Nursery – Holbeach Blog

1L Read to Nursery

This afternoon, we read our fantastic stories to Nursery!

Nursery, you were such great listeners. We hope you liked our stories.

Well done, storytellers!

This term we have been exploring using clay. So far we have seen what we can do with clay (pull, pinch, squash, roll etc) and made 3D shapes out of clay. We have also carefully sketched birds which we will use when we make our clay models of birds.

Today we have been talking about the texture and patterns that we saw on the models of the birds that we drew. We then used different items from around the classroom to create texture and patterns in the clay. Can you remember what you used? Which item made the texture look like bird feathers?

6L Medusa Portraits

We are currently adding the finishing touches to our self portraits modelled on the famous painting ‘Medusa’ by Italian artist, Caravaggio (1571 – 1610).

The finished paintings have taken approximately 8 hours to complete. We are sure you will understand why when you see the finished product. Here’s a sneak peak of us working near the beginning of the process.

We will be ready to unveil the finished masterpieces next week. 🙂

The Gingerbread Man

Nursery have been enjoying the story of the Gingerbread man.

We have set up lots of activities bring the story to life.

We tested some boats for the gingerbread man.

Can you tell your family about the story? Maybe you could borrow a copy from the library.

This half term we will be learning a new number each week. This will include recognising the number, understanding the amount the number represents and recognising the number when it is represented in a different way- for example, the spots on a dice. Playing board games at home is a great way of helping your child to understand the concept of number.

Next week we will be reading the story of Little Red Riding Hood. Please send picture of your child’s Grandmother/’s to nursery@holbeach.lewisham.sch.uk

Junk Model Dinosaurs and animals

In Art we have been making our own junk model dinosaurs and animals. We selected our animal and then carefully chose pieces of recycling to make the body, legs and head. Some of us chose to work in a group or with a partner. We had to make sure we were talking with each other to decide how to put our model together.

We used masking tape to hold all the pieces in place.

Once we had made our models, we covered them in glue and paper to make them sturdy and strong.

Next we will be adding colour to our models.

Countdown to Christmas!

This week in the nursery we have begun our countdown to the end of term.

Each day we will be unwrapping a new Christmas book to read and add to our collection.

Today we had to find the present with the number 2 on it.

Do you have an Advent Calendar at home? Advent calendars are a great opportunity for children to recognise numbers.

If your child is still learning to recognise numbers, give them an example of what they are looking for and see if they can match it.

It’s also a great opportunity to practice counting every day and think about what number comes next. For example, ‘we’ve found 1,2,3,4, what do we need to find today?’

Most nursery children will be working with single digit numbers so it may get tricky as you get to 25! Say ‘Today we are looking for 12, that’s a 1 and a 2.’

Most of all, enjoy your countdown to Christmas, what ever your traditions may be.

Joining Techniques

This half-term we will be making junk model dinosaurs and safari animals. So far we have been sketching dinosaurs and animals.

Today we practiced joining card and cyclinders. These are skills that we will be able to use when we make our models. Can you remember the different ways of joining? How did we join the cylinder tube to the box?

Some children will be practicing joining next week – keep an eye out for your photo if you haven’t seen it today.

3L – We made a Clay Tile of a Victorian House

We put 2 sticks either side of our clay and rolled it forwards with a rolling pin, until it was the same thickness as the sticks.

We then cut it into a rectangular shape and used the scratch and slip method to attach the roof.

Next, we added the features of the house.

Finally, we added the detail of the brickwork and the roof tiles. We used clay tools to create the different textures.

Our tiles are now ready to be fired in a kiln.

6L Art – Dare you stare into the eyes of Medusa?

This term we will create our version of Carravagio’s famous painting of Medusa. Carravagio used studies of his face to create his Medusa and we have been studying our faces in preparation. We discussed the emotions conveyed in the famous art work – sorrow, fear, shock, rage. We then used charcoal and chalk to capture only our eyes when we expressed these emotions. The results speak for themselves and we think we’ve achieved what we set out to do. Next week, we will concentrate on expressing emotion with our mouths.