Nursery Newsletter 13th September 2024
 
Dear parents, שלום הורים יקרים

What an amazing first week we have had in Nursery! The children have settled in so well and we were amazed how confidently they walked through the classroom doors on their own. They also settled into staying for lunch. It made us feel very proud.
                           
The children have been very busy. They started by walking around their new surroundings and were shown where their pegs and trays were. We discussed the class rules. It is very important that the children get to know each other, so we started to play some introductory name games which we will carry on next week.

In Communication and Language, the children enjoyed listening to the story, ‘Kissing Hand’. It is about a raccoon that is starting school and feels a bit sad. His mummy places a kiss in the palm of his hand, so when he is sad, he can place his palm on his cheek and the warmth from the kiss goes straight to his heart. Then he is happy again.

This is linked to Expressive Arts and Design and Personal, Social and Emotional Development where the children made their own kissing hand and discussed how they felt on their first day at school.

It was lovely to see some of the children role playing in the kitchen in the home corner, making new friends and further developing their language skills. In the outdoor area, the children learnt the rules of playing outside, including how to use the climbing frame. It was lovely to see some of the children climb up the climbing wall, using alternate feet to get themselves up and then coming down the slide confidently. They also enjoyed running over the hill, sliding down it and some had fun crawling through the tunnel. Others enjoyed riding the bikes around the blue track together, and it was lovely to hear them chatting away as they went around and around. This links to the areas of Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication and Language and Physical Development.    

In Literacy, the children enjoyed listening to a variety of different fun stories about starting school.
   
The whole school is focusing on the book ‘Flotsam’. Flotsam was written by Dave Wiesner and is a wordless picture book centered around plastic pollution and the effects it has on sea life. A young boy is down at the beach, examining all the bottles, lost toys, cans and many different types of pollution. During his adventure, he's lucky enough to discover an underwater camera! This camera, however, has its own secrets. The children enjoyed looking at the first few pages in the book and it was amazing to hear them in their own words describing what they thought was happening in each of the pictures. We will continue exploring more pages of the book over the coming weeks.

The children created the sand and sea using different paint effects. This will be used to create our Flotsam wall display in the classroom. They had fun using a variety of different collage materials to create their own under sea creatures including an octopus, starfish and jellyfish. They particularly enjoyed learning some interesting facts about the Octopus including that octopuses are sea creatures with soft bodies and 8 arms. We also discussed that they are mollusks and that a mollusk is an invertebrate meaning they don’t have spines. They repeated the new vocabulary we learnt which was lovely to hear.

In Mathematics, the children enjoyed practising their counting skills to 20 and also sung along to a variety of different number songs.

PE:
The children were introduced to their PE Teacher Mr Antony. Nursery focused on developing their core motor skills including running, jumping, balancing, squats, throwing and catching. They practised this through different activities and movements.

Music:

• The children met their new Music Teacher Mrs Cohen.
• The children sang their names to introduce themselves.
• They sang the song ’Dip the Apple in the Honey’ while Mrs Cohen played her Ukulele.
• Mrs Cohen then discussed the different names of some of the instruments including shakers, bells and a Djembe Drum.
• The children had a chance to play the different instruments and see what sounds they all made.They played the different instruments in a high and the low position and also slow and fast.
• They sang a feeling song and made happy and sad faces .
• They were introduced to Savvy the turtle.
• They ended the lesson playing a game with the parachute where some of the children were hiding under the parachute and on the count of 4 they jumped out of the parachute.

Ivrit:
Let me introduce myself, if you don't know me yet: I am Morah Sari and I will be teaching your children Ivrit every Monday and Wednesday in the afternoon. 

It was wonderful to meet your lovely children today. 
We learned the word Shalom שלום. Shalom can be used as Hello and Goodbye in Ivrit. It also means Peace.

First, I introduced myself and my friend Podi, who is our hedgehog friend. Podi will be coming to our Ivrit lessons quite a lot and we will play his interactive games too, throughout this academic year. Podi has more friends and they will join us too during some lessons. 

We also learned our new Ivrit song " Sha Sha Sha Shalom". 
Here is the link for the song to listen together with your child:
https://youtu.be/ORSu0Lqc5oc?feature=shared

I am looking forward to seeing your children next week and having more fun in Ivrit. 

Jewish Studies:
Nursery class, we have had a wonderful time getting to know each other and I am so happy to be your Jewish Studies teacher. Each morning we start the day at the EYU with joyful tefillah, and Nursery class have been brilliant at singing and clapping along to Modeh Ani. Wow, what a tuneful bunch!
We looked into the parasha of Ki Tetzei, and learned that if you find something, you should not simply pick it up and keep it, because it belongs to someone who has lost it. We discussed times when we had lost something and how it feels to miss a favourite item or a beloved toy. We discovered how the Torah tells us to find out who lost items belong to and give them back to their owners. Each of the children made a bright collage of a girl returning a lost balloon to its owner. They came out so beautifully, I hope you will enjoy discussing them over Shabbat!

This week, we also started to explore Rosh Hashanah, focussing on the custom of eating apple dipped in honey, in the hope for a sweet and good new year. We ate apple slices drenched in honey, and practised saying the bracha ha-etz. We also had a go at saying the bracha of shecheciyahu on some delicious fresh dates. We discussed and explored some different ways to describe the fruits: crunchy, sweet, tangy, delicious, tasty, yummy... The children painted and decorated gorgeous Shana Tovah cards, which we will be sending home closer to the chag.  

On Friday, the children had a Shabbat party. The children were happy to eat their challah and drink grape juice.

The following children were on the Shabbat table today:

Shabbat Aba: Arthur
Shabbat Ima: Rebecca
Shabbat Ben: Ray
Shabbat Bat: Serena

Reminders:

• Please make sure your child’s water bottle is not metal and that they don’t have to unscrew the lid to drink. 
• Please make sure that you have sent in a picture of people who will be collecting your child on a regular basis. Please remember that if your child is having a playdate and will be going home with another member of the class or is going home with anyone else, you must send an email authorizing this. Without this information we are unable to dismiss your child without calling you.
• I hope you are enjoying seeing all the lovely things your children have been doing at Nursery. It would be lovely to hear your comments or even see pictures of activities you have done with your child at home on Tapestry.
• Please can I remind you that no Tapestry pictures can be posted on the WhatsApp group. You have all signed a confidentiality agreement and some parents are not happy for their child’s photo to be shared with others. If you are unable to get onto Tapestry please contact Karen.
• It will be a soft start from 8.30-8.40am. Please make sure your child arrives no later than 8.40am in time for registration, learning the daily schedule and music and movement. It is important they are on time so they know what is happening and don't miss out. Thank you for your support with this.

Shabbat Shalom
Miss Cowen, Morah Cassie, Moran Sari and the Nursery Team