Reception - Ash and Oak

Welcome to Ash  and Oak Class!

September 2018

Week ending Friday 21st June 2019

What a credit the children have been to us and themselves this week!  Monday through to Thursday we had our new September starters joining us for their Stay and Play sessions.  Our children were friendly and kind; and a number of the parents commented on how well behaved and engaged the children were.  Well done Early Years!

Our text focus this week has been The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.  The children have learned to sequence the story and drawn their own story maps.  We have watched eagerly as our very own hungry caterpillars have grown in size, shed their skin and turned into chrysalides.  Mrs Palmer transferred them into their butterfly garden at the end of the day today, so now we have to wait patiently until they have transformed and are ready to emerge as butterflies.  At the craft table the children have used a range of resources, shaping and joining methods to create their own caterpillars.

We opened up our Mini Beast Investigation Lab this week and the children have loved searching for insects in the outdoor areas and then using the iPads and books to find out about them.  They have used the digital microscopes to look at them closely and made their own information books.

The children have been busy writing about our visit to Hinchingbrooke Country Park.  We gave them the choice of how they wanted to record their thoughts and feelings so we have a lovely range of books, pictures and captions to accompany photographs.

In Maths the children have been practising counting, ordering and sequencing numbers to 20.

We have enjoyed some drier times on the field playing phonics games and searching for mini beasts in different habitats.

Next week we will be inventing our own Very Hungry stories; by changing the character or the foods.  In maths we will be learning about halving and sharing.  We will be tasting a range of foods from the story; discussing healthy and not healthy foods and creating our own healthy kebabs.

Have a great weekend!

The EYFS Team.

Week ending Friday 14th June 2019

This week we have mostly been wet.  We've enjoyed the lake which appeared in our outside area and worked our muscles playing in it!  On Thursday we didn't even notice the rain as we had such a great day at Hinchingbrooke Park; hunting for minibeasts, building dens and pond dipping!  Of course the day had to be finished off with an ice cream!  On Friday our children had a fantastic day with a special visit from Mrs Howitt.  We demonstrated that she is always in our thoughts as we ran our Race for Life, after decorating cakes and making bunting for the cake sale.

Next week, we welcome our new September starters for their Stay and Play sessions all week.  Our busy learning will continue despite the addition of a few children each day, and we will be writing about our visit to Hinchingbrooke, reading clues to find hidden mini beasts, exploring a range of joining methods to make a caterpillar and watching our caterpillars grow even bigger before they turn into pupa.  On a Monday morning, starting tomorrow up until the end of term, the children will be taking part in Balance Bike sessions run by trainers from the Hunts Schools Sports Partnership.  These will be 30 minute sessions on the KS1 playground.  As we prepare for our transition to Key Stage One, children will be taking turns to spend time on the Key Stage One playground at lunchtimes and there are opportunities planned for Key Stage One staff to visit us in the unit to begin to get to know the children.

Please remember to dress your children appropriately for school - especially as the weather is so unpredictable!  Closed toe shoes only, a sun hat AND raincoat are essential from now on.  Please apply a long lasting sun cream before school.  PE will be taking place outside where possible so please ensure that your child has a pair of plimsolls or trainers in their PE kit.

We are extremely close to making our final judgements against the Early Learning Goals.  Reading with your child as many times as possible during the week will help them gain confidence and fluency in reading; as well as playing games with high frequency and tricky words.  Encourage them to write for a purpose too; a list or message or postcard to a relative. 

As always, any questions please come in and see a member of the team.

Week ending Friday 7th June 2019

A great first week back after the half term break!  We hope you all had a good rest and we have enjoyed hearing about the lovely things the children have been up to.  I enjoyed my ride in the ambulance for an x-ray; luckily no bones were broken so I spent the weekend resting up and managed to get out and about a bit with my family towards the end of the week!

This week we have started our topic on Mini-beasts.  We have listened to poems from the book 'Mad about Mini-beasts'  and have made lists of which animals we can classify as mini-beasts.  We have talked about all the different words we use to describe the size of things and sorted these words into which ones we use to describe big things and which we use to describe small things.

For our writing this week the children have all written about something they did during their week off.  I love this term as the children really are beginning to show us all of the phonic skills they have learned over the year in their writing.

In maths we have been learning to count in 2's, 5's and 10's.  You can practice this at home by counting hands, feet, fingers and toes.

Our plants are thriving with the mixture of sun and rain and we have our first red strawberry - the children are showing great patience waiting for the crop to be harvested!

Year One staff came to visit us this week and will be spending more time getting to know and working with the children over the next few weeks.  Our new starters will be joining us for Stay and Play sessions and I know that our children will show themselves off as great ambassadors for our Early Years unit at Bushmead! 

Next week we will be sorting and classifying mini-beasts and learning what makes an animal a minibeast.  We wil be learning about the different parts of the animals bodies and labelling pictures.  In maths we will be focussing on shape.

Don't forget it's our trip to Hinchingbrooke Park on Thursday.  Make sure you have sent your permission slip back and paid via Parent Pay.  Children will need a packed lunch, sunhat and raincoat.  Any questions please see a member of the team.

Friday we will be taking part in our Race For Life for Cancer Research, to try and raise as much money as we can for this charity.  Fingers crossed for good weather and that Mrs Howitt is feeling well enough to come and visit us in the afternoon.  Don't forget to donate via the just giving page and bring in some cakes for the cake sale at the end of the day.  Remember you can wear pink of red accessories for the race!

Please continue to read as often as possible with your child at home.  High Frequency and tricky words will be coming home for you to practice too.  Please continue to check your child's hair for head lice and treat appropriately, remembering to retreat 7 days after the first treatment.

Have a great weekend!

The EYFS Team.

Week Ending Friday 17th May 2019

This week in Early Years we have been focussing on Jack and the Beanstalk.  The children have joined in with FEE FI FO FUM and drawing their own story maps.

In maths we have been subtracting one or two from a number within ten or twenty.

On the craft table the children have been making different components to create a Jack and the Beanstalk picture.  Different children have made different parts and they have then been put together and look really effective.

We had a lovely afternoon on Wednesday decorating plant pots and planting seeds.  The children have brought these home with a record sheet and we would like you to help your child measure the plants over the next term.  At the end of the Summer term we would like you to send in the record sheets along with some photos and a prize will be given for the tallest plant.

It's been a busy week of practising - for Sport's Day and our Class assembly; so we are looking forward to seeing you all on Wednesday morning for the assembly and book share and Friday afternoon for Sport's Day.  Please ensure you have checked the list outside the playground to find out which colour t-short your child needs to wear.  They will also need on Sport's Day a named water bottle, a sun hat, zip up hoody if it's cold and sun cream applied before school if it's hot.

Have a great weekend!

The EYFS Team

Week ending Friday 3rd May 2019

In Early Years this week we have been learning the story 'Jasper's Beanstalk' by Nick Butterworth.  The children have added actions to help them tell the story from memory, and also helped the adults to draw a story map.  We have been telling the story as a whole class and some children have been confident enough to have a go in front of the class on their own.  As a continuation of our story last week 'The Tiny Seed' the children have been making their own seed books recording what a seed needs to grow in to a strong plant.

In maths we have been learning to count in tens from 1 to 100.  We have been grouping objects into sets of 10 to help count large amounts and sequenced the numbers on a number line. 

On the craft table the children have been choosing their own materials and resources to make pictures of flowers, and to develop their fine motor skills have been threading leaves and tiny pasta circles onto sticks to make a beanstalk.

We had great fun on Thursday as we set about planting the massive range of seeds and plants kindly donated to us.  Throughout the process we talked about what we needed, where the pots would need to be placed and the different parts of the plants.  The children worked really well together in groups.  As an addition to the snack table the children worked tirelessly to get into the range of fruits to try and get to the seeds inside!

Next week we return to school on TUESDAY for class photos and will be writing our own instructions to plant a seed, and ordering days of the week and events within a day.

Enjoy the bank holiday weekend!

The EYFS Team.

Week ending Friday 26th April 2019

Welcome Back!!  We hope you all had a fantastic Easter break.  The children have all come back to Bushmead eager to get into busy learning, and some have had a growth spurt!(it must have been all the chocolate!)

We have launched straight into our new topic

'Grow Grow Grow!' 

We listened and discussed the story 'The Tiny Seed' by Eric Carle.  It demonstrated the journey of a seed through the seasons and into a full grown sunflower.  It allowed the children the opportunity to share their knowledge of plants, things that grow and what plants need to grow.  They came up with some questions for what they would like to find out about growing things and some ideas for busy learning activities.

So this week we have looked at a range of different seeds and described and sorted them.  We used a new digital microscope to observe them close up and learned how to use the microscope to take a still photograph and then print it out.  On the snack table we have had a range of different fruits and vegetables which the children have used knives to cut open and find the seeds inside.  The avocado was a big surprise to Lilly-Lorrain and Lily.  We have been on a walk around the school grounds to look for places that plants grow and taken part in debates and discussions, giving our reasons for why plants would or wouldn't grow there.

The children have been writing about their Easter holiday and we have enjoyed hearing about what they have been up to.  In maths we have been counting, recognising and ordering numbers to 10 and 20, and finding the number one more and one less than a given number.

The children have been making their own play dough, measuring out quantities and trying to get the mixture just right.

Finally, this afternoon, great fun was had when somebody got 'Pie Face' off of the games shelf!

Some gentle reminders :

PE is on a Thursday and earrings must be taken out at home.  If children are unable to have their earrings removed a member of staff will cover them with medical tape.  Could you please also ensure your child has their full PE kit in school for the remainder of the half term.

Whilst the weather is warming up it can still be unpredictable so please remember to send a coat in each day.

We are keen to keep offering the children a variety of snacks and cooking experiences.  However, without your contributions we will have to stop.  If you are unsure if you have not contributed up to date please see Mrs Preston or the main office staff.

Please remember that long hair must be tied back at all times and children should not wear large coloured accessories.  Bushmead green bows or simple hairbands are acceptable.  Please continue to regularly check for head lice and treat appropriately (and repeatedly) if any are found.

Reading books and diaries must be in school every day.

May we take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support during Mrs Howitt's absence.  She asks of the children often and enjoys hearing about what we have been up to.

Wishing you a lovely weekend,

The EYFS Team.

Week Ending Friday 29th March 2019

This week we have had a fantastic time visiting Croxton Park Farm.  On Monday we saw a 10 minute old calf which was very cute!  We learned all about where our food comes from and how the farmers care for the animals.  We also talked about the differences between the baby animals and us as a baby.  The children were surprised to discover that the calf was up and walking around at just ten minutes old!  Today's group were lucky enough to see the birth of two lambs!  Again, the children were amazed that after just a few minutes the lambs were up and wobbling about looking for their first feed.  (The remaining group will visit on Monday.) 

Those of us back at school went on a walk to look for signs of spring.  We had a lovely time!

On Tuesday Sonny's mum visited us with two very special guests.  Mrs Upson brought 4 day old baby Josie in, and Mrs Spencer brought 3 month old Flynn to see us.  Sonny's mum is a midwife and came in to talk to us about babies, how they need looking after and we discussed the differences between the things we can do now which we couldn't do as a baby.  The children were very good at being quiet and the grown ups all enjoyed having baby cuddles!

Our maths this week has focussed on measures.  We have compared the length of objects and used the language short, shorter, shortest and long, longer, longest.  We have compared our heights and lined up in order (tall, taller, tallest)  and collected sticks to make our own stick men.  We also compared items and described them as heavy or light using the balance scales.

In the creative area we have been painting blossoming trees and making our own 'Rock Pets' . 

On Thursday we spent the morning decorating cakes and making sandwiched for our Mother's Day Tea.  The children loved sharing them with you and we hope you enjoyed the afternoon.

Reminders for next week -

Monday - last group to Croxton Farm

Tuesday - Parent's evening 2pm-7pm Main hall (please sign up if you have not already done so

Friday - Easter Church Service (We will be walking to St Mary's Eaton Socon) Last day of term

Have a great weekend!

The EYFS Team.

Week ending 22nd March 2019

What an EXCITING week in Early Years!!

 We started the week with a special visit from Hayley who works at Woodgreen. She taught us how to care for Henry the hamster. We had to choose which cage, bedding, food and toys would be best for a small pet. If you would still like to donate for this visit to help care for the animals, we will be sending this off next week!

We have had more pets visiting us this week and the children have been very brave to hold or stroke the pets. We had Emma's Mum bring in Harriet the tortoise and we found out how fast she can move!! Emma helped her friends learn how they take care of Harriet.

Mrs Turner brought in her extraordinary pets to show us. She brought in Addy the chinchilla, Fang the tarantula and the group of naked rats. Miss Crawford was very brave and held the tarantula. The children were very excited to see these wonderful pets and learnt how they needed different things to be healthy and happy. For busy learning the children then painted pictures of the pets that have visited us. They have also been looking carefully and doing observational drawings of signs of spring.

For our busy learning we have been developing our  writing skills to write descriptions for pets that are for sale. For maths we have been learning to recognise different coins and counting them. The children have then been developing there adding skills by choosing two coins and then writing it as a number sentence.

The children went out on the Trim-Trail for P.E. to develop there physical skills and to take new risks. The children were very confident to have a go and keep trying if they kept falling off! Mr Beavis was being active with the children and teaching them some football skills.

REMINDERS!

• Please try and read with your child at least 3 times a week and put a comment in their diary.
• Farm Visit: Please make sure your child has a warm coat in school everyday and dressed in trousers/tights/leggings. If they do not have a pair of wellies in school can we please ask we have a pair for this week.
• Thursday 28th March 2019 at 2pm we are inviting 1 family member to join us for afternoon tea to celebrate Mother's Day and share your child's learning journal!

Have a fantastic weekend

EYFS Team

Week Ending Friday 15th March

What a busy , busy week we've had in early years!

Most children have now visited Pets at Home and Aldi.  The children had a great time looking around the pet shop, up and down all the aisles, reading signs and looking at price tags.  We were very lucky and got to meet some of the animals they have waiting for adoption and the staff answered all of our questions.  In Aldi we made some great group choices on which snacks to buy and enjoyed eating them when we returned to school.  If your child has not been on the trip yet they will be going on Tuesday 19th.

Back in the classroom the children have been writing their own lists of things that they need to look after a pet.  They thought very carefully about the items they would need, and it is great to see the children becoming so confident when using their phonics to help them with their writing.

In Maths we have focussed on the story 'The Great Pet Sale' by Mick Inkpen.  We have been recognising coins and making amounts, either with 1p's or a range of coins; transferring our knowledge of 'part part whole' to make a total.  We used different shaped dog biscuits to make repeating patterns and pictures.

We also showed the children some of the footage of this years 'Crufts' show, and they loved the agility course and how many different types of dogs there are.  This led on to them turning themselves into dogs using a range of materials and creating their own obstacle course outside.  We created a dog grooming area to get the dogs ready for the show and made rosettes and medals for the best dogs. 

But best of all this week we have had a range of pets visiting us in Early Years.  On Wednesday our lovely friend Mrs Bannister brought her dog Benjy in to see us.  He was very well behaved and the children loved giving him a stroke and asking Mrs Bannister how she looks after him.  On Thursday Mr Darby brought in his pet bearded dragons.  The children were amazed by the creatures and all were really brave and had a go at stroking or holding the lizard.  We discovered that they like to eat crickets, they need to be kept warm all of the time and they like a bath when shedding their skin!  Mr Darby also showed us a huge range of snake skins which his two pet snakes had shed which were really interesting to look at.

Finally today Mrs Whittle brought her super cute ferret 'Bear' in to see us.  Again she (the ferret) was very well behaved and allowed all of the children to stroke her.  Mrs Whittle explained how she has to clean her out every day and that she likes to play with balls and sleeps in a hammock.  It has been a really fantastic week of meeting a wide range of animals and next week we are looking forward to meeting some more unusual pets.

Next week we will be adding two prices together to find a total.  In our writing we will be writing descriptions of animals. 

We have a visit from Wood Green Animal Shelter on Monday.  The workshops they provide to schools are free of charge; however we would like to ask for a voluntary small donation of 50p per child to give to the charity.  We also have a visit from a local vet who will be telling us how we can look after our pets if they become unwell.

Don't forget to sign up for Parent's Evening, being held on Tuesday 2nd April, 2pm - 7pm in the main hall.  An email detailing how to book a slot has been sent.  Also a reminder that on Thursday 28th March we are holding our Mother's Day Tea and Book Share.  Invites will be sent out next week.

Enjoy your weekend,

The EYFS Team.

Week Ending Friday 8th March 2019

All the children look fantastic in their costumes!

We had to choose one child from each class as the best dressed for a prize in assembly. This was a really tricky decision but we decided in Oak class it is Josie for being so enthusiastic about her costume 'hat in the cat' as she tells everyone and in Ash class it was Ellie for being a fantastic Sophie from the story 'the tiger who came to tea'.

We started our learning this week by having a whole school assembly, where we read the story 'Nibbles the book monster'. We have been busy writing our own book monster stories, using our phonics to write about the monster. Thank you to all who came to our art afternoon to make Nibbles the book monster. The challenge for the children was to have moving parts. The creations that were made were fantastic! The children have made their own playdough with Miss Curtis, then made a playdough monster. We will be continuing to show the children how to make their own playdough so that they can be independent busy learners!

The children have loved sharing their favourite books during book week and explained in great detail why they like the book they have brought in to share with their friends! The children have also enjoyed finding out who the mystery reader is each day. So a big thank you to those who have been able to spend some time with us and share a story with the children!

On Tuesday Miss Crawford made pancakes with the children. They mixed up the batter and while Miss Crawford cooked them, the children chose and chopped up what toppings they fancied on their pancake.The children enjoyed their yummy pancakes!! We looked at different stories to find out why we make pancakes and celebrate this special day.

For our maths learning this week, the children have been learning about number bonds to 5 and being able to share into two groups. The children were then able to write a number sentence to show what they had done. Following their learning from last week about pictograms, the children have been making their own pictograms. This has led to the children being confident to ask questions to each other, including Mr Down, what their favourite ice cream, book, superhero or food is.

REMINDERS!!

Please remember to send in the permission slip for your child to be able to travel on the minibus to Pets at home and Aldi. If you do not send in the slip we will not be able to take your child.

Week Ending Friday 1st March 2019

We've had a great first week back!  We hope you all enjoyed the half term holiday.  It was lovely to read the observations that you have sent in for us; they give us another insight into your child's development and will be a great addition to your child's learning journey.  For future reference, an observation can be written down on any piece of paper, and don't forget about our special 'WOW' certificates available from the cloakroom too for sharing those special moments.

This week we have started our journey learning about Pets.  The children have enjoyed telling us about the range of pets they have at home; or if they don't have a pet which animal they would choose.  In our Maths learning this week we have looked at how we can record information we have gathered about the number of pets we own.  The adults were not very good at remembering the numbers when we simply counted children, so we discussed a number of different ways to help us; such as writing the numbers, a tally, drawing pictures to add to a pictogram and we looked at an interactive pictogram on the computer.  We talked about the most and least popular animals.  We moved onto sorting animals into different groups.  First we sorted them into animals which would make god pets or not, and then asked the children to come up with other ways of sorting them.  They had ideas such as legs and no legs, land and water, cute and not cute!  Lots of great discussions and reasoning from the children showing their developing mathematical awareness.

In Literacy this week we have been sharing our half term news and then writing sentences to match our pictures.  It has been lovely to hear all about what the children have been up to, and the progress in their writing is making us really proud!  They are really using their phonics well now, and beginning to remember finger spaces and full stops.

Our role play area has been changed into a Pet Shop and Vet.  At the start of the week an adult modelled the types of things the children might do, along with discussions about the children's own experiences of going to these places.  They have looked after the new resources really well and we have observed some fantastic role play and great language.  Ellie made a great vet, calling Amelia over (who was waiting patiently in the waiting area) to look at the x-ray of her poorly dog.  "Come and look at this bone here!  You see - it's all wobbly.  He's going to need an operation!"

At the painting table the children have been painting pictures of their pets and making pet stick puppets.

We've loved the outside area this week as the weather has been glorious - it's been great to get out there and have a good clear out.  Mrs Palmer has spent a long time setting up and resourcing new areas for the children to ensure it is a space where children continue their learning in all areas of the curriculum. 

Toast Tuesday was eagerly welcomed, with a  long waiting list drawn up (after the children had telephoned ahead to make a booking with Miss Curtis). We will continue to support the children in the preparation of toast for snack on a Tuesday until they are ready to earn their Toast License.

Next week is Book Week.  A separate email has been sent with details of events happening during the week.  Please see a member of the Team if you would like to be a Mystery Reader during the week.  Remember Friday is Dress Up as a book character day.

A few reminders ;

Please pay this terms snack money via Parent Pay if you have not yet done so.

Please ensure PE kits are in school for the whole term.

Please ensure that ALL items of clothes are named.

Send your child to school with a waterproof coat every day - even if it is sunny in  the morning.

Ensure book folders are in school each day.

If you have a pet that you would be happy to bring in to school for a short visit to enable your child to talk to their class about how they care for it please see a member of the Team. 

Over the half term we have a number of exciting events planned; a trip to Pets at Home and Aldi, a visit from a local vet, a visit from Wood Green Animal Shelter and a trip to Croxton Park Farm to see the lambs (fingers crossed some will have been born).  There is no cost for any of these events, but we will require permission for the minibus trips so please ensure these are returned to school when they are sent out.

Have a great weekend,

The EYFS Team.

Week Ending Friday 15th February 2019

We've made it to the end of another busy half term and we are all (children and adults) looking forward to a well earned break!

This week we have brought our Winter Adventure topic to a close by focussing on Polar Animals.  We have named different animals, discovered whether they live in the Arctic or Antarctic, and written clues to describe them in a 'Who am I?' manner.

The children have also been using non fiction books and posters to make our own information books about Polar animals.  It's been great to see the children using their phonic and writing skills independently.

In Maths we have been exploring 2d shape; making pictures with them, describing their properties and going on shape hunts around the school.

The children have all had a go at baking this week, and we have encouraged them to be as independent as possible, following a set of picture instructions and using a balance scale to measure out the ingredients.  We hope you enjoyed them!

We have also been continuing our learning about Conflict Resolution; how to deal with fall outs between friends and how to resolve them in a fair way.

Today your child will bring home an information sheet about 'Observations at home'.  We would love for you to make some observations of your children over the holiday and the information sheet will explain how to do this.  Also coming home is a Phase 2 High Frequency word mat.  We are now working well within Phase 3 of our Phonics, but we would like for the children to be able to recognise these Phase 2 words very quickly, by sight.  You can use the list to make your own flashcards or pairs games, or there are a number of games on www.phonicsplay.co.uk and www.ictgames.co.uk which the children are familiar with playing.  The children should all be able to have a go at writing these words too now, or making them with magnetic letters or single letter flashcards.  On www.topmarks.co.uk (early years) there are a number of counting games which the children are also familiar with.

After half term our learning will focus on 'Pets'.  If you have any exotic or unusual pets at home that you would feel comfortable bringing in to share with the children please see a member of the team to arrange.  We are hoping to arrange minibus trips down to Pets at Home and Aldi towards the end of the term, more information to follow.

Have a great week off!

The EYFS Team

Week ending Friday 8th February 2019

Kung Hey Fat Choi!!

This week we have been learning all about Chinese New Year.  We have looked at where China is located on the globe and found out lots of interesting facts about how the festival is celebrated all over the world.  We watched some short cbeebies clips about a family in Liverpool preparing for and celebrating the New Year.  We have learned why red is such an important colour.

We listened to traditional stories about why each new year is named after an animal, and the children have enjoyed making masks of the animals, and using toy animals to act out the story.

We have practised our mark making and letter/word/name formation in sparkly red and gold sand using chopsticks.

In Maths we have been using ordinal language to describe the animals in the race; 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc and using 2d shapes to make dragon faces,

We have made fans and lanterns.

On Tuesday Mick from the St Neot's Dragon Boat Team came to visit us and told us all about dragon boat racing and showed us the head from the dragon boat.  We all got to have a bang of the drum - which was really loud!  Mick left us some colouring sheets and he will pick a winner!  A cinema voucher will be on it's way to the lucky winner!

On Wednesday we all enjoyed a range of Chinese food, cooked and served by our fantastic Mrs Palmer and Ms Crawford and parent volunteer Mrs McQuillan.  The children had a go at using chopsticks, and we were very proud of some children who were trying something new for the first time.

On Thursday we had a fantastic afternoon with our Dad's, Mum's and Grandparents making some fantastic dragons.  All of the dragons were amazing and the children enjoyed having them on display in Celebration assembly today.

Next week we bring our Winter Adventure to a close (with a little bit of love thrown in too!)

Have a good weekend,

The EYFS Team 

Ending 1st February 2019

The snow has finally arrived!!

The children had another icy surprise this week which has been around the story 'Lost and Found' by Oliver Jeffers.The children have been busy writing lost posters to help rehome the lost penguin and writing about their favourite parts of the story. This then lead on to writing their own penguin books and labelling different parts of a penguin.

The children have used their cutting skills to make a sparkly fish to feed the penguin and keep him happy. They have followed instructions to make a 3d penguisn and using different joining skills to see which method is the best! Then we used 2d shapes to make penguins as well. The children have explored playing with ice this week and looking at what happens, how it feels and ways to make it melt.

In phonics we have been learning the diagraphs ch, sh, qu and th (two letters that make one sound). The children loved the game they played and they asked to play it during their busy learning time. We challenged them to write their own words on stickers using these diagraphs.

In maths we have been looking at the properties of 10. The children have been using the numberblocks to count, add together and writing their own number sentences! They have also enjoyed matching the right quanity of objects to the number on the snowmen and penguins. Some children have challenged themselves by adding one more or one less and then coming to share their learning with an adult.

The children had a suprise when they were checking on their bird feeders they had made last week, that all the food had gone!! The children were VERY excited knowing the animals had eaten the food they had made and put out for them.

They have also had a fantastic morning playing in the snow! The smiles on their faces are lovely to see and we wanted to share this with you too!

NEXT WEEK: We have based our learning on Chinese New Year and we are looking forward to seeing some of you join your children to come in and make a dragon! Please remember that we can only have one family member per child and any boxes, paper, bottles and anything else you think you can use to make a dragon!

On Wednesday afternoon as part of learning about Chinese New Year we will be food testing some traditional food, the children may wear an item of red clothing as this is seen as good luck!

Hope you have a lovely weekend and keep warm if we are lucky enough to get more snow :)

The EYFS Team

Week Ending 25th January 2018

This week in Early Years we have continued our learning around 'One Snowy Night'.  The children have been writing lists of items that would help to keep Percy and his animal friends warm in the snowy weather.  We are really pleased with how well they are applying their phonics to help them with their writing.  The children have also been making their own Percy books; writing descriptions of the characters from the story.  We've also taken lots of 'Helicopter Stories' from the children this week and they have enjoyed acting them out.

Our number this week has been Number 9.  We've practised counting to nine, counting nine objects, ordering number to nine and using the 'part, part whole' method to find out 'what's in 9?'

We've also talked this week about how the animals find it tricky to find food in the winter months, especially if the ground is very hard or frozen or even covered in snow!  The children have been busy making bird feeders which we will hang around our outdoor area next week and do a bit of bird spotting.

In the creative area the children have explored painting with powder paint onto blocks of ice.  We've also had some fake snow in the tuff tray and the children used a variety of white materials to turn of small world town into a snowy town.

Next week our focus will be the story 'Lost and Found' by Oliver Jeffers.

Have a good weekend,

The EYFS Team.

Week ending Friday 18th January 2018

What a busy busy week we've had in Early Years!  Our Winter Adventure has continued with our visits to Priory Park.  The children all showed a great growth mindset and had a go like Hector to dress themselves appropriately.  At the park we looked for; signs of winter,  Percy the Park Keepers animal friends and places for the animals to keep warm and safe during the winter months.  We were very lucky to see; robins, squirrels, some hibernating ladybirds and even some deer footprints in the mud!    Mrs Preston and Mrs Palmer had great fun and the children were extremely well behaved and shared lots of their ideas with us.

Meanwhile, back in the unit we have learnt the story of 'One Snowy Night' by Nick Butterworth.  The children have learnt to tell the story themselves using actions and puppets.  During our Teacher Training Day at the beginning of term the EYFS staff took part in a day of Helicopter Stories training, a story telling method where children tell an adult a story (and the adult scribes it down) and then children act our their story on a stage marked out on the carpet.  We have started to put the training into practice and the children have been acting out published stories (wriiten by children) and some children have had a go at telling their own stories to an adult and then acting them out.  We look forward to continuing this next week.

Our Maths focus this week has been Number 8.  The children have practiced writing the number 8, counted 8 objects and partition 8 to write number sentences.  We also explored 'octo' and had a go at making an octopus with the correct number of tentacles.

We've also enjoyed our Winter Role Play Shop; trying on different winter clothes and making and serving hot chocolate to the customers.  We've developed our skills in using a range of tools to make a snowy paper chain with the added challenge of making it reach all the way to Mr Downs' office.  Scroll through the photos to see if we achieved it!

Also this week the children have been learning how to make their own toast!  They have listened very carefully to Miss Curtis as she has explained to them how to do it.  Yum!  The children will spend a number of weeks working with an adult doing this, until we feel they are ready to take the 'Toaster Test' and have a go at doing it on their own.  We are excited to be teaching the children another skill which we hope to see them use independently within the unit by the end of the year.  The activity has been fully risk assessed and safety measures are in place.

Finally this afternoon we all enjoyed a lovely cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows after a chilly stint outside at lunchtime.  Fingers crossed for a dusting of the white stuff over the weekend.

The EYFS Team.

Week ending Friday 11th January 2019

The EYFS Team have enjoyed welcoming our children and families back after the Christmas break.

When the children came back to the setting winter had set in, ice and snow was evident everywhere!!!!!! What a way to begin a Winter Adventure.

The children have been busy this week drawing and writing about their favourite Christmas gifts, practising mixing water and powder paint together and painting a snow scene, making snowflakes whilst developing their cutting skills, counting 1p coins and how to recognise different coins and completing card jigsaws!

One child took his learning home and made some snow, which he brought into school and shared with his friends.

Next week we will be carrying on our Winter Adventures with a trip to Priory Park. Please make sure you have sent back your permission letter by Monday and provide your child with suitable warm clothing, to be sent in a named carrier bag on Monday, as explained in our second letter.

We would like to wish you all a fabulous weekend!

The EYFS Team

Week Ending Friday 7th December 2018

This week in Early Years has been yet another busy one!!!!!!!!!! The children have written their letters to Father Christmas, began to decorate the unit for Christmas and have been trying hard to put phonemes they know  together to write small words like is, it, am, on, in, up, and an.

We have also been on the stage for a run through of our Nativity and today we tried our costumes on.  The children are really looking forward to performing for you - make sure you've got your tickets (and tissues) !  We will be holding a raffle at the performance so bring your shiny pennies - all proceeds will go towards buying something lovely for the children's busy learning.

Have a lovely weekend

The EYFS Team.

Week Ending Friday 30th November 2018

This week there has been a theft in Early Years!!  We were all looking forward to sharing Mrs Howitt's birthday cake on Monday as we ran out of time last week -but SHOCK! HORROR! it had disappeared!  And so began the hunt for the cake thief.

The children had lots of ideas of who the culprit could be - ranging from Mr Down, a ghost, Pipsqueak the gerbil  to Amelia's daddy (because he likes cake!)  We then set about making traps, posters and plans for how we could catch the thief.  We found some clues; a few crumbs and a hole in the ceiling.  Who could it be and how did they get in?

Our writing focus has been writing about our own birthday experiences.  We have discussed our last birthday; did we have a party?  What sort of cake did we get?  What presents did we get?  How old we were and how old we will be on our next birthday.  We drew a picture and used our phonics to help us write a sentence to match.  The children are getting really good at stretching out their words and knowing which letters to write down to represent the sounds they can hear.

In maths this week we have been learning about the number 6.  The children have been counting to 6, making patterns with 6 things, writing the number 6 and exploring 'what's in 6?'  They are getting really good at partitioning and are beginning to use mathematical language involved in addition; eg five and one more make six.

We've also started getting Christmassy this week by making some bauble decorations to help decorate the school corridors, and today we have decorated trees in the classroom.

The children have also been busy practising our songs for our Nativity.  We've had our first full run through and tried on our costumes to check they fit.  If you received a note requesting a costume be sent in from home, please ensure we have this by Monday 3rd December.  Don't forget to send your ticket requests in to the office.

We hope to see you at the Christmas Fair tomorrow, 11am - 2pm in the school hall.  Thank you for your donations - it was lovely to see all the Christmas jumpers.

Have a good weekend!

The EYFS Team.

Week Ending Friday 23rd November 2018

The children have been learning all about how to keep themselves safe when out and about by the roads this week, as Bushmead has taken part in national Road Safety Week.

We started the week by learning about safe places to cross the road.  We then spent the week taking a walk out to the zebra crossing on Nelson Road to put this into practise.  The children were great at remembering what to do, and we did make it clear that they should not be crossing roads by themselves but always be with an adult.  The children have role played being a school crossing patrol and drawn our own roads and maps.  We also made super bright versions of ourselves to help us to Be Bright to Be Seen!

Our maths focus this week has been a consolidation of number 1-5.  We have been explaining our understanding of  missing numbers and matching quantities to numerals.

At the end of the week we started to get ready for Mrs Howitt's birthday.  We read Kipper's Birthday and then set about getting ready for our own party, which we had in the afternoon.  A great time was had by all, although we were a bit disappointed that we ran out of time to share the cake!  Mrs Howitt said not too worry and we can have it on Monday.

Today we have been very busy making traffic light biscuits.  Donations received will be going to Brake, the Road Safety Charity.

Over the weekend, please could you ensure that you check all of your children's jumpers and cardigans.  We have a number of children who have missing items but they are not in school anywhere.

Also, if you could ensure that your children come to school prepared for the cold weather, including hats, scarves and gloves.  If you could practise over the weekend getting your children to do up their own zips (if they can't already do it) we would be most grateful.

Have a good weekend

The EYFS Team

Week Ending Friday 16th November 2018

Another busy week down in Early Years!  We had a new Pete the Cat stoy this week - Pete the Cat and the New Guy.  Pete was very supportive to his new neighbour and we discussed how we can be a good friend by saying encouraging things, being kind and having fun.  The children made a 'jointed' Pete the Cat, using split pins to give him moveable legs.  A tricky method of joining materials together but the children persevered with it.

Number 5 was this weeks number, and again we looked at 'the fiveness of five', and partitioning (part,part,whole).  Don't forget to ask your child 'What's in three?  What's in five?' etc and use any objects you have at home to explore partitioning groups. 

We have started learning our Christmas Songs for our spectacular Nativity Performance in December.  The children are picking the songs up really quickly, we held auditions for solo roles and watched previous years shows to get an idea of what 'being on the stage' is like.

Your children were amazing during our open morning for our September 2019 parents and children.  We had lots of great feedback so well done Early Years!

The children have been using the real drills and hammers this week too, moving on from hammering into the pumpkins to drilling and hammering into wood.

Next week we are taking part in Road Safety Week.  The focus is on how to keep ourselves safe when out and about by the roads and on our bikes.  Look out for emails from the office with more information.  Our activities will include going for a walk to the zebra crossing and making sure we can all cross the road safely.  We are also going to start thinking about Birthday's, as a continuation of our 'Celebrations' topic.

Have a good weekend,

The EYFS Team.

Week Ending Friday 9th November 2018

Whizz! Pop!  Bang!!  We hope you enjoyed Bonfire Night.  The children have taken part in a number of firework activities this week.

Mrs Preston has been teaching the children how to be very independent at our painting station.  We have been learning how to pour just a very small amount of paint from the squeezy bottles into our palettes, have explored what happens when we mix some colours and experimented with different ways to use our paintbrush to produce firework pictures.  After we had created our masterpieces, we washed our equipment up all by ourselves and put it away ready for the next person to use.  We've also used loose parts to make bright firework pictures,  made rockets and sparklers and created music with the instruments.

Mrs Howitt has been writing with the children this week about their experiences of fireworks.  We have taught the children the tricky word 'I' to use in their reading and writing.  The children have been stretching out the words they want to write and writing down the sounds they can hear, with a lovely picture to finish it off.

In Maths this week we have be exploring 'the fourness of four' and have learned that there are lots of different ways to make four.  We've also been four detectives, searching for objects and shapes with four; four legs, four sides etc.  Make some collections of 'four' things at home this weekend and practise writing the number 4 (we write it with the open top; down, across and down again).

Outside this week the children have been collecting sticks to make a bonfire with Mrs Palmer, followed by making a lovely hot chocolate to warm ourselves up!

Towards the end of the week we thought about Remembrance Day.  We talked sensitively about how poppies help us to remember the brave men, women and animals who fought in wars.  We created lots of lovely poppies using a wide range of different media and materials.  At the end of our Celebration assembly today, the children were amazing and took part in a minutes silence along with the rest of the school.  Well done Early Years.

Finally, this afternoon, having spent the week using various tools to get into the pumpkins and removing all of the seeds, we took the remains out into the environment to leave out over the weekend for any wildlife to feast on!

Next week our learning will be linked to Anti Bullying Week where we will focus on being a good friend and conflict resolution.

Now a few reminders:

Book folders, with reading books and diaries need to be in school every day please.  Please read with your child AT LEAST three times a week and write a comment each time you share a book.  Books will be changed twice weekly, as long as a comment is in the book.

Please ensure your child has a warm waterproof coat in school every day.

At the end of the day, please ensure you come all the way into the EYFS playground through the gate so that we can ensure your child reaches you safely.  Oak parents d=should stand on the left (blue side) and Ash on the right.

Could you please check that all of your child's clothing is named and that you have the correct clothing at home.  We have had a number of parents expressing that they are missing jumpers or cardigans but they are not in the EYFS unit anywhere.

Parent consultation sheets, following Parent's Evening will be sent home next week.

Have a great weekend,

The EYFS Team.

Week Ending Friday 2nd November 2018

What a busy first week back after the half term holiday!  We hope you all had a good rest.

We started the week with our whole school Everybody Writes Day.  The theme was 'Spooky Spells' and we based our busy learning on the popular Julia Donaldson book 'Room on the Broom'.  The children are really fantastic at joining in with reading the text - if you've got it at home or find it on YouTube and get them to join in.  We then thought about our own spells and what ingredients we would put in them, and this was our writing focus for the week.  The children are beginning to stretch out their words and identify the phonemes they can hear, and are having a go at writing down the sounds they can hear.  All children demonstrated a 'Have a Go' attitude, even collecting Hector to put on the table with them for support!  Ethan and Junior were chosen to have their writing displayed in the front entrance - Well Done Boys!!

All week the children have been filling and emptying different sized containers to make their own potions - we've been turned in to a whole range of things; from slugs to frogs to ham sandwiches!  The children have been using language such as full and empty.

The children have been practising lots of different shaping and joining methods this week to make spiders, witches hats and spiders webs.  We've also made observational drawings of pumpkins.

In phonics this week we have learned the phonemes m,d,g and o.  We have been matching the letters shapes, sounds and real objects and having a go at writing them.

Number 3 has been our Mathematics focus this week.  We've counted objects and actions, learned the language first, second and third and today we learned to 'partition'(split) three into two groups.  We have introduced the 'part, part, whole' method to the children.  They have three objects, and explore how those three objects can be split into two groups, such and two and one, one and two, three and zero, zero and three or one and one and one, noticing that there are still three objects in total.  Have a go with any objects you have at home this weekend, asking 'What is in three?'  We've also looked at triangles.

Finally, we all had a go at making our own bread this week.  Everyone helped to weigh ingredients, mix and knead the dough.  We hope you enjoyed eating them at home!

Today your child has brought home their first school reading book, along with a reading diary, inside a plastic folder.  Please share this book at home with your child, using the guidance on the inside of the reading diary.  If it is a wordless book, the purpose of this is to encourage your child to use storybook language and 'tell' and story by 'reading' the pictures.  Please keep the books clean and dry.  Folders must be brought to school every day so that your child can be heard read throughout the week and books can be changed.  Books will only be changed if there is a comment in the diary.  The children have also brought home a book from Book Trust.  Please share this story so that the children can talk about it with us on Monday.

We've talked about Firework Safety this afternoon, so have a great weekend if you're going to a show or celebrating in your own gardens.  Next week our learning will be all about Fireworks.

The EYFS Team.

Week Ending Friday 19th October 2018

Congratulations!!! Your amazing children have made it to the end of their first half term at school!

This week we've kept the busy learning going - despite some very tired children.

We have continued with our phonics learning this week.  We have now learned the phonemes : s, a, t, p, i and n.   We have started to blend these phonemes together to read simple two and three letter words, such as ; at, as, an, in, it, is, tip, pin, sit, sat, tap, pat, pan, nap.  At home, you can make your own letter cards and try putting them together in different ways to make words.  Say each sound individually, then get quicker and quicker until the whole word is blended together.  This is called 'blending'.  The reverse of this is 'segmenting', where you say the word you want your child to make and have the letter cards laid out in front of them, and they have to 'chop' the word up into the individual sounds they can hear.  So you say 'tap' and your child chops it up into t-a-p and puts the letter cards in the correct order.  Try this at home this week.  We've also enjoyed making tigers and parrots and inky mice, all the while practising writing the letters.

In our maths learning we have been exploring 'the oneness of one' and 'the twoness of two'.

We have been recognising how one can be represented in different ways; the numeral, one dot on a dice, on a clock, a 1p coin, a circle has one curved edge.  We've done the same for number two.  For number two we've explored how it can be made up of one, and another one, or one and one more.  We have shown the children how this can be represented with objects, thought about what we have two of (eyes, legs etc) and items that come in twos (pairs) such as shoes, socks and gloves.  Try collecting pairs of objects, and as your child brings them to you say 'one sock, and another one makes two socks altogether'.   We've also shown the children how this can be recorded as a number sentence 1+1=2, and 2=1+1.

This week we have also been talking lots about how to keep ourselves healthy.  We've discussed a healthy diet, brushing our teeth, getting a good nights sleep and exercising.  To finish off this discussion we walked our first 'Bushmead Mile'; four laps around the school field.  This is something we aim to try and do at least three times a week after the half term holiday. 

After half term, our busy learning will be based on the theme of 'Celebrations'. 

Don't forget to sign up for Parents Evening if you haven't already done so, on Thursday 1st November, between 2pm and 6pm in the small hall. 

Please remember, once your child turns 5 years old they will no longer receive free milk, so if you would like them to continue to have milk you need to sign up via the Cool Milk scheme, details from the office.  Free milk stops the Monday the week your child turns 5.  Please send back PE kits the first day back, and ensure your child has welly boots and a warm waterproof coat in school every day.

Have a great week

The EYFS Team.

Week Ending Friday 12th October 2018

It's been a week full of busy learning down in Early Years!  We started the week by learning the story of 'The Little Red Hen'.  This is a repetitive story which we put actions to, which has enabled the children to be able to retell the story in their own words.  Ask your child to have a go like Hector and tell you the story!  Some children were so good at it and became movie stars as we filmed them retelling the story on the iPad.  The children have also drawn pictures of their favourite part of the story and again demonstrated a have a go attitude by showing us their mark making and writing about their picture.  Now, in the story the Little Red Hen's friends were not particularly helpful or friendly, so we talked about what makes a good friend and the qualities we look for.  The children have also made friendship bracelets and have been handing them out to their friends in class.

As we have used Hector to help us so much this week we decided to create pictures of him using a range of media.  We have some wonderful creations which will soon be up on display for the children to admire each others work.

We started our formal phonics teaching this week and have introduced the letters s,a,t and p.  Please see the information below if you missed our workshop on Thursday.  The children have made snakes and decorated apples as well as having a go at writing the letter shapes.

Outside the children have enjoyed the sunny weather at the beginning of the week but have had to spend the last few days sweeping up the enormous amount of leaves covering the playground - this is a great activity for developing good shoulder pivot which is a precursor to great letter formation!

On Thursday the children made us all extremely proud with their performance in Church for our Harvest Festival.  They loved the trip down on the minibus, sat beautifully and sang brilliantly.  They have enjoyed the Harvest Samba song so much they keep asking to sing it throughout the day.

A few reminders before the weekend:

Please could you check that all of your child's jumpers and cardigans are named, and that you have the correct items at home.  We have a number of parents whose children have gone home without jumpers/cardigans but they have not been found in the unit.  We had a pile of lost property, unnamed, which has now gone to the main entrance.

Please pay your snack and cooking money, via Parent Pay if you have not already done so.  We are hoping to make bread next week.

Have a great weekend,

The EYFS Team.

Phonics & Reading Parent Meeting, Thursday 11th October 2018

Thank you to those that attended our meeting/workshop this afternoon.  We hope you found it useful and informative in guiding you along your child's journey to becoming a reader and a writer.

Please find attached below the meeting presentation and hand outs.

As always, if you have any questions, please do come and see a member of the EYFS Team.

Week Ending Friday 5th October 2018

The wonderful Early Years children have had another busy and productive week!

They have experienced a range of activities based around Autumn, Harvest and our learning power 'Hector The Have A Go Hedgehog'.

One of the most popular activities on offer this week was our clay investigation. The children enjoyed exploring and moulding the clay using their hands and tools. We are sorry for all the dirty t-shirts and jumpers this produced!!!!!!!!!!!

Another popular activity was our autumn leaves investigation.The children used magnifying glasses to look at the leaves in detail.They then used greaseproof paper and wax crayons to produced an autumn leaf rubbing.

The children have been encouraged this week to express their writing skills. We have provided opportunities for them to write under and on top of tables. It was fabulous to see so many children writing and giving meaning to the marks and letters they produced!

Towards the end of the week Mrs Preston took small groups of children for a walk around our school grounds. The children were investigators identifying signs of Autumn in a familiar environment.

A few reminders for next week: our whole school Harvest Festival will take place on Thursday at St Marys Church and in the afternoon. Mrs Howitt and Mrs Preston will be delivering a presentation on the teaching of phonics and how to support your child to become a reader.

We hope you all have a lovely weekend!

The EYFS Team

Week ending Friday 28th September 2018

Another busy week here in Early Years!  Our Summer children have enjoyed staying for lunch this week and our Autumn and Spring children have stayed all day.

On Tuesday Mr Down visited us for a special assembly - he introduced us to our Learning Power friend Hector the Have a Go Hedgehog.  Hector helps us when we are learning to do something new, or are finding something tricky.  He tells us to "Have a Go", and that it's ok if we "can't do it yet".  You can find out more about our Learning Powers on our Thrive Values page (home / about us / our thrive values) .  Following on from this it has been lovely to hear the children referring to Hector during their busy learning activities.  They have made homes for Hector at the modelling table using a range of boxes and have used a  variety of materials to decorate them and make them comfy inside.  Outside a number of children have demonstrated a 'have a go' attitude by accomplishing the fireman's pole.

We have been exploring the outside area and went on to the big field to look for signs of change and Autumn.  We collected sticks and talked about their differences.

We have made pictures and models of 'Pete the Cat', a character from a story we have been sharing about Pete and his new school shoes. 

The children have also been developing their fine motor skills through a range of threading activities and using the hole punch.

In preparation for next week we have been learning our Harvest Festival Song ready to perform in Church next Friday.

Next week we will be focussing on Autumn and Harvest and look forward to all children staying all day, 9am - 3pm, drop off and pick up from our back gate.

Have a great weekend,

The EYFS Team.

Week ending Friday 21st September 2018

This week we have welcomed our Summer children in the afternoons.  We have enjoyed spending the week getting to know them, sharing their 'All About Me' books and playing some 'getting to know you' songs and games.  The children have all settled extremely well, and have quickly learned where to put their coats and book bags.  We've had great fun on a Bushmead adventure, introducing ourselves to all of the important adults in school and saying hello to our bigger brothers and sisters.  Outside the children have been busy collecting conkers!

Our morning children this week have also been collecting conkers and we have used them to print with.  All of the children have drawn us a picture of themselves and their family.  Our block play area has been very popular this week; the children have been building towns, trains and houses.  Children have shared the story of 'A squash and a squeeze' with Miss Crawford, joining in with the rhyming words and retelling parts themselves.

The main event this week for our morning children was obviously staying for lunch!  The children have been great at choosing their lunch, sitting well at the tables demonstrating good manners and eating really well.  Our lunchtime organisers have enjoyed getting to know the children this week.  Next week, when our morning children stay all day they will be supervised by these lovely ladies in our outside area.

You should have received your details for ParentPay, our online system for payments.  Could we please ask that you pay this terms snack money so that we can place our first Tesco order for snacks and cooking.

Next week, all children are starting school at 9am, and should enter from our back gate.  All children are staying for lunch, with the Summer children going home from the front office at 12.30.  Could we kindly ask, if your child is bringing in a packed lunch from home that none of the items contain nuts or traces of nuts as we have children with nut allergies in the unit.  The remaining children will be finishing at 3pm from the back gate.

Please find below a copy of the 'Things to remember' document, and our topic web for the Autumn first half term; Marvelous Me!

Have a great weekend,

The EYFS Team.

Week Ending Friday 14th September 2018

Welcome to our Early Years page.  We have had an AMAZING first week with our Autumn and Spring children this week.  The adults have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the children in their smaller groups, and we have played a number of getting to know you games.  We've been on a Bushmead Adventure around the school building, saying hello to all of the important people; Mr Down, Mr Leonard, Mrs Coffey and Mrs 'Cherry Jam'.  Below are just a few pictures of some of the exciting activities we have taken part in, helping us to explore our new environment and make new friends.

Next week we look forward to bringing the two groups together and staying for lunch, and are eager to meet our Summer Children in the afternoons.

Have a great weekend!

The EYFS Team.

Week Ending Friday 13th July 2018

With only 8 more days until the end of term we write our penultimate update of what we've been up to in Early Years this week.

We started the week by thinking about how we would describe ourselves to our new teachers.  We wrote sentences about who we are, how old we are, what we like , who our friends are and what we are good at - lots of sentences to help our new teachers get to know us a little bit!

In our maths work this week we have been sharing numbers into equal groups.  We did this practically, and had to think carefully about how to give each duck the same number of biscuits. 

We geared ourselves up for the very important football match by using our creative skills to make hats and flags, and even had our very own football match outside.

Also outside this week the children have been discovering ways to move across the monkey bars.  Lots of risk taking and demonstrating our Have a Go Hector Learning Power.

On Wednesday we enjoyed spending some time with our new teachers who visited us down in Early Years and we wowed them by showing them what great busy learners we are.  They stayed for our final Learning Journal share with mums and dads.

Don't forget next Wednesday is our Summer Fun Day - you received an email last week with the details of this event.  Please see a member of staff if you did not receive this email, and please remember to pay your donation via ParentPay.

Have a good weekend!

The EYFS Team.

Week Ending Friday 29th July 2018

It's been a hot, hot week this week down in Early Years and we've been doing our best to keep the children nice and cool whilst still engaging in lots of purposeful play and busy learning activities.  Lots of water breaks, staying in the shade, quiet reflection times and the odd ice lolly!

This week our focus has been the text 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' by Eric  Carle.  We started the week by learning to retell the story, joining in with the repeated parts of the text and sequencing pictures in the correct order.  The children have even been using the iPads to record each other retelling the story in their own words.  Our writing focus has been a mixture of writing about our favourite parts of the story, retelling the story by writing simple sentences and some of our writers have been using their imaginations and changing the story to their own 'Very Hungry' stories; we've had Very Hungry Spiders, Slugs, Ladybirds and Worms to name a few.

In our maths work this week we have been working on simple addition, using pictures and objects, and then we challenged the children to make up their own addition sentences. 

Our own furry caterpillars turned into chrysalides over the weekend and this week we have transferred them from their eating pot to the hatching habitat.  As it happened over the weekend,  we have watched clips on the IWB to see how it happens.  This created lots of questions from the children which we tried very hard to answer accurately, and used good old Google to help us with the tricky ones!  We are now practising the skill of patience as week eagerly await their transformation into butterflies. 

We turned ourselves into hungry caterpillars this week and have been enjoying tasting a selection of the foods which the Very Hungry Caterpillar ate in the story.  Of course, everybody wanted to eat the chocolate cake, but the deal was we had to be like our friend Hector the Have a Go Hedgehog and try everything else first - even if we thought we wouldn't like it.  Everybody was great at this and showed a real Growth Mind set.  Some children really surprised themselves with what they discovered they liked, and even said that they were going to ask their mums to buy some the next time they went shopping.  We had pickles, salami, swiss cheese, pears, watermelon and of course the chocolate cake!

This week also gave us the opportunity to sneak up to Key Stage One as they were on their visit to Hunstanton.  We put our best detective disguises on and our quietest voices and we spent a little bit of time exploring the classrooms and then sat to have a story.  But shhhhhhhh, don't tell anyone what we did!

As the hot weather continues, please ensure that you apply an all day sun cream before school, provide a sun hat  and that the children are in loose fitting lightweight uniform.

Enjoy the weekend,

The EYFS Team.

Week Ending Friday 22nd June 2018

This week in EYFS has been one of the busiest ever! It is that time of year again when we welcome our new September pupils into the setting for Stay and Play sessions. Your children have been amazing and an absolute credit to you! They have welcomed the new children with kind words and actions, included them in their play and shown what independent learners they have become. 😊

On Monday morning the children received a special delivery linked to our learning about Minibeasts. Can you guess what they are? Ok I will tell you, it was caterpillars.

We talked to the children about how the caterpillars will grow and change over time this then formed the basis for our busy learning challenges.

The children have made Minibeast zig zag books, read Minibeast facts and created their own fact sheets, observed the caterpillars and have drawn and wrote what they could see, created high frequency word caterpillars using words that they could read, ordered their numbers to 20 and challenged themselves further to order numbers to 20 and beyond by counting in two's, they have taken part in balance bike activities, phonic sessions and walked the mile. 

Next week our learning will be based around the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar!

We would like to wish you all a very happy and sunny weekend 😌

The EYFS Team

Week Ending Friday 8th June 2018

Our week started off with a brilliant Everybody Seaside Writes Day.  The children wrote postcards, built boats, paddled in the sea by the lighthouse, created seaside pictures using different media and textures to name just a few things.  In the afternoon we were treated to a Punch and Judy Show.

On Tuesday the fun continued with our trip to the Pightle in Eaton Socon.  This was a fabulous introduction to our Mini Beast topic.  The children then used their Pightle experiences whilst busy learning throughout the rest of the week.

Look at what we have been up to........

Week Ending Friday 25th May

This week in Early Years we have been continuing our celebration of the Royal Wedding.  The children have been designing wedding dresses and drawing pictures of the happy couple, and using our phonics to write sentences about the exciting day.

The children have started writing a 'Bean Plant Diary', writing in the style of a 'recount' using words like first, then and next to start our sentences about how we planted a bean.  The children have been observing the plants this week and some have already started to grow roots!

In maths this week we have been developing our understanding of subtraction.  Some children have been doing this practically using dice and getting on and off a bus and recording number sentences.  Some children have been using a number line to count back from the larger number to find how many are left.

We were extremely proud of all of our children in their performance of our class assembly on Wednesday.  We hope you enjoyed it too and the opportunity to share their Learning Journals after.

We practised our Sport's Day races earlier in the week so are a bit disappointed that the weather was not kind to us today, but we look forward to being able to do it after half term.

Enjoy the break!

The EYFS Team.

Week Ending Friday 11th May 2018

This week in EYFS we have used the story of 'Jack and The Beanstalk' as a stimulus for learning.

We began the week by sharing and talking about the story. The children then took their understanding of the story and used it in their learning!

So what have the children been up to in their busy learning? Well they have been  designing their own giant pictures, writing the story of Jaspers Beanstalk, creating magic bean repeating patterns, beanstalk leaf threading and learning how to complete addition number sentences using a numberline.

When we reached Thursday the children were greeted with a mystery to solve!!!!!!!! There were footprints in the cloakroom, up turned chairs and a letter left for them to open!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Guess what it was from the giant and he was looking for Jack!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So the children busied themselves with creating posters to warn the children of Bushmead that a giant had been in their school, they made traps to try and capture him and generated words to help describe what the giant looked like to others.

At this moment in time the giant has not been found!

Week Ending 4th May 2018

This week the children have been continuing their learning from the story of Jasper's Beanstalk and have made their own story maps to help them with the retelling.  They all did amazingly well, remembering the sequence of the story, which included remembering the order of the days of the week.

In our maths work this week we have focussed on height, building and comparing different towers and walls with our block play, and creating taller and shorter beanstalks.  We have focussed on the language tall, taller, tallest and short, shorter, shortest.

The children have been successfully using our self service paint station to create pictures from the story, and using their joining skills to make cat masks.

Building on Mr Down's assembly about our new THRIVE values, we have been encouraging the children to work together as a community.  In class this has been shown through children taking on the roles of 'team leader' in our different learning areas within the classroom, and their role has been to ensure that the members of their team (the children using the area for busy learning) are taking care of the resources, sharing, taking turns, modelling ways to do things and working together to tidy away.  We hope to build on this idea over the next few weeks.

Today the children have enjoyed taking part in our PE festival along with Key Stage 1.

Enjoy the long weekend!

The EYFS Team.

Week Ending 27th April 2018

This week in Early Years we have been focussing on the story of Jasper's Beanstalk by Nick Butterworth.  The children have been learning to retell the story themselves, with actions and have been shown how to draw a story map, with pictures to help them retell it.  Next week the children will be having a go at making their own story maps.  The children have also been looking at non fiction books about plants and growing and some children have chosen to make their own books, writing about the things they know or have found out from reading.

In Maths we have been comparing objects by length, using the language long, longer, longest and short, shorter, shortest. 

Mrs Bannister has been introducing our new self service painting area to the children, allowing them to pour, mix and clear away their own painting equipment.  Next week we hope to see the children using this area independently.

To help with our fine motor skills we have been mashing Jasper's beans and threading leaves onto sticks to make a beanstalk.

Outside we have been giving our learning area a good spring clean - and the children have been busy planting the seeds and flowers we bought at B & Q last week.  Each child has planted their own sunflower seed and over the next few weeks the children will be taking care of them and watching them grow.

Next week we will be practising our skills on the balance bikes.  We have our own set of balance bikes but if you have a spare helmet which you would like to donate to our unit we would be most grateful!  Alternatively, if your child could bring a named helmet to school each day this would be most helpful.  In Maths we will be learning about height.

Could we please also remind you that the children need to bring a waterproof coat to school every day.  Don't forget to keep reading with your child AT LEAST 3 times a week and to practise the high frequency words.

Have a great weekend!

The EYFS Team.

Week Ending Friday 24th March 2018

This week has been another busy and productive week! The children have enjoyed their visits to Pets At Home and Aldi! During their visit to Pets At Home the children read signs and labels to support navigation of the shop, looked at and discussed what things different pets needed and met some pets which need re homing. In Aldi the children worked together to choose one healthy and one treat snack to bring back to school. The groups chose things such as strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, fairy cakes, chocolate brownies, mini rolls, apple juice and chocolate milkshake.

The children carried their own baskets, paid for the shopping and packed the shopping bags. As they walked around the store the children spotted many of the yellow price labels and could say what some items cost! Whilst walking around both shops we had many lovely comments from other shoppers about how engaged and well behaved the children were! We were all very proud of them!!!!!!!!!

In school this week the children have had great fun writing clues to guess their favourite pet, learnt how to use er and ear to read and write words, looked at a range of coins and discussed how to identify them leading on to adding a selection of coins to find a total amount, created Easter cards and have drawn and painted pictures of spring flowers.

Next week we will be focusing on the Christian celebration of Easter.

Have a lovely weekend.

The EYFS Team

Week Ending Friday 16th March 2018

This week has been Science Week at Bushmead.  Our focus for the week has been Humpty Dumpty and the children were given the challenge of finding a suitable material to make a soft landing for Humpty so that he wouldn't crack when he fell of the wall.  Lots of great discussions about different materials and their properties, lots of predicting and testing; and lots of cracked eggs!  The children have also enjoyed our new building blocks; building walls and testing how strong they are by rolling a ball at them.  We had a great workshop with James Boffin (Secret Science Agent) finding out about electricity, and on Wednesday we had a visit from a science technician at Longsands who demonstrated a number of experiments for us.

This week we were able to finish our visits to Croxton Farm.  There were lots of new lambs born, and on the Monday visit Mrs Howitt and the children got to see a lamb which had been born that very morning.  The children have been busy back in class writing about their visit.  The children are becoming so much more confident with their writing.  In Maths the children have been measuring the walls they have been building; working with a friend to take turns to build taller and shorter walls.

We've been blessed with some drier warmer weather so have been making the most of getting back outside, looking for signs of spring and making observational drawings.

Next week we will be visiting Pets at Home and Aldi as we will be focussing on money.  Please ensure you have returned your permission slip by Monday.