Welcome to Little Lambs
Spring 1
What a fantastic start to the year we’ve had. Our New Year's goal is to improve our Physical Development. Along with other activities we have started The Monday Mile! We begin each week walking in our local area for at least one mile. This has become a popular event with parents, grandparents and siblings joining us and not only are we getting fit but also learning about the world around us.
Our Maths lessons have also taken us out in the local environment. We have made triangles in the woods and learnt about their properties and noticed patterns on the beach using rocks and footprints in the sand. We also had great fun making circles!
Our reading spine has been as exciting as always. We have explored winter using the nonfiction book - Let’s Look At Winter; Harry and the Dinosaurs led us to learning new vocabulary about electricity and robots; and we explored Giraffes Can't Dance through exercise and dance!
We also had the responsibility of looking after Poppy the rabbit for the day. Poppy brought us a story about the the great race. We learnt that this year is the year of the rabbit.
Autumn 2
Our favourite time of the year! We began the half term looking at our families and ourselves as babies. We learnt that a long time ago our teachers and parents used to be babies and talked about how we have grown.
We have also really impressed our teachers with our super subitising skills! We had great fun exploring all kinds of natural resources that we found on our trip to How Tun Woods. Whilst looking at our environment we collected lots of natural treasures to bring back to school with us. Once back at school we independently sorted the items into groups that we later used to help us subitise.
One of our reading spine books was all about our senses. We learnt that we have 5 senses and took part in fun and exciting activities to help us learn about each of them. Our favourite was taste! We tried lots of yummy fruit and vegetables to see which ones tasted the nicest.
Along with many other activities we have taken part in, our older children also completed Bucket Time! Bucket time is a programme we use over the Autumn term. It builds up attention, listening skills and helps us to sit for short periods of time. This gets us ready for our longer phonics sessions next term. It has been commented on, by people from outside settings, that we are excellent at listening and paying attention.
We ended the term with our Nativity, Christmas party and whole school trip to the panto. Everyone agreed we were the cutest little lambs and preformed our song brilliantly!
Autumn 1
We have had a fantastic start to the term. We are really happy to see all of our friends and to welcome new ones.
We have had great fun exploring the books in our reading spine. Before reading each story our Key Workers taught us the vocabulary we were going to hear. We read Dear Zoo at the Zoo! Based activities around scenes in the stories and even incorporated the books in our weekly YoKids sessions!
One of our Topics this half term was Autumn. We have been finding out about Autumn and exploring the weather. We went on an Autumn walk and had great fun using our windy day box. Some of us even made our own kites to fly in the wind.
We also began our, 'Wiggle Me Into Squiggle' programme. We have been getting really messy and can already see improvements in our gross and fine motor skills.
Summer 2 2022
Over our final weeks in Little Lambs we have celebrated with our families. We all came together for our first sports day and learnt that the winners are the children who have the most fun. Even our Mums, Dads and teachers took part in the races.
We also went on our school trip. After reading the book Superworm, last half term, we furthered our learning by visiting Grizedale Forest and completing the Superworm activity trail.
To our surprise, a special delivery of bikes arrived. After only a short time some of us progressed to two wheeled bikes and can now ride with no stabilisers. Everyone was very impressed with our progress.
The school year ended with our families and friends. We preformed the story, Giraffes Can’t Dance by Gilles Andreae and each acted out a scene from the book. Then we celebrated our time in nursery, on the school field, with our families.
We had some lovely feedback from parents and are very proud of each and every one of our children.
“**** is going to miss you all so much! You've all been absolutely fantastic with her, I couldn’t thank you enough! What an amazing morning it was too”
What a beautiful assembly. Thank you for everything you have all done over the years. ***** will definitely miss being a Little Lamb after being one for so long now. I'm sure all of them will be regular visitors next year.
Summer 1 2022
What an exciting time we have had over the last few weeks. We had a surprise delivery which included a new book - The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle and some baby caterpillars for us to look after. We watched them grow, spin cocoons and transform into beautiful butterflies.
We also really enjoyed celebrating Eid Mubarak. One of our friends went to visit his family for this celebration and we decided to find out all about it. Some older children in the school came to talk to us about the festival and why it is celebrated. One of our parents made sweet gifts for every child. When asked what Eid Mubarak was one of our children replied, "It is about celebrating love and kindness."
In addition to this, we used our name cards to vote for which story we would like each day during National Story Telling Week, created a worm world linked to Julia Donaldson's Superworm and celebrated the Jubilee.
Spring 2 2022
What a busy time we have been having in Little Lambs. We began our half term focusing on being healthy. We learnt about not only keeping our bodies healthy, but also our minds. During this week we dug out our own planter to prepare it for growing vegetables in, took part in story massage and had a special trip to our local leisure centre. Some of us had never been to the leisure centre before and are all hoping to go back very soon.
We also celebrated World Book Day. This year this was based around the book 'Journey' by Aaron Becker. Just like in the book we drew a red door and talked about what magical land would be behind the door. To our astonishment, the next day, we had our own red door in class! Each day there was a different world behind the door and new books for us to read!
Along with spending lots of time outside we have also been learning about animals and what their young are called. This resulted in a trip to a local farm to see some real baby animals. We learnt lots from this experience and had a fantastic time.
Spring 1 2022
We began the new year by talking about British Values. We each used our mini me figures to vote on what outfits we would like to be out in continuous provision over the half term, what stories to read each day, and talked about how everyone had the right to their vote and choice regardless of what their friends picked.
During our phonics lesson our friend Metal Mike has been helping us with alliteration and oral blending and segmenting. This sparked a lot of interest around robots and how they work. We were lucky enough to to have 3 robot visitors in class and learnt all about how they need electricity to work, that electricity runs through wires and that the electricity created sound, movement and light in our robots. This led to us each designing and making our very own robots to take home! On of our children went home and told Mum all about it. She talked about it each night and wanted to continue the topic at home.
We were also lucky enough to go on two trips! Our first trip was to Ormsgill Reservoir. Before setting off on our trip we looked at where we were going on Google Maps. Our school looked strange on here, but we were unsure why. We compared the school on the picture to how it looks now and found that the fence used to be green not bright and colourful! We then looked at our own houses and found that they also looked different.
We then walked along the field to the Reservoir and took our mini - me viewers with us. We used these to help us look at the environment and notice detailed features along the way.
Our second trip was to How Tun Woods. We could not believe the difference in the woods since we last visited! The trees had no leaves on them and the once stoney path was now muddy and wet. We took our mini - me viewers with us and not only looked at our surroundings, but drew them around ourselves. We hope to go back and visit again next term to see what changes we can find!
We also took part in National Story Telling week. We explored our school library, read lots of books and were very excited when we actually became authors for the day! We told and illustrated our own stories that are going to be made into a real book for our reading area! When the book arrives we are going to share it with our families and friends.
Autumn 2 2021
We have had the best half term! We began with a visit from a local dentist. We learnt all about the importance of brushing our teeth and what kinds of food and drink are good for us. All of the children were given a goody bag including tooth paste, a tooth brush and a two minute timer. We challenged them to send in pictures of themselves using these items and gave dojo points each time a picture was received.
The next week was National Nursery Rhyme week. Our Little Lambs worked super hard and managed to learn all 5 rhymes with actions! To celebrate we had a special visitor in class - our very own sleeping bunny for the day! Blossom was very well behaved and the children took this opportunity to learn how to look after her and find out all about her needs.
Towards the end of the term we thought Christmas had come early! We had an order of new furniture and equipment! Our nursery is now looking even more amazing than it did! The children have all enjoyed exploring the resources and the new layout that has been created.
At the end of term our Little Lambs were super excited with Christmas approaching so, we decided to try Story Massage. We really enjoyed taking part in Story Massage and learnt the ten massage movements. This was not only extremely relaxing, but also teaches us about positive touch. We will be continuing these stories over the next term.
A member of our school family commented, "I can absolutely vouch for how wonderful this school is, the children are all very lucky to have such caring and fantastic staff around them and the children are very happy in St Pius with the creative and fun ways of learning. Children are often very over stimulated in their daily lives with screens etc so learning how to relax is so important for their well-being. I think this is absolutely fantastic.
Autumn 1 2021
This half term we welcomed our new friends into class and everyone settled in really quickly. One of our parents sent a message thanking all staff for how quickly her little one settled in, 'I would just like to put forward my teacher appreciation. So many great things to mention, but ultimately my child loves coming to school and being a Little Lamb so thank you for making her feel at home and happy.'
During our second week in class something very exciting happened. We had surprise package that contained a new book called, 'There's a Dragon in my Book.' Each day we would receive new and exciting gifts that linked with our book. This has sparked a lot of excitement in reading and the children have gone on to read and enjoy another 4 books by Tom Fletcher.
We have also really enjoyed taking part in various themed days. We had great fun on Roald Dahl day. Our activities were themed around the 'Enormous Crocodile' and we even learnt a song about him. On National Poetry Day we preformed one of the 5 poems that we have learnt, by heart so far this term, and shared the poem with our families and on Art Day we painted 'The Starry Night' by Vincent Van Gogh - it was great fun.
Other activities this term included our own story telling sessions. We each get the opportunity to tell a story to an adult who writes it in a special book. Later in the day we preform our story on the 'stage' in front of our friends. Our stories started off with one or two words in them and have now progressed to small paragraphs and it is super fun acting them out!
One of our parents said, "******" confidence has grown so much since starting Little Lambs just 2 months ago. He was always quite shy and reserved in front of an audience until we went to a party at the weekend and he got up and sang in front of the room on the microphone (he never would of done this 6-12 months ago) - Noah said this is because he does helicopter stories at nursery and acts them out on the stage for his teachers and friends which he said he really enjoys doing.
We ended the half term with a walk around How Tun Woods. One of the children noticed the the floor was covered in leaves and made the connection with a poem we have been learning called 'Leaves are Falling.' This sparked a conversation about the leaves falling from the trees, the colours of the leaves and how the weather was getting colder.
Summer 2 2021
We would like to wish our Little Lambs good luck on their exciting journey in their new classes. We are so very proud of each and every one of you.
This half term, we have been learning about the world around us and introduced the children to everyday life objects, vocabulary and activities based on the topic the seaside. Unfortunately due to the Covid-19 restrictions our planned trip to the beach was unable to go ahead, but we did not that stop our fun. Our wonderful parents and families got involved with the topic from home and planned their own trips out to the beach. The children brought in wonderful items that they found and shared their experiences with their friends.
On 29th June we celebrated International Mud Day. We expressed our creativity and enhanced our fine motor skills whilst getting nice and messy! At the end of the session we looked at our globe and talked about how children all over the wold also playing in the mud and creating wonderful memories.
We have also working really hard on our transition into reception and getting school ready. We looked back at how much we have grown and talked a lot about what life is like in reception. We even had a special Zoom call from Miss Milligan which was a lot of fun.
We ended our term with a graduation party on the field that everyone helped to plan. We voted on what activities we would like and everyone had a fantastic time.
Summer 1 2021
We have had one incredibly busy half term! We have been learning all about homes and habitats, took part in number day - where we spent a whole session exploring numbers and taking part in number activities and even came to school in our Pjs to celebrate our love of reading.
We began our topic by taking care of 5 tiny caterpillars. All 5 of our caterpillars turned into chrysalides and so far we have 4 butterflies!
We also explored real worms. We took some natural materials and created what we thought would be a good habitat for worms to live. We found some worms in our wildlife area and watched them to see where they travelled to and questioned why they went there. By observing the worms the children learned how they inched their bodies forward and backwards to move. When we had finished observing we gently placed them back in their original habitat.
Something very exciting happened during our topic. A real life lamb came to visit us! The children were very excited about this, but learnt that the lamb was only small and would be frightened of sudden movements and loud noises. The children were very careful and quiet around the lamb and even used their alliteration skills to name him - Little Larry Lamb. One of the children asked if we could keep him and let him live on our school field!
We were equally exited to go on our Geography trip to the local duck pond. We looked at where school was on a map and marked how far away the pond was. We talked about how we might get there and decided that it was close enough to walk. We explored grassland on the way there and were really excited to see the swans and ducks that swam along beside us.
We also learnt that May is the month of Mary. We revisited what we had previously learnt about Mary and the group made crowns and decorated pebbles. One child told me that their pebble was going to be blue as this was Mary’s favourite colour. When I asked how he knew this he replied, Because she wears a beautiful blue dress ."
Spring 2 2021
We are all so happy to be back at school! It has been a fantastic half term and we were all so excited to be back together. We have been super busy learning all about growing. We grew our own green beans in homemade greenhouses and also took home a newly planted sunflower which we gave to our Mum's for Mother's Day.
We observed the changes happening in our environment and noticed signs of spring! As well as looking at plants growing we have also looked at how we grow. We shared baby pictures of our families and looked at how our parents and grandparents have changed over time.
Our phonics lessons have been very exciting. Our bee-bot friends have been helping us with our alliteration, oral blending and rhyme. Each bee-bot has been given a name beginning with the phoneme b. It was lots of fun making up silly names. They also helped us to segment words as our bee-bots can only understand robot talk.
We were also lucky enough to have the Easter Bunny visit us and leave an egg hunt! We used the eggs during our math lesson and they helped us with our counting and identifying how many objects are in a set.
World Book Day 2021
We just love World Book Day! Although this wasn't a typical day, due to many of our friends being at home, we did not let this stop the fun! Our book that we used this year was, The World Made A Rainbow by Michelle Robinson.
Spring 1 2021
This half term has been a strange one. A lot of us have been learning from home, but we have not let this spoil our fun. We have been learning about people who help us. We made a special video for our local police force and fire department and also made cards thanking the refuse collectors, who have all worked throughout the pandemic.
We also welcomed a new member to our class - Metal Mike! Mike has been helping us with our phase 1 phonics. He is teaching us all about oral blending as well as alliteration and rhyme.
Another very important week we took part in was Children's Mental Health Week. We really enjoyed this week and linked it with National Story Telling Week. We all know that it is okay not to feel okay and that we should talk about our feelings.
Autumn 2 2020
What a busy term we have had! We have really enjoyed learning about lots of different topics. One of our favorite topics was learning all about the Diwali festival. We heard the story of Rama and Sita, tried some traditional foods and even tried on some traditional items of clothing. One of the children said, at the end of the week, "I love the Diwali."
As always, we took part in National Nursery Rhyme Week. In nursery, we love to sing. We enjoyed learning some new songs, as well as acting out some of our all time favorites. We used some of the songs in our math lesson. 5 Little Speckled Frogs helped us with our counting and the Wheels on the bus helped us identifying circles!
We also got involved in Road Safety Week. Our school is situated on a main road. Mr Roberts, our Crossing Guard, came to talk to us about how to cross the road. We learnt we must stop, hold a grown ups hand, look and listen, before crossing the road.
This brought us to Christmas! We had a great time during our Christmas topic. During this topic we read the, That's Not My ... touchy feely books. We enjoyed these books so much that we decided to design and create our own. We began with a cardboard reindeer template with no nose. The children placed the reindeer around the school and said, "That's not my reindeer, his nose is too ..." The children then described what the nose felt like.
The children then chose what character they wanted to feature in their book - Santa, angel, snowman, elf or reindeer. They decided which part of their character would be the touchy feely part and chose what material to use for this. This was lots of fun and they read each page out to their friends.
We ended the term with our class party and Nativity, link below. The children really enjoyed learning about the birth of Jesus and they had lots of fun singing and acting out the scenes. We posted this on our school Facebook page to share with parents. One family member said, "Thank you so much Little Lambs and St. Pius staff for this. It was amazing. We can have Christmas now! Just not the same without a school Nativity."
https://fb.watch/2McZ0KygSE/
