Stanningley Primary School

Nursery and Reception showed great excitement and enthusiasm as they closely observed each of our caterpillars change into a chrysalis and then emerge as a butterfly. They watched with awe as they were eventually released into the world. They started to show lots of interest in other minibeasts in our garden. They discovered snails, slugs and ladybird lava hiding out in bushes and under logs.

The nursery children challenged themselves and had lots of fun as they took part in lots of different sports activities involving running, balancing, aiming and hula hooping.

The nursery children had such a lovely time at their picnic last week. After preparing their own picnic bags they chatted with excitement as they sat and ate together underneath the gazebo. Lots of fun was then had popping bubbles, running, jumping, skipping and playing games.

...and of course we always enjoy the time to explore and investigate, revisiting our previous learning. Learning through play and especially with our friends is always great fun.

Reception Class have had lots of fun investigating, comparing and sorting numbers to 10, investigating 3D shapes, making patterns and lots more.

The children enjoyed taking part in the Easter egg competition. They also learnt about the meaning of new beginnings.

As the weather is just beginning to warm up we have started planting some seeds, some which were used for Mothers' Day and some to have in our own garden. This year we have used compressed compost and the children enjoyed ( although a little strenuous) cutting up the blocks and measuring out enough water to mix and make up the compost.

Early Years enjoyed joining in with the Red Node day celebrations - we do loke having our whole class photographs.

Some of the Early Years children entered our whole school Science competition. The children had some great experiments and shared them with the whole Early Years Unit.

During our Healthy Week and revisiting healthy bodies, Mrs Pritchatt brought an object for us to discover. The children were asked what it felt like as well as what it might have been. They all had some fantastic ideas of what it might have been as they passed it around the circle, the ideas included; treasure chest (for the brightly coloured jewels), somewhere for the bees to live. Do you know it is?

During Healthy Week we looked at how we keep our bodies healthy through what we eat and how we exercise. We look at the different types of people who can help us such as doctors and dentists. During the week we also had the opportunity to complete some skipping.

And whilst the children enjoy themselves creating their beautiful pictures - they also enjoy a little singing along the way.

This half term the Early Years children have been learning all about Eric Carle. We have always enjoyed the books which he has written and we have enjoyed looking at lots more over the weeks. However, this half term we have been looking at how Eric Carle illustrates his pictures within all his stories. We began by watching a video of him explaining his technique and then we began to work on large pieces of paper to colour and add texture/design before moving on to designing our own pictures. Mrs. Pritchatt carefully explained the procedure - she explained that we did not need to draw onto the coloured paper we had previously made and to carefully use the scissors to make our design. We were all very pleased with our art.

Early Years enjoyed completing World Book Week with purchasing a book and dressing up as our favourite book character. We came back at the end of the day for a disco and a hot dog supper. How many different characters can you see?

Although World Book Week was celebrated all week Early Years felt it would be a lovely idea for the children to share their favourite story with the whole class throughout the whole half term. All the children were invited to wrap up their favourite story and each day a book would be chosen. The children had a wonderful time unwrapping their book and then after listening to the story, the child answered questions about the book from their friends, such as; Who is your favourite Character? What is your favourite page? Who bought you the book?

Early Years enjoyed joining all the school in taking part in the potato competition, here are just a few of our entries.

We all enjoy having the opportunity to explore in our areas of learning - from making a book shop, to building and working with paint - we always enjoy our time.

We were told the story of about how the Zodiac was created and learnt a little about the celebrations which take part during this time. The children enjoyed working with the lucky colours of red and gold, whilst others drew the animals on the line box which took part in the great race.

During our PE lessons we have ben completing a dynamic balancing on one leg as well as on a line. Once we were able to master this we began to play a 'frozen' game and had to balance whilst making a selection of different shapes.

All the children enjoyed having the opportunity to purchase a bun for charity. We had a lovely time sitting and chatting with our friends and some children had an extra surprise of having an adult come from home to share the experience.

The children have enjoyed exploring and building with Mobilo. This half term they have looked at following a design to see if they could find the correct pieces to use for each model made. Afterwards they used ipads to take photos of their models and wrote their names to display each one.

Stir a pancakenPour it in the pan. Fry a pancakenToss a pancake Catch it if you can ! We used our recipe book to make the pancake mix. We took turns to mix it until it was smooth. Our pancakes were cooked in our pan and we all enjoyed eating them. We listened to stories about pancakes and we learnt a pancake rhyme. Mix a pancake Stir a pancake Pour it in the pan. Fry a pancakeToss a pancake Catch it if you can !

Earlier in the week we had enjoyed having a Christmas dinner, with all the trimmings and lots of sprouts! We had a lovely Christmas Party Day, from playing party games such as pass the parcel to musical statues and finishing with a dance. Santa came to us virtually explaining that he had so much to do but also letting us know that he would be definitely be on time for Christmas morning. We all received a present and had our photograph taken by the decorated tree. A great end to a busy term.

Reception Class had a wonderful opportunity to visit the local church. On entering the church all the children had opportunity to listen to the Christmas Story and sing some of the songs that had been sung in their own Nativity. The children helped to put the animals and figurines into the stable, with everyone having opportunity to see the finished tableau. On leaving the church grounds we walked past the large stable which was outside the church - our challenge was to walk past with our adults during the holiday to see the stable complete.

Nursery had a wonderful Sparkle Time with their family members joining in with the Christmas activities. With festive music playing, the children and adults enjoyed lots of activities such as; designing and posting cards to Santa, making decorations for their Christmas trees at home to making reindeer food and much much more.

Children had lots of fun with the run up to Christmas. The Christmas Tree had been put up and left for the children to decorate ( and every morning it was bare! for it all to happen all over again). Children enjoyed dressing up in Elves outfits, making reindeer antlers, sledges, making Christmas tree baubles, skipping with tinsel and much much more.

We had a very cold spell and finally we had some ice to explore. The children found various ways to chip away at the ice and eventually break it into more manageable pieces. It looked so much like glass that some adults thought it was! We thought about different ways to turn the ice back into water and then the sun came out and completed the magic for us ( and saving our hands from getting colder still!)

The whole school started the week with all staff and children wearing odd socks. The children enjoyed designing, colouring and cutting out pairs of odd socks. During the week we played lots of different circle games including sharing a smile and the circle of friendship. The end of the week was celebrated with Children in Need and everyone dressing up.

On Friday 11th November , we discussed Remembrance Day and listened to a poem about poppies and also looked at pictures of them singular and within fields. We joined the whole school in two minutes silence. During the day some of the children wanted to paint poppies, with some children cutting out their pictures and mounting them to be displayed.

Children enjoyed working with light and finding how this can change appearances from light through to dark, making shapes within shadow as well as the changes which could be made with colour.

The children in Early Years have been to the park to observe the changes in the leaves now that autumn has arrived. We noticed that the leaves are now falling from the trees and that although they were green in the summer they are now changing colour. We collected lots of leaves and talked about their different shapes, sizes and colours. Red, orange, yellow and brown! Reception class had the opportunity to walk further around the park and explore the different areas such as the bowling green and rose gerden - even meeting a gardener on our way who explained all about their job. After that we practiced our balancing and climbing skills on the playground.

We love to make our own playdough in Early Years and there was lots of learning to be had when we went out shopping for the ingredients to make our dough. We learnt how to cross the roads safely, observed the diggers that were being used to dig up the road and looked at lots of signs along the way. There was lots of conversation about all the things that we saw. On the journey back we also learnt the name of our school.

After making our own playdough we have enjoyed squeezing, squashing, rolling and manipulating it into many different shapes and forms.

Pouring, stirring, measuring, turn taking, waiting patiently and following instructions! So many different skills to be learnt when we make our own playdough. A great way to develop our vocabulary too! Soft, powdery, runny, liquid, flour, salt, mix, stir, gloopy, pour, solid are some of the words that we use as we work together to combine the ingredients to make our dough. and talk about the changes that happen when we mix the ingredients together and cook them in the microwave.

All the children have been settling into Early Years life. Exploring the outdoor area has been fun from playing in the mud kitchen, building large structures to enjoying making new friends.