Monday 13th July 2020

Hello everyone! 

This is our last week of Nursery now for a while because then it will be the summer holidays. For some of you it should be your last week of Nursery ever! But we are very much looking forward to welcoming you back for a short time in September before you move up to Reception. What a strange year it has turned out to be! Well done to you all for coping with all these changes so well, you really are super stars and we are so proud of you. 

This week we are going to concentrate on ‘spreading the happiness’ and so we are sharing these lovely ideas of lots of fun things you could do this summer without going very far or spending too much of your grown up’s money. 

We hope you have a wonderful, sunny summer holiday and we can’t wait to see you all soon. 

Take care and keep smiling! 

Best wishes, 

The Nursery Team 

Monday 6th July 2020

Hello everyone 

We hope you are all well. We are missing you lots and would love to hear what you have been doing at home so please send any messages, photos or videos to ynlhps@gatedu.org. 

This week the story we are looking at is Stick Man by Julia Donaldson. Can you name any other Julia Donaldson books?

Here is a link to an animation of Stick Man on the BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06t09rk/stick-man.

Here are some activities which you may like to try: 
•    Go for a walk and collect some small sticks. Count how many sticks you have collected. 
•    Order the sticks from longest to shortest. 
•    Use sticks and mud to make your very own Stick Man.
•    Make a stick family.
•    Stick Man goes on a lot of adventures on his way back to his family tree. Can you remember where he went? What animals did he see? 
•    Did you see any animals on your walk? 
•    Play pooh sticks if you go to a river like in the story. 
•    How many different uses can you think of for a stick? See how imaginative you can be! 

Best wishes, 

The Nursery Team 
 

Monday 29th June 2020

Hello everyone 

We hope you all had a lovely week last week. We know we did 

If you are coming into Nursery please remember to bring a waterproof jacket as well as wearing sun cream and a hat if it is nice weather because it looks like we are expecting some rain showers this week. 

If you are learning at home we would love to hear what you have been doing so please send any messages, photos or videos to ynlhps@gatedu.org. 

This week we are looking at the story Oliver’s Vegetables by the author Vivian French. It is about a little boy who is a fussy eater and only eats chips until he spends time with his grandad trying new things. If you would like to listen to the story you can here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yvllKqyVUc&t=4s 

Then have a go at these activites: 
•    Can you think about what foods are healthy and which are unhealthy? Which should you eat more of? 
•    How many different vegetables can you name? What about fruit? Can you count how many? 
•    Write a shopping list for your grown up.
•    Help prepare a meal.
•    Play a memory game with your grown up. Take it in turns to add a shopping item to the list and see how many you can remember e.g. “I went shopping and bought…”. How many can you remember? Can you add any silly ones? 
•    Play a describing game with your grown up. For example, “I’m thinking of a kind of fruit. It is red and has little yellow seeds and it begins with a ‘s’ sound”. Can you guess which fruit I’m thinking of? 

•  Try a new fruit or vegetable!

Best wishes, 

The Nursery Team 

Monday 22nd June 2020

Hello everyone 

We are very excited to be seeing some of you today. If you are coming in today please remember to hold your adult’s hand while you wait at the gate and wear clothes that you don’t mind getting dirty. Also please remember to wear sun cream and a hat because it looks like we are going to have some lovely summery sunny weather this week and we will be spending lots of time outdoors. 

If you are learning at home instead we would love to hear from you so please send a message to ynlhps@gatedu.org to share with us and your friends what you have been doing. 

This week at Nursery we are looking at everything to do with rainbows! We know that lots of you have drawn beautiful rainbows over the past few months and you might have seen lots of rainbows in peoples windows. So let’s celebrate the rainbow with some different activities: 

•    Can you sing a rainbow and learn the signs too? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLpEGM34Fic  
•    How many colours are there on a rainbow? Can you name which colours there are? 
•    Count how many rainbows you can see in other houses when you go for a walk.
•    Have a look at this lovely story called Rainbow Fish which is all about friendship https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifXlc0QI2kY what happens when Rainbow Fish decides to share his special sparkly scales? 
•    Who are the main characters? Where is the setting? 
•    Can you draw or paint your own rainbow fish? Maybe you could make him a sparkly scale using some tinfoil or something else you may have. 
•    Use chalk to draw a rainbow on the ground (if you haven’t already!)
•    Have a go at this science experiment to make a colourful rain cloud. You will need clear cups or glasses, shaving foam and food colouring: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gt1MGEDIpEc
•    Where do rainbows come from? Talk to your adult if you’re not sure! 
•    If it is lovely sunny weather in your garden and you have a hose could you work with an adult to see if you can make a little rainbow appear by putting your thumb over the end of the hose to spray it? 

We hope you have a lovely, sunny week and we can’t wait to hear from you. 

Best wishes, 
The Nursery Team 

 * STARS * 

We are very excited to welcome some of you back on Monday . If you are continuing to learn and play at home we will continue to post ideas of things you may like to try at home so please continue to send us updates and let us know how you are doing to ynlhps@gatedu.org. 

If you are coming back on Monday we thought we would share with you what that will look like as some things will be different but lots will still be the same. You will still be with Miss Procter and Mrs Gray and we are very excited to tell you that Mrs Dellow will be with us all of the time too! 

Some of your friends may not be there because they might still be learning at home but it will be very exciting as there will be a mixture of the morning and afternoon nursery children so you will meet new friends as well as see familiar friendly faces . 

If the weather is nice we will be spending lots of time outdoors and over at Forest School doing lots of fun activities so please make sure you wear old clothes that you don't mind getting dirty and please still bring a waterproof in case there is some light rain. 

Some of the toys and things that you play with in nursery won't be there at the moment but we still have lots of other toys and activities to do. There will even be some exciting new ones that you won't have played with before!

Below you will see some photos of our classroom and how it looks now. See if you can spot what is the same and what is different .

You will also see the grown ups doing a lot of cleaning and we will be asking you to wash your hands more often. This is nothing to worry about, it is just to keep everyone safe. 

We hope you are excited to come back like we are. 

We will be doing everything we can to keep you safe and happy and we really can't wait to see you all!

See you soon! 

Miss Procter, Mrs Gray and Mrs Dellow 

RAINBOWS

We can't wait to welcome some of you back on Monday 22nd June and are looking forward to seeing your smiling faces! For those of you staying at home, we will still be giving you lots of ideas to try at home and would still love to see your pictures and videos. 

It has been a long time since some of you were last at Nursery and things have had to change a little bit to keep us all safe but some things will be staying the same too. You will still be able to play in our outside area as well as in the classroom, we will still have our packed lunches in the classroom and most importantly we will still have lots of fun! 

The first thing to say is that there will not be as many children as we normally have in Rainbows so some of your friends might still be learning and playing at home. There are lots of other people to play with, even though we need to stay a little further apart than we normally do, and you will still have a great time! 

Miss Barnsley and Mrs Iley will still be there to keep you safe, play with you and help you learn and Mrs Locke is also joining us, we can't wait to show her how much fun we have in Rainbows and how clever you all are! 

The classroom looks a little bit different.. the tables have to be a bit further apart than they normally are and we have had to put away some of the toys and books which we won't be able to play with for a while. Don't worry though, we still have lots of toys to play with and Mrs Jackson has even ordered us some new ones! 

You will also see the grown ups doing a lot of cleaning and we will be asking you to wash your hands more often. This is nothing to worry about, it is just to keep everyone safe 

We hope you are excited to come back, and understand if you are feeling a little worried or anxious. It might feel a little bit strange for the first few days but we know you will get used to it and that you are all super stars and will do really well!

We will be doing everything we can to keep you safe and happy and we really can't wait to see you all!

See you soon! 

Miss Barnsley, Mrs Iley & Mrs Locke

Monday 15th June 2020

Good morning everyone 

We hope you have had a lovely week and that you have managed to keep yourselves busy during the miserable rainy weather we’ve had this week. If you would like to share what you have been doing with us and your friends please send us an email at ynlhps@gatedu.org. 

This week our story is another Julia Donaldson book and this one is also about a princess. It is called Princess Mirror-Belle and the Dragon Pox. You can listen to the story here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dlp2kIKqZn8 

You might like to have a go at some of these activities: 
•    Draw or build your own castle fit for a princess or prince using things from around the house e.g. cardboard boxes and yogurt pots.
•    Make yourself a crown. What could you decorate it with? 
•    See if you can make your own spotty pattern with colouring pens or pencils 
•    Make your own cure like in the story using things from the garden or when you go on a walk. Can you find 5 leaves to go in your potion? Can you find 3 daisies? 
•    Mirror-Belle spends lots of time looking at herself in the mirror. Have a look at yourself in the mirror and draw a picture of you. Think about the colour of your eyes and hair. Does anyone else in your house have the same colour eyes or the same colour hair? How are you the same? How are you different? 
•    Prince, Princess and Pox all begin with the ‘P’ sound. Can you think of anything else that begins with that sound? Go on a sound hunt and see if you can find anything else. 

We hope you all have a lovely week. 
Best wishes, 
The Nursery Team 
 

Monday 8th June 2020

Hello everyone! We hope you had a lovely week last week and that you are safe and well!  We love seeing what you've been up to and sharing it with your friends on our class pages so please keep sending pictures and videos to ynlhps@gatedu.org

This week we have got some ideas based on the story 'The Princess and the Wizard' by Julia Donaldson- do you recognise that name?! I think we have read some of her stories before... 

Listen to the story here: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=babXCIRMjQM

• Practise saying the days of the week. You could sing the songs we sing in Nursery! What were the princess' jobs on each day? What did she change herself into on each day? 
• The princess has 7 challenges- one for each day of the week. Maybe your grown up could set you some challenges to help them around the house! 
• Can you see the shapes on the wizard's cape and the princess' dress? What are they? You could design your own cape, dress, crown or hat using 2D shapes! 
• The wizard loves to count- can you practise your counting? You could turn it into a game of hide and seek! 
• He also turned everyone into stone at the princess' party! You could play musical statues and practise different balances when you have to freeze. 
• You could make a wizard's potion in the garden or in the bath- make sure you have permission from your grown up if you are picking petals from flowers. 
• What would you disguise yourself as? You could draw a picture. Or you could even make your own book with seven different disguises, just like The Princess and the Wizard! 

Best Wishes, 

The Nursery Team 

Monday 1st June 2020

Good morning everyone 

We hope you have all had a lovely week playing and relaxing in the sun. It definitely feels like we are in summer now! We can't believe that this should be the start of the final half-term before the summer holidays and before lots of you start your next journey in Reception. We would love to see what you have been doing so please send any photos or videos to ynlhps@gatedu.org so we and your other friends can see.

This week is all about another of our favourite Julia Donaldson books- The Snail and the Whale. Can you remember the name of any of her other books? If you do not have this book at home or if you’d like to watch this lovely animation too here is a link to an animated version of the story on bbc iplayer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000cslw/the-snail-and-the-whale
Here are some ideas of activities you may like to try linked to the story: 
•    Have a go at drawing a spiral pattern like a snails shell and then try and make a spiral dangler. You could even make your own spiral snacks! https://wrm-13b48.kxcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Day-1-The-Snail-and-the-Whale.pdf
•    If you would like to decorate a stone for Colin the Covid19 Snake in Oliver Henderson Park you may like to decorate this with a spiral pattern like the snails shell or however else you would like to decorate it since we know how imaginative you all are! 
•    Talk about why the snail was very brave with all of the problems and dangers he comes across. When have you felt brave? How many different problems and dangers can you remember from the story? Which do you think was his biggest problem? 
•    Look at the pictures of the snail and the worm and see if you can describe where they are on the wall. Is the worm higher up the wall than the snail or lower? Have a go at singing the song. Snails leave behind a silvery trail where they have been. Where would your silvery trail show you had been today? https://wrm-13b48.kxcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Day-5-The-Snail-and-the-Whale.pdf
•    Use chalk or a paint brush with water to draw a spiral on the ground. 
•    How many words can you think of that begin with the ‘S’sound? 
•    Look to see if you can find a snail in your garden or when you are going on a walk. Have a close look at the pattern on the shell. 
•    If you are planning a trip to the beach this week have a look for any shells you can see. How many shells can you find? 

Most importantly have a lovely week, look after yourselves and make sure you are listening to your grown ups! 

Best wishes, 
The Nursery Team
 

Tuesday 26^th May 2020

Hello all of our lovely Rainbows and Stars!

We hope you enjoyed your Bank Holiday! This week would be your half term holiday if we were at Nursery so you would be relaxing and having lots of fun learning and playing at home. Hopefully we get some lovely weather so you can spend lots of time outdoors (wearing your hats and sun cream of course!)

If you would like some activities to keep you busy this week, please see below. However, please remember that we know your grown ups may be busy working at home or even going to work and these are just suggestions for anyone that has time 😊

• Collage an ice lolly to practise your cutting, find motor and creative skills. Can you count how many things you stick on the lolly?
• Make real ice lollies using fruit juice- what do you think will happen to the juice when you put it in the freezer? What do you think would happen if you left your lolly in the sun too long?
• Pack a bag as if you’re going on holiday somewhere hot and sunny- what might you need? You could then see what you would need if you were going somewhere chilly.
• Paint patterns on the floor outside using water on a sunny day- go and look at your creations a few hours later… are they still there?
• Learn some summer rhymes with actions (see the gallery below)
• Make a shady den in your garden (if you have one!) see if you can work together with your brothers, sisters or grown ups.
• Segment some summer words- which sounds can you hear in these words?

sun

hot

hat

cap

tan

fan

Stay safe!

The Nursery Team

Thursday 21st May 2020

Hello everyone, 

Yesterday was National Bee Day! Bees are so important for so many reasons. Why do you think this is? Follow the link for some bee inspired activities you could try 

https://mummy2twindividuals.com/world-bee-day-6-preschool-activities

The Nursery Team 

Monday 18th May 2020

Good morning everyone 

We hope you are all well and have had a lovely week. As always, thank you for the lovely photos and messages we have been receiving; it means a lot to us getting to see what you have all been up to. If you have anything you would like to send us the email address is ynlhps@gatedu.org. 

This week is inspired by the story Superworm by the author Julia Donaldson. Can anyone remember any other books Julia Donaldson has written?

Here are some ideas for this week: 

• Read the story if you have it at home. If you don't you can listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pZwNie69n8
• Have a go at this White Rose maths lesson which is all about using the language of size and using patterns in an artistic way: https://wrm-13b48.kxcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Day-1-Superworm.pdf
• Explore moving like a worm and in other ways you can think of. Count how many times you can do something in a given time for example how many times can you jump in 20 seconds? Try the "worm rain dance" https://wrm-13b48.kxcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Day-3-Superworm.pdf
• Have a go at making your own words out of play dough, cooked spaghetti or string. See if you can make different length worms https://wrm-13b48.kxcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Day-5-Superworm.pdf. 
• You may even want to go on a mini beast hunt and see if you can find any worms!
• Sing "There's a worm at the bottom of my garden" which I'm sure lots of you already know the words to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqchPrhezxQ

We hope you have a lovely week and we can't wait to hear what you have been doing. 

Best wishes, 

The Nursery Team 

Wednesday 13th May 2020

Hello everyone 
Since today is National Numeracy Day we thought we would set a couple of number challenges for you. Please have a go at some of the games on this site: https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/kids-activities/fun-maths-games-and-activities/

And see if you can answer these questions. 
Below is a photo of sunflower plants growing from the sunflower seeds Miss Procter has planted.

Can you count how many have grown?

How many did not grow? 
How many would there be if that one had grown as well? 
Which sunflower plant is the tallest? 
Which is the shortest? 
 

Also see if you can tell your adult what a plant needs so it can grow and see if you can name the parts of a plant. 
 

Let us know how you get on at ynlhps@gatedu.org! 
 

Best wishes, 

The Nursery Team 

Monday 11th May 2020 

Hello everyone, 

We hope you had a lovely weekend staying safe in the sunshine and for those of you who celebrated VE Day we hope you had lots of fun and hope to see lots of pictures! Thank you to all of your grown ups for sending us pictures and messages, we love seeing what you've been up to- no matter how small it may seem! Keep sending them to ynlhps@gatedu.org 

Some ideas for this week: 

• Listen to the story of 'The Very Busy Spider' by Eric Carle (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfL0g-XRxnA)
• Follow the Maths lessons on https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/early-years/ about the story! Remember, you don't have to do them all, only the ones which interest you and you will have fun doing! We recommend Day 1, Day 3 and Day 5 for Nursery. 
• You could do lots of spider themed crafts (pictures for inspiration below). 
• Sing and sign to Incy Wincy Spider with Makaton https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8vn9dvqoYc
• Make 'Silly Soup'- how many things can you put in your soup beginning with 's'? You could try other sounds or rhyming words too!  
• Do some 'Spider Power' yoga https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnO-lGEMOXk

But most of all, remember that you are always learning through playing with your toys and with your brothers, sisters or grown ups too!

Stay safe and happy everyone! 

The Nursery Team 

Monday 4th May 2020

Hello again!

Just one more quick message to say I’ve just found out about a website and app called Reading Eggs which is specifically for 2 to 4 year olds. It has lots of books, videos and learning games for children. It looks quite good from a quick look and it’s offering a free one month trial at the moment. Here is a link if you’d like to find out more: https://readingeggsjunior.co.uk/ 

Thanks, 

The Nursery Team 

Monday 4th May 2020

Good morning everyone 

Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to speak with us last week. It was so lovely to hear how all the children and yourselves are doing during these strange times. From speaking with some of you we understand that lots of you are concerned about your child’s progress and how best to help your child at home; especially those children facing the transition to Reception this year. As well as general ideas of things you may like to do with your child this week we have also included some specific information for the different areas of learning. But please remember that children learn best when they are playing. Even if it doesn’t look like learning, this is actually the best kind of learning your child can do!

First of all, here are some general ideas:
•    Go for a walk outside or in the garden. Have a look to see what kind of flowers and plants you can see growing. You could take some photos or draw pictures of what you see. 
•    Try making a model of a flower. You could use play dough, paper, cardboard, cardboard tubes and boxes or plastic pots. Think about how you could make the stem, the flower and the leaves. We would love to see any models you make! 
•    Since we are expecting some more lovely weather this week you could explore capacity in the garden by filling different sized containers with water or by putting some different sized containers in the paddling pool to explore. For example a jug, a plastic cup and a plastic pot. Which one can hold the most water? Which holds the least? How do you know? Can you order them? 
•    Listen to some nursery rhymes and see if your child can spot the rhyming words. See if you and your child can think of more words to rhyme i.e. star, car, far, are… https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/curations/nursery-rhymes. 
•    Use maths and keep fit at the same time by asking your child to do different exercises a certain number of times. For example, can they do four star jumps? 

Here are some more specific targets which you could be aiming towards in a few of the different areas: 

Maths

Before looking at numbers to 10 or past that it is important that your child is really secure with numbers to 5. This includes:
•    Counting forwards and backwards 1-5 
•    Recognise and say numbers 1-5
•    Count 1-5 objects accurately
•    Match numbers to quantities
•    Order numbers 1-5
•    Looking at two groups of objects and knowing which has more/less/ the same without counting them
•    Representing numbers using fingers, marks on paper or with objects
•    Finding one more or one less from a group of up to 5 objects

English

One of the best things you can do to develop your child’s literacy is to read books with them. Discuss the story with them talking about the setting, the main characters, and the events in the story. Talk about the author and the illustrator. Look for any rhyming words and see if your child can fill in the missing words e.g. “A Gruffalo? What’s a Gruffalo?” “A Gruffalo! Why didn’t you ______”. You could use your finger to trace the words as you read so they know we read from left to right and top to bottom. 
To develop their future writing skills encourage your child to draw pictures. Ask them about what they have drawn. Encourage them to hold their pencil near the end using three fingers (a tripod grip). 

Physical Development

Encourage your child to move in different ways. Can they crawl? Slither? Roll? Skip? Hop? Jump? Can they stand on one leg? 
Play ball games with your child encouraging them to take turns and explore their catching and throwing skills. 
Use chalk or water on a paint brush to make marks on the fence or the ground to strengthen their upper body muscles. This will help in future with writing too. 
Encourage your child’s independence with dressing. If you have more time on your hands at the moment this could be the perfect time to do it rather than when you are rushing around trying to get somewhere quickly! 

We hope this has helped to give you a few more ideas. Remember as always though that the most important thing at the moment is to make sure you’re all safe and happy. Please send any messages/pictures/ videos to ynlhps@gatedu.org. I know lots of you have been saying how lovely it was for your child to see their friends so it would be great to continue this. 

Thank you and best wishes to you and your families, 
The Nursery Team 
 

Thursday 30th April 2020

Hello everyone! It has been lovely to speak to you and your grown ups this week. Although we are missing you lots we are happy to know you are safe and happy at home. 

Here is a website we have found which you can watch, read along with and sign along with some brilliant stories. 

https://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/have-some-fun/storybooks-and-games/

We'd love to see some pictures and videos of you enjoying a story at home. Please send them to ynlhps@gatedu.org

The Nursery Team 

Tuesday 28th April 2020

Hello!

Just a quick message to say that if your child is becoming more interested in letter sounds and you are looking for a way to support their phonics to get them ready for reading later on you may want to have a look at this Youtube page. Letters and Sounds which is the phonics program which we follow in school are releasing daily phonics videos which you can watch with your child and will give you some information and ideas. These lessons are focused at Reception and Year 1 children so please don't worry if your child isn't ready or isn't interested in this yet. Your child may find this tricky so don't be afraid to pause it and turn it off and try another day, re-watch the same video rather than moving on or leave it if your child isn't interested. 

Here is a link to the guide introducing the online lessons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWYbpan-y5w

Here is the first lesson which was first published yesterday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCaXHnaKhHQ

Please keep in touch via the email address ynlhps@gatedu.org. 

Thank you and best wishes, 

The Nursery Team 

Monday 27th April 2020 

Hello everyone! We hope you are all safe and well. We know that lots of you will be missing your friends and Nursery but we hope you are having lots of fun spending time with your family at home. Thank you to all of you that have sent pictures in to show us what you have been up to, we love seeing your smiley faces and all of your learning! Please keep it up and send things to ynlhps@gatedu.org. 

Here are some ideas to keep you busy this week if you have some time to spare.  

• Play some listening games and see if you can identify the sounds before the picture appears! You could even have a competition against your siblings or grown ups and practise your counting by keeping the score. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0Kp_J9kvNM
• Look for numbers when you go on a walk or if you go to the supermarket. Look at door numbers, license plates on cars, bus numbers and any other numbers you can spot. They are hiding everywhere! 
• If you have some string, develop your fine motor skills and practice threading.You could use beads or pasta. Other ideas include spaghetti and cheerios or pipe cleaners (you can thread those into a colander!). 
• Make your own jigsaw puzzle. Draw a fantastic picture then use your cutting skills to cut it up, shuffle the pieces then put them back together again! 
• Explore materials by helping your grown up to sort your recycling into paper, card, metal and plastic. 
• Read and talk about a book. Remember to explain to your grown up what an author and an illustrator do, what the text on the back of the book is called and what it tells us. You could predict what a story will be about by looking at the front cover if you haven't read it yet! For stories you know really well, you could have a go at retelling them and could even make some puppets/ props.
• Make a May Day bouquet if you have some crafty things or paper. 

Stay safe and keep smiling! 

The Nursery Team 

Monday 20th April 2020

Good morning everyone 

Today should be our first day back at Nursery after the Easter holidays ready to start the Summer term. Which, for a lot of you, would have been the start of your last term in Nursery. We hope you had a lovely relaxing break over Easter and that you are all feeling safe and happy. 

It looks like you have been doing wonderful things at home- you have definitely inspired us with some of your fabulous ideas! But if you are looking for more ideas of what you could do this week here are a few:

•    Sing some of your favourite Nursery Rhymes or songs, or learn a new one. Learn the Makaton signs when singing. Here is Incy Wincy Spider with Makaton to try: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8vn9dvqoYc 
•    Make your own incy wincy spider using an empty toilet roll tube. 
•    Take a bowl of water and a paint brush outside and paint the garden fence or the ground USING WATER NOT PAINT- unless your grown up wants their fence painted! 
•    Plant some seeds. Now is a good time to plant sunflower seeds and watch them grow. 
•    Use chalk to draw pictures on the ground or play hopscotch. 
•    Go on a sound hunt. See how many things around your house you can find beginning with the ‘a’ sound. If your child is struggling to find things try to emphasise the initial sound e.g. “aaapple”.
•     Go on a shape hunt- 2D or 3D. How many circles can you find in the house? How many spheres can you find? Can you count them?

We hope you have a lovely week and don’t worry if you’re not doing exciting wonderful things all the time-  we definitely know that sometimes all you want to do is have a lazy pyjama TV watching day, especially at the moment! Also we know lots of you have very busy parents who are still going to work or trying their very best to work from home so we hope you are being your kind and helpful selves! But if you have any photos which you’d like to share with us and your friends please send them to ynlhps@gatedu.org. We love seeing your photos and reading your messages so please keep sending them in. 

Best wishes to you all, 

The Nursery Team 
 

Wednesday 15th April

Hello everyone!
The education website Twinkl are giving away free packs of sunflower seeds to the first 10,000 people who apply. If you’d like to try and get some to grow your own sunflowers this is the link to the form to complete: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfItZj70umylPV4NToibSrMKuauyky26JdfogxIjwXhv8erPQ/viewform

We hope you all had a lovely Easter! 
Best wishes, 

The Nursery Team 

Monday 6th April 2020

Hello Nursery!

We hope you had a great week last week playing and learning through play as well as spending time with your families. We miss you all very much! We have loved seeing your photos. Please keep sending them to ynlhps@gatedu.org

Although this would be the start of your Easter holidays, here are some more things to keep you busy playing, learning and developing at home.

• Phonics Play Phase 1 Games- this website is currently free (username: march20 password: home) There are some really fun games to experiment with sounds and letter sounds as well as practising your mouse or tablet skills.
• Play a game with a dice if you have one- practise your subitising! (Recognising numbers in patterns rather than counting) You could also practise subitising and counting with anything else you can find in your house like buttons or pasta.
• Use your play dough from school to go to the dough disco! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K-CQrjI0uY
• Make an Easter card to send to a relative and practise your name inside. Ask your grown up to show you so you can copy the letters if you’re finding it tricky!
• Use some junk from around your house to make a musical instrument. Put on a performance of your favourite song for your grown up. You could show them the songs we were practising for our Easter sing song!
• Practise your throwing and catching if you have a ball or beanbag. You could use a bucket or basket if your grown up is busy!
• Make a den in your house or garden, you could even have a picnic in it! Even better if you try a new food for the first time…

Remember to keep practising getting dressed yourself and developing your independence. You could even see if you can start making your bed and tidying your bedroom.

We hope you have a lovely Easter if you are celebrating. 

Best Wishes,

Nursery Team

Wednesday 1st April 2020 

Thank you for everything that has been sent in so far, seeing what you have all been up to has made us very happy! 

Please keep them coming! 

Here are some songs we started learning in Nursery ready for our Easter sing song. You could practise some of them and send us a video of you performing! 

Send them to ynlhps@gatedu.org along with anything else you would like to share with us 

Little Peter Rabbit - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iIRpmxkmGE

Chick Chick Chicken - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUBq5RsIYDg

Hot Cross Buns (This one is a little different to the actions we were learning but we are sure you will pick it up!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRyxMzBNjvY

5 Little Ducks- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-0GoluyNh8

Hop Little Bunnies- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRjsyzbvqsc

Stay safe and keep busy! 

The Nursery Team 

Tuesday 31st March 2020

Hi everyone! 

We would love to see what your children have been getting up to so please email us at YNlhps@gatedu.org and tell us what your child has been doing. We would love to see any photos you have been taking! We will then share these photos on our Class Pages so your child can see what their friends have been doing too.  

Thank you, 

The Nursery Team 

Monday 30th March 2020 

Hello everyone 

We hope you are all well and that you had a nice week last week. We also hope you are all coping well with all the change that is happening at this strange time.

At this difficult time, try not to worry too much about what your child would be missing out on in Nursery. The most important thing is making sure your child feels safe and secure during this uncertain time.

However, if you feel that your child is missing the routine and structure of Nursery (We know we are!) We will be posting some ideas on here to keep your child busy every week. It is important to remember that children at this age learn best through play. 

The characteristics of effective learning are: playing and exploring, active learning, and creating and thinking critically. The best thing you can do to help your child is to play with them and encourage them to explore the world around them (even if you are currently rather limited with how much exploring you can do!). 

Here are some ideas for this week: 
•    Learn the Makaton signs to sing along with Baa Baa Black Sheep https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VGsBK94I2U 
•    Go on a sound hunt around the house and in the garden. What sounds can you hear? What are they from?
•     If your child has become interested in sounds in words then go on a sound hunt for things beginning with the ‘S’ sound. If your child is struggling with this give them examples and emphasise the initial sound e.g. “sssssink”. This could also be used as a game of ‘I Spy’. This is part of our phonics program Letters and Sounds which we follow within school. Here is a link to the website where you will find information, resources and games which can be played http://www.letters-and-sounds.com/phase-1-games.html. 
•    Build something using junk materials around the house e.g. cardboard boxes from the recycling or using building materials like Lego. 
•    Use clothes pegs to pick up bits of wool or string (to develop fine motor skills ready for writing). If you have coloured pegs you could also sort them by colour and count how many of each you have. 
•    Don’t forget to read a book!

You could also discuss the day of the week and the weather every day like we do at Nursery to keep some sort of routine. 

Hopefully it won’t be too long until we see each other again but, in the meantime, look after yourselves. 

Best wishes to you and your families,

The Nursery Team