Jack and the Beanstalk
Week beginning 20th February
Last week:
Wow! What a fantastic week we have had in Nursery to end this half term!
We have been very busy exploring the life cycle of a bean plant , we have learnt the things a bean plant needs to grow and we have looked at the different stages a plant goes through to become a big, strong beanstalk holding bean pods. We had been looking forward all week to planting our own beans to grow beanstalks as big Jack did in our story and we did this on Friday – we are all really excited to see if there are any changes in our plants over the half term break and will get out our magnifying glasses to record our observations when we return!
Our teachers added a castle to our existing Jack and the beanstalk small world area and we enjoyed this very much! Our teachers saw that we were very interested in the giant’s castle in the story and added this enhancement so that we could use our imaginations as we co-operatively play together.
Many of us practiced our cutting and snipping skills to make a giant collage beanstalk , our teachers have noticed that we have developed in this area and how we hold our scissors has improved, some of us are even able to cut around leaves which we then stuck to our beanstalk!
Over the last few weeks we have been counting down on our daily five frame and calendar the day until our special visitor was coming into school to see us …. On Wednesday we had removed all of the counters from our 5 frame so we knew that the story teller was coming in to Nursery and we LOVED her! We thought she was going to read us a book and that we would just listen to her read, but she bought along her guitar and spotty suitcase full of props and we had an absolutely amazing time sharing nursery rhymes whilst making them come alive with wonderful actions and activities. It was a truly fun experience and we can’t wait for her to visit us again!
Next week:
As next week is half term, we won’t be seeing you in Nursery but we will be busy getting a new topic ready for you. Next half term , we will be exploring our topic ‘Down on the farm’ , we know that you will all love this topic as we know how much you enjoy learning about animals – we will also begin our five frame countdown to the day of our trip to the farm where we can see the animals for real!
We will begin working on our new book ‘Rosie’s walk’ by the author Pat Hutchins which is all about an inquisitive red hen. We will listen to , sequence, retell the story along with enjoying some new provision in the classroom all based on farms. Our adults are bringing some new technology into the classroom too , we are going to learn how to program bee bots to move around a map of Rosie’s farm which should be very exciting and develop our problem solving skills.
If you would like to help your child at home prepare for the next half term, you could spend some time together watching the read aloud video of our story ‘Rosie’s walk’ , as it is a book with some beautiful illustrations you could ask your children what they notice about the pictures and encourage them to answer in full sentences.
We hope you all have the most wonderful half term, please keep yourselves safe and rest ready for another half term jam packed full of learning.
We will see you very soon!
Mrs Taylor and Miss Malpass.
