Phoenix Nursery School

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.

Food banks and soup kitchens | City Of Wolverhampton Council

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.

In nursery, we have been getting to know the Three Billy Goats Gruff story. We want our children to develop a love of stories and books. We have thought about this story in many ways: working together to build a bridge for the goats, drawing pictures of our characters, acting like the characters as we play on the bridge outside, reading the book and playing with our puppets. You can share this book at home by watching the video story together on Teams.

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.

In nursery, we have been exploring pattern. As we notice patterns around us and create our own patterns, we build up an idea of what pattern is. Patterns can be created in lines, vertically or in circles. Having a good understanding of pattern helps our later mathematical thinking as we continue to look for connections and similarities. Can you talk to your child about patterns you notice at home? Perhaps you can create your own patterns together too.

The children in Laura’s morning group have been using the iPad to photograph each other. Through this, we are learning how to use the iPad's and evolving our observational skills. We are developing our language skills and technical vocabulary too.😀

One of our in depth stories is ‘The Train Ride’. The children have been invited to create a track like the one they are becoming familiar with in our story. The children have the choice of a range of construction materials and choose wooden blocks and magnets to build with. The Educator encourages the children to join their tracks together to make a larger train track encouraging early collaborative skills.

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

It was such a pleasure to welcome our families back into nursery today for our Jubilee celebrations. We thoroughly enjoyed our royal festivities and look forward to seeing you again on Monday 6th June.

Laura’s morning group are continuing their snail enquiry. We have been finding out about the shape of the snails’ shells and have represented this through clay, drawing and painting. We have engaged with a projected video of snails, where some children showed their interest in the snails’ tentacles, their texture and the patterns on their shells. We look forward to finding out more about these ideas together.

Claire and Mina’s children have been growing some broad beans. Over the Easter holidays, they have grown a lot and the children have been talking about the changes they can see. The children have then used their observation skills to help them represent the plant through drawing. The children have noticed many features of the plant like the leaves and the stem and as you can see they are representational of the actual plant.

Today we have celebrated Easter in nursery. We have taken part in an Easter egg hunt outside, tasted hot cross buns, sung Easter songs and made our own patterns on egg shapes using loose parts. The children have also received an Easter egg to take home. We hope you enjoy your Easter break and look forward to seeing you back in nursery on Monday 25 April.

On Wednesday we were visited by Clive Chandler and his puppet show. We thoroughly enjoyed his retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk and it was great to see how engaged the children were with this traditional tale.

This week the children have been talking about what food is good for our teeth, such as fruit, and things that are not so good like sweets and pop. They also looked at what was inside the box to help them look after their teeth, a toothbrush, toothpaste and a timer to know how long to brush them for to make sure they are clean. Please read the leaflet provided by the special care dental service to help with supporting good dental habits. Thank you.

Laura’s morning group have been looking after our pet snails Dave and Daisy this week, making sure they have plenty of apple to eat and enough water to drink. Some children chose to draw a picture of the snails. Others stroked their hard shell and laughed when their feelers popped out! Looking after pets helps us to develop a sense of empathy and helps to build our group identity.

Thank you to everyone who donated to our raffle. The total amount raised was £30!

We would like to wish all our mothers a Happy Mother’s Day for Sunday. The children have been working hard to create your cards, looking carefully at the flowers we have growing in nursery and using pens and paint to represent their ideas. You can continue this learning by talking to them about Mother’s Day or looking at flowers you see growing on the way to nursery.

One of our key texts this half term is Jack and the Beanstalk. As the children are becoming more familiar with the story, we are considering the characters in more detail. We use puppets to get to know the characters and the story in a playful way. Mina’s morning children have been looking carefully at the puppets and drawing the characters.
They are learning to notice details and look carefully. They are learning skills for drawing and writing. They are also developing their knowledge of the story and its characters.

On Thursday, we celebrated World Book Day. We wore our pyjamas and had bedtime stories together. The children had voted for a story from a choice of two, and the Children listened to this story and the engaged in activities linked to the story. The children 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 ‘Dinosaur Roar and Friends’ that came home with their book token.

Playing with construction materials evolves children's spatial understanding, which helps knowledge to build around how shapes fit together. Knowing about flat and curved surfaces, sides, edges, corners etc, has to be explored through using construction materials before learning the language to describe the shape.
This week some of our younger children have been using their puppets to make a bed for them to sleep in. They had to think about what length would fit their puppets as well as how to balance other blocks to create the shape of a bed.

Our new children have been settling into nursery this week, getting used to playing with new toys and making new friends.

Laura’s afternoon group and Mina’s morning group have a new story called Fox’s Socks. We will send a video of the story soon for you to share with your child.

Welcome back to all our families and Happy New year. All the children seem happy to be back at school and have settled back into our routines.

On Friday the children had their Christmas party and they all thoroughly enjoyed themselves. After playing games, the children sat down together and ate party food including pizza, crisps and cake. We had a special visitor talk to the children, digitally this year, who left each child a Christmas gift. We would like to say a big thank you to all our parents’ school fund donations that have helped fund all our Christmas festivities this term, and for your kind words and gifts. Your generosity is greatly appreciated.
Have a very happy Christmas and keep safe.

The Nursery Team.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines

Dear Parents and Guardians,

The NHS is encouraging everyone eligible for their first, second or Covid-19 booster jab to walk-in and ‘grab a jab’ this weekend, to protect themselves and help make the Christmas period safer for us all.

There are 100 sites across the Black Country and West Birmingham, all are offering first, second and booster doses for adults aged 18 and over, as well as vaccines for 12-15-year-olds.

Appointments can be booked online via the National Booking System (https://bit.ly/3dtsler), or by calling 119.

Walk-in jabs, without an appointment, are also available at a number of vaccination sites across the area including the Mander Centre, WV Active Bilston-Bert Williams, the Civic Centre (from tomorrow) and The Hub at Ashmore Park from Saturday. For a full list of local vaccination centres, please visit https://bit.ly/3HmGV5a

For more details about the vaccine, please visit www.nhs.uk/covidvaccine

Vaccination Centre a5 leaflet - Civic Centre.pdf
Vaccination Centre a5 leaflet - Bert Williams.pdf
Vaccination Centre a5 leaflet - Ashmore Park Hub.pdf

Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines NHS information about coronavirus vaccines, including who can get a vaccine, how to book and how well the vaccines work.

This week we have been celebrating St. Nicholas Day in nursery. It is celebrated in many European countries. Some of our children celebrated at home, waking up to special gifts like toys and bringing in gifts for their friends - special food like tangerines and chocolates. We also left a boot out for St. Nicholas which we found full of special treats for the children.

For Ayan, this day was particular special as his name is also Nicholas! He had a special cake to celebrate his ‘name-day’.
The children love to learn about what is special to their friends at home. Please let us know about any celebrations you are having,
Thanks,

The nursery team

On Friday our School supported the ' for the @999 Cenotaph' campaign, during the day we talked about the importance of the NHS and the 999 Emergency Services, and we discussed what they do to help us.

The School has made a charitable donation to the campaign on behalf of all of our families.

The children really enjoyed their trip to Kingswood this week. We listened to a story called, ‘The Colour Monster’. We then went outside and collected natural items to make paints and created a colourful flag.
Later, we went to see the animals. We also climbed trees, balanced on ropes and went on the swing and the zip wire. We fed the sheep before we came home. Here are a few photos of the day for you to talk about at home.

Families, we have been asked to circulate the following 'Covid-19 Vaccination Service' information, on behalf of Wolverhampton City Council, please see the details below:

Today we have been thinking about Children in Need. Some children have dressed up in spotty clothes. We have made a Pudsey Bear collage together. Thank you to everyone who donated to our raffle. The total amount raised was £30! The winner of the bear was Mankirat. Well done everybody!

In nursery, we use ‘Tales Toolkit’ to develop our communication skills and understanding of story structure using special symbols. If you would like further information, you can take a look at this video on the Tales Toolkit website https://youtu.be/0aMF9rLyhRU Don’t forget to check Teams for more information about your child’s learning.

On Friday we celebrated Diwali in nursery. We learnt that when we celebrate we wear special clothes, eat special food, dance and listen to music.

We listened to the Diwali story and learnt that Diwali is a festival of lights. We tasted a range of special food like barfi, muttri and samosas. We danced and played instruments whilst listening to bhangra music. We looked at mehndi and rangoli patterns and made our own patterns too.

You can continue this learning at home by talking to your child about these pictures or finding out more about Diwali together.

Happy Diwali!
From the Nursery Team

Climate Action Week Event - Saturday 6 November 2021'In partnership with Penn Climate Action & Friends of the Earth'We have been asked to share the following event details with you:You are invited to be part of a family friendly global event, which is being held in the West Park, Wolverhampton on Saturday 6 November 2021 from 11.30 a.m. – 2.00 p.m. The event is being held to tell those with power locally, nationally and internationally that we want them to act to reduce 'Climate Change'. The event will be covered by the media, and there will be stalls, children’s games, poetry, speeches, information on Climate change and things you can do to reduce it. The environmental groups in Wolverhampton would love to see you there. By coming to the park on 6 November 2021, you can make a positive difference to 'Climate Change.