EYFS (Nursery and Reception) 2022-2023
Welcome to our blog!
We will be sharing photos from all of our visits and enriching activities in Early Years!
All of Early Years
Nursery
Reception
Reception- Trip to Paradise Wildlife Park
Reception had a fantastic day at Lee Valley Farm. We saw so many different animals, including a zebu! We also had time to go on all the play equipment and the bouncy pillow! It was such a fun-filled day. Thank you to the parents who accompanied us for our trip.
Nursery- Paradise Wildlife Park
Nursery had a fun day out at Paradise Wildlife Park
as part of our STEM Week.
Thank you to all the parents who came along.
All of the children had a fantastic time, as
did the parents and staff!
It was wonderful to see the children enjoy themselves so much on their last trip of the year.
Thank you to Zachary's mum for coming in and spending some time with us.
Thank you to Honey's mum for coming in and spending some time with us during lunch time.
We had a lovely treat courtesy of some Year 6 children who sang us a selection of songs from the Year 5 & 6 performance.
Thank you to Sebastian's mum for coming in and leading a music session with all the Nursery children.
All the children enjoyed their session, as did the teachers.
Please refer to class blog for some videos of
this amazing session.
Thank you to Stefanos' dad for coming in to spend some time with us in Nursery on Stefanos' birthday.
All the children enjoyed hearing him read
'The Gruffalo'
and loved joining in with the words.
Thank you to Rodney's mum and to Eddie for spending some time with us in Nursery.
Thank you to Alessia's yaya
for coming in to spend an afternoon with us in Nursery.
She read everyone a story and enjoyed playing with
all the children on the trim trail.
Thank you to Gabriel's mum for coming in and spending a morning with us.
Thank you to Audrey's mum for coming in and spending an afternoon with us.
Thank you to Arianna's mum for coming in
and spending the morning with us.
Arianna's mum enjoyed it so much she would like to come back and share some more fun times in Nursery!
Nursery & enjoyed letting our
frogs go into our school pond with Mrs Keeley.
We have enjoyed watching their lifecycle
from frog spawn, to tadpoles, to little frogs.
Thank you to Leo's dad for bringing in
Douglas, Leo's pet tortoise.
All the children loved asking questions and
having a gentle touch of Douglas!
Thank you to Isabella's mum and Martine
for coming in and spending some time with us in
Little Gems Nursery.
We all had a great time singing and dancing together, and they were both amazing Speckled Frogs!
Thank you to Pippa's mum for coming in and sharing her
watermelon with us in Little Gems
All the children loved eating the cold and juicy fruit.
Thank you also for reading us a story
Thank you to Frankie Caterer's mum
for coming in and spending some time in Nursery this week.
She had a great time playing with the children, joining in all the fun activities and having a play on the pirate ship.
Nursery Scooter Day
We are so proud of all the Nursery Children who participated in our EYFS Scooter Day.
A big thank you to Ophelia's Dad who came in and helped us. He had a great time as did all the children.
Reception- Scooter Day
Reception had a wonderful day full of scooter fun! All the children brought in their scooter from home for a day of scootering around the playground and even down the hill in the car park. They were all very good at making sure they stayed safe and watched where they were going. What great fun!
Nursery had a great time welcoming in Miss Mattison's sister,
she is a real life gardener and we were lucky enough for her to spend some time in
Nursery and talk about Gardening Facts.
The Nursery children asked lots of question and she was very impressed
with all their gardening knowledge.
Reception- Gardening and Planting
Reception had a visit from a real life professional gardener. She showed the children all the tools she uses and answered all their questions about her job as a gardener. She was very impressed with how much they already knew! She then helped the children to plant different seeds, flowers and vegetables and taught them the best ways to do this. We are very hopeful that lots of these will grow during the Summer Term and we can get the children to help care for these.
Early Years- Butterflies
We were really excited to release the Nursery and Reception butterflies after they hatched from their cocoons. Reception and Nursery enjoyed sharing this experience together and watching the butterflies take flight.
Nursery- Parent Helpers
Thank you to Mrs Callis for coming into Nursery and sharing some time with us. The children all enjoyed playing with you and listening to the Elmer and Wilbur story. We are looking forward to welcoming you all in for some fun times in Little Gems Nursery!
Reception- Clay Faces
Reception enjoyed making natural faces using clay and resources from Woody Corner. They used flowers, twigs, acorns, seeds and other objects they collected. They then pressed these faces against the bark of the Oak tree to create imprints. Thank you to Mrs Gomar for sharing this wonderful activity with Reception.
Nursery Trip to Gobions
Reception- Worm Hunt
Reception went on a worm hunt after reading our literacy text 'Yucky Worms'. They enjoyed digging up the worms and making a shared Wormery. They then used these worms to make their own wormeries that they got to take home!
Nursery- Parent Visitor
Thank You to Mrs I'Anson for an amazing morning in Nursery!
The children all enjoyed your Elmer Story and making their individual Elmer masks!
We look forward to welcoming more parents in to Little Gems soon.
Early Years- Coronation Fun
Nursery - Traditional Tales Workshop
EYFS- Easter Bunny
The EYFS enjoyed welcoming in the Easter Bunny!
We would like to say a massive thank you to the PTA for organising this.
Early Years Easter Craft Morning
We had an amazing morning celebrating the end of the Spring Term by opening our doors to the Early Years families! We enjoyed a lovely morning of Easter Crafts. Thank you to all the family members who came and took part. The children in Nursery and Reception all enjoyed themselves eating a yummy Easter snack of hot cross buns!
The 3 Billy Goats Gruff- Reception
As part of our 'Traditional Tales' focus, we read the story of 'The 3 Billy Goats Gruff'. Reception were familiar with this story and enjoyed chatting about the events and making predictions for what might happen next. Throughout the afternoon, the children made rafts/boats for the goats to use to cross the river, as well as making bridges from Lego and blocks and a large outdoor bridge to get across the river. What a great, fun afternoon!
Brookmans Buddies (Mothers Day Cards)- Reception
Reception met their Brookmans Buddies to carry out a very special activity this week. The Year 4's helped their buddies to create a lovely Mother's Day card! We hope all you wonderful mummies liked your cards and enjoyed Mother's Day.
Volcano Eruption!- Reception
As part of our Dinosaur topic, Reception have been learning about how dinosaurs became extinct. Miss Mattison set up a fantastic experiment mixing baking soda and white vinegar together to create our own lava eruption! What great fun! The volcano was made by some of the children in Reception and painted by them, too.
Brookmans Buddies- Reception
On Thursday, Reception met their Brookmans buddies to play a game of snakes and ladders (Dinosaurs and Trees!). It was great fun seeing them playing so kindly together and practising their recognition of numbers on a dice.
Finding Rex- Reception
The children enjoyed discovering a dinosaur footprint in their classroom and searching for Rex around the school! They did some amazing writing when making their missing posters for Rex and were very happy to find Rex and discover that he was a friendly dinosaur!
Finding Dinosaur Eggs- Reception
Reception had a very exciting letter from Rex the dinosaur, asking them to go and find the dinosaur eggs and help them to hatch and grow. We went on a dinosaur egg search and found so many! Reception are all very excited to help them grow next week.
Real Dinosaur Fossils- Reception
George (Harry's brother) came to visit Reception and show them his real dinosaur fossils! It was very exciting to be able to see them and learn different facts about dinosaur fossils. A big thank you to George for showing us these and answering all the children's questions!
Feel Good Week Workshop 2- Reception
We had the second part of our workshop with a lady from the charity 'Mind' this week. She talked to us all about our feelings and ways to help us regulate our emotions. We then discussed how we feel when emotions 'take over' our bodies. We used the parachute to represent this and how sometimes it is hard to control our emotions when they take over. We also talked about different strategies to help support our regulation.
World Book Day- Reception
On World Book Day, we loved seeing all the children come to school dressed in their costumes! They looked great! We had a visit from our Brookmans Buddies to share a story with us and we also had a special assembly from local author Steven Vinacour. The Reception teachers all came dressed as characters from Room on the Broom and even acted out the story to Reception with the help of two of the children. What a fun day celebrating books and the love of reading!
Nursery Cooking this Spring Term
Train Trip- Reception
Reception had a very exciting and busy morning today. First, we had Stuart from the rail network come to visit and tell us all about how to stay safe on trains/railway stations. We then set off to Brookmans Park train station and boarded a train to Hatfield. When we got to Hatfield, we had a yummy snack before carrying out a traffic survey outside the station to see which vehicles passed by. Reception all loved going on the train with their friends and had a fantastic morning! Thank you to all the parents who accompanied us for this experience!
Visit from Captain Cook- Reception
Reception were very fortunate to have Captain Cook come to visit our class. He told us all about his job as a pilot and showed us all the equipment in his pilot bag. Reception had lots of questions for Captain Cook and found out so many cool things about pilots and their aeroplanes!
Plane Role-Play - Reception
Before the children came into school on Tuesday, we had turned the classroom into an airport! As the children arrived, they were given their passport and boarding pass, before passing through security and boarding our flight to Italy! They even got to have a delicious snack and drink on the plane too - with only a little bit of turbulence! What a fun morning!
Feel Good Week Workshop- Reception
To start Feel Good Week, we were very fortunate to have a workshop with a lady from the charity 'Mind'. She talked to us all about our feelings and ways to help us regulate our emotions. We got to explore moving around as different emotions and also read some lovely stories with the help of her feelings puppet, Ziggy!
Visit from a pilot
We have had a real life pilot visit us this week in Nursery. We made our very own Little Gems airline.
The children made their own passports and tickets and thoroughly enjoyed their trip.
Chinese New Year
The Early Years celebrated Chinese New Year.
We all enjoyed dancing and playing music to Chinese music and we also all had a go at dragon dancing. Finally, we all enjoyed some prawn crackers for a taste of
Chinese cuisine!
Literacy- Reception
Reception have loved reading and sharing the story 'Astro Girl' this half-term. As part of this, we have read about Astrid baking cookies with her father. We then decided to make our own chocolate chip rocket biscuits, which the children all loved!
Food Tasting
Reception enjoyed tasting real life space food this week, and they kindly shared this with Nursery. It was an amazing experience! We all tried freeze-dried fruits and even sampled some real life freeze-dried chocolate ice-cream!
Spring Term
Space Dome
We started the term with a Sizzling Starter in the Early Years with the visit of the Explorer Dome to enhance and explore our
Space topic.
Nursery and Reception enjoyed the experience together and “9?loved seeing all the cool projections of our solar system!
Wishing everyone a Happy New Year from us all in the
Early Years
Early Years Christmas Concert
I am sure you will all agree that all the Nursery and Reception children did so well in their Christmas Concert. We are so proud of them and so pleased we could share this with you.
Nursery Santa Run
Nursery joined Year 6 and had a great time in the
Santa Fun Run this morning.
All the children were given a Santa Hat to reward their efforts!
Santa Run- Reception
Reception joined their Year 4 buddies and had a great time in the Santa Fun Run.
All the children were given a Santa Hat at the end!
Santa came to visit!
Pantomime Trip
Reception and some of the Nursery children greatly enjoyed watching the Cinderella pantomime with the whole school! What a great show and a lovely way to get into the festive spirit!
Entertainer
To celebrate the end of the year, we invited Zoe from ‘Perform’ to visit our school. She came and led a workshop with the children to train them to be elves. They all absolutely loved this and had a wonderful time!
Early Years having fun in the snow!
Early Years Christmas Craft Open Morning
A big thank you to all the parents who attended our EYFS Christmas Craft Morning! We had a lovely time making Christmas crafts and delicious treats!
Reception and their Buddies walk to the Village
Mrs Johnson planned a wonderful morning for the Year 4 and Reception children. We all walked to the village to sing Christmas songs, hand out the Christingles the children had made and to eat a delicious snack!
Christmas Cards
Nursery and Reception made Christmas Cards with the Year 3 and 4 children. These cards will be given to different members of our community such as the shop owners and support staff in our school.
Reception and Year 4 making Christmas cards
Posting letters to Santa
Nursery and Reception enjoyed walking to the village to post their letters to Santa. We enjoyed looking at all the signs of Christmas as well as looking at the Christmas tree and lights on the village green.
Nursery posting letters to Santa
Aquamarine posting letters to Santa
Amethyst posting letters to Santa
Superhero Dress-Up Day
Nursery and Reception both loved their Superhero dress-up day. They enjoyed taking part in superhero training and showing off their superpowers all day! What great fun!
Nursery Superhero Day
Reception Superhero Day
Gymnast Visit
Nursery loved their visit from Courtney Tulloch, who is an Olympic gymnast. Nursery enjoyed going to assembly to watch him demonstrate some of his moves. We also had a session with him in the hall, trying out different moves.
Reception Gymnast Visit
Cross Country School Run
The Early Years enjoyed joining in with the House competition this afternoon. The Year 4 Brookmans Buddies ran with Reception, whilst Year 6 children ran with Nursery.
Nursery- Children in Need
The Nursery children and staff all looked snug in their pyjamas when we all got dressed up for Children in Need. The school raised money for such a good cause. Brookmans Park School also received a special message from Andy (from Andy and the Dinosaurs)!
This Term we explored the topic:
'People who help us’
Police Visit
As part of our people who help us topic, we had a visit from some local police officers and from Leo's dad, who is also a police officer. The children all really enjoyed both of these visits and had lots of questions about their jobs!
Amethyst Police Visit
Aquamarine Police Visit
Nursery Police Visit
Firefighter Visit
The local firefighters came to visit Nursery and Reception. We got to see their fire truck and all the different emergency equipment they use!
Amethyst Firefighter Visit
Aquamarine Firefighter Visit
Dr Parry the Vet Visit
Dr Parry, a local vet, came to visit us. He brought a special guest with him that the children all enjoyed stroking and feeding-Terrence the Turtle!
Vet Visit to Nursery
Reception Vet Visit
Nurse/Paramedic Visit
We had a visit from a practising nurse today - Mrs Bouma. She showed the children how to feel their pulse and let them use a stethescope, bandages and some slings.
We also had a visit from Mr Belsey (Leo's grandad), who is a paramedic. He gave Mrs Ingram, Miss Mattison and Mr Peacefull a check up and showed us how to use some of his machines.
Nurse/Paramedic Visit Nursery
Nurse/Paramedic Visit Reception
Reception celebrating Diwali
Mrs Patel (Niam's mummy) came to visit us today in order to share pictures and videos of her and her family celebrating Diwali. All the children had lots of questions and enjoyed finding out more about the festival of light! The children also enjoyed making their own Rangoli patterns and Diva lamps to take home!
Diwali in Reception
Nursery Celebrating Divali
