Stanningley Primary School

We have been noticing the changes in our weather as we come to the end of Autumn and begin to approach the Winter season. The children are aware that the days are getting colder and they were very excited this morning when they ventured outside to find that everywhere had been covered in a light sprinkling of snow. They did lots of investigating and soon discovered that the snow was "freezing cold". They scooped it up and put it into the pots and pans in the mud kitchen, they made marks in it with their fingers, they explored it with their tongues, scooped it into piles and picked it up and threw it into the air watching it with delight as it fluttered to the ground. Once back inside where it was nice and warm we noticed the snow on our gloves beginning to melt. We placed them on the radiator to dry and sang songs about the snow and learnt a poem all about building a snowman! What fun we all had!

On the 1st of December Early Years started decorating the unit ready for Christmas. Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus at Christmas and as is with many festivals celebrated by different religions we have discussed the fact that people celebrate by putting up decorations. The children were so excited to experience this first hand when they came into school and discovered the many Christmas decorations. They had such fun exploring them and adding them to our tree. We had to stretch up really tall to reach the high branches. Placing the baubles on the branches also helped with developing our fine motor control.

This half term Early Years have been looking at different cultural and religious Festivals. We have talked about why these festivals are celebrated and looked at the ways in which they are celebrated. In Early Years this week the children have been talking about the festival of Diwali which is celebrated by people following the Sikh and Hindu religions. They have been listening to and retelling the story of Rama and Sita. In the story the Princess Sita is taken away by an evil demon called Ravana but is then later rescued by Prince Rama and a monkey god called Hanuman. The message of the story is that goodness will always win over badness. The Early Years children have also been making divas which are lit at Diwali to bring light (goodness) into the world in order to drive away the dark (badness).

In nursery we have been matching magnetic letters to the letters on our name card and have had a try at copying the letters too. This is helping us to become familiar with our names and what they look like. Soon we will be able to recognise them without needing a picture to help us just like the children in Reception. We are getting very good at identifying the initial letters of our names. The children are learning to control the pens well too in order to make marks.

In nursery we have been focusing on developing cutting skills. Using scissors effectively can be lots of fun and all of the children are developing their fine motor control. Cutting carefully requires concentration and good hand eye coordination .

This half term we have been using the interactive whiteboard to make pictures. We have used the paint brush effect and changed the colours when needed. Have a look at some of our beautiful art work.

We started peace week by wearing odd socks. We talked about the reason for doing this and afterwards we all coloured a pair of odd socks to hang up on our washing line. During the week we read the story of Rainbow fish and we each decorated a fish scale and wrote a message of kindness. At the end of the week we celebrated Children in Need with coming dressed up for the day. Some children entered a raffle and even won a prize!

Once we have mastered different standing and floor shapes, we have put this together to a piece of music. In small groups we have taken it in turns to show our different moves to the class.

This half term in PE (on Wednesdays) we are looking at 'Dance' with Gaz, who comes to help us with this. We have been completing standing and floor shapes.

Here are some of the videos which show us having a wonderful time.

The whole school enjoyed a skipping day and Early Years had the opportunity to take part in the activity. We met a lovely lady who told us a story about going on a train. We were going to be running through tunnels -under the rope as well as jumping over the rope. We all had such a wonderful time.

Some of our lovely singing we have taken part in this first half term.

Our music teacher is the lovely Miss Rivers. She has shown us how to use our hands to show a beat and and how to be careful with the selection of different musical instruments we have used this half term. We have been listening carefully to the beat within a tune and we are beginning to learn a variety of different songs.

We had our first Stay and Play session in a long time. It was wonderful to see so many adults coming along to enjoy the session. As Autumn is now in 'full swing' the children (and adults) enjoyed leave printing and making some beautiful transient art pictures, alongside many more enjoyable activities. If you were not able to attend this session, then why not come to our next one, which will be held on a different day and a different time.

Early Years were invited to attend the whole school coffee morning. Buns were on sale to help support the brilliant work Macmillan nurses offer. All the children enjoyed lining up and purchasing their favourite bun before sitting down at a table and enjoying the delights. Some of the children were even lucky enough to have an adult attend.

At the start of the year all Early Years were able to walk to the local shops to purchase ingredients for making dough. We looked and listened carefully as we crossed the roads and noticed a variety of landmarks local to our area. Some children talked about their previous experience at a nursery, whilst others spoke about using the petrol station to buy fuel for the family car. At the shop the children had opportunity to push trolleys and look for the specific ingredients needed to make dough. Afterwards they packed and carried the shopping back to school.

After our shopping trip the children came back to make their own dough. Some children remembered the correct amount of ingredients needed. With discussion, co-operation and agreement the children chose which colour of dough they wanted.

Early years have been settling in and having lots of fun as they explore our continuous provision. They have had lots of opportunities to build relationships with staff and make friends with the other children as they get to know our environment and become familiar with our routines and expectations.

In nursery we’ve been starting to notice the onset of autumn and have begun to harvest the various different fruits and vegetable that we have been growing around our school. The children showed great excitement as they discovered pumpkins and tomatoes hiding amongst the tangle of leaves at the bottom of the playground. They reached up high as they were helped to pick pears and apples from the trees and were very impressed with the beans, strawberries and potatoes that they observed growing on the plants that we planted in the spring.

In the first few weeks Reception Class made a pair of listening ears to help them tune into sounds within the environment. The children moved around the school getting to know different areas of the building and grounds and meeting a selection of staff.

The children have noticed that now the summer is behind us and autumn has arrived the weather is starting to change and the wind is blowing lots of treasures from our trees. The children have been excited to find conkers and various other seeds in the park and have brought them into school for us to share. We have also noticed leaves changing colour and floating to the ground. The treasures that we have gathered have provided us with many different learning opportunities. We have been singing number songs about leaves and conkers, learning poems, printing with leaves and sorting them.

We have been reading a story called Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper in Early Years. It has provided us with lots of opportunities for discussion particularly around sharing, taking turns and friendships which has been one of our focuses for our personal, social and emotional development this half term. It has also fitted in really well with our theme of autumn and harvesting. The children were very excited by the many seeds that they discovered inside the pumpkin when we cut it in half. They were very keen to tell me how many seeds they had collected on their spoons demonstrating their well established subitizing skills to 3. We decided to wash them and keep them until spring next year when we will plant them in the hope of growing more pumpkins for next year. Both Reception and nursery showed us how skillfully they could use a knife to chop the pumpkin in order to make it into soup just like squirrel, duck and cat in our story. I have to say however, our children were much better at sharing and taking turns than the characters in our story. Finally we got to taste our soup whilst listening to another retelling our story. The children had mixed feelings when tasting our pumpkins soup but lots of them ate it all up and described it as yummy and delicious!