McMillan Nursery School

 

November

 

In November we learnt about a range of festivals and traditions such as Bonfire and Remembrance.


We also enjoyed our transport theme, learning about different types of transport and the noises they make. We did a transport survey looking at the different vehicles that pass nursery and went hunting for cars. We even had a campervan visit nursery! We practised our creative skills by making transport colleges and trains for us to role play in. We made tyre tracks on large paper. We used our construction skills to make different vehicles. We enjoyed playing with airports, garages and trains in our small world aera. We used our gross motor skills to wash real cars and ride our bikes and scooters around the road we made.


We have been enjoying the rainy weather and exploring this natural phenomenon with umbrellas. We learnt the poem ‘Breezy Weather’.


We have been learning about shapes and done lots of shapes activities, jigsaws and making shapes in the sand.


Some children started heuristic play - we made lots of creations from household materials.

 

October

In October we learnt about Autumn; what happens to the trees and the weather, woodland animals and berries and fruit that grow at Autumn time. We went on an Autumn walk and made a woodlands fruit crumble. Flint and Matilda the Owls came to visit us. Flint sat on our hand and Matilda waved to us. She was just like Mummy Owl from our Core Story, the Owl Babies.  

Our parents came for a 'Stay and Play'. we enjoyed playing with them in  Nursery.

In social snack time, we learnt how to cut up fruit and peel lids of our milk and yoghurts.

We started our Music Master Class, we have been learning how to bell ring.   

Our skill of the half term was to put on and fasten up our own coats. We did very well at this. 

We enjoyed lots of spooky activities at Halloween and dressing up too.  

 

September

 

In September we got to know the nursery environment and each other. We enjoyed learning how to use all the areas in continuous provision. We were learnt how to use glue and tape to join and how to cut with scissors. We experimented with different tools in the malleable area.


We learnt 'All about Me,' naming face and body parts. We enjoyed painting a self-portrait and making faces out of playdough.


Mr Pilkington, a sports coach came to teach us balance and ball skills in our Sports Masterclass.


The Farm was our predicted interest, we learnt about different farm animals and the sounds they make. We re-enacted Farmer Duck our core story.  

July

In July, we invited our parents to our mini-Olympics. We did lots of sporting activities including football, egg and spoon and basketball. We all won a trophy and had an ice pop to cool us down after our energetic work out!

We continued to love to build, after our ‘Can you Build it?’ theme last month. We made some super constructions.

This month we had our ‘Summer, Beach and Pirate’ theme. We enjoyed making up stories about pirates and even went on a treasure hunt!

Elsa and Anna, the donkeys came to visit, and we all had a ride on them. We were all very brave and the donkey’s loved to be stroked. Then we had our beach party, and we did lots of beach activities. Finally, Captain Blue the Pirate and Fidget Fairy joined us, and we played lots of games together and had lots of end of term fun!

 

 

June

We couldn’t believe how much the fruit and vegetables in our allotment, had grown over the holidays. We were ready to harvest. We dug up the vegetables and picked the fruit. We washed and prepared the fruit and vegetables and ate them at snack time. They tasted delicious, especially the strawberries.

 Our theme this month was ‘Can we Build it?’ We read the traditional tale, ‘The 3 Little Pigs.’ We built houses made from straw, bricks and sticks. In our Woodland area, we had great fun building dens.

Our Masterclass this half term was Dance. We had a dance teacher from Pendle Academy of Dance and Performing Arts who taught us how to dance.

The Superheroes arrived at our writing table this month to help us with our writing.

We had a special visitor too, an historian. She told us what toys she used to play with a long, long time ago. We all found it very interesting and asked lots of questions.

 

May

In our Great Outdoors Theme, we went on a discovery walk around our local area. We followed a map! We found shops, a mosque, a church, a bridge, a train and bus station and lots more. Shark in the Park was our core story and we enjoyed making lots of park constructions and paintings. 

Now the weather is getting nicer, we have really enjoyed performing in our outdoor theatre. 

We have been very busy in Wonderful Woodlands. Poor Woody (our Woodland Mascot) got stuck in a tree. We had to problem solve to save him. We learnt how to use a hand drill to make decorations and invesitgated the different flowers growing in our Woodland area.

We got a new Chatter Box Cube for us to read and talk in with our friends.  

April 

Our Core Story was 'Jack and the Beanstalk', and a giant beanstalk grew in Nursery! We enjoyed retelling the story around the Beanstalk. We then planted our own beanstalk and observed how it grew. We practised what we had learnt about planting in our solids tray with soil plant pots and gardening tools. We practised our cutting and sticking skills to see if we could remember the life cycle of a plant. We also made our own beanstalks in the creative workshop.

Since our art masterclass we can't stop mixing paint, exploring new colours and painting pictures! 

We have been exploring lots of different instruments and learning how to play them together. We love singing and dancing in our outdoor theatre area. 

And after we had looked at lots of different homes last month, we were delighted to get the opportunity to look inside a camper van! We couldn't believe everything that fitted in there!

 

 

March 

In March, our Core Story was ‘The Three Little Pigs' which ran alongside our predicted interest of 'Can we Build it?' We enjoyed building the different houses the pigs lived in and then used them to  retell the story. We also made other buildings in our creative workshop area and in the construction area.  

We celebrated ‘World Book Day’ and dressed up as our favourite characters. We enjoyed reading and talking about our favourite books together, in our Key Person groups.

 We have been exploring mixing different liquids with water, such as milk, liquid soap, and tea. We learnt about 'full' and 'empty', and how to pour with control. We investiged if whisks made a different when mixing liquids together. 

Our Masterclass this half term was Art. We learnt about the work of the artist Kandinsky and recreated their work. We learnt about colour mixing and the tools artist use for their work. Andrew, a clay potter came to show us his potters wheel. We enjoyed making creatures out of clay. 

Throughout Ranadan, we collected food for families in need. A councilor came to collect the food. We had an Eid celebration in our home corner.  

Our 'Wild Animal' predicted interest was exciting. We went on a safari hunt and sorted animals using differnt sorting categories. We enjoyed printing animal patterns too.    

We ended the term with a 'Wonderful Woodland Stay and Play'. We enjoyed completing Easter activities and had a very special visit from the Easter Bunny!

 

February 

In February we celebrated the Chinese New Year. We went on a Chinese New Year Hunt, made spring rolls, and learnt all about Dragon Dancing.  

One of our predicted interests was 'People Who Help Us.'  The police came to visit and showed us their police car. We enjoyed painting pictures about our visit and other people that help us. The dentist came too, and we learnt how to look after our teeth. We enjoyed playing at doctors in our role play corner and then we had a rescue centre. We helped a lot of people! We made our own town in small world and enjoyed telling stories about the people who help us. 

We had a reading challenge in February - we read 10 books each. We got a certificate and a bookmark for completing the challenge.

We enjoyed making and eating pancakes on pancake day.

In Wonderful Woodlands we learnt about mini beasts. We searched for worms and drew giant water worms on the wall and mud worms on paper. 

 

 

January 

In January, we learnt all about Winter and the weather. We had great fun exploring the snow. We made some ice decorations and enjoyed sledging. 

 

We enjoyed our Goldilocks and the 3 Bears theme. We made and tasted porridge, loved reading the book and dressing up as characters and retelling the story. We learnt about size, small, medium and large and made 3 different sized bears out of playdough. 

Our Masterclass was cookery lessons. We made lots of healthy snacks including healthy pizza and cheese twists. 

We are amazing at doing jigsaws. We love working out, how all the shapes fit together. 

 

December

In December, we learnt about Advent and Christmas traditions. We made Christmas cards and decorations, practising our sticking and cutting skills. We went on a walk and posted our cards in the post box. We decorated our Christmas tree. In Wonderful Woodlands we went on a Nativity Hunt. 

We had a Christmas Crafts and Carols session with our families. We made some Christmas crafts together and had a Christmas sing-along. We showcased our Bell Ringing Master Class.

Our Dragonflies went on a Santa Hunt. We found big and little Santa's.

We had a Christmas Party and played lots of party games including pass the parcel. Father Christmas came to visit us and gave us all a present. 

Our skill of the half term was to put on our own coats and fasten up the zip. We are good at this skill now. 

We are progressing well with our malleable skills. We are starting to think about a design and then making it out of playdough, using different tools and techniques.  

We enjoyed our transport theme last month and are still enjoying designing and creating our own vehicles. 

 

 

Railway Street, Nelson, Lancashire,
BB9 9AG
Entrance on Brunswick Street, Nelson

01282 612709

head@mcmillan.lancs.sch.uk