Term 6 - The Nest Explores Things That Go.

Friday 14th July 2023

This week we have been working on a BIG end of year project. It has been all about bringing all our learning together and creating our own story books.

We have thought about stories we like, and what makes them interesting. We created characters and settings. We have used adjectives, different sentence starters and even included similes! We have even been learning about position and direction in maths, which has helped us better describe what is going on to our readers. 

We took a short break from our story creation to learn about hovercrafts. Did you know they actually glide above the water? Oh, and there was obviously a fun messy play session with Mrs Minns too!

Look out for our finished stories next week!

Friday 7th July

​​​​​​​We have continued our 'Things That Go' topic and come all the way back to Earth, into the sea! This week we have been thinking about submarines, what things float and sink, and we created collages of things we might see on a submarine ride.

In maths we have completed our learning about money and the children have shown great progress with recognising coins and understanding their value. In literacy, we have been using instructions to make sandwiches and cakes. We talked about bossy words and used our instructions to help Miss Walker make a sandwich, but she kept getting it wrong! Then we had a go ourselves.

We ate our homemade sandwiches outside for a picnic on Wednesday, and afterwards we even got to join the rest of the school at sports day. It was so much fun taking part in races and cheering our team on!

Friday 23rd June 2023

Continuing on our theme of things that move, children of the Nest have been looking to the skies! Did you know that different things go higher and lower in the sky? We made our own propeller planes, talked about the clouds and how high different things can go, and then showed our knowledge with puffy paint clouds.

In messy play we made cloud dough and in literacy we pretended to go on a plane on holiday and have written post cards, which we will post next week, using our new money skills to buy the stamps.

Friday 16th June 2023

This term, we are thinking about 'Things That Go'. So far, we have been focussing on things that move on the land, how they move, and what they do.

This week we focussed on diggers. We have thought about using adjectives in writing to give more information, found out about different rock types in science, built our own diggers in topic (with moving parts!) and had a go at some excavating of our own! In maths, we have been learning about fractions, and how they must be equal and fair.

Well done Team Nest for working so hard with new learning!

Term 5 - The Nest finds out about People Who Help Us

Friday 26th May 2023

It has been a strange week in the Nest. We arrived Monday morning to find the room a mess and all our clocks stolen! All the adults in school were suspects!

The children became the police detectives, solving clues with the help of Detective Dave, to track down and arrest the clock thief! They had to work out time, take fingerprints, measure footprints and interview suspects.

Thankfully, on Friday, our Nest detectives arrested Mrs Gibson and recovered all our clocks, just in time to celebrate with a police officer's favourite snack... Home made doughnuts!

Well done Team Nest, have a well deserved half term break!

Friday 19th May 2023

This week, in the Nest, we have been learning all about how fire fighters help us.

We started the week by joining the Proud Puffins for a visit from the fire station, where we learnt about what fire fighters do, and some of the things they use. We had the chance to try out some of the equipment, including the jaws, big red key and, of course, the hose!

Full of excitement following the fire fighters visit, we threw ourselves into our literacy, thinking about our senses and writing our own stories about fire fighters. Just look at our independent writing!

Also this week, we have been learning about sharing equally in maths, practiced our reading and phonics, and had silly string fire extinguishers in messy play!

Another great week full of successes!

Friday 12th May 2023

It's hard to believe it has only been a 4 day week with the amount we have crammed in here in The Nest.

We have been thinking about lifeguards this week and how important water safety is. The children got stuck in quicksand for messy play on Tuesday, and then got stuck into our literacy!

We learned about arrays in maths and were lucky enough to have a visit from Darren at Routes to Food who helped us cook pesto chicken pasta. It was delicious!

We even learnt lifeguard skills in swimming!

The children said this was one of the most fun weeks ever!

Friday 5th May 2023

We are so excited about the coronation of King Charles here in the Nest! All week we have been learning about what will be happening and celebrating a wonderful piece of history in the making.

The children have been writing about the ceremony in literacy, creating the Union Jack flag, making crowns and even having a tea party food fight to round off the week!

Well done Team Nest, and have a great weekend celebrating the coronation with your loved ones.

Spring has definately arrived, the world is changing and becoming brighter... and so is The Nest!

Over Easter, our catterpillars hatched out of their chrysalises and became beautiful butterflies and our outside play area transformed into a fantastic space. (Thank you Mrs Minns and Miss Walker!) There are lots of things to investigate and play with, including water, a digging area, art zone and even a potions table! We cant wait until playtime each day now.

When we are not investigating outside, we have been working really hard with our learning. Our topic this term is 'people who help us' and we have learnt a new song, and discovered all about doctors, nurses, hospitals and dentists already! We drew skeletons and made plaster casts, in estigated elephant toothpaste and are practicing brushing our teeth.
 

In maths, we have been learning about time, and in phonics we are starting to use some really tricky sounds. All the children have moved up a level in reading and some are even ready to earn some swimming certificates. It is hard to believe we have only been back 2 weeks so far this term!

Well done Team Nest! You should be very proud.

Term 4 - The Nest Discovers Wonderful Rutland!

(Multum in Parvo)

Friday 31st March

This last week of term has been all about Spring and Easter. We made Easter crafts, planted spring flowers and created Easter nests from chocolate.

Have a fantastic Easter break everyone!

Thursday 23rd March

Spring has finally arrived, and with it, the Nest have been taking full advantage of new discoveries. Our catterpillars are growing big and look nearly ready to form their chrysalises, and the wet weather has brought out lots of other minibeasts too. The Nest children have been spending their playtimes hunting for worms and must have found nearly 100 between them!

The children continue to make us really proud in their learning. They have been producing some beautiful writing, and love improving their work. In maths, we have been learning about volume and capacity and in topic we designed our own Nest logo's.

Another fantastic week in the Nest!

Friday 17th March - RED NOSE DAY

The Nest children had the best Red Nose Day ever today!

We started with cooking, where we had to read the recipe and weigh our own ingredients to make shortbread red noses. Next, we had the messiest messy play ever, pretending to be Ospreys and getting paint EVERYWHERE! Then, after story we greeted our new caterpillars and made them at home in their butterfly enclosure. We even had time to do a colour experiment with skittles before home time.

Thursday 16th March 2023.

There has been no time to rest this week in the Nest! In maths we have been measuring things in different ways, like length, weight and capacity (as well as practicing shapes and counting on). Our writing continues to improve more and more in phonics and in our topic session we created horse shoe prints to look like the walls of Oakham Castle.

As if that wasn't enough, two children have moved up a level in their reading, and, because it is science week, we have been conducting investigations each day too!

On Friday we will be putting our maths and phonics learning together and using a recipe to bake some tasty Red Nose Day shortbread to round off a busy week.

Term 3 - The Nest investigates SPLENDID SKIES

We have had no time to rest in The Nest this week! Every student is feeling very proud of themselves for the massive progress they have made with their writing and their addition number sentences. We have been learning about shapes and finding circles, triangles and squares around our classroom and during play time we rescued minibeasts from the ice in our frozen water tub. We were really grateful for our Friday family breakfast of scrambled eggs and fresh fruit!

Despite the wet and windy weather this week, our brains have been on fire!
We are particularly proud of our maths this week, where we have been focussing on different ways to show number bonds to ten. We used tricky words like systematic and have gotten really good at writing number sentences too!

Throughout this week we have tried different foods for snack, including fruit covered in yoghurt, pancakes and even birthday cake (which was very yummy!) During free play times we have been thinking about cooperation and kindness, and we continue to set targets to improve ourselves every day!

GO TEAM NEST!

The Nest children have been so happy to return to school full of stories from their Christmas break! But we have had no time to sit back, throwing ourselves back into our learning with great enthusiasm!

This week we have already been recapping our letter formation and number bonds to ten, we have set our daily targets and even celebrated a birthday!

We can't wait to see how much progress we make this term!

Merry Christmas from Team Nest!
 

This week we had our christmas party, where everyone enjoyed sharing and playing games like musical statues, pass the parcel and pin the nose on Rudolf. We wore our Christmas jumpers and had a Christmas meal together (thank you Mrs Major!)

As if that wasn't enough fun, we also made cards, tree decorations and hot chocolate reindeer presents for our loved ones.

Everyone in the Nest is really excited for Christmas, and even though we will miss each other, we are now looking forward to a well earned break.

See you in 2023!

Children in the Nest have really excelled themselves this week.

Having welcomed Mrs Gibson, our new Nurture Lead, last week, we have had a lot of change in the room. The children have responded to these changes with enthusiasm and eagerness. We have really been thinking about how to help our friends, and ourselves to make good choices and enjoy our days at school. We role played Mrs Clause's kitchen, worked on handwriting, made gingerbread shapes and had great fun with the parachute outside. In amongst all of this, the children all completed progress assessments and showed off their learning brilliantly.

We have been so busy in the Nest this week! We have been thinking about how the seasons are changing to Winter and, of course, the run up to Christmas!

We showed empathy by thinking about what the animals need while the weather is cold and build a hedgehog nest in forest school, we made snow dough and snow scapes and learnt about how every snowflake is different, just like us.

We also welcomed Mrs Gibson into the Nest this week as our new Nurture Lead and we have enjoyed getting to know each other, Mrs Gibson says thank you for making her welcome and that she is really looking forward to working together.

Finally, we ended the week with a Christmas craft morning and baking fudge snowball cookies.

Another busy and fun filled week in the Nest! Well done everyone.

This week, in the Nest, we have been thinking about Autumn. We talked about the weather and colours we see, and went on an imagination adventure where we created our own sound effects to improve it. In maths the children have been adding using number lines and we made some lovely Autumn flapjack in cooking.

This week, in the Nest it has been all about Children in Need and Pudsey Bear.

We learnt about what a charity is and who they help, came up with some fun ways to raise money and even had a Pudsey boogie in music.

Children have been collecting pennies for Pudsey all week by being kind and helpful. We have been adding together to help Pudsey work out how many cakes he needs to sell, made spotty cupcakes and ended the week with a non-uniform day, bake sale and filling Pudsey with the pennies we collected through the week.

Remember, every penny is an act of kindness. Just look how kind the children have been!

This term, in the Nest, our topic is 'Beat, Bang, Boogie!'

With  Diwali and bonfire night both being celebrated this week, we have been thinking mostly about BANG!

The children have been creating firework pictures, learning about being safe and seen at night, and we have even made chocolate apples!

In addition to this, we have investigated number bonds, copying patterns and creating beat and rhythm with drums, plus so much more!