Wanted please!

Are you having a spring clean? Maybe it's time for a clear out of all the toys your child no longer plays with?

At Gleadless Primary School, we would greatly appreciate any donations you may have of good quality toys and games that you no longer want. We are especially looking for things like jigsaws, play figures, dolls houses etc. Any children's books or stationary equipment would also be greatly appreciated.

Thankyou in anticipation.

Cheesy Starfish

Last week the children enjoyed making and eating 'Cheesy Starfish'.

We simply used some short crust pastry mix and added grated cheese. After rolling out the pastry and cutting into star shapes, we brushed them with a little milk and baked them in the oven until golden. They were delicious!

Pirate's gold!

We have enjoyed yet another baking session today - making Pirate's gold!

When baking, we use a variety of important skills.

• measuring
• weighing
• mixing
• chopping
• cutting
• stirring
• kneading

 We also have discussions about the important role that food plays in keeping us fit and healthy.

This is a super way to get the children to try new or unusual foods.

Our Pirate's gold buns smelled delicious!

If you would like to have a go at making these for yourselves, here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 50g butter or margarine
• 50g clear honey
• 50g medium oatmeal
• 50g chopped ready-to-eat dried apricots
• 1tbsp dried banana chips
• 50-75g cornflakes

Method:

1. Place the butter or margarine and honey in small saucepan and warm over a low heat, stirring. (We cheated and used a microwave - high for about 50 seconds)
2. Add the oatmeal, apricots, banana chips and cornflakes and mix well.
3. Spoon the mixture into 12 paper cases, piling it up roughly. Transfer to a baking sheet or tray and chill until set and firm.

Feel free to adapt this recipe and simply use what you have in the cupboard - try peanuts, pecans, dates, raisins or simply anything that you really love. Enjoy!

Co-operation

We really are a caring, sharing bunch in Nursery.

We share the small world equipment...

We help each other to complete jigsaws puzzles...

We like to share stories...

Sand play is always better with friends to help...

We give each other ideas when making models...

We offer support when using the computers...

We make up imaginary events whilst playing in the water tray...

We play circle games together...

We share the art equipment...

Its nice to know that everyone's hard work has paid off!

Arr, me hearties!

The children have had a swashbuckling time today making 'pirate punch'.

We used ingredients that we collected whilst visiting the many treasure islands on our maps!

Bananas...

grapes...

and kiwi fruit.

We had to use our excellent scissor skills to chop the fruit into tiny pieces.

The final stage was the addition of orange juice.

We enjoyed looking at the different fruits and finding out about them. We used some good adjectives to describe them. We thought that the kiwi fruit was hairy and slimy!

The 'pirate punch' was delicious!

Builder's Yard

Our new role play area is proving very popular...



Summer term - part 1

This half term in Foundation Stage, we are studying the topic of Materials. This will be taught through several 'mini topics', including the very exciting 'Pirates'.

Your little swashbucklers can expect to experience making Pirate's punch, Golden Nugget rock cakes, and today we even made and ate Pirate Pizza!

These are the learning objectives that we intend to cover...

• Explore the properties of dry sand - sieveing or sorting coins/ jewels/ treasure in the sand
• To develop imagination in role-play and stories. - during water play, the children will be able to recreate story themes using small world equipment. This will also be explored in our role play areas.
• To respond in a variety of ways, to what they see, hear, smell, touch and feel - on the playdough table, we will be experiencing textured dough. The dough will have a variety of things added, including sawdust, rice, lentils and sequins.
• To use imagination in art and design - free choice of papers and media on the easels.
• To demonstrate fine-motor control and co-ordination - through a combination of small and large construction, the children will be making models using increasing control and coordination. This will be consolidated on table tops with finger play equipment, completing jigsaws, coluring themed pictures and through our cutting and sticking activities.

Add to this the other learning opportunities in our outdoor area and access to Foundation Stage 2, there will be a lot of learning taking place!

The children will also continue to receive regular small group learning sessions as detailed before, as well as targetted directed teaching on both an individual and small group basis.

If you would like to know more about any of this, please speak to Mrs Stott or your child's key worker.