What lovely angels we have in Nursery!  Last week the children presented their 'First Christmas' Nativity story as part of our EYFS production. The children performed, played, sang and danced their way through a stunning performance - well done to them all on their first appearance on Roebuck stage!

We are now gearing up for Christmas in Nursery. In maths, the children are practising counting forwards (advent calendar) and backwards (countdown - how many days in Nursery before the end of term?), also learning the words and actions to the song: 'The 12 days of Christmas'. In literacy we are recording 'the First Christmas' story in individual booklets and looking at Christmas phonics (letters and sounds) as well as singing songs about 'S-A-N-T-A! The children are enjoying producing some great  art & carftwork too - painting Santa, making cards, calendars & gifts. We are looking forward to visiting the church to sing carols, watching the end of term panto ("oh yes we are!") and our Christmas party.

Nursery has been busy learning about 'Harvest' and 'Autumn' over the last few weeks. They have enjoyed finding out about, looking at, chopping & printing vegetables. They learnt days of the week after reading the story 'Oliver's vegetables'. This week they have started thinking about the season of autumn - they have been on an autumn walk collecting leaves, pine cones and sticks. They enjoyed experimenting with mixing colours to paint their autumn leaves.

Nursery and Reception classes enjoyed a real treat this morning when they visited the Gordon Craig theatre. After having read Michael Rosen's book 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt', and focussing our learning around teddy bears recently, we finished off the year in style with a trip to the theatre. The children caught the bus into town and enjoyed a teddy bear snack bag before watching the show. The show was interactive and great fun - a bit like a pantomine. And of course the children could join in with all the (by now) familiar text! Children, parents and teachers all enjoyed this enormously... Thank you especially to Emma Chapman (last years Youth Mayor) who arranged the funding for this trip and to Mrs Howard for organising the event. The children will have a lasting and special memory after today.

And finally... well done Nursery on a wonderful first year at Roebuck. Have a lovely summer everyone & good luck in your new Reception classes next year.

Nursery have enjoyed finding out about 'Living Things' in the first half of this Summer Term. On Thursday they presented their 'Fantastic Finish' assembly to their parents and carers... They told the audience how we had planted (sunflowers, tomatoes, potatoes and bean) seeds; acted out the story of 'Jasper's Beanstalk'; sang a counting song about frogs (we had looked at frogspawn & found out about the lifecycle of frogs); told the rhyme about '5 caterpillars' that turn into butterflies (just like our caterpillars in class); sang the song 'Chook, chook... Good morning Mrs Hen' counting how many of our chicks hatched (3 boys / 6 girls); and finished with a dance to the 'birdy song'. At the end of their performance the children (and audience) left with butterfly biscuits that the children had decorated (with symmetrical patterns) and a beautiful 'Living Eggs' / Chick booklet that they had made.

A quick update:

• The plants are continuing to grow taller & stronger - we will continue to tend to these next half term in our undercover role play garden centre
• The tadpoles were returned to their pond to change into frogs
• The caterpillars had cocooned and have turned into butterflies that have now been released 
• The chicks have been returned - 4 back to the farm... and Mrs Beard has kept 4 of the girl chicks (see in the picture above: Sparkles, Rose, Chicky & Bella) - they will grow up with Mrs Beard's remaining 2 hens (from previous 'Living Eggs' chicks) in her garden... Nursery children will follow their progress and await to hear when they start laying eggs!

On Wednesday afternoon, we had one more chick hatch in nursery. This takes the total to 9 so far - three boys (yellow) and six girls (brown). We have spent lots of time watching and finding out how to care for our chicks. They are now fluffy and today we moved them to their new home, a brooder box. They eat chick crumbs and have fresh water, lots more room to play in and a light that gives them a warm environment. We are really enjoying looking after our chicks - we will look after them for one more week and see how much they grow.