Longvernal Primary School

Coming up in Term 3

Please read the poster below to find out more about what your child will be learning in Term 3.

Term 2 Update

Acorns Nursery children have had another busy term focusing on our topic ‘Let’s Celebrate. The children started the term looking at Bonfire night and how people celebrate and why we celebrate it. They looked at fireworks and all the sounds they made and focused on the colours of their fireworks to make beautiful pictures. The older ones mixed some colours to see what they could create. We explored music from different genres for Black History Month, and discussed how we all look different and how that is ok. For Diwali we looked at the story of Rama and Sita and why lamps were a large part of the Diwali celebrations. The children then sculpted and painted their own, from clay. The children were delighted to discover that Hindus used fireworks to celebrate.

Preparations for our Christmas show started early, learning some Christmas songs and the children enjoyed listening and watching them being played on two recorders, to introduce the concept of high and low pitch. The children rehearsed and performed a show of all their singing, dressed up as characters from the nativity story, which many of them loved. We explored many ways that Christmas might be celebrated and then made Christmas pudding play dough for our Maths, looking at how cups are: full, half full and, once tipped out, empty! We also enjoyed the smells. In PE we practised rolling, catching and throwing balls and looking at our jumping skills.

In Forest School, we have drilled holes in conkers to make a conker wreath and used saws to cut sticks to make our Christmas tree decoration bases. We have also explored the seasonal changes and focused on hedgehogs, creating our own using sticks and play dough to discuss their features.

We finished the term celebrating with a party where the children enjoyed lots of traditional party games and we had discussions around how we can’t always win. We captured the children’s own words about what they enjoyed the best about the Christmas activities in Acorns. There were so many different opinions but a big favourite was our activities morning where parents came in to play with their children.

Term 2 Highlights

Coming up in Term 2

Please read the poster below to find out about what your child will be learning in Term 2.

Term 1 Update

This term in Acorns, the children have settled in beautifully. We have been exploring our topic ‘All About me’, and looked at people who help us at home and nursery to support this. We read the story ‘Colour Monster’ to help us think about our emotions and how we are feeling.

We’ve had lots of highlights this term as we looked at the changes of the season Autumn and incorporated Harvest into our topic. We’ve explored where fruit comes from and picked apples from the tree in our gardens. We even created our own apple tree and apple tree song to help us with our numbers! We explored a whole variety of seasonal fruit and veg, using our new child-friendly wooden knives to cut, open and explore textures and smells, exploring all the senses our bodies have. We especially loved tasting and describing the fruit that Handa harvested for her friend in the book ‘Handa’s Surprise’. We talked about the fruits, learning new names and different words to describe the fruit. We read ‘The Little Red Hen’ and about her harvesting wheat and making flour and then bread and decided we could make our own sandwiches using bread.

In PE we have enjoyed strengthening our gross motor skills and fine motor skills by practising hanging and balancing in a variety of ways and we explored how to move and find space during movement. In Music we have been exploring different genres, from Vivaldi's Four Seasons to Baggy Trousers by Madness! The children noticed how the music made them feel and moved to the music. They then wanted to investigate how the music was made so we searched on the internet to show them some of the different instruments.

Our last week has been all things pumpkins; acknowledging the ways some people like to celebrate Halloween. We made some very messy potions in our pumpkin cauldrons and made wands in Forest School and the children enjoyed pretend play to imagine what they might be able to do.