EYFS

The EYFS Framework explains how and what your child will be learning to support their development. Your child will be learning skills, acquiring new knowledge and demonstrating their understanding through 7 areas of learning and development.

Children should mostly develop the 3 prime areas first. These are:· Communication and language· Physical development· Personal, social and emotional development

As children grow, the prime areas will help them to develop skills in 4 specific areas. These are:· Literacy· Mathematics· Understanding the world· Expressive arts and design

Our Learning Journey…

‘Ourselves’

We have had a very busy start to our Autumn term and we are so pleased with how all the children have settled into Nursery and Reception. Our first topic was “Ourselves”. Within this topic, the children shared their ideas, likes and dislikes, similarities and differences. During this time, we also took part in the school diversity week; in which the children learned that it’s good to be different and that we are all unique.

We all painted our self-portraits.

‘Senses Day’

While learning about ourselves, Reception spent a day immersed in their senses. We used our senses to complete activities, such as feeling different objects and explained how they felt to others. Guessing the sound thinking about what it could be. Smelling different mystery ingredients and talking about what they could be, and whether we liked them or not. We did a taste-test and tasted lots of different foods and described how they tasted to others. We tasted bitter, sweet, salty and sour foods.

How Many Bears do you know?

This half-term, within our topic we have been talking about Autumn. In Nursery, they created and explored their very own pumpkin patch. The children weighed and sold their pumpkins in their roleplay shop. They loved it!

How Many Bears do we know?! We know loads! We have been reading lots of stories about them, including Goldilocks and the three Bears, Whatever Next and Don’t Wake Mr Bear. We have even been on our very own bear hunt! We have talked about how some animals prepare to hibernate in Autumn and all about the seasonal changes around us.

Sports Festival

Reception took part in the EYFS Sports Festival at Durham University. The children really enjoyed the activities; dancing, chasing, martial arts and team games. It was commented upon how well behaved our children were, “they listened and engaged with the activities so well.” And the children were a credit to the school. A brilliant day all around!

Chinese New Year

In spring 1, Nursery had a great time learning about Chinese New Year. We learned about how Chinese New Year is an important festival in China and for Chinese people all over the world. This year, it is the year of the rabbit. We looked at the traditional clothes worn in China and listened to Chinese music. We also made Chinese lanterns and dragons. We made our home corner into a Chinese restaurant and practiced using chop sticks. Our favourite part was tasting Chinese food, it was delicious!

In Reception, we learnt about Chinese New Year and how this can be celebrated. We read about “The Great Race” and learned about some of the animals in the Chinese Zodiac. In PE, we moved like some of the different animals from the Chinese zodiac. We also watched some Chinese dragon and lion dancing and had a go at our own dances.

We made some dragon puppets and decorated some Chinese lanterns using the Chinese lucky colour red. We tasted some Chinese food, such as rice, prawn crackers and spring rolls. We also had some fortune cookies! We explored lots of different activities around the classroom, such as writing our names in Chinese, writing numbers in Chinese, using chopsticks, making cards for our family and friends and acting out the story of the great race. We even took home a lucky money envelope with a coin in called hongbao!

Valentine’s Day

Nursery have had a great week celebrating love. We made valentines cards and valentines biscuits and gave them to our loved ones. We also made friendship potions and talked about the qualities of our friends.

Just before half-term, we celebrated Pancake Day! We all tried different toppings on our pancakes – syrup, lemon juice or jam!

Nursery have been learning all about ‘Fantastic Fairy tales!’. We have read Three Billy Goats Gruff, The Gingerbread Man, Goldilocks and the Three Bears and the Three Little Pigs. We have completed lots of different activities based on these stories. The children read the gingerbread man story and then had a go at dressing the gingerbread man. Once they had put the buttons on the gingerbread man the children counted how many buttons that they had used. After reading The Three Little Pigs, the children used a range of materials to build a new house for the three little pigs. Once the house was complete the children became the wolf from the story, and they huffed and puffed to try and blow the house down.

To introduce our new topic “Old McDonald had a Farm” Reception spent a lovely day at Newham Grange Farm. We saw lots of animals, including sheep, cow, horse and llamas. We stroked rabbits and guinea pig, saw the lambs keeping warm inside and fed the goat. The children loved playing in the play areas and play golf with our Governors.

Living Eggs – Chicks came to visit!

In Early Years, we had a special visit from the chicks that have hatched in school. We all had a turn stroking the chicks and some brave children even had a hold!

Coronation Celebrations

Nursery and Reception have enjoyed a wonderful day celebrating the King’s Coronation. At home the children have been busy making their crowns and in school they all made their own sandwich and decorated biscuits. We played traditional games and didn’t let the bad weather spoil our fun! God Save the King!

EYFS

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