It may have been the wettest, windiest day of the year, but Nursery and Lower I children had the most exciting day of the year on Thursday 8^th December, when they visited Father Christmas at Eureka Children’s Museum.

Great anticipation surrounded the trip as we boarded the yellow bus, warmly wrapped up to guard us against the torrential weather.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once inside the museum we soon forgot the rain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This group of children headed straight to the garage where vehicles were repaired before being driven off to a variety of destinations.

 

 

 

 

 

This young driver said that he was driving to London.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Away we go!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marks and Spencer had their busiest shopping day of the season as The Gleddings’ children shopped until they dropped!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After all that spending, several trips to the bank became necessary.

 

Not one, but two bank managers were called in to thoroughly check the accounts!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before visiting Father Christmas, we explored the exciting play areas.  There was so much to see and do that the time rushed by very quickly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our own wonderful Chef Lizzie kindly prepared us our delicious packed lunches.  Eating on board a train carriage was great fun and all the running around the museum had given everyone a huge appetite.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After lunch we returned to the museum for the highlight of our visit – our journey to the North Pole.  We were met by Santa’s elves and listened to a Christmas story before meeting Father Christmas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Winter wonderland journey was amazing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Santa was waiting for us, with a gift for everyone.

 

 

 

 

THANK YOU FATHER CHRISTMAS!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our exciting day ended at 2.00 p.m. when, thoroughly exhausted but happy, we boarded the yellow bus to return to school.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mrs Armstrong has already asked Mrs Wilson if we may please go to Eureka again next year.  She, of course, said yes, so we will all look forward to December 2012!

The Nursery children have been having a wonderful time exploring their new school.

They have had lots of fun outside, exploring our extensive gardens and exciting outdoor play areas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the slide.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the willow structure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 By the pond and the vegetable garden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was tricky finding our way around the maze.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But we got there in the end.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s great to be able to make lots of noise on our outdoor djembes (African drums).

 

Concentration skills are developing all the time as we play and learn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mastering scissor skills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Learning to hold and use our pens correctly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Counting and matching.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Finding out about numbers. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 This little girl enjoyed reading a story to her nursery friends.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 We hope it has a good ending!

 

This week the Nursery children had some very special visitors.

Farmer Andy and Mia’s Mum brought Isabelle and Sunny back to school to see us.

We were all extremely excited to welcome them again; it was difficult to believe that they were the same fluffy yellow chicks who hatched in Nursery only last Easter.

Sunny had been our very first chick to be born so it was wonderful to see how much he had grown. Both he and Isabella were very well behaved; they let everyone have a gentle stroke of their feathers and we all agreed that they felt soft and warm.

Hopefully it will not be too long before we can have some of Isabella’s own fresh eggs!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nursery grow their own Easter Chicks.

We are delighted to announce the safe arrival of Sunny, our first newborn chick. He hatched on Wednesday 30^th March at 3.50 pm. Some of the Nursery and Lower I children where lucky enough to watch Sunny emerging from his shell. Great excitement continued on Thursday morning when we arrived at school to find that Sunny had 5 more brothers and sisters. During the day a further 4 chicks were hatched. Although the children had been very busy learning about what would happen to the eggs nothing could have prepared them for the amazement and excitement of actually seeing the live chicks developing.

Children from every class within school have paid regular visits to the Nursery classroom to check on the chicks’ progress.

 Each class were given the opportunity to ask questions and explore our knowledge of this part of a chicken’s life cycle.  We found out why the chicks were in a box and that the box was called an incubator. This keeps them warm as the mother hen would do in their natural environment.

We learned that chicks have a 21 day incubation period and can take up to 24 hours to hatch from the first movement. We also discovered that the hatchlings are born with an ‘egg-tooth’ on the end of their beak which they use to cut an incredibly straight line around the egg. We could not believe the size of them when they finally came out, there didn’t seem to be enough room within the egg shells. We managed to capture some wonderful moments on film so please enjoy our video.

In nursery the children know the importance of sharing and playing together fairly.

These two little boys are enjoying sticking squares to make a multicoloured pattern. All of the children in the Nursery class took turns in this sticking activity to make a fantastic giant multicoloured elephant.

 

 

 Our Nursery programme of learning for Creative Development includes lots of opportunities for imaginative pretend play.

Two children displayed great imaginary ideas as they treated the rest of the Nursery class to a wonderfully entertaining puppet show.  They received a huge round of applause and a very loud cheer at the end!

 

 

 The boys and girls love to play outside and enjoy the fresh air; we have lots of fun playing outdoor games.  Here the children are learning to recognize numbers during a sunny, winter afternoon game of skittles.

 Our Nursery children have made an excellent start. They love their new school and all of the exciting activities that are on offer.

 

 

Music lessons are great fun! We sang the ‘Five little monkeys jumping on the bed’ whilst making our toy monkeys jump!

 

 

We brought our teddies to nursery for a teddy bears picnic and they loved being at nursery too!

 

 

We have lots of fun playing whilst learning new skills.

This little girl is learning how to use the computer all by herself.

 

 

 

Painting is always popular. During our ‘Blue Week’ we used different shades of blue to create our masterpieces

 

 

Playing with pegs and boards helps us to learn about colours and patterns.

 

 

 

Do you like this fantastic tower?

 Nursery took part in the Maze Challenge.  We are raising money for the Tanzanian Orphans, Ravenscliffe School and the Crossley Heath Sports Hall. 

 

 

  It took us a little while to think about how to get to the middle of the maze

 

 

 

 

but WE DID!!!! 

 

We decided to feed the birds in our school gardens.

 

Everyone helped to make bird feeders to hang on the trees outside.  We each made a bird feeder to take home as well, so that we can help the birds in our gardens at home. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here, you can see us helping to hang the bird feeders on our school trees.

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Mr Hussain, the dentist, came into Nursery to talk to  us about taking care of our teeth.  He told us lots of interesting things.  We now know which foods are good or bad for our teeth.

 

All of us agreed that we will try even harder to brush our teeth very carefully.

 

It was really exciting finding out what it looks like inside a pumpkin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We cooked the pumpkin and made our own soup.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Everyone agreed that our soup was delicious.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yummy!  That was tasty!

Nursery children love designing and building with our giant wooden bricks.

 

Working collaboratively together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Balancing carefully!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peepo!  Look what we made!

 

 

 

 

 These children designed a special walkway.

 

 

“Steady everyone!” 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are taking great care to balance carefully.

 

 

 

 

 

“Yes!  I’ve done it!” 

 

 

 

 

 

“All aboard The Gleddings Express – I hope you know where we’re going Mr Train Driver!”