Summer 2 - Week 6

Our Last Week in EYFS

We have had a lovely last week in EYFS to celebrate coming to the end of Reception and moving forwards into Year 1. In our Literacy lessons we have wrote a letter to Miss James to tell her all about ourselves. In Maths we consolidated our understanding of numbers to 20. Through continuous provision the children were excited to create ice-creams by making their own playdough. In outdoor learning we enjoyed splashing about in water play and playing games of football. Through Physical Development we developed our gross motor skills by using the bikes, climbing, hoola hooping and dribbling a football. During Monday's worship we played a game which taught us that it is important to enjoy our lives but to be wise, disciplined and tolerant. They children loved rolling a dice to score a 6 and competing to eat a bar of chocolate, but they understood the feelings of coming close to success and narrowly missing out. We linked this to the the Euros final, England v Italy, and the children discussed the excitement and joy they felt just from taking part.

On Wednesday the preparations began for our 'End of Year Party'. The children baked their own chocolate cornflake cakes, enjoying melting, mixing, stirring and distributing the cake mixture. We made two cakes so we could taste one beforehand! At our 'End of Year Party' on Friday EYFS had so much fun. We played pass the parcel, musical statues and musical bumps. We had a dance competition and played with balloons. The children were so excited to bash the piñata! There were lots of sweets, chocolate and prizes on offer. We enjoyed eating the chocolate cornflake cakes we had made and cooling down with an ice pop after a run on the paddock. All of the children seemed so happy and it was lovely to have a treat after a fantastic year.

Thank you so much to everyone for all of the cards and gifts. The EYFS team are so grateful and appreciate all of your efforts. The children have worked very hard this year and we wish them every success in Year 1.

Have a lovely summer, stay safe and wishing you all the best for the future. ☺️

Summer 2 - Week 5

Welcome to the Puppet Show!

This term in EYFS the children have thoroughly enjoyed learning about the theatre and the arts. In our Literacy Development sessions, we watched the CBeebies theatre performance of Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's'. We developed our understanding of the structure of a play, the characters - actors and actresses, acts and scenes and the use of props. We were inspired to create our own performances and using our puppets that we have created in Expressive Arts and Design, we presented our very own puppet shows. The children were in stitches watching these, and thought they were absolutely hilarious. In Mathematics we have consolidated our understanding of grouping and sharing, using both concrete manipulatives and pictorial images to solve a variety of word problems. 

We had a brilliant time in our Physical Development activities on Thursday, the children have refined their footballing skills as England edge towards the final of the Euro's! They also developed their gross motor skills through skipping, hula hooping and climbing as they rotated through the activity stations. On Friday we completed some exciting gymnastics activities sent to us by Mrs Winward. The children show great skill and were able to progress to doing the splits! We were very lucky this week to have a special end of term treat and experience another Wild One Adventures visit, which you can find out more about below... 

Wild One Adventures - The Smeds and The Smoos

On Wednesday we had an amazing time with our space fairy in the Wurpular Wood, with the Smed’s and the Smoo’s from our current favourite Julia Donaldson book!

We jumped and bounced on the Humplety Hill and adventured down to the Loobular Lake to play in the water. We explored the Wurpular Wood with all our senses and decided that the Smeds and Smoos should all play together because it is much more fun!

After our big adventure we sat to explore colour mixing in the tough tray, to find that red and blue do make purple like the Smed’s and Smoo’s purple baby in the story! We then sat down to enjoy a drink and roasted marshmallows over the fire.

To finish our adventure we used ribbon sticks to dance and move to music in the outdoors, this was lots of fun.

What a wonderful time we had in the Wurpular Woods! 🌳
❤️+💙=💜

Summer 2 - Week 4

A Midsummer Night's Dream

EYFS were delighted to return to school this week after a period of remote learning at home. They embraced the warm weather and thoroughly enjoyed exploring the paddock and the field with their friends. In our Literacy lessons this week, we listened to Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. The children thought that this love story was hilarious, especially when Queen Titania fell in love with a donkey called Bottom. They were impressed that Puck, a Sprite, was able to cause so much mischief by using a magic flower called love-in-idleness to make the characters fall in love with the first person they see. The children all designed their own magic flower and ascribed to it a magic power. They applied their phonic knowledge to write about their magic powers, such as making you turn into a rabbit, begin to sneeze, vanish or turn invisible and jump up to the moon. They had such vivid imaginations and wonderful ideas. We enjoyed making our magic flowers through Expressive Arts and Design.

We have had such an exciting time in our outdoor provision, pretending to be Kings and Queens in our Castles developing our Understanding the World. In Mathematics, we have consolidated our doubling skills and ability to recognise odd and even numbers, and introduced the concept of sharing. Through our Physical Development sessions we have developed football fever, practising our football skills in the spirit of the ‘Euro’s. We even created England flags! On Friday we celebrated Sports Day which you can find out more about below… we had a wonderful time!

Sports Day

We have had such a brilliant day at Sports Day today! The children have participated in 7 races; the 100m running race, target shooting (throwing bean bags in a hoop), the egg and spoon race, the bean bag interval race, an assault course, a space hopper race and the sack race! We competed in our house point teams: Fire (red), Air (yellow), Water (blue) and Earth (green). The winner from each team then went head to head in each race to find the overall class champion and 2nd, and 3rd place. The children showed great sportsmanship, energy and enthusiasm. We had so much fun and continued the activities all day long! At the end of the day we were rewarded with an ice pop, sticker and certificates and stickers for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. We were so excited for our ice pops! 🍦 

We were also WOW'ed by the children who participated in the 'Virtual Sports Day' at home. We loved seeing the assault courses they had built and watching their families cheer them on at home. They showed true sportsmanship!

The overall winners in EYFS Reception were Water who took the lead by just 5 points! We all performed amazingly and are fantastic sports stars! All of the children deserve a big congratulations and a round of applause! 

Summer 2 - Week 3

Home Learning 

We have had another fantastic week of online learning in EYFS. All of the teachers are incredibly proud of the children for working so hard this week and even more amazing work has been completed and uploaded onto Tapestry.

During Maths, the children were able to recognise when a number or quantity is an even or an odd number. They looked at this through playing ‘odd one out’ and using the numicon pieces. The children have also begun to learn about double facts this week, using the ladybird doubling method.

During literacy this week, we have continued to read ‘The Smeds and The Smoos’ by Julia Donaldson. The children drew their own map of a planet, where they created some exciting areas such as candyfloss clouds and a strawberry farm. The children then retold their story first by creating two new alien characters, then by changing the setting where Janet and Bill explored their own planet and finishing the week by combining their new alien characters and new planet to create their own story.

This week in Expressive Art and Design, the children created their own thunderstorm using instruments and materials they could find around their house. The children used rice, pasta, tinfoil and drums to create their own thunderstorm. In our Understanding the World task this week, the children learnt all about their past when looking at their baby pictures. They had discussions about what they used to eat or play with in the past and how this is the same or different to what they eat and play with now.  In French, the children compared schools in France with schools in the UK noting the similarities and differences and repeating key phrases. Finally, in Gymnastics we enjoyed learning with Mrs Winward from home and meeting Mrs Winward’s dog! :)

Summer 2 - Week 2

School Learning 

The children had two very busy days in school this week, filled with learning and fun activities. They were experimenting with colour, making their own aliens on the creative table and building spaceships in the construction area. The second group of children loved creating their sock puppets with Mrs Dixon, creating many weird and wonderful designs. We also had multiple opportunities throughout the day for the children to develop their writing.

Home Learning 

Whilst this has been an unusual week for the children, they have adapted to home learning extremely well and the EYFS team are very proud of them. The level of work that has been produced and uploaded has been fantastic, and each child deserves a massive round of applause.

This week in Maths the children have further deepened their understanding of subtraction using concrete materials and pictorial methods. The children have gained a deeper understanding of number to 10, by looking closely at the composition of numbers and counting beyond 20. They have used tens frames, part-part-whole models and bar models to support them to solve subtraction word problems. In Literacy we have studied the book, ‘The Smeds and The Smoos’ by Julia Donaldson, which the children have really enjoyed. Throughout the week we have sequenced the story, identified, drawn and described the main characters and created our own aliens and wrote a description about them.

In our Expressive Arts and Design activity, the children used materials from around their house to create their own spaceships, and rockets, and we even saw some aliens too! We listened to some wonderful descriptions of the children explaining what they had made, how they had made it and what they had used to develop their creations. In Understanding the World, the children were tasked with observing the natural environment around them and creating a picture to represent what they could see. We saw many beautiful and detailed flowers, several birds and animals, and even a turtle! In PE, the children enjoyed dancing with Mrs Winward, and revising the different positions they have learnt in Gymnastics this year.

Summer 2 - Week 1

Hoddlesden Globe

Romeo and Juliet

It has been lovely to welcome the children back into the classroom this week, after a well-deserved half term break. The children have been eager to share and discuss all of the exciting activities they have experienced!

In our final school term, we commence the theme of the 'Hoddlesden Globe'. To begin, in our Literacy lessons we have studied the classic Shakespearean play Romeo and Juliet. The children were enthralled when listening to the age-appropriate adaptation, and responded with lots of questions about the rival families. We looked closely at the main characters Romeo and Juliet, and their families the Montagues and the Capulets. The children explored the city of Verona, Italy, where the story is set, and made comparisons between the city in the 16th Century and now. The children developed their understanding of the story to retell this, sequencing the key events. The children enjoyed looking at 16th century architecture and through Expressive Arts and Design the children explored mixing paints and combining materials to create castles and city scapes.

With Mrs Dixon, the first group of children began making their sock puppets. We will be using our own props and resources to conduct our own plays in the outdoor theatre, when exploring the art of the theatre and being imaginative and expressive.

In Mathematics, the children have began to learn about the inverse of addition, subtraction. They have explored developing their reasoning and problem solving skills by solving a variety of word problems using tens frames and the number line. We recognise that when we subtract, the number becomes smaller and is less than the original quantity. In our Physical Development sessions the children were particularly excited about developing their ball skills through football. 

Our Christian value this term is Service. As a class we have discussed how we can serve others, by sharing our talents and using these to brighten up each others day. 

Summer 1 - Week 7

Middle Eastern Culture

To conclude our Amazing Asia themed term, the children have enjoyed a second week of learning about the deserts of the Middle East and Asian culture. In our Literacy lessons, the children used their Understanding of the World of the desert to tell their own stories about a desert safari. Each child contributed to the story, adding an experience such as a sandstorm, an animal encounter such as a camel, sand cat, jerboa or snow leopard, and taking part in desert sports including dune bashing in a jeep, quad biking or sand boarding. Our stories brought the experience to life!

In Maths, we applied our understanding of addition to help us to solve real life problems using a variety of methods including concrete materials, jottings and the number line. 

We loved exploring mixing colours when creating our Cherry Blossom trees, so this week we decided to explore mixing red and yellow to create a desert scene in Expressive Arts and Design. In Gymnastics, the children have worked hard on developing their balance and co-ordination and are now confident to demonstrate forward rolls and embrace further challenge. We apply this in our indoor and outdoor provision, and EYFS have loved showing off their forward rolls in the Paddock. We have also enjoyed taking on the role of shopkeeper and customer, reading outdoors, playing on the farm, and exploring the garage. 

What a fantastic term! We would love you to see our 'Exploring China' display which is situated in the entrance hall to the school. We have shared below some photographs of the display and would love you to take a look. As always, we are incredibly proud of the work they have produced. The EYFS team hope you all have a lovely half-term break! 

Summer 1 - Week 6

The children in EYFS have had a busy week this week following our desert theme. In our Literacy lessons, we have been looking at the book ‘Is a camel a mammal?’ by Tish Rabe. The children have enjoyed this book, and have learnt about different mammals, and were surprised to learn humans are mammals too. We have been describing different mammals, thinking about what they do and eat, for the rest of the class to guess the animal. We have also written some excellent sentences about the mammals from the book. In our Maths lessons, we have continued adding two single-digit numbers together using concrete materials, pictorials, and abstract calculations, to further deepen our understanding of addition.

During our Expressive Arts and Design lesson, the children have been learning dance routines from the Middle East. They were eager to participate in the dances and showed off their amazing dance moves whilst dancing to Arabian music. The children have also enjoyed learning about and making their own cactus. Whilst doing this, they developed their fine motor skills and were very pleased with their creations. In our Understanding the World lesson, the children have continued to learn about the four seasons and have compared them to each other to understand their changes.

Continuous Provision 

During continuous provision this week, the children have been making their own cherry blossom trees using picture prompts to inspire them. They have also enjoyed building different structures in the construction area and using the whiteboards to complete their own number sentences. This week we have learnt about the celebration of Eid. The children recognise that Muslims celebrate Eid to mark the end of their month-long fast during Ramadan. Eid is a time of joy and blessing for the Muslim community and an opportunity to share their wealth and give to the poor. As this is a celebration, the children have created mehndi patterns on hands; the henna patterns are to celebrate being alive. We listened to stories from members of our Muslim community about their Eid celebrations.

When the weather was nice, we went onto the playground to play on the apparatus. The children developed their gross motor skills whilst climbing over the play area, walking across moving slabs, and swinging on tyres. In our outdoor area, despite the rain, the children have continued to enjoy playing in the water, letting it roll down the tubes we have outside.  

Summer 1 - Week 5

Eastern Asia

In EYFS this week the children have adventured across into Eastern Asia as we learnt about culture from China. In our Literacy sessions, the children were enthralled by the tale of 'Kung Fu Panda'. We discussed the importance of believing in ourselves and striving to be the best we can be. The children were able to sequence the events of the story and enjoyed painting and writing using Mandarin symbols during continuous provision. When discovering and developing our Understanding of the World, the children took part in a Chinese lion dance, learnt how to say several phrases in Cantonese, and discussed several of the traditions leading up to Chinese New Year. In our Maths lessons the children have continued to deepen their understanding of the concept of addition. We have added two single digit numbers and solved mathematical problems by using concrete materials and pictorial representations. This will enhance the connections between the concrete objects and the abstract number sentences. The children have also enjoyed writing their own number sentences on the whiteboards. 

Through continuous provision the children have explored the home corner where we have introduced some Chinese artefacts to discover. We have enjoyed creating Chinese lanterns in our Expressive Arts and Design area and building and labelling our models in the construction area. We developed our fine motor skills in the malleable area by exploring with money and picking up noodles using chopsticks. In outdoor provision we pretended to be shopkeepers, buying and selling goods!

Martial Arts and a Chinese Picnic!

The EYFS Reception children were delighted to have two special events in the setting this week. On Tuesday morning, the children were very excited to learn some 'Kung Fu' which we found out is a martial art from China. The children practised different stances, learned to move like a crane and a tiger, and even practised their tiger faces. Everyone showed great discipline and determination, whilst developing their gross motor skills and listening and attention. 

On Thursday afternoon the fun continued, as the children explored tasting different Chinese foods. They tried vegetable spring rolls, duck spring rolls, prawn toast, and prawn crackers with a small amount of sweet chilli sauce on the side. The children enjoyed this activity, and used chopsticks to eat their food which supported fine motor development. 

Summer 1 - Week 4 

Amazing Asia 

EYFS have continued to travel through the South East Asian rainforest this week in our literacy lesson, with a focus on ‘Monkey Puzzle’ by Julia Donaldson. We have delved deep into the forest and learnt about different rainforest animals and what they eat, and we discovered rainforest tribes and discussed what they do. We created our own rainforest adventure, where each child added to the story through the rainforest, where we met a parrot, monkey, jaguar, and even a tribe who taught us their tribal dance.

In our maths lessons, we have been learning about adding two single-digit numbers together with concrete materials such as cubes and teddies. The children have understood the concept of lining the objects up to help us count and holding the first number in our heads to count on. They have enjoyed playing with the adding machine in the maths area to support this learning.

This week, the children have used different strategies of glueing, sticking, and manipulating card to make 3D shapes in our Expressive Art and Design activity. They have created binoculars which they used to go looking for rainforest animals in provision. We had another exciting sculpture session this week, where we developed our rolling and pinching skills to make an orangutan. In our Understanding the World lessons, we have looked at Summer changes and recognised how this differs from Spring. We have also further developed our understanding of past and present whilst looking at past occupations and how they differ from today.  

Continuous Provision

We have had a busy week in the EYFS as the children are encouraged to engage in child-initiated play. Many amazing crafts have been made on the creative table this week such as binoculars, singing carrots and sweeping brushes. The children have also enjoyed having slime and shaving foam in the malleable area, following maps to find treasure, and pretending to be robots.

Whilst the weather has not been the best this week, the outdoor area has been well-loved, with the children engaging in sand and water play. They built an amazing moat and have loved splashing around in the water. The mud kitchen has been turned into a café, with children cooking different food and drinks and serving it to their customers.   

Summer 1 - Week 3

Amazing Asia

EYFS have travelled deep into the depths of rainforests of South-East Asia this week through our Literacy focus text, Monkey Puzzle by Julia Donaldson. The children have loved learning about all the different animals which can live in the rainforests and learning about different rainforest monkeys; the howler monkey, spider monkey, capuchin monkey, squirrel monkey, tamarin and marmoset. The children were able to apply their phonic knowledge and knowledge of tricky words to play 'Who am I?' reading clues and guessing the rainforest animals. We then extended this activity by writing our own clues to read to a friend. The children were able to describe the rainforest animals in detail, recalling key facts.

In our Maths lessons, we have been learning how to find one more than a given number, and to find one less than a given number. We have used concrete materials including cubes and counting bears, pictorial images and abstract methodology such as the number line to help us find this. We became so confident at finding one more and one less, that we challenged ourselves to find two more and two less than a given number. The children have become confident at playing the 'bees in the hive' game on the interactive whiteboard which develops this skill. Well done mathematicians! 

In our Expressive Arts and Design activities, we have used and combined a variety of materials to recreate our own rainforest animals including parrots and monkeys to add to the rainforest roleplay area of the classroom. The children have loved pretending to be monkeys in continuous provision and even climbing trees in the paddock! In our weekly sculpture session with Mrs Dixon we learnt how to roll clay and model shapes. We continued with our pinch pot techniques and learnt about rolling cylinders to create an Asian elephant.

 In our Understanding the World Past and Present sessions, we looked at pictures and videos from World Book Day to recall memories from the past, recognise the present moment and think about the future. 

Nature Walk

The develop our Understanding the World in The Natural World, this Thursday the children went on a Spring Nature walk to identify important processes and changes from Season to Season. Prior to the walk, the children looked at objects and pictures of the features of Spring. We discussed how blossom and leaves begin to grow on the trees and how seasonal flowers begin to grow such as daffodils. The children recognised that the weather was becoming warmer and the daylight hours longer. The children loved talking about the baby animals they have noticed in the fields in the local area such as lambs and calves. 

On our walk, the children sensibly walked in pairs through the woodland to a large field. Here the children were delighted to observe sheep in the fields and hens, ducks and roosters in the local hen houses. Unfortunately, we did not see any baby animals but we discussed animal offspring, lambs and chicks. At the bottom of the field, the children found bluebells and daffodils. We used clipboards and paper to draw pictures of the animals and plants we could see around us. The children thought carefully about their observations to add detail to their pictures and discuss these.

Summer 1 - Week 2 

Wow, what an exciting week we have had! The children and teachers enjoyed every second of the forest school experience we received on Monday, and we could not have asked for better weather. We walked down to the front of the school where they were met with their Superworm adventure. The amazing team from Wild One Adventures re-enacted the Superworm story to the children, and then they went off to create their own worms using clay and natural materials and they also went bug hunting. After this, the children had the delicious treat of roasting marshmallows over the fire and drinking hot chocolate. To finish our forest school session, they had a wiggle and dance using shakers to music, and they especially loved the bees in the hive song.   

Superworm 

This week, we have continued to follow the ‘Superworm’ theme. In our literacy lessons, we created our own storyboard of ‘Superworm’ and acted this out to the rest of the class using actions to help us. The children have enjoyed reading this book and can read it alongside the adults. They have also worked extremely hard in guided reading and writing groups throughout the week. In our maths lesson, we have measured the length of objects using non-standard units of measurement. We have been able to compare the length of two objects using the vocabulary longer and shorter and order the length of three or more objects from shortest to longest. The children have applied their previous knowledge from last week by identifying and creating repeating patterns in the classroom environment’.

In our Understanding the World lesson, we looked at the habitat of frogs and how this differs to where we live. We had a look at the wormeries we made last week and discovered the worms have buried themselves into the sand and soil, and we have now released them back into their natural habitat. We have also been learning about the past, present and future by looking at pictures of what their classroom looked like in September and discussing how they are different to their classroom in the present day. In Expressive Arts and Design, the children enjoyed making sock puppet worms. They were all eager to make their own, using cotton wool and elastic bands to create them. They then took the worms into continuous provision and had fun with them all afternoon.

Throughout the week, the children have been encouraged to choose their own learning indoors and outdoors. They have enjoyed making Giant Panda’s out of clay, building houses, towers, and princess mansions, using the mud kitchen as a café, planting sunflowers, playing Doctors, creating musical performances, and especially playing with the balls.

Summer 1 - Week 1

This week the children have returned to school feeling refreshed and ready to learn following the Easter break. We have loved hearing all about the activities the children have participated in with their families and special visits from the the Easter Bunny!

In EYFS the key workers have taken over 1000 photographs of the children's learning this week, which has made it so difficult to share a snapshot of all of the wonderful activities taking place. In preparation for our Outdoor Adventures experience on Monday, in our Literacy Development activities this week the children have enjoyed listening to the story Superworm by Julia Donaldson. The children recognised key themes in the book, such as good vs evil, and recognised how the minibeasts all worked together as a team to rescue their 'hero' Superworm. We thought Superworm was a superhero because he is always there to rescue and help all of the minibeasts in the story! In our Maths lessons the children have demonstrated the ability to recognise, continue and create their own repeating patterns whilst changing the variables including colour, shape and size. 

Our Understanding the World lessons enabled us to delve in the habitat of worm, discussing the similarities and differences between this and our own environment. The children had a wonderful time following the recipe to make their own soil habitat, mixing and stirring the ingredients to make mud. They created a wormery, by carefully alternating layers of sand and soil. We fed the worms pear and leaves and made sure that there was adequate breathing holes for air. We have now placed the wormery in a dark place and will continue to care for and observe them before releasing them back into the wild. In Expressive Arts and Design the children explored creating a variety of lines, patterns and marks on paper using spaghetti worms. 

Beyond the specific learning experiences, both indoors and outdoors the children enjoyed a range of child-initiated activities from ball games, writing birthday party invitations, completing assault courses, building castles to gardening and many more activities. Here are some of our photographs...

Celebrating the Life of Prince Philip

Following the death of His Royal Highness Prince Philip this week, the children in EYFS have taken the opportunity to celebrate and reflect upon his life and the dutiful service Prince Philip demonstrated during his lifetime. The children recognise the importance of Prince Philip, as the Husband of the Monarch our Queen, and as the Father and Grandfather of senior figures in our Royal Family. We discussed photographs of Prince Philip throughout his life and talked about Prince Philips contributions to society during his naval career, to education through his Duke of Edinburgh award and his generous charity work and public appearances.

Together, the children created a picture to commemorate HRH Prince Philip. They produced a beautiful naval scene using their fine motor skills to tear paper for the ocean, creating small paper boats and arranging these to create a sea scape. We wrote a prayer celebrating Prince Philip's life and achievements and placed our thoughts with his family. The children responsibly held a minutes silence to reflect upon his life, demonstrating an important value - respect. 

Spring 2 - Week 5

Reception has been busy this week exploring our indoor and outdoor provision, and we had a visit from 'the bitbats' alongside our alien theme. The bitbats spaceship crashed into the big tree outside of school and have lived in our classroom for the week. The children have seen the bitbats running across the classroom and they have even entered a "dance competition" with them. They used the telephone to call planet Zog (where the bitbats live), and they made spaceships so the bitbats could go home. 

In our understanding the world lesson, we looked at the similarities and differences between the rooms in our houses and our friend's, which the children really enjoyed. In the creative area, they made their own house and in the outdoor provision, they designed and built a house together. 

Indoor Provision 

In continuous provision, the children are encouraged to follow their own interests when learning in the classroom. They have enjoyed exploring the classroom in the hope of seeing a bitbat as well as playing families in the home corner. They have loved playing with the dogs, feeding them, letting them sleep and walking them.

Outdoor Provision 

The outdoor area has been well-loved this week. Alongside the alien theme and helping the bitbats get home, the children loved playing doctors, teachers, and police officers. They used bricks and planks to build different constructions, and have designed and built a house, roads, walls, and a swimming pool. 

We made a trip down to the trim trail this week, and the children enjoyed running around and climbing the ropes to help build their gross motor skills. 

Spring 2 - Week 4

Wow what a busy week we have had! This week the EYFS children had plenty to look forward to as we enjoyed judging the talent show entries for Comic Relief's 'Red Nose Day', we had a non uniform day on Friday where we wore red to highlight this cause and have raised an amazing £330.10 across the school. Thank you very much for your kind donations!

On Thursday we finally were able to celebrate World Book Day altogether, and we absolutely loved seeing the creativity of all of your fantastic costumes!

Here are the amazingly talented EYFS children in action!....

Shark in the Park

This week the children decided that they would love to learn more about sharks! Following their interests, we developed our Literacy and Understanding the World lessons around this. The children have learnt all about ocean habitats and compared this to where we live, creating their own habitats through small world. Whilst in the ocean, they encountered pirates, and built their own ships and defences through construction and roleplay. We knew that X marked the spot when following a treasure map. They enjoyed playing a game of 'Shark in the Park!' outdoors where they had to demonstrate balance and co-ordination, negotiate space and find a place of safety on a plank or in a tyre whenever a shark was spotted!

Learning is Limitless

The learning does not stop there. In Maths, the children have explored printing and constructing with 3D shapes by exploring their properties. We even had a replica of "Darwen Tower". We have separated the treasure from the trash, identifying real and nonsense words in Phonics. Fish swam through the ocean in the outdoor sandpit. We chopped wood, built dens and balanced and wobbled across assault courses built from the children's imagination using tyres and planks. 

Here is a snapshot of the learning that took place... 

Hoddlesden St Pauls World Book Day

Everyone was so excited for our very own World Book Day this Thursday! Each costume was uniquely wonderful from Cruella Devil to Wonky Donkey, Buzz Lightyear to the Gruffalo, The Cat in the Hat and Cinderella. The children and adults looked incredible. We held our own character fashion show where the children were able to show off their costumes and tell us a little bit about their characters. 

Well done everyone for your efforts and enthusiasm! It was a great day. Here are some of the photographs...

Spring 2 - Week 3

We have all been super excited this week for the children return to school following 8 weeks of remote learning! It has been lovely to see all of their smiling faces as they catch up with their friends and teachers once again. The children have embraced the opportunity to learn collaboratively through continuous provision with their friends both indoors and outdoors. This week our theme was based around the book 'Owl Babies'. The EYFS team have observed the children developing their knowledge and understanding of the world, exploring habitats and building nests for owls. We have developed our art and design skills by printing using foil in Maths and our speech and language in Music by pronouncing some very tricky tongue twisters!

Let's find out more....

Owl Babies

In the book 'Owl Babies' by Martin Waddell, we learn about a family of Owls. The owlets wake up one night to find their mother has gone, they worry about where she may be, when their mother returns the owlets are overjoyed. The baby owls recognise that although Mummy has to go and hunt and provide food for the family she will always come back for them. The book is useful for settling children who are anxious about returning to school. In our Literacy Development sessions, we discussed our families and how we have spent a lot of time with our close family during lockdown. We drew our family members and wrote their names. We were able to name the characters from Owl Babies, Sarah, Percy, Billy and Mummy and draw and write a speech bubble for each character.

The children were excited to learn more about owls and we researched different owls and their habitats, their food and how they build their nests. Through continuous provision the children applied and developed their knowledge indoors building owl nests using twigs, wool and feathers and outdoors using tyres and large sticks. They pretended to be mother owls swooping and searching for food including mice, insects, fish and birds to feed to the baby owlets. We explored printing using foil, using a pom-pom to create a feather effect when painting the owl babies. 

Continuous Provision Indoors

Alongside our theme, the children are encouraged to follow their interests when learning in the classroom. We have loved observing the children express themselves through painting, drawing, construction and roleplay. This week in EYFS the children have decided to make their own pull out books, to draw treasure maps, to recreate scenarios (particularly pretending to be the teachers and enforce the classroom rules which was hilarious!) and have enjoyed relaxing, reading and reconnecting with their friends.

Outdoor learning

In EYFS we love to learn outdoors whatever the weather! This week we donned our waterproof clothing to head outdoors and our imaginations flowed. Alongside our fantastic owl nests, we observed cooking in the mud kitchen, writing and mark making on the chalk boards, and a swimming pool being carefully constructed in the sandpit, whilst being careful not to allow the water to seep into the sand. The children completed a water challenge to make the boats float without directly putting water into the tray and to enable to fish to swim to the pond. 

Whilst being at home, the children had missed the opportunity to climb and explore on the trim trail, so we also made sure to take a trip down to the field to climb and explore! 

Spring 2 - Week 2 - Blended Learning

On Thursday 4th March it was World Book Day, and all of this week our learning focus has centred on our favourite books and authors. Reading for pleasure increases attainment, can result in increased empathy and can improve mood and wellbeing. We have recognised why books are relevant, fun and can change our lives! We have enjoyed listening to stories read by our teachers and parents through our 'Mystery Reader scheme', thank you very much to everyone who took part!

Our Favourite Books

Through our Literacy development sessions, we have thought about our favourite books and who our favourite characters from books are. We enjoyed drawing detailed pictures have even been able to describe and label these using adjectives! We were introduced to the story of 'The Gruffalo' by Julia Donaldson who is one of Miss Briggs' favourite authors. We sang the Gruffalo song and watched the Gruffalo short film to help us to identify the adjectives used to describe the Gruffalo in more detail. We then challenged ourselves to create our own mythical creatures. Let's take a look at some of the pictures...

Outdoor Learning

The children have been delighted with the warmer weather this week and were keen to explore learning outdoors. They have enjoyed cooking in the mud kitchen, baking delicious treats including 'scrambled snake', 'roasted fox' and 'owl ice-cream'. To wash these down the mixed 'coca-cola' and 'hot chocolate'. We even performed on stage using props and making our own costumes out of fabrics.

We love developing our gross motor skills and keeping our bodies active through using the bikes, the climbing wall and travelling in and out of the obstacle course.

Maths Development

In our Maths development sessions this week, we have been introduced to the composition of the numbers 9 and 10. We have practised making 9 and 10 in different ways, using objects and numicon and we have created images using black dots. The children can recognise the numerals 9 and 10 and have looked for these in the environment. The children applied their new knowledge to order the numbers from 1 to 10 and could even recognise the mistake when a cheeky giraffe arrived, to mix the numbers around! We finished the week with a game of numbers to 10 bingo which the children were very good at!

Spring 2 - Week 1 - Blended Learning

This week in EYFS the children have loved learning all about the theme 'Big Bad Bugs'. Together, we have researched a variety of minibeasts, talked about their distinguishing features and found out some exciting facts. We listened to a range of stories about minibeasts and even went on a mini beast hunt! Shall we find out more...

Mad About Minibeasts

The children have loved finding out interesting facts about minibeasts, from spiders to woodlice, caterpillars to stick insects, ladybirds to slugs and snails and many, many more insects and small creatures. They drew pictures and crafted their favourite minibeasts, applying their phonic knowledge to segment to spell and label them. The children prepared their very own mini-beast checklists ready to go on a bug hunt. We pulled on our overalls and our wellies and ventured outdoors. We didn't expect to see many minibeasts due to the weather, however, between us all we were pleasantly surprised! Fortunately, the children knew where to look... in dark, damp places under logs and leaves and beneath stones. This week, we have seen a millipede, several spiders and worms, a slug, a beetle, an ant, a woodlouse and even a newt! 

The children used their new found knowledge of minibeast habitats to create minibeast hotels for the minibeasts to visit and reside in. We made these both in the classroom and at home and the children had lots of fun.

The Lifecycle of a Butterfly

We were able to describe the stages of the lifecycle of a butterfly using the appropriate scientific vocabulary. We made our own paper plate lifecycles to help us to describe this.

Egg > Larva (Caterpillar) > Chrysalis - Pupa > Butterfly

Maths Development

In our Maths Development sessions this week, we have been measuring height, length and time. The children used various units of measurement to compare height using the vocabulary taller and shorter, length using the vocabulary longer or shorter and measured time naming and ordering the days of the week. We even challenged ourselves to discover how many times we could complete various activities within one minute. The children are going to explore height further by planting their own seed and monitoring its growth.

Expressive Arts and Design

This week, in our virtual Art and Design lesson with Miss Clitheroe, we were learning about the 5 different types of lines. The children were able to explore drawing or creating horizontal, vertical, diagonal, curved and zig-zag lines using a range of resources. We loved completing this activity, and the children became confident at recognising each type of line, even if the words were a little tricky to pronounce! :)

Spring 1 - Week 6 - Blended Learning

We have reached the final day of the first half of the Spring term! This term has been slightly unusual, as we immersed ourselves into blended learning, with some children learning in school and some children learning from home. The EYFS Team would like to say a huge thank you to all of the children, parents and carers who have worked incredibly hard this term. You have ensured that blended learning ran smoothly and seamlessly. We hope that we will all be reunited once again, in the near future.

  As a reward for all of the wonderful learning this term, this morning we had a special virtual visit to Yew Tree Farm! In preparation for this, this week the children have transformed themselves into Farmers! They have discovered all of the hard work Farmers complete each day, taking care of animals, fruits and vegetables and maintaining their farm equipment - especially the tractor!

Shall we find out what we got up to 'Down on the Farm'....

A Virtual Trip to Yew Tree Farm

The children have been eagerly anticipating their trip to the farm all week! We spent lots of time researching about life on the farm and the children were able to think of many questions, that they would like the farm to answer during the tour.

Yew Tree Farm

The children absolutely loved the visit to Yew Tree Farm. We were able to meet the chickens, ducks and geese. We found out that the hens lay one egg per day! We met the pygmy goats - Fed them and learnt about their cheeky antics. Emmy wanted to know why the goats had tags on their ears. We found out that this is so we can identify them, if they are lost or stolen. We met the sheep and Maisie the Shetland pony - Tabitha wanted to know whether she could ride her!.

We were fortunate to meet the four little piglets and all of the rabbits and guinea pigs on the farm, which we all agreed were very cute. The tour then ended with a lovely story. We had a wonderful time!

Here are some snapshots from the Zoom...

Designing and Maintaining our Farms

The children thought carefully about all of the animals, crops and scenery they might see on a farm. We played the game 'A Year on the Farm', to consider all of the hard work farmers have to do all year round, in Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn, to keep the farm running smoothly. We had to feed and care for the animals, plough the fields, harvest the crops, maintain the tractor and complete many more important jobs. We listened to the traditional song 'Old Macdonald had a farm', to prompt a discussion about all of the animals we might see on a farm. The children then set to, designing a map of what they would like to include on their own farm, which would make people want to visit. They created farms at home and in the classroom, and built and designed tractors in construction, junk modelling and outdoors. Two of our remote learners, Max and Joseph, were able to tell us about their very own farm animals, 'Coco' the horse and the sheep.

Building a Garage for our Tractor Outdoors

We love learning outdoors in EYFS, and after spending lots of time creating tractors indoors, the children decided to build a large garage to maintain the tractor in, outdoors. "We're mechanics! We're building a garage to fix the tractor. We need to build a big barn and use lots of tools". The children use wooden planks, cones, sticks and outdoor construction materials to build their garage. They demonstrate high levels of engagement and excitement throughout. "You are not allowed inside, it's not safe", the children prevent anyone from entering a high risk area! The children demonstrated brilliant teamwork!

'What the Ladybird Heard'

To support our Literacy Development, the children were introduced to the text 'What the Ladybird Heard' by Julia Donaldson. The children were impressed with the ladybird's clever plan to save the prize cow from the thieves! They enjoyed drawing the farm animals from the story and writing captions for what each animal might have said. We also thought about how thankful the farmer would have been to the Ladybird, and wrote her a special thank you card.

Tilly loved the story so much, that she created a mask for every single animal and re-enacted the story!

Moving Like an Animal

In a special Physical Development session this week, the children explored moving like an animal to develop their gross motor skills. We were able to hop like a bunny across the room, and take large strides to stomp like an elephant. We could walk like a crab from side to side, pinching our fingers in small motions. We then made our bodies slither like a snake, wiggling from side to side as we moved. We imagined we were galloping like a horse, taking large strides across an open field, and soared across the room flapping our arms gracefully like a bird. The children had great fun repeating each action!

Spring 1 - Week 5 - Blended learning

To coincide with Mental Health week, the learning for the children in EYFS has followed the theme 'Over the Rainbow'. The children have discussed how it is important for our health and wellbeing that we take care of our brains just as much as our bodies. Both at home and in school, the children have explored colours and have used this as a tool to explore our emotions and discuss our feelings. The children have studied a range of songs and texts to support their learning. Shall we take a look at what we have been up to...

'I Can Sing a Rainbow'

To begin the week, the children practised singing the song 'I Can Sing a Rainbow' to support them to consolidate and name all of the colours. They explored creating their own rainbows by either drawing, painting or creating a collage. They applied their phonic knowledge to support them to label the rainbow. The children then listened to 'The Colour Monster' by Anna Llenas. They were able to recognise how we may associate colours with our thoughts and feelings, and use these to express our emotions. We drew colour monsters and coloured these in with the appropriate colours to reflect how we were feeling. We used yellow for happiness, pink for love, blue for sadness, black for fear and green for calm. We discussed how sometimes we may feel a range of emotions all at the same time for different reasons and that this is okay. 

'While We Can't Hug' 

We listened to the story 'While We Can't Hug' by Eoin Mclaughlin, and discussed how things are a little bit different at the moment with some children learning from home and some learning from school. The children created a storyboard of the main events of the story. We talked about how we may not have seen our close friends or family for a little while and how we might feel. The children were optimistic about the future: they understand that whilst we cannot see each other at the moment, there are many other ways we can show each other we care. We wrote postcards to those whom we miss and in our key worker time on Zoom we told our friends something we like about them. 

The Composition of 6,7 and 8.

In our Maths lessons this week, the children have looked closely at the composition of the numbers 6,7, and 8. They have enjoyed playing memory games recognising and matching cards representing these numbers. They have explored creating the numbers on a domino and sorting them into the correct group. We used the ladybird model to find each of the possible ways to represent 8 and at the latter end of the week we discovered one more and one less than each number.

The Walking Rainbow

As part of our Science and Understanding the World development, the children have put their science goggles on this week and completed some practical experiments. Firstly, the children explored the capillary effect by creating a walking rainbow. They added food colouring to four glasses of water, leaving 3 empty glasses in between and built a bridge between each glass. They observed the liquid climb up the bridge defying gravity to fill the other cup. As the primary colours mixed they created a beautiful and bright rainbow effect! 

  The second experiment involved mixing a pattern of skittles and M&Ms in water and observed the colours diffuse and create a rainbow pattern across the water. We were all amazed! 

Spring 1 - Week 4 - Blended Learning

"If you go down in the woods today,
You're sure of a big surprise.
If you go down in the woods today,
You'd better go in disguise!

For every bear that ever there was will gather there for certain,
Because today's the day the Teddy Bears have their picnic."

In Week 4 of Remote and Live learning, the children in EYFS have been enthralled in our Teddy Bears' Picnic topic. Every child has put so much emphasis into planning and preparing for the big event. Let's find out what we have been up to...

Picnic Preparations

In our Literacy development sessions this week the children have been making preparations for our Teddy Bears Picnic event. They have chosen their favourite teddy bears to attend as guests. We have discussed why they are special to us by having conversations with our EYFS Key Workers and peers. Some of us have even used technology to video call our family and friends to talk about their favourite teddy bears!

Once the children had selected their picnic guests, they set about applying their phonic knowledge to write invitations. The children had to think about 'who' we were inviting, 'what' the event was, 'when' the event would be and 'where' this would take place. The children ensured to make their invitations appear as attractive and inviting as possible to make the guests wanted to attend. 

 The preparations did not stop there... the children have segmented to spell place labels for their teddies, and have baked and prepared a variety of delicious food ready for the event.

The Teddy Bear Picnic

The children in EYFS were overjoyed when Thursday arrived and it was Teddy Bear Picnic day! After all of the hard work and preparations the live and remote learners came together via Zoom to celebrate. All of the remote learners attended the Zoom with their picnics set up in the background, all family members and teddy bear guests were in attendance. The live learners sat around a picnic blanket with our classroom teddy bears, a virtual slideshow of their teddies from home and lots of delicious food to eat!

We began the picnic by singing the classic 'Teddy Bear Picnic' song. The children had worked very hard practising the lyrics and supporting actions. They then tucked into their picnics, whilst we were fortunate to talk to every family remotely and hear all about their preparations and teddy bear guests. Finally, we finished the picnic with a good old game of hide and seek, but this time it was the teddies who were hiding all around our homes and classrooms. Luckily, we found them all! The EYFS team felt so proud of every child for their attitude and involvement. 

Maths Development

This week in our Maths lessons the children have explored weight and capacity through lots of fun and practical activities. They have compared the mass of objects using the vocabulary 'heavier' and 'lighter' by becoming human balance scales. We began to use the words 'full', 'nearly full', 'empty' and 'nearly empty' to help us understand the concept of capacity. The children explored measuring capacity by filling containers with soil, pasta, cereal and other household objects to identify which held the most and the least. At the end of the week, we even got to practise measuring ingredients to make our very own playdough for use in the classroom and at home!

STEM - The Rainbow Scavenger Hunt

This week's UTW Technology task was to use a camera to take pictures. The children were tasked with going on a 'Rainbow Scavenger Hunt' to find something red, yellow, orange, green, purple and blue and to take a picture of as many of these they could find. They could then either make a presentation or print these to make a book. The children loved this task and would love to share with you what they found...

Spring 1 - Week 3 - Blended Learning

The children in EYFS have excelled this week in their remote and blended learning, the continued effort from both children and supporting adults at home has made the EYFS Key Workers so proud. This week, in continuation of our 'Traditional Tales' topic, the children have studied the classic tale 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears'. Shall we take a look at some examples of the activities we have taken part in...

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

This week the children have listened to the traditional tale 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears', they began by discussing their favourite part of the story and drawing a picture. Throughout the week in Literacy, they thought about the definition of questions and statements and practised responding to and asking questions, described settings and even practised using 'adjectives' to describe their favourite characters! The live learners enjoyed exploring our enhanced provision to continue and develop roleplay scenarios from traditional tales.

The children have loved their first full week of Live Phonics lessons with Mrs Bass and Miss Briggs and are making good progress developing the skills of blending to read and segmenting to spell through games and application activities.

Porridge Tasting

When Goldilocks enters the Three Bears cottage, her first discovery is three 'delicious' bowls of porridge upon the kitchen table (or so she thought). With intrigue, Goldilocks cheekily tastes each bowl... As part of our Understanding the World development, the children in EYFS also were able to explore tasting different flavours of porridge, describing and making comparisons about the taste. The children discussed the ingredients, and supported making the porridge. They added 1 teaspoon of sugar to one bowl and 1 teaspoon of salt to the other. The children used some interesting vocabulary to describe the flavours such as 'delicious, sugary, sweet, salty, like seaweed and... horrible and disgusting!'. Let's find out which they preferred in some pictures and home videos...

Maths Development

In our Maths lessons this week we have delved deeper into the composition of numbers to 5. We have explored composing numbers to 5 within two and three groups, and representing this on a five frame. Towards the latter end of the week, we used our problem solving skills to describe the composition of numbers when part of the number was hidden.

Creating a Treasure Map

As part of our Understanding the World learning this week, the children were given the opportunity to create a simple treasure map. The children thought about where their maps would start and end, clearly marking this on the map. They described the different landmarks they would like to see along the way, designing and labelling their maps. Some of the remote learners really got into the spirit of hunting for treasure by dressing up as pirates! We thought they looked absolutely incredible! 

Spring 1 - Week 2 - Blended learning

Well done for completing another fantastic week of live and remote learning. All of the key workers in EYFS have been so impressed by the level of participation and involvement from all of the children. Let's take a look at some examples of the wonderful learning we have seen this week...

Literacy Development

This week in Reception the children have had a wonderful time learning about the traditional tale 'The Gingerbread Man'. The children listened to the traditional tale and discussed 'who' the characters are in the story. The children used their knowledge of the story to produce some beautiful story maps to sequence the events and to use as a visual aid for retelling the story. The children have enjoyed revising their phonic sounds and applying their knowledge both inside the provision and at home. 

Maths development

The children have embraced the Maths learning this week as we have focused on mastery and consolidation of numbers to 5. The children enjoyed singing nursery rhymes to aid counting backwards and identifying one less, comparing quantities pictorally and in the environment to identify more and less. The children really engaged in their live Zoom lesson where they observed the teddy bears compete in a bean bag activity to score points and order their points from most to fewest, and enjoyed applying this in the provision and at home. Finally, at the latter end of the week the children explored sharing through teddy bears picnics. We had so much fun! 

Excitement and Engagement with Learning

Throughout the week, both the live and remote learners have shown such a buzz about learning! The children particularly enjoyed their expressive arts and design activity to bake their very own gingerbread men. They did so well to listen to the instructions and follow each step correctly. The activity helped to arouse some really interesting discussions about weight when preparing the ingredients and comparing quantities. The children had such fun! They loved completing the gymnastics activity with Mrs Winward and are going from strength to strength with their gross motor development. Here are some additional photographs of our learning...

Spring Term 1 - Week 1 - Blended learning

Happy New Year to everyone and welcome back to Hoddlesden, St Paul’s!

Although it has been an unusual start to the Spring Term, we would like to thank you all for the enthusiasm and commitment to learning you have shown this week! We may have noticed that things are a little bit different in school, with some of us learning in the classroom and others learning at home but we have all worked hard together (children, parents and teachers), to take part in our activities and most importantly make learning fun!

This week we have demonstrated through Tapestry lots of wonderful learning. In Phonics, you have revised the sounds h, b and f and applied these through games, and activities both indoors and even outdoors in the snow! In Maths, we learned how to describe the properties of triangles and circles, created pictures and went on exciting shape hunts to spot these in the environment. You were able to tell your teachers the position of a teddy in different places around your home using positional language.

At home and in school we were lucky to be able to have fun playing in the snow, building snowmen, making snow angels and searching for natural materials to make transient art. At school, we even got to taste hot chocolate when we came back inside to warm ourselves up - delicious! We saw so many lovely pictures of you all having fun!

On Friday, we were super lucky that we were all able to meet together as a class and join our teachers on Zoom for a live story time, to listen to the story 'Ten Little Lights'! 

We hope you have all had a wonderful week. Make sure to take a look at some of the pictures below of this weeks learning. We are proud of you all for trying your best in these unusual times. Have a big firework clap! 

Best Regards,

The EYFS Team

Autumn 2. Week 7

The week before Christmas

The children have had a lovely last week at school, before their Christmas break. They have engaged in a wide range of festive activities and fun celebrations. 

Elf Enterprise

The children finished off their Elf Enterprise project this week, by packaging the Christmas trees, decorating the bags and sealing the handles with ribbon. The children and the staff members have been overwhelmed with the feedback and the children are very thankful for all your kind purchases. 

Christmas cards

The children usually have their Expressive Arts and Design lessons, led by Mrs Clitheroe, although this week the children were very surprised to have their lesson taught to them via a virtual message. Mrs Clitheroe modelled to the children how to create a Reindeer print Christmas card, using their hand to create the face. The children really enjoyed this activity and took great care making them for their family members. 

They finished off the cards by sticking in a Christmas message, and writing 'love from.....' and their name underneath. 

Covidella Pantomime

This week, to reward the excellent behaviour EYFS show, they have been rewarded with a virtual Pantomime. Covidella and the masked ball was provided to us by MTA, a London-based drama school and was enjoyed by all the children this week. The children had the opportunity to watch this pantomime from the comfort of their classroom, with drinks and treats to enjoy in between. 

Our message from Santa

On Thursday the children had a very exciting message from Santa. Unfortunately, this year, he was unable to visit us as normal, although he sent us a virtual message to wish the children a very happy Christmas and to remind them to stay safe over the Christmas break. He was also spotted on the CCTV system to drop lots of presents off his sleigh for the EYFS children. The children ran onto the playground to find a present for everyone waiting for them. 

Autumn 2 Week 6

Gymnastics 

Over the past few weeks the children have been working very hard in their gymnastics lessons with Miss Crewe. They have been putting all their moves, stretches and positions together in a sequence to create their Christmas performance. 
They have been able to perform a number of positions, including; tuck, pike and straddle position. As well as perfecting their forward rolls, which some of the children were very nervous about in the beginning. 
Miss Crewe was very impressed with the children’s listening and attention each week, and their commitment to the performance. 
 

I’m sure you will all be as impressed as we are.
Merry Christmas from all of the EYFS team. 

Elf Enterprise

The children have had a lovely week creating their Christmas tree pine cones for the Elf Enterprise project. We are overwhelmed with the response and the children are very pleased with the number of orders they have received. The children have been using their excellent painting skills, with their delicate brush strokes, to ensure that every section of the pine cone is covered in green paint. These will be sent out from next week.

Physical Development

This week the children have enjoyed going on the trim trail on the playground. This has been great to develop the children's gross motor skills, as well as their balance along the track. The children enjoyed the activity, with many conquering fears along the way. 

Expressive Arts & Design

This week, using our EAD skills in colour mixing, we have used our knowledge of dark to lighter colours in the initial steps of Christmas card making. Using a sponge to paint with, we applied a range of paints and resources to create a wintery night sky and snowy ground.

The Nativity

This week the children have been working hard on their nativity performance and filming it in our very own stable. The children have all done very well and should be very proud of themselves. We cannot wait to share the performance with you. 

Phonics

This week the children have been looking at the new graphemes: y, z, zz, and qu. The children have played lots of practical activities this week to help with their learning. They even got the opportunity to play the teacher and test their friends knowledge of the tricky words. 

Next week we will be consolidating all of our phonetical knowledge, ready to start a new set after Christmas.

Autumn 2 Week 5

Expressive Arts & Design

Mrs Clitheroe and the children focused on colour mixing on Monday, by experimenting in making a colour darker by adding black. The children discussed how the darker colour becomes a shade of the starting colour and they worked on developing their skills in holding the long paintbrushes more confidently. There was some careful brush strokes made-along with learning how to load the paintbrush more sensibly with paint. 

Mathematical Development:

This week we have been focusing on the number 4. We have been practising forming the number 4 correctly, exploring how we can make 4 out of counting blocks and also looking at rectangles and squares, as these have four straight sides and four edges. By focusing on a specific number each week, the children will gain the skills and understanding to subitise sets of objects for a particular number, 4 in this case. They will also gain a greater understanding of the principles of 1 more and 1 less. 

Elf Enterprise

This week the children received a very exciting message from Santa, who asked the children to help him create a product, which they could sell to anyone in the world. The product needed to be festive, be something people would want to buy and be a handmade product. 

The children looked at various different options of what they would like to make, they considered what they have in their own house for decorations. They then decided on a product and begin to draw what they thought it would look like. From next week the children will be designing and making these products, ready to sell. 

Nativity Practise

The children have been working very hard this week, practising for their upcoming nativity. Thank you to all who have been practising their lines and songs at home, we are very impressed with your hard work. 

The children have been trying on their costumes this week and making sure that the performance perfect ready for filming next week. This will be filmed and sent out to parents by the end of next week. 

Autumn 2 Week 4

Thanksgiving

This week we explored the American celebration of Thanksgiving. We researched what thanksgiving is and found out all about the first thanksgiving feast. The children then moved on to making their own feast, using real carrots, potatoes, broccoli and peas. The children discussed with one another how much of each ingredient they need to make their own soup. They worked on the hand control, by holding the knives sensibly, to cut the vegetables safely. 

Phonics

With Miss Burns, the children have been recapping the phase 2 sounds, before we begin the phase 3 sounds next week. We have played lots of games, to help with our sounding out and blending for reading. We have also practised writing CVC words with our focus sounds in (h, b, r & l) and our tricky words, which are the, go, no and I. 

Literacy Development

This week we have been reading the story 'Tidy', which is all about a Badger called Pete, who liked everything to be tidy. Pete also sent us an email to read, asking us to help clear the litter which his friends left on the paddock. The children enjoyed picking up the litter, to keep our wildlife safe. 

Expressive Arts & Design

Mrs Clitheroe and the children focused on colour mixing on Monday, by experimenting in making a colour lighter by adding white. The children discussed how the lighter colour becomes a tint of the starting colour and they worked on developing their skills in holding the long paintbrushes more confidently. There was some careful brush strokes made-along with learning how to load the paintbrush more sensibly with paint. 

Mathematical Development

This week we have been exploring 2D shapes, including circles, triangles, squares and rectangles. We described the features of the shapes for our friends to name the shape, we practised drawing the shapes, as well as going on an outdoor shape hunt. 

Autumn 2 Week 3

We have had a very busy week this week, learning all about Diwali, the festival of lights.

To begin with, we shared the Diwali story all about Rama & Sita, which the children enjoyed acting out in our new role play area, dedicated to the celebration of Diwali. 

In phonics we have been learning the new phonemes; ‘ff, l, ll & ss’. We have been looking at words that contain these sounds, writing words and orally blending the sounds to read short sentences. We have also looked at two new tricky words; ‘no’ and ‘go’ and thinking of sentences that include these words. 

Whilst looking into the celebration of Diwali, we noticed that lights and candles are a very significant to the celebration. Therefore, we created our own tea light holders out of salt dough, by carefully following our recipe and instructions.

Mathematical Development 
 

In mathematics we have been looking at the numbers 1 2 3 and the understanding that all numbers are made up of smaller numbers. We have been making towers out of counting cubes, using number shapes to investigate which smaller numbers combine to make 1 2 3. We have also been looking at number rhymes to help us write our numbers. These are fantastic ways for the children to remember how to form their numbers. 

Rangoli inspired artwork

EYFS had a great afternoon of EAD, creating Rangoli inspiration designs using many different resources to represent Rangoli artwork. Some children worked collaboratively to share their ideas and there was lots of careful work, where the children considered their designs. Using the common circular shapes and colours, the children came up with some amazing work, using a wide variety of resources to achieve their desired effect!l

Autumn 2 Week 2

This week, with Mrs Clitheroe, we have looked at printing poppies in our EAD learning. For printing, we used a range of different vegetables: sprouts, carrots and potatoes, and finger printing for the centre of the poppies. Mrs Clitheroe was really impressed with how eager we were to join in with the task and with the wonderful prints that we made. She was impressed with how well we handled the vegetables to get the best print and how we tried to use a range of different types of vegetables as our tools within our work!

We walked up to the Hoddlesden War Memorial to place our Remembrance Rocks in preparation for Remembrance Day. We talked about how the War Memorial and Poppies help us to remember those who have lost their lives in wartime. The children demonstrated great compassion and respect on the visit, we are very proud of them all. ‘We will remember them’

Autumn 2 Week 1

What a great first week back at school! We have shared the story ‘Don’t Hog the Hedge’ as part of our Literacy Development and explored lots of new vocabulary. We learnt about hibernation and investigated the different woodland animals in the story. In Phonics we are been listening carefully to hear the phonemes that we have been taught and orally blending the sounds for reading. We have been learning how to form our letters correctly and we have also looked at the tricky words ‘the’ and ‘I’.

Within our first expressive arts and design with Mrs Clitheroe, we had an enjoyable session creating our own bonfire pictures using moveable resources, similar to transient art. It was important to look at the shape of a bonfire and where we see the different flames. It was interesting to discuss the different colours in the flames and to create these by overlaying different tissue paper and crepe paper pieces: these were torn into different sizes and lengths.

In the role-play area we have loved exploring the fire station and pretending to be firefighters. We have thought about how to keep safe and we have attempted to write lists to tell others about keeping safe on Bonfire Night. In the continuous provision children have enjoyed creating fireworks using a variety of different media and musical instruments. 

Autumn 1 Week 8

This week EYFS have been exploring the text ‘The Colour Monster’. This book is all about our different emotions and feelings. The children have engaged eagerly in a range of activities in the provision and have enjoyed sharing their own experiences of emotions and feelings. The children have created monster gloop and monster playdough adding different colours, scents and objects to make their own colour monster. They have used marbles dipped in paints to create different effects and they have used drawing tools to create their own monsters. As a class we have enjoyed singing various songs about our emotions and we have explored a game all about matching feelings on the interactive whiteboard.

On Tuesday we had a visit from the Life Education team, the children listened carefully and engaged well whilst learning all about their bodies, keeping fit and how to live a healthy lifestyle. There has been lots of rain this week so the children have loved playing in the outdoor provision exploring the puddles and making splashes! Also this week we are extremely proud of the children for how well they have been respecting each other and developing a true sense of friendship and good teamwork.

Now it’s time to enjoy a well deserved break! Make sure you take time to relax with your families and we are already looking forward to welcoming you back on Monday 2^nd November. We will post some activities on Tapestry that you can access over the week.

Autumn 1 Week 7

This week EYFS have continued to explore ‘Handa’s Surprise’ as part of our Native Narratives learning and Black History Month. The children have thoroughly enjoyed retelling the story and have engaged enthusiastically in the provision activities. They have used their senses to describe the fruits in the story and they have made fruit kebabs that they enjoyed at snack time. The children chopped up the fruit to create printed patterns and they have used oil pastels to draw pictures of their  favourite animals in the story. 
 

This week the children have been talking about the different things we can see all around us in the outdoor environment, now that it is Autumn. They had lots of fun cutting open a pumpkin using different tools and then taking home seeds to plant. The children have also enjoyed going on a conker hunt. They then used the conkers to create different effects with paint. 
 

The children have taken part in lots of outdoor learning this week and are becoming experts at putting on their own wet suits and wellies!
 

What another lovely week EYFS, keep up the good learning!

Autumn 1 Week 6 

This week we have been exploring the text ‘Handa’s Surprise’ as part of our Native Narratives learning and Black History Month. The children have been acting out the story using props and materials, sequencing the main events and exploring the animals and fruits in the story. 

The children found Africa on the large world map that Joseph brought in and asked questions about Africa. We have looked at different media to find out more and learn about what life is like in different parts of Africa. 

In Maths the children have been exploring patterns. We went on a woodland walk to find natural objects to help create patterns in our outdoor area. we got very muddy but we had lots of fun!

In Phonics we have started to explore the phonemes and graphemes in Phase 2. We have been sharing our learning at home and on Wednesday our families can learn all about how we teach Phonics in school. 

Autumn 1 Week 5

This week the children have been developing their listening skills to hear sounds in the environment, clap rhythms and explore familiar sounds as part of their Home Learning. The children will continue to develop their Phase 1 Phonics as we begin to explore Phase 2 next week. 
 

The children have been recognising and forming numbers in the indoor and outdoor provision using different objects and writing tools. In French we have been counting up to 10 and practised our favourite counting song with Kirsty. The children have also had the opportunity to share this with their families at home. We have loved seeing the updates on Tapestry. 
 

We have also been developing our fine and gross motor skills in Gymnastics and through cutting activities in the creative and malleable area. Next week we will use knifes and folks to practise our chopping skills. 
 

The children enjoyed exploring Harvest and have deceived to create a fruit and vegetable shop in our role-play area. We are looking forward to the grand opening! 

21.09.20

Our first full week in school...

The children have settled well and have all come into school with confidence and enthusiasm. Many special friendships have started to form and the children are experts as selecting activities in the continuous provision. In the outdoor area this week a group of children built a den with Ms Kershaw and created a campfire using natural resources. Mrs Bass has been very impressed at the children's mark making as they have started to practise pencil control. 

On Thursday afternoon the children explored the French garden in our virtual BilinguaSing session. We began by saying 'bonjour' to everyone and our teacher Kirsty. We sang rhymes and counted up to ten in french. The children have been completing their first Home Learning tasks by counting and hearing sounds.