Teaching & Learning Weekly Summary
Below you will find our weekly teaching and learning summary to find out how we develop and enrich your child's teaching and learning whilst they are with us.
Keep up with the learning happening in the early years by following our EYFS instagram account @darley_dene_eyfs.
| Week ending | What we have been learning about |
|---|---|
| 26/04/24 | This week in Owls class, we have enjoyed listening to the story Lulu Loves The Library. The children have enjoyed listening to different parts of the story throughout the week. During our weekly shopping trip to Tesco, the children worked together to find ingredients to make rice crispy cakes. Have a lovely weekend! |
| 19/04/24 | We are so glad to be back after the Easter holidays. We hope you have all enjoyed your time off! All the children and staff have had a wonderful first week back in Owls. We have welcomed Miss Wilson to our team, who will teach the class on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday each week. She has thoroughly enjoyed her time here this week getting to know the children and spending time with each child to form some positive relationships. Mrs Blasigh and Miss Wilson will continue to work together in class for the next few weeks to ensure consistency for the children. In Maths, we have been learning about sequencing events such as daily activities and stories and rhymes. We have also been learning the rhyme '5 little men in a flying saucer' where we have made props to go with the rhyme and performed this in front of our peers. We have also been to Tesco and made a pasta salad with the ingredients. Well done for all your hard work this week. Have a great weekend. |
| 28/03/24 | What a fabulous week we have had to end our term on. We have been learning about Easter and enjoyed taking part in an Easter themed attention bucket session where we enjoyed dancing along to a dancing chicken toy, watching a wind up chick hop around and then watched how quickly the eggs would roll down a pipe. Our stage three activity was to knock the eggs off the cups using the water spray bottle. We had to have very strong finger muscles to press the lever quick enough to knock the eggs off, but it was great fun! We hope you all have a restful Easter holidays and we look forward to seeing you all after the holidays! |
| 22/03/24 | This week Owls have been enjoying more poetry. We have been focusing on the rhyme 'I'm a little teapot' whilst continuing to learn about rhyming words. We were lucky enough to go the library on Tuesday where we listened to a fabulous rhyming story called Kitchen Disco. It was a funny and exciting book which got us all dancing! In Maths, we have been learning about capacity. We have been using the words full, empty and half full throughout the week. We have also been working hard on our turn taking skills, playing lots of games together. Counting caterpillars and Old Mcdonald's Lotto are a few orchard board games we have enjoyed in Owls this week. We hope you enjoy the weekend and the sunshine stays around for us to enjoy! See you all on Monday. |
| 15/03/24 | This week in Owls we have been learning all about poetry and enjoying some wonderful poems from a book called 'Out and About' By Shirley Hughes. One poem was all about mud and how much fun it can be to explore muddy puddles! In the classroom we had mud (made from oats, water and brown paint) to play with. We took the small world animals and made them jump, roll and have fun in the mud. This was messy but so much fun. There was also a poem about sand which we enjoyed. We then explored kinetic sand, which all the children in Owls loved. In Maths we have been learning about heavy and light. We have enjoyed unsing the balancing scales to compare the weight of different objects. On Wednesday afternoon we had our stay, play and learn session with our parents. This was a great success and we enjoyed having you with us for the afternoon. |
| 08/03/24 | This week in Owls we have had so much fun exploring a range of different books, designing our own book corner and learning about one author in particular. We have been reading two books called 'Slug in Love' and 'Good Little Wolf' both written by Nadia Shireen. We really enjoyed the Good Little Wolf book as the children thought it was funny. We have decorated our classroom door to look like the cover of Slug in Love. It is bright red, full of hearts the children made and also has a large slug on it too. Throughout the week we have written our own stories and they are wonderful! We are so proud of their books, which are now in our book corner! Have a lovely weekend. |
| 01/03/24 | What a busy and fun week we have had in Owls class! We have continued our learning around the book 'Would You Rather...' and have been discussing what biscuits we would rather eat, what films we would rather watch and what Paw Patrol character we would rather be. In Maths, we have been learning about measuring height, using the words tall and short. We have been making towers and putting them in order from shortest to tallest, comparing different heights of animals, and measuring the height of flowers with cubes. Maybe you could measure how tall different things are in your home. |
| 23/02/24 | Welcome back, we hope you all had a lovely half-term. This week in Owls we have started reading one of our special books called 'Would You Rather' by John Burningham. We have been discussing the story which gives you lots of choices about what you would rather have. For example, would you rather have a monkey to tickle, a bear to read to, or a pig to ride? This funny story has allowed us to talk about our own preferences, and we have discussed what food we would rather have, where we would rather go on holiday and what type of shoes we would rather wear. Maybe you could continue these questions at home over the weekend! In maths, we have been learning about the number 6, how to make 6, recognise 6, make groups of 6 and write the number 6. Have a fabulous weekend, Owls! |
| 09/02/24 | This week in Owls we have been participating in children's mental health week and as part of this, we have been doing lots of activities to promote 'childrens' voices' as well as thinking about what makes them special.The children loved bringing in a 'special' item from home to 'show and tell' with the rest of the class! The children have made a picture collage of things that represent themselves as well as 'a telephone' using paper cups to encourage talking. Owl children have also thought about things that they like and don't like. We have celebrated Chinese New Year by partaking in lots of fun activities linked to the celebration, including: making paper lanterns, dancing dragon puppets and a headband representing the animal from the year that they were born. What a busy week we have had! We hope you have a funa and relaxing half term. |
| 02/02/24 | This week in Owls Class we have continued to enjoy the book 'My Hair', which is about a little girl who is about to have her birthday. We have focussed a lot of our learning around the topic of 'birthdays', including: looking at when the children's birthdays are; learning the months of the year using a song to help us; and looking at which season our birthdays fall in. We have also discussed who is the oldest and youngest in the class. In Maths, we have looked at doubling, odds and even numbers, as well as learning how to combine two numbers to find the total. The children really enjoyed making 'dream catchers' to sell to parents as part of ours NSPCC maths week. We hope you enjoy them! |
| 26/01/24 | This week in Owl Class we have been looking at the book 'My Hair' which is about a little girl whose birthday it is, and she is trying to decide what hairstyle she would like. The children really enjoyed 'playing hairdressers', washing and brushing the dolls' hair. We have done lots of fun fine motor skills activities linked to hair, such as: threading beads on pipe cleaners, twisting wool and plaiting hair. In maths, we have been focussing on the numbers 6,7,8 and finding one more and one less. |
| 19/01/24 | This week we have continued to look at the book 'Amazing' and the children have made sentences using the pictures from the story. Our 'dragon' small world area has proved particularly popular! In Maths, we have been learning about the number '4' and doing lots of fun, practical activities linked to the number '4'. Owls really enjoyed our visit from 'Freshwater Theatre' company, helping to bring different stories alive. |
| 12/01/24 | This week in Owl Class we enjoyed the story 'Amazing', which is about a boy and his pet dragon. They do lots of amazing things together-singing, dancing and games. The children thought about what they are 'amazing' at and demonstrated their skill. We took pictures of the children to stick in our own 'Amazing Book'. In maths, we have been focussing on 1 more and 1 less than a number up to 10 and the composition of numbers 1-10. In cooking, we have made our own faces using pitta breads/biscuits as the base and vegetables to make the facial features. |
| 05/01/24 | We hope you all had a lovely Christmas and a fun, relaxing time with your families! We are pleased to welcome the children back and are looking forward to the term ahead. It was lovely to hear about what they did over Christmas and the children were really excited to share with the class, the presents they got for Christmas.To start the term off, we talked about welcoming in the New Year and what we all did to celebrate. |
| 15/12/23 | This week in Owl Class, we have been doing lots of fun Christmas activities. We started the week off by decorating our class Christmas tree and then created decorations to put on it. In Literacy, we have continued to look at the 'Nativity Story', trying to remember the order of events and the names of the people in it. We enjoyed a special 'sensory' version of the story! We even created our own 'mangers' for baby Jesus. The children really enjoyed making 'candy canes' using pipe cleaners and beads-a great fine motor skill activity! We walked to Tesco to get some gingerbread dough and used rolling pins to roll the dough flat and Christmas cutters to make biscuits. In Maths, we have continued to look at 2D shapes, in particular 'squares' and 'rectangles'. |
| 08/12/23 | We have had a very busy week in Owl Class, with the Christmas Play. The children all performed so well-we are very proud of them! In Literacy, we have been looking at the 'Christmas Story' and identifying the different people. We have had a go at retelling the story with small world characters. In Maths, we have looked at 2D shapes, focusing particularly on 'rectangles' and 'squares'. We even went on a 'hunt' to find different shapes around our school. |
| 01/12/23 | This week in Owls we have been learning about the numbers '4' and '5' and finding one more and one less than numbers up to 10. In Literacy, we have been looking at books about 'monsters' and in particular focusing on 'The Colour Monster'. The children have been great at describing the different feelings represented by each monster and thinking about their own feelings. |
| 10/11/23 | This week in Owls we have had a very busy week full of learning. We have been reading a book called 'A First Book Of Dinosaurs' and learning lots of different facts about dinosaurs. We have started making our own fact files about dinosaurs and look forward to sharing these with you next week. On Monday, we enjoyed a Diwali workshop where we enjoyed dancing to music and learning about Diwali. On Wednesday we had a role-play visit from Little City. The children loved getting involved in the session, which has different areas such as a vets, shop and hairdressers. On Wednesday 15th November we have our stay and play session starting at 1.30pm. During this time we will take part in a carpet time followed by time to play and explore with your children. We can't wait to see you all there and enjoy an afternoon of learning together. Have a lovely weekend! |
| 03/11/23 | This week we have had a 'Halloween' focus. The children had lots of fun exploring pumpkins, using their senses, to touch, smell and feel. We have enjoyed singing various 'halloween' themed songs and making pumpkin soup. In Literacy, we have enjoyed the book 'Room on the Broom', joining in with the repeated phrases and spotting the rhyming words. The children have created some 'Halloween artwork', including pumpkin paper plates and cotton bud skeletons. In maths, we have been looking at different representations of numbers 1-3 and being able to say the number without counting. |
| 13/10/23 | This week in Owl Class we have been looking at a book about 'Police officers' and thinking about the role that they play. We have created some police themed artwork, including painting a police car. In maths, we have focused on 'repeating patterns' and enjoyed using different equipment to copy, continue and produce our own repeated patterns. |
| 06/10/23 | This week in Owls we have been looking at the role of doctors. We have read the book 'Zog and the flying doctors' to help us understand how important doctors are! We have enjoyed making our own doctor's kit and a stethoscope. In addition to this, we have been using colourful semantics as a way of helping us to build a sentence. In maths we have been learning about height, length and capacity and using the correct language to compare. We fininshed the week by making special 'dragon nests' which links to our story about 'Zog'. |
| 29/09/23 | We have had a busy and wonderful week in Robins. To start with, the children have been focusing on the story, ‘Owl Babies’. It has been so lovely to hear comments and quotes said from the story whilst children are engaged in their play. Robins made an amazing collaborative display related to the story and enjoyed decorating the mummy owl. They also created their own little version of a baby owl. Robins have been using natural loose parts in play dough to help develop their imaginations and creativity and building their fine motor skills by pushing the play dough through the garlic crushers. This week the children engaged in a new phonics activity called, ‘What’s in the Box?’ The children had to sound out each letter sound with the corresponding object. For example, sss…sock, sss…sun, sss…star, sss…snake. We have also been working on clapping to how many syllables each word has. Next week the children will be focusing on a story called, ‘A Superpower like mine!’ I am sure the children will love exploring all of the super powers in the story. We have also launched Tapestry in EYFS, please ensure you have provided your email address to the office. Have a wonderful weekend and we look forward to seeing you next week. |
| 22/09/23 | This week in Owls we have been reading different poems from the book 'Blow a kiss, catch a kiss'. We focussed on two poems in particular which were called 'Eye Caterpillars' and 'Faces'. We enjoyed reciting these poems, using the mirrors to make different faces. Eye Caterpillars was all about eyebrows and we enjoyed moving our eyebrows in the mirrors. Can you move your eyebrows? In Maths we have been learning how to match, finding pairs and sorting colours. We have had a great week of learning and look forward to seeing you all next week! |
| 15/09/23 |
We have had a great week in Owls so far. Mrs Blasigh and Mrs Oliver have been blown away with the excellent green behaviour shown by the Owls children! We have been settling into school life and picking up the routines of the day. We are enjoying learning about friends and ourselves. We have been creating a range of different faces using loose parts, paint and drawing. We have been learning the names of our friends and getting to know each other. We look forward to another week of fun learning. Have a lovely weekend. |
