Holtsmere End Infant and Nursery School

'Willow'

Nursery Class
Mrs G Gladdy

Summer Term 2025

Summer 1 - how does your garden grow.pdf

W/c 05.05.25 Summer term 1

We have been naming parts of a plant using the words - seed, sprout, stem and flower and have continued to do observational paintings of a bunch of flowers. We read the story 'Jack and The Beanstalk' and learnt the key words - market, giant and giantess, and harp. We then ordered some pictures of the story.

In maths, we have been using words such as ‘in,’ ‘on,’ ‘under,’ ‘by’ and ‘next to’ to describe the position of something. We used a dinosaur in a cave to demonstrate this.

On Thursday we celebrated VE day and made poppies to display on the school playground. We listened to some songs and learnt the dance for The Lambeth Walk. In the afternoon, we had cakes and went onto the big playground to watch the older children sing some war time songs.

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W/c 28.04.25, Summer term 1

This week, we came into a mess on the classroom floor! There was soil, beans, a spade, plant pots and a rake. We tried to figure out what had happened and then Mrs Gladdy had an idea...could it have been Jasper from the book Jasper's beanstalk? We looked at all the equipment Jasper used in the story and realised that most of the things on the floor were from the book. Jasper wrote us a letter on Tuesday saying he was sorry to have made a mess but he was bringing us equipment to plant our own beans, then he heard a noise, dropped the equipment and then ran off. We have planted beans, talked about what plants need to grow and looked at the life cycle of a plant. We are looking forward to watching our beans grow over the next few weeks.

We have also been doing some observational drawings of flowers, thinking about the right colours we need to use. We have also been drawing flowers this week, by following numbered instructions.

Outside, we have continued to play in garden centre and have also tried to keep cool by putting our feet in some water in tough tray.

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W/c 23.04.25, Summer term 1

This week we have talked about our Easter breaks and discussed the meaning of Easter. We talked about it being a Christian celebration and discussed some of the symbols of Easter such as the cross, eggs and chicks. We then found a letter from the Easter bunny and had a hunt to look for Easter foam shapes. The bunny also left us some treats to take home at the end of the day. We have painted eggs and made eggs from playdough.

We read the story of George and the Dragon and talked about how brave George was.

We noticed that the frogspawn has gone in our pond and are hoping that the tadpoles are at the bottom of the pond, staying safe, and growing bigger every day. We discussed the life cycle of a frog and cut up pictures to make our own frog life cycles.

For Earth day on Friday, we talked about how we can look after our environment. We discussed recycling and reusing resources and made cress heads from plastics bottles and egg cartons. We also made our own flowers out of recycled materials.

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Spring Term 2025

W/c 31.03.25, Spring term 2

This week was our school's Art week where we have looked at the work of an artist called Lorna Simpson. Lorna is an American artist who made art from cut outs of old Ebony magazines that she got from her granny. We have made our own work this week, inspired by Lorna Simpson and have painted our own hair on our heads. We then looked through each other’s work and talked about what we liked about each piece of art. The children were really proud to see their art work in the school art gallery.

We have continued to discuss non-fiction books and have worked in small groups to find some facts and then share these facts with the rest of the class.

Outside, we have enjoyed playing with the eggs, chicks and bunnies from our Easter den. We have also completed an Easter hunt where we had to find pictures of Easter around the playground. We have decorated Easter eggs with cotton buds in paint and have also made bubbles with soapy water and pipe cleaners.

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W/c 24.03.25, Spring term 2

For seasonal change week, we discussed the weather and how the rain, known as 'April showers,' helps all the trees and flowers grow again. We then had to sort out Mrs Gladdy's daughter's clothes to see what she should wear in Spring as sometimes it can be very warm but often colder in the mornings and showery. We have been out in the garden looking for signs of Spring and found blossom on trees, frogs and frogspawn in our pond, daffodils and daisy had already started to grow, and the ground was dryer than in the Winter. We have also gone on a bug hunt and compared this to the mini-beasts we would see in the Autumn and Winter. This time we managed to see ants, caterpillars, butterflies, spiders, millipedes and beetles - a lot more than we found in winter!

On Monday, we took part in The Great British Spring Clean and discussed looking after our environment. We then went out with our litter pickers to collect as much litter as we could.

During our story of the week time, we have looked at non-fiction Spring books. We discussed the following words: spine, front cover, blurb, author, illustrator, title, contents page and index page.

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W/c 17.03.25, Spring term 2

This week was British Science Week. We have taken part in lots of different science activities including: - ‘camouflage caterpillars,’ ‘top of the crops,’ ‘be seen, be safe,’ ‘rocket reach’ and ‘let's create an animal.’

We looked at different vehicles and worked out whether they travelled in the air, on water, on track or on road. Our story of the week was 'Duck in a Truck' and we really enjoyed listening to all the rhyming words in the story. In maths, we have been looking at surveys. We completed a class survey on 'what is your favourite fruit?' We then went out to take part in a traffic survey. We found that cars were the most popular vehicle on the road outside our school.

Our story of the week was 'Oi! Get off our Train' by John Burningham. We started off the week talking about how trains have changed over time (colours, shape, carriage lay out, and that they used to be run on steam, but now most are electric). We completed a story map and have retold and acted out the story. We talked about why each of the animal wanted to get on the train and why they are in danger. We have been decorating trains using the technique of collage. We have also been drawing trains by following step to step instructions and dot-to-dot.

We had our ‘stay and play’ session on Wednesday where we enjoyed showing our adults around our classroom and garden areas.

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W/c 10.03.25, Spring term 2

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W/c 03.03.25, Spring term 2

Our story of the week was 'Mighty Maurice' by Emily Lloyd-Gale. Emily was our special visitor on Thursday for World Book Day. We were all so excited to meet her and listen to her read her own stories. We made our own antlers and had moustaches drawn on us so we looked like Mighty Maurice, the moose!

We learnt about pancake day where we got to toss a pretend pancake in a pan, and then decorated a pancake with toppings. We have also made our own pancake faces by cutting out bits of fruit and sticking it onto brown paper.

We have continued exploring space during our exploring time and have even gone on another space mission to mars. Some children wrote out their boarding passes and made a list of things we needed to take.

World Book Day Photos

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W/c 24.02.25, Spring term 2

We came back to find a rocket had crash landed in our role play area. There was a teddy, some boots, a colander and a small picnic. Then Geography Georgie (alien) turned up to see if she could help us figure out what had happened. Geography Georgie figured out that it could have been the bear from the story 'Whatever next!' We have read the story and acted it out.

We wrote letters to Geography Georgie and wondered what it was like on the moon and she bought an astronaut in to answer our questions. We learnt that the bumpy bits on the moon were called craters; that no animals live on the moon; and we would need space suits on if we went into space. We have also been on a space mission where we travelled into space and learnt about some of the planets. We learnt that Mercury was the smallest planet;

Venus was the hottest planet, Jupiter was stormy and Uranus was really cold.

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W/c 10.02.25, Spring term 1

Our story of the week was 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' and we have looked at the life cycle of a butterfly. We learnt that caterpillars hatch out from eggs, then make themselves a cocoon where they form into a butterfly. We have learnt the word 'symmetrical' and have made symmetrical butterfly pictures from folding paper in half. We have also sung the days of the week song and have talked about the word 'today' and 'yesterday.' During exploring time, we have been making caterpillars from playdough and loose parts.

Our nursery rhyme of the week was – Ring-a-ring-a-roses.

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W/c 03.02.25, Spring term 1

Our story of the week was 'The Gingerbread Man.' We have made maps for The Gingerbread man and then made an obstacle course to represent our maps and The Gingerbread man's journey. We have baked Gingerbread people and decorated them, and we have also painted our own Gingerbread people.

Our nursery rhyme of the week was - The Grand Old Duke of York.

For Children's mental Health week, we have spent some time looking at the emotions: sad, happy, frustrated and excited. We have talked about how we can recognise how someone is feeling by looking at their face. For example, if someone is frustrated, they are likely to have a frown, or if someone is happy, they are likely to have a smile on their faces. We have made a feelings wall where we can move our faces to an emotion to help children identify their own emotions. We have talked about how emotions can changes throughout the day and all emotions are normal.

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W/c 27.01.25, Spring term 1

To learn about the celebration of Chinese New Year, we have made Chinese food in the playdough, we have tried some Chinese food, made lanterns by following instructions and have also decorated lanterns with collage materials. Some of us have dressed up in Chinese clothes and we have also watched and danced to the dragon parade. Our story of the week was 'The Lunar story' which tells the story of how the Jade Emperor announced an animal race to decide the order of the Zodiac. The children have listened to the story and retold it by looking at pictures and playing with the animals in the water.

We learnt that those celebrating Chinese New Year clean their house then decorate it. They also wear red because they believe this is the colour of good luck, and they have a special dinner using chopsticks with their families.

Outside, we have been using chopsticks to pick up pom poms and have been counting out the right number of pom poms to match the numeral on the boxes.

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W/c 20.01.25, Spring term 1

We have looked at the book 'The Rainbow Fish.' Our key words were ordinary, dazzling, emerged, advice, discover and peculiar. We discussed how the story might have been different if the Rainbow Fish did not get the advice from the octopus. We also talked about whether or not we would share our scales if we were The Rainbow fish. We have been making collage Rainbow fish and have also been drawing them. We have making fish out of playdough and using the loose parts to create their scales.

Our rhyme of the week was 'A sailor went to sea.' We discussed what animals we might see if we went to visit the sea. We have had the pirates and ships out this week with our treasure chests containing treasure. We had water animals out and nets in the water.

Outside, some of us have continued to enjoy making maps to go on pirate adventures. We have been enjoying obstacle courses again and have also played with boats in the gelli baff.

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W/c 13.01.25, Spring term 1

This week we have read 'The Gruffalo.' Our key words were: stroll, roasted, knobbly, poisonous, astounding and prickles. We have been making the characters from the story in the playdough, using little sticks and googly eyes.

Our nursery rhyme of the week was 'Miss Molly had a Dolly.' We had the doctor’s role-play out this week and the children have had fun 'looking after their patients.'

We have looked at colour mixing this week and have been mixing two colours to make a new one with the paint. We have also been exploring this with coloured water in the water trays, using pipettes ad small pots to mix colours.

We also had lots of fun on our seasonal change day where we were looking out for signs of winter. We noticed most leaves had fallen off the trees and we could not see any flowers. We also only found worms, slugs and millipedes on our mini-beast hunt.

Outside, some of us have been drawing maps which lead to pirate play. Some children made a house and then used their maps to go and take back their treasure that the pirates had stolen off of them.

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W/c 06.01.25, Spring term 1

The children have had a great first week back!

Our story of the week has been 'The Three Little Pigs' and the children have enjoyed playing with the pigs from our story book. They have also decorated their 'own house' made out of cardboard. We have made houses from cutting and sticking windows, doors and rooves. We have also helped the little pigs pack their suitcase and had to count out the right amount of items for them.

Our rhyme of the week was 'The Wheels on the Bus.' We have played with the buses and maps and have been talking about the buses journey using prepositions such over, under, through, by.

Throughout the week, we have talked about our Christmas break and some of our favourite memories or presents and have drawn these on paper.

Outside, we have enjoyed playing with the ice, pouring warm water over it to watch it melt, chipping away at ice and also brushing the ice to clear it.

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Autumn Term 2024

W/c 09.12.24, Autumn term 2

This week we have started talking about Christmas and how it is celebrated. We talked about what some of the decorations represent. For example, the star at the top of the tree is to represent the star of Bethlehem, or the angel on top of the tree is to represent Angel Gabriel. We also talked about giving gifts and cards at Christmas time shows others that you are thinking of them over the festive time. We then had so much fun decorating the classroom. On Friday, we had our Deco morning where we took part in lots of Christmas activities.

Our story of the week was 'The Christmas Story,' where we learnt about baby Jesus being born. Our key words were - stable, manger, inn keeper, shepherd and carpenter.

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W/c 02.12.24, Autumn term 2

This week we been have learning about 2D shapes and looking out for them in our environment. We have talked about how many sides and corners each shape has.

We have also looked at the painting 'Wheatfield with crows' by Vincent Van Gogh for art week. We have discussed how the painting makes us feel, what colours we can see, and the reasons why we like, or do not like the painting. We then learnt how to use the side of the crayon to get a large bit of colour on our picture and then use the tip of our crayon to add detail. All children were asked to make a picture for the art gallery. Some children chose to use crayons, some decided to use paint but all children were really proud of their final art piece. We have also been learning how to use the iPads carefully by playing a shape game.

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W/c 25.11.24, Autumn term 2

This week we have been playing lots of listening games which are also a great way to keep warm outside in the colder weather. We have played the traffic light game, follow the leader, Simon says and the bean game.

We have been learning some new nursery rhymes this week and have read the book 'Dear Mother Goose.' We talked about what problems the characters may have had and what we could do to try and help them. For example, we discussed that Humpty Dumpty kept falling off the wall and some children suggested that we could put a trampoline at the bottom so he does not crack on the hard floor. We also said Incy Wincy Spider could build a shelter to stop him getting wet when the rain comes.

Outside, we have sung the nursery rhyme, 'London Bridge is falling down,' and tried to build a bridge in our construction area. We talked a lot about keep safe and asking "Is it safe?" when building. We looked at building on a flat surface and then testing our construction to make sure it was not slippery and flat.

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W/c 18.11.24, Autumn term 2

What a cold, icy week it has been! The children have loved exploring the ice, finding ways to break and melt the ice. The children have tried using play tools such as hammers, utensils such as spoons, knives and forks, and things from around the garden such as spades and crushing the ice with the bottoms of cups, pots and pans. Our story of the week was ‘Pattern fish,’ so we have been creating repeating AB patterns with the loose parts and other resources from around the classroom. We even created our own patterns with the children (for example, sit - stand - sit - stand). We have also been creating AB patterns with the different coloured play dough.

We have also learnt some key words to other nursery rhymes this week in preparation of our story of the week for next week. We have learnt and sung: London's bridge is falling down, Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Mary Mary Quite contrary, Jack and Jill went up the hill and Humpty Dumpty. We have also started to practice our Christmas songs for our Christmas carol performance.

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W/c 11.11.24, Autumn term 2

We started off the week learning about Remembrance day and why we wear poppies. We completed a few different poppy activities including making poppies with playdough, cutting along lines to get to poppies and also making them from green lolly sticks and red cup case cases. We have been counting to 10 and recognising numbers to 10, some of us have also been able to match quantity to numeral. We have been completing the obstacle course on the climbing frame and learning how to use the equipment safely. We ended the week with learning about children in need and decorating our own spotty biscuits.

Our story of the week was 'Goldilocks and The three Bears' and we have looked at ordering in size, using the bowls and spoons to order in big, medium and small. We then ordered the bears and a few children in height order, using the key words, tallest, medium, shortest. We have sequenced the story and also retold the story by acting it out wearing headbands.

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W/c 4.11.24, Autumn term 2

What a busy first week back we have had! We have learnt about Diwali and looked at the colours and patterns in Rangoli patterns and mehndi’s. We have learnt about fireworks and talked about the colours and sounds they make when they explode in the sky. We have learnt about keeping safe when watching fireworks and using sparklers and have also held our own sparklers. We then had our seasonal change day on Thursday where we went out to collect leaves of different colours and found these colours on our colour chart. We talked about the changes in autumn and also about animals who might hibernate during autumn. We also completed a mini beast hunt to see what mini beasts we could find in the autumn. We had great fun playing with the leaves, we even buries Mrs Hollis in leaves.

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W/c 21.10.24, Autumn term 1

This week we have been reading the story 'Dear Zoo.' We have thought about the reasons why the animals would not be suitable pets and had to be sent back to the zoo. We then made our own 'Dear farm' stories as a group. We have made zoos and farms in our construction area, using the blocks to make enclosures for the animals. We have looked at the large weighing scales in the garden and have used them to compare two items, looking at which one is heavier and which one is lighter. in our loose parts area, we have been rolling the dice and then recreating the patterns with loose parts.

Outside, we have enjoyed leaf painting, potion mixing, making our own obstacle courses.

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W/c 14.10.24, Autumn term 1

This week we have been reading 'Handa's surprise.' We have looked at the fruit from the story describing how they feel, smell and taste. Some of us have drawn the fruits too. We have been playing ‘doctors’ and helping our friends feel better. We have continued to make cakes and count the candles and decorations on top of our cakes. Our nursery rhyme of the week was 'Incy Wincy Spider' and we have been looking at rhyming words. We have enjoyed using the instruments while singing along to different nursery rhymes.

Outside, we have enjoyed scooping out pumpkins, making obstacle courses and exploring our mud kitchen. We also went on a mini beast hunt and found woodlice, worms, slugs and spiders.

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W/c 07.10.24, Autumn term 1

This week we have been practicing how to use the paint resources (remembering to wear an apron, not mix the colours, use the water properly to clean our brush and put our work on the drying rack). We have turned our playdough table into a bakery and have been busy making cakes, and counting candles and decorations on top. We have been using loose parts around shapes.

We have been reading the story 'We're going on a bear hunt' and we have made maps of the characters journey. We have sung the nursery rhyme 'Jack and Jill went up the hill' and have starting learning about rhyming words.

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W/c 30.09.24, Autumn term 1

In Willow class this week we have been continuing to use the words: tall, short, taller, shorter, and the same to describe height. We have been practicing to count accurately by placing one object down as we count and we have continued to recite numbers to 5.

We have been looking at patterns: copying patterns in our writing tray, making patterns in loose parts; and looking at the patterns and marks left when we press items into the playdough.

We have also been practicing how to use the glue sticks properly (lid off, twist, spread, lid on, put away).

Outside, we have been enjoyed conker rolling, playing in the new role play area which is now a tea room, and we have been paying with magnets.

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W/c 27.09.24, Autumn term 1

What a wet week it has been! The children have really enjoyed exploring the garden. We have been practicing putting on our coats and wellies independently and have enjoyed splashing in puddles and squelching in the mud!

This week our main focus has been on our families. We have looked at our family pictures and talked about them in small groups. We have all enjoyed watching our family wall grow with pictures.

We have been practicing the skill of scooping, filling and emptying. We have been scooping up the water and filling pots using funnels; we have been using spoons to scoop rice and fill bottles; and we have been scooping up sand and treasure and using the sieves to collect treasure from the sand.

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W/c 20.09.24, Autumn term 1

The children have settled exceptionally well and have had a great first full week in nursery. Our main focus has been on familiarising ourselves with the indoor and outdoor environments, getting to know the children's key workers and understanding the rules to help keep us safe. We have also been using mirrors to identify features of our face (hair and eye colour, length of hair etc.) and draw self-portraits. In maths, we have been reciting numbers to 5.

Nursery Rhymes

Nursery rhymes are important for young children because they help develop an ear for language. Both rhyme and rhythm help children hear the sounds and syllables in words, which helps children learn to read! The teachers have chosen some nursery rhymes for you to share with your child. There are links to the rhymes on You tube if you are unfamiliar with them. Enjoy!

Hey diddle diddle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJiw-edttDY

Baa baa black sheep

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MR5XSOdjKMA

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n38kGst16sI

Humpty Dumpty

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n_J2z-ILXo

Hickory dickory dock

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGgsklW-mtg

Sing a song of sixpence

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26yFO5lnkgU