Mrs C Kingsman

Author Archives Mrs C Kingsman

Owl Babies inspired learning in Foundation 1

By Mrs C Kingsman19th November 2016

This week we have been reading the story Owl Babies by Martin Waddel. The children have been learning the story and joining in with what the owl babies say in the story. They even used our puppets to act out the story.

Many of the children have been getting creative and drawn owls, or made owl models. They have made use of the natural feathers to create their owls. (See the pictures below.)

As part of our learning we have been exploring what owls eat, how they make their nests and what feathers feel like. Next week we will continue our learning by investigating other animals that live in the woods such as foxes and badgers. We will also look at animal babies and how some are like their parents and others are very different.

Please support your child’s learning by talking to your child about different animals that live in the woods and explore where they make their homes e.g. In the trees or underground in burrows.

Playing, Exploring and Learning in Foundation 1

By Mrs C Kingsman22nd October 2016

This week, the children in Foundation 1 have been exploring by drawing and making marks on large paper with felt tips and pencils inside and painting with water and brushes outside. 🖌🖍✏️

Children also enjoyed explored their physical skills by practising their batting, catching and rolling skills…

When we return we will begin our Project Bright Sparks with the story Whatever Next! To help your child’s learning you could find out about space and planets in the universe. 🚀

Don’t forget you can add your own pictures of what you do during half term week on Tapestry. 🚴🏊🏾🎱⛸ Just log in using your personal username and password and add an observation. We look forward to reading what your children have done and will use these to help your child talk about their holiday week in grouptime.

Until then, have a great break! ⛱

Getting into high learning zones in foundation 1

By Mrs C Kingsman14th October 2016

This week children in nursery have been exploring the creative area in more depth. They have been producing drawings and making pictures from the resources we have in the creative area. Straws, feathers and sparkly jewels have been particular favourites. Children’s role play and involvement levels have also been highly creative. They even set up a restaurant on one day, with one child being the waiter taking the orders and another taking on the role of the ‘cook’. The restaurant had plenty of customers too… 🍔🍟🌮

Next week we will begin our project You and Me. We will be reading the books Goat Goes to Playgroup, Elmer and Titch. We will be talking about families and who is in our family. It would be helpful if you can send your child in with a picture of your family so they can use this to talk about their family in our groups.

We will also talk about how we change from babies to adults. To help children explore how they have changed from when they were babies it would be great if they can bring in a picture of when they were a small baby, one year old and two years old. Please do not send in precious photographs -copies will do fine.

Settling in continues in Foundation 1

By Mrs C Kingsman2nd October 2016

Children attending nursery at Countess Way Campus have nearly all attended their first morning and continue to explore the new environment well together. They have been learning about the sunshine behaviour chart, practising circle time and opening their hearts to each other.

Sickness has struck already and as children mingle they generously share their various bugs! A few children have already picked up coughs and colds with some having high temperatures too. Please inform staff if you have given your child medicine before school or think that your child may be coming down with something so we can keep a close eye on them.

Wet weather clothes – as the weather begins to turn more autumnal please ensure your child has wellies and a coat (named) for outside learning. Foundation 1 will not be kept in if it is raining, as there is much to learn and experience in the rain!, so it is essential they have wellies and a coat.

Staff will continue to share observations on Tapestry. Thank you for your lovely comments so far. I have been asked for examples of what parents can post and will share some ideas for all parents soon.

Looking forward to another great week!

The Expert in anything was once a Beginner…

By Mrs C Kingsman24th September 2016

Our ‘experts’ for the future have begun their journey in foundation this week. The children have been very involved exploring the learning spaces inside and outside. They are already beginning to learn and follow some of the rules and routines for grouptime.

Parents, you should all be very proud of how smoothly your children have settled and dealt with their new environment this past week. It is a reflection of how well you have prepared them for this next phase in their life.

Staff have already begun to post observations on Tapestry for you to view. Just log in using the email sent to you with your unique username and password and enjoy. Don’t forget you can add your own too.

Next week the foundation teams will continue to welcome more children in to nursery as part of our phased settling in period. We hope you are all looking forward to it as much as we are!

🙂

(Title quote from Helen Hayes)

Yo ho ho! Beware of Pirates!

By Mrs C Kingsman21st June 2016

Nursery at Countess Way had a Pirate Dress up Day as part of our project Let’s Imagine.

Children enjoyed hiding and finding treasure, making treasure maps and building a pirate ship out of the giant wooden blocks. They also practiced talking like pirates and listened to our core book Port Side Pirates as a song to begin learning it.

We we will be continuing our learning and role play about pirates for the rest of this week. Hopefully we won’t be asked to walk the plank too often!

Learning about newly hatched chicks and caterpillars

By Mrs C Kingsman6th May 2016

This week, the foundation children at Countess Way have been enjoying learning about the chicks which hatched on Tuesday. They have had several opportunities to hold the chicks, watch them in their Brooder Box and compare their different features. We have also been watching the caterpillars grow and talk about how they are changing each day.

To continue our project journey for Growing and Changing, nursery will be reading Jasper’s Beanstalk next week. We will be planting seeds and thinking about what plants need to grow well.

5 Chicks hatched at Countess Way

By Mrs C Kingsman3rd May 2016

Children in Foundation have had an exciting day looking,and holding, our newly hatched chicks today. So far we have got four chicks that are strong and healthy and now living in the brooder box. We have one more,very weak and tired chick, that needed a little help getting out of its egg shell. This will stay in the incubator till tomorrow. Two eggs have yet to hatch…watch this space for an update on them!

Children have been enjoying holding the chicks and have talked about their similarities and differences in colour, size, etc. We have already had some great questions from the children including “What do they eat?”, ” How big will they get?” and “Can they fly?”.

IMG_2205

The Very Hungry Caterpillars have arrived in Foundation!

By Mrs C Kingsman29th April 2016

As part of our Growing and Changing project nursery have been learning the story The Very Hungry Caterpillar this week by Eric Carle. The children have enjoyed listening to the story, watching the animated story on YouTube and painting caterpillars and butterflies of their own. They have also been creating the story scene such as the sun and the lollies.

To help us understand the life cycle of the caterpillar we now have caterpillars 🐛 in our class and will be watching them grow and begin their metamorphosis to becoming beautiful butterflies.

On the egg front. Tuesday is the expected date for hatching day! 🐣Fingers crossed they will all hatch successfully. The children will be watching the chicks hatch and once they are dry and strong enough can hold them too. We will ask the children to observe them every day and talk about how they grow and change from one day to the next.

To help the children relate human ‘growing and changing’ to themselves please send your child in with photos of themselves as a baby and as a toddler so that we can discuss how they have developed since they were born. You could talk about it at home to help your child share this at school. Food, teeth, speaking, walking, hair growth are all changes you could talk about.

Lastly, enjoy the bank holiday weekend. We look forward to some more excellent learning next week.

The nursery team 😀😃😄

Eggciting news…7 days to hatching!

By Mrs C Kingsman26th April 2016

Foundation one and two have been learning about incubating eggs as part of our Growing and Changing Project. We are already two weeks in to our egg incubation period. We have been using the eggscope to look inside the eggs to see the forming embryo and look for signs of growth and movement. Through this week we will watch closely to see if we can see the eggs wobble and if we can hear the chicks cheeping from inside the egg. Countdown to hatching is now just 7 days away! As soon as hatching begins we will take turns to watch the chicks hatching out off their egg shells.