Thorney Close Primary SchoolSaplings Class 2025-2026
Welcome to Saplings Class page! Over the course of the academic year, this space will be filled with photos, videos and updates that capture our exciting journey. You’ll be able to see what we’re working on, along with the special moments that make our class unique. Keep checking back to see how we grow, learn and celebrate our achievements together!
Class Information
Teacher: Mrs Mustard
Year Group: Nursery
News (most recent first)
Stay and Play
Come along to our first Stay and Play session of the academic year. Start time: 10:30 am on 7th November 2025. Please note due to space, a maximum of two family members per child can attend.
Giraffes Can't Dance
Our core book this week is 'Giraffes Can’t Dance' by Giles Andreae and Guy Parker-Rees. You can listen to the story here. As we explore the book, we will be thinking about the similarities between Gerald the giraffe and his friends, as well as the similarities we share with our own friends and families.
100% Attendance
On 18th September, Saplings class achieved 100% attendance—fantastic job, everyone! Well done! Let’s keep up this great effort and aim for many more perfect attendance days throughout the academic year. Remember, even in nursery, every day counts!
Avocado Baby
Our story in Saplings is Avocado Baby by John Burningham. If you’d like to enjoy the story at home, you can find it here.
Can you help?
Could we please ask for your help? At this point in the year the children arrive in their lovely new uniforms. They are mostly the same size so it can be difficult to tell them apart. Could we politely request that all items of school uniform, including shoes and bags, are clearly marked with child's name or initials, this makes it so much easier to return them to the right child. If you find when you get home your child has come home with a different jumper or cardigan, please return it to nursery the next school day and we'll swap them over.
Playdough
We had a fun and hands-on session learning how to make playdough, take a look at the gallery photos to see all the creativity in action! If you’d like to try making your own playdough at home, you can find the recipe we used here. Playdough Recipe
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?
Our story in Saplings has been Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? You can enjoy listening to the story at home by following this link.
Welcome to Saplings
Welcome to Saplings! We’re excited for the year ahead as we begin our learning journey together, filled with fun activities and a rich, engaging curriculum.
Gallery (most recent photos first)
Click on the photos for further information.
Becoming Conductors in Music!
This week in music, we explored the exciting role of a conductor and learned how they use a baton to lead an orchestra and keep everyone playing together. The highlight of the lesson was having the opportunity to conduct ourselves, using the baton to guide the music just like real conductors! 🎵🎼✨
Planting Our Own Beans
After hearing about Jasper’s and Jack’s beans, we were inspired to plant some of our own and see what might grow!
We’re excited to watch our beans and discover what happens next as we care for them each day.
Jasper’s Beanstalk Adventures
Last week, our story was Jasper’s Beanstalk and the children explored different beans, planting ideas and caring for them just like Jasper.
This week, the adventure continues with Jack and the Beanstalk as we discover more bean-growing magic and build our own story scenes!
Valentine’s Week
Here’s a little snapshot of some of the lovely stories we shared and the special activities we enjoyed during Valentine’s week.
World Book Day 2026
Our children had a wonderful time celebrating World Book Day, sharing their love of reading through stories, costumes and exciting activities.
It was fantastic to see their creativity shine as they explored new books and enjoyed bringing their favourite characters to life!
Making Music Together
During our music session, the children explored tempo changes and practised keeping a steady beat using ribbon sticks. Developing rhythm in music plays an important role in supporting future reading success.
Happy Pancake Day!
The children were excited to share their favourite pancake toppings and talk about how they enjoy their pancakes at home. We also enjoyed reading Pancakes, Pancakes! by Eric Carle, exploring how pancakes are made from start to finish.
Good Attendance
We are delighted to see so many children in nursery earning 100% attendance stickers — what a fantastic achievement!
Thank you for your continued support in promoting your child’s attendance at nursery. We truly appreciate the positive start you are helping your child to make.
Did you know that good attendance in nursery plays a vital role in children’s learning and development? Research shows that attendance patterns formed in the early years are often linked to future attendance habits. It also shows that higher attendance can have a positive impact on children’s learning and their future success.
Busy Week
Here are some of the lovely interactions we have seen in Nursery.
Avocado Baby
Our story in Saplings is Avocado Baby by John Burningham. While we all know what a baby is, we weren’t quite sure about an avocado—so we set off on a fun journey to find out more.
Koshi Chime
Jen brought a selection of instruments for us to explore during our music session. She showed us how to hold and play each one, helping us discover the different sounds they make. Then, she added some mystery by hiding the instruments under a sheet — we had to listen carefully and guess which one was being played. Our favourite sound of the day was definitely the soothing tones of the Koshi chime!
Orange Playdough
Following our playdough-making session, we now have lots of lovely orange-coloured and orange-scented playdough to explore in our playdough area. The children are really enjoying using it in their creative play!
Making Playdough
Our playdough area is always a very popular area in nursery. So to make sure we had enough playdough we decided to make our own. We followed the recipe and counted out how many cups of flour, salt and water we needed. We also counted out how many spoons of oil and cream of tartar we needed. We added some colouring and scent too and then all helped to mix the ingredients together. It was really exciting to see what happened when all of the ingredients were added together.
Name Cards
In Saplings, we’ve taken a really close look at our picture name cards. Our picture name cards help us to understand that print has meaning. They also help us to find our pegs, our playdough, our pen pots, our making pots and our group space.
First Morning in Nursery
The children have enjoyed their first morning together in Nursery. Our day started with breakfast, then Jen and Verity came to deliver our very first music session. We’ve explored all over nursery and spent some time in the garden too.
Videos
Please check back another day to see if we have any videos of our learning.
Useful Links and Learning
Seedling links coming soon.
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