Acorns - our nursery and reception
Welcome
Check here for information on what we are learning in Acorns.
Our teacher is Mrs Burton and our Teaching assistants are Mrs Howell and Miss Lynn.
Click here to see our Looking at learning leaflet.
Click here to see the meet the teacher presentation for Reception.
Click here to see the meet the teacher presentation for the Nursery.
Click here to see our Teaching Early Reading - A Guide for Parents.
Our Day
The day in Acorns starts with Busy Fingers, and then we get our minds and bodies pumping during our 'Daily Mile' run-around. We all practise mindfulness techniques to make our brains feel calm and ready for learning. Then we start our topic based learning and play!
Spring Term - We are Scientists!
We have really enjoyed being scientists of all kinds; palaeontologists, botanists, chemists, inventors and biologists amongst others! We have been conducting experiments, observing nature, learning about materials, making predictions and evaluating our results.
Spring Term - Well-being Week
Acorns have really enjoyed 'Wellbeing Week,' during which we learnt all about how to keep our bodies and minds healthy and happy. Some of the skills which we learnt and the activities that we did were:
- yoga
- mindfulness and meditation
- tai chi
- making mindfulness jars
- mindful crafting
- Creating a 'smile jar'
- Painting our 'happy places'
- A trip to the park for outdoor tai chi and exercise
- Gratefulness bingo
- What we can do when we are worried or sad
- Creating kindness paper chains
- Learning about our emotions
- Mindful listening to music
... and much more!!!
Religious Education
In RE we have been learning about the Christian value of 'courage' through the story of 'Daniel and the Lion's Den'. In Spring 2 term, we began to learn about forgiveness, and drew what we would like to be forgiven for, and then washed it away. We are also learning about the signs and symbols which you would find at Easter time and about the story of Easter, focusing on why it is such an important time for Christians.
Visiting a church then making our own!
In RE we have been learning about Christian signs and symbols. To help us with this, Acorns went on a trip to church to go on a 'scavenger hunt,' looking for the features and symbols that we could find.
In Acorns, we LOVE junk modelling, so when we got back to class we worked in groups to make models of the things that we had seen in church on our hunt. Then we went outside, and re-created a model version of the church, using our junk modelling creations. We had great fun doing role play in our model church; acting out a christening, praying in the pews and playing the organ!
Religious Education - Tasting special Jewish foods
We were very lucky to have Reynold and Josephine from 'The Whisper Project' visit to talk to us about the Jewish faith. The children learnt to say ‘Shalom’ which is ‘hello’ in Hebrew and then learnt a bit about the history of Jewish people.We learnt that there are 613 rules about the way that Jewish people can eat foods and what they can eat. This is because there are supposed to be 613 seeds in a pomegranate! Josephine told us how Jewish families have a special meal on Fridays and about the animals that Jewish people can and can’t eat and the children had a go at sorting the animals. They loved tasting the foods which Jewish people eat at Jewish New Year - lots of sweet foods to bring a sweet new year, such as apples dipped in honey and honey cake. The children also got to taste Matzah bread, latkes, grape juice and challah bread.
Forest School
In Acorns, we love Forest School! We get to explore our lovely wooded area and join in with many activities such as den building, leaf rubbings, comparing and measuring natural objects and creating pictures using sticks. Our Acorns children are very interested in nature and animals and are often found hunting for minibeasts or creating them homes.
Autumn Term - Aliens Love Underpants
We have really enjoyed learning through the topics of the stories 'Aliens Love Underpants' and 'Dinosaurs Love Underpants.' It has provided lots of opportunities for writing, construction, role play and small world play.
Balanceability - Developing the children's core strength and balance
