First of all, a big thank you to everyone who took the time to attend reading activity day. We appreciate that it can be tricky with work and other commitments, so having such a wonderful turnout was brilliant! Thank you for the effort and time that our parents, grownups, governors and guest readers gave, to support our fantastic nursery.
The aims of our day which were all well and truly achieved were as follows:
In the morning, our children were very lucky to have a policeman come in to read with them. He bought a range of kits for the children to see and spent the morning chatting and reading with our children and adults. He spoke about the importance of reading with our children and parents, talking about his job and role in the community.
In the afternoon, we were very fortunate that Nicola from the library service was able to join us. She was wonderful- singing, reading and showing our children props and puppets. She bought a range of free books for our pupils to take home to build up their own collection. She engaged with our grownups too, encouraging us all to visit the library.
Having visitors into nursery to share this experience with our pupils was so valuable in highlighting the importance of reading on outcomes and life chances. We are truly grateful for our visitors giving their time to support our cause- it means a lot to us as staff, our pupils and our community.
Throughout the day in nursery, our children had access to a range of stories, props and story telling material- all supporting our culture of reading. It was so lovely to see our adults sharing stories with their children and enjoying reading- it’s clear that our community truly values the importance of reading. As well as this, our children had the chance to make two different sorts of book marks to help them to save the place in their books at home ans so support their reading. Some of the bookmarks included the childen's favourite story characters or others they sewed, which also supported their concentration and fine motor skills. SO we had many fabulous bookmarks with Gruffalo and princess charactes galore and others with numbers and letters on.
In the nursery garden, despite the very chilly weather we did lots of good looking and listening, which are of course skills which are very important for phonics and early reading. We hunted for different places in the garden which was also a great way to give our grown ups a tour and we listened carefully as we tapped different object in the garden to see what sounds they made. We also wore giant ears to remind us to do good listening for all the different sounds in the garden.
The afternoon tea in Long Room was a fabulous opportunity for our children and adults to refresh and engage with a story whilst enjoying lots of tasty treats. The children enjoyed a sandwich and cake whilst listening to ‘the hungry caterpillar’.
Many thanks to everyone who filled out our questionnaire- your comments were so lovely and complimentary about what we do at nursery. It’s made us feel extremely proud. Thank you also for your great comments about the day, the activities and the special guests! We really appreciate your suggestions and now also have ideas about what we can do better, which we will add to our action planning.
To organise such a fabulous day takes a great amount of team work. Many thanks to all staff who supported the day- making it enjoyable for our children, families and our community. Finally, a huge thanks to our guest visitors, who gave up their time and made the day extra special for our children!
It really was a wonderful day for a wonderful, caring community! #SNNS #Whatwedobest #Southnormantonreads