What Early Years got up to this week

PRE-RECEPTION

On Thursday we had a visit from Zora’s mum, who spoke to all the children about dental hygiene. All the children were very excited by their goody bags, which included top tips for parents. Thank you to Dr Aneka and Maisy for taking the time to visit the school.  

Moving on, Cultural Carnival Day was a wonderful experience for the children. It was lovely to see all the colours and costumes on display. The children took part in four workshops and had a great time at each one. A particular highlight, was listening to the steel band at the closing ceremony. This week, we consolidated our Maths and Phonics learning from this term. We have done this through interactive games, stories, and play.  

Maths

Our Maths focus next term will be: 

• Composition of 3 and 4;
• What comes after…?;
• What comes before…?; and
• Numbers to 5.

Phonics

In Phonics, we have been working on the initial sound in words. Next term, we will progress to hearing the final sound in words. Both of these are essential skills that form a firm foundation for writing. Children that have already mastered these skills will then move on to segmenting CVC words, such as c-a-t, d-o-g and m-a-t. We will also continue to ‘tune into sound’ to develop the children’s phonological awareness. 

PSHE

Our Jigsaw PSHE ‘puzzle’ will be ‘Changing Me’. In Pre-Reception, this involves singing ‘Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes’ and thinking about what each part of our body does for us. We will also consider how we can look after our bodies (using the term ‘respect’). The children will also think about how they have grown and changed over time. Finally, we will prepare the older children for their move from Pre-Reception to Reception and celebrate their accomplishments. 

RECEPTION

The children have enjoyed a busy week consolidating their learning from the term and preparing for Cultural Day.

Understanding the World

To conclude our learning on ‘Amazing Animals’ we focused learning all about minibeasts. The children loved learning amazing facts about bees. We read and solved ‘Who am I?’ riddles and the children even wrote their own.

Expressive Arts and Design

This week, we added the finishes touches to our display work in preparation for the Cultural Day exhibition. We were extremely excited to show you our completed minibeasts. The children used a range of skills over the weeks to create their masterpieces.

Literacy

At the beginning of the week, we finished writing our retell of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We used the story map we created in class to section the story into small pieces. Then, we practised saying the sentence before recording it. Once they had finished, they designed a cover page.

Phonics

This week, we completed phonic assessments on summer 1’s learning. The assessment was split into 3 parts. The first part revisited phonemes, while the second part listed 15 words covered this term. Finally, the assessment revisited tricky words. We were really pleased with the results. The results reflected how hard all the children have been working in phonics – well done!

Maths

In Maths this week, we revisited learning from this term. Additionally, we explored ‘sharing,’ Whilst sharing objects, we learned the importance of moving one item at a time and ensuring fairness. The explored reading and writing number sentences using the division sign.

Cultural Day

Finally, the children thoroughly enjoyed celebrating Cultural Day today. In their houses, the children took part in various activities throughout the morning. These included Ugandan games, Ugandan dance, Forest School, and craft making. The children were particularly proud to display their learning on minibeasts at the exhibition.

Find out more about Early Years here.