Nursery

Welcome to Nursery!

👧🏼🧒🏾🖍️🎨📚

2024-2025

Hi, my name is Mrs Vickers and I have been a teacher at Castle Hill for 14 years. I started my journey in the EYFS unit where I spent the first 7-8 years. (Having a year in the middle split between 3 months in year 1 and 6 months with my newborn baby girl who is now 10!!) After my 7th full year in EYFS, I moved up to year 1 with my lovely Reception Class, where I spent the next 4 years. After my 4th year in year 1, I moved up to year 2 with my class, and spent 2 years there! Despite loving these years, I am delighted to say that I am now back in the EYFS unit where my passion for teaching began! I am now the Nursery teacher and am in class Tuesday-Friday every week. I cannot wait to spend the year with your wonderful children! Our door is always open and any questions please don't hesitate to pop in! You can also message us via Tapestry if needed! 😃

Hi, I’m Miss Ratcliffe and I have 9 years EYFS experience as I have previously worked in a private nursery, before starting my journey here, at Castle Hill, 2 years ago. During my first year here, I supported a child with SEND on a 1:1 basis in Reception and was given the honour of transitioning to year 1 with her.  Now I am back in the EYFS unit, working with Mrs Vickers as the Nursery Teaching Assistant. I also lead the class on a Monday whilst Mrs Vickers is away. I can't wait to spend the year with you all, learning together and having lots of fun! 😃

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Observations of your wonderful children are being uploaded weekly! Be sure to check the APP so that you don't miss a moment! 🥰

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We are implementing the Brush Bus tooth brushing scheme in our EYFS in order to increase exposure to fluoride among the children at our school.  We are participating in this scheme and we are incorporating tooth brushing into our daily routines and use it as part of the curriculum.

Regular daily brushing with family fluoride toothpaste is highly effective in preventing tooth decay and gum disease. Good oral hygiene practice needs to be established at an early stage in life and become an integral part of normal daily hygiene. 

Let's work together to promote good oral health for our children! 

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As part of our Nursery provision, your children will be offered milk and fruit every day! The fruits provided are often raisins, apples, tangerines, bananas, pears or pea pods. If you would like to send your children with anything extra, please may we request that drinks bottles contain WATER ONLY and that snacks are healthy and nut free. Crisps, sweets and cookies will not be allowed at snack time but fruit, crackers, cheese or yoghurts would make great choices for snacks! Also, as we have a few children in our school with nut allergies, we are strictly a nut free school. Unfortunately, anything that "may contain nuts", including birthday cakes, will not be allowed to be consumed in order to keep our children safe. Thank you so much for your cooperation with these matters! 🙂 

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Formal PE sessions don't start until Reception and the children will not require a PE kit or be getting changed. However, on Thursdays, in Nursery, we look at moving in different ways. We play a few physical games and we practise our throwing and catching skills. Please can you ensure that on Thursdays children come to Nursery wearing appropriate footwear such as trainers in order to participate safely! Thank you so much! 

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Helpful links for learning at home!

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Come along on the journey with us! Let's look at what we have been learning about this year! 🏫

During week 3’s topic we read the story “The Colour Monster” and explored our emotions. We learned that sometimes we feel happy, sometimes we feel sad, sometimes we feel scared and sometimes we feel mad and all of these emotions are perfectly ok to feel. We just need to learn how to manage them and make ourselves happy again if we aren’t feeling our best. We enjoyed making colour monster collages and drawing pictures of our friends through transparent Perspex lids whilst they showed different emotions. We learned how to work as a team and how to show kindness towards others. We made new children feel welcome and safe and looked after each other. We learned that not everyone speaks the same language and explored different ways to communicate. Well done team! 🥰

In week 4 we learned all about our senses! We took part in lots of activities, using our senses to see, hear, smell, touch and taste. In phonics we used our listening ears to identify environmental and instrumental sounds. In topic time and on the playdough and small world tables we used our noses to smell. We added mint and lavender to the play-dough table and investigated smell pots containing oranges, sprats, cinnamon, tea bags, chocolate and vinegar. At snack time we tried different fruits even if we weren’t too keen and we used our hands to investigate different textures. Amazing learning everyone! 👃👄👋👀👂

We had a lovely time in week 5 learning all about our families. We talked about our own families, read stories about families and learned that all families are different. Some families are big and some families are small. Some families have 1 parent, some families have 2 and some families have even more! Some families live close together and some families live far apart! All families are unique and special and all share 1 thing in common - their love for one another ☺️❤️When learning independently, we made playdough people and built houses with the foam bricks. We also made beautiful button pictures thinking carefully about who was in our families. In the maths area, the children worked hard in their counting and number recognition skills by counting the members of each family and placing a peg on the correct numeral. Super learning everyone! 🏡🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒

In week 6 we learned all about what it takes to be a good friend. We read stories about friendship and we watched videos and sang songs. We practised being kind, caring and gentle with our friends and even explored new friendships with people who we don’t usually play with. We tried really hard to take turns and share and we had so much fun laughing, playing, chatting, learning and dancing together! 🥰 In continuous provision we used magnets to fish for our friends and learned about magnetic attraction. We used the play dough to make friendship pies, adding cuddles, love, laughter, kindness, care and smiles into our bakes. In the fine motor area we made friendship bracelets, using our threading skills. On the craft table we worked together, drawing around each others hands to make masterpieces. Elsewhere, we put puppet shows on for our friends, played together and giggled together. Our teachers were so proud of us! Beautiful learning from everyone! What a lovely week full of laughter and love! 🥰

This week the children learned all about the beauty of Autumn! We read a heartwarming story called “Ferdi and the falling leaves” which taught us about how the seasons change and the importance of this for nature and wildlife. The story was about a little fox who was worried about his favourite tree. His tree wasn’t green anymore, it was turning orange and brown and all of its leaves were falling off in the wind! Ferdi tried desperately to catch the leaves and stick them back on to his tree to make it better again but it was no good! The leaves just kept flying off again and hedgehog and squirrel were stealing them!! Eventually, Ferdi realised that his tree wasn’t sick at all! In fact it was going through a beautiful change and as a result of this, his woodland friends were being helped too as they could use the leaves to hibernate in the cold winter months! 🥰🍁🍂🐿️🦔 Whilst learning in our classroom, the children explored the vibrant changes that Autumn brings by exploring the different colours and textures in our investigation tray full of colourful, crunchy leaves, conkers, acorns and pinecones! They also worked hard, making beautiful masterpieces using crispy, autumn leaves! We even used our senses to explore the smells that Autumn brings, using smell pots containing cinnamon, pumpkin spice, cocoa, vanilla and marshmallows. We all chose our favourite scents, identifying what we would put in our Autumn hot chocolate drink! Finally, we used our maths skills to make little hedgehogs with numorous spikes and gave the squirrels the correct amount of conkers to eat! We have displayed awe and wonder about the natural world around us and displayed incredible learning in the classroom all week, making our teachers so proud! Well done team! 👏🏻🍂

The children have loved exploring our spooky classroom this week and have especially loved reading our class text ‘Room on the Broom!’ Whilst in continuous provision, the children have investigated the inside of a pumpkin, scooping out the seeds, strings and flesh with spoons and we have practised making our fingers strong in the fine motor corner, hammering golf tees into pumpkins. In maths we have practised counting out amounts by rolling dice and threading different amounts of Cheerios onto broomsticks. On the craft table, we have been turning the characters from the Room on the Broom story into stick puppets using our cutting skills! In the small world area, we retold the story of ‘Room on the Broom’ using the story blocks. Mrs Vickers couldn’t believe how good our story telling language was as we remembered and used lots of quotes from the text! Finally we used our maths skills to make spooky potions and on the play dough table we made witches faces! Excellent learning everyone! 🎃🧙🏼👻🌟

This week we enjoyed learning all about Diwali! We learned that it is a Hindu festival and is known as the festival of light! We learned that in preparation for Diwali, it is custom for Hindus to clean their homes. We practised cleaning the little house outside with lots of soap and water! 🧼🫧🧽💦 We watched videos of other children celebrating Diwali and learned all about how Mehndi is drawn on peoples hands and how people make Rangoli patterns which are pictures made on the ground using rice,lentils and sand. We practised making our own Rangoli patterns both outside using various materials and inside using Numicon. We also practised making Mehndi patterns on hand templates! On the play dough table, we made Diva lamps using playdough, glitter, sparkles, gems and little tea lights. In the investigation area we practised making firework patterns in the sparkly sand!  We also learned that fireworks are used both in Diwali celebrations and also in England to celebrate Bonfire Night! 🎆 What an exciting week! 🌟

This week we learned all about people who help us. We talked about how people help us at home and at school and how there are many people who help us in the community! We celebrated some of these people by engaging in different activities in the classroom! In the role play area we had a baby clinic! Whilst learning in here we enjoyed weighing and looking after the babies; listening to their heartbeat, treating them with medicine and plasters and changing their nappies. We continued to look after the babies outside where we bathed the babies with soap and warm water. On the craft table, we enjoyed making emergency vehicles such as police cars and fire trucks using paper plates. On the investigation table, we learned about the importance of brushing our teeth and pretended to be dentists, cleaning the laminated teeth with toothbrushes. In the small world area we played with little figures such as firemen, nurses, doctors, policemen and lolly pop ladies, learning all about the different roles they play in our community. Outside we pretended to be mechanics, firemen and fire-ladies and also enjoyed roleplaying in our “petrol station” filling the bikes with petrol and air. What a busy week we have had! Well done everyone! Super learning as always! 🤩

This week we continued to learn all about people who help us! Whilst learning outside we enjoyed learning about crossing the road safely using zebra crossings. We looked at signs such as ‘Stop’ and ‘Go’ and had a go at being road crossing supervisors! Our baby clinic was transformed into a police station and we had lots of fun chasing “baddies” and restoring justice in our classroom! Lots of teamwork and giggles all around! On the play dough table we made our fingers strong by creating missing parts on pictures of people who help us (wheels for the police car, a stethoscope for the doctor, bricks for the builder etc).  In the maths area we worked hard on our counting and number recognition skills - driving the emergency vehicles to the correct houses by matching the Numicon to the numbers on the houses. We also practised counting out amounts by putting the correct amount of tiny people in the little jails! 👮 Well done everyone! Lots of super learning once again! 🤩

His eyes are orange! 🧡His tongue is black! 🖤He has purple prickles all over his back! 💜 Oh help!! Oh no!! It’s a …….This week we read one of my all time favourite stories! The Gruffalo! Just like with Julia Donaldson’s Room on the Broom, the children loved it and had the best time exploring all of the Gruffalo related activities in the classroom. Craft table was a huge hit and by the end of Monday, almost everyone had made a Gruffalo face using the shapes on the table! How amazing are they!?! 🤩 In the investigation area, the children also enjoyed using their counting skills to make Gruffalo crumble!! On the playdough table they made little Gruffalos with orange eyes, black tongues, purple prickles and green warts! They also worked together to act out the story, sing songs and work on their phonics skills by matching rhyming words in the story! Awesome learning everyone!!!  You always make us so proud! 

This week we read the story of Stick Man! Stick Man is another of my favourite stories and was a huge hit with all of the children! Stick Man is written by Julia Donaldson, the same author who wrote both The Gruffalo and Room on the Broom! The children enjoyed making Stick Men on the play dough table, practising skills which we have honed in our Dough Disco sessions such as rolling, twisting and pulling. They made some incredible Stick Men, showing just how far they have come with their fine motor skills! 🤩 On the craft table, they showed how much patience and concentration they had as they cut clothes and hair for their Stick Man and tried different ways of gluing on clothes, eyes and hair using print stick, PVA glue and sellotape. In the investigation area, we looked at different animals and practised making tracks in the snow! In maths we practised counting sticks, placing them into the correct numbered pots and in the fine motor area we practised our cutting skills, using toilet rolls to make Stick Lady Love. We continued our rhyming skills in phonics looking for the rhymes in the story - “tree and three” “jog and dog” “trick and stick” “soot and boot” etc. We all watched the animated version of Stick Man with high levels of engagement and rooted for Stick Man, who was frequently mistaken for a stick and used for all manner of purposes, to finally make his way home to the family tree! In the end Santa brought him home leading to much excitement for next weeks topic of Christmas! 😃🎄🎅🏼 Fabulous learning everyone, as always! 🤩

The children have had lots of fun this week engaging in a wide range of fun activities! On the malleable table, the children made reindeers with the play dough! Some reindeers had brown noses whilst other children chose to make Rudolph with his shiny red nose! On Wednesday afternoon, some of the children got the chance to meet real life reindeers on the yard! They were unbelievably cute! We learned many facts about them and even got to feel their antlers! 🦌 In the investigation area we learned about Arctic animals 🐻‍❄️🐧 and in the construction area we used the Lego to make a home for our class elf, Buddy! We had the polar express in our small world area and had lots of fun playing with the train track and Christmas characters! 🚂🎅🏼 On the craft table we used glitter, sequins, felt tips, pom poms and lots of other materials to make our own Christmas pictures! 🖍️ We showed high levels of concentration and really worked on our fine motor skills to make some amazing masterpieces! On the writing table we wrote letters to Santa 🎅🏼📝 and at the fine motor station we made candy canes by twisting pipe cleaners and threading beads on to them! In maths we practised our counting skills by counting out pom poms to decorate Christmas trees! Well done everybody! Amazing learning as always! 🤩