What Early Years got up to this week in the Prep School

Pre-Reception

This week we have been learning about spring. We have learnt that the weather in spring is changeable; we can experience warm, cold, sun and rain all in one day. We also learnt that many animals have their offspring in the spring and learnt the names of some ‘baby’ animals. We went to the nature pond in our outdoor classroom and observed the frogspawn. We are looking forward to visiting again to see how it has changed next week.

In Phonics, we have learnt how to pronounce the sound ‘l’. We have taught the children the rhyme ‘open your mouth a little; put your tongue up to the top of your mouth, behind your teeth, and press lllll’. This is a particularly challenging sound for young children to make and they find following this instruction equally difficult (by putting their tongue in front of and not behind their teeth). We have used mirrors to show the children where to place their tongues.

In Maths, we have explored capacity through the story of ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’. We have learnt the mathematical vocabulary: full/empty, half-full/empty, nearly-full/empty.

In our Jigsaw PSHE lesson we learnt about the importance of washing hands properly with soap and water both before eating and after going to the toilet.

Reception

Understanding the World    
This week we have been exploring spring. We have been learning about how the weather, sunlight hours, and how our environment changes. The children have compared spring to the other seasons and commented on what is similar and what is different. We have enjoyed sharing books including ‘Hello Spring’ by ‘Jo Lindley.’ The children took the opportunity whilst at Forest School to look for the early signs of spring arriving. 

Literacy 
In literacy we thought about spring and what happens during this season. We encouraged the children to think of their own sentences and record them, using capital letters and a full stop. We challenge them to use the vocabulary we had been exploring this week.  

Phonics    
This week we focused on longer words, words with s in the middle /z/ s, words ending –s and words with –es at end /z/. This included words visit, poison, foxes, and torches. We also continued to read longer sentences containing these words and writing them.

Maths    
This week in maths we continued to build on our previous knowledge of simple AB patterns from the autumn term. They were introduced to more complex patterns such as ABC and ABCD, where all the elements are different. We then progressed onto AABB, AAB and ABB patterns.