22 Street Lane Nursery - June 2019 Newsletter

June Newsletter

Swans The Swans have been very busy throughout May and have celebrated a number of exciting times. At the start of May the Swans celebrated the Tour De Yorkshire by participating in their very own Tour de 22 Street Lane. Some of the children brought in their own bikes in preparation for the race, and all the children tried their best dodging the obstacles and going as fast as they could! The Swans have also been learning all about Greece; our country of the month and have been taking part in lots of creative activities linked to this including: making marks in blue and white sensory trays, creating their own leaf god and goddess crowns, and designing their own Greek flag collages! We have also been focusing on traditional fairy tales learning about Jack and the Beanstalk, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and The Gingerbread Man, along with many other stories. The children have been measuring the length of various beanstalks and counting how tall they are by comparing it to the number of cubes. This has really helped children to improve their knowledge and understanding of length and has also encouraged the children to begin using rulers, which we have been using throughout other creative activities. As baking has been another big part of our month this month, we have enjoyed creating our own Gingerbread Men biscuits, linking to some of the children’s fantastic story sequencing work they have been doing with Elizabeth on a Monday. During May the children were also lucky enough to participate in a traditional 'Shabbos' Friday night service, as one of the parents came in, and showed the Swans the traditional Jewish Friday Night customs, including how to light the candles, what they like to eat, and why those foods are important. The children have really enjoyed learning about another religion and its customs asking lots of interesting questions and even trying some yummy 'challah bread' and chicken noodle soup! We have also been placing more emphasis on Phonics this month, beginning to talk about starting school and encouraging more mark making in order to improve school readiness. We have been looking over all the sounds we have learnt and trying to blend and segment sounds, starting to read and write simple words. We have also continued this learning through lots of sensory trays with different materials such as: pasta, noodles, shaving foam, salt and even coloured sand, challenging the Swans to write their names and other shapes or letters independently, handling lots of different mark making tools. The children had such a fantastic time at Meanwood Valley Urban Farm last week, and so decided they wanted to continue learning about animals but now begin focusing on animals that live in other habitats, with our first focus being the jungle!

Swans