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

27.04.26 - This week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

The children had a special "shout-out" in assembly today, as we are SO proud of them coming round to our gate by themselves. 

We have had a lovely week learning about ladybirds and the children made some beautiful ladybirds of their own.

This week has been lovely and sunny, but as the weather is warmer, please do send your child in with a sun hat and sun cream. Could we please ask that sun cream has been applied before the children come to school though, as it can take a very long time to help all the children apply it.

The children have brought home the next set of Rainbow words. We would be really grateful if you could reinforce these words at home as the children need to know them by sight, rather than trying to sound them out.

We are looking forward to next week, when we will be very busy again, we will be:

• Sharing and discussing the story "The Very Busy Spider", which is another story by Eric Carle.
• Reading and ordering instructions to make our own spiders.
• Using non-fiction books to find out more about spiders and then writing some spider facts of our own.
• Building numbers to 20, thinking about how many ones there are along with the ten.
• Searching for webs and spiders in our garden and learning how and why spiders make webs.
• Creating some spider fridge magnets and then using them to carry out a science experiment.

This week's drop in will be on FRIDAY.

Just a little reminder, the children will have their coloured book changed at the beginning of the week and their Anima Phonics book changed at the end of the week. Please ensure they have them in their bag. Many thanks!

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Wakefield, Mrs Fincham and Miss Goddard

20.04.26 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

We have had a very busy first week back! The children were fabulous during their first swimming session and Mr Attfield was very impressed. Next week, as the children will be back in their uniform, they do not need to wear their tie on Wednesday, as this will help with the dressing after their session. 

The children have been enjoying learning about caterpillars and butterflies this week. The children all made their very own caterpillar and sequenced the story "The Very Hungry Caterpillar". We have also started to create a new display for the hall, based on this story. A huge thank you to all of you who have helped your children complete their minibeast ideas sheet, we have loved looking through these and will continue to do so next week. 

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

• Sharing another book by Eric Carle, this time it is all about a bad-tempered ladybird.
• Retelling the story "The Bad-Tempered Ladybird and thinking about how the ladybird behaved and whether this was the right thing to do, sharing our ideas during Circle Time.
• Watching a film showing the life cycle of a ladybird.
• Labelling the different parts of a ladybird.
• Learning about time, making different o'clock times, just like those in the story.
• Making our very own ladybirds using pebbles.
• Enjoying our Forest School session on Thursday. 
• Wearing red and white to school on Thursday to mark St George's Day.

As we are now in the Summer Term, we will be starting to get the children ready for their move into Key Stage 1. With this is mind, it is time for them to start walking round to Early Years by themselves and saying goodbye to you at the gate. We have already got a number of children who do this and we are very proud of their independence. We would ask that from Monday you start to let your child walk to Early Years by themselves. 

We realise, that depending on which gate you use, some children have further to walk than others. If you come in via the Brooklyn Drive or Torquay Close gates then please do start by walking part of the way with your child, allowing them to do the final bit by themselves. For those of you coming in via Downhall Park Way, it is easier as you can see them from this gate.

It is often the parents that find this the most difficult, your children are used to navigating their way from one end of school to the other on a daily basis and will be fine. We also appreciate that there are times when you might need to talk to us about something, please remember that we do check our Class Dojo on a daily basis so messages can always be sent there, shared to the adult on the main school gates or saved for home time. We also know that sometimes, for whatever reason, you will still need to come to our gate, please know that this is fine, we are just wanting to start to prepare the children. 

Thank you in advance for your support with this. 

This week our Drop in sessions will be on  THURSDAY. 

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Wakefield, Mrs Fincham and Miss Goddard

13.04.26 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

We hope you have all had a lovely Easter break. We are looking forward to seeing the children again to start the Summer term and hearing all about their Easter holidays. We would be really grateful if the children could bring in their sheets about our Minibeasts project this coming week. If you are unable to find them, then they can also be found here.

On to our new learning for this coming week:

• Sharing the story "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle.
• Watching a film version of the story and comparing it to the book.
• Sequencing the events in the story and using a story sack to retell the story in our own words.
• Creating our own repeating pattern caterpillars, printing using corks.
• Starting our new units in JIGSAW and Charanga.
• Playing a new Circle Time game, trying to pass bells around our circle without them making a sound!
• Starting our swimming lessons on Wednesday morning.
• Enjoying art activities as part of ART DAY on Wednesday afternoon.

Our first drop in session for the Summer term will be on WEDNESDAY.

See you all in the morning!

Miss Wakefield, Mrs Fincham and Miss Goddard

Happy Easter!

 

Hello everyone!

We have had a lovely day today, spending time creating our Easter decorations. We hope you like the beautiful cards that the children have made too.

Next half term, we will start our next project "Minibeasts". There is a project letter which will give you a little more information and 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 children have also brought home a "coloured band" book. These are books that we have not already read with the children. After the Easter break the children will have these books changed on a weekly basis and bring them home in addition to their Anima Phonics book. 

The next blog will be on Sunday 12th April to let you know about our first week back. 

Have a lovely break!

Miss Wakefield, Mrs Fincham and Miss Goddard

23.03.26 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

This week we have enjoyed the book "Dinosaur More!" and found out some facts about the dinosaurs from last week's book. The children then did some magnificent labels for their dinosaurs. Today, the children have looked amazing in their red clothes for Comic Relief and odd socks for World Down Syndrome Day. Thank you for all of your kind donations.

It was also lovely to see you all at our Parent/Teacher meetings. Following on from these meetings, several of you asked about our number and letter formation rhymes. We have popped a copy of these in the children's reading folders today for you to keep at home.

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

• Sharing some more non-fiction texts to find out facts about different dinosaurs. 
• Looking at fossils and learning about the job of a Palaeontologist.
• Learning about Mary Anning and Robert Plot, both of whom have helped us understand more about dinosaurs.
• Writing captions for some different fossils.
• Starting to learn about 3D shapes in our Mathematics sessions.
• Making and writing some special Easter cards for our families.
• Checking that we have answered all of our questions about dinosaurs.
• Enjoying our Forest School session on Thursday.
• Enjoying Wellbeing day on Friday. 

The final drop in session for this term will take place on TUESDAY.

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Wakefield, Mrs Fincham and Miss Goddard

16.03.26 - This week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

This week we have enjoyed the book "Dinosaur Roar". The children listened carefully to try and find all of the rhyming words. They also did some fabulous writing about some of the dinosaurs from the book. Today they have enjoyed doing some special shopping for their Mummy. We hope all of the Snowdrop Mummies have a lovely day on Sunday and we hope you like the things the children have made for you too!

Events next week:

Wednesday 18th March - Parent/Teacher consultations

Thursday 19th March - Parent/Teacher consultations

Friday 20th March - Red Nose Day and Odd Sock Day - please see the newsletter for more information

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

• Sharing the book "Dinosaur More!". This is a non-fiction version of last week's book "Dinosaur Roar!".
• Learning what non-fiction means and using our book to find out information about the different dinosaurs.
• Labelling the different parts of a dinosaur, using our segmenting skills to help us spell the words.
• Finding all of the different ways to make 10, learning to recall these number bonds.
• Learning about pumice stone and creating our very own volcano.
• Creating our own salt dough fossils.

There will be no drop in this week, due to the Parent/Teacher consultations.

Finally, there were was a swimming letter that went out this week, we seem to still have one in class. If you haven't had the letter, please let us know and we will give one to you.

We hope you have a lovely weekend

Miss Wakefield, Mrs Fincham and Miss Goddard

09.03.26 - This week in Early Years

Hello!

The children looked amazing yesterday, in their World Book day costumes and the weather meant that the whole school was able to spend time reading on the field together. What a difference a little bit of sun can bring! 

We have also enjoyed finishing off lots of robots this week, these are on display in the corridor, so you can always see them during a drop in session. There are also lots of photographs in the corridors, showing the children's learning journey. It shows what a busy time they have been having.

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

          

• Sharing the story "Dinosaur Roar!", this is another rhyming book so we will be trying to find all of the rhyming words. 
• Writing a caption to go along with one of the pictures from "Dinosaur Roar!", using describing words to match the picture. 
• Continuing with our "Building 9 and 10" block in Mathematics, working on finding 1 more and 1 less than different numbers.
• Playing our new Circle Time game again, talking about what makes Trevor Triceratops happy, sad or cross.
• Enjoying Science Day on Thursday. There will be NO Forest School session as it is Science Day BUT the children will need to come in clothes that they can get mucky, due to our experiments. (As mentioned in today's newsletter).

Drop in this week will be on FRIDAY.

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Wakefield, Mrs Fincham and Miss Goddard

02.03.26 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello Everybody!

Thank you so much to all of you who worked with your child to discuss their ideas for our latest project. We have been enjoying reading their different ideas and finding out what they want to know about dinosaurs. Please don't worry if you've not had the chance to do this with your child, we are more than happy for them to come in next week. If you have mislaid your sheet please ask and we can pop another one in your child's bag or alternatively they are on our pages on the website. (A link was in last week's blog).

Next week is a busy week in school as the children will have their height and weight checks on Wednesday and it is World Book Day on Thursday. (Further information is below).

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

• Sharing the book Bumpus Jumpus Dinosaurumpus! 
• Listening out for and writing a list of all the rhyming words in this week's text and learning how to play some rhyming games.
• Writing numbers to 10 in our Maths books, learning how to use one square for one digit.
• Continuing to learn about consecutive consonants in our Phonics sessions, blending and segmenting words with 4 sounds. 
• Moving onto the phase "Building 9 and 10" in our Mathematics sessions. This week we will be working on our careful counting.
• Creating a special World Book Day bookmark and enjoying the day together on Thursday.
• Finishing the lovely robots, which we started last week and adding them to our display.

Now a message about World Book Day from Miss Harvey:

   

World Book Day   
Thursday 5th March

This year is the National Year of Reading, so we will be celebrating World Book Day for the whole day. Please come in wearing a costume to show your favourite book character. If you do not want to dress up, you can bring your favourite book in or a prop to give us a clue.
Here is a competition you can take part in: 
World Book Day competition
Email publicity@scholastic.co.uk with the header WBD NORA NIGHTSKY explaining why you want to win. The competition closes on the 15th April.

Our drop in this week will be on FRIDAY.

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Wakefield, Mrs Fincham and Miss Goddard

23.02.26 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello!

We hope you have all had a fabulous half term! We are looking forward to welcoming the children back tomorrow, for our next learning adventure! We are also looking forward to finding out their ideas for our new project "Dinosaurs". If you are unable to find the letters that came home before half term, then copies of them can be found here on the Early Years section of the website. 

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

• Sharing Harry and the Dinosaurs stories. We will be reading several of these, including "Harry and the Dinosaurs go to School" and "Harry and the Robots".
• Discussing the story "Harry and the Robots" and thinking about the ways we take care of each other.
• Labelling different parts of one of Harry's robots, using our sounds to help spell the words we need to write.
• Thinking about the days of the week and ordering and sequencing periods of time in our Mathematics sessions.
• Starting our next JIGSAW puzzle piece for PSHE - "Healthy Me".
• Enjoying our next Forest School session on Thursday.

Our drop in session this week will be on THURSDAY.

See you in the morning!

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

Happy February Half Term!

Hello everyone!

We had a fantastic time yesterday, celebrating our 100th day in school. We are SO proud of the children and how much they have achieved in those 100 days. 

Next half term, we will start our next project "Dinosaurs". There is a project letter which will give you a little more information and 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 23rd February to let you know about our first week back. Don't forget the children return to school on Tuesday 24th February due to our INSET day. 

Have a lovely break!

Miss Wakefield, Mrs Fincham and Miss Goddard

09.02.26 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

This coming Thursday is going to be a very exciting day as it will mark 100 days since we started school! Mrs Wood has said we can have a little party to celebrate - we are even getting a special cake! As it is such a special day, the children do not need to wear uniform, they can come in party clothes or comfy clothes (which ever they prefer). 

The new Luna Year begins on Tuesday 17th February, so we will be learning about this celebration during our learning this week, we will be:

• Learning about Chinese New Year. This year it is the year of the Horse.
• Sharing the story "The Great Race" to find out all about the Chinese Zodiac and how each year is named after an animal.
• Finding out about how Chinese New Year is celebrated and also watching some Dragon dancing.
• Comparing objects by their length in our Mathematics sessions.
• Creating some colourful scratch art dragons.
• Celebrating 100 days in school on Thursday!
• Enjoying our Wellbeing day on Friday - the children do not need to wear their uniform on this day, but will still have PE, so please can they wear suitable clothing.

This week's drop in will be on MONDAY.

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Wakefield, Mrs Fincham and Miss Goddard

02.02.26 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

Thank you for all the fantastic matchboxes this week - we have loved seeing how many little things you and your children have managed to cram inside! We still have lots to go through, so can't announce a winner yet, so there is still this weekend if you want to have a go.

We hope you have found the little video about reading helpful. (It is on the ClassDojo if you missed it). Please always let us know if there is anything else like this that you would like us to cover.

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

• Sharing the story "Stuck", this is a very silly story about a little boy called Floyd and how his kite got stuck in a tree.
• Finding out about odd and even numbers and sorting our Numicon tiles in our Mathematics sessions. 
• Creating doubles of different numbers, using paint.
• Sharing the book "How Long is a Whale?" and using it to help us compare different sea animals by their length.
• Writing some facts about Polar animals.
• Learning about Shackleton and other famous Polar explorers.
• Painting some Polar animals, to add to our fabulous penguins from last week.
• Enjoying another Forest School session on Thursday.

Drop in this week will be on MONDAY.

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Wakefield, Mrs Fincham and Miss Goddard 

26.01.26 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone,

Today the children have brought home a little matchbox. Please help your child fill the matchbox with as many different items as possible. (Please see the note that came home for more details). Next week, we will spend time looking at any filled matchboxes and see how many items each one holds. 

We have now learnt all of our Phase 2 and Phase 3 sounds. Before moving on, we will spend next week checking the children's phonic knowledge of these phases. Anima Phonics have popped all of the songs into one playlist. This can be accessed without a login, so if you and your child want to have a listen then the songs can all be found here. 

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

• Sharing the story "The Way Back Home", a fourth story about the Boy.
• Using a contents page and non-fiction books to find out information about penguins.
• Using our new found knowledge to help us write some of our own penguin facts.
• Comparing ourselves to an Emperor Penguin, deciding if we are taller or shorter.
• Thinking about the numbers 6, 7 and 8 and finding different ways to make them using 2 smaller numbers. 
• Setting up our own obstacle courses in our Learning Garden, making sure we take turns and share the equipment.

Drop in this week will be on TUESDAY.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend!

Miss Wakefield, Mrs Fincham and Miss Goddard

19.01.26 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone, 

The children enjoyed creating their own penguins this week. You may have spotted a photo of them in the newsletter today, they are very cute! The penguins are on display in our class and some of them also feature on our fabulous display in the hall - which depicts a scene from the book "Lost and Found".  

This coming week we will be:

• Sharing and discussing the story "How To Catch A Star". This was Oliver Jeffers' first book and also the first story about the Boy.
• Adding labels to one of the illustrations from the book.
• Learning the last 4 Phase 3 sounds in our Phonics sessions.
• Learning about capacity in our Mathematics sessions, comparing different containers. 
• Painting our own moose, thinking about the way Oliver Jeffers drew them in his book "This Moose Belongs To Me".

Many thanks for all of the resources you have been sending in. We now have enough for the activity, so please don't send in any more. (We will let you know if we need some again).

Drop in this week will be on THURSDAY.

We hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Miss Wakefield, Mrs Fincham and Miss Goddard

12.01.26 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone, 

Many thanks for the children's sheets about our new project, we made a great start on it this week and are looking forward to continuing to learn more about the Boy and the Penguin next week. We would be really grateful and would love to see any of the sheets that have not come in yet, as it is lovely to include the children's ideas, so please can any outstanding ones come in next week. (If you can't find the sheet, please ask and we can send another one home).

We also enjoyed our first Forest School session of this term, on Thursday. We were very lucky and missed most of the rain, enjoying a hot drink together. We have also elected our school councillor, congratulations to Maya-Reign.

This coming week we will be:

• Sharing and discussing the story "Up and Down", which is another story about the Boy and the Penguin.
• Writing some descriptions of the Boy and the Penguin.
• Continuing our work on friendships in our Circle Time sessions, thinking about what we enjoy doing with our friends. 
• Looking at globes and maps of the world again, to see if we can remember where to find the South Pole.
• Finding 1 more or 1 less in our Mathematics sessions.
• Finishing our "Lost and Found" display for the school hall by creating some penguins and snowflakes.

Many thanks for all of the tubes, boxes and pots that have come in. We will still be grateful to receive any next week too, just send them in with your child. 

Our drop in sessions will restart again this week and the first one will be on MONDAY.

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Wakefield, Mrs Fincham and Miss Goddard

05.01.26 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone, 

We hope you have all had a lovely Christmas break. We are looking forward to seeing the children tomorrow and hearing all about their Christmas holiday.

This week we will be starting our new project "Lost and Found" and will be:

• Watching and listening to the story "Lost and Found".
• Learning about the author Oliver Jeffers who wrote and illustrated the story "Lost and Found".
• Sequencing events from the story, using pictures from the film and then creating our own song to tell the story of the Boy and the Penguin.
• Continuing with our Anima Phonics sessions and starting our reading sessions again.
• Making our own repeating pattern umbrellas like the one belonging to the penguin.
• Thinking about what makes a good friend in our Circle Time session.

See you all in the morning!

Miss Wakefield, Mrs Fincham and Miss Goddard