Nursery and Pre-school - UTW- Visit to the Library
What a brilliant morning our Nursery children had today! We set off on foot through Darwen, heading to Darwen Library for a special storytime session. The children were absolute stars on the walk, chatting excitedly and pointing out everything they could see along the way. Once we arrived, everyone settled down nicely on the cosy carpet. The librarian gave us a lovely welcome and explained all about the magic of the library and how it works. Then came the main event—storytime! We read the classic 'Dear Zoo', and some of the children were even picked to act out different parts of the book. There was so much laughter as our little actors brought the story to life! A huge well done to all the children for their fantastic behaviour, and a big thank you to the team at Darwen Library for hosting such a memorable visit. We can't wait for our next trip!
Nursery - R.E - The Good Samaritan
Our Nursery children have been exploring our core values of kindness and helping others as we introduced the story of the Good Samaritan. To kick off this new topic, the children watched a lovely animation of 'The Good Samaritan' Bible story. Afterwards, we had a brilliant group discussion—spotting all the caring, helpful actions on screen and talking about what it means to be a kind friend!
Nursery And Pre-School - Art - Scissor Skills
Our children have been developing their creative and fine motor skills this week through a hands-on autumn art focus! The children practiced their scissor skills by carefully cutting out a variety of seasonal, autumn-themed pictures. They concentrated on holding and controlling their scissors correctly as they worked around different shapes and edges. Once their pictures were cut, the children put their visual discrimination skills to work by matching each autumnal object directly to its corresponding shadow outline on the page. This activity provided a fantastic opportunity for the children to combine physical precision with problem-solving, strengthening the hand muscle control and hand-eye coordination needed for creative expression and everyday independence.
Nursery And Pre-School - P.E - Ball Skills
This week, the children in Nursery and Preschool thoroughly enjoyed their energetic PE session with Liam from Sports Cool. The focus of the lesson was all about developing confidence with ball handling, hand-eye coordination, and spatial awareness through fun, active challenges. The children worked hard on practicing their fundamental ball skills, including throwing and catching. They focused on tracking the ball with their eyes and using two hands to secure it, building both their gross motor control and reaction times. Liam encouraged the children to adjust their stance and use soft, ready hands when receiving the ball from a partner or coach. To finish the session, the children put their accuracy to the test by practicing rolling a ball towards a specific target. This required a great deal of control, concentration, and patience, as they judged how much force to apply and aimed carefully to hit their mark. The children celebrated each other's successes with lots of cheering and enthusiasm, showing fantastic teamwork and sportsmanship throughout the entire lesson.
Nursery/Pre-School-Physical Development-Tuesday Trails
Nursery and Preschool really enjoyed their first Tuesday Trails with Mrs Corbally. The children practised putting on their wellies and coats independently and then went in our outdoor environment to explore the world outside. The children made leaf water and mixed it with the different size sticks that we found together. The children developed their gross and fine motor skills jumping in the muddy puddles and picking up the different size leaves from the fallen trees.
Nursery And Pre-School - Maths - Categorising Objects
Our nursery and preschool children have been diving into early mathematical concepts this week with a vibrant, hands-on activity at the light table! The illuminated setting provided a captivating backdrop for multi-layered learning as the children explored colour, size, and counting. The children began by categorising glowing coloured blocks and translucent splats by colour, matching and grouping similar shades. From there, they put their counting skills to work by building colorful rainbow towers, carefully counting each block as they built higher. As the towers grew, the children explored height and spatial vocabulary, working together to identify which structures were the shortest and which were the tallest. To solidify their understanding, we supported the children in using this new mathematical language in short, complete sentences—such as "This red tower is the tallest!"—helping them connect physical play directly to clear mathematical thinking.
Nursery And Pre-School - Literacy - Wiggle Me Into Squiggle
Our Nursery and Pre-school children have made a fantastic start to our new 'Wiggle Me into Squiggle' intervention this week! This programme focuses on developing large, gross motor movements, which form the essential physical foundation needed for fine motor control and early writing. This week, our focus was all about mastering 'UP' movements. The children began in a group setting using ribbons in each hand, lifting their arms high and watching the fabric flow through the air as they tracked their physical movements. To refine these big movements into early mark-making, the children then moved over to the easels holding two paintbrushes at once. Working with both hands simultaneously helped strengthen their bilateral coordination while turning those large arm sweeps into controlled, painted strokes on paper. It has been brilliant to see their confidence grow as they connect active movement directly to writing skills!
Nursery And Pre-School - PSHE - Outdoor Exploration
What a fantastic first week back! We have loved welcoming our nursery and preschool children back into the setting as they jump into exploring our new environment. The outdoor area has been a huge hit, with the children eager to try out the new resources and enjoy learning in the fresh air. It has been wonderful to watch them dive into independent play with so much curiosity, making new friends and settling into their routines with big smiles.
Nursery/Pre-School-P.S.H.E-Welcome Back
Nursery /Preschool would like to welcome back our children and welcome all our new starters that will be starting with Darwen St James Nursery over the next couple of weeks. We are super excited to meet you all and start our learning journey in Nursery/Preschool.
Nursery/Pre-School-R.E-Noah's Ark
In our R.E. lessons, we have been learning all about Noah's Ark. The children loved listening to Noah's story and understanding why he had to build an ark for himself, his family, and all the animals. They learned that God asked him to save the good so that the bad could be washed away. The children then got creative and made their very own Noah's arks, drawing the animals onto them. To finish off, the children drew lovely rainbows to put across their arks to represent God's promise never to flood the earth again.
Nursery And Pre-School - Science - Exploring Textures
This week, our Nursery and Pre-School children became young scientists as they explored how the texture of a familiar object can change when it is manipulated in different ways. Using bread as their subject, the children participated in a sensory experiment to observe three distinct states of texture. The investigation began with plates of fresh bread being passed around the circle. This first state sparked excellent descriptive vocabulary, with the children identifying the texture as "soft" and "spongy." Next, the children were introduced to bread that looked identical to the first sample but had been frozen. They immediately noticed a significant change in its physical properties, observing that it was now "hard" and "rough." The children delighted in discovering that they could tap the frozen bread firmly against their plates—an action that was impossible with the soft, fresh bread. Finally, the class explored what would happen when water was added to the bread. The children watched in fascination as the poured water instantly disappeared. This led to an engaging group discussion about where the water had gone, with several children accurately concluding that the bread had "soaked it up." When this final state was passed around the circle, the children used their senses to describe the completely transformed texture, labeling it as "squidgy," "slimy," and "wet." This hands-on experiment provided a fantastic introduction to material properties, absorption, and scientific observation.
Nursery-Pre-School-Outdoor Environment-Splashing In The Sun
Last week in Nursery and Pre-School, the children absolutely loved our splash zone! They were so excited to get into the water trays and have a great splash in the cool water, which was the perfect way to keep them cool during the hot weather. There was so much fun and laughter as they splashed, sat, paddled, and explored with the water toys.
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