Hill Top Primary Academy

The adults in Nursery are:

Mrs Secker

Miss O'Leary

Miss Richardson

Watch this video to see some of the things we get up to in Nursery through the day.

Please see the booklet below for important information about Nursery. We will post pictures on our page throughout the year, with the newest posts at the top of the page. 

Week beginning 18th July

What a hot one for our last week!

Ww have been working very hard on keeping cool. Water sprays, ice pops, hose pipes, ice play and cool water foot spas have been the theme of the week. 

We also headed down to the wildlife garden for some shade under the trees. 

We talked lots about keeping hydrated and drinking lots of water and what happens to our bodies when we get hot.

We had a final circle time where the children shared their favourite things about Nursery. Most said ‘playing with my friends’ which we thought was a great response.  

Week beginning 11 July 

This week we have been reading ‘The Rainbow Fish’. We have made lovely rainbow fish pictures and have been talking about sharing which was a message in the story. We have used stick puppets to act out the story and have been hiding in an Octopus cave. 

One of our Nursery friends fractured her wrist this week so we have been talking all about bodies and bones and doctors and ambulances. We made an ambulance outside and had lots of role play visiting the hospital. Lots of us joined in with wearing a sling made from our squiggle while you wiggle scarves. 

Week Beginning 4th July

This week we had ‘Sports Day’. We were all amazing and had a great time. We worked on our physical, social and emotional and listening skills. 

Week Beginning 27th June 

We have continued our work on Clean Up.

We have done lots of science this week. 

We have been thinking about floating and sinking and predicting which boats would float or not not float and why. We designed our own boats and tested them.

We have also been thinking about different materials and thinking about what things are made of. 

We made a large boat from construction materials outside and worked together to row it with oars.

Our sunflowers have bloomed and we have been observing them closely, looking for changes over time. 

Week beginning 20th June 

We started the story ‘Clean Up’ 

We have been exploring the seaside and surfing and picking up litter like the character Rocket.

We have been using our sharing skills to take turns with litter pickers and bubble blowers.

We have worked on extending our vocabulary around the seaside. We have also read lots of different books about the seaside and been singing sea songs.

Week beginning 13 June

This week, we have been continuing to think about the seaside and our snail and the Whale story. We have had small world play with sea animals and lots of sand play. We have talked about what we do at the beach and what the sand and water feel like.

We have worked on our whisking skills to make milkshake and used our senses to explore it.

We have had music and dancing outside and our Squiggle While You wiggle song was ‘Rolling on the River’, working on making circles.

  Week beginning 6th June

We have started our beach theme stories and are reading ‘The snail and the whale’. We have read the story and talked about what the snail saw. We have been drawing swirly snail shell patterns and Making snails with plasticine. 

Some children have made sea pictures.

We have been exploring sand in the indoor areas and have been transporting it and burying things within it. 

Our sunflowers have grown and have flower buds on them and our coriander is very tall now. We have chopped some coriander and rosemary from our plants and have been making aromatic potions and recipes in the mud kitchen. 

Jubilee Day

We had a brilliant day doing traditional games on the field and then enjoying scones, jam and music for the Jubilee celebration. 

Week Beginning 23rd May
We have been learning about the Jubilee this week. We listened and joined with the National anthem and have made crowns for our Jubilee party. Our grip on the scissors is really improving. 

We can recognise the Union Jack and have used paint to make a commemorative coaster. Some children painted some amazing flags. We also went to the wildlife garden to collect sticks to make a a ‘Union Jack Stick’. 

Week beginning 16th May.

Here is an idea what we have been up to over the last week.

WB 9th May

This week, we looked at the book the tin forest and made some tin forests of our own.

we checked on our beanstalks and one was very tall so we have put it in a bigger pot and we want to read Jack and the Beanstalk next week. 

We have also been doing large mark making in foam and squiggle while you wiggle. We have been working on side to side movements. 

we have got some new instruments and have learned lots of new songs to play along with. 

Some children made their own muddy puddle by transporting water and put their own wellies and mud suits on to jump in it. 

WB 2nd May

We have been thinking more about Jasper’s beanstalk and have learned a song about the story. We have also planted some beans in different locations to see which ones grow best. Riley chose ‘on top of the radiator’ and Luna chose ‘outside’ Miss O’Leary chose ‘in the fridge’ for one.

We have also been doing some cup stacking this week. We tried different ways of balancing to see how high they could go. We also worked a lot on our sharing skills while we did this. 

We have been checking on our sunflowers every day and they are looking very healthy. 

We have been exploring shape in our Maths this week and sorting shapes into groups according to their properties. We know what corners and sides are. 

Week beginning 25th April

This week we have started our new story ‘Jasper’s beanstalk’. We have been planting beans in our chocolate soil.

Some of the children have been talking lots about ice cream and they wanted to turn the flower shop into an ice cream shop.

We made ice cream by putting cream, sugar and vanilla extract in a bag and sealing in tightly. Then we put the bag into a bigger bag full of ice and salt. They children shook the bag vigorously and it turned into ice cream. We had a great time tasting it. 

We also had our first PE session with Mr Wynne, which the children were brilliant at.

This is us making ice cream

Week beginning 21st March

This week, we have been retelling monkey puzzle using the animals to help us. 
We have been clapping syllables in different words. 
We have also been singing 5 little monkeys and putting the monkeys on a five frame. 
We have been checking on the caterpillars and they have turned into chrysalises. We are watching them closely to see what will happen next.
Our sunflowers have grown and are ready to plant out. We put some in large pots outside. Some of them broke so we dug them up to loose closely at the roots. 
We have all been very busy in the mud kitchen this week too. 

Week beginning 14th March

This week is British Science Week. The whole school has been investigating trees. We have been to the wildlife garden and done some very careful scientific observations as well as using all of our senses to explore the trees and photograph them. We also did some bark rubbings.

We are reading the book ‘Monkey Puzzle’ by Julia Donaldson and we have been looking at different animals and their babies and life cycles like it does in the story. 

We are also looking at the number 5 very closely this week. 

Here are the pictures we took ourselves for Science week and our bark rubbings. 
Some of the scientific observations the children made:

It is sticky.

It is smooth.

I like the bumps and tiny holes. I think bees live in there.

The flowers smell lovely. They are daffodils. 

There are lots of bugs. 

Look at our beautiful sunflower pictures to go along with the real sunflowers we are growing.

Week Beginning  7th March

This week, we have continued looking at The Very Hungry Caterpillar and we have been checking on  our caterpillars. 
We have done some yoga to the story too and have been retelling it with props. 
Dave has levelled out our mud kitchen and we have been doing lots of learning in there this week.
We also  have a brand new outside tap that we can use ourselves. We have learnt the new rule about turning it off when we are finished and we have had lots of fun filling and emptying things and transporting water.
Some children have made a brilliant den too. 
We have also been planting some sunflower seeds and making very careful observations. 

Our baby caterpillars have arrived. We are so excited to watch them grow and turn into butterflies. We have been checking on them every day. 

WB 28th February

We are looking at the book ‘The very hungry caterpillar’. The children have danced a very beautiful dance to the song in Encanto about caterpillars which is in Spanish. We also tried to make our butterflies ‘fly’ on the parachute. 
Some children have made lovely caterpillar and butterfly paintings as well as drawings and plasticine creations. 

We celebrated World Book day and some children came in amazing T-Shirts. We also had a very special visit from the superhero Book Man.

Lots of children have been working really hard on writing their name and are getting really good at recognising their own and their friends’ names from the prompt cards on the wall. 

Here is our beautiful caterpillar dance.

The music is a Spanish song called ‘Dos Oruguitas’ (two caterpillars) from Encanto. 

Wb 14th February

We have been doing a science investigation based on The Three Little Pigs. We predicted which objects we would be able to huff and puff away. We then put a special science lab coat on and tested our predictions. We were right for lots of them. We did some Three Pigs yoga too. 

 We all brushed our teeth and talked about why it is so important. We talked about what dentists do and described what our toothbrushes look like at home. 

The rainy weather last week was great for splashing and playing outside. We have been working on getting our wellies and puddle suits on more independently. Mia was comparing the depth of the puddles. 

We have been thinking about heavy and light again and this week, we became human scales to decide which was heavy and light.

We have also been exploring and painting pink roses for Valentine’s day. Nieve, Elliot and Milo made some lovely potions too. 
The flower shop opened this week in Nursery and the children have been buying, selling and making flowers.

We enjoyed the rain and hail on Thursday. We caught hailstones and described them then went into the hut to warm up. The children used their amazing imaginations to turn the muddy puddle water into soup, hot chocolate, cappuccino and much more. They shared it with their friends so beautifully. 

WB 7th February 

This week, we have been looking at the 3 Little Pigs in our story work. We have been singing songs, retelling the story and building houses.

We have been talking about weighing things in Maths. We compared lots of items and predicted which would be heavier or lighter. We have been using new maths vocabulary in our play.

We have talked about Valentine’s Day. We talked about who we loved and who loves us. Some children chose to make flowers and cards. We learnt that flowers have stems and petals and we made these from tissue and pipe cleaners.   

We also made our own play dough. We measured out the ingredients. 2 cups of flour, 1 cup of salt, 1 cup of water, a teaspoon of cream of tartar  and a tablespoon of oil. We mixed it all in with some red food colouring. The children were using lots of interesting vocabulary to describe what it looked, smelled and felt like.

Wb 1st February

This week, we have been focusing on number 4. We have been recognising the numeral, counting 4 objects and actions, and noticing 4 things without counting by trying to see 3 and 1 or 2 and 2.

Some of the children chose to make Chinese dragons for our parade and lucky money pouches for golden coins. 

We have also done lots of dancing, music, reading  and construction.

We also had our first trip to the library to choose a book to take home.

Kung Hei Fat Choi 

Today we found out about Lunar New Year (Chinese New Year). We have been reading the story about the animals, making money pouches with golden coins and eating fortune cookies. We heard a story about a dragon who couldn’t join the parade because he didn’t have a tail. We helped him by making him one and he was very proud and happy to join in the parade. 

Look at our owl sandwiches!

WB 24th January 

This week we started a new book, ‘Owl Babies’. 

We have made some lovely pictures of owls and a few children made pinecone owls. Riley made an amazing nest from a huge box - can you spot it on our display?

Some of us made binoculars out of paper to use in our ‘Big Bird Watch’. We all sat out and listened for bird song and looked out for birds using real and made binoculars. We counted them and tried to see which species of bird they were. We made bird feeders out of cheese, lard, sunflower seeds and pine cones. We grated, chopped, sprinkled and combined ingredients. 

 We have done lots of singing, dancing and action songs.

We are learning about the number 4. We have been trying to count out objects and body movement on sets of 4, as well as subitising to 4.

We have been using instruments to make lots of different sounds. We can play fast, slow, loud and quiet and are naming lots of instruments.

We have also been working on our tidying up skills - we are getting much better!

WB 17th January 

We have been busy writing our names this week. We have also had a big group mark making session and a big group drumming session that Kai inspired. The video is above. 

We have continued our learning about ‘The Gruffalo’s child’. We made homes for them from loose parts, acted out the story and made footprints in the snow using play dough. Mia and Nellie made some Gruffalo biscuits.  

In our maths learning, we have been noticing 3 without counting (subitising) and playing 3/not 3. 

We have been reading stories about being kind and sharing and working on this with our friends. 

We have been working on our gross motor skills with our new bike and building resources. 

Some lovely new mud kitchen supplies came too and we have been very busy with those. 

WB 10th January 2022

We have been looking at ‘The Gruffalo’s child’. We have made some amazing pictures, been doing some lovely drama and making Gruffalo forests outside.

We have also been busy copying patterns, reading, making ramps for tyres, fixing things, making caves, making snowflake patterns, welcoming our new children, exploring ice and much, much more. 

WB 3rd January 2022

We have had a very busy first week back in nursery. We have been making bridges over icy patches in the playground and elaborate bridges in the classroom.

We have been sharing snacks and drinks with our friends, putting on singing and dancing performances on the stage and reading lots of books.

We have played lots of turn taking games and made some wonderful creations in the painting and junk modelling area.

We have also been investigating sending marbles down the water chutes and seeing how we can solve the problem when they got stuck. 

Christmas songs performance. We hope you enjoy them. 

Dec 2nd.

Nursery have loved the Reindeer Run

We have been enjoying books and games together.

We have been using the iPads to take funny photos of each other.

Sept 21

Nursery have been enjoying getting to know some new friends.