Mrs Wilding's Weekly Words

Every week the Bulletin newsletter is sent home from the School Office highlighting important forthcoming dates and events, along with a round-up by Mrs Wilding of the week gone by. Read below recent messages from the Head's desk.

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Archive

Mrs Wilding’s Weekly Words Summer 8
Published 21/06/19, by Sheena Wilding
This week Transition children have continued learning about life cycles and watching the development of live caterpillars in the classroom. Using pasta they have created pictures of butterfly life cycles and have made symmetrical butterflies using a range of materials including toothbrushes and paper plates. They have explored symmetry using mirrors, pictures and their own faces.

The Nursery classes have started looking at the life cycle of a butterfly and have observed the difference in size their caterpillars are to the Transition ones which are a week older. Using a variety of media such as clay and egg cartons they have been busy making their own caterpillars, have created paintings of butterflies and played sorting games using butterfly life cycle pieces.

All the children have been on the running track and have started practising for our Sports Day on Friday 5 July. If you are away on holiday at that time please let your child’s class leader know as soon as possible so that running teams can be organised. Please send your children in wearing practical running shoes from now on as we endeavour to use the running track as often as possible.

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Mrs Wilding’s Weekly Words Summer 7
Published 14/06/19, by Sheena Wilding
With the topic of “planting and growing” continuing this week Nursery classes have observed how the seedlings are growing, planting some outdoors. We are looking forward to some crops later in the year. Certainly the rain will be helping the plants though not quite so good for practising for our Sports Day!

Transition children have been busy exploring different life cycles, and the caterpillars, which arrived last week, have grown considerably so we are really looking forward to their development and being able to release painted lady butterflies into the environment. To support the topic the children have been learning about symmetry and metamorphosis.

All the children have been busy making Father’s Day cards for Sunday which I’m sure you will love and we send our best wishes for a lovely time with your children on that special day for all fathers.

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Mrs Wilding’s Weekly Words Summer 6
Published 03/06/19, by Sheena Wilding
The Transition children have had enormous fun this week visiting our Junior Boys site, Ridgeway, where they have explored the grounds and the trees, discussing the importance of trees for the environment. They had enormous fun making colour palettes for which they had to search for different coloured pieces in the environment which could be stuck onto a card. The site lends itself to a forest school approach to learning and the children worked together to create dens with logs and branches they had discovered. A big thank you goes to Stewart Stevens, our site manager, who has driven the groups of children in the school minibus.

Back here the Nursery children have been outside enjoying the gardens and planting seeds. No doubt some of the seedlings will come home, when they are established, to be planted out and we would love to see pictures of the sunflowers grown. They have created some beautiful pictures of flowers which I am certain you will enjoy looking at.

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Mrs Wilding’s Weekly Words Summer 5
Published 24/05/19, by Sheena Wilding
POLITE REMINDER - PLEASE BOLT THE NURSERY GATE BEHIND YOU

I am aware that some parents and carers are forgetting to push the bolt across to secure the Nursery gate. Whenever you enter or leave it is imperative that you slide the bolt to secure the gate for the safety of your child and other children. This applies to all hours including Breakfast Club and After School Care times.

The children in the Nursery classes, Transition and Reception were able to hold the chicks this week and have been amazed by the growth and change in a few days. As I sit in my office I will miss the sound of chirping as they are being rehomed by a family of one of our Sixth Formers. They have promised to send pictures as the chicks develop into hens and I will share these with you.

The topic on minibeasts has been really enjoyed by the Nursery children this week and they have made their own minibeast models with clay and a variety of resources! They have also been out with their clipboards searching and recording the minibeasts they found in the garden, under logs and watering cans; and have created some wonderful pictures.

Transition children have had a busy week talking about and deciding on their favourite weather and have created weather wheels, bar charts and symbols. They talked about appropriate clothing for different types of weather.

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Mrs Wilding’s Weekly Words Summer 4
Published 16/05/19, by Sheena Wilding
What a busy week! On Wednesday Humza’s mummy visited Nursery to tell the children about Ramadan. She read them the story of “It’s Ramadan Curious George” and played some age appropriate YouTube footage of a related song and prayer. Ms Mirza also explained that Humza has a Ramadan activity book which they use regularly and how they have a party for Eid to celebrate the end of the fasting period. The children loved tasting the dates which she kindly gave to their teachers to share at snack time. A very big thank you goes to Ms Mirza for coming over from teaching at Senior Boys to talk to us!

Ten living eggs were delivered to the Nursery on Monday and at the time of writing we have two boy chicks and seven girl chicks! The children in the Nursery classes, Transition and Reception will be able to hold them next week and have been amazed by the growth and change in just a few days. As I sit in my office I so enjoy the sound of chirping and the excited children’s voices as they pop out from their classrooms to see the chicks. If anyone has a chicken coop at home and wishes to add to their flock please let me know as, otherwise, they will be returned to the farm next Friday.

Transition children have been busy talking about and deciding their favourite type of weather and have carried out weather related experiments. Sunflower and bean seeds have started to grow, and cress has gone home to be enjoyed on salads or in sandwiches.

During the week commencing 20 May the Nursery classes will be learning about minibeasts, the colour red, the number 4 and the letter o. Any small toys incorporating topic related objects and red would be ideal as their “Show and Tell” item this week. Transition children will continue learning about weather and the letter j.

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Mrs Wilding's Weekly Words Summer 3
Published 09/05/19, by Sheena Wilding
In the three nursery rooms the children have been looking at the life cycle of frogs and have created some lovely pictures using bubble wrap to represent the frogspawn, and frog stampers to print the stages of development. They have also practised their scissor skills by cutting out and then sequencing pictures of the life cycle. Frog masks and puppets have also been made. They have hopped around the rooms pretending to be these jumpy creatures so have used many different learning opportunities this week. The pond is alive with water life and the children are fascinated by all the movement and development of the tadpoles, newts, water boatmen and dragonfly nymphs, to name but a few.

Transition children have continued learning about the different parts of a plant and the uses of these. They set up an experiment with carnations and coloured water and observed how the plants changed colour. Pictures of flowers were created using a variety of shapes and materials, and they have cut out pictures of different sized flowers to put into size order, so it has been a very busy week.

The week commencing Monday 13 May the nursery children will be learning about the life cycle of a chick, the colour yellow, the number 3 and the letter n. Any small toys incorporating an egg or yellow would be ideal as their “Show and Tell” item this week. We are all very excited about “Hatch Watch” taking place in the Nursery hall with the 10 live eggs arriving on Monday.

Transition children will be learning about the weather and the letter t.

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Mrs Wilding’s Weekly Words Summer 2
Published 03/05/19, by Sheena Wilding
In the three nursery rooms the children have settled very well and had a busy time both indoors and out. Some lovely people pictures have been made, singing with Mrs Challis sounded wonderful and they coped remarkably well with the Open Day last Friday when we had a big number of prospective parents visiting us. Thank you for your recommendations and we always welcome reviews on the website 'daynurseries.co.uk'.

Transition children have had a very busy week and have been sowing cress seeds in the shape of their first initial. They have planted broad and runner beans in jars to observe which one grows quicker, their root systems and general similarities and differences. Having looked at the sequence of a plant life cycle they then cut out pictures of a sunflower life cycle and put these into the correct sequence.

The week commencing 7th May (6th is a bank holiday) the nursery children will be learning about the life cycle of a frog, the colour green, the number 2 and the letter m. Any small toys incorporating a frog or green would be ideal as their “Show and Tell” item this week.

Transition children will continue learning about plants and growing and the letter l.

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Mrs Wilding's Weekly Words Summer 1
Published 26/04/19, by Sheena Wilding
The term’s topic of “Seasons – Spring and Summer, and The Great Outdoors” could not have had a better start with the wonderful weather and the children all outside enjoying the garden, pond and playground areas. The pots are ready for our planting and growing this term. The sound of laughter and having fun has been lovely these last three days and the new children seem to be adapting to their new environment very well.

Miss Green tells me that the Transition group have been observing the growth of the tadpoles in their room, talking about what they can see outside in our garden area and about the outdoors environment at home. The children all bounced back into the room and have had a very good start to the term.

The week commencing 29 April the Nursery children will still be settling in and Transition children will be learning about the plants and growing and the letter i.

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Mrs Wilding's Weekly Words Lent 11
Published 29/03/19, by Sheena Wilding
The children have shown great kindness this week looking after the new children who have been visiting prior to their start in the summer term. Transition and Nursery children have all been talking and learning about Easter. I feel sure the hunts for eggs will be enormous fun next week and have a feeling that the Easter Bunny is planning a visit. If it’s anything like last year he left muddy footprints throughout the Transition room but was forgiven when lots of eggs were found in the garden! Transition children had a scrummy day last Monday when they sampled plain, milk and white chocolate and used lots of descriptive words for the different flavours and colours.

During the week commencing 1 April the Nursery and Transition children will continue learning about Easter. Nursery children will also be learning about the letter l and the colour blue.

The clocks change this weekend but with the “eggscitement” of Easter fast approaching I’m sure the loss of an hour will not cause too many problems for your children!

We wish all our mothers a wonderful day on Sunday and hope that you love the pretty cards that your children have been busy making for you. We have read the story “Five Minutes Peace” but cannot promise that you will get this well-deserved rest on Sunday!

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Mrs Wilding's Weekly Words Lent 10
Published 21/03/19, by Sheena Wilding
What a great day our superheroes one turned out to be. The children looked amazing and had so much fun so thank you for getting them dressed up and supporting 'The Link Foundation' charity for which we raised £111.00.

Transition and nursery children have started talking and learning about Easter. They have been cutting out and printing related things as well as starting their Easter baskets, cards, headbands and enjoying a range of related stories. They have also been busy creating surprises for you for Sunday 31^st!

I had a lovely evening at CCJB this week listening to the Years 5 and 6 boys perform musically. Seeing so many who had been in the Nursery perform so incredibly well was an absolute joy. Seeing how they have changed and developed since those days on the stage for their Nursery Christmas production is wonderful!

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Mrs Wilding's Weekly Words Lent 9
Published 15/03/19, by Sheena Wilding
The Nursery children have enjoyed the topic about “gardens in the spring” and have had lovely walks around the school grounds looking at new growth and changes to the plants and trees. It has been a week of discovery. Life is in our pond again and seeing frogs, newts and spawn means that the life cycles are starting afresh. The frog spawn collected by the Honeycomb class has now developed into tadpoles which the children are amazed by. I have seen the children doing some wonderful observational drawings and paintings of blossom and am sure you will enjoy looking at them.

Transition children have been learning about the life cycle of a frog and developing language such as metamorphosis. They have arranged magnetic pictures of the life cycle in the correct sequence and have also cut out and arranged pictures of the cycle. Making hand puppet frogs was thoroughly enjoyed by them and they seemed fully engaged whenever I saw them playing with the pretend frogs in the “pond” set up by Miss Green in a builders tray.

As part of last week’s “World Book Day” we had a super visit on Tuesday from an enormous Gruffalo and a story reading session undertaken by staff from the RBWM Library Service. The children thoroughly enjoyed the event which we ran in the Nursery hall and they were brilliant with the listening and joining in of the repeated rhymes.

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Mrs Wilding's Weekly Words Lent 8
Published 07/03/19, by Sheena Wilding
Busy, busy week! The nursery classes have focused on their families and saw a little baby at first hand when Mrs Lambourne’s daughter brought in her baby Lilly. They have created some wonderful pictures of their families and talked a lot about them. The Transition children have been looking at new life and have seen the frogspawn in the tank hatch, with lots of tadpoles now eating the pond weed. They have cut out and sequenced pictures of the life cycle of a hen, painted pictures of chicks and created little lambs to go on their spring display board which is looking so pretty. Next to their winter display board it really has a sense of warmth and growth.

On Tuesday the children all thoroughly enjoyed eating pancakes with their mid morning snack to celebrate the start of Lent.

On Thursday the children enjoyed their World Book Day experience of dressing up in their favourite book character costume and looked amazing. Thank you so much for sending in books to accompany the costumes which they really enjoyed listening to. The children all have a £1.00 book token for spending in their favourite bookshop. It was also a very busy Open Morning and as always a big thank you goes to you for your wonderful recommendations.

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