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Summercroft

Primary School

Achieving through care, challenge and creativity

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Early Years - Nursery & Reception

Welcome to Early Years!

31st January 2025

Who's That Trip-Trapping Over MY Bridge!?

 

Our fairy tale adventure continued this week as we used the story ‘Billy Goats Gruff’ as a springboard for our learning. Our focus has been heavily STEM (Science Technology, Engineering and Maths) based with the tuff tray filled with different materials, toy builders and construction vehicles. The children have had the chance to explore different materials that we can make things from (sand, brick, stone) and use them to try to make structures. They have also had access to Duplo blocks to build bridges for the goats to cross over the river.

 

As a whole-class challenge, we looked at different bridges around the world and the different styles and materials they were made from, and the children worked with their learning partners to make a bridge that was strong enough for a goat to cross using any materials they could find in the classroom. We then tested them to find out if they were structurally sound and discussed what we could have done differently if they weren't very stable!

 

Nursery children made very scary trolls using paper plates, carefully thinking about where his nose, eyes and eyes were, and Reception painted fantastic goats and troll pictures, thinking about the size of the brush they selected to make thick and thin lines when needed. 

 

We all very much enjoyed our visit to the Life Space and learning about the importance of resilience. We talked about how some things can be tricky to do like learning to ride a bike and writing our names, but whilst we might not be able to do it right now, the important word is 'yet' - we can't do it yet, but if we keep trying, soon we will be able to do it.

 

17th January 2025

Run, Run, As Fast As You Can!

 

On our first day back, we arrived at school to find a letter on the chair. We opened the letter, and it was from the Gingerbread Man. He told us that he was hiding in our school somewhere and had left some clues for us to follow to try to find him. The clues let us to the library, Mr. Jess’s office, the hall, the playground, the dining room and back to our classroom. When we got back to the classroom, we found another letter on the chair. The Gingerbread Man told us he had great fun at our school but missed his story so had jumped back into his storybook. He had left us a lovely treat of gingerbread men for us on the chair. The children were so excited by their adventure that they wanted to read ‘The Gingerbread Man’ story. We shared the text and discussed the events in the story. This then set us up for lots of Gingerbread Man-inspired activities.

 

In Reception, we drew and wrote about our favourite part of the story using our phonics to spell the words. We created gingerbread men using cotton buds and paint. We played a roll-and-cover gingerbread man game, where we had to roll two dice and add the numbers together. We then covered the corresponding number on our game board. We also explored different materials to create collage gingerbread men.  In maths we explored the numbers up to 5. We used Numicon to see how many different ways we could find to make each number. 

 

In Nursery, we painted our own gingerbread man. We used thick and thin brushes to paint his body, head, arms and legs, before adding the details.

 

As a class we created a story map and used the pictures as prompts to help us retell the story. The children were very good at joining in with the repeated refrain, "Run, run, as fast as you can; you can't catch me; I'm the Gingerbread Man!"

 

In maths, we have been learning about matching numerals and quantity up to five. The children carefully counting out gingerbread counters to match each numeral.

 

We have had a very busy and exciting week and are looking forward to reading our next traditional stories. 

 

20th December 2024

Christmas Countdown!

 

Early Years have been having lots of festive fun in the countdown to Christmas. The children enjoyed a very busy Decoration Day, making lots of different crafts to decorate our classrooms and the school Christmas tree. We had a magical lighting of the Christmas tree assembly where we had to wish really hard to make the twinkly lights appear on the tree.

The children were very proud of the Christmas cards which they made and we hope you enjoyed the surprise through your letter box after the excitement of posting them.

 

The children put on a fantastic performance of A King is Born last Friday. The children’s hard work definitely paid off as they did an amazing job singing all of the songs and joining in with the actions. We were very proud of what they achieved!  

 

We have also been busy making Christmas hats for our Christmas lunch and enjoyed wearing them whilst listening to Christmas songs as we ate our yummy food. We were very lucky as Father Christmas found time in his busy schedule to come and visit us for snack and he very kindly gifted each class a present.

 

Team EYFS wish you all a very Merry Christmas and we hope you enjoy the break! Ho Ho Ho!

 

6th December 2024

Oh Help, Oh No, It’s a Gruffalo!

 

This week we have read the much beloved Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson and all our learning has been woodland- themed. We talked about how woodlands are a type of habitat and how different animals are suited to and therefore live in different environments. We sorted animals that live in woodland, polar, desert and ocean habitats and the reasons they live there based on the differences we know between the animals, such as what they eat, whether they have fur or not and whether they can breathe under water. The children then used different construction resources to make homes for the animals based on their needs.

 

The children had great fun making Gruffalo faces, practising their scissor skills to carefully cut out the different shapes needed to make a black tongue, orange eyes and poisonous wart on the end of his nose! They then stuck them onto a paper plate to make a face with an obligatory Gruffalo growl.

 

Inspired by the story we have been using our fine and gross motor skills to scoop, stir and pour to make Gruffalo Crumble in the tuff tray. The children have also been role playing and retelling the story in the woodland small world using the characters from the story.

 

To finish off our topic, we danced and moved liked the characters in the story - tiptoeing like a mouse, slithering like a snake and stomping like a Gruffalo!

 

15th November 2024

Let the Festivities Begin!

 

This week in EYFS, we have been finding out about the Hindu festival, Diwali. We received a letter in the post from a little girl called Binny. She told us that her family celebrate Diwali and wanted to share the celebration with us. She sent a book called Binny's Diwali, which we read, and it told us all about the festival Diwali, which is the festival of light. We found out how Diwali is like other celebrations, such as Christmas and birthdays, as decorations are put up, special clothes are worn, and gifts are given to family and friends. 

 

In Nursery, we made diya lamps using salt dough and gems. In maths, we made rangoli patterns, by matching shapes to the rangoli designs. Fireworks are an integral part of Diwali, so we discussed how to keep safe around fireworks.  We used cotton buds to create mehndi patterns on hand outlines. 

 

In Reception, we made diya lamps using collage materials. In maths, we learnt about the word ‘symmetrical’. We then created symmetrical rangoli patterns using 2d shapes. We enjoyed exploring lots of other Diwali themed activities, including making party food using play dough, gems and candles, and making mehndi patterns on salt dough hands. 

 

The children in EYFS all enjoyed acting out getting ready for Diwali and celebrating Diwali through music and movement.  

 

25th October 2024

We Are All Unique!

 

The children have been continuing their Marvellous Me topic and we have been reading the story, Elmer by David McKee. We spoke about how Elmer was different to the other elephants because he was patchwork and not grey. We talked about how this made him special and unique and how we are all unique. The children thought about what may make them unique and shared this with their peers. During Forest School, the children in Early Years went on a colour scavenger hunt. They looked for different woodland treasure to match their coloured boards, finding lots of different natural colours.

 

In Nursery, the children have been busy making their own Elmer paintings - first by block printing to create their patchwork elephant and then adding it onto their painted grass and sky background. They have been developing their fine motor skills whilst making salt dough elephants by rolling out the salt dough and then pressing mosaic tiles into it.

 

In maths, Nursery have been comparing and recognising different quantities using the language of ‘more’ and ‘less’. The children sorted their own compare bears and then spoke about their findings using the correct mathematical language.

 

In Reception, the children looked closely at the story and sequenced the different pictures in order. They then got creative and created stained glass window Elmers, and developed their fine motor skills whist learning the skill of weaving.

 

In maths, Reception have been looking at numbers 1, 2, 3 and representing them in different, ways as well as learning to subitise these quantities. In phonics, we have now finished phase 2 and are excited to begin phase 3 after half term!

 

11th October 2024

Marvellous Me!

 

Now the children are settled and have begun to make friendships we have found out a bit more about who we are and how we are unique, and understand that we should celebrate our differences. We talked about the differences we can see on the outside such as hair and eye colour but also how we all like and dislike different things. It was wonderful to hear the children in Reception talk about the items they brought in for their All About Me Bags to give an insight into the things they find interesting and that they like to do outside of school.

 

The children have been busy making self-portraits and used natural materials to make faces in Forest School. They've made paintings and collages of their own homes and they have learnt that there are lots of different types of houses all around the world. 

 

They've role-played being builders to make their own buildings using lots of construction materials, and had great fun donning hi-vis jackets and talking to each other with walkie-talkies to coordinate the builds!

 

We will continue with our theme thinking about different types of families and the children's extended families over the next couple of weeks.

 

 

20th September 2024

And Just Like That, You're Starting a Whole New Adventure!

 

In Early Years, we have been bowled over by how well the children have approached the next chapter in their learning journey. Having been in school for just two weeks, the children have already established the routines of the day. They come into school with happy smiles on their faces and ready to have lots of fun!  

 

Within our classes, we have learnt about our Summercroft Golden Rules:-

· We are gentle

· We look after property

· We try hard

· We are kind and helpful

· We listen

· We are honest

We talked about what each of the golden rules mean and what this may look like at school. We met the different characters linked to each rule to help us remember - Louis the lion (We are honest), Zelda the zebra (We are gentle), Mona the monkey (we listen), Alfred the alligator (we are kind and helpful), Gino the giraffe (we look after property) and Ella the elephant (we try hard).

 

The children have also been busy making new friends and learning each others names whilst exploring the different areas of the classroom and the garden.

 

We are very much looking forward to starting our topic, Marvellous Me and finding out more about each other.

 

 

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