Meet the Fox Cubs Team

 Miss Harrison 

Nursery Teacher/ EYFS co-ordinator

                         

               Mrs Rowley                  Mrs Tomlinson                Miss Kean                   

                                      Our Fabulous EYFS Practitioners             

 

 

Our topic this term is

Special Times!

 

Here are some ideas to start with and we will continue to add to them as we go through the half term! We base our learning on a book/theme each week linked to our topic. Within this we also follow the principles of 'planning in the moment' which means that the children guide our learning following their interests and so every day is full of surprises!! 

Autumn 2 - Week 1 

Bonfire Night - Sparks in the Sky!

When does Bonfire Night happen?  What happens at Bonfire night? What colours can we see in the sky?  What shapes do the fireworks make? What will we hear?  What can we taste?  How can we stay safe?  What do I need to wear when I am going to a Bonfire night celebration?  Who was Jackson Pollock?  How do I create art by splatter painting?

After an amazing first term where we explored the topic 'Marvellous Me!' we are going to start a new topic called 'Special Times!' We are sure the children will thoroughly enjoy this topic as it gives the children the opportunity to learn about a range of celebrations as well as sharing celebrations that they have taken part in during their lives! 

During the first week we will be learning about Bonfire Night! We will explore what the children might have done at the weekend to celebrate this event as well as watching videos of Bonfire Night celebrations so everyone can experience what it looks and sounds like! For children who have had first hand experience of Bonfire we will ask them what they could smell and/or taste! 

We will be exploring fireworks throughout the week and look at the colours and shapes that we can see in the sky. As artists we will explore how to make firework pictures using a range of media and materials. These will include chalk and paint which will be watered down and we will blow across the paper! There will be an art immersion morning where we will explore the artist Jackson Pollock! He was famous for creating splatter painting and we will recreate this in our EYFS outside area on a large scale. Make sure you wear old clothes on Wednesday!! 

 

Autumn 2 - Week 2

Diwali!

What are celebrations?  What is the festival of Diwali?  Who celebrates Diwali?  How is this festival celebrated?  What will I see?  What is a Rangoli pattern?  What is a light source?  What colours could I see? Who were Rama and Sita? What happened to Rama and Sita?

This week we are going to be reading a non-fiction book about Diwali as well as reading the story about Rama and Sita. We will recreate the story of Rama and Sita using a story map and props. As part of this we will look at the good characters compared to the bad characters. At the creative station we will make our own stick puppets which we can use in Adventure Island!

We will explore who celebrates Diwali and how the festival is celebrated. This will include making Rangoli patterns using chalk on the pathways in the EYFS outside area and Diva lamps from clay at the creative station! We will also be making our own Diwali cards in the message centre. I wonder who we will send the cards to?

This week it is also our Anti-bullying week where the theme is 'Make a Noise about Bullying'. We will start the week by celebrating 'odd socks day' where we will come to Nursery wearing odd socks to remind ourselves that we are all special and unique! Then during the week we will take part in various circle times and different activities to explore the main theme in Anti-bullying week with our friends! 

On Friday it is Children in Need and we will be having a great big sleep over theme session where the children can come dressed in their pyjama's for a donation to this amazing charity and we will also be having some Pudsey bear fun in Nursery during the morning!

 

Autumn 2 - Week 3

Kipper's Birthday

When do we celebrate our birthday?  How do we celebrate our birthdays?  How old are we?  What would we want at a Birthday party? How do you make a Birthday cake?  What present could we buy Freddie Fox?  What are candles?  What song do we sing at someone’s Birthday?

This week we are going to be exploring the celebration of Birthdays! This is a celebration that we all have each year so we can all relate to! In our circle time we will share ideas about what we do to celebrate our own Birthday and the Birthdays of our family and friends. If children have brought in photographs of their Birthdays we will look at them to!

We will start the week by reading the story of 'Kipper's Birthday' and will be exploring what Kipper did to prepare for his Birthday! Would we do the same? We will use the chocolate bar strategy to think of what we need for a Birthday party for our friend, Freddie Fox!! We will use our mark making skills to record our ideas!

We will design and make party invitations and Birthday cards for Freddie Fox as we plan his Birthday party. Of course, Freddie will need a Birthday cake so we will work together to make a big cake for him following a recipe and when it is baked we will put 4 candles on the top! When we have got everything ready we will hold a party for Freddie Fox. We will sing 'Happy Birthday' to him and then play some party games before sharing his Birthday cake with each other!

 

Autumn 2 - Week 4

The Scarecrow's Wedding

What does it mean to be married?  Who can marry two people?  What are weddings and what happens?  What other celebrations/ festivals can we be part of with our families?  What would we need to have a party? What is an invitation?

This week we are going to be exploring weddings! We will discuss that some people when they are older choose to marry their partner. We will find out what this means and look at photographs of different wedding ceremonies in various religions and those who choose to have a civil ceremony! In the Home Sweet Home area we will have the opportunity to dress in different wedding clothes. I wonder who will dress as a bride or a groom or will it be a bridesmaid or page boy! There will also be a photo booth set up with lots of props for the children to use to create their own memories with their friends using the ipad to take photographs which we will download and look at together at the end of the week!

To help us understand weddings further we will read the story of 'The Scarecrow's Wedding'. We will find out what list they scarecrows created to help them prepare for their own wedding. We will discuss that lists are a useful mark making tool to help us prepare for many celebrations!!

During the week we will discuss other celebrations that we could be part  of such as Baptisms. We will look at photographs that the children have brought from home to see their experiences of celebrations! 

 

 

Autumn 2 - Week 5

The Jolly Christmas Postman

What do we use to decorate the house or Nursery with at Christmas time? What job does a Post person do? What can we send to friends and family at Christmas time? How can we wrap different presents at Christmas time?  What happens in a Post Office?  What can we put on the Christmas tree? Who did the Jolly Christmas Postman deliver too?

This week we are going to start our build up to Christmas!! We love to celebrate Christmas in Fox Cubs class! We will start the week by putting up our Christmas tree which we will all decorate by adding a range of baubles, tinsel and lights! Of course when it is the 1st December that means we will need to start our Advent Calendar. Each day we will open a door and a different child will see what little present they have - everyone will get a go! 

It is also a big week for us as it is Nativity day on Wednesday! The children will all be taking part in our EYFS nativity to tell the story of when baby Jesus was born! We cannot wait to see everyone dressed up in their special costume and to hear them sing to their families who will be invited to come and watch in the school hall. More information to follow soon!

We will be exploring the story of 'The Jolly Christmas Postman' to find out what the post men and women will be delivering at this time of the year. We will make a post office in our imagination area and in the message centre we will be writing letters to Santa which we will go and post at the end of the week!! 

 

Autumn 2 - Week 6

Jesus Christmas Party!

What happened at the first Christmas in Bethlehem?  Who was Jesus and who was there when he was born?  What is my favourite part in the Christmas story?  Why do people celebrate Christmas now? What do shepherds do? Which animals were in the stable?

This week we will be continuing to learn about Christmas and what happened in Bethlehem over two thousand years ago! We will recap on our nativity performance from the previous week to remind ourselves about what happened in the stable and who was there! We will use photographs from our performance to help us! In our circle time we will look at which part of the story we likes the most and will explain why.

In the  story 'Jesus Christmas Party' it is written from the perspective of the Inn Keeper who had a very busy night as there were lots of visitors on the night that Baby Jesus was born! We will look at the significance of each person who came to visit!  We will use our nativity costumes from the previous week to help the children retell the story of when Jesus was born!

We will revisit what farm animals we know from our learning when we read the story of 'The Little Red Hen' and see if we can name the different animals and can explain facts we already know about them!

 

Autumn 2 - Week 7

Elf's First Adventure

Who is Elf?  What does he do?  What adventures does the Elf get up to? What could the Elf do next?  Where is the Elf hiding in Nursery?  What happens at Christmas time?  What do we need to do to get ready for a party?  What party food would we like at the Christmas party? What happens in Santa’s workshop? What will Santa be doing now? What would we like to get for Christmas?

This will be our final week of term! We will finish our topic learning more about what we do to celebrate Christmas! We will look at the Christmas Elf who has been in Nursery throughout December and we will look at the photographs of his adventures (good and bad!) During the week we will practise using our positional language to describe where he is hiding in our classroom. 

We will be thinking of the work that Santa will be doing now and how he prepares for Christmas! We will help him by wrapping some presents for him using the wrapping paper, scissors and selloptape! We will also think about the journey that Santa makes on Christmas Eve and will look at the globe to see some countries of interest to the children!

We will start to prepare for our Christmas party on Thursday by mark making which food we would like. We will also think about the games we would like to play and songs we would like to dance to!

 

Topic web

To see the full topic web for this half term please click on the link below

Nursery Autumn Two topic plan overview - Special Times!

Knowledge Organiser

To see the Knowledge Organiser for this half term please click on the link below

Nursery Autumn Two Knowledge Organiser - Special Times!

Nursery Dates

Here are the dates we have so far for this half term. We will continue to add to them as the half term progresses. Also remember to check your weekly newsletter!

 

Monday 6^th November  - First day of term

Wednesday 8^th November – Please wear old clothes to Nursery as we are going to be splatter painting in the outside area and will get messy!!

Thursday 9^th November – Photograph day – please make sure your child is dressed smartly and we will keep the paint out of the way!!

Thursday 9^th November – Open Evening between 3.30pm and 5.00pm for families to look around school looking for a school place in September 2024.

Friday 17th November – Children in Need day – letter to follow.

Thursday 30^th November – Fox Cubs stay and play for parents at 11.00am

Wednesday 6^th December – EYFS Nativity at 9.30am

Friday 15^th December – Level One Phonics workshop for parents at 11.15am

Monday 18^th December – Christmas Fair in the afternoon

Thursday 21^st December – Christmas party for Fox Cubs class and last day of term

Friday 22^nd December – INSET Day – Nursery closed

Monday 8th January 2024 - First day of term

 

 

The Early Years Foundation Stage

In Nursery we follow the Early Years Foundation Stage which is organised into seven areas of learning. These seven areas are as follows:

PSED - Personal, social, emotional development (developing self confidence and self awareness, making relationships as well as managing behaviour and feelings).

CL - Communication and Language (speaking, listening and understanding)

PD - Physical development (moving and handling as well as health and self care)

LIT - Literacy (reading and writing)

MATHS - Mathematics (numbers, shape, space and measures)

UW - Understanding the World (people and communities, the world and technology)

EAD - Expressive Arts and Design (exploring and using media and materials as well as being imaginative!)

CLICK HERE for 'What to Expect When' document to help you understand what your child should be able to do at different age stages!

Our School Values

We are very excited to be starting work on our new values system when we come back in school in January.  The whole school will focus on the twelve values during the year whereas in Nursery we will focus on four of these values on a regular basis through the year - co-operation, achieving, respectful and enthusiastic. Our first value will be Respect. We will cover this in all aspects of Nursery and we will be expecting this to be demonstrated to all members of our Coppice community,  it is important that even when we move onto a new value, the old one isn’t lost.

Each week on our Nursery newsletter, Miss Harrison will share which value we are working on in Nursery and what you can work on at home. We cannot wait for you to share how your child has demonstrated the values through proud clouds and on Tapestry!  We look forward to seeing our children bright and early ready to embrace the new weekly challenges!

 Nursery newsletters

 We have a weekly newsletter which will keep everyone informed about what we are doing and what we will be learning about in the future. The newsletter will come home every Friday but we will also put a copy here on our web page.

 

                                            Parent Partnership

We believe in having a good partnership with parents and carers. Together we can help your child to become a happy and successful learner!

 Topic Challenges

Challenges for your child to work on with you during the topic. The children will receive a certificate for completing the challenges if they earn 6 or more points:

1 point —To put on own coat

2 points — To bring in a photograph showing a family celebration.

3 points — To bring in a story book about a celebration.

4 points — To create a piece of art work linked to celebrations!

 

Learning journeys

During the last few years we have developed the way that we collect observations about what your child can do during their time in Nursery. Your child will have a gorgeous book called 'My Little Book of Adventures' where we put in evidence of what your child has been learning! As part of this we will be using an app called 'Tapestry' on our iPads to take photographs of your child completing different activities and make notes about what they are doing. One of the best features of this is that we can email you all the evidence we collect!  You can also let us know of any 'wow' moments you witness at home. We will be sending home an information letter and permission form for this during the beginning of September! 

We also love to hear what your child has achieved at home and so we ask you fill in proud clouds and share them with us! 

Proud cloud letter - September 2023

Proud cloud template - September 2023

 Have a question or concern?

We understand that there are times when you might have a question or concern! We have an open door policy in our school and you are always welcome to come and speak to any member of staff. Alternatively you can ring school on 01773 712840 or email me at kharrison4@ coppice.derbyshire.sch.uk  and we will do all we can to help.

Our Nursery

Here is our latest Nursery booklet which contains all the information about our Nursery 

Welcome to Coppice Nursery School booklet 2023

School readiness

Over the year we will be preparing your child for their start in Reception. Is your child ready to start Reception? The following are some of the skills that your child is expected to be able to do as they begin their journey into Reception but remember we have a whole year to prepare them.

Is your child ready for Reception? 

Stay and Play sessions

Each term we have a stay and play session so parents, carers and other family member can join us in Nursery to see what we do. The children love showing everyone their classroom and the type of activities we do every day in Nursery. We always end with an activity for both children and adults. This could be a story, a squiggle, a dough disco or a dance! Who knows!! We like to keep it a surprise!!

We are hoping to do an outside Stay and Play on Thursday 30th November at 11.15am!! 

 

Helping at home!

There are lots of things you can do to help your child.  Below are some ideas of what you can do which are quick and easy and will help your child consolidate skills we have taught in school. If you would like any help or support please ask any member of EYFS staff. We would be more than happy to help with ideas!

Letters and Sounds

 

Level 1 Aspect 1 (Environmental Sounds) booklet - Ideas for parents to use at home.

Level 1 Aspect 2 (Instrumental Sounds) booklet - Ideas for parents to use at home.

Level 1 Aspect 3 (Body percussion) booklet - Ideas for parents to use at home.

Reading

Spend time sharing lots of books together. Practise holding the books the correct way round and turning the pages in order. Encourage your child to talk about the pictures and to support them in making their own stories using the pictures.

Writing

At this stage the children will be making lots of marks using a range of writing tools such as felt tips, pens and paint. Encourage your child to talk about what their marks mean. As your child becomes more confident in holding writing tools support them in writing their names on invitations and cards.

By the end of nursery your child is expected to be able to say a sentence with 5 to 8 words in it and hold a pencil using a 'tripod' grip.

Nursery Literacy non-negotiables

Squiggle Information

Dough Disco Leaflet 

Mathematics

Play board games such as 'snakes and ladders'  to encourage your child to count spaces to move their counters forwards or backward. When you are walking as the children to count how many foot steps from one place to another and ask the children to identify different numbers they see on doors or buses.

By the end of nursery your child is expected to be able to recite numbers to 5, recognise numerals 1 to 3, count 3 to 4 objects and make marks to represent their counting.

Nursery Numeracy non-negotiables

Life skills

Encourage your child to put on and fasten their own coat, to put on their own shoes and to get dressed and undress by themselves. Remind them to wash their hands after going to the toilet and before eating a meal. When eating encourage your child to use a knife and fork correctly.