Emerald Class Term 1

The children have settled in well exploring their new environment. They are starting to form new friendships and are having lots of fun. We have attached below a copy of this term’s topic web in order to give you an outline of the teaching and learning experiences for this term. The topic this term is called ‘Marvellous Me’ which will incorporate building relationships and finding out about ourselves. We will also be focusing on Nursery Rhymes.

Contact Books

Please can you use the contact books to share any information with us about your child, especially information about who is collecting your child. We check the contact books every morning.

Naming Items

Please ensure your child brings their book bag, a snack and water bottle to school each day. Please ensure all your child’s belongings are named, including snacks and lunchboxes, to avoid items going missing.

Snack

The children will be provided with either fresh fruit or vegetables as part of the government’s free fruit and vegetable scheme. It would be great if you could also provide them with a healthy snack, which will enable the children to have a snack in both the morning and afternoon.  If you wish your child to receive milk as part of their snack, please ensure you have registered your child with Cool Milk. 

School Dinners

In Reception the children are entitled to a free school dinner every day. A menu and an information leaflet regarding the free school meals were sent home in your original pack. All meals will need to be ordered online. Details can be found on the school website or alternatively, if you have any queries, please contact the school office.

PE

The children will be having PE on Tuesday. If your child wears earrings, these will need to be either removed for PE days or medical tape can be kept in their PE bag for your child to cover them up (the children will be responsible for applying and removing the tape). Any children with long hair will also need this tied up on a PE day to ensure their safety with equipment. PE kits need to be kept in school during term times.

Footwear

The children will always need a pair of wellies in school. These will need to be labelled clearly with your child’s name.

WOW moments

We love to celebrate your child’s WOW moments both in school and at home. To help us do this we ask you to fill in a WOW moment when your child has done something special, tried something new or done something that makes you say WOW! We ask that you fill them in with your child at home and bring them into school, where they can share with the class. These will all be displayed on our ‘WOW board’. Your child will be sent home with two WOW moment slips, when you need some more, please ask an adult in the class.

Topic Web

Please use the home learning ideas found within the topic web. If you wish to complete these pieces of homework, please send the work into school with a Wow Moment slip. This is a great opportunity for us to work together between home and school as a partnership.

Reading

Reading books will come home after the children have settled and we have established where the children are working within their learning. This may take a couple of weeks. Through our phonics teaching, your child will develop confidence in blending and segmenting words as well as building up their sound knowledge. We would encourage you to share the reading book at home with your child for approximately 10 minutes each evening (However, on a day where you or your child are overly tired, please do not force the reading, it should be a pleasurable experience for the both of you). Please date and sign their reading record and feel free to write a comment. It is important to share the same book with your child on numerous occasions so you can adapt the story, e.g., change the ending, make predictions, learn the tricky words, and ask comprehension questions when finished. Please keep your child’s reading record and reading book in their book bag and bring them to school every day. In class, children will be heard read to a member of staff at least once a week. As the Autumn Term progresses the children will start to be given letter sounds to practise at home.

Teddy Bear’s Picnic

Finally, on Friday 14^th October, we will be having a Teddy Bear’s picnic to celebrate our Nursery Rhyme topic (the children’s picnic will be their snack). For this celebration the children can bring a teddy bear to school. Please label the teddy bear with your child’s name.

We are very excited to be working with you and your children this year. If you have any questions, please feel free to write them in your child’s contact book or come and see us.

Many thanks,

Miss Hanna on behalf of Miss Horton and the EYFS Team  

Term 6

Welcome to our final term together in  Reception!

We hope that you had an enjoyable Jubilee long weekend, we can’t wait to hear all about it.

As this is our last term together we have lots of fun activities planned. Our topic this term is 'A Bucketful of Memories'. It will be a term full of fun learning with pirates and mermaids and we will be making lots of memories together. 

We are continuing with our transition to Year One and we are challenging ourselves to be the best learners that we can be. We are now working hard to complete our activities independently and be confident learners. Encouragement of this from home will be of great importance to your child. There will still be lots of play involved in our day to day learning, however, the children will also be provided with some more formal activities in preparation for Year One.

Homework

We would like to thank you for your support with your children’s learning at home. We enjoy reading the Wow Moments and sharing work, that your child has completed at home, with them in school. The children are always very proud of what they have done and it also supports the learning we do in school. This term we will continue with  reading, phonics and math’s challenges. 

PE  

PE will be taught by PH Sports on Tuesday afternoon. The children will need long hair tied back and they will need a pair of trainers or daps and a pair of jogging bottoms (navy or black) as they will start to have PE outside.

Miss Horton and the EYFS Team 

PCSO Visit

In the last week of term, we were lucky enough to be visited by PCSO Mark Cook. He told was able to tell us how the police help people and he even let us dress up in some police uniform. We then went outside and sat in the car and listened to the sirens.

Goodbye Ducks

Today we had to say goodbye to Digby, Delilah and Doris. We all had one last cuddle before they went back to the farm to have lots of fun with their friends. We will miss them.

Gardening Gang

We have started our garden project in our playground.

We are developing the grass area into a cottage garden. We have had a huge delivery of equipment and are now busy following our plans. We are excited to start growing our vegetables and flowers.

Ducks, Day nine

Today the children helped to clean out the duck's cage. we then wrote instructions to help people to look after their own ducks.

We also had a visit from a lady called Sarah who was able to tell us if the ducks were boys or girls. WE have 2 girls and a boy!

Ducks, Day Eight

Today was bath time for the ducks! They had lots of fun in the bowl of water and even tried escaping.

Ducks, Day Seven

The ducks are growing well. They had a fun weekend at home with Mrs Marsh. They are now feeding and drinking confidently and beginning to clean themselves. They are so much fun to watch when they chase each other around.

Ducks, Day Five

The last duck hatched last night. We have 3 lovely ducklings, Digby, Delilah and Doris (we are not actually sure if they are boys or girls). The children are fascinated and they have all had a little stroke of their heads. 

Now the fun begins with cleaning them out and feeding them!

Ducks, Day Four

Ducks Day Three

The ducks have started to hatch!

Ducks Day One

The duck eggs arrived at 12:00 today (just as the children were having their lunch).

Miss Horton took careful delivery of them and put them in the incubator. She had to turn the power on to heat the incubator and add water to keep the eggs moist. We have 6 eggs, fingers crossed that all will hatch. Keep watch for what happens next!

The Importance of Play

‘Play underpins the EYFS. It also underpins learning and all aspects of children's development. Through play, children develop language skills, their emotions and creativity, social and intellectual skills. For most children their play is natural and spontaneous although some children may need extra help from adults.’

Early Years Matters

Play is a crucial part of children’s development. They can learn so much through quality play. It may seem like they are ‘only playing’ but to them they are making sense of the world around them and learning and developing new skills. Therefore, it is important that they have a number of opportunities throughout their day to engage in play.