Nursery | Anthony Bek Community Primary and Nursery School

Welcome to Anthony Bek Nursery!

2019/ 2020

Bek the Bunny is our nursery rabbit and he likes to spend time with everyone. You may even be able to take him home!

Take a look at the parent guide developed by the Department for Education - What to expect when. It outlines different milestones and developmental expectations throughout the early years. It is broken down into age bands which overlap because children do not all develop at the same rate. If you need any support or have any questions, we are always happy to arrange a meeting with you.

What to Expect When

What to Expect When Parent Guide.pdf

We celebrated Chinese New Year - The Year of the Rat by trying some Chinese food such as sweet and sour sauce, rice, vegetable chow mein, prawn crackers and noodles. We also read the story of the Great Race and talked about the different animals and the position that they finished the race. The children really enjoyed tasting different foods and the prawn crackers were definitely the most popular. We talked about our likes and dislikes and listened to those of others. We also talked about similarities and differences in the way we celebrated New Year and how people who observe Chinese New Year celebrate. Jan 2020

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2020 and to our new children starting at Anthony Bek Nursery.

Christmas Eve in the Toy Shop

Our Foundation Stage Nativity this year was called Christmas Eve in the Toy Shop. The children worked so hard to remember all of their dances and lines to say. If you came it to see it, I'll think you'll agree that the children did a wonderful job!

We're going on a sound hunt!

The children explored our school environment and listened for sounds. We could hear the rain on the ground and coming down the drains, we could hear the cars on the road, the phone in the office, our older friends in school and the builders' radio! We even had a little dance to the music. Nov 19

For Children in Need 2019, we dressed in bright, neon colours. The children brought in their spare change to donate to the charity and we added it to the large Pudsey face in our school hall to see how much was donated from everyone in school. The children engaged in activities such as cutting cakes, Pudsey painting and talking about where all of our donations will go.

We were given a large cardboard box which evoked lots of imagination, curiosity and exploration. The children collectively decided that we needed to fill it and send it back to where it came from. This sparked conversation about where it came from, how we would get it back there and how long it would take. The children made a 'train' with all the chairs from around nursery. We then looked at a map of the United Kingdom. I closed my eyes, moved my hand around and the children told me when to stop. Whichever place my finger landed on was our next destination. We talked about North, East, South and West, near and far and past experiences in the places which the children recognised. Nov 19

Magical Moments!

A group of the children in nursery took themselves into our cosy reading room. They each chose a story and some independently looked through the book, turning the pages and exploring the pictures whilst others used their prior knowledge of familiar stories to retell the tales and include their own imagination. Nov 19

Spooky! We have been thinking about Halloween. We have read the story - 'Room on the Broom' by Julia Donaldson and exploring activities related to it. We have used the language of more and less when thinking about the animals trying to fit on the witch's broom, we have been finishing rhymes whilst reading the rhyming story and we have experimented in our water trays by mixing colours and materials to make potions. We even had our very own potion lab in nursery! Oct 19

In P.E, we have been experimenting with different ways of moving, our balance and our co-ordination. The equipment helps us to realise that tools and equipment can be used for a purpose and also teaches us to handle and access equipment safely. The children showed patience, determination and worked on many skills whilst participating with the session. Well done, Nursery! Oct 2019

On Friday 18th October, we celebrated TT Rock Stars Day. The purpose of the day was to engage in mathematical activities and compete with peers by taking part in times table challenges. Although we love mathematical activities in nursery, we're not quite ready for times tables so we explored lots of different mathematical activities around our environment and danced to number songs at the end of the session. The children wore some fantastic outfits! Rock on!

When children start nursery at Anthony Bek, we begin the Phonics journey by exploring and learning through Phase 1 of Letters and Sounds. This involves games, songs, stories, movements and music which enables children to distinguish between different sounds they can hear and make in different ways. We explore this throughout several different activities and areas of learning such as using Rainbow wands, playing games such as 'Giant's Keys', listening to and identifying animal sounds, singing rhyming songs and reading rhyming stories, playing instruments, making sounds with our body bodies and the list goes on. This stage of phonics is vital as it forms the basis of being able to hear letter sounds in words.

Letters_and_Sounds_-_DFES-00281-2007.pdf

We use our bodies to make sounds, we listen to the sounds in the environment, we play games and create large and small movements during play in order to form the basis for reading and writing.

All of the nursery children were very surprised when they arrived and found a letter from Baby Bear! He was lost and asked the children to help him find Mummy and Daddy Bear. They packed a bag of things that they might need whilst searching and went out into the 'woods' in search of the missing bear.

To accompany our Harvest theme, we have been reading the Traditional tale of The Little Red Hen. We made some playdough together and talked about the importance of helping each other and sharing. The children have also been exploring a tough tray to retell the story themselves.

It is so important to instill a love of reading with your child. Sharing a bed time story is a perfect opportunity to share stories and begin to teach your child the early skills for reading. Take a look at this website for more information and advice.

Getting ready for reading.

Thank you all to everyone who came to our Harvest Stay and Play. We had some lovely activities such as face painting, pumpkin and owl pictures, glitter tattoos, biscuit decorating and of course, our wonderful Harvest singing performance!

Week beginning 7th October 2019

This week, we have been on some number hunts. We have been looking in and around the nursery environments and around school too. We have focussed on the numbers 1 and 2 so far and have found them in all sorts of places! Take a look at some of these discoveries!

Week Beginning 30th September 2019.

This week we have been reading the book - Owl Babies by Martin Waddell. We have been thinking about ourselves and families and the children have taken an interest in babies and animals. Therefore, we thought we would read a book which tells the story of 3 baby owls who thought they were lost and had been left by their mother. It all ends with a happy ending when Mummy Owl returns to her 3 Owl Babies. We have been talking about adult animals and their babies such as elephants and penguins too. We have learnt some new animals baby names. Ask your child if they can remember any.

We have also been having a go a 'transient art'. We used the materials that had been mentioned in the Owl Babies book such as feathers and twigs plus a few others such as pine cones and corks. With these different materials, we laid them out in the frames and created pictures. We also talked about the non-permanence of the pictures and how we could take it all apart and start again if we wanted to.

This week in Wellie Wednesday, Mummy bear went out searching for Baby Bear! She searched high and low and she even took a bag with her for the long journey. In her bag she had a telescope, a banana, a drink, a blanket, a toy and a phone. Why do you think she would have taken all those things? (25.9.19)

Funnybones by Janet and Allan Ahlberg

Week beginning 23rd September 2019

This week we have been thinking about our bodies and our skeletons. We have tried moving them in different ways whilst playing outside and doing P.E. We have also tried making our own skeletons using white art straws. We have so many bones in our body that it was tricky to stick them all on!

Our story this week has been Funnybones by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. The children have been joining in with the repeated refrains and have enjoyed singing the Skeleton dance song at the end of the day.

We are currently thinking about ourselves and our families. The children have loved looking at our family display which shows family photos. They have also been painting and drawing pictures of themselves by experimenting with marks.

Week beginning - 16th September 2019

This week we have been into our school hall to develop our gross motor skills. We experimented with different animal movements such as walking tall like a giraffe, jumping like a frog and running like a cheetah.

As always, we followed the children's interests and they decided they would like to make some jelly. We talked about how we might do it first. Then we opened a packet and began to tear the cubes apart. The children used vocabulary such as slimy, soft, smooth, sticky, squashy and slippery to describe its texture. We then thought about keeping ourselves safe when using different appliances such as the kettle. The next day, once the jelly had set, some of the children tried the jelly and it was delicious!

Wellie Wednesday

We have started Wellie Wednesday with Miss Leverton and Miss Monks. This week the children found lots of different coloured things in the environment to attach to our colour wheels. We have displayed them in nursery - come in and take a look!

Week beginning - 9th September 2019

We started our first week by welcoming our new children to Anthony Bek nursery. They all settled in beautifully and have been super busy exploring our environments and developing their interests. Take a look at some of our photos.

Take a look at our Big Picture to find out what our topic is and how we will be exploring it over this half term. The theme is 'Magical Me' and we will begin by thinking about ourselves and our families.