Nursery
2024-2025
Welcome to Nursery!
At Minet Infant and Nursery School, we believe the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is a crucial foundation for children's development and future learning. We have worked hard to create and continuously refine a curriculum that fosters each child's growth, ensuring that both indoor and outdoor learning environments are carefully set up to encourage exploration, creativity, and learning through play. These rich, engaging spaces help children develop key skills, build confidence, and ignite a lifelong love for learning from an early age.
Below you will find useful documents relating to our learning and a weekly blog to show you what the children have been up to that week.
Who is in Nursery?
Teacher - Miss Kyriacou
Teacher - Mrs Hamam / Miss Smith
Nursery Nurse - Mrs Darwish
Nursery Nurse - Ms Escrader
Nursery Nurse - Mrs VanCuylenberg
A-Z Weekend Challenges
Nursery Curriculum Overview 2024-2025
Half Termly Topic Webs
2024-2025
24.01.25
This week, we have carried on learning about all things Teddies, and the children have enjoyed lots of exciting activities! They had fun writing numbers in chalk outside, counting their teddy bears as they wrote. Indoors, they explored mark-making in sand, using their fingers and tools to create shapes, patterns, and letters. Messy play was a big hit, with children exploring different textures—squishy, foamy, and crunchy! We also loved sharing our favourite teddies, using them in counting and storytelling.
It’s been a fantastic week of learning through play—we can’t wait for more fun next week!
10.01.25
Welcome back and Happy New Year to all of our children and families!
We are pleased to have all the children back to school and to also welcome some new friends in the Nursery. Our topic for this half-term is Teddies! The children have been mixing primary colours to paint a teddy bear, counting bears on the maths table and role-playing with the bears around the classroom.
Next week, we will focus on learning all about polar bears, their habitats and how they live. We will also begin our first NELI Pre-School story "Neon Leon". Can you guess what it might be about?
20.12.24 - Carol Concert
Thank you to all of the parents/carers and families who came to watch our Carol Concert this week! The children have been working hard to learn the songs and actions, and thoroughly enjoyed performing them to an audience. The Nursery Team were so pleased with how sensibly the children sat, listened and followed the school rules.
We hope you have a fun-filled break with your children and we look forward to seeing you all back on Monday 6th January 2025! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all those celebrating!
13.12.24 - DT Learning in Autumn Term
Throughout the Autumn Term, the children have been progressing their design technology skills through Understanding The World (UTW) and Expressive Arts and Design (EAD). We have been completing activities that work towards these goals:
With support, I can mix sand/mud/flour with water.
I can use spoons, sieves and scoops.
- I can follow simple recipes in areas such as the mud kitchen.
06.12.24 - History Week
This week in Nursery has been History week! Our focus has been learning about the past and comparing it to the present tense. The children enjoyed looking at their family photographs from the past. We compared similarities and differences within Hayes town, like how tall the buildings are, how many road signs there are, and the colours of the pictures.
Can you think of something that happened in the past?
29.11.24 - Geography Week
This week in Nursery, we have had Geography week. Our focus has been learning about different occupations and why we have different people within the community. During Child Initiated Learning, we had a lot of builders, a hairdressers, a pet shop and a vets. The children learnt about what different jobs require, for example, a firefighter needs a fire engine and a helmet.
22.11.24
This week, we have continued our topic learning of Me, My House & Street. The children have enjoyed focussing on "pets" this week, and we even had a visit from a pet dog called Cyril!
Our Talk 4 Writing text is We're Going On A Bear Hunt, which the children have thoroughly enjoyed reading and remembering. We will continue this text for one more week and begin to retell the story using actions.
Children In Need & World Children's Day - 15.11.24
Nursery children had such a fun day celebrating Children In Need today. We discussed what a charity is and spoke about who our donation money is going to. The children enjoyed learning about what Pudsey bear represents and how we can raise money to help other children.
To celebrate World Children's Day, we spoke about the similarities and differences that our children have compared to other children around the world. We compared our appearances, and how children live differently.
08.11.24
Welcome back! We hope you had a lovely half-term break and spent lots of time together as a family.
Our topic in Autumn 2 is Me, My House and Street, where we will be learning about ourselves, our families, pets, where we live and what things our down our street.
Here are some pictures of our learning from this week!
25.10.24
We have now completed our topic of Wildlife & Minibeasts! The children have immersed themselves into the world of insects, bugs and different habitats. Can you go on a minibeast hunt and draw pictures of all the ones you find?
This week in Nursery, we had a very special visitor. Tas (who is a real Bee Keeper) came in and did a short workshop all about Bumblebees. We learnt some interesting facts about bees and some of us tried on the bee keeper's safety clothes.
18.10.24
We have continued our learning around Wildlife & Minibeasts this week. The children have enjoyed doing some autumnal art activities and created leaf pictures using paint. Some children went on an insect hunt around the front lawn; they found slugs, snails, ants and ladybirds.
11.10.24
Since we begun reading the story The Very Hungry Caterpillar, we have been watching our own caterpillars grow and turn into butterflies! The children in Nursery have loved watching the process of how they grow and transform. Some children even used key vocabulary, like "metamorphosis", during choosing time. Next week, we will be saying goodbye to our butterflies and setting them free into the World.
04.10.24
This week in Nursery, we have delved into our topic all about Wildlife & Minibeasts. The children have really enjoyed listening and retelling the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar and talking about the lifecycle of a butterfly.
We have focussed on making spiders with our resources and even made our own habitat for minibeasts.
27.09.24
This week in Nursery, we have welcomed in our last group of new friends! The children have continued settling into the classroom and getting to know the other children and adults. We have spent a lot of time teaching the children the rules of school and how to behave at school. They are walking like SWANs and doing STAR tidying. Next week, we will begin our topic Wildlife and Minibeasts.
13.09.24
Hello and welcome to Nursery!
The Nursery Team are so happy to see some familiar faces this week as well as meeting some new ones too!
We have had an excellent week of settling in and completing lots of fun activities. The children learnt how to play sensibly in our classroom indoor and outdoor areas. They also spent time tidying up the resources independently as this is a key part of our learning at Minet.
2023-2024
Weekly Blog
So, here we are, approaching the penultimate Friday of Term 6 and the end of the school year. I can't quite believe we're here after a fantastic year of learning! And what a record you have of their learning with all the weekly blogs and photos which you can visit and revisit at your leisure. The children have all coped marvellously talking about moving to Reception and those that will be coming back to nursery and will not see some of their friends that are moving. We have spent time in PSHE discussing changes which we hope has also helped those who are moving house. They asked questions and walked around to get a feel for their new learning space. This week, the children had the fantastic time in the school disco and they all loved playing on the bouncy castle. All that remains is to say a huge thank you to our wonderful parents/carers for helping with anything we needed in nursery and for all your support. Have a super summer! The Nursery Team
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The nursery children had a fantastic day on sports day. They took part in a carousel of activities which allowed them to showcase different skills that they have learnt this year. These skills include balancing, throwing, running and jumping. Thank you to all our parent/carers that have attended to support the children.
This week, some of our nursery children visited Cassiobury Park Paddling Pools as part of their Hey, Water Hook!
This week children in nursery were very excited to watch some of the seeds they have planted in the winter have produced strawberries and tomatoes.
For World Environment Day Nursery have been learning to recycle. "if we don't recycle, litter makes our environment look ugly and can harm sea creatures." Nursery children also learned about the importance of using reusable water bottles.
Congratulations to many of our nursery children for their 100% attendance. Nursery children received, certificates, weekly stickers and prizes. Excellent attendance at school is important to allow your child to fulfil their potential and for them to have the best possible start in life. Below are just some of the reasons why it is so important children attend school: To learn To have fun and make new friends To understand responsibility To experience new things in life To develop awareness of other cultures, religion, ethnicity and gender
This week nursery celebrated international day by learning about each other’s national dress, flags and cultures. Thank you to the parents that have performed a traditional dance to the nursery children, who enjoyed the performance.
What a lovely visit from the farm Nursery had this week as part of their Farm Topic Hook. Children saw lots of different animals, learnt about their offspring, held some guinea pigs, rabbits and chicks and even had a go at feeding some lambs and a donkey. Nursery children behaved fantastically around the animals and the nursery team were very proud!
Thank you to all the parents/carers that have attended our nursery book fair and we hope you enjoy reading with your children.
Children in nursery got a large container, washed it together, filled it up with water and watched the ducklings swim inside it!
What an Egg-citing news!!! Our baby ducklings have hatched! This week the children in nursey were introduced to five duckling eggs and every day the children came to see them to check if any eggs were hutched. We are now the proud carers of four beautiful ducklings. The work starts here! feeding, watering, cleaning. We can't wait!!
The nursery children were having fun looking for mini Easter eggs as a reward for good attendance. They got to take home a real chocolate egg! Nursery children also took home their Easter homework project.
Thank you to all our parents/carers that came for our ‘Family Friday’ in Nursery. The children sat very well in their key groups for their phonics’ session and we hope you enjoyed the workshop.
What a busy week we had in nursery this week! The children in nursery went to visit the Life Bus and learnt about dental care. We also celebrated Red Nose Day at school. Thank you to our families who donated to a worthy cause. Children and staff in nursery all came dresses in red.
Yesterday we all looked fantastic for world book day in ‘Nursery’, we had lots of colourful characters around and shared books with our parents/carers.
What a great start to our 'Transport' topic! We have started to read our new topic book, ‘The Train Ride by June Crebbin’ and discussed the different type of transports that children use to travel to nursery. Staff in nursery has also shared their favourite transport to work!
WOW! Everyone had so much fun in the first Family Friday of the year in nursery and it has been lovely to see so many families in school this week. The staff and the children have enjoyed sharing our ‘Talk 4 Writing Story Maps’ Can you guess which story we have been reading from the story map?
The children in Nursery visited Sainsbury’s this week to buy porridge and different ingredients that they would like to have in their porridge. They also decided that it was not too hot or too cold but it was just right, so they ate it all up just like Goldilocks!
This week, nursery had a focus in mark making, using cornflower, drawing wiggly lines and writing their first name!
Our new topic in Nursery is “Teddies” Children had lots of fun and brought in their teddies to nursery. The nursery children were able to talk about their teddies and also describe some of their features.
Welcome back & Happy New Year! We are delighted to welcome all of our Nursery children back into School this week, particularly those who are beginning their school journey for the first time.
What a busy week we had this week! Nursery children decorated their Christmas tree and enjoyed using different painting styles.
This week, we have introduced pumpkins to nursery ready for Halloween. Children in nursery had fun scooping out the insides and were able to explore its texture as well as sharing their experiences with each other.
Children in nursery are enjoying their mark making experiences which will contribute towards early drawing and writing.
Children in nursery had a creepy visitor this week! All children were fascinated about the spider and looked after it and observed its features. The children were also able to sing to the spider our nursery rhyme ‘Incy Wincy Spider’
First week of Nursery! We’ve been very busy learning each other’s names, making rules for our classroom, and learning our daily routines.
Today was one of the nursery children’s birthday and the children made her a birthday party in the mud kitchen.
It has been a busy exciting week for our last group of children in nursery and thety have been learning from their peers in their provision areas by copying each other.
Nursery 2022-2023
2021-2022