29.04.24 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

This week was a very exciting one as both Pearl and Quartz have now reached 1000 Class Dojos. The children decided to opt for a "small gift" as their reward - this is their new keyring on their bags. We have been really proud of how well the children are coming in by themselves this week too, lots of Dojos have been awarded for this. We would ask that you please continue to do this. We know that there are some children who are finding it difficult and that some of you are reducing the distance you walk - this is absolutely fine as we certainly do not want to upset any of your children, it is simply to try and prepare them for Year 1.

We are looking forward to next week, when we will be very busy, 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.
• Finishing our ladybird labels from last week as we ran out of time.
• Going on our first school trip on Wednesday to "Call of the Wild!"

This week's drop in will be on Monday.

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

22.04.24 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

We have had a very busy first week back, starting with our whole school art day, which the children loved!  We have also had the first swimming session of this term and again the children were fabulous. For the rest of the week the children have been learning about caterpillars and butterflies. The children all made their very own caterpillar and sequenced the story "The Very Hungry Caterpillar". 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. The children have also created artwork this week to show the lifecycle of a butterfly and Mrs O'Connor has used it to create a lovely display. 

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.

We will also be continuing our reading sessions next week. The books that have come home today will be collected back in on Friday and swapped for the children's next one.

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 please start by walking part of the way with your child, allowing them to do the final bit by themselves. 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 both our Class Dojo and the email address on a daily basis so messages can always be sent there, shared to the adult on the main school gates or indeed saved for home time.

Drop in sessions are starting back up again and this week it will take place on THURSDAY. 

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

15.04.24 - 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. 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.
• Starting our new Reading sessions (see below).
• Learning a song to help us remember the days of the week.
• 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 again on Wednesday!

New Reading Scheme

As mentioned at the parent/teacher meetings, we collected in everyone's reading book prior to the Easter break in order to make way for the new reading scheme we are starting. The children will have a book which they will use in Guided Reading during the first week back and then on Friday 19th April, they will be bringing this book home as their home reading book. It will be really important that the children keep this book in their book bags as we will need to collect them in weekly to swap for the next ones.

Art Day

Our first day back after the holidays is whole school Art Day. On this day, the children will be taking part in a range of activities. Therefore they need to come to school wearing clothes that they can get messy in as they will spend the day being artists!

See you on Monday!

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley