Happy October Half Term!!

We have reached the end of the children's first half term at Down Hall! We are SO proud of them all and all of their achievements and we hope you feel the same. This is just a quick blog to wish you all a lovely half term and to also explain the different things that have come home with the children today and their half term homework.

The important things for half term are:

1. Half Term homework - now that the weather is starting to turn a little colder it will start to take us longer and longer to get ready for going outside. We would be very grateful if you could spend a little bit of the holiday encouraging your child to put on their coat and try to do it up by themselves. We would love to see any of the children giving it a go, so please feel free to send us any photos using ClassDojo.
2. In your child's bag is a project letter telling you about our next project "Once Upon a Time" which we start after half term. This letter is also on our website and can be found here.
3. The children all have a new WOW sheet - we love sharing these and know that some of you had asked for some more. 

There will be a blog on Sunday 1st November to let you know about our first week back. Don't forget the children return to school on Tuesday 3rd November due to our INSET day. 

Have a lovely break!

Miss Wakefield, Mrs Fincham and Miss Goddard

19.10.26 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

We have had another busy week, with our Reading sessions starting. The children have brought home their reading book and diary today. The books are those which the children have read during the week in school. Please write in the diary to let us know how the reading is going at home. The books will be changed every Friday. It is VERY IMPORTANT that the children have their books in their bags every day and particularly on a Thursday, when we take them out so they can get swapped. Please use the coloured wallet for these books to try and keep them safe from water bottle spillages!

On to our learning for this coming week, we will be:

• Sharing the story "Pumpkin Soup" about the Cat, the Duck and the Squirrel and talking about how they behaved towards each other in the story.
• Singing some harvest songs together and talking about the harvest collection.
• Talking about pumpkins, using our different senses.
• Seeing how many seeds there are inside a pumpkin and counting them carefully.
• Finishing our writing from last week, writing about what we can do as children compared to when we were babies. 

Friday will be Wellbeing Day at school, this means the children do not need to wear their uniform. They will still have PE, so PLEASE ensure that the clothes they wear are suitable, including their footwear.

Drop in this week will be on TUESDAY.

Have a lovely weekend!

Miss Wakefield, Mrs Fincham and Miss Goddard

12.10.26 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone, 

We have been so impressed with how well the children are recalling their sounds and actions. Thank you for all the support you are giving your children at home. Unfortunately, due to a very busy week, we have not started our Reading sessions this week. These will instead start on Monday.

Now on to our learning for the coming week, we will be:

• Continuing our daily Phonics sessions, learning the next 4 sounds and the next Rainbow word.
• Starting our Reading sessions, sharing some Anima Phonics books together.
• Thinking about patterns in our Mathematics sessions.
• Carefully drawing around a template and then cutting out some Autumn leaves using different coloured paper.
• Going on an Autumn walk around our school grounds, seeing how many different coloured leaves we can find.
• Talking about how we have changed since we were a baby. Many thanks to everyone who has sent in a baby photo so far. PLEASE send in a photo by Monday, this can be done via ClassDojo if that is easier.
• Enjoying World Food Day on Friday, taking part in different cooking activities in the morning. (We will still have PE in the afternoon).

There is no drop in this week as school is open on Friday for our families to try some of the food we will have all made during World Food Day.

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Wakefield, Mrs Fincham and Miss Goddard

05.10.26 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone, 

It was lovely to see so many of you at our Phonics Workshop today. We hope you have found it helpful. I have added a link to our Phonics page on the website. This is where you can find out how we say the sound for each letter and how we teach the children to write each letter. The Phonics page can be found here.

This week has seen our second bundle of 10, meaning we have passed day 20! It is good to reflect on how much your children have already done in such a short time in school - we are very proud of how well they have adapted to our Phonics and name writing sessions and are excited for our Reading sessions that will start next week.

Now on to our learning for the coming week, we will be:

• Sharing the story "A Book of People Like Me" and thinking about things that we like and things that we don't like. 
• Continuing our daily Phonics sessions, learning the next 4 sounds and our first Rainbow word.
• Starting our Reading sessions this week, sharing books linked to our Anima Phonics sounds. (The children will then bring these books home on Friday)
• Comparing objects by their size, mass or capacity in our Mathematics sessions.
• Continuing to work on our Christmas card designs.
• Writing a sentence again, remembering to use finger spaces. 

Thank you to everyone who has sent in a baby photo. We will need these by Monday 12th October. Please can the children either bring in a photo OR can 1 be sent in via ClassDojo for us to print out in school. 

Drop in this week will be on MONDAY.

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Wakefield, Mrs Fincham and Miss Goddard

28.09.26 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone, 

This week we have started our Phonics and Mathematics sessions. We are very proud of how the children have adapted to these new daily sessions. Don't forget the Phonics workshop is taking place on Friday 2nd at 2.30pm. This is an opportunity to find out about how we teach Phonics at Down Hall. (Please don't worry if you are unable to make it, all information given will be shared).

On to our learning for the coming week, we will be:

• Reading another story about the Ten in the Bed characters, this time they are playing Hide and Seek.
• Continuing our Phonics sessions, learning the next 4 sounds. 
• Using our teddy bear puppets that we made last week to play a "Where's the Bear?" game.
• Enjoying our Forest School session again on Thursday.
• Starting to create our Christmas card design, these will come home when finished for you to see and order (should you decide to).
• Starting our handwriting patterns and learning how to use our special lightboxes.

In two weeks time, we will be looking at how we have changed since being a baby. It would be lovely if the children could either bring in a baby photo OR one can be sent in via ClassDojo for us to print out in school. We will need them by Monday 12th October. 

There is no drop in next week due to our Phonics Workshop on Friday. 

Have a lovely weekend!

Miss Wakefield, Mrs Fincham and Miss Goddard

21.09.26 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

What a busy week! The children looked lovely in their costumes on Monday, when we marked Roald Dahl day, we took some photos of them for their Learning Journey books. We have enjoyed our first Forest School session, learning the special rules and exploring our school grounds. Also on Thursday, we reached double digits for our days in school and discussed how we get to make a 10 bundle with our lolly sticks. We also spent time in our Houses, electing the House Captains.  

Next week looks set to be another busy week, we will be:

• Reading and sharing the story "Ten in the Bed" and singing the number rhyme with the same name.
• Trying to recall all the different parts of a book during our story sessions.
• Starting our Phonics sessions, learning the first 4 sounds. 
• Creating some lolly stick teddy bear puppets which we will need for some upcoming learning.
• Matching, sorting and comparing objects in our Mathematics sessions. 

This week's drop in session will be on THURSDAY. 

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Wakefield, Mrs Fincham and Miss Goddard

14.09.26 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello Everyone!

WOW! What a busy week! The children are probably very tired today, as are we, but we are so proud of how they have coped during their first full week! 😊 

Next week looks set to be another busy one, so on to our learning, we will be:

• Dressing up (if we want to) on Monday to celebrate Roald Dahl day, which takes place on Sunday. 
• Sharing some more stories together and talking about what happens in them, including the story "Titch".
• Thinking about the members of Titch's family and talking about our own families.
• Learning about a famous family, our Royal Family, finding out about King Charles and his relatives.
• Learning about some of the characters from Anima Phonics.
• Continuing to sing our "How Many Days" song and finding out what happens when we get to 10 days.
• Enjoying our first Forest School outdoor learning session on THURSDAY. The children will need to come to school in clothes that you are happy for them to get mucky in and that are suitable for working outside in, so long sleeved t-shirts and/or jumpers and trousers please. If we haven't already got a pair of wellies in school for your child, they will need to bring some in on these days. Also, on these days, can the children bring in a change of clothes, however we will only change them if they are really muddy and/or wet. These sessions will take place on a fortnightly basis.
• Singing number rhymes, including a silly one about the monkeys and the crocodile!

Our first drop-in will take place on FRIDAY. These are an opportunity to come into the class and have a look at what we have been doing. We will do a different day each week, but there is no expectation to attend all of them and everyone is welcome to come and visit.

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Wakefield, Mrs Fincham and Miss Goddard

07.09.26 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

Welcome to our Early Years Blog! We have had a lovely first day in Snowdrop Class, getting to know all of the children and having fun together. The children have also enjoyed their first PE session today.

It was lovely to meet so many of you earlier this week for our parent/teacher meetings and thank you for all of the waterproofs, wellies and completed packs that have already come in. Please feel free to send any outstanding ones in next week.

We are excited for our first full week with the children, so on to our learning for this coming week, we will be:

• Sharing the story "Starting School" and thinking about all the things that we have done in our new class.
• Finding out about different areas around school - exploring the ladybird garden, field and adventure playground.
• Drawing pictures of ourselves for our classroom display.
• Talking about how we can work together to make our class a happy place to work and play. (RRS Article 31)
• Going to our first Celebration Assembly on Friday and finding out what happens in this assembly.

Please remember we are only ever a message away, please use Class Dojo to send us any queries or messages.

Miss Wakefield, Mrs Fincham and Miss Goddard

Thank you for a lovely year!

We would just like to say a big thank you to all of our fabulous families for the lovely gifts, cards and kind words. We have had a fantastic year together and know that the children are ready for Year 1, where they will continue their learning journey at Down Hall. 

Whilst the children are off to pastures new, they are never far from our thoughts and we will be checking in on them once they are in their new classes. (They don't escape us that easily!!)

We hope you all have a fantabulous summer and we look forward to seeing you all in September. Please remember the children are due back on Wednesday 2nd September.

Thank you once again for your kindness and for trusting us with your lovely children this year!

With all our love,

Miss Wakefield, Mrs Fincham and Miss Goddard xxx

13.07.26 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone! 

The children were amazing this morning for their Race for Life. It was a lovely whole school event and we are thrilled by the amount of money we have managed to raise for such a worthy cause. There is still time to donate, should you wish, you can find the page here. 

Reading Books

In preparation for next year, we will be collecting in all reading books by Wednesday 15th July. We would encourage you all to take part in the summer reading scheme at the library during the holidays to help keep up your child's reading during the 6 week break.

On to our learning for this week, we will be:

• Sharing the story "One Year with Kipper" and thinking about our first year at school.
• Visiting our new classes again on Monday.
• Thinking about our project and checking if we have answered all of the questions we asked at the start of the project.
• Discussing the story "The Worrysaurus" in our Circle Time session.
• Enjoying our final Charanga music session.

Please can you send in a plastic carrier bag by Monday as the children will need one to bring all of their books home. These will come home on Thursday.

Have a lovely weekend and we will see you on Monday, for our last week with the children - where has that year gone! 

Love

Miss Wakefield, Mrs Fincham and Miss Goddard xxx

06.07.26 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

We are writing this blog a day early, due to the Sports Day tomorrow. We are looking forward to the day and having fun with the children. As always the children will need to come back into class after the picnic lunch, before we continue with the afternoon events. This is so we can take the register. The children have been told about this today in class, but there are often a few tears when it actually happens, we always reassure the children that is just for a short time and that we will see you all again straight away for the rest of the day! Don't forget suncream, water and hats - it looks like it will be a very sunny day.

Now on to our learning for the coming week, we will be:

• Writing about real life superheroes, explaining what they do as we ran out of time last week.
• Sharing and discussing the stories "Sammy Feels Shy" and "Hanna Asks For Help" in our Circle Time sessions.
• Solving different problems in our Mathematics sessions.
• Updating our name displays in our classes to show how well we are doing with our writing.
• Using our scissor skills to create some emergency vehicles.
• Meeting our new teachers and visiting our new classes on Tuesday and Thursday.
• Enjoying our final Forest School session for the year, on Thursday.

The children have brought home their reading books today, so no need for book bags tomorrow. Please can you also send in the carrier bag by Monday, if you haven't already. Thank you!

This week's drop in will be on TUESDAY, as this is open school, where you can go and see your child's new classroom.

See you in the morning!

Miss Wakefield, Mrs Fincham and Miss Goddard

29.06.26 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

Well done to all our lovely Snowdrops for coping with the weather this week! It has been SO hot and they have been fabulous. Thank you to all of you for your understanding too.

Now on to our learning for the coming week, we will be:

• Starting to think about some real life superheroes and how they might help us. 
• Listening to some special visitors, who have important jobs helping people. 
• Writing about real life superheroes and the jobs that they do.
• Sharing and discussing the stories "Tilda Tries Again" and "Finn's Little Fibs" in our Circle Time sessions.
• Exploring mapping in our Mathematics sessions, talking about different things and places we can see on a map.
• Working on some more patterns in our handwriting sessions, remembering to try and manage it all in one pencil stroke.
• Enjoying our Sports Day on Friday.

This week's drop in will be on THURSDAY.

We hope you all have a lovely weekend, hopefully it will be slightly cooler next week!

Miss Wakefield, Mrs Fincham and Miss Goddard

22.06.26 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

We have had a lovely week in school this week, although it has been a little warm at times! The children have enjoyed making special cards and loved going shopping this afternoon. 

Now on to our learning for the coming week, we will be:

• Sharing the Superhero story about Max and Pinky.
• Learning about the Naughtifier in our Phonics sessions and finding out about what happens to the ai sound when he appears! 
• Using positional language in our Mathematics sessions, describing where different things are placed.
• Making some flying superheroes, using our hands.
• Creating some speech bubbles for the flying superheroes.
• Reading and discussing the story "Meesha Makes Friends".
• Enjoying our Forest School session on Thursday, we will be creating some Superhero potions in the Mud Kitchen and Potion Station. 

This week there will be a drop in on THURSDAY.

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Wakefield, Mrs Fincham and Miss Goddard

15.06.26 - This week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

The children looked amazing today, in their Rockstar outfits! We had a fabulous morning, with a music session, as well as singing a times table song. We enjoyed a performance by the band "Flashback", who are made up of 3 of our Year 6 children  - they were amazing!

Next week, we have a book fair arriving. Books will be on sale straight after school until 3.45pm. There will be a card machine available for payment, sorry no cash can be used.

On to our learning for the coming week, we will be, 

• Finishing our writing from last week, describing characters from the film "The Incredibles".
• Playing a game using our sense of touch, trying to find the correct squares of material.
• Working on patterns in our Mathematics sessions, identifying the unit of repeat and saying how many repeats there are.
• Sharing and discussing the stories "Perfectly Norman" and "Bea's Bad Day" in our Circle Time sessions. 
• Making some special cards for our families, to take home on Friday.

Drop in will be on Tuesday.

Have a lovely weekend!

Miss Wakefield, Mrs Fincham and Miss Goddard

08.06.26 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone! 

We have had a busy first week back, starting our new project and also having our Class Photo taken yesterday. It has been lovely to read the children's ideas for our project, there is still time to send in your child's if it hasn't come in yet. We will explore these ideas over the coming weeks.  

Now on to the learning for this coming week, we will be:

• Writing about Jack Jack, using some of our ideas from the word bank we created last week.  
• Working on grouping sets of numbers and learning about odd and even sharing in our Mathematics sessions.
• Sharing and discussing the stories "Ravi's Roar" and "Milo's Monster" in our Circle Time sessions. 
• Creating our own Superhero dens in our Forest School session on Thursday.
• Enjoying our Rock Star day on Friday - the children can come dressed up on this day, but do need to be able to do PE in their outfits!

Now a message from Miss Harvey about the upcoming Book Fair, please see below:

Book Fair Competitions

To be in with a chance to win a £5 voucher for the Book Fair, we are holding some competitions for you to enter. There are 5 vouchers up for grabs, so 5 competitions are running throughout the school. The ones that are open to Early Years are:

Competition 1: Everyone - Design a new wand and include a description explaining what it is made from.

Competition 2: EYFS/ KS1 - Design a new front cover for your favourite book.

Competition 3: EYFS/ KS1 - Design a bookmark.

These can be done on paper and given to Miss Harvey. You  can enter more than one competition as long as it is for your phase. All competition entries to be in by Friday 12th June and the winner will be announced in assembly on Monday 15th June. Winners will receive a £5 voucher for the book fair and everyone who enters will receive 5 Dojos.

The Book fair is running from Monday 15th to Friday 19th June and there is a 3 for 2 offer so please come along to support the school.

**There will be no book fair on Thursday 18th June due to the Father’s Day sale**

Miss Harvey

Drop in will be on Monday.

Have a lovely weekend!

Miss Wakefield, Mrs Fincham and Miss Goddard

01.06.26 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone, 

We hope you have all had a lovely half term. We will be starting our new project next week, so we are looking forward to seeing all of the children's Superhero ideas! If you have misplaced the sheets, they can be found on the Early Years part of the school website, or by clicking here.

On to our learning for the first week back, we will be:

• Sharing our Half Term news and our ideas for our new project.
• Watching and discussing the Disney short "Jack-Jack Attack".
• Thinking about the main character in the film and what they were like, working in a group to describe Jack Jack.
• Sharing and grouping numbers of things, as we start to learn about division.
• Creating mini superhero puppets, by carefully cutting them out.

There is no drop in this week - drop in sessions will start again the following week.

See you in the morning!

Miss Wakefield, Mrs Fincham and Miss Goddard

Happy Half Term!

Hello everyone!

A quick message for you all!

Next half term, we will start our next project "Superheroes". There is a project letter, which will give you a little more information. There is also a sheet for the children to complete, to give us their ideas for this project. These letters can be found in your child's reading folder. We would be very grateful if you could complete this with your child as we use the children's ideas to inform our future planning. The letters have also been added to the Early Years part of the school website, under the "Our Projects" tab. 

The next blog will be on Monday 1st June to let you know about our first week back. Don't forget the children return to school on Tuesday 2nd June due to our INSET day. 

Have a lovely break!

Miss Wakefield, Mrs Fincham and Miss Goddard

18.05.26 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

With just one week left of this term, time certainly seems to be flying. The children have spent this week learning about a range of minibeasts and we will continue this next week, when we finish the book "Mad About Minibeasts". Mrs O'Connor will also be sharing her knowledge about Bees. 

Miss Wakefield and Miss Goddard are off to the Isle of Wight next week, on the Year 6 residential, the lovely Snowdrops will be fine as Mrs Holland and Mrs Balkwill will be spending the week with Mrs Fincham! 

So on to our learning for the coming week, we will be:

• Learning all about Bees with Mrs O'Connor. 
• Finishing our block on shape in our Mathematics sessions.
• Enjoying our final swimming session on Wednesday.
• Carefully cutting along some snail trails, showing our scissor skills. 
• Updating our name display in the classroom.
• Checking that we have answered all the questions posed by the children at the start of our Minibeast project and using our Phonics skills to write the answers together.
• Enjoying a Wellbeing day on Friday, as it will be the last day of this term! 

HAPPY SHOESDAY

Next Tuesday is Happyshoes Day! Alongside their normal school uniform, children can come to school wearing their favourite shoes (sensible ones please) for a small donation. The money raised will be divided into 50% Living Streets charity and 50% our school charity. There is more information about this in our newsletter.

We hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Miss Wakefield, Mrs Fincham and Miss Goddard

11.05.26 - This week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

We have had a lovely sunny week and crammed lots into our 4 days. We enjoyed our Forest School session, finding lots of minibeasts on our field and in the Forest School area. We have also watched the Disney short, "The Grasshopper and the Ants", which we based our writing on. We decided that the ants were very kind when they helped the grasshopper.

Now on to the learning for this coming week, we will be:

• Sharing the book "Mad About Minibeasts!" which is full of rhymes about different minibeasts.
• Learning some facts about some of those minibeasts like snails, slugs and ants.
• Writing some facts about minibeasts, seeing if we can answer any of the questions we asked at the start of our project.
• Starting our next block in Mathematics sessions, thinking about shape.
• Creating snails by printing a spiral shell and then using paper to make the body.

Due to SATs week taking place, there will be no drop in session this week. There will also not be one the following week due to the Isle of Wight trip. Drop in sessions will start back after half term. 

Have a lovely weekend!

Miss Wakefield, Mrs Fincham and Miss Goddard

04.05.26 - This coming week in Early Years

 Hello everyone!

We have really enjoyed the sunshine this week and have spent time painting one of our sheds in the garden, whilst Harriett has painted a beautiful mural on our garage wall. We have learnt lots about spiders including seeing how they make their wonderful webs. In our investigation, we discovered that the magnets only "stuck" to things that were metal.

Next week promises to be just as busy, as we only have 4 school days, we will be:

• Listening to the Aesop Fable about the Ants and the Grasshopper and thinking about how they behaved.
• Writing about the story, remembering what happened.
• Using "First, Then, Now" to help us with adding and taking away numbers in our Maths sessions.
• Discussing the book "Kipper's Monster" in our Circle Time session.
• Enjoying our Forest School session on Thursday and going on some Minibeast Hunts.
• Trying to write a dictated sentence again - we had a really good first go at this on Thursday.

A massive well done to the children this week, for being brave and coming in by themselves. Thank you so much for all of your support with this, it has been wonderful to see the children growing in confidence and happily doing this by themselves.

Due to other activities happening in school, there will be no drop in session this week. 

We hope you all have a lovely long weekend and that the sun keeps on shining!

Miss Wakefield, Mrs Fincham and Miss Goddard