Reception – Spring Week 11

We have continued with our theme of ‘into the country’ this week as well as exploring the signs of spring we are starting to notice in the environment around us. One story we enjoyed was the traditional tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, most of the children were familiar with the story and we explored various different versions.

  • We have been working on ‘doubling’ in maths. The children have been excellent at spotting doubles and explaining that doubles have ‘two equal parts’ that add together to make the whole. We have also been learning about odd and even numbers between 1-10.
  • Our phase 3 letters and sounds journey continues and we have been reading and spelling longer words, words that end ‘-ing’ and compound words. The children have been working so hard have been applying these skills to their guided reading and writing.
  • As part of our ‘healthy me’ topic we have been talking about personal hygiene and how to keep our bodies clean. The children talked about the importance of bathing regularly, tooth brushing twice a day, hand washing and wearing clean clothes.
  • Finally, we did some more cooking this week, we had a great time baking bread. The children explored different types of bread from around the world before making bread rolls which we enjoyed at snack time with some butter and jam!

A request:

We are collecting recycled materials for our junk modelling station. Ideally, we would like small boxes, washed yoghurt pots, kitchen rolls (no toilet rolls please) and small containers. Please can we ask that any recycled material that previously had nut products inside do not come in due to allergies that we have in school.  Please could the items be brought in a bag. Thank you

Have a great weekend – The Foundation Stage Team 

Continue ReadingReception – Spring Week 11

Reception Spring week 10

One of the stories we enjoyed this week was called ‘Monkey Puzzle’ by Julia Donaldson. The story is about a butterfly who tries to help a little monkey find his mum. There is a lot of trial and error as the butterfly misunderstands monkey’s descriptions and leads him to all sorts of unsuitable animals.

  • In maths this week the children have continued to explore the composition of numbers within 10. The children compared and identified when 2 sets were equal or NOT equal. They saw a range of familiar representations including dice and fingers to explore the idea of ‘2 equal parts’, and then found the whole by combining these parts.
  • For letters and sounds the children have revisited the phase 3 sounds and the tricky words- no, of, to, into, she, he and we. Please refer to the phonics guidance in our home learning where you can access helpful videos to help your child practise at home. We have been ‘chunking’ up longer words e.g. ‘fan/tas/tic’ and ‘hel/met’ as well as reading words ending in ‘er’ e.g. ‘farmer’ and ‘shorter’.
  • The children have also enjoyed drawing detailed pictures and writing cards to celebrate their mum or a special person they are thankful for and who look after them.

A request:

We are collecting recycled materials for our junk modelling station. Ideally, we would like small boxes, washed yoghurt pots, kitchen rolls (no toilet rolls please) and small containers. Please can we ask that any recycled material that previously had nut products inside do not come in due to allergies that we have in school.  Please could the items be brought in a bag. Thank you

Have a great weekend – The Foundation Stage Team 

Continue ReadingReception Spring week 10

Reception – Spring Week 9

What a busy week we’ve had in reception. One of the stories we enjoyed was a firm favourite called ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’. The story is about a family that waded through the grass, splashed through the river and squelched through the mud in search of a bear! The children loved joining in with the chant and making up their own actions!

  • In maths this week we have been investigating the numbers within 7. Through games and practical experiences, the children learnt that 7 is made up of smaller parts for example 7 can be made of 5 and 2.  
  • For letters and sounds we continue to work on our phase 3 sounds. Please refer to the phonics guidance in our home learning where you can access helpful videos to help your child practise at home. We have been reading words with double letters such as ‘rubber’, ‘butter’, ‘dinner’ as well as chunking up longer words such as ‘rubb/ish’ and ‘tim/id’.
  • For our cooking activity this week both our reception classes made cupcakes. We weighed out the ingredients, mixed them together and scooped the mixture into cupcake cases ready for the oven. The children really enjoyed munching them all up at the end of the day eating every last crumb!

A request:

We are collecting recycled materials for our junk modelling station. Ideally, we would like small boxes, washed yoghurt pots, kitchen rolls (no toilet rolls please) and small containers. Please can we ask that any recycled material that previously had nut products inside do not come in due to allergies that we have in school.  Please could the items be brought in a bag. Thank you

Have a lovely weekend – The Foundation Stage Team

Continue ReadingReception – Spring Week 9

Reception – Spring Week 8

In the foundation stage this week we have been rather busy, as usual, and have had a fantastic week enjoying the cold but sunny weather.

  • In maths this week we have worked on comparison. Specifically, we have looked at subitising (saying the number without needing to count the quantity) for larger numbers such as 6. We have also been talking about the relationship between each of the numbers from 1-8, recalling which numbers are ‘1 more’ and ‘1 less’ than a given number. The children have articulated their thinking very well and are able to order numbers, they have also been brilliant at understanding 8 as ‘5 and 3 more’.
  • For letters and sounds we are working on our phase 3 sounds and reading word cards without ‘sound buttons’. The children have been fantastic and are beginning to flourish with both their reading and writing which is wonderful to see.
  • We’ve been looking at ‘healthy me’ for our carpet times this half term and have talked this week about the importance of exercise and the positive effect it has on our bodies. The children talked about a wide range of exercise they enjoy and how it makes them feel. We played lots of games and enjoyed completing different forms of exercise including riding our balance bikes n our outdoor area which is a firm favourite!
  • Finally, we celebrated World Book Day on Friday this week. The children had a wonderful time dressing up as their favourite book characters. Some of the older children paid us a visit in their costumes and spent some time reading picture books to our reception children which was a delight!

Have a great weekend – The Foundation Stage Team ?

Continue ReadingReception – Spring Week 8

Reception – Spring Week 7

We hope you all had a restful half term break; the children have settled back into our school routines and have enjoyed sharing their half term news with us all!

  • It has been an assessment week for our letters and sounds so we have revisited and reviewed all the digraphs, trigraphs and tricky words we have learnt so far. Please refer to the phonics guidance in our home learning where you can access helpful videos to help your child practise at home.
  • On pancake day each teacher demonstrated how to make the pancake mixture and we talked about why people celebrate pancake day. The children enjoyed visiting the nursery watching the adults cooking and flipping the pancakes in the kitchen. The children thoroughly enjoyed eating a pancake at the end of the day and described them as delicious! We also learnt a fun song about a pancake that ends up landing in many different strange places!
  • In maths we have been working with numbers to 10, the children have been developing their understanding that each number has a value of ‘1 more’ than the previous number. We have used the Numberblocks, alongside the children’s own fingers, to represent ‘5 and a bit’ quantities. The children have continued to practise counting beyond 20 where we have focused on the repeating pattern of ‘1s’ i.e. twenty-ONE, twenty-TWO, twenty-THREE.
  • In art the children have really enjoyed painting to music. We listened to a range of different tracks. We talked about how the music made us feel and we all got to dance to the music. Then children ‘danced’ with their paintbrush, moving it on to paper using long smooth strokes, short sharp dots, swirling and zig zags!

We hope you all have a super weekend – The Foundation Stage Team ?

Continue ReadingReception – Spring Week 7

Reception – Spring Week 6

Our final week of the half term has been another excellent one in our reception classes. We rounded off our very busy half term with more lovely stories linking to our garden theme and we have been branching out further ‘into the town’ which the children have really enjoyed.

  • Longer words with multiple syllables have been the focus of our letters and sounds sessions this week. The children are now successfully decoding and reading words such as ‘sunset’, ‘pocket’, ‘magnet’ and ‘rooftop’. They applied their prior knowledge superbly to read these words in sentences.
  • We have been busy with more cooking – we made oaty biscuits this week using the same ingredients as our jam tarts but this time using oats. The children thoroughly enjoyed themselves, measuring out the ingredients and building on the skills they learnt last time, it was another great success and the children’s favourite part was eating them during snack time!
  • In maths we have enjoyed more work on comparison this week. The children have been been comparing different quantities with a focus on the number determining whether there is more/fewer (rather than colour, size or shape for example). The children have used their reasoning skills really well and were excellent and telling us ‘how they know’.

We hope you have a wonderful and safe half term break and we will look forward to seeing you all again when we return on Monday 20th February.

The Foundation Stage team ?

Continue ReadingReception – Spring Week 6

Nursery: week 5 (w/c 30th January 2023)

This week in Nursery, during group times…

  • We focused on identifying the /o/ sound at the beginning of words (e.g. octopus, otter, orange, ostrich). When developing our vocabulary with Yakka Dee (cBeebies), we have focused on words with the /o/ sound in the middle of the word e.g. dog, fox, top. In small group time, we have continued to play a variety of blending games with words, where the adult sound talks a word and the children work out what the word is by blending the sounds together e.g. d-o-g = dog. We have also enjoyed a variety of stories.
  • We have continued to practise our fine motor skills when using scissors to cut straight lines (- this helped us to create a papercraft octopus!), and when using a pen or pencil for tracing over pictures.
  • Linked to fine motor skill development, we made, cooked and ate scones (- they were very tasty!); the children are getting really good at using their fingertips to rub & mix ingredients together.
  • In our learning about ‘dreams & goals’, we listened to the story ‘Hugasaurus’ on the theme of kindness and how it can help encourage others to achieve their goals.
  • We focused on the number ‘3’ in number time, specifically counting and ordering numbers to 3.

NEXT WEEK:

The children will be making (and tasting) oaty biscuits, next week. The ingredients we will be using are:

flour

dairy free butter

a little sugar

porridge oats

Please let us know if your child is allergic to any of the ingredients listed above. 

From the Nursery Team ?

Continue ReadingNursery: week 5 (w/c 30th January 2023)

Reception – Spring Week 5

This week we have enjoyed reading lots of stories about minibeasts. One of the stories was ‘Superworm’ written by Julia Donaldson. Superworm can fish Spider out of a well, and rescue Toad from a busy road. But who will come to Superworm’s rescue, when he’s captured by a wicked Wizard Lizard? Luckily, all of Superworm’s insect friends have a cunning plan…

  • In our letters and sounds we have learnt the trigraph (three letters making one sound) ‘air’ (chair in the air) and the digraph (two letters making one sound) ‘er’ (a bigger digger). We have been spelling a variety of words, including tricky words (are, sure, pure) and reading sentences.
  • In maths we explored ways to represent numbers using the Hungarian number pattern (die pattern). The children learnt about the pairs of numbers that make 5, and then used double dice frames to begin to explore 6 and 7 as numbers that are composed of ‘5 and a bit’.
  • On Thursday afternoon all the reception children had an exciting video call from another reception class at Marine Academy Primary school. We got to share what we have learnt about mini beasts through songs, detailed drawings and fun facts. Marine Academy were very impressed and gave us a big round of applause!

Have a great weekend – the Foundation Stage Team ?

Continue ReadingReception – Spring Week 5

Nursery: week 4 (w/c 23rd January 2023)

This week in Nursery…

We have been learning about the Chinese New Year celebration and used our fine and gross motor skills to:

  • use scissors to make paper lanterns
  • fold paper to make fans for decoration
  • move in the style of a Chinese Dragon dance; we travelled in different ways along straight, curvy and zigzag pathways, with a ‘rise and fall’ movement, incorporating ribbon sticks too!

We also had fun using our fine motor skills to make, cook and eat jam tarts.  They were scrumptious!

We have focused on identifying the /g/ sound at the beginning of words (e.g. girl, glue, grapes, goat). Linked to words beginning with /g/, we have continued to develop our vocabulary with Yakka Dee (cBeebies) and watched the episodes for: goat, gloves, glasses, grass. In small group time, we have continued to play a variety of blending games with words, where the adult sound talks a word and the children work out what the word is by blending the sounds together e.g. g-oa-t = goat. We have also enjoyed a variety of stories.

In our learning about ‘dreams & goals’, we have listened to the stories ‘After the Fall’ and ‘Almost Anything’, on the theme of perseverance.  We talked about how we all find things tricky at times but we should never give up and keep trying until we can do what we set out to do.  We introduced the ‘Persevering Parrot’ to help us remember ‘to keep trying’.

NEXT WEEK:

The children will be making scones to eat in school next week. The ingredients we will be using are:

  • self-raising flour
  • dairy free butter
  • water
  • a little sugar
  • raisins/sultanas

Please let us know if your child is allergic to any of the ingredients listed above. 

From the Nursery Team ?

Continue ReadingNursery: week 4 (w/c 23rd January 2023)