Winnie's Amazing Pumpkin (and other stories)

This week we are reading Winnie's Amazing Pumpkin by Valerie Thomas and Korky Paul. The children are really enjoying this story.

Some of the children will talk about what they would do with a magic wand. We are exploring the outdoors to find more signs of autumn with scavenger hunts and other activities.

Our magic maths work this week is about counting. We are really working hard to practise our counting skills. Some of us are counting our fingers, others are counting beads and others are counting pegs out of a larger group.

Our Reception children have started their phonics sessions and they are doing really well. We have learned lots of letters so far and we are already reading lots of words! Don't forget our phonics meeting for Reception parents every Friday at 2.55pm.
So far this term we have read The Gruffalo, Percy's Friend the Hedgehog and My Friend Bear.

Welcome Back!

We have had a really good start to this year in Early Years. The children are settling in well.

We have already read "Tiddler" and "My Friend Bear" and this week we are reading "The Gruffalo" by Julia Donaldson. We are spending this week in the outdoors, exploring the environments around our school. If your child has their own waterproofs and wellington boots they would be useful to have in school.

New School Year!

I hope that you are enjoying the summer holidays! The weather seems to have finally caught up with the time of year too, even if it is only for a few days.

Thank you for all the lovely cards and gifts we received at the end of term. They were all very kind and thoughtful.

Some of the Early Years staff have been in school during the holidays getting things ready for September. I thought you might like to see some photographs of the changes we have made...



Small World



Phonics Challenge



Transient Art



Writing Area



Construction



Maths Challenge



Reading Area



Investigation with a Seaside Theme



Creative Area



Creative Challenge



Games Table



Role Play



Malleable



Investigation with a Magnetic Theme

I hope you like the new set up and I hope you are all having a lovely summer!

See you in September!
Miss Dews :-)

Week 4: Hansel & Gretel

This week's story is Hansel and Gretel. We will continue looking at the features of traditional tales. We are going to have lots of opportunities to explore different ways to make a picture, counting, mark making and writing. We will have potion making in the outdoor area, reinforcing our learning about capacity. There will also be lots of mark making and writing jobs to do outdoors. Lots of the children have been interested in making maps over the past couple of weeks. We will be using the story to explore this further, looking at different types of maps, following directions and instructions and creating our own maps and plans.

Ways to help at home
Have a look at Google Earth or a similar website. Can you find your house? Can you find the school? What do they look like from above?

Uniform
One or two parents have asked about missing uniform, particularly cardigans and jumpers. Please would you check your child's uniform in case they have accidentally taken someone else's jumper or cardigan home and please would you make sure uniform is clearly labelled with your child's name. Thank you.

Parent Meetings
Appointment sheets for parent meetings will be up in the Nursery porch next week.

Week 3: The Three Little Pigs

This week we have been reading the Three Little Pigs. We have used the story to find out about materials. We have built houses and tested them to see which is the strongest (the wind was provided by a hair dryer - a tropical wind, not North East England wind!). Some of us have written our own versions of the story and drawn pictures of the characters.

Remember that we are off on Monday for the Bank Holiday.

We are running a Squiggle, Phonics, Writing and Reading session for Parents on Wednesday. Please speak to a member of staff to sign up.

Week 2: The Gingerbread Man

This week in Early Years we are reading "The Gingerbread Man", retold by Mairi Mackinnon.

Each Key Worker has lots of different activities planned, including testing gingerbread men to see what will happen if they get wet, acting out the story, finding out about healthy and unhealthy foods and visiting the local shops to buy ingredients for their gingerbread men.

Ways to help at home
If you want to help at home this week, you could talk about ways you stay fit and healthy in your house. What sorts of things contribute to a healthy lifestyle?

Photograph orders
The group photo orders were sent home on Wednesday. If you would like to order one of these photographs, please return the order form and money (cash/cheque/details on the order form) by next Wednesday (29th April).

Reminders
Please make sure Reception children have their PE kit in school every Friday. They need to bring their reading books and homework bags on Thursdays and Forest School restarts on Wednesday this week.

Summer Term

This half term we are going to read some traditional tales, including Little Red Riding Hood, The Gingerbread Man, The Three Pigs, The Frog Prince and Jack & the Beanstalk. We will be learning about the features of traditional tales. In Magic Maths we will be exploring capacity, length, weight, money, time, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Diary dates will go out on the newsletter on Wednesday next week. We have arranged several parent sessions this half term and there are a few other things happening. I will put the dates on here too as soon as they are confirmed.

We hope you have had a lovely Easter and look forward to seeing you all next week!