Summer 2 – Jungle Journey
This half term our topic has been Jungle Journey. The children have been learning about some different animals that live in the jungle. We have been looking at some of the different patterns that these animals have and also listening to the sounds they make during sound lotto games.
To celebrate Fathers Day, we invited some of our Dad’s & Grandad’s in for stay & play sessions. The children loved being able to share their early years setting with their families.
Two of our families brought in their pets for everyone to meet. Phoebe’s dad brought in his Axolotl and Alex’s Mum brought in Freddy the Tortoise. It was great to learn about some of the things these animals eat and what they need to be looked after.
As we had a sports week and in line with the Euro’s beginning, we had a sports week within REY. The children enjoyed playing some different balls games, bean bag races. Some of the children in the afternoon went to watch some of the school sports day on the field.
As one of our math’s outcome this half term is looking at routes and maps, we have been playing some hide and seek games and giving our friends directions in the garden. We followed some directions on our walk to Barker’s park. One of our trips the sun was shining and very hot and the other it was raining initially! We took shelter in the woods. The children all had great listening ears and were we had great fun playing in the park and with the parachute.
In the front garden, some of our children were role playing toasting marshmallows using sticks at the logs. We brought our learning to life and used our new fire pit for the first time! The children really enjoyed making a fire and toasting the marshmallows. The children were able to follow instructions and listen to the rules. We had a chat about risks and why we have these rules in place – to keep us safe.
To celebrate the end of our term and year, we had a Fun Day and parents were invited to join in with some activities in the multi purpose room. It was lovely to see so many parents come and join in. The children enjoyed icing biscuits, making crowns, getting their face painted and playing with some balloons! A big well done to our in house face painters
Our children have been visiting the school and Clever Kittens playground and classroom as part of their transition. The children have really enjoyed visiting the ducks in the garden!
We hope everyone has a lovely summer and we will see our returning children in September. very excited to be welcoming our children back to our bigger room. Building works will be carried out during the holidays to make our room even bigger and better. We can’t wait to see you back the week of the 9th September!
Spring 2
This half term we have been learning about the farm and the animals that live on the farm.
We have been listening to some sounds on the farm and linking these to the animals. We have been practicing our mark making and drew some of the animals that live on the farm. We also used tractor wheels and our feet to make some muddy painted pictures.
We had a visit from Little City which the children loved. Here we had the opportunity to dress up as firemen, doctors, hairdressers and enjoy lots of role play. The children really did love this and we are keen to develop our house area to have some more real life dressing up items.
Our Talk for Write text was Dingle Dangle Scarecrow. The children have been enjoying reciting this rhyme and are able to talk through the rhyme using the pictures. We even decorated our own scarecrow biscuits!
We have been listening to some familiar rhymes and playing with pattern of sound using the objects in the rhyming pots. The children have been saying some words that rhyme with our name. Everyday we have been developing or communication and building our vocabulary. Learning some new words which are linked to the farm such as tractor and barn.
The children have been comparing some farm animals by size and counting how may animals we have on our farm area. The children have been developing their counting skills, counting every day objects within our session.
We visited Wentworth Farm and had a great morning feeding the animals. We got to brush and stroke the pony and feed the rabbit, guinea pigs and chickens. We then got to have a play in the park and sand pit. Some of the children came on the bus with their adult which was very exciting!
Some of our older children began their transition over to Clever Kittens which was also very exciting! They have had great fun going over to visit Mrs Bradwell’s class and meeting new friends. We hope the fun continues! As part of transition we have also started to use the PE hall in school which has been great fun. The children have been great at moving their bodies and balancing when using benches.
Some of our families came in for stay and play sessions which was great fun! We planted some seeds in the garden and made bird feeders. The children really enjoyed showing their adult what we do while we are at REY.
We have also had some Easter fun! The children decorated an egg shape to then fin in our garden Easter egg hunt!
Spring 1
When we returned back after the Christmas holidays, we welcomed some new friends into REY. They settled well into our routines and were able to join in with the fun!
We spent some time exploring print and logos’s, having a look around our nursery building at different signs and what some of them mean. We talked about the different words and letters that we might see every day and the information they give us. On some of our front doors we have a number. The children have also been enjoying completing inset puzzles and some of these were very tricky!
We have been developing our counting at small group times by counting out some of our construction sets. To develop our rote counting we played hide and seek in the garden.
As the weather has been changing, when we have been going outside we have been risk assessing – looking to see if the ground is slippy or safe. We have also found some ice in our garden, trying to melt it in different ways. We have been exploring ice and some different materials in the water tray.
The children have been developing their mark making skills in icing sugar, flour and gloop. This looks just like snow! The children have been learning about some of the animals that live in the Arctic like polar bears and penguins. These animals have been playing in our playdough, shaving foam and gloop with us!
As our talk 4 writing text was Polly put the Kettle On, we have been learning this rhyme in a variety of ways. We used our puppets to help us learn and retell the story and been developing an understanding of the words “on” and “off”. We tried some tea as this is what Polly makes!
During our literacy small group times, the children have been developing their listening skills through different games. We have played some sound lotto games, listening to familiar sounds our friends voices and going outside to listen to the noises of the garden.
To celebrate the Youth Winter Olympics, we had a week of trying some winter sports. We watched some videos of a bobsleigh race and then used our own bobsleigh’s to go down the hill in the back garden. We moved our bodies like we were figure skaters in the front garden with ribbons and used “Olympic coloured rings” to throw beanbags into.
We developed our gross motor skills by playing on the bikes and scooters. We have been really enjoying playing in the front garden too. Here we can move our bodies up the climbing frame. The children have really grown in confidence doing this and balancing on the logs.
At morning check in we have been using some Makatan signs to show as well as tell how we are feeling.
It has been a very busy first half term for 2024! Lots of learning and most of all fun 😊!
Autumn 2
As we returned from our October break on the 31st October, the children were excited about Halloween. We added some dressing up costumes to our house corner and encouraged the children to try to put them on independently.
As there had been some fireworks going off for Halloween and Guy Fawkes night, we began discussing these events. We watched some videos of the fireworks and listened to the sounds they made – “BOOM!” “BANG!”. The children developed their mark making skills in glitter creating their own swirling firework shapes with their fingers.
Outdoors, we made our own bonfire role play area and had discussions about creating a real fire. (Hopefully we will be able to do this one day soon)
As one of our spine reading book this term is Red Rockets & Rainbow Jelly we have been talking about rockets! Every day at the beginning of the session we have been “Blasting off” from the carpet. This has been developing the children’s numeracy skills, counting by rote. The children have been choosing a number between 1 and 10, then talking about the number being higher or lower than the other, choosing then to count up or down to blast off! This has been a great way for the children to be able to develop their rote counting, not always starting from 1.
Within this half term there have been lots of celebrations which involved lots of learning! – Remembrance Day, Diwali, odd socks day, Children in Need, Road Safety week and the dentist’s also came to visit.
On the run up to Christmas we have been very busy!
The children have developed their mark making skills by writing letters to Santa and cutting out images from catalogues to send to Santa. We have made our own Christmas cards by painting and printing to give to our families.
For the Christmas Fayre in school, the children made some salt dough decorations and glittered lots of pinecones to sell. The children had been exploring reindeer dust which then we also sold at the Christmas Fayre too!
For our sing along celebration, the children learned some new songs and have been great at practicing these. The children enjoyed their singalong and all did great at joining in. The children have really enjoyed using the bells and other instruments while practicing on the run up to our sing-along and right up until the last day. At times, we have been singing that loud outside Santa may have heard us from the North Pole!
We hope everyone had a great Christmas break and are looking forward to being back at Early Years. We are looking forward to welcoming some new friends to REY in January!
Happy New Year!
