Newsletter 13thJuly

Dear Parents,

I cannot believe this is my last weekly letter to you. Although this week has been short, it has been busy!

It was so lovely to see you all at our end of year show. To be able to finally invite you in for the children to perform in front of you, was amazing. The children were fantastic and I am sure you will all agree, they made us all so very proud with their video and all the songs they sang.

In Letters and Sounds we went over the last few letter sounds and the children enjoyed sharing the object they had brought in for their chosen letter sound.

On Wednesday morning 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 fabulous year. It is great to see how far the children have progressed, from the first day they walked into the setting and now to see how they have developed throughout the year, in both their confidence and learning. 

Tapestry has allowed us to send regular updates and videos of what your children have been doing at 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. Please make sure you download this before the expiry date. 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. 

In Jewish Studies, we followed the rhythm of the end of year celebrations. We did a lot of singing and dancing. What we mustn’t forget is our last kodesh stars: We had Isabella who brought in a dreidel and told us that it was her grandma who gave it to her once, when she picked her up from school. She told us that she plays it during Chanukah but not only! We also had Chloe, who brought an amazing book, who had her name printed on it. Chloe told us that she got it from mummy and daddy when she was born. She explained that she keeps it in her room. Another star was Emma K, who brought in a beautiful bracelet. Emma told us that her “bebe” (her grandma) gave it to her when she turned 4. Our mitzvah girl said that she wears it on special occasions, like on Shabbat. And our final kodesh star of the year was Darcey, who brought in such special candlesticks. Darcey got her candlesticks from “dodo” and she keeps them on the shelf.

With such wonderful kodesh items, we feel that the Nursery kids are ready for the next Jewish Studies stage - where we start learning, in addition to Parasha, Chagim, Midot and Jewish themes, the Aleph-Bet! 

We wish lots of luck to the children as they move onto their next adventure in Reception and Darcey and Annabelle who are moving to new schools.

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 8th July

Another great week at Nursery.

Firstly we want to wish Mr and Mrs Sheldon, Reuben, Ariella and Eliana a big Mazeltov on the occasion of Reuben’s Bar Mitzvah.We look forward to Ariella telling us all about it.

The highlight this week was our special pirate day where everyone dressed up as pirates, even the teachers! We were also joined by some of the Year 6 children in the morning who did some fun pirate activities with the children, including going on a treasure hunt, finger painting parrots and making pirate hats. The children were all given a pirate name. In the afternoon the children enjoyed selecting other fun pirate activities including making telescopes, role playing in the pirate ship, walking the plank, looking for treasure hidden in the playdough and making treasure maps. They also enjoyed listening to different pirate stories. 

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development and Communication and Language we continued to discuss the importance of using kind hands and kind words.

The children enjoyed a speech and drama session with Mrs Rabie, Harrison’s mummy.  They started the session with warm up exercises for the mouth. They practiced a well known tongue twister ‘She sells seashells by the seashore’. Some of the children tried saying it on their own. They then warmed up their bodies by playing the Bean game and did different movements, depending on which bean was called out. For example ‘jumping bean’ where they had to jump and ‘runner bean’ where they had to run. They then learnt an ice cream poem and enjoyed discussing their favorite ice cream and putting their favourite flavour on to a pretend ice cream. It was a lovely session, so thank you Mrs Rabie for coming in and teaching the children.

In Letters and Sounds we continued with Phase 2. The children learnt the letter sounds ‘l’ and ‘j’. They learnt the name of each letter and the sound it makes. They practiced the actions to the Jolly Phonics songs for ‘l’ and ‘j’. Jolly Phonics songs are attached. The actions for each of the letters are shown in the songs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_571BQfp_vs. We continued to sound out, blend and read some words using the new sounds ‘l’ and ‘j’. Some of the children enjoyed drawing or making ladybirds using different collage materials for the letter sound ‘l’ or jellyfish for the letter sound ‘j’.

The children enjoyed sharing the objects they brought in to represent the different letters. 

The children have  learnt nearly all the sounds and we will discuss the last sounds next week. 

Please can all the children decide which is their favorite letter sound and bring in an object for that sound which they will share with the class.

Please ensure that all objects are handed in on Monday 11th July.

The children enjoyed another baking session with Mrs Dagul where they made chocolate crispy cakes. They discussed the ingredients and helped mix them together. They discussed how to melt the chocolate by putting the chocolate over a bowl of hot water. This was done out of the classroom. The crispy cakes were then put into the fridge for the chocolate to set. This links to the area of Mathematics and Communication and Language.

In Understanding the World, we continued to discuss what stage the caterpillars are at. They are still in a cocoon but hopefully any day they will become butterflies.

This week in Jewish studies we started the week learning a little bit about last week's Parasha. We spoke about Korach and about how being jealous didn't help him and he was swallowed by the earth. The children pictured the earth opening and all the people who were challenging Moshe being swallowed, as you can see in their take home activities.

We then moved to this week's Parasha - Chukat. We learned that throughout their journey in the desert, because of Miriam, the Bnei Israel had a well of water all the time, so they didn't ever get thirsty! When Miriam was called to be with Hashem, her well dried up and the Bnei Israel were without water. Hashem commanded Moshe to speak to the rock but Moshe hit it instead and although he didn't do what Hashem said, Hashem still sent water through the rock. We spoke about how Hashem always hears us and answers us. Sometimes the answer is "no", but this is because He is so kind and will always do what's best for us.

On Friday we had our usual but even more exciting Shabbat party . The children sang extra beautifully and it made me so proud to see how much they've learned this year. 

The following children were on the Shabbat table today:

Shabbat Aba: Harrison

Shabbat Ima: Avia

Shabbat Ben: Liam

Shabbat Bat: Emma S

In Music the children enjoyed practising for their show at the main school/ They are looking forward to showing you what they have been working on over the last few weeks.

In PE the children enjoyed a special yoga session in line with our pirate theme. They went on a pirate adventure with Cosmic Kids. It was lovely to see them listening to the instructions and moving accordingly.

In Forest School the children started the session by singing the good morning Forest School song, counting how many people there were and going round saying their names to a chosen action. We went over the Forest School rules including no pick,no lick, the red flags mean stop and 123, come back to me. The children had great fun going on a pirate adventure and discussing what a pirate may use. They went into the pirate ship which was made out of sticks. They practiced listening to the instructions on the ship, moving to the front and back. The children were then able to choose from a selection of activities and especially enjoyed making eye patches and pirate flags.

Important reminders:

• Don’t forget our end of year show Tuesday 12th July! It will start promptly at 1.15pm. Once the Nursery show is finished you have the option to take your child home or pick them up at 3.00pm at the main school. Please can you email me and let me know if you will be taking your child or leaving them till pick up time. They will need to wear their school uniforms.
• The children will finish school on Wednesday 13th July at 12.30pm.
• The last few days of school are forecast to be very hot. Please make sure your child has plenty of sun cream that will last all day and they must have a sunhat.

Thank you 

Shabbat Shalom

Miss Cowen and the Nursery Team

Newsletter 1st July

Wow what an exciting week we have had with Nursery’s first Sports Day. The children did so well, showing great listening skills and taking turns. They competed in all the different activities and made all of us so very proud. Well done Nursery!

The children enjoyed visiting Reception for their second transition session. Whilst they were in Reception they had the opportunity to continue exploring their new classroom playing with a variety of activities set out for them.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development, we continued to talk about the importance of using our words rather than our hands and how it makes someone feel if we are not kind. We also continue to remind the children of  the importance of saying please and thank you when they need something or someone gives them something.

In Letters and Sounds we continued with Phase 2. The children learnt the letter sounds ‘b’ and ‘f’. They learnt the name of each letter and the sound it makes. They practiced the actions to the Jolly Phonics songs for ‘b’ and ‘f’. Jolly Phonics songs are attached. The actions for each of the letters are shown in the songs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_571BQfp_vs. We continued to sound out, blend and read some words using the new sounds ‘b’ and ‘f’. We also discussed if there is a ‘ff’ at the end of a word it has the same sound. Some of the children enjoyed drawing a boat for the letter sound ‘b’ and making a fan for the letter sound ‘f’.

The children enjoyed sharing the objects they brought in to represent the different letters. 

Please can the following children bring an object beginning with the letter sound ‘l’.

Liba

Eden

Avia

Mia

Dylan

Reuben

Judah

Talya

Chloe

Isabella

Emma K

Please can the following children please bring an object starting with the letter sound ‘j’.

Mila

Annabelle

David

Gabriel

Harrison

Jimmy

Ariella

Darcey

Emma S

Jacob

Eli

Liam

Please ensure that objects for both sounds are handed in on Monday 4th July.

The children enjoyed the baking session with Mrs Dagul where they made chocolate chip cookies. They discussed the ingredients used and weighed them out. They also talked about how much time was required for the cookies to be cooked. This links to the area of Mathematics.

In Understanding the World, the children continued to learn about lifecycles. We continued to discuss the growth of the class sunflowers and the children made sure they were watered. We have also been watching the different stages the caterpillars have been going through and the children are excited that they are now all in a cocoon. We are waiting for them to become butterflies, which will hopefully happen next week. 

This week in Jewish Studies the children learnt about how Korach and some other people revolted against Moshe, accusing him of choosing his brother (Aharon) to be the Cohen Hagadol. Although the Cohen Hagadol was chosen by Hashem, once again the people lost emunah and were not happy with what Hashem was giving them. Hashem told the people to bring a stick each, and only Aharon’s stick blossomed.  We made a beautiful blossoming tree to show just how beautiful Aharon’s stick blossomed.

On Friday we had our usual but super fun Shabat party. The following children were on the Shabbat table today:

Shabbat Aba: Jimmy.     

Shabbat Ima: Mia

Shabbat Ben: Gabriel

Shabbat Bat: Emma K

This week we did not have music as it coincided with sports day.

In PE with Mrs Skolnek, the children enjoyed a session using tennis racquets and balls, linked to Wimbledon starting. They had to walk balancing the tennis ball on the racquet and then used the racquet like a cricket bat hitting the ball with it to see if they could hit the cone.

In Forest School the children learnt about birds. The children started the lesson by remembering the forest school rules and then they began exploring. They collected sticks to make nests and then one at a time they ran into the middle to collect food for the chicks. The children then had a selection of activities to choose from. Some of them made bird feeders with pine cones, butter and seeds. Some played with the fluffy bird toys that made real bird sounds when pressed. They also enjoyed looking at a selection of special books that could make different bird noises when pressed. Others chose to catch creatures from the long grass with nets and some of the children used binoculars to look for birds. 

Important reminders:

• On Tuesday 5th July, please can you drop your child at the main school from 8.30-8.40am. The children will have their music lesson there. The children will walk back over to the EYU straight after their lesson.
• Please remember on Friday 8th July the children will dress up as pirates. Please make sure the outfits are easy to put on and off for toileting. We ask that no toy weapons are sent in, for example, swords. 
• Please can everyone send in an empty kitchen roll to be used for our pirate activities.

Thank you 

Shabbat Shalom

Miss Cowen and the Nursery Team

Newsletter 24th June

It has been an exceptionally busy and exciting week in Nursery. 

The highlight of the week was receiving a lovely letter from the Queen thanking the children for the amazing pictures they had sent to her on the celebration of her Platinum Jubilee. It made us all so very proud. Well done Nursery!

The children enjoyed visiting Reception for their first transition session. They were introduced to their new teachers and were allowed to familiarize themselves with the classroom and some fun activities that were laid out for them.  The second session will take place next Friday 1st July.

In Nursery, the children drew a picture of their family. This will go up on the Reception display board and it will be the first picture they see when they start in Reception. It is lovely to see how their drawings and writing of their names has developed throughout the year. This activity will be completed next week. This covers the area of Literacy.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development, during circle time, we continued to talk about kindness. We focussed on appreciating that we are all different and. whatever our differences are, we must always be especially kind and how it makes us all feel when unkind things are said.

In Letters and Sounds we continued with Phase 2. We learnt the letter sounds ‘r’ and ‘h’. We learnt the name of each letter and the sound it makes. We practiced the actions to the Jolly Phonics songs for ‘r’ and ‘h’. Jolly Phonics songs are attached. The actions for each of the letters are shown in the songs https:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_571BQfp_vs. We continued to sound out, blend and read some words using the new sounds ‘h’ and ‘r’. 

The children enjoyed sharing the objects they brought in to represent the different letters. 

Please can the following children bring an object beginning with the letter sound ‘b’.

Liba

Eden

Avia

Mia

Dylan

Reuben

Judah

Talya

Chloe

Isabella

Emma K

Please can the following children please bring an object starting with the letter sound ‘f’.

Mila

Annabelle

David

Gabriel

Harrison

Jimmy

Ariella

Darcey

Emma S

Jacob

Eli

Liam

Please ensure that objects for both sounds are handed in on Monday 27th June.

In Mathematics we continued practicing our counting skills. The children enjoyed extending their mathematical skills by working out small sums using their fingers for both adding and subtracting. We discussed the calendar and went over days of the week and months of the year. We talked about how we are now in a new season called ‘Summer’ and discussed the changes of weather and environment from season to season. 

In Understanding the World, the children continued to learn about lifecycles, focusing on the lifecycle of a chicken. The children were so excited when Mrs Collier brought in the chicks for them to hold or stroke. It made me so proud to see how kind and gentle the children were.

This week in Jewish Studies we learnt Parashat Shlach Lecha. In this Parasha, the Jewish people were getting closer to Eretz Israel. They had been in the desert for a long time and they were becoming a bit nervous about leaving the desert and entering Israel, as they didn’t know what to expect.

The Jewish people said to Moshe that they wanted to check out the land before they went to live there, to see if it was really a good place. We spoke about how everything Hashem does is for our own good, and how we should be happy when someone gives us a present, like Hashem wanted to do, by giving us the land for ourselves. By asking to check the land first, the Jewish people showed lack of emunah (faith in Hashem).

Hashem was angry and said to Moshe that he could send people to check the land, if he wanted to.  Moshe sent 12 spies, one man from each tribe.

When they arrived at the land, they saw giants and they were scared. They saw giant fruits, and they took some of the fruits back to show the people what awaited them. Out of the twelve spies, ten said bad things about Israel. Only two spies, Yehoshua and Kalev wanted to say good things.  The ten men said: “ Seen these giant fruits, the people there are also giants”. And the people started to cry: “ We don’t want to go to Israel”

Hashem was very sad and punished the ten men, and out of the twelve men only Yehoshua and Kalev had the merit to enter Israel again. From here we learn how important it is to never speak bad things about Israel, and how that makes Hashem sad.

The children worked on drawings of giant fruits, and they were very interested to know what a giant bunch of grapes looked like!

In this week’s Parasha we also learn about the mitzvah of wearing tzitzit. We learn that tzitzit represents the presence of Hashem, close to us all the time, and that we want to turn everything we do into a mitzvah. The children made a beautiful craft of a “boy with tzitzit''. They had a lot of fun making them.

On Friday we had our usual but super fun Shabat party. The following children were on the Shabbat table today:

Shabbat Aba: Liam

Shabbat Ima: Dylan

Shabbat Ben: David

Shabbat Bat:  Darcey

In Music this week the children continued  practicing all the songs for our show. 

In PE with Mrs Skolnek the children continued practicing for Sports Day. The children walked over to the main field in the park where they were put into their teams. They moved around each of the activities in preparation for next Tuesday.

In Forest School this week we had a lovely time under the cover of the trees. We sang good morning and said our names with an action of our choice. We learnt a song about ants, bees and bugs and read a book where we had to guess the creature that Carrie was reading about. Then we went to the activities which included a slack line and tents in one area. In other areas we could saw a circle of wood to make a ladybird or we could make clay insects. We had the opportunity to play with different insect finding equipment like a magnifying glass, binoculars and spades. 

Important reminders:

Sports Day:

• Sports day will be held on Tuesday 28th June at The Wilf Slack Sport Ground, East End Road,N3 2LE.
• Please bring your child to the Nursery drop off point for 9.00am which will be signposted. 
• Please provide your child with snacks and plenty of water as well as a packed lunch.
• Please make sure the lunch is Mezonot, and all foods sent in are nut and sesame free. We have staff and children with serious allergies, so it is important that this is adhered to.
• The event will be finished at 1.00pm the latest.
• If your child is returning to school you will need to arrange their transport.
• If you have not already informed us whether your child is returning please can you let us know.
• When Sports day is finished, please sign your child out with Miss Cowen before leaving the Sports grounds. It is important that all children are accounted for.

Pirate Day Reminder:

On Friday 8th July we would like the children to dress up as a Pirate. 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. 

Thank you 

Shabbat Shalom

Miss Cowen and the Nursery Team

Newsletter 17th June

It has been an exceptionally busy and exciting week in Nursery. 

We were so lucky to have some special sessions planned for Steam Week by Ms Dalwai who is the Science co-ordinator in the main school. STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths. 

The first session was on Monday at the main school. It was a fun session with a science boffin who taught the children a variety of different things about science including:

• How to turn a bucket of water upside down without spilling it. 
• The children learnt about fire and the elements that are needed to make fire. These are  oxygen, heat and fuel. If one of these elements is missing the fire won’t burn.
• She did an experiment where a water balloon was tested to see if it would burst under a flame. It didn’t because the water cooled down the fire so that it wasn’t hot enough to burst the balloon. 
• Lastly he made water disappear with the same products that are used in nappies, which catches all the water and keeps it dry.
• Did you know that if you put a bit of water in a full canister with a vitamin c fizzer and turn it upside down so that no air can escape, it will burst open?
• The children were told at the workshop that all experiments could only be done by a specially trained adult and that they could not try any of these at home. The children were reminded of this when they returned to school.

When we got back to school we did our own experiments and the children were so excited to see what happened.

Making a volcano:

• We made a volcano erupt with lava. 
• We started with water and food colouring, we added a drop of washing up liquid and bicarbonate of soda. 
• Then we added vinegar and watched as the magic happened.
• The volcano was bursting at the top with fizzy, bubbly and red lava. 

Coke and Mentos Experiment:

The children were excited to see what happens when Mentos are put into coke. It explodes as it creates a chemical change as carbon dioxide is produced making lots of bubbles and pressure.

This all links to the area, Understanding the World.

The children also enjoyed a special Lego workshop where they had fun. The children were split into groups and made various objects. The first group had the challenge to make a hammer, a boat or an aeroplane. The second group had to make a tall tower and the last group had to make a car. We tested the cars on the ramp to see how fast they would move as well as how far the car went. We also measured our towers with a tape measure to see how tall they were.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development during circle time, we continued to talk about kindness focussing on appreciating that we are all different and whatever our differences our we must always be especially kind and how it makes us all feel when unkind things are said.

We read the book ‘Cinnamon Girl’. The book is about a child of color, specifically the color of cinnamon. Kimberly is left out of many activities by her classmates. She is not called by her name but is called cinnamon girl. When her teacher notices this, she uses the metaphor of the many flavors of ice cream to explain that we may all be different on the outside but we are made of the same ingredient on the inside – sweetness. After discovering that they all had differences – red hair, freckles, glasses, blue eyes, and skin color, the students decide to appreciate their differences as well as their sameness. This also links to Communication and Language.

In Letters and Sounds we continued with Phase 2. We learnt the letter sounds ‘e’ and ‘u’. We learnt the name of each letter and the sound it makes. We practiced 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:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_571BQfp_vs. We continued to sound out, blend and read some words using the new sounds ‘e’ and ‘u’. 

Some of the children enjoyed using the nets to fish out balls in the water tray. It was lovely to hear them sounding out, blending and then reading the words written on the balls. 

The children enjoyed sharing the objects they had brought in to represent the different letters. 

Please can the following children bring an object beginning with the letter sound ‘r’. 

Liba

Eden

Avia

Mia

Dylan

Reuben

Judah

Talya

Chloe

Isabella

Emma K

Please can the following children please bring an object starting with the letter sound ‘h.’

Mila

Annabelle

David

Gabriel

Harrison

Jimmy

Ariella

Darcey

Emma S

Jacob

Eli

Liam

Please ensure that objects for both sounds are handed in on Monday 20th June.

In Mathematics, the children enjoyed exercising and counting to 100 at the same time. Some of the children enjoyed playing a game with the cars. There were two car parks. Car park 1 was divided into 10 spaces numbered 1-10. The children had to count the dots marked on the different cars and park them in the correct spaces to match. Car park 2 was also divided into 10 spaces and it was marked with dots up to 10. The children had to then find the correct numbered car and park it correctly.

Finally we were able to introduce baking in the nursery, we have a lovely new oven!

• Firstly we talked about the importance of washing our hands.
• We then discussed the ingredients needed to make their banana muffins.
• We talked about what a recipe is and the instructions.
• When cracking the eggs we talked about the importance of checking for no blood spots.
• The children helped to measure out all the ingredients using the electric scales and helped to mix all the ingredients together.
• We talked about how long the muffins will take to cook and then set the timer for 30 minutes.

It was so lovely to see the children waiting their turn. This also links to the area of Communication and Language.

In Understanding the World, the children continued to learn about lifecycles focusing on the lifecycle of a chicken. 

The children discussed the different stages that the chicken goes through:

• Egg
• Embryo
• Hatching
• Chicks
• Chicken

The children also had the opportunity to visit the Reception class and see the eggs in the incubator and then see the chicks when they had hatched. The children will be able to watch the chicks grow and develop over the next week.

In Jewish Studies we learned the importance of being thankful. In this week’s Parashah, we saw how some of the people complained to Moshe about not having meat to eat. Some people even said that they preferred their lives in Egypt (as slaves!) because they had better food there. This made Hashem very angry, and he sent quails from the sky - so many of them that the people that complained ate so much that they fell ill and some died. The children gave many examples of how kind it is to be thankful, and stating what we like in a different way.

This week’s Kodesh Star was Talya. Talya brought in a very important item in Jewish life - a tzedakkah box. Talya explained to us that she keeps it in her home and that she puts money in it everyday. Many children got so excited to share that they, too have a tzedakah box in their homes, and that it is very important to help people that have less than us. What true tzadikim and tzadikot! Thank you, Talya, for such an inspirational talk.

On Friday we had our usual but super fun Shabat party. The following children were on the Shabbat table today:

Shabbat Aba: David

Shabbat Ima: Chloe

Shabbat Ben: Eli

Shabbat Bat: Dylan

Unfortunately this week there was no music lesson.

In PE with Mrs Skolnek the children continued practicing for Sports Day, which included the following activities:

• They enjoyed going around a carousel of activities.
• Firstly the children waited patiently in line for their turn.
• The first station was hurdles where the children had to jump over them.
• They had to jump into several hoops that were laid out on the floor. Once they had got to the end they had to run back to the end of the line.
• The children then practiced the egg and spoon race. They had to balance the egg on the spoon walking all the way to the cone and back.
• The children had to walk with a quoit balanced on the head till they reached the red cone and then walked back.

In Forest School this week:

• This week the children had lots of fun at Forest School.
• Due to the hot weather they did the activities under the shelter of the trees. 
• They remembered the rules and said their names. 
• Then the teachers went through the activities that the children could take part in.
• First they could make paint brushes out of natural materials and then paint with them. 
• They could hammer sticks into the ground to make homes for the forest animals or they could go exploring. 
• Lastly some of the children made bracelets using bark from the tree that the children drilled a hole into using a palm drill and pipe cleaners. 

• Then they learnt a song about a squirrel and said goodbye to our Forest School teachers. 

Important reminders:

• This week has been particularly hot and we don’t yet know what the weather is going to be like for the rest of the term. Please remember to put suncream on your child in the morning and send a hat or cap to school.
• On a day when the children have Forest School, if the weather is nice we will not be putting on waterproofs and wellies. Please make sure they come in either wearing long trousers or leggings and a t-shirt on that day. You can send in a change of clothes for after Forest School.
• Most of the girls are now wearing summer dresses in the hot weather. As the children are very active, to protect their modesty you may like to put shorts on under the girl’s dresses. 
• Please remember all footwear should only be blue or black and that girls should only be wearing navy blue hair bands and accessories.
• Please can you email me and let me know if you will be bringing your child back to school after Sports Day on Tuesday 28th June. If you or a family member are not able to be at Sports Day with your child, please let me know. If your child will be returning to school you will need to arrange with other parents to drop them back at school.

Pirate Day:

On Friday 8th July we would like the children to dress up as a pirate. 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. 

Thank you 

Shabbat Shalom

Miss Cowen and the Nursery Team

Newsletter 10th June

We hope you have a lovely half term and a lovely Shavuot.

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 read the book ‘Giraffe is Left Out’. We focussed on the importance of including everyone in the children's play and how they may feel if they are left out. We discussed that sometimes some children like to play alone but that it is kind to ask whether they would like to join in the games children are playing and also that it is ok if they do not want to. 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 it makes. We practiced the actions 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 the objects they had brought in to represent the different letters. In Literacy, some children enjoyed making a cat for the letter sound ‘c ‘and a kite for the letter sound ‘k’. For both activities they cut out a variety of different shapes.They also practiced writing the letter ‘c’ and ‘k’.  This also links to the area of Mathematics.

Please can the following children bring an object beginning with the letter sound ‘e’. 

Liba

Eden

Avia

Mia

Dylan

Reuben

WAJudah

Talya

Chloe

Isabella

Emma K

Please can the following children please bring an object starting with the letter sound ‘u.’

Mila

Annabelle

David

Gabriel

Harrison

Jimmy

Ariella

Darcey

Emma S

Jacob

Eli

Liam

Please ensure that objects for both sounds are handed in on Monday 14th June. 

The children were excited to visit the library this week and select a book to take home. Please make sure your child’s library book is returned so they are not disappointed when they can’t bring a new book home. 

In Mathematics, we continued practicing our counting skills. Some children enjoyed playing Bingo where they had to listen to the number called. They had to count the number of objects on their card, using one-one correspondence to see if they had a match. Others enjoyed playing different shape activities to reinforce shape recognition.

In Expressive Art and Design, the children enjoyed making different objects using junk modeling. It was lovely to see them sharing ideas and working collaboratively to make some very interesting structures.

In Understanding the World, some of the children visited the gardening area to see what had grown during the holiday. They were very excited to see what seeds and bulbs they had planted had grown and some had even started to flower. They were also keen to give the plants some water ensuring they really cared for them.They were also fascinated with all the minibeasts they found, including a large slug and several snails.

We also started the new topic ‘Change’ and over the next few weeks will be looking at different life cycles. Before the half term the children planted a sunflower seed to take home to watch it grow. We went over the life cycle of a sunflower and discussed each of the stages from seed to flower. The children enjoyed discussing how their sunflower had grown and the different stages they had seen it go through. The children used their hands to show how tall their sunflowers were now. Your child’s sunflower may now be ready to be transferred into a bigger pot or planted straight into the soil. Please post any pictures of your child’s sunflower onto Tapestry so they can share it with the class.

Some of the children also enjoyed painting pictures of sunflowers. This links to the area of Expressive Arts and Design.

In Jewish Studies we started the week having a good chat about what we did during half-term. The children told me lovely things they did for Shavuot and what milky treats they ate. Some children said that they bought flowers to decorate their home, and it looked beautiful. What mitzvah boys and girls!

This week we studied Parashat Naso. In this Parasha the children learnt that Hashem divided the Jewish people into groups and gave each family in each group a task. One of the people, the Kohanim, had a special mitzvah to bless all the Jewish people. This is called Birkat Kohanim. The children were excited to share that this is the same bracha that daddies and mommies do to their children under the tallit in shul.

We also learned what a Nazir is. We discussed the fact that if a person was a Nazir, they couldn’t have a haircut or eat anything made of grapes.

Another subject present on this week’s Parasha is the mitzvah of maasser, the kind act of giving ten percent of what we earn to those in need. The children talked about tzedakah, some said they have a tzedakah box at home. We spoke about how Hashem is so proud of us when we help people that have less than us and He also rewards us with more good things. The children gave beautiful examples of how we can help others.

In Kodesh Time this week, Annabelle brought in a beautiful set of necklace and bracelet, both with a rose on them. She explained to us that it is one of her favorite things and when asked when she bought it, she said it arrived today. She also told us that she wears it on Shabbat because it is really special. Thank you, Annabelle, for sharing such a precious item with us.

On Friday we had our usual but super fun Shabat party. The following children were on the Shabbat table today:

Shabbat Aba: Judah

Shabbat Ima: Emma S

Shabbat Ben: Jacob

Shabbat Bat: Isabella

In Music with Mr Fingerhut:

• The children enjoyed moving around to different action songs including Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.
• The children started practicing a variety of different songs for our end of year show which for now we will keep as a surprise!

In PE with Mrs Skolnek the children continued practising for Sports Day, which included the following activities:

• They enjoyed going around a carousel of activities.
• Firstly the children had to go from one cone to the other on a scooter. 
• They then had fun with the egg and spoon challenge where the children had to get to the other side and back while holding their spoon handle and not letting the egg drop.
• The children then practised their throwing skills using the beanbags.
• Lastly the children balanced a quoit on their head and walked from one cone and back. 
• It was lovely to see such great turn taking and the children had lots of fun practising.

In Forest School:

• Nursery loved their first experience of Forest School with Emma and Carrie, especially exploring the forest. We met at ‘base camp’ where we learnt the words and signs to a hello song. We said our names and shouted our special number to the clouds! 
• Emma explained the first rule of Forest School is “no pick, no lick”, 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 that the correct way to hold a long stick is to point it down and pull it along the ground. 
• The children loved playing Hide-and-Seek in the long grass. 
• The children made leaf prints and learnt about a tool called a mallet. They made bubbles with some long plants and explored the environment. They used nets to sweep the grass and find creatures. Some children made bees with a pine cone and string. 

Important reminders:

• On any hot day please make sure that you apply sun cream on your child first thing in the morning. (sun cream that will last for the whole day) Please also ensure that your child has a sun hat to wear each day. It is especially important during Forest School.
• On a day when the children have Forest School, if the weather is nice we will not be putting on waterproofs and wellies. Please make sure they come in wearing tracksuit bottoms and a t-shirt on that day.
• Please can you send in any junk modeling so that the children can continue to build and develop their creativity.
• Important notice for next week:  Next week is STEAM week (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths). Please can you drop your child/children at the main school on Monday 13th June at 8.30-8.40am for a Science workshop. Thank you

Shabbat Shalom

Miss Cowen and the Nursery Team

Newsletter 27th 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 read the book ‘Words are Not for Hurting’. We also talked about the importance of using our voices correctly and then read the book ‘Voices are not for Yelling’. 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 it makes. We practised the actions 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 the 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 colours they had made to paint with. 

After half term we will learn the letters ‘c’ and ‘k’. 

Please can the following children bring an object beginning with the letter sound ‘c’. 

Liba

Eden

Avia

Mia

Dylan

Reuben

Judah

Talya

Chloe

Isabella

Emma K

Please can the following children please bring an object starting with the letter sound ‘k’

Mila

Annabelle

David

Gabriel

Harrison

Jimmy

Ariella

Darcey

Emma S

Jacob

Eli

Liam

Please ensure that objects for both sounds are handed in on Tuesday 7th June.

Due to half term the children did not visit the library. Library will start again on our return. 

In Mathematics we carried on practicing our counting skills to 100. We listened to different number songs including Ten in the Bed and Ten Green Bottles. They used their fingers to work out the answers when counting how many were left.

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 role of a police officer. We read the non-fiction book, ‘Police Officers’, by Rebecca Hunter. We discussed that a non-fiction book is about true facts and not made up like a fiction book. We also read ‘’Topsy and Tim meet the Police'. The children were so excited when we were visited by PC Stalick, PC Rose and PC Nicolou. They talked to the children about their role as police officers and all the things they have to deal with. They talked to the children about what number they should phone in an emergency. They discussed not talking to strangers and if approached by a stranger who offers them sweets and asks them to go with them, they must call out ‘stranger danger go away’. They also told the children who they must look for if they get lost or separated from their parents, for example in Brent Cross. They must look for someone in a yellow jacket, a police officer or someone who works in the shop.

Following our topic, ‘People who Help Us’, Mrs Shetrit, Emma’s mum, who is a speech and language therapist also visited us this week. 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. Thank you Mrs Shetrit for making the session so fun and interesting. This is linked to the area of Communication and Language.

We were also lucky to have Gabriel’s father come in and talk to the children about being a barrister. It was such a fun session and the children were especially excited about the wig and gown that Mr Newman has to wear when he is in court. Thank you for giving the children a wonderful insight into what a barrister does.

With the upcoming Jubilee celebrations, the children enjoyed painting and drawing pictures of Queen Elizabeth. They discussed key facts that they knew about the queen and this was written on their picture. All the childrens pictures have been put together to collate a book which we are sending to her. The book is fabulous and it made us all so very proud to see the amazing work all the children have done. We think she will love it!!

This week was packed with Jewish activities. We started the week learning about Shavuot. We said that on Chag HaShavuot Hashem gave us an amazing present, a present that would stay with us forever – the Torah, our laws to better live in this world. The children learnt that Hashem chose the smallest and most humble mountain, the Har Sinai, for such an important mission. Once Moshe brought down the Torah to us, the mountain started to blossom with extraordinary flowers of all colors. From that, we learn the importance of having good middot and a good heart, even though it is nice to look good as well. The children made a pair of paper flowers, and then created a garden to put them on. 

On Parasha Bechukotai, we learnt that Hashem said that, if we follow His rules and walk in the Torah way, He will reward us with peace and food in the world.

Still about Shavuot, the children learnt about the other names of the Chag, such as Chag Matan Torah, and Chag Habikurim - the First Fruits Festivity. 

We also spoke about Yom Yerushalaim (Jerusalem Day) – the day that Jerusalem was reunified, under the State of Israel, in 1967. It is a day of great importance to all Jewish people all over the world! Mazal Tov Yerushalaim. We spoke about sightseeing in Jerusalem, about the Kotel HaMaaravi (the Western Wall), and also about the Beit Hamikdash (The Temple), which we pray to be rebuilt soon, in Jerusalem.

Last Friday, we had an extra Kodesh Star – Jimmy, who brought in a beautiful kiddush cup. Jimmy told us that it was made of metal and that his mummy bought it for him. He was very proud to come to the front and share this special item that he uses every Shabbat, when he sits around the table next to his brothers. What a warm feeling! Thank you for being such a star, Jimmy!

Wishing you a Shabbat Shalom and a Chag Hashavuot Sameach and Yummy!

The following children were on the Shabbat table today:

Shabbat Aba: Reuben

Shabbat Ima: Annabelle

Shabbat Ben: Jimmy

Shabbat Bat:   Ariella

In Music with Mr Fingerhut:

• The children started the session with different actions.They warmed up by marching around the room.
• They sang a variety of nursery rhymes.
• They discussed new words called high and low pitch.
• They practised clapping patterns and the children had to copy it.

In PE with Mrs Skolnek the children continued  practicing for Sports Day, which included the following activities:

• Running races.
• Crawling through a tunnel.
• Scooting around the cones.
• Hopping through hoops.

Important reminders:

• Please post any picture on Tapestry of fun things you do during half term. These are always lovely to see.
• Please can you continue to send in any junk modeling materials.
• On any hot day next half term please make sure that you apply sun cream on your child first thing in the morning. (sun cream that will last for the whole day) Please can you also send your child in with a sun hat.
• On Thursday when the children have Forest School, please can you send in an additional piece of fruit or vegetable for morning snack as we will be having lunch a little bit  later.

Thank you

We hope you have a lovely half term and we wish you all a Chag Sameach and a lovely Shavuot

Shabbat Shalom,

Miss Cowen and the Nursery Team

Newsletter 20th May

What an amazing week it has been celebrating `It's Great to be British Week” for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. 

On Monday Nursery were greeted by Year 6 who had come over for a visit. It was lovely to see both year groups sitting on the carpet reading together. Some of the Year 6 children lead Tefillah. The children were then split into pairs. Together they made special tissue paper flowers in red, white and blue. They also decorated white cups adding a red and blue design to the cup and then 3 flowers were placed inside. These were then used as table decorations for the Jubilee Street Party.

On Monday afternoon the children were joined by Year 2 who came to make bunting with them. Again they were split into pairs and they each decorated a piece of bunting, creating their own red, white and blue design, either with a pen or using different collage materials.

On Tuesday morning we were visited by Year 3 who came and made paper chains with the children. They continued with the red, white and blue theme. The paper chains and bunting were taken over to the main school to be hung up to decorate the hall for the ‘Street Party’.

On Wednesday the children came into school wearing their special red, white and blue clothes. They walked over to the main school also wearing red, white and blue crowns they had made!

At the party the children had afternoon tea, which included a cucumber sandwich, a scone and an iced biscuit. They sang a Jubilee song and watched a short video about the Queen’s Coronation. At the end the children all stood up to sing the national anthem.

On Thursday the wonderful celebrations ended with the children learning a Military March dance. After the dance session the children enjoyed a Jubilee Fair, which included a carousel of activities run by Year 6.

This links to the areas of  Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication and Language, Physical Development, Understanding the World and Expressive Art and Design

During circle time we continued to reiterate the importance of being kind to each other. We discussed the importance of only using kind words, as if someone uses unkind words it really hurts our feelings. We also discussed using our words rather than our hands, to resolve situations. We talked about if someone grabs or takes something that we are using we must not grab back. We also reiterated that they must tell a teacher if someone has hurt them or they are feeling sad.

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 it makes. We practised the actions 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 the children learnt this week.

The children enjoyed sharing objects they had brought in to represent the different letters. 

Next week we will learn the letters ‘g’ and ‘o’. 

Please can the following children bring an object beginning with the letter sound ‘g’. 

Liba

Eden

Avia

Mia

Dylan

Reuben

Judah

Talya

Chloe

Isabella

Emma K

Please can the following children please bring an object starting with the letter sound ‘o’.

Mila

Annabelle

David

Gabriel

Harrison

Jimmy

Ariella

Darcey

Emma S

Jacob

Eli

Liam

Please ensure that objects for both sounds are handed in on Monday 23rd May. 

In Mathematics we discussed how long the Queen had been reigning the country and the children learnt that it will be 70 years. We counted by rote to 70 and then used our hands to count in tens to 70. 

Continuing our topic of People Who Help Us, we were so lucky to be visited by Gabriel’s grandfather who came in to talk to the children about being a doctor/surgeon. The children were really interested and asked lots of questions.

This week in Jewish Studies we learnt about Parashat Behar. Parashat Behar tells us about Shemita and how, just like us that have a shabbat to rest every 7 days, so does the earth, that should rest every seven years. The earth in Eretz Israel rests a whole year, after working hard for 6 years. The children made activities showing all sorts of fruits and vegetables that grow in the fields, they used all sources of tools to draw bananas, carrots, grapes, wheat, and they all agreed that as long as they weren't grown in shemitah year, we can enjoy eating them.

The other highlight of the week was Lag B'Omer. We spoke about the Omer, the period between Pessach and Shavuot and what happened to Rabbi Akiva’s 24 thousand students, who were taken by Hashem because they were being mean to each other, but on the 33^rd day of the omer, the students stopped dying and that is a reason to celebrate.  On Lag B’Omer day we light bonfires, to remember the light that Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, who was one of Rabbi Akiva’s students, brought into this world.

Our Kodesh star this week was David. He brought in a kiddush cup and a gorgeous challa cover. David told us that kiddush is his favorite part of Shabat. David also said that he loves Shabbat because ”he eats pasta”, and that he helps set up the table. What a mitzvah boy! Thank you for sharing these beautiful items with us, David!

Well done! What a fun kodesh time you gave us.

The following children were on the Shabbat table today:

Shabbat Aba: Gabriel

Shabbat Ima: Darcey

Shabbat Ben: Judah

Shabbat Bat:  Mila

In Music with Mr Fingerhut:

• The children explored pitch and rhythm through known nursery rhymes as well as new unheard pieces of music.
• We continued learning to keep a steady beat through movement.

In PE:

• The children were introduced to their new PE teacher Mrs Skolnek.
• The children started with a hoop activity. The hoops were placed on the floor and they had to move through the hoops in a variety of different ways including walking and skipping. When the whistle was blown the children had to run to a hoop like musical chairs.
• The children were split into groups and started practising for Sports Day. The activities included jumping through the hoops, balancing the beanbag onto a tennis racquet and walking forwards and then back with it. They then practised running around the cones with the buggy.

Important reminders:

• Please continue to send in your child’s Hebrew name. Could you please email the name to Ms Tabach dtabach@keremschool.co.uk
• Please can you send in any junk modelling so that the children can continue to build and develop their creativity.
• If the forecast is hot please make sure that you apply sun cream to your child first thing in the morning. (Sun cream that will last for the whole day) Please can you also send your child in with a sun hat.

We hope you have a lovely weekend.

Shabbat Shalom,

Miss Cowen and the Nursery Team

Newsletter 13th May

We have had a very busy and fun filled week.

During circle time we continued to reiterate the importance of being kind to each other. We recapped how unkind words can really upset our feelings and if we use our hands or feet incorrectly, for example pushing, hitting, kicking, someone can get hurt. 

We read the book ‘Feet Are Not For Kicking’ and focused on all the positive things we can use our feet for, like walking, standing, and playing football. We discussed how we have to be very careful with positioning our feet so we don’t kick anyone. We also talked about how sometimes things can happen by accident and occasionally sometimes on purpose. We emphasized the importance of telling the teacher if we are upset so that the teachers can assist in helping the children to resolve the situation by using their words.This is part of Personal, Social and Emotional Development and Communication and Language.

In Literacy we continued with Letters and Sounds - Phase 2. The children learnt the letters ‘i’ and ‘n’. They learnt the name of each letter and the sound it makes. They also learnt 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=_571BQfp_vs

The children enjoyed sharing the objects they had brought in to represent the different sounds. Some of the children enjoyed making an iguana for the letter sound ’i’ where they cut out different shapes. For the letter sound ‘n’ they threaded large beads to make necklaces. 

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

Next week we will learn the letters ‘m’ and ‘d’. 

Please can the following children bring an object beginning with the letter sound ‘m’. 

Liba

Eden

Avia

Mia

Dylan

Reuben

Judah

Leah

Talya

Chloe

Isabella

Emma K

Please can the following children please bring an object starting with the letter sound ‘d’.

Mila

Annabelle

David

Gabriel

Harrison

Jimmy

Ariella

Darcey

Emma S

Jacob

Eli

Liam

Please ensure that objects for both sounds are handed in on Monday 16th May. 

In Mathematics we recapped numbers 1-6 and discussed number 7. We practiced 1-1 correspondence counting a variety of different objects to 7. Some children enjoyed writing sums up to 10, learning about the + and = sign. They used either their fingers or the dinosaur counters to work out the answers. Others enjoyed counting how many dots there were altogether on the dominoes and then placed the dominoes on to the correct matching numeral on the table.

In Understanding the World we continued with the topic: ‘People Who Help Us’. This week we focused on learning about the role of an optician and a postman. 

We read the book ‘Topsy and Tim go to the Optician’. The children enjoyed watching a video about children having their eyes tested. Some of the children shared their own experiences of going to the opticians with their classmates. We also discussed the role of a postman and read the non-fiction book ‘Postman’ by Rebecca Hunter. They 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, some of the children enjoyed playing a variety of different games on the iPads.

The children were so excited when Year 3 came to plant with them:

• The children watched a video about the life cycle of a sunflower. 
• Then they filled their pots with soil, placed their seed in the middle and then covered it with more soil. 
• They then sprayed the soil with some water. It is important that the children learn to take care of their plants by watering it well, but also to see what can happen if the plant is overwatered.
• After half term we will be learning about changes and looking at different life cycles. Please discuss with your child the different stages, as their sunflowers grow. They can draw pictures of their sunflower at each stage and then bring their pictures in to share with the class. (This is optional)
• Please post pictures onto Tapestry of your child’s sunflower as it progresses through the different stages. 
• Once your plants have reached approx 30cm (12 inches) in height, you can plant them in the garden or move them to a bigger pot. 

First Aid

This week the children were so lucky to have a mini first aid course at school. The course gave them an overview of what to do if they or one of their friends or family have hurt themselves or are unwell. The session was very interactive with great teddies as the props.

The following key points were discussed:

• How to help people if they feel poorly or hurt themselves.
• To inform an adult if they have hurt themselves.
• Shout ‘help’ if you have hurt yourself badly and no one is around.
• If you graze or cut your knee the question was asked, what comes out? ‘Blood’. The children were then asked if we needed to keep the blood in or out? The children correctly replied that we need to keep the blood in.
• We discussed wiping the cut with a tissue and then the importance of pushing down on the cut. The children were then asked, what do we put on top of the cut? A plaster. The children then practiced this on the teddy.
• We talked about if you bump your head. We roleplayed by asking the teddy if he was feeling sick or dizzy. They also applied an ice pack to the bump.
• We helped the teddy after he fell down unconscious and rolled him on his side.
• We learnt about 999 and who to call if you need help.
• We ended the session by listening to a story about Freddy. Freddy hurt his knee and Mummy fixed it. He hurt his head and his mummy put an ice pack on it. His mummy fell over and he put his mummy on her side and called 999. The ambulance came to help and everyone felt better.
• This was an amazing introductory session to first aid for the children.

This week in Jewish Studies the children have been enjoying many different activities. We started the week preparing for ShabbatUK. The children made their own candlesticks on Monday to give them enough time to dry and then painted them later on in the week. We also made beautiful kiddush cups and spoke a lot about activities that we can’t, but mainly what we can do, on Shabbat. We spoke about how Shabbat is a present that Hashem gave us, to make us rest one day a week, and therefore we don’t go to school or work. It is a mitzvah to be happy on Shabbat and the children gave lovely examples of things they can do to have fun on Shabbat, like playing with friends, going to the park, eating yummy things and cuddling Mummy and Daddy.

We also spoke about the parasha of this week, Parashat Emor, which discusses all the chagim in the Torah that we celebrate. The children could name Rosh Hashanah, Pesach, Yom Kippur and Shavuot, and they made activities to show key elements of each Chag.  They also learnt that the next Chag is Shavuot, which is coming in 3 weeks' time.

In Kodesh time we had two stars this week as we didn’t have time for this last week due to Yom Haatzmaut.

Ruben brought in so many things it was hard to choose one item – in the end he picked the red saucer. Very eloquently, Ruben explained that he uses the plate for meat but not for milk, as Jews are not allowed to mix milk and meat together. Ruben explained that he keeps this plate in his toy kitchen. Ruben told us all about the foods that he would eat on the red plate, like meatballs, chicken and hot dog. Well done for such an amusing speech.

We also had Mila as a kodesh star. Mila brought in a very colourful and interesting kipa. Mila proudly explained that the kipa was brought to England from Italy, by her dad. She explained that in England people don’t really use that kipa but in Italy they love to wear it. Mila described all the colors in the special kipa and it was a pleasure to see her excitement in telling all about this special item.

Well done Ruben and Mila, what a fun kodesh time you gave us.

We hope you enjoy your Shabbat packs and that Shabbat is peaceful and happy to all of us, in the UK and all around the world.

The following children were on the Shabbat table today:

Shabbat Aba: Eli

Shabbat Ima: Liba

Shabbat Ben: Reuben

Shabbat Bat:  Isabella

In Music with Mr Fingerhut:

• The children enjoyed singing a variety of different songs, exploring different tempos.
• The children also walked around the room doing different actions in line with the music being played..

Unfortunately there was no PE lesson this week due to staff illness.

Important reminders:

• Please can you send in any junk modeling so that the children can continue to build and develop their creativity.
• Please remember to send back your child’s library book so that your child can bring home a new one. 
• Next week is forecast to be a very hot week. Please make sure that you apply sun cream  on your child first thing in the morning. (sun cream that will last for the whole day) Please can you also send your child in with a sun hat.
• Could you please email your child’s Hebrew name to Ms Tabach dtabach@keremschool.co.uk

Celebrating the Queen's Jubilee:

There will be a variety of fun activities taking place next week.

• On Wednesday the 18th May there will be a ‘Jubilee Street Party’ held at the main school. Please pick up your child from the main school at 3.20pm. On this day please do not send in school bags. Please send your child’s snack in a named disposable bag. No afternoon snack will be required. Please send in your child’s normal named water bottle. Please send your child wearing red,white and blue.
• On Thursday the 19th May there will be a dance workshop and fair at the main school. Please pick up your child from the main school at 3.20pm. On this day please do not send in school bags. Please send your child’s snack in a named disposable bag. No afternoon snack  will be required. Please send in your child’s normal named water bottle.
• If you are unable to collect your child at the later time, please let me know so that I can make the necessary arrangements.

We hope you have a lovely weekend.

Shabbat Shalom,

Miss Cowen and the Nursery Team

Newsletter 6th May

We have had a very busy and fun-filled week and one of the highlights was celebrating Yom Ha’atzmaut.

During circle time we reiterated the importance of using kind words, kind hands and kind feet. We recapped how unkind words can really upset our feelings and if we use our hands or feet incorrectly, for example pushing, hitting, kicking, someone can get hurt. We read the book ‘Hands are not for Hitting’. Some of the children came to the front of class to role play different scenarios to show how they can use their words rather than their actions to achieve a positive outcome. This is part of Personal, Social and Emotional Development and Communication and Language.

In Letters and Sounds we continued with Phase 2. The children learnt the letter sounds ‘t’ and ‘p’. They learnt the name of each letter and the sound it makes. They also learnt 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=_571BQfp_vs

The children enjoyed sharing the objects they had brought in to represent the different sounds. In Literacy, some children enjoyed making a mouth and cutting out teeth for the letter sound ‘t’ and learnt to write ‘t’. For the letter sound ‘p’ some children enjoyed colour mixing red and white to make pink and red and blue to make 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’. 

Please can the following children  bring an object or picture beginning with the letter sound ‘i’. 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.

Liba

Eden

Avia

Mia

Dylan

Reuben

Judah

Leah

Talya

Chloe

Isabella

Emma K

Can the following children please bring an object starting with the letter sound ‘n’.

Mila

Annabelle

David

Gabriel

Harrison

Jimmy

Ariella

Darcey

Emma S

Jacob

Eli

Liam

Please ensure that objects for both sounds are handed in on Monday 9th May. When selecting your objects, please make sure that the name has the correct sounds when you say it. For example, ice cream starts with a ‘i’ sound, but when sounded out the sound is the name of the letter. 

In Mathematics the children practiced their counting skills. We also enjoyed singing happy 74th birthday to Israel and counted up to 74. We used the abacus to count and practiced 1-1 correspondence whilst counting.

In Understanding the World we continued with the topic: ‘People Who Help Us’. This week we focused on learning about the role of a dentist and what a dental hygienist does. We read the book ‘Topsy and Tim go to the Dentist’. A big thank you to Mrs Elia, Mia’s auntie who came into class to talk to the children about being a dentist. It was such a lovely informative session, enjoyed by all. 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 grass in the garden area had grown very long during the break so some of the children enjoyed using the scissors to cut it! This is a great activity for developing the children’s fine motor skills and hand eye coordination. This links to the area of Physical Development.

In Jewish Studies the children learnt about Yom Ha'atzmaut - Israel's 74th birthday. We started the day by standing for Hatikvah, the Israeli anthem. We spoke about what an anthem is and why we stand up when it is sung. The children enjoyed wearing special blue and white clothes, the colours of the Israeli flag.

The children enjoyed a selection of different activities - they helped to squeeze oranges to make orange juice, made Israeli salad and cut up avocado.  

The children watched a video of how Israel celebrates Yom Ha'atzmaut, with dancing and singing in the streets and barbecues in the parks.  Speaking of dancing, just before an Israeli-themed lunch of shwarma and Israeli salad, Nursery and Reception had an Israeli dance session which was great fun and a lovely way to celebrate the birthday of Medinat Yisrael.

The children enjoyed drinking their orange juice and eating their Israeli salad whilst listening to the story ‘Sammy Spider's First Trip to Israel. They then all made an Israeli flag focusing on making the shape of  the Magen David.They ended the morning by icing a biscuit in blue and white icing. Reception and Nursery had lunch all together in the lunchroom, which was decorated with Israeli flags.

The children had fun walking over to the main school for a fantastic musical concert to continue our special Yom Ha'atzmaut celebrations.

In Parashat Kedoshim we  learnt about shaatnez. The word shaatnez, means a mixture of different species (in clothing), which we, as Jews, are not allowed to wear. We mustn’t wear wool and linen together. The children asked how they would know if their clothes were made from these materials?  We learnt that there are shops and specialized people who check our clothes for us, and can tell us if our clothes are 'kosher' to wear. 

The children made a beautiful activity, showing that we are not allowed to mix linen and wool together. They made a sheep mask to remember what the parashah is about. I hope you enjoy discussing this with your child.

The following children were on the Shabbat table today:

Shabbat Aba: Jacob

Shabbat Ima: Emma K

Shabbat Ben: Liam

Shabbat Bat:  Eden 

In Music with Mr Fingerhut:

• The children practiced singing a variety of songs in different tempos.
• They also had to listen to different instructions of the music for example stand up, sit down, hop on 1 foot, hop on 2 feet.

In PE 

• The children enjoyed warming up by jogging and then hopping around the outdoor area and freezing when the whistle was blown.
• The children did some running races and when the whistle was blown they had to go and stand inside the hula hoops.
• They practiced walking backwards slowly, walking sideways and skipping around the outdoor area.
• The children then had to find different coloured cones and place the white and orange cones on the hill, the red cones in the red hoop, the blue cones in the blue hoop etc.

Important reminders:

• Please continue to post pictures on Tapestry of what your child is doing. These are always lovely to see.
• Please can you send in any junk modeling so that the children can continue to build and develop their creativity.
• Please remember to send back your child’s library book so that your child can bring home a new one. 
• Please can you make sure when the weather is hot that you apply sun cream on your child first thing in the morning. Please can you also send your child in with a sun hat.

We hope you have a lovely weekend.

Shabbat Shalom,

Miss Cowen and the Nursery Team

Nursery Newsletter- 29th April

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

We have had a very busy and fun first week back. The children settled back into nursery life really quickly. We went over the rules and daily routines. We discussed the importance of being kind to our friends, remembering kind words and kind hands. They children 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 Literacy we continued to practice oral blending and segmenting. It is important that the children continue to 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. We played ‘Simon Says’. Different words were sounded out, for example, “Simon says get your c-oa-t, coat!”, “Touch your h-ea-d, head!” “Simon says can you touch your b-a-ck, back!”  

We also introduced a puppet to the class which we named ‘Sonny’. We practiced sound talking using the puppet. For example, What would Sonny like for tea today? The toy spoke silently into Miss Cowen’s ear and Miss Cowen said ‘ch-ee-se’ looking puzzled and then said ‘cheese!’ We then practiced sound talking different foods, for example ch-i-p-s, f-i-sh, br-ea-d. We also discussed Sonny’s favourite colours and sound talked them, for example bl-a-ck, r-e-d, bl-ue.

We also started Phase 2 in Letters and Sounds. We learnt the letter sounds ‘s’ and ‘a’. For each of the letters, we learnt the sound it makes, the name of the letter, the action and the ‘Jolly Phonics’ songs.

‘Jolly Phonics’ songs are attattached:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_571BQfp_vs. We also learnt the word phoneme. The definition of a phoneme is the smallest unit of sound within a word.

The children enjoyed sharing the objects they had chosen to represent the different letters. 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 hand printing an alligator and practiced writing the letter ‘a’. This also links to the area Expressive Art and Design.

Next week we will learn the letters ‘t’ and ‘p’. 

Can the following children please bring an object beginning with the letter sound ‘t’.

Liba

Eden

Avia

Mia

Dylan

Reuben

Judah

Leah

Talya

Chloe

Isabella

Emma K

Can the following children please bring an object starting with the letter sound ‘p’.

Mila

Annabelle

David

Gabriel

Harrison

Jimmy

Ariella

Darcey

Emma S

Jacob

Eli

Liam

Please ensure that objects for both sounds are handed in on Tuesday 3rd May. When selecting your objects, please make sure that the name has the correct sounds when you say it. 

In Mathematics the children practiced their counting skills, counting by rote up to 100. We revised numbers 1 to 5 and then focused on number 6. We counted a variety of different objects up to 6, focusing on one to one correspondence. It is important for the children to learn to only say the number name as each object is placed down.

In Understanding the World we started our new topic: ‘People who help us’. This week we focused on learning about 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 some of 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. Role play is an excellent way to extend vocabulary and the childrens’ communication skills. A big thank you goes to Mrs Eman and Mrs Lazarov for kindly coming in to speak to the children about being doctors. It was lovely to see some of the children coming up to the front  and acting out being the patients. It was such a lovely informative session.

We were so lucky to have Mr Budwig come in to speak to the children on Thursday. Mr Budwig is a parent whose daughter is in Reception. He has a keen interest in renewable energy solutions. 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, with a demonstration of a solar panel powering a small lighting setup, as well as considering coal, hyrdo and wind as alternatives.

We then separated into 3 groups, which the children rotated through. The first group saw the children learning how to build solar powered toys and they were able to play with them. This helped demonstrate how the sun’s energy can be used to make things move, spin or shine. The second activity saw the children learning to fit solar panels, through cutting solar panels out and sticking them down on a bird eye view picture of the EYU. The third and final activity was an interactive learning session where the children were given the opportunity to generate their own electricity with a dynamo, see a model solar village and learn about how the angle of the sun impacts solar energy.

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 adapt to a less impactful way of living.

For more information about solar energy, Mr Budwig has a number of blog articles on the subject, and many in-depth video’s covering all things solar @  www.nextdaysolar.co.uk or search Next day Solar on Youtube. Thank you to Mr Budwig for such an amazing session he had prepared for the children.

In Music:

• The children practiced copying different rhythms clapped out by Mr FingerHut.
• Mr Fingerhut then chose musical helpers who then clapped out a rhythm for their friends to copy.
• They ended the lesson by singing a variety of different nursery rhymes.

In PE:

• The children were introduced to the new PE teacher Mr Murray.
• They enjoyed playing a game called Fruit Salad. There were a variety of different coloured cones put out in the playground. Different names of fruits were called out and the children had to run to the coloured cone that matched the fruit, for example juicy oranges! The children ran to the orange cone.
• They played Stuck in the Mud. The children ran around using good spatial awareness. The chosen taggers chased the children around. The children that had been tagged had to wait to be freed.
• There were 4 coloured corners. The children ran around and the teacher counted down from 5 to 1. They had to pick a coloured corner to go to. The teacher then called out a colour and whichever children had gone to that coloured corner lost a life. The children started the game with 5 lives.

This week in Jewish Studies It has been delightful to hear the children tell us all about their Pesach break. We heard about the places visited and all the wonderful activities that the children were doing during their holidays. It made me very proud to know that the children had beautiful sedarim and that they sang and participated with their families. I hope you all enjoyed their input and Haggadot as well.

The children learned that in Parashat Acharei Mot, Hashem tells us the laws of Yom Kipur, including boys and girls  should not eat or drink once they are over bar/bat mitzvah, and we are not allowed to work or wear leather shoes. We also learn that on Yom Kippur, we have the chance to say sorry to our friends for things we might have done, on purpose or not, that may have upset them. We learn that it is Hashem’s wish that we treat each other nicely, just as we like to be treated. The children made a beautiful activity showing the famous and important saying: “Ve'ahavta Lere'echa Kamocha”, Love your neighbour as yourself, and they are able to express how they should treat their friends and everyone else.

We also started talking about Yom Haatzmaut and we are excited about all the great things we will do to celebrate Israel’s birthday next week.

This week in Kodesh Time, Emma S brought us a very engaging book. The book tells us short stories about animals and it even makes some noises! Emma told us that her daddy reads it to her every day, because he knows Ivrit. Emma told us that her daddy also teaches her words in Ivrit. Well done, Emma! When her peers asked questions, Emma told us that she keeps her book on a large shelf and that she bought it in Israel. What a fun way to learn Ivrit. Thank you for that, Emma!

We also enjoyed our lovely weekly Shabbat party.

The following children were on the Shabbat table today:

Shabbat Aba: Jimmy

Shabbat Ima:  Isabella

Shabbat Ben: Harrison

Shabbat Bat:  Chloe

Important reminders:

• Please make sure that all boys come in wearing kippahs and tzitzits.
• Please make sure all girls are wearing blue or navy hair accessories.

Yom Hatzmaut:

• Next Thursday 5th May we will be celebrating Yom Ha’atzmaut in school. Please make sure you send your child in wearing blue and white.
• The children will be walking over to the main school in the afternoon for Yom Ha’atzmaut. Please can you pick up your child at the main school at 3.15pm as the organized activity will finish slightly later than the normal school day.
• Please can you not send your child in with a school bag on this day. Please can you send your child’s fruit snacks in disposable bags. Water bottles can be sent in as normal.

We hope you have a lovely weekend.

Shabbat Shalom,

Miss Cowen and the Nursery Team

Nursery Newsletter- 7th April

We have had another very busy week in Nursery. The children enjoyed free playing inside and outside the classroom.

The children enjoyed learning how to draw people. The focus was on learning how to draw a person with all the features including the body, arms, legs and facial features.

In Letters and Sounds we continued with Aspect 6 - Voice Sounds.  Some of the children continued to play with Metal Mike, the toy robot computer. They selected a picture, for example, a cat, a fan, a van. They then sounded out and blended each of the sounds (phonemes) together, using a robotic voice and then the object/picture was fed to ‘Metal Mike’. The children also enjoyed experimenting making different sounds using their voices. The children were given mirrors to share. They made different sounds and observed in the mirror how their  face, lips, teeth and tongue moved as they made different speech sounds. 

We started 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 will continue with oral blending and segmenting next term.

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.

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:I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_571BQfp_vs

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

It would be great if the children could bring in an object beginning with the letter sounds they have learnt to share. Everyone will get an opportunity to bring an object for the different letter sounds learnt. This will be arranged on a rota basis. This will also replace our weekly Show and Tell sessions.

Please can the following children please bring in an object beginning with the letter sound ‘s’, for the session on Tuesday 26th April:

Liba

Eden

Avia

Mia

Dylan

Reuben

Judah

Leah

Talya

Chloe

Isabella

Emma K

Please can the following children please bring a picture of an object starting with the letter sound ‘a’ for the session on Thursday 28th April:

Mila

Annabelle

David

Gabriel

Harrison

Jimmy

Ariella

Darcey

Emma S

Jacob

Eli

Liam

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

Please can you make sure that the objects sent in begin with the actual sound for example ‘a’. An apple has the ‘a’ sound but an acorn does not have the ‘a’ sound but the sound is the name of the letter.

In Mathematics the children continued to enjoy learning more about how they can use the abacus. We continued to count in ones to 100, in twos and in tens. We also explored how the children can use the abacus to add two numbers together. Some of the children enjoyed counting using frogs, linking to the Pesach theme.

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 using raisins. If you have 4 raisins and you eat one, how many have you got left?

In Physical Development, some children enjoyed finding different objects hidden inside the playdough, this included pegs and coins. This is an excellent activity for further developing your child’s fine and gross motor skills.

In Understanding the World some of the children came into the garden area to continue to plant some summer bulbs and seeds. As an experiment the children planted some of Miss Cowen’s potatoes that she had brought in that had shoots on. We look forward to seeing how successful we are in growing potatoes!

This week we did not have Music but we look forward to seeing Mr Fingerhut next term.

In PE this week we had a special last lesson before the Pesach break. The children got to choose the activity that they wanted to do. There were a few options including hoola hoops and bean bags, as well as balls and rings. The children had such fun working on their physical development when throwing the bean bags through the hoops or learning how to hoola hoop. They also played “find the bean bags” and “hot and cold” as they went to find rings. 

In Jewish Studies the children continued learning about Pesach.  We had our beautiful Model Seder and the children were so excited to experience what they had been learning for the last three weeks. These are some of the points that your child has learnt and will be proud to share with everyone at Seder night:

• Why do we celebrate Pesach?

Answer: It is the time when we celebrate Hashem saving the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt.

• Why do we eat matzah on Pesach?

Answer: The Jewish people ran out of Egypt so quickly that there was no time for their bread to rise. This is the reason why we eat only matzah, a flat bread, on Pesach.

• Why do we dip our vegetables in salty water?

Answer:  To remember the tears of Bnei Israel when we were slaves in Egypt

• Who took Moshe from the basket?

Answer: Batya, Pharaoh’s daughter.

• How many plagues did Hashem send to the Egyptians?

Answer: Ten. Blood, frogs, darkness, lice, etc…

• Who followed Moshe when he was in the basket, to make sure he was ok?

Miriam, his sister.

• Why do we have a zeroa (bone) on the seder plate?

Answer: to remember that Hashem took us out of Egypt with a strong hand.

• How many cups of juice/wine do we drink during the Seder?

Answer: 4

• What is the name of the angel that visits us on Pesach night? What do we need to do for him to give us a bracha?

Answer: Eliahu Hanavi (Elijah). We leave a full cup of wine and open the door to welcome him.

We hope you all enjoy using the amazing Haggadot your children made. It made us all so proud to see their fantastic work and the end result.

This week the Kodesh time stars were Leah and Eli. 

Leah brought in the book “The Very Groovy Unicorn”, she explained that the book is about a happy unicorn and so we discussed the mitzvah of being happy. Leah told us that she reads her book every night with Mummy. Thank you for bringing in the beautiful book Leah. 

Eli brought in a super cool sevivon (dreidel). Eli told us that he plays with the sevivon every Chanukah. He also told us that at Chanukah he eats lots of doughnuts and we must light the Chanukah candles. Eli told us that he keeps his sevivon in his playroom. Kol Hakavod, Eli!

Important reminders:

• Please continue to post pictures on Tapestry of what your child is doing during the holidays. It is always lovely to see.
• Please make sure you return your child’s clothes bag fully stocked.
• Please ensure all articles of clothing are named.
• Please send back your child’s apron.
• Please can you make sure that your child is wearing the correct uniform. This includes girls wearing navy/blue hair accessories and all children wearing navy or black shoes.
• The children enjoy junk modelling. During the holidays please can you keep any recyclable or general materials that we can use.

We hope that you all have a lovely Pesach and enjoy the break. 

We look forward to seeing you back next term.

Shabbat Shalom,

Miss Cowen and the Nursery Team

Newsletter 1st April 2022

It has been another very busy week in Nursery preparing for Pesach.

We have been talking to the children about the importance of kind words, kind hands and making sure we include other children in our play. We discussed how it makes one feel if they are not included, especially if they wish to join. This links to Personal, Social and Emotional Development.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Thank you again to all the parents who have come in to read this week. It is lovely for the children to be exposed to a variety of different books, including books read to them in different languages. 

In Literacy, in Letters and Sounds, we continued with Aspect 6: Voice Sounds. We warmed up with our mouth movement exercises including blowing, sucking, tongue stretching and wiggling and then practiced making different sounds using our voices.

Some of the children enjoyed coming up to the front of class. They formed a line. The one at the beginning of the line made a sound, for example ch,ch,ch. The next person repeated the sound and continued as the next one joined in, to form a chain. We then discussed if the sound was the same by the time it got to the end of the line.

We also talked about how we can use our voices to add sounds to stories. For example, a long sound, a loud sound, did it change from high to low, etc.? We read the stories Chicken Licken and The Three Billy Goats Gruff. We discussed which voices to use to depict the different characters in both stories. 

In Mathematics the children were excited to be introduced to the abacus. We discussed some of the counting activities that can be done with an abacus. Some of the children came up to demonstrate. We started by counting how many beads there were of each colour. We discussed that on each row there was the same amount. As each bead was moved, the children counted using 1-1 correspondence. We also counted to see how many beads there were in total and it was lovely to hear the children counting to 100. The children also moved the beads sequentially so there was one bead on one row, 2 on the next, all the way up to 10. We will carry on exploring other mathematical concepts that can be done using an abacus next week.

In Music:

• The children started the lesson with musical movements, including standing up, sitting down, then stomping around the room to the music. They then completed the different movements alongside the music played.
• They then listened to a variety of different music and discussed if they knew what instruments were being played.
• The children then listened to underwater music and floated around the room like fish.
• They also learnt another verse of the Firefly song.

In PE:

• The children enjoyed warming up by running to the fence and back again. This was repeated a few times.
• The children were then put into three teams. They firstly had to throw the beanbag into the hoops and then go back in line for the next person to have a go. Whichever team got three bean bags into the hoops, were the winners.
• The children then played Hide and Seek with the bean bags. The children faced the fence whilst the teacher hid the bean bags. Whilst she was hiding them the children counted to 20 out loud. They then went looking for the beanbags.

Jewish Studies this week was all about Pesach! We have been working really hard on our haggadot and have learned about the items on the seder plate – maror, charoset, carpas and salty water, zeroa, egg, and the star of the show – the matzah.

The children learned that Bnei Yisrael had a very bitter life as slaves in Egypt.  To remember this, we eat maror. To remember the buildings that we made for the Egyptians, we eat charoset, which has the same texture as the cement used in the building. We discussed why we eat matza, and the children will be so proud to explain to you how Bnei Yisrael left Egypt in a hurry and had no time to let the dough rise. Your child can also tell you all about the sea splitting. It is a true pleasure to hear the little ones explaining, with so much detail, and in their own words, such an important part of our Jewish story.

On Wednesday we had Kodesh Time. This week, Ariella brought in a magnificent item: a mezuza! Ariella told us that it belonged to her daddy’s office. She said that she has mezuzot in her house as well, and even some in a drawer in her room. Ariella explained that a mezuza is stuck to our doors to protect us, and inside of a mezuza we can find the “shema”. Wow! Such a 

 On Friday we had our very special Shabbat Party.

The following children were on the Shabbat table:

Shabbat Aba:  Reuben

Shabbat Ima:  Ariella

Shabbat Ben: Gabriel

Shabbat Bat:  Liba

Important reminders: 

• Please make sure all library books are sent back before the end of term. We will not be visiting the library next week.
• Our topic for next term is People Who Help Us and I would be most grateful if you are a doctor or dentist and would be able to come in to talk to the children about what your role involves. If you would like to email me if you are available to come in or speak to me at drop off or pick up that would be great.
• Please can you make sure all grapes are cut in half lengthways and then again in quarters.

Have a lovely weekend.

Shabbat Shalom

Miss Cowen and the Nursery Team

Newsletter 25th March 2022

Wow, we have been so lucky with the weather this week. The children have all chosen to be outside and it has been so nice that they have not had to wear their coats. It has made me so proud to see what a cohesive group they have become. Some of the children were independently playing Duck Duck Goose, sorting out the rules themselves, taking turns and sharing. Others were cooking and roleplaying in the mud kitchen and some were happily riding the bikes or being creative with the junk modeling. The children are also developing good communication and language skills with each other. This links to Personal, Social and Emotional Development and Communication and Language.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

It has been lovely to have parents continuing to come in and read to the children again this week. Thank you.

In Literacy, in Letters and Sounds,  we continued with Aspect 6: voice sounds. We started the phonics lesson with exercises. The main purpose of this activity is to distinguish between the differences in vocal sounds, including oral blending and segmenting. The children explored different mouth movements including blowing, sucking, tongue stretching and wiggling. We will continue to practice these movements over the next few weeks.   

The children then enjoyed exploring making different sounds using their voices. For example: Making their voices go down a slide – wheee! Making their voices bounce like a ball – boing, boing, hiss like a snake – ssssss, moo gently like a cow – mmmooo, mimic a steam train – chchchchch, buzz like a bumble bee – zzzzzzz and tick tock like a clock. 

Some of the children helped to make Metal Mike with Mrs Jungbacke using different junk modeling and collage materials. Metal Mike was then introduced to the class in our phonics lesson. ‘Metal Mike’ is a toy robot computer. Some of the children came to the front and selected a picture, for example, cat, fan, van. We all sounded out and blended each of the sounds (phonemes) together, using a robotic voice and then the object/picture was fed to ‘Metal Mike’. We will continue with this next week.

In Mathematics some of the children enjoyed using the number moulds to make different numbers, using the moon sand. Others enjoyed dipping number sponges into paint and printing the numbers in numerical order onto paper. We also continued practicing our counting skills by rote up to 100, and practiced our number recognition skills to 10.  We completed our calendar and discussed that we are now in spring. 

Unfortunately there was no music lesson this week, as Mr Fingerhut was unwell. We wish him a speedy recovery.

Some of the children came into the garden area to help tidy up. They worked so hard using rakes and brooms to clear up the leaves. They helped take out the weeds and leaves out of the raised beds. They then helped to put new soil into the beds and then helped to plant some summer bulbs. We will continue tidying up the garden and planting next week. The children were also excited to find some potatoes that had grown. 

In PE:

• The children enjoyed warming up with a run around the playground.
• The children had to turn away from the teacher and count to 10 while she hid the bean bags in the playground. They then had to find them all.
• The children then were paired up. One person out of the pair had to hide a beanbag and the other one had to find it.

This week in Jewish Studies we learned a lot about the coming festival – Pesach.  We started making our Haggadot, which so far, look amazing!

We learnt what a Seder is and what a Seder plate is. We discussed the items that go on the plate and the reasons for each of them.

We spoke about how Bnei Israel were avadim (slaves) in Egypt and how Pharaoh made us work hard. Bnei Yisrael cried to Hashem to save us from Egypt and we learned that this is why we dip our vegetables in salt water – to remember the tears of Bnei Yisrael.  We also learned about the reason we eat charoset, to remind us of the cement that the Bnei Yisrael used to build all the buildings in Egypt.

We spoke about the ten plagues that Hashem sent to the Egyptians. The children created their own activity to reflect this, which you will see in their Haggadot.

We learned a lot of Pessach songs and we can’t wait to have your child singing with you at the Seder table.

This week, in Kodesh Time, Liam brought in his dreidel collection. Liam was so excited to tell us all the colours of his dreidels  - and there were a lot! Liam told us that he went to the shop and bought one of them, and that is his favourite one. At the end, Liam spun a dreidel perfectly, holding it gently and doing the exact movement. After his presentation, he showed everyone his dreidels on the carpet. Thank you for this beautiful presentation, mitzvah boy! 

Next week we will continue with our Haggadot and our Pesach preparations.

On Friday we had our very special Shabbat Party.

The following children were on the Shabbat table:

Shabbat Aba:  Harrison

Shabbat Ima:  Mila

Shabbat Ben: Judah

Shabbat Bat:   Eden

Important reminders: 

• If you have not read to your child’s class and would like to come in and read your child’s favorite book, there are still slots available. Please ask at drop off or pick up.
• Our topic for next term is People Who Help Us and I would be most grateful if you are a doctor or dentist and would be able to come in to talk to the children about what your role involves. If you would like to email me if you are available to come in or speak to me at drop off or pick up that would be great.

Have a lovely weekend.

Shabbat Shalom,

Miss Cowen and the Nursery Team

Newsletter 18th March 2022

We hope you had a lovely Purim.

On Monday we were lucky to have Sophia, Mrs Jungbacke's daughter, join us for a work experience day in the nursery. Sophia worked hard at home preparing some exciting activities for the children. She froze water with surprises inside for the children to excavate. Some of the children enjoyed working out how to break or melt the ice to find out what was inside. They were also given small hammers to hit the ice with. Other children enjoyed making slime with her. They helped measure out the ingredients and then added gems and glitter to decorate their slime.

It has been lovely to have parents join us again this week to continue to read their child’s favorite book to the class. Thank you.

In Literacy in Letters and Sounds we started Aspect 6: voice sounds.The main purpose of this aspect is to distinguish between the differences in vocal sounds, including oral blending and segmenting. The children explored different mouth movements including blowing, sucking, tongue stretching and wiggling. We will be practicing these movements over the next few weeks.