Meet the Nursery Team

Class Teacher: Miss May

Early Years Practitioner: Mrs Cholewa 

                     Hello Everyone! We hope you have had a lovely break and ready for the new school term!

Our topic this half term is Stomp, Chomp, Roar! Within this topic we will be looking at pre-historic animals, reptiles and the beautiful mythical creatures called dragons.

We are looking forward to exploring and learning lots of new information!

Keep your eyes peeled for some T-Rexellent work!

Our Nursery is warm and welcoming, inclusive, bright and colourful and a really fun place to learn. We deliver a knowledge based curriculum focussed on what children will 'know, understand and do' enhanced by an immersive classroom approach which teaches key basic skills, complimented by a text-led and vocabulary rich environment. 

We would like to warmly welcome you to our Nursery class at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Primary School

- a place to learn and grow.

Achieving Excellence Together with God's Love

Throughout the day, children will engage in various stimulating activities within both the indoor and outdoor provision. There are activities that are adult led where we work alongside your child to support new skills. There will also be numerous open-ended activities for children to choose that promote independence and curiosity. Within the Foundation Stage, children learn through play which is fun and engaging! 

Our Learning

Today we celebrated Chinese New Year! We watched a video that showed us how people celebrate Chinese New Year. We were able to watch a video that talked about the story of Chinese New Year. We had different masks representing the different animals and we loved watching the story and watching the Rat win! After this, Nursery children were able to take part in lots of different activities. Miss May even brought chopsticks in for the children to have a go and use. These were very tricky but we kept trying our best. The children made some amazing decorations which are displayed on our wall. We ended the afternoon listening to Chinese New Year music and dancing to a Chinese New Year song! It was lots of fun learning about different cultures and how they celebrate events!

Today in RE we looked at the presentation story of when Mary and Joseph went to the temple. We spoke about our new word temple and what that might be. In the story we learnt about two people called Simeon and Anna who went to the temple to pray. Mary and Joseph went to the temple to thank God for their son!

Today in our Prayer & Liturgy we spoke about praying for others. We talked about how we can pray for other people when they are unwell, sad or simply to pray to thank God for introducing you to your friends. 

Our nursery children really like taking part in Dough Disco on a Wednesday. Not only is it lots of fun but it develops the fine motor skills of the children, helping them with their pencil grip!

This week nursery have been looking at weight. The children have been comparing different weights and exploring which one is heavy and which one is light. The children have really loved using the scales to see if they are right.

Nursery children have enjoyed wrapping up warm and going outside to explore the dinosaur bones in the small world area. Nursery children have also loved to explore the ice in the tuff tray and watching how quick it melts.

Nursery children have enjoyed making a new house for our new pet snake! Look how long he is!

This week in RSE we have been talking about our feelings and what good feelings are and what bad feelings are. Miss May asked children to make different facial expression to match a feelings. Nursery children were really good at angry faces and even made Miss May scared! Nursery have also been using our wellbeing wall, where children can go and find their name and put it under one of the faces. Each face represents a different feeling, such as, happy, sad, scared, angry, or worried! The children know that they can come to us and tell us how they are feeling and we can help them be happy!

Our nursery children have been doing some amazing reflection in our Prayer and Liturgy this week. The children have been focusing on praying and the different ways we can pray to God. The children took a moment to pray for someone and listened to the music as they prayed.

Reptiles you say? What are they? They are cold-blooded and have no vertebra! Nursery children have enjoyed learning all about reptiles this week. Our classroom has been took over by snakes, lizards, crocodiles and alligators. They are everywhere! Hanging from our painting area, in our playdough area, there are so many, but we love them! Nursery children have been learning about each reptile. Nursery have been especially working extremely hard on their phonological awareness. The children have been clapping the syllables of each animal name and have even been working on clapping their own syllables in their name. 

Today children in Nursery have been exploring dinosaur skeletons and bones! The children made some lovely skeleton art using pasta and paper straws! 

Today we baked some tasty dinosaur cookies! Firstly, Nursery children made a list of all the ingredients that we needed to make sure Miss May had everything. Nursery children then helped Miss May with all the ingredients and helped to decorate the cookies. They were very tasty!

Today nursery children have been looking at all the places a dinosaur could have lived. We had different boxes that represented different areas. We had sticks for a forest, leaves for a plain, sand for a desert and water for the sea. Each child pretended to be a dinosaur and touched and smelt the different objects. Nursery were then asked what they could feel and smell. The children really enjoyed this activity and was able to tell Miss May which habitat they would like to live in if they were a dinosaur!

Our children in nursery have been creating some beautiful drawings and paintings of our new dinosaur friends. The children have been really focusing on the detail of the dinosaur and mixing colours to create the right colours.

Nursery children have been developing their cuttings skills using some dinosaur cutting skill sheets. The children have loved cutting along the lines of our dinosaurs! 

In Nursery we have been working really hard on our phonics. We have been focusing on the initial sounds of objects and our children are doing some super work!

Our Nursery children have really enjoyed playing in our small world tray and exploring all the different dinosaurs!

Today in our Prayer Liturgy we spoke about our Faith in God. We spoke about all the different ways that we can show faith in God and all the different ways we can talk to God. Children put their hands together and joined in with our prayer and said thank you to God for giving us strength and for helping us believe! 

This week children in Nursery have been exploring printing using bubble wrap. The children have enjoyed rolling the paint onto the bubble wrap and creating some wonderful dinosaurs! Don't they look amazing!

In RE this week, Nursery have been looking at the word Celebration! Our nursery children have been talking about all the events they celebrate at home with our family and all the events we can celebrate in church with our parish family. In nursery we even had our own weddings to explore the celebration of getting married in church. Nursery children really enjoyed dressing up and talking about what happens during a wedding! 

Today Nursery children welcomed Debbie the Dinosaur into our classroom! Debbie had finally hatched from her egg. All the children were very gentle with Debbie. Our children noticed that Debbie was a little slimy, wet and had spikes on her back. Debbie the Dinosaur is now back in the water to help her grow even more! 

Nursery children have been looking at what objects are in Miss May's box. Children found a p-i-g, a c-a-t, a h-a-t and a p-e-n. Children worked so hard to repeat the letter sounds! I wonder what Miss May will have in her box next time?

Nursery children have been exploring dinosaur footprints by placing the dinosaur's feet in paint and printing them onto the paper. Nursery children have also been drawing some amazing dinosaurs and mixing colours to paint their dinosaur.

This week in Nursery, we have been reading the story Harry and The Bucketful of Dinosaurs! The children have been developing their phonological awareness and have been clapping the syllables of different words in the story. Nursery children have also been exploring initial sounds such as b for bed and b for bucket. Nursery were really good at this! Nursery children have also been making marks and drawing their own items that they would like to put in their bucket! What would you put in your bucket?  

This week nursery have been working really hard on linking their numbers to amounts. Nursery children have been making groups of objects that match the number shown. The children especially enjoyed counting out dinosaurs!

Today Nursery class got sent an egg from Mrs Dinosaur. She wanted us to look after her precious egg. Children took it in turns to look at the magical egg and to guess what was inside it. Children felt how smooth the egg was. Mrs Dinosaur had told Miss May that everyone had to be very careful with the egg. Miss May mentioned how Mrs Dinosaur said that the egg must be kept in water so that it could hatch. Children helped fill up the water tank to make sure that the egg was safe. Everyday we are going to check on how our egg is doing. What do you think will be inside?

Children spent some time looking at different books. Children all sat in a circle and some children even shared the book they were reading with another friend! Children in nursery love to read different books! We love that they love to read and love books!

Children spoke about our Gospel Virtue of the week Patience. Children spoke about times they have been patient. Children mentioned about waiting for mummy and daddy to finish talking so they can talk, or waiting quietly to go and wash their hands for dinner. Children learnt about the importance of waiting and how we can wait and be patient when we want something. Children were reminded that when they feel tempted while waiting, they can always ask god to help them. Children's mission this week was to be patient, especially when waiting for their turn to play with different toys or when they are taking turns on the interactive whiteboard. Children also helped set up for our collective worship and helped put it all back where it belongs. Our nursery children are really helpful!

Children in nursery have been doing some amazing work in RSE. Children have been ready about Freddy Teddy and all the times he has not been ready to go out. Children have been looking at ways to look after their body, like eating healthy and washing their hands. Children especially liked when Freddy Teddy has chocolate ice cream all over his mouth. They knew he was not ready to go outside to play!

Children love to say their own prayers during provision. Children set out a blanket and lots of food for a picnic. Children then said thank you to God for all the food, like we say thank you in our after dinner prayer!

Today children took part in a prayer and liturgy all about kind words. Children focused on God's word and how it is important to be kind to one another and say nice things instead of hurtful things. Children spoke about all the kind words that they could say to someone. Children said that the nicest thing to say to someone is "I love you." At the end of our worship we prayed to God.

"For the times that we say harsh words...we are sorry."

Nursery children's mission is to carry on saying kind words and make someone's day, whether this is at home or in school!

Our Nursery and Reception children had a visit from a lovely lady from CAFOD! Children learnt all about Musa's life and were able to talk about how even though everyone is different we are all special! What a beautiful message!

During our Liturgy and Prayer we looked at being helpful. Children spoke about times they were helpful at home or helpful in school and remembered how God helps everyone. I set the children a mission of being helpful. In provision I saw children being even more helpful to one another and some children helped my put back our prayer area. Our nursery children are always helpful! 

Tuesday morning is Yoga time. While we are waiting for all our friends to join us, children take part in Yoga. This week children took part in some winter yoga. Children loved trying new things and enjoyed trying all the different yoga positions. I wonder what Yoga we will do next week!

Nursery have been enjoying the story Stickman! This week children have been working hard at rhyming and remembering the repeated refrain! Children have loved talking about the story and seeing what journey the stickman goes on. Children have particularly loved when the stickman has been reunited with his Lady Love and his children 3!

Nursery have been looking at lots of shapes this week. Children were particularly interested in the circle and making snowmen out of 3 different sized circles. Children talked about how the circle is round and that it has no straight sides. Children have been exploring shapes in playdough and making lots of circles.

Here at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Primary School we know and understand that starting school can be a very exciting adventure, with many new experiences along the way and, we care that sometimes we might need a little extra help and may also need to be a little extra brave when change is on the way. With this in mind, we want to reassure you that we are here to make sure that we support all of our families transitioning to school, to ensure that experiences are positive and happy when starting your educational journey with us.

We have already enjoyed meeting you all during our pre-summer 'stay and play' sessions and soon it will be time for our home visits. On Tuesday 6th and Wednesday 7th September we will be visiting you in the comfort and familiarity of your home to give us a chance to get to know each other better. This is a perfect opportunity to answer all of your questions, make personalised preparations for your school start and build strong, supportive relationships right from the start.

30 HOURS FUNDED CHILDCARE

Have you checked to see if you qualify for full time funding?

https://www.doncaster.gov.uk/services/schools/30-hour-free-entitlement

    What do you need every day for school?

* Full school uniform, including ties

* A full set of spare clothes in their back pack

* Intimate care supplies if necessary

* A water bottle with their name on     

* A packed lunch if staying all day

Please remember to label all children's belongings.

Fresh fruit, milk and water will be provided.