Cranborne Primary School

Meet the Nursery Team

Mrs Mottram (Class Teacher): smottram@cranborne.herts.sch.uk

Mrs White (EYP): cwhite@cranborne.herts.sch.uk

Miss Jennings (TA): ljennings@cranborne.herts.sch.uk

Mrs Waterhouse (LSA)

We are here to help you all. If you need anything or have any questions - no matter how trivial they may seem to you - we are always available to talk.

   Key Dates for Spring Term 2024   

• Thursday 3rd April - Friends of Cranborne Easter Fayre
• Friday 4th April - last day of term, all finish at 1.15pm
• Monday 7th - Monday 21st April - Easter Holidays, school closed
• Tuesday 22nd April - INSET Day/Parent-Teacher consultations, details to follow NO CHILDREN IN SCHOOL

Link to the school calendar

Link to the school term dates 

Our Learning

Below you can see our half-term Overview, but please bear in mind this can change as we follow the children's interests and current events that may occur.

Each week we will be posting pictures and updates on your children's learning experiences and time in nursery, so please remember to check back regularly.

What have we been up to?

March 10th- 21st 2025

In Maths we have been thinking about ordering numbers, making patterns and counting. We are getting really good at all of these.

In phonics we have bben thinking about the letter sounds we can hear at the start of words, and playing games around this, alongside our usual oral segmenting and blending, and listening games.

We had lost of fun experimenting with vinegar and bicarbonate of soda to make an actual errupting volcano as part of or learning about dinosaurs.

We all had a lovely day celebrating Red Nose Day, and looked great dressed in red!

Over the last couple of weeks we have taken advantage of the better weather, and have spent time outside doing our PE sessions.

We have also been over to the pond area to explore, and to the Trim Trail on the field for some more physical activity.

February 24th - March 7th 2025

Our first 2 weeks of this term have been fun and very busy!

We have spent time talking about everything we got up to over the half term, and reconnecting with our friends and teachers. 

We have had a storytelling workshop in school that we really enjoyed taking part in.

Our mini-topic for the next few weeks is dinosaurs, and we have enjoyed learning all their names, what they eat, when they lived and what they looked liked.

In Maths we have looked at the vocabulary around size and size ordering.

We have also been over to the Trim Trail on the field and enjoyed music sessions on our outside stage.

In Phonics we have been continuing to develop our oral segmenting and blending skills alongside listening games.

We have had pancakes on pancake day and we all had a lovely day sharing our favourite stories on World Book Day.

January 27th - February 14th 2025

The weeks have flown by! 

We have spent time reading another 2 very familiar stories - We're Going on a Bear Hunt and The Three Billy Goats Gruff. The children have enjoyed acting out the stories, using props, puppets and their own story maps. We even incorporated the stories into our PE sessions in the hall, acting out the different movements we might have made during a bear hunt.

There has been lots of building going on in class, we spent time looking at different bridges, and trying to make some of our own.

We even made and tried some porridge, just like Goldilocks and the Three Bears from last week!

The children have also enjoyed some 'science experiments' making a walking rainbow, and making a skittles rainbow.

In Maths we have looked closer at numbers 1-10, and started to think about the many different ways we can represent these in terms of different groupings of objects.

In Phonics we have been continuing to develop our oral segmenting and blending skills.

We have also spent time talking about Chinese New Year, and making a giant dragon collaboratively.

January 13th - 24th 2025

We have  had a busy 2 weeks in nursery!

We have spent time reading 2 very familiar traditional tales - Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and, The Three Little Pigs. The children have been talking about the characters and the sequence of events, helping the adults in their groups to draw story maps of each story. To help with this the children have also been re-telling the story orally, as well as using puppets and props.

We have also spent time looking at different homes, and buildings with different purposes, and have even built our own, using different construction materials.

All the children have also been enjoying using our mark making areas both inside and out!

In Maths we have delved deeper into numbers numbers 4 - 9, thinking about how we can represent them in different ways, and how we can form the numerals if we want to write them down.

In Phonics we have been continuing to fine-tuning our listening discrimination, and developing our oral segmenting and blending skills.

January 6th - 10th 2025

We have  had a lovely week settling back into class routines, reminding ourselvs of class rules and expectations and seeing all of our friends again!

We have also started our new topic based around traditional tales and storytelling.

To start us off we looked at an old favourite of ours...The Gruffalo! The children have been re-telling the story orally, as well as using puppets and props.

We have spent time thinking about describing words (adjectives) to help us talk about what the Gruffalo looks like.

All the children have also had an opportunity to share some news from the 2 week break, and in doing so, they are building their oracy skills.

In Maths we have re-capped the numberline, and looked at numbers 0, 1 and 2 in more detail, thinking about how we can represent them in different ways.

In Phonics we have been fine-tuning our listening discrimination, and developing our oral segmenting and blending skills.

The Learning Environment in Cranborne Early Years Foundation Stage

In the Early Years at Cranborne we strive to create an environment that promotes a sense of curiosity, awe and wonder in the children.

An environment that also enables plenty of opportunities for them to self-select and demonstrate the characteristics of effective learning, and where the children can practise, consolidate and rehearse taught skills. 

We aim to provide the children with areas that are accessible to them and are organised in a way to promote independence and purposeful play.

The seven areas of learning are as follows:

Communication and Language* 

Physical Development*

Personal, Social and Emotional Development*

Literacy

Maths 

Knowledge and Understanding of the World

Expressive Arts and Design

*Prime Areas of Learning

Below you can see some pictures and a video tour of the Nursery classroom.

Previous Learning 2024-25

December 9th - 19th 2024

The last 2 weeks have been so much fun!

We have been counting, recognising and matching numbers, we read the Christmas story, we've had lots of fun finding out what our class elf, Bouncy has been getting up to, enjoying our Christmas role play area in class, and, talking about being kind and how to be a good friend.

Of course the highlight of last week was rehearsing and then performing our amazing Nursery Rhyme Nativity to you all!

This week we had the CHristmas Fayre, a visit form Santa and our Christmas dinner! So much fun and excitement!

December 2nd - 6th 2024

This week was spent watching a pantomime, visiting the church, rehearsing our Nursery Rhyme Nativity and lots of other activities!

We started the week, finding our very own elf in class!

Then we continued our topic on People Who Help Us, looking lastly at the people within our school that help us each day, whether it is the teachers and TAs, office staff, kitchen and lunch staff or site team, we talked about how everyone that works in a scholl is there to help the children.

On Wednesday we went to the church for a Crib Service, where we learnt about the Christmas Story, and helped to make the crib scene.

We were very excited to watch the Christmas Pantomime with Sparkle and Tinsel the elves on Thursday!

More rehearsals of our own Nativity went on throughout the week.

Our maths was a recap on the work we have done previously on patterns and shapes, reminding ourselves of the vocabulary that we use in maths when describing shapes.

November 18th - 29th 2024

Another busy 2 weeks!

We have been continuing our work on People who help us, looking at 2 of the emergency services, The Fire Brigade and Police Force. We had a visit form PC Sophie and her colleagues. They brought their car, which we were allowed to explore, and told us all about the job they do to help us.

We have spent time across the 2 weeks thinking about ourselves - what we are good at, and what makes us special.

In Maths we have been making numberlines, ordering numbers, counting and matching amounts.

Our phonics focus has been a mixture of oral sound discrimination, body percussion activities and making sound effects.

We have also been rehearsing for our Nursery Rhyme Nativity!

November 4th - 15th 2024

The start of this half-term has been busy but fun!

We started off looking at the festival of Diwali, and talked about how light is used and why. Then we made our own Diva lamps out of clay using the pinch pot method. We will be decorating them next week.

We then looked at the bonfire night celebration, and in PE we became fireworks, using dance moves to show how fireworks move across the sky.

We made breadstick sparklers to finish off the week.

The following week we started to think about our mini-topic of People Who Help Us - this week we looked at doctors and vets, talking about how they help us. We talked about how to look after animals, and how we can keep ourselves healthy in lots of different ways. We even made our own fruit kebabs!

In maths we focused on counting; Counting to a specific number, counting out amounts and practising our 1-1 correspondence.

In Phonics we looked at the body percussion element, using our bodies to make different sounds, and then using these to create and follow patterns.

October 21st - 25th 2024

We have had another very busy, but fantastic week. We have continued to look at Autumn, and have been on an Autumn walk around the school grounds, looking at all the different trees with have and how their leaves are changing.

We read 'Leaf Man' as a starting point this week, and spent time making some 'leafy' pictures.

In Phonics this week we have been listening to sounds at the start of words, making body sounds and writing in the air.

In Maths we have been looking at and talking about 2-D shapes.

We also had some more surprise visitors this week;

• Grace, one of the teachers at the Royal Veterinary College came to see us with 3 of the student vets. They brought lots of resources with them to teach us about what a vet does. It was so much fun!

October 14th - 18th 2024

We have had a very busy, but fantastic week, looking at all things 'Autumn'.

We read 'We're Going on a Leaf Hunt' as a starting point, and spent time talking about, looking at and exploring some of the lovely autumn leaves, seeds, conkers etc. that you ave brought in.

We used magnifying glasses to look really closely at the leaves, and have been using some vocabulary linked to the way the leaves look and feel.

As always, we have enjoyed some listening games in Phonics. We have been using our arms, shoulders, and wrists to make shapes and lines in the air to help with our letter fromation later on.

In Maths we have been counting out a specific amount of objects to a friend (or one of our adults in class), making sure we count slowly and carefully.

We also had a few surprise visitors this week;

• Russell the Dentist came in to tell us how we can keep our teeth clean and healthy, through brushing twice a day and eating the right foods.
• The Fire Brigade came to tell us how we can stay safe, and what to do if we ever see a fire. We also got to climb into the fire engine, and Mrs Mottram had fun dressing-up in one of the fire fightrer's uniforms!
• Finally Specsavers Opticians came to tell us all about eye health, and what an optician does for their job.

October 7th - 11th 2024

We have had a really 'SOUPER' week in class. We have spent a lot of our time thinking and talking about Harvest festival and how we are fortunate to have all that we do, when some do not.

We read 'Oliver's Vegetables' as a starting point, and spent time talking about, looking at and exploring all the different vegetables he found in his Grandpa's garden.

We used magnifying glasses to look really closely at the vegetables, and even used some to paint with (beetroot and carrots). We have also been printing with some of them.

We have also enjoyed some different listening games in Phonics, where we have listened to sounds around the home, and out and about, seeing if we can identify them. We are all getting good at this!

In Maths we have been looking at patterns, and trying to copy some and make our own. One of our favourite ways to make patterns is using our bodies; e.g. 2 claps and and stamp, 2 claps and a stamp, 2 claps and a stamp...etc...

September 23rd - October 4th 2024

We have had a really great couple of weeks in class. We have spent a lot of our time thinking and talking about our feelings, emotions and actions.

We read The Colour Monster as a starting point, and spent the first week looking at our emotions. We talked about how we feel when happy, sad, cross/angry, worried or scared, excited and loved. We also thought about how we can feel more than one emotion at a time, for example, we can feel excited and worried together. The children looked at colours to represent their feelings and emotions, and most can use the toy colour monsters to show us how they are feeling when the words aren't quite there.

Following on from this we started to think about how the things we do can affect other people's feelings, we looked at how we can be kind to one another. The children were amazing when talking about what they could do to show this. We then made a colaborative class 'Kindness Tree' to help remind us of positive ways we can help and influence others.

We have also enjoyed some listening games in Phonics, where we are trying to see if we can tell what the sounds being played are.

In Maths we have been counting together, using different actions to help us, but also listening to a series of sounds, or watching a series of actions and counting them.

September 16th-20th 2024

This week has been busy! We have been painting our self-portraits! We looked at the book, 'My Nose, Your Nose' and talked about all the things that are both the same and different about us all.

Then we spent time with a friend looking at ourselves in mirrors, and talking about what we looked like.

We have also spent a time this week playing counting games, looking at numbers around us and counting out a specific number of objects when asked.

We have also had lots of fun in PE moving around in different ways, we used different sized steps and strides and even moved in the way that different animals moved. We learnt how to play a new listening game too, called 'Traffic Lights'.

September 9th-13th 2024

We have spent the week getting to know each other.

It has been lovely taking the time to talk to and play with your children as the team get to know the children, and the children get to know all of us.

The class have spent lots of time getting to know our rules and routines, learning how we use different areas within our classroom and the outside environment.

We have spent time sharing stories and starting to look at all yout 'All About Me' books and posters.

On Wednesday we had our first PE session in the hall, where we moved around like different animals and then played some listening games and circle games.

On Friday we went to the library and had a story before we chose our own books to take home for the week, we can't wait to go again next Friday!

September 2nd-6th 2024

We had a really lovely week last week, visiting you at home and then welcoming you into school for your settling in sessions.

Next week will be spent spending time getting to know each other. We will be looking at and sharing your 'All About Me' books and posters across the week. Alongside this we will be talking to the children about our rules and expectations and introducing all the different learning areas across our room and outside.

Do you need weekend inspiration?

Hertfordshire are partners in a great tool for parents. A list of 50 fun things to do with your child before they turn 5. There are lots of great ideas to do as a family or with friends. Maybe you can try some over the half-term? If you do, don't forget to take photos and upload them to Evidence Me. That way we can ask your childrne to tell us all about the fun they have had.

You can download it as an app, or use the web based version, either way it is a great resource for ideas of fun activities to do together.

Please see the link here:  https://hertfordshire.50thingstodo.org/app/os#!/welcome  for the web based version, or the document below for the app information.

Have fun!

Supporting Maths at home.

Below are some links to sites that give examples of how to support maths at home. There is also a document to show some ideas for how you can support the different areas of the EYFS maths curriculum at home, and when out and about with your child.

https://www.nationalnumeracy.org.uk/helping-children-maths/activities/ages-5-and-under

https://nrich.maths.org/early-years-foundation-stage-activities-0

https://www.famly.co/blog/10-creative-early-years-maths-activities

Thank you to everyone that came to the information meeting. Below you can find the slides that I went through with you.

Please do not hesitate to ask any questions.

Thank you to all the parents that made it to our New Parents Meeting on Thursday 6th June.

Below is a copy of the slides that we talked through. 

Snow Day Ideas...

There are lots of different things you can do on a snow day. Below is a list of just a few.

1 Build a snowman - Don't forget they will need eys, nose, mouth, arms...what will you use?

2 Make patterns in the snow - this will help with mark making and writing skills.

3 Make a snow castle (just like a sand castle but colder!) and decorate it.

4 Make footprints with family and compare the sizes of your shoes and boots. Who has the smallest? The biggest? The middle sized? (can you find any footprints from birds or animals?)

5 Investigate melting! Find some containers to put snow in and put them in different places, inside, outside, wrapped up outside. Which melts the fastest? slowest? What happens when snow melts? 

6 Find some snowflakes - can you find 2 the same? 

7 Make some snowflakes - here is a simple tutorial How to make a simple snowflake

8 Describe the snow - What does it feel like?

9 Make some hot chocolate with a grown-up - What do you have to do? Can you describe the steps to someone so they could do the same?

10 HAVE FUN!

Whatever you do in the snow today, we would love to see pictures! Please upload any to Evidence Me and we can look at them together when we are back in class.