The Nursery children have been having great fun with our new class-reading book of The Gruffalo. We have introduced the different characters, and then played many games, all based around the book. This is a wonderful story in which to use role-play to explore how the animals are all feeling. The Nursery children have made masks for all the different characters to help us out with our acting. The story has excited us so much that we are planning our own Nursery Gruffalo Hunt! We will be taking all the children out to nearby Dulwich Woods on 2nd February, to see if we can find the South London Gruffalo. All parents are welcome to join us on this trip.

The animal magic has also continued in the Nursery with a visit from Paul the Python Man! As the name suggests, our friend Paul brought in his wonderful python to help the children learn more about different kinds of animals. We were also able to see a tarantula spider and a lizard. Our work themed around animals and The Gruffalo will continue over future weeks. We will be using animals in our maths work, playing games such as counting the number of spots on a snake.

We have started off the new year in the Michael Faraday Nursery by introducing the children to our special digital camera. This is a model that is designed for Early Years children to experiment with – we have been having tremendous fun in the Nursery doing just that! To help all of the children get back in the routine of the school day and to remember all of our friends following the break, we have been using the camera to take photographs at different stages of the day, as well as pictures of each other.

Our first major topic of the new year will start next week. We are going to be reading The Gruffalo as our main class book. In preparation for this, we have been building a Nursery jungle in one of our resource rooms. As we progress through learning the story, we will be asking the children for some jungle ideas to add to the design. Plenty of role-play will take place in the jungle, so that we can understand how all the different animals in the Gruffalo are feeling.

We are already making grand plans for our Nursery children for when they return to Michael Faraday at the start of the New Year. Our main class-reading book will be The Gruffalo – a fantastic read for children of this age group! We will be exploring the main character in great detail, as well as using the story to help the children learn more about the many animals that we can find in the woods. We are planning on making a trip to nearby Dulwich Woods to go on our own Michael Faraday Gruffalo Hunt! The highlight however is a planned visit to the Nursery from our friend Paul the Python Man. As the name suggests, Paul will hopefully be bringing in one of his snakes so that the children can learn all about this beautiful creature.

The Nursery children at Michael Faraday have been continuing to carry out plenty of work all based around our current class reading book of Handa’s Surprise. We have made our own selection of fruit, using a combination of paper mache and clay. We asked the children to think about the different sizes of fruit, and to try and keep our own fruit in proportion.

Another of the themes in the book is that of costume and traditional African dress. We decided that it would be a great idea to add some African prints to a white piece of material. Each child in the Nursery came up with an African design, similar to those that we have been seeing in the book. We then sketched these out, before adding some bright African colours to our pattern. This has been a great exercise in helping the Nursery children to think about other cultures, and how life might be different for other children.

We welcomed into the Michael Faraday Nursery this week our special friends form the Step Festival. This is a drama-based project that is interested in exploring ideas of friendship and sharing. At the centerpiece for this session was our new puppet friend, Fifi! We soon learnt that Fifi is a very lively, but loveable character. She helped us to pay some friendship games, as well as leading the way with some class singing. All of the Nursery children got to meet Fifi personally, shaking her hand or having a hug form her. Great fun!

Handa’s Surprise has been keeping us all very happy in the Michael Faraday Nursery! This is a wonderful book for the young children to explore as it contains so many themes that are relevant to our teaching across the curriculum. We have used the book to talk about different languages that we might speak at home. A Swahili song has also been sung in class – you can sing-along by watching the video below!

Elsewhere in the Nursery and Handa’s Surprise has also inspired out artwork. We having been creating some paint prints of fruits and animals that we have come across in the story. We have also used the story to talk with the children about the importance of friendship – another theme that we have found in the book.

The Nursery children have been playing plenty of sound and phonic listening games as we continue to settle into our new school surroundings. We have also produced a photo-story sequence, explaining the routine of the Michael Faraday School day. Key sequence moments such as arrival, registration and lunch have all been captured on camera. We have then asked the children to arrange the pictures in the order in which they take place.

After half term our attention will switch to our new Nursery reading book, Handa’s Surprise. This is a wonderful story that contains many themes that we can explore in our work. These include fruit and healthy living, as well as getting to share information about the different cultures that we all represent.

We have been continuing our settling in process in the Michael Faraday Nursery by learning a lot more about ourselves. The children have been exploring their own different senses, and in particular, taste and hearing.

The Nursery children greatly enjoyed a tasting session. We have learnt that there is quite a difference in taste between jelly and cream crackers! To help with our sense of hearing, we have been playing some listening games. These involve a call and a response, helping the children to become familiar with our Nursery environment.

We sill soon start our foundation literacy work, looking at early phonics awareness. The children will be using these skills to then help to understand and communicate the school rules and routines.