Class Blog

Newsletter 15th July

Dear Parents,

I cannot believe this is my last weekly letter to you.

Although this week has been short, we have been very busy. The children finished their family pictures which will be given to Mrs Collier to be displayed in their new classroom so that they can see them on their first day of school in September. The class decorated t-shirts and enjoyed free flowing into Reception, playing inside and outside. They continued to familiarise themselves with their new surroundings and teachers for next year. Nursery had their last Ivrit, Music, Jewish Studies and PE lessons of the year. 

On Thursday the children iced biscuits which they ate at our end of year party with a few other treats. At our celebration the class had a chance to chat about their favourite moments in Nursery.

I want to thank you all for supporting me and the team throughout this unusual year. Thankfully we were allowed to stay in school, so I am delighted that your children were able to experience all the lovely activities and topics we cover in Nursery.

It has made us all so proud to see how the children have developed throughout the year in both their confidence and their learning. They have shown such resilience, especially through this difficult time, and amazed us with how well they adapted to all the procedures that they had to follow.

Every year we have an end of year show. This time we have been working behind the scenes to produce a video of all the things your child has done this year. The children have worked really hard towards making this end of year presentation special. We are really proud of what they have achieved and I am sure you will be too when you watch it.

This year Mrs Craig introduced ‘Tapestry’, an amazing online journal. It has allowed us to send regular updates and videos of what your children have been doing in school, and for you to send us pictures of fun things they have done out of school. You should all have received the final online journal  which has been collated into a PDF. I hope you enjoy sharing with your children all the wonderful things they have achieved and done. This is also something your children will be able to look back on with fond memories when they are older. We have also sent home their journal of special art work. Thank you to Mrs Craig for introducing this wonderful online resource to the EYU.

We wish lots of luck to the children as they move onto their next adventure in Reception.

We wish you all a lovely Summer break and I look forward to seeing you back at the EYU in September.

Kind regards

Miss Cowen and the Nursery Team

Newsletter 9th July

It was another busy and fun week in Nursery.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development and Communication and Language we continued to discuss with the children how they are feeling about transitioning to Reception. The children have had many opportunities to visit their new classroom and teachers and they are excited about their new challenge.

In Literacy this week we learnt the sounds ‘qu’, ‘x’, ‘y’ and ‘z’; the name of each letter, the sound and the actions to the ‘Jolly Phonics’ songs. (‘Jolly Phonics’ songs are attached. The actions for each of the letters are shown in the songs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvAYUvQUrGo).

The children enjoyed showing the objects they had selected for their chosen sound. It was lovely to see the interesting items they brought in. We have now learnt all the letter sounds in the alphabet. 

The children had their final visit to the library. Please can you make sure all library books are returned before we break up.

In Understanding the World, we continued to discuss the life cycle of a butterfly. The children were excited to come in after the weekend to find five butterflies. The children had fun giving each of the butterflies a name and on Wednesday we waved goodbye to them. Linked to Expressive Art and Design and Mathematics, some of the children carried on painting their own butterflies. We discussed the different patterns on a butterfly, talked about symmetry and how the pattern is the same on both sides. The children selected their own colours and painted half of their butterfly. Then they pressed both sides together and revealed the symmetrical pattern they had made. Wow! More beautiful butterflies were created.

In Jewish Studies this week, we learnt about Shabbat. The children looked at a PowerPoint of all the important Mitzvot relating to Shabbat and some of the delicious foods we eat on Friday night and Shabbat day. We listened to some traditional songs sung at the Shabbat table and the children enjoyed sharing their experiences of going to Shul and some of the foods they eat at home on Shabbat.  

The children had fun making their own Shabbat placemat, using their fine motor skills sticking small stickers in the circles as decoration.

The following children were on the Shabbat table today:

Shabbat Aba:Zach

Shabbat Ima: Hanna

Shabbat Ben:Joshua

Shabbat Bat:  Liora

In Music:

Mr Fingerhut invited the children to request their favourite rhymes to sing along to which included ‘Hickory Dickory Dock’, ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’ and ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’. Nursery loved singing ‘Let it Go’ and the theme to ‘The Octonauts’.

The children learnt a new number song. Each time Mr Fingerhut played a note in a scale the children sang from 1 to 8 and then back down again.  

In PE:

The children had great fun on their first sports day. They came into school wearing different coloured t-shirts to match the country they were representing. They moved around a carousel of activities in their teams.

 The activities included :

Javelin

Bean bag throwing

Long jump

Hurdles

Goal shooting

The children ended sports day by doing running races. We then finished off our sports day with our medal ceremony where every child came up and received their medal. Thank you to Mr Armoogum for organising such a lovely selection of activities and making sports day really enjoyable.

The children had great fun at the main school learning their special Olympic dance to represent Jamaica. They had the opportunity to see the country’s flag and learnt to move their bodies in different ways in time to Jamaican music, such as swinging their arms, jumping and bouncing. Afterwards, the children were treated to a wonderful time at a funfair kindly organised by the PTA. They had a ride on a chairoplane, won prizes in the ‘Lucky Dip’ and ‘Hook a Duck’ and decorated a party bag to carry their treats in. We finished our lovely day off with ice creams from Uncle Doovy.

Forest School:

• Due to unforeseen circumstances Forest School was cancelled.

Important reminders:

• School will finish on Thursday at 12.30 pm. No lunch will be served on this day.

Thank you.

We hope you have a lovely weekend.

Shabbat Shalom,

Miss Cowen and the Nursery team

Newsletter 2nd July

It was another busy and fun week in Nursery.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development and Communication and Language we discussed the importance of using kind hands and kind words. We talked about how it makes us feel when someone does not show kindness towards us. It is important that the children use their words to achieve what they want and we role play different scenarios. For example, what do we say if someone grabs something we are using? Or if someone pushes? It is important that the children learn to have strategies to start to resolve situations themselves.

On Friday, the children had their second session with Mrs Collier in Reception, which will be their new classroom in September. This visit enabled the children to become familiar with their new learning environment and get to know their class teachers. They had the opportunity to play together using different resources and listen to a story.  

In Literacy this week we learnt the sounds ‘v’ and ‘w’; the name of each letter, the sound and the actions to the ‘Jolly Phonics’ songs. (‘Jolly Phonics’ songs are attached. The actions for each of the letters are shown in the songs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvAYUvQUrGo).

We only have four letters left to learn which are ‘q, x, y and z. We will cover these next week and the week after. As these letters are really difficult to find objects for, I thought it would be nice if the children picked any object of their choice. Discuss with your child the letter sound their object begins with. This will give the children an opportunity to work out the initial sounds of different words. The children will still show their objects in groups.

Can the following children please bring an object beginning with any letter sound of their choice  for our session on Tuesday 6th July: 

Erin

Bella

Scarlett

Alex

Sienna

Joshua

Eva

Ruby F

Dylan

Lia

Ilse Bella

Lily
 

Can the following children please bring an object beginning with any letter sound of their choice  for our session on Thursday 8th July.

Liora

Eliya

Rachel

Ben

Zach T

Ruby T

Zachary W

Yanai 

Hanna 

Raymond

Please ensure that objects for both sounds are handed in on Monday 5th July and that you label your child’s item.

This week has been STEM week. This covers science, technology, engineering and mathematics. In the Nursery we have done different activities which incorporated these areas.

In Understanding the World, we discussed the life cycle of a butterfly. We continued to watch what is happening to our class butterflies which mostly remain cocoons. We have one butterfly. Hopefully we will see more butterflies very soon. Linked to Expressive Art and Design and Mathematics, some of the children painted their own butterflies. We discussed the different patterns on a butterfly, talked about symmetry and how the pattern is the same on both sides. The children selected their own colours and painted half of their butterfly. Then they pressed both sides together and revealed the symmetrical pattern they had made. Wow! Some beautiful butterflies were created.

Year 6 sent us some lovely activities for Nursery to enjoy. These included a minibeast treasure hunt, making different minibeasts out of playdough and a seasonal activity in which the children decorated four trees to represent how these change over the seasons.

Ms Dalwai joined us to demonstrate an exciting newspaper challenge for the children. By rolling up the pieces into poles and sticking these together, one group learnt that they could make a tower structure and a second made a bunch of flowers. Ms Dalwai even showed us how we could model shoes and dresses.  

Some of the children enjoyed playing on the iPads and exploring the different apps available.

In this week's Parashah, Pinchas, the children learnt that the Jewish people were very close to reaching Israel, after having walked for many years through the desert. Moshe, their leader, was punished by Hashem when he hit the rock instead of talking to the rock. Moshe was told that he would not be allowed into Israel. The children learnt that Hashem told Moshe to appoint a new leader for the Jewish people.  His name was Yehoshua - Joshua.  Moshe put his hands on Yehoshua’s head and blessed him to be the new leader.

The children enjoyed acting this out.  Raymond was “Moshe” and Joshua was “Yehoshua”.  Raymond placed his hands on Joshua’s head and blessed him as the new leader! The whole class enjoyed watching our little show!

The following children were on the Shabbat table today:

Shabbat Aba: Raymond

Shabbat Ima: Eliya

Shabbat Ben:Dylan

Shabbat Bat:  Scarlett

In Music:

• The children finally finished their special surprise for you. It made us so proud watching them perform and we know you will feel the same when you watch what they have made for you.

In PE:

• The children started the lesson completing a few laps around the playground.
• They children enjoyed 4 different activities which included throwing the javelin into a hoop, kicking a ball into a net, hurdles and throwing a beanbag into a box.
• They then enjoyed doing the long jump where they had to jump over a rope
• They ended the lesson by doing the egg and spoon race.

In Forest School:

• The children sang the “hello, Forest School” song with Emma and Carrie. 
• Emma set us a special challenge to find four sticks the same length as our arms and three types of leaf; bumpy, jagged and long. We learnt that these leaves come from three trees; the oak, hornbeam and willow.  The children used the special sticks and leaves to make a happy face.
• The children were able to choose from a selection of activities available. These included; dipping a leaf into paint and printing a repeated pattern, leaf imprints on clay, bark rubbing in the forest and making a necklace by threading leaves onto string.

Important reminders:

• It would be lovely to see pictures posted on Tapestry of fun things you do with your child.
• Please make sure you cut your child’s fruit up in line with the guidelines that were previously sent out. Grapes must be cut lengthways and in quarters, there must be no stone fruit and cucumbers and carrots must be cut in batons.
• Following an email sent out from Mr Moses about Sports week, the Nursery children will be dropped at the main school on Thursday 8th July for an Olympic dance session.The children will be dropped between 8.30-8.40am.
•  On Wednesday 7th July we will have our Nursery sports day. Please make sure you send your child in their team colours. (This was attached in the email sent out).
•  

Thank you.

We hope you have a lovely weekend 

Shabbat Shalom,

Newsletter 25th June

We have been very busy in Nursery this week. 

The children have continued to free flow between Nursery and Reception to get them used to what will be their new environment next year. It was nice that, when we opened the doors for free flow, Reception children were invited to come to the Nursery classroom. The year groups played beautifully together and this was great for developing their social, communication and language skills.

In preparation for the children’s session with their new Reception teacher, Mrs Collier, we had circle time. The children got a chance to discuss what they enjoy about being in Nursery and how they feel about going up to Reception.

On Friday, the children had the first of two sessions with Mrs Collier who chatted to them about Reception and read them a story.

This all comes under the areas of Personal, Social and Emotional Development and Communication and Language.

In Literacy this week we learnt the sounds ‘l’ and ‘j’; the name of each letter, the sound and the actions to the ‘Jolly Phonics’ songs. (‘Jolly Phonics’ songs are attached. The actions for each of the letters are shown in the songs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvAYUvQUrGo). We sounded out, blended and read some words using the new sounds ‘l’ and ‘j’. We discussed that if there is a ‘ll’ at the end of a word it is the same sound as ’l’. The children enjoyed sharing objects they had brought in to represent the different letters. 

Next week we will learn the letters ‘v’ and ‘w’. 

Can the following children please bring an object beginning with the letter sound ‘v’ for our session on Tuesday 29th June : 

Erin

Bella

Scarlett

Alex

Sienna

Joshua

Eva

Ruby F

Dylan

Lia

Ilse Bella

Lily
 

Can the following children please bring an object starting with the letter sound ‘w’ for the session on Thursday 1st July:

Liora

Eliya

Jethro

Rachel

Ben

Zach T

Ruby T

Zachary W

Yanai 

Hanna 

Raymond

Please ensure that objects for both sounds are handed in on Monday 28th June and that you label your child’s item.

Some of the children enjoyed riding balance bikes that we borrowed from Reception. It was lovely to see the children wearing their helmets whilst riding around the blue track, demonstrating amazing balancing skills. This covers the area of Physical Development.

In Mathematics we continued to practise our counting skills by rote and number recognition to 20.

In Understanding the World, the children enjoyed going on a minibeast hunt, excited to share with their classmates various bugs they had found. They also learnt about the life cycle of a sunflower and enjoyed listening to a lovely story called ‘Sunflower House’. 

Following on from our topic ‘People Who Help Us’, we were lucky to have Ruby’s Mummy, Mrs Freeman, come in to talk to the children about being a doctor in the hospital. She discussed the following points:

• There are lots of different doctors and nurses. Some look after our tummies, others our hearts. Ruby’s Mummy is an Anaesthetist Doctor who helps you go to sleep for an operation.
• Ruby acted the part of a patient and wore a gown and pretended to go to sleep to have an operation. Mrs Freeman showed us how she would check Ruby’s heart and oxygen during an operation.
• Ruby’s Mummy is a type of Doctor called an Intensivist who works in intensive care. A lot of people who had the virus were in intensive care. 
• Mrs Freeman showed us the special protective equipment she wears. This includes a spacesuit outfit so that she doesn’t get the virus, as well as an apron and gloves.
• Patients with the virus needed help to get oxygen into their lungs. Ruby tried on several oxygen masks and her Mummy explained how they work. 

Thank you Mrs Freeman for sharing some really interesting facts with us about what your job entails as a hospital doctor. The children really enjoyed the session.

In this week's Parashah, the children learnt that King Balak, who ruled a land near to Israel, became increasingly scared.  The Jewish people were getting closer and closer to Israel and King Balak was afraid that they would fight against him and his people.  King Balak called for his magician Bilam to come and curse the Jewish people.

On his way to the palace, Bilam’s donkey suddenly stopped walking.  The donkey could see a Malach (angel) holding a sword in front of him.  Bilam could not see the Malach.  The donkey was scared to move forward.  Bilam became angry with his donkey and hit him to make him move.  Suddenly a miracle happened…the donkey SPOKE to Bilam and said, “Why are you hitting me?” 

Just then, Bilam saw the Malach.  The Malach warned Billam not to curse the Jewish people, but Bilam did not listen.

Bilam arrived at King Balak’s palace and stood up and tried to curse the Jewish people, he wanted to say, “The Jewish people are not good” but instead he said, “The Jewish people are good, they do mitzvot, they keep the Torah, they listen to Hashem”.

King Balak was furious with Bilam and shouted at him “why are you saying these good things about the Jewish people when I told you to curse them?”

Bilam answered and said, “it's not my fault, Hashem changed my words”

Bilam tried again, but again Hashem made only good words come out of his mouth.

King Balak was furious and sent Bilam home.

We discussed that a donkey doesn't normally talk but this was an exception - Hashem made a miracle. We talked about what colour a donkey's skin is and the children enjoyed cutting out their own donkey mask and decorating it with grey card pieces.

The following children were on the Shabbat table today:

Shabbat Aba: Jethro

Shabbat Ima: Bella

Shabbat Ben: Zachary

Shabbat Bat:  Erin

In Music:

• The children continue to work hard practicing their end of year surprise for you all.

In PE:

• The teacher challenged the children to a race over the hill and around the blue track.
• They tried very hard to run whilst balancing an egg on a spoon, which is a difficult skill.
• Finally they had to try to throw a tennis ball in the air whilst running.

In Forest School:

• Emma showed us a model of an insect larva and the children tried to guess what it was.
• We went for a hunt through the long grass for pictures of eggs, larva and adult insects. 
• The class talked about the different stages in the life-cycle of a butterfly. We found out that the larva we looked at belonged to the ladybird. 
• The children took part in fun activities including decorating a special slice of wood with a ladybird pattern. Emma helped us make a hole in the wood with a hand drill and we threaded it with string to tie a necklace. 
• Other children used a butterfly net to catch minibeasts in the grass and explore them. 

Important reminders:

• It would be lovely to see pictures posted on Tapestry of fun things you do with your child.
• Please make sure your child’s library book is returned so that your child can choose a new one. 

Thank you.

We hope you have a lovely weekend 

Shabbat Shalom,

Newsletter 18th June

We have been very busy in Nursery this week.

We thought it would be beneficial for the Nursery children to start free flowing from their classroom into Reception. The key purpose is for the children to familiarise themselves with what will be their new surroundings next school year. It was lovely to see them confidently selecting activities of their choice, both inside and outside, and socialising with the Reception children. We will continue to allow the children to visit Reception over the last weeks of term. This comes under the areas Personal, Social and Emotional Development and Communication and Language.

In Communication and Language, some of the children enjoyed putting on a puppet show in the outdoor area. It was great to hear the children extending their vocabulary, developing their language skills and having the confidence to put on a show for their friends.

We continued with Phase 2 of Letters and Sounds and next week we will start to learn the letter sounds in Phase 3. We learnt the sounds ‘b’ and ‘f’; the name of each letter, the sound and the actions to the ‘Jolly Phonics’ songs. (‘Jolly Phonics’ songs are attached. The actions for each of the letters are shown in the songs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvAYUvQUrGo). We sounded out, blended and read some words using the new sounds ‘b’ and ‘f’. We discussed that if there is a ‘ff’ at the end of a word it is the same sound as ’f’. The children enjoyed sharing objects they had brought in to represent the different letters. 

Next week we will learn the letters ‘l’ and ‘j’. 

Can the following children please bring an object beginning with the letter sound ‘l’ for our session on Tuesday 22nd June : 

Erin

Bella

Scarlett

Alex

Sienna

Joshua

Eva

Ruby F

Dylan

Lia

Ilse Bella

Lily

Can the following children please bring an object starting with the letter sound ‘j’ for the session on Thursday 24th June:

Liora

Eliya

Jethro

Rachel

Ben

Zach T

Ruby T

Zachary W

Yanai 

Hanna 

Raymond

Please ensure that objects for both sounds are handed in on Monday 21st June and that you label your child’s item.

In Physical Development some children enjoyed colouring in different minibeast pictures. This was an excellent activity for developing their pen/pencil control. It was lovely to see the children demonstrating excellent concentration skills while they worked hard to colour within the line.

In Literacy some children enjoyed hand painting or fingerprinting bees for the letter sound ’b’. They also practiced writing the letter sound ‘b’. Other children made flower pictures for the letter sound ‘f’. They used q-tips to paint their flowers and wrote the letter ‘f’. This also covers the learning area, Expressive Arts and Design.

In Mathematics we continued to practice our counting skills. Following on from last week when we read ‘The Bad Tempered Ladybird’ and discussed o’clock, some children made their own clocks. This gave them the opportunity to write their numbers.

In Understanding the World, the children continued to enjoy going on a minibeast hunt to see which bugs they could find in the outdoor area. We focused on learning key facts about bees, worms and snails. We are still waiting to see if the caterpillars that were brought into class are going to become butterflies soon. We have also received our own set of caterpillars. We discussed the first stages of metamorphosis and how the caterpillars hatched out of the eggs. The caterpillars are busy eating the food in the pot and getting bigger. We will continue to discuss each change as it happens.

Following on from our topic ‘People Who Help Us’, we were lucky to have Zach’s Mummy, Mrs Taylor, come in to talk to the children about being a GP. She discussed the following points:

• The different medical equipment she uses in her job.
• The spatula used to look in people's throats.
• An Auriscope, which is like a magnifying glass, is used to look inside the ear. This helps the doctor to find out why the ear is hurting.
• What is used by the doctor to check one's temperature if we are feeling hot? A thermometer.
• What is used to listen to the chest if you have a cough? A stethoscope.
• The children learnt that an asthma inhaler helps one's breathing as the medicine goes to the lungs.
• Some children had the opportunity to come up and make a poorly teddy better by giving the bear medicine, putting a plaster on, putting a bandage around the teddy’s head and looking in teddy’s ear and throat.

Thank you Mrs Taylor for sharing some really interesting facts with us about what your job entails as a GP. The children really enjoyed the session.

In Jewish Studies, the Children learnt about this week's Parashah - Chukat.  They learnt that whilst the Jewish people were in the desert, a well travelled alongside them to provide water for them.  This well was in honour of Miriam, Moshe’s sister because when Moshe was a baby he was placed in a basket in the river to hide him from King Pharaoh, and during that time, Miriam watched over him to make sure he came to no harm.  However, when Miriam became old and died, the well disappeared.  Some of the Jewish people complained and cried to Moshe, “What are we going to drink, we will be so thirsty”.  Moshe davened to Hashem for help.  Hashem told Moshe to take the Jewish people to a rock and to tell the rock to give water.  Some of the Jewish people laughed at Moshe and said “how can you talk to a rock and then it will give us water, that’s crazy!”  Moshe became very, very angry and instead of talking to the rock, Moshe hit the rock twice.  Water came gushing out of the rock and the Jewish people were happy.  However, Hashem was very sad with Moshe because he didn’t listen to what he was told to do.

Hashem punished Moshe because he didn’t listen to what Hashem told him to do and did not allow Moshe to go into the Land of Israel.  

The children had lots of fun drawing their own Moshe at a rock, creating water coming out of the rock using crepe paper and using a lollipop stick to represent the cane.

The following children were on the Shabbat table today:

Shabbat Aba: Yanai

Shabbat Ima: Liora

Shabbat Ben: Raymond

Shabbat Bat:  Sienna

In Music:

• The children spent the music lesson preparing for your special end of year surprise.

In PE:

• The children love running as fast as they can around the outdoor area in a race to beat the teacher.
• The race is made more challenging when the teacher adds new, yellow hurdles. Many children could jump and step over these while running, which is impressive!
• Numbered spots were put on the ground and the children had to throw a beanbag to land on these. Some children named the number they hit.

In Forest School:

• We sang our special ‘hello’ song with signs and reminded ourselves of the rules.
• The children made a circle around some special sticks which they learned was a bird’s nest. Inside there were drawings of baby birds. The class had to pretend they were Mummy and Daddy and role play bringing worms and seeds. As an added challenge, the teacher role-played being a cat and the children had to freeze when they were spotted to avoid being caught. 
• We listened to a special story called ‘Aaaaggghh Spider’ and we went on an amazing bug hunt in the forest and learnt to find species like woodlice, stag beetles and ants.

Important reminders:

• It would be lovely to see pictures posted on Tapestry of fun things you do with your child.
• Please make sure your child’s library book is returned so that your child can choose a new one. 
• We would be grateful if you could send in a variety of  junk modelling for the children to use for construction.

Thank you.

We hope you have a lovely weekend 

Shabbat Shalom,

Miss Cowen and the Nursery Team

Newsletter 11th June

We have been very busy in Nursery this week and introduced our new ‘minibeasts' topic. We focused on learning about ladybirds and spiders.

The children have been out in the sunny weather and it has been lovely to watch them all playing so beautifully together. During the year, they have really developed their social skills, become great sharers and are happy to wait their turn. It is nice to hear them having such interesting conversations with each other. This week the children were joined in the back playground by Reception. It was good to see them finally mix as one group. This comes under the areas Personal, Social and Emotional Development and Communication and Language.

We continued with Phase 2 of Letters and Sounds. We learnt the letter sounds ‘r’ and ‘h’, the name of each letter, the sound and the actions to the ‘Jolly Phonics’ songs. (‘Jolly Phonics’ songs are attached. The actions for each of the letters are shown in the songs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvAYUvQUrGo). We sounded out, blended and read some words using the new sounds ‘r’ and ‘h’. The children enjoyed sharing objects they had brought in to represent the different letters.

Next week we will learn the letters ‘b’ and ‘f’. 

Can the following children please bring an object beginning with the letter sound ‘b’ for our session on Tuesday 15th June : 

Erin

Bella

Scarlett

Alex

Sienna

Joshua

Eva

Ruby F

Dylan

Lia

Ilse Bella

Lily

Can the following children please bring an object starting with the letter sound ‘f’ for the session on Thursday 17th June:

Liora

Eliya

Jethro

Rachel

Ben

Zach T

Ruby T

Zachary W

Yanai 

Hanna 

Raymond

Please ensure that objects for both sounds are handed in on Monday 14th June and that you label your child’s item.

Please remember to send your child in with an object, otherwise your child will miss out on the opportunity to share with their classmates, which can cause disappointment. Explain to your child that the object they are sending in will not come home until the end of the week.

In Literacy, the children continue to visit the library every Wednesday. Please make sure your child’s library book is returned so that your child can choose a new one. 

In Literacy, some children chose to draw and write in the writing area. It was lovely to see how their drawing and writing are developing. For the letter sound ‘r’, some children enjoyed painting a rainbow using Q-tips and practised writing the letter sound ‘r’. Other children made a house for the letter sound ‘h’ by cutting out different shapes. They also practised writing the letter ‘h’.

In Mathematics we continued to practice our number recognition to 20, counting by rote to 100. We read the story ‘The Bad Tempered Ladybird’ and started to discuss o’clock. We also discussed whether the ‘Bad Tempered Ladybird’ was kind and that we must always be kind to everyone around us. This covers the area Personal, Social and Emotional Development.

In Expressive Art and Design, some of the children enjoyed making ladybirds by using a variety of collage materials and others had fun making handprint spiders and webs linked to our new topic on ‘minibeasts’.

In Understanding the World, the children enjoyed going on a minibeast hunt to see which bugs they could find in the outdoor area. They were so excited to show everyone what they had found, including snails, ants and a millipede. Erin and Bella brought in 8 caterpillars that they had found in their garden to share with their classmates. These will be kept in class so we can discuss all the different stages that the caterpillar will go through before it becomes a butterfly. It is quite exciting that a few of them have started to become cocoons, so it looks like we will have butterflies very soon. We also discussed key facts about two minibeasts we were focusing on: the ladybird and the spider.

In Jewish Studies the children learnt about this week's Parashah - Korach. They learnt that Korach was a Jewish man who was jealous of Aharon. Aharon was the Kohen Gadol (chief Kohen) and Korach wanted to be the Kohen Gadol.  He complained that it was unfair that Moshe’s brother Aharon was chosen. Korach did not believe that it was Hashem who told Moshe to choose Aharon for this position.  Korach and lots of his followers from amongst the Jewish people went to Moshe and protested that it was unfair that Aharon was the Kohen Gadol.  Moshe davened to Hashem and asked Hashem for help.  Hashem told Moshe to tell the heads of all the 12 tribes to each bring a plain stick with their tribe’s name on it. The sticks were placed in the Mishkan overnight.  In the morning, a miracle happened: only the tribe of Levi (Aharon’s tribe) stick grew beautiful blossoms, green leaves and almonds on it, all the other sticks remained plain.

This was a sign from Hashem that Aharon was meant to be the Kohen Gadol.

The children had lots of fun making their own blossom tree, dipping cotton bud sticks into pink paint and creating blossoms.

The following children were on the Shabbat table today:

Shabbat Aba: Yanai

Shabbat Ima: Ruby F

Shabbat Ben: Zachary

Shabbat Bat: Ruby T

In Music:

• The children enjoyed singing a variety of songs and being Mr Fingerhut’s musical helper. These songs included ‘Stand Up, Sit Down’ and ‘Old MacDonald’.
• The children enjoyed moving around in different ways to quiet and loud music.
• We also started preparing for a special end of year surprise.

In PE:

• The class listened to directions to run, crawl, and try to hop around the blue track.
• The children loved choosing a favourite sea creature to pretend to be. 
• They learnt to play a new game to throw their bean bags at circular targets. Each circle was worth points and children were delighted when they hit the red one and scored 100.

In Forest School:

• Nursery loved their first experience of Forest School with Emma and Carrie, especially making a magic wand. We met at ‘base camp’ where we learnt the words and signs to a hello song.
• Emma explained the first rule of Forest School is “no pick, no pick”, which means that we must leave beautiful flowers for the bees. The second rule is “no lick, you might get sick” and the third rule is “be careful how you carry your stick”. Carrie demonstrated the right way to hold a long stick, to point it down and pull it along the ground. 
• The children loved playing hide-and-seek in the long grass. 
• Emma showed the children a bumpy oak leaf, a small stick and a willow leaf. Then the children went on a treasure hunt to find these. They learnt how to make beads from small pieces of elder bark which they threaded onto pipe cleaners.  

Important reminders:

• It would be lovely to see pictures posted on Tapestry of fun things you do with your child.
• During this hot weather, please make sure you apply sun cream first thing in the morning. Please send your child in with sun cream so it can be reapplied at lunchtime. We can assist but we can’t rub the sun cream in. You may choose to buy sun cream that will last the whole day.
• Please make sure all your children’s belongings are named, including their sun cream and hats.
• In this hot weather the children are enjoying playing with the water. If any wet clothes are sent home, please can you make sure these are replaced the following day.
• The new drop off and pick up procedures will continue. Please make sure that your child does not play on any equipment before or after school. On a Monday afternoon only, pleasel come through the front gate and walk around the side to the back playground. On all the other days please come through the normal drop off and pick up point.
• Please make sure that you arrive at school in the mornings between 8.30-8.40 am, so your child is in school for register and the start of the day.
• We are going to make a bug hotel as a whole class. We would be grateful if could send in suitable junk modelling materials.

Thank you.

We hope you have a lovely weekend 

Shabbat Shalom,

Miss Cowen and the Nursery Team

Newsletter 28th May

We have been very busy in Nursery this week. 

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development we continued to discuss the importance of being kind to each other by using kind words and kind hands. We talked about making sure that all children are included in our games and not feeling left out. There are times when some children choose to do an activity alone, but at other times they want to join in but may not yet feel confident to ask. 

Following our topic, ‘People who help us’, Mrs Shetrit, Ben’s Mum, who is a Speech and Language Therapist, visited Nursery. She started the session by reading a short children’s book called ‘Sammy Goes to Speech’. It is about a little boy who goes to speech therapy. Mrs Shetrit discussed with the children that, as a Speech Therapist, she helps children to find their words, to understand words and say their sounds correctly. She also talked about the importance of doing good listening and taking turns. The best part of the job is that she gets a chance to play games all day. The children enjoyed playing a variety of games including ‘Simon Says’,‘I Spy’ and a game called ‘headbands’ in which the children had to describe pictures using different vocabulary. Thank you Mrs Shetrit for making the session so fun and interesting. This covered the Communication and Language learning area.

In Letters and Sounds we continued with Phase 2. We learnt the letter sounds ‘e’ and ‘u’; the name of each letter and the sound. We did the actions to the ‘Jolly Phonics’ songs for ‘e’ and ‘u’. (‘Jolly Phonics’ songs are attached. The actions for each of the letters are shown in the songs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvAYUvQUrGo). We continued to sound out, blend and read some words using the new sounds ‘e’ and ‘u’. The children enjoyed sharing objects they had brought in to represent the different letters.

After half term we will learn the letters ‘r’ and ‘h’. 

Can the following children please bring an object beginning with the letter sound ‘r’ for our session on Tuesday 8th June : 

Erin

Bella

Scarlett

Alex

Sienna

Joshua

Eva

Ruby F

Dylan

Lia

Ilse Bella

Lily

Can the following children please bring an object starting with the letter sound ‘h’ for the session on Thursday 10th June:

Liora

Eliya

Jethro

Rachel

Ben

Zach T

Ruby T

Zachary W

Yanai 

Hanna 

Raymond

Please ensure that objects for both sounds are handed in on Monday 7th June and that you label your child’s item.

Please remember to send your child in with an object, otherwise your child will miss out on the opportunity to share with their classmates, which can cause disappointment. Explain to your child that the object they are sending in will not come home until the end of the week.

In Literacy, the children continue to visit the library every Wednesday. Please make sure their library book is returned every Wednesday so that they can choose a new one.

In Literacy some of the children enjoyed making a treasure map to use during our ‘Pirate Day’. It was lovely to see how detailed they made their maps and how well their mark making skills are developing.

In Mathematics we continued to practice our number recognition to 20, counting by rote to 100 and our one-to-one correspondence, remembering to say the number as we placed each object. 

Following on from a child’s interest in learning more about germs, Miss Dalwai, the Year 5 Teacher, came to talk to the children. She talked to the class about germs, immunity and vaccines. Miss Dalwai introduced the children to some friendly and unfriendly germ characters and the children had the option to create their own representations of germs. The children also had the opportunity to use some hand held microscopes to examine slides. It was a lovely session. Thank you to Miss Dalwai. This covers the area of Understanding the World.

In Expressive Art and Design the children and teachers enjoyed a fun activity day when they dressed up as pirates. The children were each given a pirate name.

We also learnt some pirate phrases:

Ahoy!  Hello.

Ahoy matey!  Hello friend.

Batten down the hatches!  Get the ship ready for a storm!

Heave ho!  Use all your strength.

All hands hoy!  Everyone get on deck!

Aye!  Yes.

Shiver me timbers!  I am shocked!

The children were able to choose from a selection of activities throughout the day which included:

• Hiding treasure in the playdough.
• Going on a treasure hunt.
• Painting pirates.
• Making telescopes.
• Role playing being pirates in a pirate ship which the children painted.

A fun day was had by all.

In this week's Parashah of Beha’alotecha, the children learnt that the Jewish people had been in the desert for a long time.  Hashem gave the Jewish people mann to eat each day.  We discussed what mann was and how it would taste of anything you wanted it to.  The children talked about what they would have liked their mann to taste like.  Some of the Jewish people started to complain and cry “we are bored with always eating the mann, we want real meat to eat”. Hashem was very sad that some people complained.  Hashem said, “I will give you meat but I will punish the people who complained”.

Hashem sent quails.  Many birds flew down from the sky.  The Jewish people cooked them and ate them and they were very happy.

We looked at a picture of a real quail and talked about its colouring, its claws and its special feature of a small feather on its head.

The children had lots of fun painting their hand with grey paint to create their own quail and then drawing the quail’s eye, claws and feather on its head.

The following children were on the Shabbat table today:

Shabbat Aba: Zach

Shabbat Ima: Eliya

Shabbat Ben: Ben

Shabbat Bat:  Rachel

In Music:

• Some children were chosen to stand up in front of the class and use their hands to signal to the group when to start and stop singing.
• Mr Fingerhut invited the children to request songs for him to play on the piano to sing. Favourites included ‘Let it Go’, ‘Into the Unknown’,‘Old MacDonald’ and the theme from ‘Octonauts’.

In PE:

• The children enjoyed pirate themed games. They were organised into groups, each with their own treasure island marked by coloured cones. The aim was to collect balls (pretend treasure) and take these back to their island and count how many at the end. 
• Much fun was had when the class ran around the blue track as fast as they could to escape the teacher who pretended to be a crocodile! 

Important reminders:

• It would be lovely to see pictures posted on Tapestry of fun things you do with your child during half term.
• Please make sure you have read the email sent out regarding what your child will need for Forest School which will be starting on Thursday 10th June. 
• Please make sure you have read the email informing you of the new drop off and pick up arrangements.

Thank you.

We hope you have a lovely weekend and half term break.

Shabbat Shalom,

Miss Cowen and the Nursery Team

Newsletter 21st May

We hope that you all had a lovely Shavuot.

Although it has been a short week we have still been very busy in Nursery.

We continued to discuss the importance of kindness towards each other, including using our hands and feet correctly and using kind words so we don’t hurt others’ feelings. This is part of Personal, Social and Emotional Development and Communication and Language.

In Letters and Sounds we continued with Phase 2. We learnt the letter sounds ‘c’ and ‘k’. We learnt the name of each letter and the sound. We made the action to the ‘Jolly Phonics’ songs for ‘c’ and ‘k’. (‘Jolly Phonics’ songs are attached. The actions for each of the letters are shown in the songs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvAYUvQUrGo). We continued to sound out, blend and read some words using the new sounds ‘c’ and ‘k’. We discussed that when a ‘ck’ is at the end of a word it has the same sound and we practised reading some words ending ‘ck’.

The children enjoyed sharing objects they had brought in to represent the different letters. In Literacy, some children enjoyed making a caterpillar painting with q-tips for the letter sound ‘c’. Others cut out shapes to make a kite for the letter sound ‘k’. They also practised how to write the letters ‘c’ and ’k’.

Next week we will learn the letters ‘e’ and ‘u’. 

Can the following children please bring an object beginning with the letter sound ‘e’ for our session on Tuesday 25th May: 

Erin

Bella

Scarlett

Alex

Sienna

Joshua

Eva

Ruby F

Dylan

Lia

Ilse Bella

Lily

Can the following children please bring an object starting with the letter sound ‘u’ for the session on Thursday 27th May:

Liora

Eliya

Jethro

Rachel

Ben

Zach T

Ruby T

Zachary W

Yanai 

Hanna 

Raymond

Please ensure that objects for both sounds are handed in on Monday 24th May and that you label your child’s object.

Please remember to send your child in with an object, otherwise your child will miss out on the opportunity to share with their classmates which can cause disappointment. Explain to your child that the object they are sending in will not come home until the end of the week.

In Literacy, the children enjoyed selecting their weekly library book. Please make sure their library book is returned every Wednesday so that they can choose a new one. 

In Mathematics we carried on practising our counting skills, counting by rote to 30 and then to 100, doing exercises as we counted. 

In Understanding the World we discussed our new topic - pirates. We learnt some facts about the history of pirates and we will find out more next week. 

In Understanding the World, under technology, some of the children enjoyed using iPads to take pictures and videos and chose maths or literacy games.

In Expressive Art and Design, groups of children enjoyed making our weekly batch of playdough which was pirate themed. The children enjoyed hiding treasure inside when making it. They helped measure out different ingredients, mixed these together and explored different textures. This is an excellent fine motor activity, especially when mixing ingredients together, which is good for strengthening hands. The playdough was then put out for the children to play with and see what treasure they could find.

As part of Expressive Art and Design some children enjoyed helping to paint our pirate ship. This will be used next week as part of role playing being pirates. Some of the children made boats using the materials they had brought in. Linked to Maths, they put their boats into the water to see if these would float or sink. We will continue this activity next week.

On Friday the children discussed Shabbat. We talked about going to shul, nice things we do on Shabbat and things we should try not to do. We saw a PowerPoint on the special foods we eat on Shabbat. We talked about the different brachot at our weekly Kabbalat Shabbat.

The following children were on the Shabbat table today:

Shabbat Aba: Raymond

Shabbat Ima: Lily

Shabbat Ben: Dylan

Shabbat Bat:  Liora

In PE:

• The children dribbled the football and took it in turns to kick the ball in the net. Afterwards they had fun taking part in running races.

Important reminders:

• Please continue to post pictures on Tapestry of what your child is doing. These are always lovely to see.
• Please send in Tzedaka every Friday to put into the class Tzedaka pot. It is important that your children understand what Tzedaka is and that there are people less fortunate than ourselves.
• On Friday 28th May we would like the children to dress up as pirates. Some may like to make their own costume. It is important that the children understand we don’t always have to buy a costume and that fancy dress can be made from different resources found at home. This will allow your child to develop their creativity and be inventive. Please make sure the outfits are easy to put on and take off for toileting. We ask that no toy weapons are sent in, for example, swords. 
• Please can you send your child in with a named kitchen roll.
• If your child is getting hungry in the afternoons, you may send in an afternoon snack for them to eat. This must be either fruit or vegetables, but not crackers. Please clearly label which snack is for the morning and which is for the afternoon. 

Thank you.

We hope you have a lovely weekend 

Shabbat Shalom,

Miss Cowen and the Nursery Team

Newsletter 14th May

It has been another busy week in Nursery. During circle time we reiterated the importance of using kind words and kind hands. We recapped how unkind words can really upset our feelings and if we use our hands incorrectly, for example pushing or hitting, someone can get hurt. We talked about the importance of using our voices correctly and we read the book ‘Voices are not for Yelling’. We shared the book ‘Feet are not for Kicking’ and discussed that our feet, like our hands, need to be used carefully because kicking can hurt others. This is part of Personal, Social and Emotional Development and Communication and Language.

In Letters and Sounds we continued with Phase 2. We learnt the letter sounds ‘g’ and ‘o’. We learnt the name of each letter and the sound. We made the action to the ‘Jolly Phonics’ songs for ‘g’ and ‘o’. (‘Jolly Phonics’ songs are attached. The actions for each of the letters are shown in the songs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvAYUvQUrGo). We continued to sound out, blend and read some words using the new sounds ‘g’ and ‘o’.

The children enjoyed sharing objects they had brought in to represent the different letters. In Literacy, some children enjoyed colour mixing to make the colour green for the letter sound ‘g’ and orange for the letter sound ‘o’. They used the new colour they had made to draw a picture by dipping their q-tip in paint. 

Next week we will learn the letters ‘c’ and ‘k’. Although it is a short week we will still learn two letter sounds and the children will bring an object in for the different letter sounds learnt.

Can the following children please bring an object beginning with the letter sound ‘c’ for our session on Thursday 20th May: 

Erin

Bella

Scarlett

Alex

Sienna

Joshua

Eva

Ruby F

Dylan

Lia

Ilse Bella

Lily

Can the following children please bring an object starting with the letter sound ‘k’ for the session on Friday 21st May:

Liora

Eliya

Jethro

Rachel

Ben

Zach T

Ruby T

Zachary W

Yanai 

Hanna 

Raymond

Please ensure that objects for both sounds are handed in on Wednesday 19th May and that you label your child’s object.

Please remember to send your child in with an object, otherwise your child will miss out on the opportunity to share with their classmates which can cause disappointment. Explain to your child that the object they are sending in will not come home until the end of the week.

In Literacy, the children enjoyed visiting our school library in small groups. Please make sure their library book is returned by next Wednesday so that they can choose a new one. 

In Mathematics we carried on practising our counting skills. The children enjoyed doing exercises counting forwards and backwards to 30 and up to 100. We continued to revise basic 2D shapes as well as more complex 2D shapes including pentagon, hexagon and octagon. We discussed the number of sides these shapes have. Some of the children made an octopus to represent the letter ‘o’. They cut out a semi-circle for the octopus's body and strips for the arms and legs. The children wrote numbers 1 to 8 and drew the correct quantity of dots to match each numeral.

In Physical Development some of the children enjoyed using tap-tap. They each had a board and a hammer and they tapped a pin to secure different shapes onto the cork board. This is an excellent activity for developing fine motor skills and your child’s hand-eye coordination.

In Understanding the World we continued with the topic ‘People who help us’. This week we focused on the job of a vet. We read the non-fiction book, 'Vet’ by Rebecca Hunter. We learnt new words, for example microchipped. The children were very interested to learn new words and ask questions, for example, what would happen if a pet animal is not microchipped? We also learnt about the job of a farmer and read the book ‘Farmer’ by Rebecca Hunter. We discussed words like dairy farm and learnt that this type of farm keeps cows to produce milk. We discovered that the word pasteurize means to heat milk to a very high temperature to kill bacteria and germs and that silage is cut grass, sealed and stored and used as food for cows.

In Understanding the World, under technology, some of the children continued to use iPads to take pictures and develop their photography skills. They were introduced to recording a video and had fun filming each other.

Other children were keen to search for different minibeasts and the Nursery class were joined by a few new members - two snails, one of whom the children named ‘Dinosaur the snail’, the other ‘Unicorn’. They also found woodlice and worms on their minibeast hunt. We discussed the importance of being caring towards all creatures created by Hashem. 

In Expressive Art and Design some children enjoyed making our weekly batch of playdough. This week they made orange playdough for the letter sound ‘o’. They helped measure out different ingredients, mixed these together and explored different textures. This is an excellent fine motor activity, especially when mixing ingredients together, which is good for strengthening the hands. 

In Jewish Studies, this week the children learnt about the Chag (festival) of Shavuot, which we will celebrate next week on Monday and Tuesday. The children learnt that Hashem asked all the other nations if they would like His present and they said “no”.  When Hashem asked the Jewish people they answered “yes”. Hashem’s present was the Torah. Hashem chose Har Sinai, which was a plain mountain, to give the Torah to the Jewish people. However, Hashem made a miracle happen and the night before the Torah was given to the Jewish people, the mountain grew green grass and beautiful flowers all over it.  Moshe went up the mountain to collect the Luchot (10 commandments) from Hashem and gave the Jewish people the Luchot, which has all the laws of the Torah for us to keep. We discussed 3 important commandments - keep Shabbat, listen to your Mummy and Daddy and do not steal.

The children had lots of fun making their own flower - something to remind us of the flowers on Har Sinai. They painted the stem, decorated their flower and cut out their leaf.  

The following children were on the Shabbat table today:

Shabbat Aba: Jethro

Shabbat Ima: Lia

Shabbat Ben: Joshua

Shabbat Bat:  Ilse Bella

In Music with Mr Fingerhut

• We continued to sing the lines of our fun new song, ‘Boom-chick-a-boom!’ Mr Fingerhut encouraged the children to think of different styles to perform the song in, from rock and roll to dinosaur!.
• The children listened to a piece of music. Mr Fingerhut asked them to describe what they heard and talked about what a choir is. The class split into two groups. Each group sang a line when Mr Fingerhut pointed to them. The children took it in turns to conduct their friends singing.

Unfortunately this week there was no PE.

Important reminders:

• Please continue to post pictures on Tapestry of what your child is doing. These are always lovely to see.
• Please can you continue to send in any junk modelling materials.
• Please continue to send in Tzedaka every Friday to put into the class Tzedaka pot.
• After Shavuot we will be starting the topic ‘pirates’. We want the children to make their own pirate boat. Once made the children will get to launch their boat to see if it will sink or float. Please could you send in some different materials in a named plastic bag for your child to make their boat. Please chat with your child which resources they think would be best to use. Please could this be sent in on Wednesday 19th May. A variety of ideas can be found on the attached link below: https://www.google.com/search?q=stem+activity+make+a+boat+pinterest&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwih9ZDh3sTwAhUa7xoKHUsjDF4Q2-cCegQIABAA&oq=stem+activity+make+a+boat+pinterest&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQA1AAWABgwuUDaABwAHgAgAEAiAEAkgEAmAEAqgELZ3dzLXdpei1pbWc&sclient=img&ei=BhqcYKHaOJrea8vGsPAF&rlz=1C1GGRV_enGB778GB778&safe=strict
• On Friday 28th May we would like the children to dress up as pirates. Some children may like to make their own costume. It is important that the children understand that we don’t always have to buy a costume and that costumes can be made from different resources found at home. This will allow your child to develop their creativity and be inventive. Please make sure no weapons are sent in, for example, swords.
• If your child is getting hungry in the afternoons, you may send in an afternoon snack for them to eat. This must be either fruit or vegetables, but not crackers. Please clearly label which snack is for the morning and which is for the afternoon. 

Thank you.

We hope you have a lovely weekend and we wish you all a ‘Chag Sameach’ and a lovely Shavuot

Shabbat Shalom,

Miss Cowen and the Nursery Team

Newsletter 7th May

It has been another busy week in Nursery. During circle time we continued to discuss the importance of using our hands in a kind way and read the book ‘Hands are not for Hitting’. We discussed all the positive things we use our hands for. We read the book ‘Words are not for Hurting’. Afterwards we talked about how words can hurt our feelings and we must make sure that we only say nice things to our friends. This comes under Personal, Social and Emotional Development and Communication and Language.

In Letters and Sounds we continued with Phase 2. We learnt the letter sounds ‘m’ and ‘d’. We learnt the name of each letter and the sound. We made the action to the ‘Jolly Phonics’ songs for letters ‘m’ and ‘d’. (‘Jolly Phonics’ songs are attached. The actions for each of the letters are shown in the songs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvAYUvQUrGo).

We continued to sound out, blend and read some words using the new sounds ‘m’ and ‘d’ which we learnt this week.

The children enjoyed sharing objects they had brought in to represent the different letters. In Literacy, some children enjoyed drawing and cutting out different shapes to make a mouse beginning with the letter sound ‘m’ and learning to write ‘m’. For the letter sound ‘d’, some of the children enjoyed painting daisies and dandelions using q-tips dipped in paint. They also practised writing the letter ‘d’.

Next week we will learn the letters ‘g’ and ‘o’. We will learn two new sounds on Monday and Wednesday and revise the letters on Tuesday and Thursday.

Can the following children please bring an object beginning with the letter sound ‘g’ for our session on Tuesday 11th May: 

Erin

Bella

Scarlett

Alex

Sienna

Joshua

Eva

Ruby F

Dylan

Lia

Ilse Bella

Lily

Can the following children please bring an object starting with the letter sound ‘o’ for the session on Friday 14th May:

Liora

Eliya

Jethro

Rachel

Ben

Zach T

Ruby T

Zachary W

Yanai 

Hanna 

Raymond

Please ensure that objects for both sounds are handed in on Monday 10th May and that you label your child’s object.

Please remember to send your child in with an object to show, otherwise your child will miss out on the opportunity to share with their classmates which can cause disappointment. Please explain to your child that the object they are sending in won’t come home until the end of the week.

In Literacy, the children enjoyed their second visit to the school library in a small group. I hope you enjoy reading the book your child selected with them. Please make sure their library book is returned by next Wednesday so that they can choose a new one. 
 

In Mathematics we carried on practicing counting forwards and backwards. We also revised 2D shapes.

In Understanding the World we continued with the topic: ‘People who help us’. This week we focused on learning the job of a Policeman and a Postman. We read the book, ‘Topsy and Tim meet the Police’ and the non-fiction book ‘Postman’ by Rebecca Hunter. We discussed that a non-fiction book is about true facts and not made up like a fiction book. We also enjoyed watching a video about the journey of a letter and what happens to the letter after it is posted.

In Understanding the World, under technology, some of the children enjoyed taking photos on iPads. They went around the outdoor area taking pictures of their surroundings and each other.

 Sienna’s Daddy, Mr Budwig, who has a keen interest in renewable energy solutions, visited the EYU on Wednesday. Mr Budwig started by introducing the concept of electricity. He asked the children what makes lights shine bright when you wake up in the morning? Our session moved on to discuss how electricity is generated. This included a demonstration of electricity being generated with a dynamo powering a small light setup for the children to see.

We separated into groups and the children were able to play with a whole host of solar powered toys, to better understand the concept of how the sun’s energy can be used to make things move, spin or shine. Each child was given the opportunity to generate their own electricity with a dynamo. The interactive session closed with the children interacting with a larger solar panel, connected to lights and a switch. This enabled the children to understand how the lights would turn off when the solar panel was covered. Importantly the children discovered that when the sun shone they were able to control the lights going on and off. Whilst this is only the beginning of the children’s journey in renewable energy, it is a good starting point, and if our planet is to succeed in the future, we will all have to adopt cleaner and greener ways of living.

Some of the children helped to plant more flower seeds in our garden and water the seeds and potatoes that we planted.

In Expressive Art and Design some of the children enjoyed making moon sand. They helped measure out different ingredients, mixed these together and explored different textures. This is an excellent fine motor activity, especially when mixing ingredients together, which is good for strengthening the hands. 

In Jewish Studies the children learnt it is a double Parashah - Behar and Bechukotai. The children learnt that Hashem told Moshe to tell the Jewish people that it is really important to be kind to our friends and family and never to say things that might hurt or upset someone. 

We discussed different ways we can be kind to each other and talked about the fact that kindness does not have to be huge, even a small, kind act can mean so much to someone. The children had lots of fun making their own friendship plate using hand prints and decorations.

The following children were on the Shabbat table today:

Shabbat Aba: Zachary

Shabbat Ima: Ruby F

Shabbat Ben: Yanai

Shabbat Bat:  Hanna

In Music with Mr Fingerhut

• The children learnt to copy the words to a fun, new song, “I said a boom, chick-a-boom”.
• Mr Fingerhut invited the children to suggest different styles to sing the song in, which included ‘pink’ and ‘camouflage’!
• We learnt to count to the beat of four and we all stomped our feet on four.
• We enjoyed an animated film of a piece of music called ‘Pipe Dream’ and followed a ball as it hit different instruments.

In PE with Mr Armoogum

• The children listened to instructions to move round the track at a different pace, first running, then striding and then tip-toeing. 
• They practised football skills such as tapping the ball with their knee and then with their head.
• The children enjoyed having a go at scoring goals in special goal posts.

Important reminders:

• Please continue to post pictures on Tapestry of what your child is doing. These are always lovely to see.
• We are continuing to learn about ‘People who help us’. If you are in one of these professions and would like to come in and speak to the children, please email me and I will arrange a time to discuss this with you.
• Please can you continue to send in any junk modelling so that the children can continue to build and develop their creativity.
• It would be lovely if your child could bring in Tzedaka every Friday to put into the class Tzedaka pot.

Thank you.

We hope you have a lovely weekend.

Shabbat Shalom,

Miss Cowen and the Nursery Team

Newsletter 30th April

We have had another very busy and fun-filled week. The children continue to freeflow inside and outside the classroom, enjoying a variety of activities, which encourages them to share different resources. During circle time we discussed the importance of using our words rather than our emotions or hands to get what we need. This comes under Personal, Social and Emotional Development and Communication and Language.

In Letters and Sounds we continued with Phase 2. We learnt the letter sounds ‘i’ and ‘n’. We learnt the name of each letter and the sound. We made the action to the ‘Jolly Phonics’ songs for letters ‘i’ and ‘n’. (‘Jolly Phonics’ songs are attached. The actions for each of the letters are shown in the songs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvAYUvQUrGo)

We continued to sound out, blend and read some words using the new sounds ‘i’ and ‘n’ which we learnt this week.

The children enjoyed sharing the objects they had brought in to represent the different letters. In Literacy, some children enjoyed drawing and cutting out different shapes to make their iguana beginning with the letter sound ‘i’ and learning to write ‘i’. For the letter sound ‘n’, some children enjoyed practicing writing their numbers using a q-tip dipped into paint. They also practised writing the letter ‘n’.

Next week we will learn the letters ‘m’ and ‘d’. Due to the bank holiday, we will learn our two new sounds of the week on Tuesday and Thursday and revise the letters on Wednesday and Friday.

Can the following children please bring an object beginning with the letter sound ‘m’ for our session on Wednesday 5th May: 

Erin

Bella

Scarlett

Alex

Sienna

Joshua

Eva

Ruby F

Dylan

Lia

Ilse Bella

Lily
 

Can the following children please bring an object starting with the letter sound ‘d’ for the session on Friday 7th May:

Liora

Eliya

Jethro

Rachel

Ben

Zach T

Ruby T

Zachary W

Yanai 

Hanna 

Raymond

Please ensure that objects for both sounds are handed in on Tuesday 4th May. When selecting your objects, please make sure that the name has the correct sounds when you say it. For example, an ice cream starts with a ‘i’ sound, but when sounded out the sound is the name of the letter. Please ensure your child’s objects are labelled.

Please remember to send your child in with an object to show, otherwise your child will miss out on the opportunity to share with their classmates which can cause disappointment. Please explain to your child that the object they are sending in won’t come home until the end of the week.

In Literacy, the children enjoyed visiting the school library in small groups. They had an opportunity to listen to a story and select a library book to take home. I hope you enjoy reading the book your child selected with them. Please make sure their library book is returned by next Wednesday so that they can select a new one. 

We were really lucky to have Eliya’s Mummy, Mrs Oshman, come to Nursery to talk to us about the book she has written called ‘What Would You Do If You Weren't Afraid?’. She talked to the children about what an author is and that she is an author who has written her own book which she showed to the children. She explained that in her book she was able to tell her story. She asked the children if they were to write a book what would it be about? The children were also able to ask questions at the end. Mrs Oshman, thank you so much for coming in and sharing this with us.

In Mathematics we continued to practice our counting skills and revised our numbers to 20. We started to learn about one more than a given number and the children used their fingers to practice counting one more than. You can practise with your child, especially when you go shopping. For example, you have 5 apples, one more than is 6. Let your child count to check that is the correct answer by using one to one correspondence. If your child already knows one more than up to 10 you can see how high they can go. 

In Understanding the World we continued with the topic: ‘People who help us’. This week we focused on learning the job of an optometrist. We read the book, ‘Topsy and Tim have their Eyes Tested’. We also learnt about the job of a firefighter and we read the non-fiction book ‘Firefighter’, by Rebecca Hunter. We discussed that a non-fiction book is about true facts and not made up like a fiction book. We found out what a contents page and a glossary are. We also read the book ‘Topsy and Tim meet the Firefighters’.

In Expressive Art and Design some of the children enjoyed making glasses using pipe cleaners and some children enjoyed painting a fire engine. Some of the children continued acting out Doctors and Nurses and they were really excited to treat Mrs Sharman when she visited our class GP surgery. She was well looked after when some of the children listened to her heartbeat, gave her medicine and bandaged her arm. Encouraging your child to role play at home is an excellent way to extend vocabulary and your child’s communication skills.

More children had an opportunity to make their own playdough, for which they measured out different ingredients, mixed these together and explored different textures. This is an excellent fine motor activity, especially when mixing ingredients together and kneading playdough, which is good for strengthening the hands.

Some of the children enjoyed planting flower seeds in our garden and we also planted some seed potatoes.  

In Jewish Studies this week the children learnt about Lag B'Omer, the 33rd day of counting the Omer.  We start counting the Omer on the 2nd night of Pesach and count all the way until the festival of Shavuot (49 days). The children learnt that up until the 33rd day of the Omer, Rabbi Akiva's students were not being kind to each other and this made Hashem sad, so He sent a punishment that the students became unwell. When the students realised that Hashem was not happy with them they changed their ways and on the 33rd day of the Omer, Hashem removed the punishment. This day is now a day of celebration and happy time again.

The children talked about how they can be kind to each other and offered some very good examples of how to be a good friend.

The children learnt that Lag B'Omer is often celebrated in Israel with large bonfires and dancing and singing and we watched a video of Israelis dancing around a bonfire last year.

The children enjoyed creating their own bonfire, using hand prints and lollipop sticks and lots of glitter!

The following children were on the Shabbat table today:

Shabbat Aba: Ben

Shabbat Ima: Sienna

Shabbat Ben: Zach

Shabbat Bat:  Eva

In Music with Mr Fingerhut

• The children learnt the names of different instruments as well as the piano.
• The children were encouraged to put instruments in family groups: For example violin and guitar belong to the strings and trumpet to the brass section.
• They listened to a professional musician playing a guitar, violin and banjo.

In PE with Mr Armoogum

• They moved around the outdoor area pretending to be different animals.
• They practised different ball skills, for example dribbling the ball and kicking the ball with both feet.
• They then moved the ball with their feet around the cones.

Important reminders:

• Please continue to post pictures on Tapestry of what your child is doing. These are always lovely to see.
• Please ensure all articles of clothing are named.
• We are continuing to learn about ‘People who help us’. If you are in one of those professions and would like to come in and speak to the children, please email me and I will arrange a time to discuss this with you.
• Please can you send in any junk modelling so that the children can continue to build and develop their creativity.
• When dropping off or picking up, please can you make sure that you line up against the hedge, one behind the other, so that your child can be called in order of arrival and also so we keep the pathway clear for passers by.

Thank you.

We hope you have a lovely weekend.

Shabbat Shalom,

Miss Cowen and the Nursery Team

Newsletter 23rd April

We have had a very busy and fun-filled week. The weather was great so the children were able to enjoy lots of outdoor play. Activities outside allow the children to develop not only their Communication, Language and Social skills but also to take turns and share resources.

In Letters and Sounds we continued with Phase 2. We learnt the letter sounds ‘t’ and ‘p’. We learnt the name of each letter and the sound. We made the action to the ‘Jolly Phonics’ songs for letters ‘t’ and ‘p’. (‘Jolly Phonics’ songs are attached. The actions for each of the letters are shown in the songs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvAYUvQUrGo)

We started to sound out, blend and read some words using the four sounds we have learnt,‘s’, ‘a’, ‘t’ and ‘p’.

The children enjoyed sharing the objects they had brought in to represent the different letters. In Literacy, some children enjoyed making a handprint tiger for the letter sound ‘t’ and learning to write ‘t’. For the letter sound ‘p’ some children enjoyed colour mixing red and white to make pink and red and blue to mix purple. They used the colour pink and purple to paint a picture and practiced writing the letter ‘p’.

Next week we will learn the letters ‘i’ and ‘n’. We will continue to learn two sounds a week on a Monday and Wednesday and revise the letters on a Tuesday and Thursday.

Can the following children please bring an object beginning with the letter sound ‘i for our session on Tuesday 27th April: It is a difficult sound, so if you can’t find an object beginning with an ‘i’, choose one that has an ‘i’ sound in it.

Erin

Bella

Scarlett

Alex

Sienna

Joshua

Eva

Ruby F

Dylan

Lia

Ilse Bella

Lily

Can the following children please bring an object starting with the letter sound ‘n’ for the session on Thursday 29th April:

Liora

Eliya

Jethro

Rachel

Ben

Zach T

Ruby T

Zachary W

Yanai 

Hanna 

Raymond

Please ensure that objects for both sounds are handed in on Monday 26th April. When selecting your objects, please make sure that the name has the correct sounds when you say it. For example, a teacup starts with a ‘t’ sound, but when sounded out the sound is the name of the letter. Please ensure your child’s objects are labelled.

Please remember to send your child in with an object to show, otherwise your child will miss out on the opportunity to share with their classmates which can cause disappointment. Please explain to your child that the object they are sending in won’t come home until the end of the week.

In Literacy, some of the children enjoyed mark making and practiced writing their names in shaving foam.

In Mathematics the children continued to practice their counting skills by rote. We also revised all numbers to 20. Some of the children enjoyed filling different sized containers using scoops with coloured rice and pom-poms. They continued to explore capacity and discussed whether they had filled their containers half full or full.

In Expressive Art and Design the children enjoyed making different objects using junk modelling. It was lovely to see them sharing ideas and working collaboratively to make some very interesting structures, for example, a flight simulator and walkie-talkies. Some children were excited to make their own playdough, for which they measured out different ingredients, mixed these together and explored different textures. They used various collage materials to decorate their playdough.

In Understanding the World we continued with the topic: ‘People who help us’. This week we focused on learning the job of a dentist and what a dental hygienist does. We read the non-fiction book, ‘Dentist’, by Rebecca Hunter. We discussed that a non-fiction book is about true facts and not made up like a fiction book. We found out what a contents page and a glossary are. We learnt new words like ‘orthodontist’ and 'sterilize’. We also read the book ‘Topsy and Tim go to the Dentist’. In Expressive Art and Design some of the children made a mouth and teeth using collage materials. They also practiced number formation by numbering the teeth. The children continued acting out Doctors and Nurses in our GP surgery. Role play is an excellent way to extend vocabulary and the childrens’ communication skills.

The children enjoyed starting to clear up the garden ready for planting. Some of the children were excited when they found a snail and were interested to learn key facts about a snail.

In Jewish Studies this week the children learnt about the double Parashah - Acharei Mot and Kedoshim. The children learnt that Moshe told the Jewish people about some of the special Mitzvot that Hashem would like us to keep.  One of the special Mitzvot is not to wear clothes that are made with wool and linen mixed together. This is known as sha’atnez.  We discussed which animal gives us wool and which plant linen comes from and how it is made. The children enjoyed watching a video on how a sheep is shorn and how the wool is cleaned so it can be used to make clothes. The children had lots of fun finger painting their own sheep.

The following children were on the Shabbat table today:

Shabbat Aba: Dylan

Shabbat Ima: Scarlett

Shabbat Ben: Jethro

Shabbat Bat:  Alex

In Music with Mr Fingerhut

• The children listened to a piece of music and discussed whether the volume sounded loud or quiet.
• The children danced and learnt to move at the same pace as the music.
• We talked about our musical taste and whether we liked calm music. Some children decided they preferred loud and exciting music. 

In PE with Mr Armoogum

• The children moved their bodies like jungle animals, stretching up tall like a giraffe and stomping like an elephant.
• They practiced ball control skills and they were encouraged to roll the ball under their foot.
• They followed directions and kicked the ball to hit different coloured cones.

Important reminders:

• Please continue to post pictures on Tapestry of what your child is doing. These are always lovely to see.
• Please ensure all articles of clothing are named.
• If wet clothes are sent home in your child’s bag, please can you make sure these are replaced the following day.
• We are continuing to learn about ‘People who help us’. If you are in one of those professions and would like to come in and speak to the children, please email me and I will arrange a time to discuss this with you.
• Please can you send in any junk modelling so that the children can continue to build and develop their creativity.
• We will be starting weekly library sessions on Wednesdays, starting on 28th April. The children will select a library book to bring home. Please make sure it is returned the following Wednesday so that your child will be able to select a new book.
• Please can you make sure when the weather is hot that you apply sun cream on your child first thing in the morning and then send in the sun cream so that it can be reapplied at lunchtime. We can assist your child but cannot apply the cream. Please can you also send your child in with a sun hat.

Thank you.

We hope you have a lovely weekend.

Shabbat Shalom,

Miss Cowen and the Nursery Team

Nursery Newsletter- 16th April

We hope you all had a lovely Pesach and a nice break. 

It was lovely to welcome Raymond Salem to Nursery this week.

We have had a very busy and fun first week back. The children were able to be outside a lot as the weather was really sunny. They enjoyed chatting and playing with their friends and catching up after the holidays. This is all part of their Personal, Social and Emotional Development and Communication and Language skills. 

In Letters and Sounds we started Phase 2. We learnt the letter sound ‘s’ and ‘a’. For each of the letters, we learnt the name of the letter, the sound, the action and the ‘Jolly Phonics’ songs for the letter ‘s’ and ‘a’. (‘Jolly Phonics’ songs are attached. The actions for each of the letters are shown in the songs) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvAYUvQUrGo)

The children enjoyed sharing pictures of the object they had chosen to represent the different letters. In Literacy some children enjoyed making a sun for the letter sound ‘s’ and either writing the ‘s’ sound or sounding out the word and writing ‘s-u-n’. For the letter sound ‘a’, some of the children enjoyed apple printing and practised writing the letter ‘a’.

Next week we will learn the letters ‘t’ and ‘p’. We will continue to learn two sounds a week on a Monday and Wednesday and revise the letters on a Tuesday and Thursday.

From next week, your child will be able to bring in the actual object beginning with the letter sounds they have learnt to share with the class. Please make sure these objects are hard toys and easily cleaned. 

Can the following children please bring an object beginning with the letter sound ‘t’ for our session on Tuesday 20th April:

Erin

Bella

Scarlett

Alex

Sienna

Joshua

Eva

Ruby F

Dylan

Lia

Ilse Bella

Lily

Can the following children please bring an object starting with the letter sound ‘p’ for the session on Thursday 22nd April:

Liora

Eliya

Jethro

Rachel

Ben

Zach T

Ruby T

Zachary W

Yanai 

Hanna 

Raymond

Please ensure that objects for both sounds are handed in on Monday 19th April. When selecting your objects, please make sure that the name has the correct sounds when you say it. For example, a shoe starts with a ‘s’ sound, but when sounded out it has a ‘sh’ sound.

Please make sure you send your child in with an object to show, otherwise your child will miss out on the opportunity to share with their classmates which can cause disappointment.

In Mathematics the children practised their counting skills and enjoyed counting to 100.  We revised all numbers to 19 and learnt the new number of the week; number 20. Some of the children enjoyed being able to play with water. They enjoyed filling different sized containers with coloured water and explored different vocabulary linked to capacity, including empty, full, and half-full.

In Expressive Art and Design some of the children enjoyed painting pictures of different spring flowers. They colour mixed the correct colours to match different flowers. The children were so excited to finally be able to dress up in costumes.

In Understanding the World we started our new topic: ‘People who help us’. This week we focused on learning the job of a doctor and nurse. We read the non-fiction book ‘Doctors’ by Rebecca Hunter. We discussed that a non-fiction book is about true facts and not made up like a fiction book. We found out what a contents page and a glossary are. We learnt new words like ‘auriscope’, which is an instrument used to look inside someone's ears. In Expressive Art and Design the children enjoyed acting out being doctors in our new role play area which has been turned into a doctor’s surgery. It was lovely to see the children taking turns to be a doctor and a patient. It was fun watching the children putting bandages on each other and the teachers. Role play is an excellent way to extend vocabulary and the childrens’ communication skills.

This week in Jewish Studies the children learnt about Yom Ha'atzmaut - Israel's 73rd birthday. The children looked at a power point of important places and people in Israel and we discussed the colours and pattern on the Israeli flag,  who the prime minister is, the currency used in Israel and foods that Israelis like to eat.  We also talked about the "chayalim" - the Israeli soldiers and what their jobs entail.  The children  watched a video of how Israel celebrated Yom Ha'atsmaut last year, with dancing and singing in the streets and barbecues in the parks.

On the day of Israel's birthday the children enjoyed wearing special, blue and white clothes. The children enjoyed playing Israeli sporting games with Mr Moses followed by a carousel of activities where they moved around in small groups. These activities included making an Israeli flag, a handprint white dove and icing a biscuit in blue and white. Some of the children enjoyed building the Kottel using bricks.

The following children were on the Shabbat table today:

Shabbat Aba: Joshua

Shabbat Ima: Bella 

Shabbat Ben: Raymond

Shabbat Bat:  Erin

In Music with Mr Fingerhut

• The children started the music lesson by moving around in different ways, depending on the type of music played.
• The children chose different nursery rhymes to sing and they practised singing them in different tempos.
• Mr Fingerhut ended the lesson by teaching the children how to sing “David Melech Yisrael”.

Important reminders:

• Please continue to post pictures on Tapestry of what your child is doing during the holidays. They are always lovely to see.
• Please ensure all articles of clothing are named.
• If wet clothes are sent home in your child’s bag, please can you make sure these are replaced the following day.
• If you have not already sent in your child’s apron, waterproofs and wellingtons please do so as your child will miss out on messy and wet play if they don’t have suitable clothing.
• Over the next 3 weeks we will be learning about ‘People who help us’. If you are in one of these professions and would like to come in and speak to the children, please email me and I will arrange a time to discuss this further with you.

Thank you.

We hope you have a lovely weekend.

Shabbat Shalom,

Miss Cowen and the Nursery Team

Nursery Newsletter- 19th March

We had another very busy week in Nursery. We continued learning about Pesach.

The children enjoyed free flowing in and out of the classroom, selecting activities of their choice. These included playing with musical instruments, making pies in the mud kitchen, free painting, drawing and more. The children are developing their personal and social skills and vocabulary.

In Letters and Sounds (Literacy) we continued with Aspect 7; oral blending and segmenting. It is important that the children have plenty of experience listening to adults modelling oral blending and that they are introduced to grapheme–phoneme correspondences. For example, when giving children instructions or asking questions, the adult can segment the last word into separate phonemes (sounds) and then blend these together to say the word. ‘Simon says’ is a fun game that we played in class that you may like to play at home. Different words were sounded out, for example, “Simon says get your c-oa-t, coat!”, “touch your t-oe-s, toes!” “Simon says can you touch your f-ee-t, feet?” 

We played a fun phonics game called ‘Which One?’ A selection of familiar objects containing three phonemes (sounds) were laid out on the table, for example, jam, bag, dog, cup, chair). The children listened carefully to the name of each object as it was sounded out in sound talk, eg. “j-a-m”, “ch-ai-r”. Some children came to the front of the class to see if they could work out which object had been sounded out. The children repeated the sounds all together and then said each word. You can go around the house with your child and see what objects you can find with three phonemes (sounds) and play this with them.

If you play any of the above games it is important that you teach your child the correct letter sound, so I have attached the ‘Jolly Phonics’ songs for you to listen to how each sound is said before you teach your child:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvAYUvQUrGo

During the holidays you can also:

• Continue to read rhyming books with your children and encourage them to say as many rhyming words as they can to create a rhyming string. 
• Continue to explore alliteration and how many objects/words you can find starting with the same letter sound.
• You can discuss consonant, vowel, consonant (CVC) words, for example, cat, mat, peg, leg. See if your child is able to say the first, middle and last sounds. Let your child “sound talk” each of the words, for example, c-a-t, m-a-t.

In our phonics lessons next term, we will begin to learn our letter sounds. We will learn two sounds a week on a Monday and Wednesday and revise the letters on a Tuesday and Thursday. (On our first week back only, we will learn the sounds on Tuesday and Thursday and revise on Wednesday and Friday). 

It would be nice if the children could bring in a picture of objects beginning with the letter sounds they have learnt to share. Everyone will get an opportunity to bring a picture of their chosen object for the different letter sounds learnt. This will be arranged on a rota basis.

Can the following children please bring a picture of their chosen object beginning with the letter sound ‘s’ to the session on Wednesday 14th April:

Erin

Bella

Scarlett

Alex

Sienna

Joshua

Eva

Ruby F

Dylan

Lia

Ilse Bella

Lily

Can the following children please bring a picture of an object starting with the letter sound ‘a’ for the session on Friday 16th April:

Liora

Eliya

Jethro

Rachel

Ben

Zach T

Ruby T

Zachary W

Yanai 

Hanna 

Please ensure that pictures for both sounds are handed in on the first Tuesday we are back and each Monday for the weeks after that.

In Mathematics we revised all numbers to 18 and learnt the new number of the week; number 19. Some children enjoyed making pictures with the numicon and others enjoyed playing with the magnetic numbers. 

During the holidays you can:

• Continue to look around the environment or your house to see what numbers your child can see? This includes looking for objects with numbers for example weighing scales, telephones, buses.
• Carry on with counting by rote with your child. How high can your child count?
• Continue to practice counting objects with your child using one to one correspondence. Make sure they say the number as each object is placed. Your child can practice counting the stairs up to bed and down in the morning. Make sure your child says the number name as they place each foot on the step.
• You can practice “one more than” and “how many altogether?”. This can be done while shopping. For example, if you have three apples, one more is? If you have two pears and 3 apples how many do you have altogether? 
• You can practise one less than. This can be done when your child is eating, for example, raisins. If you have 4 raisins and you eat one, how many have you got left?

In Physical Development, some children continued practising their fine motor skills by chalking different patterns. They threw the dice and then copied the pattern shown on the dice. Some children enjoyed threading large beads to make necklaces. Threading is a good activity for practicing and developing your child’s hand-eye coordination.

In Expressive Art and Design some of the children enjoyed free painting in the outdoor area where they explored what colour they could make by mixing paints together.

In Understanding the World and Jewish Studies, the children continued learning about Pesach.  Please continue to discuss the key learning points below with your child.

• The chag of Pesach starts on the 15th Nissan. 
• We celebrate Pesach for 7 days in Israel and 8 days outside Israel.
• It is the time when we celebrate Hashem saving the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt under King Pharoah.
• We discussed the Jewish people running out of Egypt so quickly that there was no time for their bread to rise. It was baked as matzah whilst they were running. This is the reason why we eat only matzah on Pesach.
• We discussed how we prepare for Pesach by clearing the house of all chametz foods (foods made using flour), for example, bread, bagels, pasta, cake, biscuits and pretzels and cleaning our houses so there is no trace of any chametz left.
• We discussed that nowadays we can buy foods that look like usual foods we eat during the year but none of these foods will have wheat flour in them, however potato flour is allowed on Pesach.
• We discussed that by the night before Pesach, the whole house has to be cleaned from chametz (anything made from flour). We do Bedikat Chametz when we search everywhere in the house to see if any chametz has been left behind and if there is some chametz found we must burn it the next morning: This is called Biur Chametz because on Pesach Jewish people do not eat any bread (Chametz) or anything made of flour.

The children completed the last four pages of their Haggadah. We focused on the following:

• Shulchan Orech - We eat a delicious meal.

• Tzafun - We eat the afikoman

• Barech - We bensch to say thank you to Hashem. 
• Hallel - We sing to Hashem to thank him for looking after us.
• Nirtza - We ask Hashem that next year we will be in Israel.

Next week, the children will enjoy a Pesach workshop where they will make a variety of different crafts that they can use at the Seder table.