.

This week in Nursery we have been exploring the magnets. We noticed how they connected together to create new shapes, and also how sometimes they wouldn’t stick and repelled each other. The children were very creative Davreen made a house and Sahibveer made a tiger. Please talk to your child what they have learnt about the magnets and what they created using their imagination.

In preparation for our World Book Day celebrations the children have been voting for the book they want to read on Thursday 2rd March. The children have used different ways 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 Thursday 2nd March in their pyjamas as we will be sharing their chosen books as bedtime stories.

At nursery this week we have been exploring the concept of change through colour.
The children were offered a range of water colour palettes, plastic lids to mix different colours together and paper grids to paint on so that they could investigate and record what happens when colours are mixed together, creating a range of new colours and shades.
The children also became very excited as they noticed another change to the water in their jars as they washed their brushes.
Once they had finished their work, the children used the iPad to find the camera app, open it up and take a photo of their ‘colour swashes’

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.

On Thursday we took our families for a visit 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 day and 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. A collection of interesting objects which have circular properties have been placed into the environment for children to investigate and discover how round things feel and behave compared to straight sided shapes and objects. The children have been noticing how many items we have in school that have circular properties and they are enjoying finding and playing with them.

This week we been enjoying Christmas Celebrations. On Thursday, parents joined us to listen to the children telling the story of the first Christmas and then made cards and decorations together.
Today the children had their Christmas party and a very special visitor came to see the children and he gave them all a Christmas gift. We would like to wish all our families a lovely Christmas.

See you all in 2023🙂🎅

We would like to thank SNJ Charitable Trust in association with Austin Estate Agents who have kindly donated a Christmas Present for every child in our Nursery. What a wonderful and kind gesture!

Merry Christmas everyone!

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 Claires’s group the children have been learning about St Nicholas’ Day as one of the families in her group have been celebrating this festival today. 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.

A Home Corner is the most familiar experience the children can have. It relates directly to their own lives and their interests and is something that all children have in common. It provides a context for your children to explore their social and emotional lives and a familiar place for developing language and communication. Recently the Home corner has been relocated and new resources added to evolve children’s knowledge of cooking food and looking at recipes. During project work the children have looked at different types of food and made pumpkin soup and so connecting home and school experiences we have added some wooden food, recipe cards and familiar cooking resources .

Children have many opportunities to develop the muscles in their hands so that they can use a wide range of resources such as scissors and hole punchers. This week the children have been practising manipulating the scissors to snip and cut as well as using their hands to push down on the hole punchers to make different shapes.

Thank you to our parents for attending our first ‘Learning Together’ session since the pandemic. Eighty six percent of you attended on Tuesday and learnt about subitising and how you can help your child at home. We hope you enjoyed the session, and we are looking forward to seeing your photographs on TEAMS of you subitising at home. We look forward to our second ‘Learning Together’ session in the spring term.

The children have been using the iPads to learn how to use the photograph function. They have been locating the photograph icon on the home screen and the opening it up and the holding the tablet still and pushing the button to capture the image .The children will have more opportunities to practise these skills over the year.

On Wednesday the children celebrated Diwali in school. All the children joined in with a variety of experiences such as Bhangra dancing, creating Mendhi patterns, making naan breads and tasting samosas. The children talked about celebrations they had experienced like birthdays and weddings.

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 predicting what is inside the pumpkins too.

Playing outside is part of the children’s daily routine. Physical development is very important as it develops spatial awareness as well as core strength and balance. The resources set up in the garden are carefully considered to support all the children’s physical development. Children learn to climb, balance , jump and run safely.

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 some photographs of the children settling in at school. We have lots more photographs of the children in the entrance area where the children's pump bags are located so, please take a look when you drop your child off.
Have a lovely weekend everyone.😊

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 7th September. Finally, we wish you all a fantastic summer break.

Take care
The Nursery Team.

We were very excited this week to welcome ‘Angie’s Animal Antics’ into nursery. The children were introduced to a range of animals: a bearded dragon, an owl, a rabbit, a hedgehog and a tree frog. Please check your Teams app for more photographs of your child. Talking about them together is an excellent way to help your child’s communication skills.

Dear Parents/Carers,
Play sessions are being offered at Phoenix Park over the six weeks holiday. To book your place, please scan the bar code.