03.05.21 - This coming week in Early Years

This week has been all about spiders!! We have learnt that baby spiders are called spiderlings and that spiders can have up to 8 eyes. We also learnt that it can take them around an hour to make a web and that they make a new one every day.
On Thursday the children all had their photographs taken individually as well as with any siblings they have in school and they were all very sensible whilst waiting for their turn.

On to our learning for the 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 bees.
• Creating our own snail collage, printing the shell and cutting out the bodies.
• Updating our name display in the classroom and starting to write the lowercase letters in our Start-Bee sessions.
• Using and describing 2D shapes in our Mathematics sessions and using them to create pictures.

I have been updating the Early Years website and have added pictures of the children adding their fingerprints to Lenny and also some pictures of our minibeasts displays. The link to the web pages can be found here: Early Years website

Have a lovely long weekend and see you all on Tuesday!

Miss Wakefield

26.04.21 - This coming week in Early Years

Another busy week has passed. The children have made some lovely ladybird pebbles which we will be adding to our Minibeast display. 

This week I have been updating the children's Big Cat eBook library and it has been pleasing to see the progress the children are making. Many thanks to all of you for support you have given your child at home with their Phonics and reading. Regular reading, little and often, can have a massive impact on your child's progress across all areas of our curriculum. If you have any questions regarding your child's reading or have misplaced their log in details then please email me using earlyyears@downhallprimary.com.

On to our learning for the coming week, 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.
• 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.
• Revisiting the first 4 vowel digraphs (ai/ee/igh/oa) in our Phonics sessions.
• Completing the last 2 patterns in our Start-Bee handwriting sessions.
• Looking at counting patterns in our Mathematics sessions, working with numbers beyond 10.

The children will be having their school photos taken on Thursday 29th April. Children in Pearl Class who have a sibling in school will also have a photo taken with them. 

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Wakefield

19.04.21 - This coming week in Early Years

We have had a very busy first week back and the children are enjoying our new project "Minibeasts". We have spent lots of time learning all about caterpillars and butterflies. The children all made their very own caterpillar and sequenced the story in their English books. The caterpillars have been put up on display and we are planning on adding to it each week, with different minibeasts. 

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.
• Revisiting the 4 consonant digraphs in our Phonics sessions.
• Making ladybird pebbles to put into our garden.

It has been lovely to have so many WOWs this week and we have had lots of reasons to be proud of the children in school too. Please remember you can always contact me using earlyyears@downhallprimary.com.

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Wakefield

12.04.21 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone,

I hope you have all had a lovely Easter break. I am looking forward to seeing all the children again tomorrow to start the new term. If you have had a chance to ask your child the questions for our Minibeasts project, then I would be very grateful if you could email me their responses using earlyyears@downhallprimary.com. The information for this project can be found here.

On to our new learning for this 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.
• Learning a song to help us remember the days of the week.
• Finding different ways to make 5 and 10 in our Mathematics sessions.
• Creating our own repeating pattern caterpillars, printing using corks.
• Playing a new game in Circle Time, trying to pass bells around the circle without them making a sound!

See you tomorrow!

Miss Wakefield