Welcome to EYFS!
| Class |
Bear Cubs-Nursery
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Brown Bear-Reception
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| Teacher | Mrs Claire Stacey | Ms Samantha Grainger | |
| Learning Support Assistants | Mrs Lisa White | Mrs Hayley Brooker |
Mrs Rebecca Barker
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In EYFS we aim to foster happy and independent children who thrive in an environment which is fun, caring and full of new and exciting challenges and experiences. The children are given opportunities for both indoor and outdoor learning on a daily basis, with activities being selected to stimulate their senses and learning styles.
Reception is a unique and exciting time as our children embark on the transition to school and begin a lifelong learning journey. Through developing a secure relationship with our early years staff and each other, our children become confident and independent learners who feel happy and safe at school, and develop a real love for learning.
A variety of practical, hands-on and playful learning experiences are aimed at sparking our children’s curious minds and promote critical thinking and open-ended exploration of concepts and themes. Using high-quality children’s literature as our starting point, our children are introduced to the magical world of reading and writing through daily phonics sessions. We encourage our children to explore mathematical concepts through practical activities, role-play and discussion of our everyday lives and the environment around us.
We strive to achieve an environment where children can play, feel relaxed and be comfortable. When children feel emotionally safe and secure, they develop the confidence to explore and find out about the place they are in and the things they can see and touch.
In collaboration with our early years team, the children are equipped with the necessary skills to progress towards the more structured academic challenges of Year 1 and beyond.
The children have started the Summer term well and quickly settled back into the daily routine. We are excited about our focus story , The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. You can watch an animated version here: https://youtu.be/75NQK-Sm1YY We have our own real caterpillars in class and we are looking after them carefully so they turn into beautiful butterflies! The children will be learning about all different kinds of minibeasts, if you have a minibeast story at home which your child would like to share with the class, then please name it and send in with your child.
This week in EYFS the children have been finding out about Easter and Spring. All the children enjoyed making chocolate Easter nests and trying Hot Cross Buns. The Drawing Club book this week is The Odd Egg by Emily Gravett, you can listen to a version of it here: https://youtu.be/XDwmrXJ5UO8. The Nursery children listened to the story of Supertato The Great Eggscape! By Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet. I wonder if the children can tell you about these stories at home?
The children had lots of fun at the Easter Egg Hunt, thank you to the wonderful PTA for organising this for the children.
Happy Easter to all our families, thank you for your continued support and kindness.
We have had a super week in EYFS, starting off the week with our wonderful Mother's Day Stay and Play. The children really enjoyed their families coming to listen to them sing and share activities with them, they are already asking when we can do it again! Thank you for all you support, we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.
We have continued with our focus story of Supertato and have shared many stories written by the Supertato authors Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet. Outside in the garden we have set up a mini ASDA which has been very popular and we have played games to learn about healthy and non healthy food.
It has been a super week in EYFS! The children are loving our focus story of 'Supertato' by Sue Hendra and Paul Lynett. You can listen to a version here: https://youtu.be/QlaMeNmTG6c
The children in Reception have used the story in Drawing Club to create a villainous lair for Evil Pea and thinking about how we all have Superpowers such as kindness that we can use everyday . They have also been creating their own comic strips using Superheroes. The Nursery children are enjoying the challenges set by The Evil Pea, I wonder if they can tell you all about them at home?
We are looking forward to our joint stay and play on Monday. (9.00am until 9.45am) This will take place in the school hall. Please come via the school office to sign in first and then join us for some simple activities, songs and sweet treats.
It has been a fantastic week in EYFS, the children have loved playing outside in the Spring sunshine, enjoying our lovely garden. Our focus story this week is The Three Billy Goats Gruff, the children in reception have experimented making bridges out of materials to see which is the strongest and in Drawing Club the children looked at different ways the Billy Goats could cross the river as the bridge had collapsed! The Nursery children planted grass head and found out that seeds need water, sun and soil to grow. They also made wanted posters for the Troll. The highlight of the week has been World Book Day, the children all looked amazing and loved showing their peers their wonderful outfits.
The children in EYFS have enjoyed our focus story of Jack and the Beanstalk this week and the children are excited to see if the bean seeds they planted grow into a huge beanstalk!
The children have acted out the story, played magic bean subitising games, linked loops together to make a really tall beanstalk, played with the characters in the castle and explored measurement.
The children in Brown Bears have been practicing reading and writing their tricky words and had a great time at their 'Tricky word party' today!
We have had a great week in EYFS learning about Lunar New Year. The children enjoyed finding out about The Great Race and how each New Year is named after one of the animals from the race. You can watch the race here: https://youtu.be/eVClAj8q_lY
The children have created their own dragon puppets and practiced painting Mandarin symbols.
The story for Drawing Club in Reception is "Dim Sum Palace" You can listen to the story here: https://youtu.be/WQ3eKca_RUA
We also had a fantastic experience when The Berkshire Reptiles came to school. The children got to look, stroke and hold (if they wanted to) lots of different reptiles. We hope everyone has a wonderful half term break and we thank you for your continued support.
In EYFS the children have enjoyed the story of "Neon Leon" by Jane Clarke and Britta Teckentrup. You can listen to a version here: https://youtu.be/Yfw3-BnY7yg
The children in reception have been writing about what their chameleon could turn into in drawing club and the children in nursery have enjoyed mark making with neon coloured pens and paints.
We are really excited about the visit on Tuesday from The Reptile Man and can't wait for the children to meet all the different reptiles.
The nursery children were very happy to receive a special bunny planter made by Mrs Proud's son, we are going to plant something very special in it.
This week our focus story is Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell. The children have written to the zoo, acted out the story and been creative with animal patterns and prints. We have played games with Sid the Snake to help us hear the initial sound 's', see if you can find any objects together at home which start with a 's'. The children have asked if we can make a "cake snake" which we are going to try and make together next week.
In Reception this week we have been looking at the book 'Dear Zoo' by Rod Campbell. We loved the puppy that the zoo sent and then pretended to be zookeepers looking after the scariest animal in drawing club. In phonics we have learnt the sounds air, and er and the tricky word they. In Maths we have been thinking about one more and counting past twenty.
Nursery have continued to find out about Penguins this week and enjoyed playing with them in pretend snow. We made the snow by mixing cornflour, bicarbonate of soda and water, it works really well and actually feels like real snow! We are playing games to help learn about rhyming words and sharing rhyming stories. I wonder if your child can tell you any rhyming words at home?
What a fantastic first week of the New Year we have had in EYFS! We were so excited when it started to snow and we had lots of fun playing in the garden. The children caught snowflakes in their hands and even tried to catch them on their tongues! Although we think making mini snowballs and throwing them at Mrs Stacey and Mrs Brooker was a definite snowy highlight!
Our focus story this week is about a Penguin called Jonty Gentoo, here is a link to listen to the story at home: https://youtu.be/UWtTalB-zPU
The children have been learning facts about penguins and creating amazing drawings and painting of Penguins.
We have enjoyed our focus story of Stick Man by Julia Donaldson this week. The children have been finding sticks and turning them into their very own Stick Man. The children are very welcome to bring sticks in from home and transform them at school.
In Nursery we used puff pastry to make cheesy Stick Man straws, they looked and tasted delicious. We talked about who we live with and our families, comparing this to the Stick Man, his Stick Lady Love and his three children.
In reception we thought about Stick Man in drawing club. We created our own adventure for stick man to go on. We created maps of where Stick Man had been on his journey away from home.
You can watch a version of the story here: Storytime for Kids Read Aloud: Stickman by Julia Donaldson
This week we have really enjoyed our focus story "Owl Babies" by Martin Waddell, the children in Nursery and Reception have been very creative, making Owl puppets, feathery collage birds and using forks to create Owl paintings. The children threaded cereal to make bird feeders outside in the garden.
We loved sharing the photographs of when the children were babies and had fun guessing who's who. Thank you so much for sending them in.
The children have started to practice their Christmas play and we are really impressed with their super singing voices.
The Nursery children have continued to enjoy learning about Space. We have shared the story of Aliens Love Underpants by Claire Freedman and Ben Cort and the children have learnt the rhyme "5 Little men in a flying saucer" The children have designed their own flying saucers, cooked moon rock cakes and built fantastic rockets in the garden.You can find a version of the story here: https://youtu.be/GQTupx8XVAQ
The Reception children read the story The Hundred Decker Rocket and designed our very own deck to add to it. We have begun to learn songs for the Christmas play. In maths we have been looking at the parts that make a whole and composing and decomposing 2 and 3 in the context of Numberblocks.
We were extremely proud of all the children observing the two-minute silence on Remembrance Day. In our group time we talked about people who keep us safe and why we wear poppies.
The children have settled back into EYFS well and its been lovely to hear about their half term breaks.
This week in Nursery our focus story is Whatever Next by Jill Murphy. The children are enjoying learning about space and we will continue with this theme next week. We have also been sharing our firework experiences and have created fantastic firework pictures. We are learning new songs and rhymes and exploring using musical instruments.
In Reception this week Drawing Club has taken us to the moon and we thought about what we would take with us on our journey. We have also been learning about Guy Fawkes being safe on Bonfire night.
This week in reception we have been finding out about different beliefs and how people celebrate special times in different ways. On Monday it was Diwali, the festival of light, and we have made Rangoli rice patterns, Mendhi hand patterns and Diva pots. We also danced to Diwali dances to learn how people prepare and celebrate Diwali.
The children in Nursery have also enjoyed finding out about The Festival of Light called Diwali and were proud to take home their beautiful Diva lamps. We enjoyed hearing all about the celebrations from Jashwin and Viyansh. They told their friends about the special clothes they wore, the delicious food they ate and the really loud fireworks. We hope all our families who celebrated Diwali had a special time.
We have ended the term with a wonderful story time with Ms Alder. The children listened to the story of "Coco loves her curly hair" by Colleen Dixon and found out about all the different hair styles the character Coco liked her mum to style with her afro hair.
Thank you to all the children and their families for making their first half term in EYFS so positive, we really do appreciate all your support and kindness. Have a wonderful break.
This week in EYFS the children have been inspired by the artist Alma Thomas to create their own piece of art. The pictures the children created are amazing and we are so impressed with the time and attention the children took over their pictures.
The Nursery children have enjoyed their focus story of The Gruffalo, especially making their own Gruffalo Crumble to share with their families.
The Drawing Club story for Reception this week is The Leaf Thief and the children ended the week by going on an Autumn walk, spotting signs of Autumn and checking no-one was stealing the leaves!
Thank you to all the Nursery families for supporting our first Stay and Play session, we enjoyed playing and singing with you.
Next week on Tuesday 21st October at 9.00am, Ms McKehon will be sharing information on how to support your child with reading for our Reception families, we hope you can make it.
This week in EYFS the children have been enjoying finding signs of Autumn. The Nursery children went on a wonderful Autumn walk around the beautiful Bearwood School grounds, collecting leaves, feathers and twigs. Next week the children in Reception will go on their Autumn adventure and see what they can find.
This week's inspiration for Drawing Club was the cartoon character Super Ted. To extend the learning around this the children in Reception talked about people who help us and had a fantastic visit from a Nurse.
Nursery children have loved The Gingerbread Man story, especially baking their own!
The children in EYFS have had a fantastic week. Our focus story of "We're Going on a Bear Hunt" by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury has given the children so many different learning opportunities. You can listen and watch a version of the story here: https://youtu.be/fCZunYvHMDY All the children went on a Bear Hunt around the school grounds and were indeed excited to find the giant teddy bear sitting on a chair in the sunshine! Please do ask your child about the hunt and whether they can remember anything we saw on the way. In maths this week the reception children have been counting objects and sounds one to one to 5. The nursery children have been taking part in musical maths, singing counting songs together.
The children in EYFS have had a busy week, our focus story “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see?” by Bill Martin Jr and Eric Carl, has been popular with the children. You can listen to a version of the story here: https://youtu.be/E7tvOtt1itA We have made our own Brown Bears, played colour hunt games and created colourful collages. We used chocolate brown playdough to mould and make many different models, shapes and creations, developing our fine motor control at the same time. The reception children have been subitising (identifying how many without counting) up to three and identifying the numerals 1 to 3. We have also enjoyed time gardening outside, digging up the vegetable patch so its ready for planting. We found so many different minibeasts, I wonder if your child can tell you any they found.
EYFS have had a fantastic start to the term. The team are so proud of all the children who have settled in well to their classes, learning new routines and making new friends. This week we have had a focus on identifying our feelings and have read the book The Colour Monsters by Anna Llenas. The team would like to thank the families for all their support and we look forward to meeting you all again at the parents welcome meeting on Tuesday 16th September at 9.00am.
