Welcome to Nursery

We are delighted to welcome you and your child to Skyswood Nursery. This is a very special time as your child begins their nursery journey and we are so excited to get to know them and support their learning and development. In Nursery children learn best through play, exploration and positive relationships. Our team is dedicated to creating a safe, nurturing and stimulating environment where every child feels happy, valued and confident. Over the coming weeks, your child will have the opportunity to settle in, build new friendships, and discover exciting activities both indoors and outdoors. We know that starting Nursery is a big step and we are here to make the transition as smooth and positive as possible for both children and families. We value strong partnerships with parents and carers so please feel free to talk to us at any time if you have questions, concerns or would simply like to share something about your child’s interests and achievements at home. Working together ensures the best possible start for your child. We look forward to an exciting year ahead, full of learning, laughter and new adventures.

A typical day in Nursery

In Nursery, we follow a fairly structured routine which supports the children in their confidence and happiness in the setting. Each morning begins with self-registration in their colour groups, putting bags away and then finding a “busy finger” activity. These are all activities designed to help the children build up the strength in their hands and improve their hand eye co-ordination. Following on from this, the children all come to the carpet for registration, before going off into colour groups for their first adult directed task of the day. After this, the children independently access all areas of both the indoor and outdoor learning environments. After Child Initiated Learning, the children will have a snack, consisting of a piece of fruit or vegetable and milk/ water. We will then have a second group time just before pick up, where we will begin to introduce the early phases of phonics. Our morning sessions always end with a whole class story, before the children either get ready for home or wash their hands for lunch.

The Reading Tree

We will be reading lots of stories and sharing books this year. Our ‘Reading Tree’ is on display at the back of the classroom. Each Friday your child will come home with a leaf, snowflake or blosson (depending on the season) in their book bag to record the books they have shared with you. Please write their favourite part of the story and name on the leaf. We will then share these together and add them to decorate our tree. The children really enjoy having their leaf read out to the class.

WOW moments

You may have noticed our big ‘WOW’ wall as you enter into the reception area of the Nursery building. On this wall we will be displaying lots of ‘WOW’ slips to celebrate the achievements of the children. These slips will also be sent home on a Friday, giving you the opportunity to write something your child has done which you are particularly proud of. An example of this could be that they got themselves dressed for Nursery independently or they ate all their dinner at the table. As these slips are returned to Nursery, we will be sharing them during a carpet session to celebrate the successes of the children altogether. Once again, having a WOW read out is a firm favourite for the children so please do send them back in for us to share.

Star of the week

Each week someone will be awarded ‘Star of the Week’. This will be for something we have noticed a child has done over the week or for something they have been working hard at to achieve.

Number/shape of the week

Each week we will have either a shape of the week or number of the week which we are focusing on, you will find the information on the weekly overview. We encourage the children to then find an object in their environment which matches this shape. When we begin number of the week, the children will be encouraged to recognise, count and manipulate that number of objects.

Sound of the week

Each week we will also have a focus sound of the week. We would invite children to try and identify a word starting with that particular sound and bring in a small picture which we can add to our sound of the week sheet. On Tuesday 23^rd September you are invited to a curriculum meeting explaining a little more about this and highlighting the sounds for the upcoming weeks.

Topics for this term

We will be following the topic of ‘All about me’ for this first half term, where we will be doing lots of activities to support the children in learning about each other and all about themselves. This will include activities such as painting a picture of themselves, talking about their favourite books and talking about their family.

We will also be learning about Autumn and later on in the term, celebrations including Bonfire Night and Diwali before we move into a Christmas topic at the beginning of December.

The children will start learning counting songs and rhymes as well as begin the early phases of phonics where we will be focusing on listening games and discriminating between different sounds.

Library Books

Each week, the children will have the opportunity to choose and bring home a library book to share with their family. This helps to develop a love of stories, books and reading from an early age. We encourage you to enjoy the book together at home and return it the following week so your child can select a new one. Each group will change their books on the following days:

Red Group- Tuesday

Blue Group- Wednesday

Green Group- Thursday

Communication with staff

We understand that it is a big milestone having your child attend Nursery and we are all here to help in any way we can to ensure your child has a fun, successful and happy time at Nursery. If you ever have any questions or concerns then please do speak to one of us, we are always more than happy to take messages at drop off or pick up

How you can help at home

• Encourage your child to be as independent as possible
• Encourage your child to remember to tidy away their toys after finishing with them
• Talk, talk, talk! Please talk to them about what they are doing / making, modeling talking in full sentences
• Practise putting on coats and shoes when going outside

Further Information

Any further information will be communicated to you via parentmail or slips in your child’s book bag. Please ensure you check bags on a regular basis.

On Tuesday 23rd September at 6:30pm we will be hosting a Parent Information Evening where we will be able to go into much more detail about the curriculum we will be following and provide a greater insight into our Nursery day.

We are all very excited to embark on our journey this year and look forward to supporting and guiding your children through their Nursery year at Skyswood.

Kind Regards,

The Nursery Team

Mrs Jones, Mrs Orde and Mrs Wilbraham