The Farnborough Grange Nursery Class Page

Welcome, and thank you for visiting.  Remember to check back each week for important information, upcoming events, updates on what we have been learning and fun activities to share at home.  If you would like to find out more about the content on this page,  please speak to a member of the nursery staff who will be happy to help.  If you need to view the content of this page in a different language, please use the Google Translate tab in the top-left corner of this page.  We hope that you enjoy sharing in the excitement of our magical nursery!  

The Nursery Teacher is:

Mrs Ross (Head of EYFS)

Our Keyworkers are:

Mrs Ross (Flamingo)

Mrs Wilman (Elephants)

Mrs Toddhunter (Leopard)

Miss Wheeler (Meerkat)

Miss Tigrine (Giraffe)

Mrs Hatley (PPA cover)

Opening times:

Morning session- 8.50am-11.50am

Afternoon session- 12pm-3pm

Full day 8.50am-3pm

We accept both the 15 hour and 30 hour funding. 

At Farnborough Grange we are lucky to benefit from large environments both inside and outside for learning.

Highlight of the Week!

Summer 2

Week 5: 4.4.22

This week we had a special visit from the farm. The children were excited to meet the adorable little pigs and the kids (baby goats) who were keen to feed from their mother.  We have also been visiting our new classrooms in Reception in preparation for September when most of our friends will move on. 

Week 4: 27.6.22

This week was Art Week across the school and the children learnt about the artist Henri Matisse. We shared the story 'Matisse's Magical Trail' and learnt that we are all artists! The parents joined us for a mini story session and we also created our own snails out of clay. 

Week 3: 20.6.22

The children have had a fantastic week learning about France as part of our One World Day celebrations across the school. We learnt how to say hello (bonjour) and goodbye (au revoir). The children created their own French flags and learnt the classic French song Freres Jaques. 

Week 2: 13.6.22

This week has been a warm one in Nursery! We have continued our learning around the book Sharing a Shell and enjoyed lots of learning about the seaside and playing in the water tray to create our own sea foam. In phonics we have learnt the 'h' sound and the children have been trying really hard to practice recognising this sound and writing it independently. 

Week 1: 06.6.22

This week we have welcomed the children back to nursery and enjoyed reading the story called Sharing a Shell by Julia Donaldson. We have been collaging materials to create a new shell for the crab to share with his friends and learning about different types of sea creatures. In the forest this week we played a memory game using lots of natural objects that we could find in our forest. 

Summer 1

Week 4: 16.5.22

We continued our learning based around the story of The Enormous Turnip. We also looked at staying healthy and have discussed and practiced how to clean our hands thoroughly to get rid of germs. We have been focusing o repeated patterns and learning to spot a mistake in a pattern. The children have enjoyed using our loose parts to create their own patterns and challenging their friends to create a different pattern. In the forest this week we focused on keeping the forest healthy and safe too and conducted a litter pick. In phonics we learnt the 'f' sound for flower and football. 

Week 3: 9.5.22

This week we have been reading the story The Enormous Turnip. The children enjoyed reading the story and seeing how the different characters worked together to pull the turnip out of the ground. The children explored a tuff spot full of soil and enjoyed pretending to plant the root vegetables. Outside the children have been observing the way the garden has been evolving throughout the year. In the forest this week the children have planted their own sunflowers and they are looking forward to bringing home. 

Week 2: 3.5.22

We continued our learning about The Very Hungry Caterpillar and the children have been working on their number recognition. The have been looking at how many different fruits the caterpillar ate and trying to write the numbers themselves. We have also had some new visitors arrive: caterpillars! The children are looking forward to watching them grow and develop over the next few weeks and then we will release them.

Week 1: 28.4.22

This week in nursery we have started learning about the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The children were very good at learning to retell the story and acting out the different parts of the lifecycle during yoga. In our forest session we went hunting for minibeasts and found some beetles, flies and a few spiders.

Spring 2

Week 4: 21.3.22

This week in nursery we have started our learning about Spring. The children have really enjoyed exploring the garden in the sunny weather and planting some seeds in our garden so that we can grow our own fruit and vegetables. We also learnt about Mother's Day and discussed all the wonderful things our mother's/ nanny's and grandma's do for us and made them something special. We learnt the sound 'g' in phonics and have been trying really hard to think of lots of words that begin with that sound. 

Week 3: 14.3.22

This week we continued our learning based on the story of Little Red Riding Hood. We developed the children's understanding about repeated patterns and challenged them tot find the mistakes in the patters we had made together using natural objects. We also look carefully at the different characters in the story and identified what looked the same and what looked different. In the forest this week we made bird feeders from lard, bird food and cereal and then hung them up in our nursery garden for our bird friends. 

Week 2: 7.3.22

This week we read the traditional tale of Little Red Riding Hood.  We worked together in our key groups to sequence the story using the time related language of first, next and at the end. The children worked really hard to write shopping lists of items for Granny to buy at the shops and made a mask of the wolf. In phonics we learnt the sound 'n' for nail, net and nose and the children tried to write their own letters. 

Week 1: 28.2.22

Welcome back after our half term holidays! We have been reading the story 'Mr Wolf's Pancakes' this week to help us learn about pancake day. The children have enjoyed discussing the different toppings they like on their pancakes and having pancake races in the forest during our session. We have been learning the 'i' sound in our RWI phonic sessions and the children have been trying really hard to remember how to write the letter. 

Spring 1

Week 6: 7.2.22

This week in Nursery we have explored mark making in a new way and made marks using tractors in brown paint. The children loved this messy activity! We have continued our learning about farm animals and practised making the different sounds that farm animals made. Our favourite activity this week has been to visit the forest! The children who joined us after Christmas loved visiting our forest and the children played 'What's the Time Mr Wolf', played with the crunchy leaves and enjoyed searching for the empty shells that the squirrels have left behind. 

Week 5: 31.1.22

In Nursery this week we have enjoyed reading the story 'Duck in the Pond' by Jez Alborough. The children have enjoyed learning about how the animals worked together to help the duck's car out of the mud.  We have also continued our phonics lessons and learnt the sound 's' for snake. The children are really enjoying learning how to blend the sounds together and can now recognise the sounds we have learnt so far. 

Week 4: 24.1.22

This week we have continued our learning about transport and created our own train tracks using lolly sticks. We have been trying to strengthen our finger muscles for writing and learnt a lovely song during our Dough Disco session. In phonics this week we have been learning the sound 'a' and the children have been trying really hard to help Fred the frog blend his sounds together. 

Week 3: 17.1.22

This week, we began our next min topic related to transport and shared the story 'The Runaway Train' by Jess Stokcham. The children enjoyed reading the adventure the train took to different parts of the country and have also enjoyed creating their own trains during Discovery Time. In phonics this week we have been learning the sound 'm'. 

Week 2: 10.1.22

The children have continued to learn about Winter and have been exploring our garden to look for the signs. We found lots of frost on the leaves and enjoyed making different soups in the mud kitchen with ice and leaves. In maths, we have been exploring different 2D shapes such as triangles, circles, squares and rectangles. 

Week 1: 3.1.22

It was fantastic to welcome the children back after the Christmas holidays. We have also welcomed a few new friends to nursery who have begun to settle in well. Our mini topic is about Winter and the children have shared a story related to Winter and begun to talk about what they need to wear when it is cold. 

Autumn 2

Week 7: 13.12.21

In our last week in Nursery before the Christmas holidays the children enjoyed playing lots of Christmas games like pass the parcel and musical statues. We enjoyed learning how to take turns and celebrating when our friend won the game. The children also enjoyed playing outside in the garden and observing the change in the weather. 

Week 6: 6.12.21

This week in Nursery we continued learning about Christmas and the Jolly Postman. The children have enjoyed pretending to wrap presents, writing Christmas cards and learning Christmas songs. Due to the bad weather we were unable to visit the forest this week but instead we continued to have our dough disco session and acted out some action songs together. We have really been looking into how people feel and what different emotions look like on our faces. We worked together to talk about what makes us happy, upset, angry and frightened and what we can do to make ourselves happy. 

Week 5: 29.11.21

This week in Nursery we started our learning about Christmas and listened to the story of The Jolly Christmas Postman by Alan Allberg. We really liked to hear the journey that the postman went on and enjoyed exploring the different letters that he was delivering. In the nursery we have also been working hard to learn the different Christmas songs that the children are going to be performing next week. On Wednesday we joined in with the rest of the school with our crazy hair to raise money for the school. In the forest this week we talked about the signs of autumn such as conkers, yellow and orange leaves and went on a hunt to find some!

Week 4: 22.11.21

This week in Nursery we continued learning about how people celebrate birthdays. The children really enjoyed having pretend birthday parties in the role play area and during our carpet times we learnt how to play different party games such as musical statues. In the forest this week we learnt to play different outdoor games such as 'What's the Time Mr Wolf' and Hide and Seek. The children were fantastic at finding new hiding places! We also looked at the story Elmer by David McKee and discussed how Elmer felt in the story when he was different to everyone else. We then looked at how we are different to everyone else and that is okay. 

Week 3: 15.11.21

This week we started our mini topic 'Birthdays' and read the story Kipper's Birthday by Mick Inkpen. The children loved writing birthday cards for Kipper and creating balloons with patterns on them for him. We had party hats and started to learn how to play some party games. At the end of the week we all dressed up in mufti clothes to raise money for Children in Need. We worked together to put spots onto Pudsey's bandage and enjoyed making masks and collaging a giant Pudsey together. 

Week 2: 8.11.21

This week we continued to learn about fireworks. On our forest walk we each found a stick and with some help from our adults, we make a special firework stick! we also learnt about Remembrance, and worked together to make a wreath using our handprints. We have been looking at 2D shapes and trying to remember the names of a circle, triangle, square and rectangle.  

Week 1: 1.11.21

The children have settled well this week after their half term holiday and have been starting to look at their new Learning Enquiry Question- What do I celebrate? We have focused on fireworks and bonfire night this week and the children have really enjoyed using paint to create firework pictures and learning how to stay safe on bonfire night. The children have also developed their vocabulary linked to the size of objects and have been sorting objects into 'big', 'small' and 'medium' groups. 

In other exciting news, Mrs Toddhunter has joined our team as our new Leopard Group Keyworker. She is looking forward to getting to know her key group and exploring all of the fun learning activities we have in nursery. 

Autumn 1

Week 7: 22.10.21

In our final week in Nursery this half term, we continued learning about Autumn and revisited the forest. The children really enjoyed searching for as many different sized yellow and red leaves as they could find. We then used these leaves in teh water tray and with scissors to practice our cutting skills. In the Nursery we also enjoyed making marks on our chalk paint covered pumpkins and scooping leaves in the water tray. Please look at Tapestry and you will see the lovely things we have been learning. It would be fantastic to see what you have been learning at home too, for example, one family posted some pictures of the pumpkins they had been decorating at home. 

Week 6: 15.10.21

This week in Nursery we have been busy learning about the signs of Autumn. We went on an autumnal walk in our forest and used our sense of sight to see what Autumn looks like. We discussed how Autumn was different to Summer and Winter. The children enjoyed collecting different coloured leaves that we then used in our artwork. 

Week 5: 08.10.21

This week we have continued to learn about the five senses and focused on the sense of smell. The children have been using their noses to smell a variety of different smells and explain if they like the smell or not, and what they think the smell is from. The most popular smell so far is mint and the least favourite is coffee. We have also been exploring counting, and working really hard on counting one object as a time and then matching the amount to the number cards. 

Week 4: 01.10.21

We have started our mini topic about the five senses (listening, smelling, tasting, feeling and seeing). We have all learnt a song to help us remember the senses and which parts of the body we use. The children have enjoyed going on an animal hunt in our outside are to find the animals hiding, using their eyes for seeing. They have also explored a range of materials and we have supported them to develop their vocabularies to describe the materials e.g. rough, smooth.

Week 3: 24.09.21

This week the children have continued to learn about the story of Owl Babies. The children have enjoyed learning to sequence the story and joining in with repeated phrases. We have been looking at sorting by colour, shape and size in maths and working on wearing an apron when we want to play in the water tray or paint a picture.

Week 2: 17.09.21

This week we have been learning the story of Owl Babies by Mark Waddell. The children have enjoyed learning to retell this story and acting it out in our Owl Baby tuff spot. In maths, we have been looking at learning a variety of nursery rhymes such as 1,2,3,4,5 once I caught a fish alive. Look out on your child's Tapestry and we will share snapshots of their learning with you.

Week 1: 10.09.21

We had a lovely time welcoming some children back and visiting our new families during our home visits. All children have enjoyed exploring our inside and outside areas and meeting Charlie the rabbit!