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.
If you would like to keep up with what your child is doing in class, please follow our EYFS instagram account where we share lots of photos of our day to day learning @darley_dene_eyfs.
| Week ending | What we have been learning about |
|---|---|
| 26/04/24 | Sparrows class have had a lovely week diving into the book "Surprising Sharks". Did you know all sharks have 7 fins? This is just one of the most exciting facts we have learnt. Ask your children about what types of sharks there are. They have a variety of sharks they would love to teach you about. In Maths we have been looking at teen numbers and practising counting to 20 confidently. This week in PE the children set up their own activities to challenge each other to build on their throwing, rolling, and balancing skills. The children were so proud of their set-up and are excited to teach the nursery about these skills during continuous provision next week outside. We hope you have a lovely weekend and look forward to learning and growing with you once again next week. |
| 19/04/24 | Welcome back everyone! This term Reception class will become Marine Biologists as we explore the habitat that is the ocean. Already, the children have shown a keen interest in learning more about the creatures and vegetation that is found under the sea. We have made our own books talking about who is found in the ocean and drawn our own illustrations. In Maths we are looking at the teen numbers and how they are made with one ten and ones. To help with this learning you can use this sentence structure at home too. Please make sure your child comes to school each day with a water bottle filled with water. As the days are getting warmer water is even more essential. Juice is not to be in water bottles in school. We hope you have all had a lovely break and the children now have a restful weekend after some great learning in their first week back. |
| 28/03/24 | Thank you all for a lovely end to the term! This week we wrote ingredients lists and recipes for making our Easter cornflake nests. The children loved seeing their writing used for a new purpose and following their recipes today to make their Easter treats. In Maths we have been talking about 3D shapes and how they have faces. We used paint to explore the faces different 3D shapes have by creating print art. As book bags have not gone home this week, I have attached some extra books to your Collins Library this week. Have a lovely Easter break! |
| 22/03/24 | What a egg-cellent week we have had in Sparrows! The children have had their zooologist hats on as we have researched different creatures that come from eggs. Did you know that birds eggs are hard and smooth and reptile eggs are soft? Writing has been a major focus of our over the term, the childrens confidence is building at an impressive pace. To help support this at home please use your letter formation cards and sound mats when encouraging your children to write. You can make lists, name tags for toys, write recipies,or even write a letter to someone. Please come and ask a member of the Sparrows team if you need a new copy of the word mat or letter formaation cards for this. Finally, thank you for all your support with our assembly. We are so proud of all the children abnd how far they have come, and it was great to have a moment to share that joy with their families. |
| 15/03/24 | This week receptions budding scientists became chemists, zoologists and botonists as they experimented with different reactions, studies the life cycle of a frog and explored plants growing. We have been working hard on writing sentences with our daily star sentence challenge, a three to four word sentence involving a tricky word that is modeled and read with the children and then rubbed off for the challenge of children rewriting it independently. It has been lovely watching the children engaging in this daily challenge. Two frog books were created by each child this week, one in Maths, the five little speckled frog song book, and another about the life cycle of a frog. Each child came up with their own sentence about the different stages in the life cycle. These books are being kept in our special library this term, however we will be sending them home for your enjoyment as the term comes to an end. Next week on Thursday 21st, we invite you to come to our class assembly in the hall at 9am. We can not wait to share some of our learning with you all. |
| 08/03/24 | We have had the most stunning week celebrating authors, illustrators and all things books. As a class we have written two books, one called "Look at me", where we wrote about our book day costumes, and the other "letters to Bumblebear", a book of letters explaining why a bear can not be a bee. This is our last week focusing on bees and insects as we move onto frogs and other creatures that come from eggs. I have been blown away by the inquisitiveness and great questions your children have come up with this term, they really want to know more and build on their knowledge. Please make sure you have signed up for a stay and play slot next week, we can not wait to have you join our learning for part of the afternoon. A happy Mothers day to all the women in the Sparrows children's lives this weekend, thank you for all you do. See you all on Monday! |
| 01/03/24 | These budding Entamologists have been so engaged in this weeks learning, we have acted out and written about the life cycle of a bee, learnt that bees dance to communicate, created our own bee dances, and written our own mini bee fact books. In Maths the children really enjoyed reading the story "I can only draw worms", followed by drawing worms and comparing long and short worms. We made a chart to see who had the longest and the shortest name. Next week is book week! We can't wait to see all your favourite books. |
| 23/02/24 |
Sparrows class have been buzzing with this terms new learning, investigating different bugs and insects. What a great bunch of Entomologists we have in Reception! We have started with reading a story called Speedy Bee, and learning all about honey bees and why they are important to humans and our planet. In Maths we have been talking about one more and one less upto 8, you can help to support this learning at home by counting objects and then adding one more and asking "how many are there now?" or asking the same question after taking one away. In phonics this week our focus tricky words have been full, pull, and put. If possible stick these words around your home to make a game of reading them, the more your children are seeing and hearing these words the sooner the learning will stick in their heads. Have a stunning weekend Sparrows! |
| 09/02/24 | This week Reception have been learning about Chineese New Year. We have made our own Dragon to dance with, decorated the class, made lucky coin charms, written a take away menu, explored numbers and saying hello in Mandarin and folded our own spring rolls. This term half term has been a huge phonics term where the children learnt the final diagraphs and trigraphs they will learn in their reception year, as there teacher I am so proud to see them using them in independent writing and exploring all the phonemes they know. Next term we will be extending this learning by writing sentences and working on reading longer words by "chunking them up". Your support at home by reading with and too your children will make a massive impact on the learning sticking in their mind. Please do come and see me if you need any help with reading at home, I know for a lot of parents we have already put things in place during parents evening. On that note, thank you for taking the time to attend the parent meetings, it was a joy to celebrate how far your children have come this year. Reception for many is the first year of school life and it comes with a lot of new learning and change. All the reception team are so proud of the children and we hope you are too. Bring on Spring 2, where we will be looking at life cycles and growing plants. |
| 2/02/24 | This week the children have been exploring money and playing shops as we prepared for our stall on NSPCC day. We have been focusing on the tricky words, you, has, my, the, and this in writing this week, as we made hearts and wrote our colaborative Maths story "How many legs?". We have now learnt all the new sounds your children will learn in phonics this year, with the next step of reading longer words. Please continue to talk about phonics at home with your child and even encourage them to help write shopping lists or cards when appropriate, recording the sounds they can hear. |
| 26/01/24 | This week Sparrows have continued to read "A Super Hero Like You", and even wrote their own versions to take home. These will be in their school bags so they can read them with you over the weekend. In Phonics we have been consolidating our new digraphs, playing with a digger to find er words, making unicorn horns to help us remember the digraph or, and playing lots of games where the students are the teacher during busy learning. Capacity is the big word of the week in Maths, the children have been comparing the capacity of different containers and how many items it can take to fill up each container. Well done on another lush week of learning. |
| 19/01/24 | This week reception have been looking at what makes a super hero and how every day people can be super too. They used their new phonics sounds while being super and helping our toy owls and cows with their "ow"s in the toy hospital and created their own super unicorn horns with "or" words. In Maths we have been looking at the concept of one less and talking through subtraction number sentences. We are lucky enough to have Miss McAvera join us in our PE lessons on a Tuesday, where we have been exploring fundumental movement skills through gymnastics. Phase 3 phonics sounds are all digraphs and trigraphs, please go over these at home to help support your children and please come to see me if I can help at all. Have a lovely Weekend! |
| 12/01/24 | Do you know what a mouse is? Our friend Max the Brave Kitten did not, and it got him into a really tricky situation. This week we have been talking about what it means to be brave and to challenge ourselves to try new things. Within this we also discussed the importance of asking for help. If Max had asked for help, then he wouldn't have ended up chasing a monster! In Maths, we have been delving deeper into our understandings of numbers from 0 to 5. We discussed the different ways to see zero and describe it... We had a debate discussing if zero is a number or not, as it means nothing. The adults were so proud of the children's communication skills during this time. Hope you all have a lovely weekend. |
| 05/01/24 | Welcome back everyone! It has been so lovely getting to hear about your break and seeing you throw yourselves back into some amazing learning. The love for writing and counting has definitely been embedded over Christmas. This term we are learning about people who help us and the ways we can help others. Have a stunning weekend! |
| 15/12/23 | Merry Christmas! As part of exploring how different people celebrate different things, this week we continued looking into the celebration of Christmas! We read the story "The tree that was meant to be" and talked about what is really important when it comes to celebrations like Christmas. Playing and family were our main conclusion, although the children did say that they feel gifts are quite important also. In phonics, we have been working hard on consolidating our phase 2 diagraphs sh, th, ch, qu, nk, and ng. The children have been playing "teacher" during continuous provision, and running their own extra "phonics lessons". It is so great to see them engaging in lovely team work while exploring different roles in their imaginative play. As the first term of your children's school journey comes to an end, the Reception team would like to thank you for your visible ongoing support for your children and their learning. Have a lovely break. |
| 08/12/23 | Hey Ewe! Thank you for coming and supporting our Nativity performance. The children all worked so hard and showed great confidence and pride during both performances. As Christmas draws nearer, for RE and Literacy this week we explored the story of the Nativity. We made puppets, acted out the story, talked about what songs in our show linked to the story (Hey Ewe got them a little confused, but that's creative licence for you) and made nativity scenes in Art. Our special Christmas reading hut is almost finished, and it has been a treat to watch the children bring stories and teddies into space to share their love of reading. Next week the Christmas festivities continue with Christmas Jumper day on Wednesday 13th and Christmas lunch. |
| 01/12/23 | We love to sing and dance in Sparrows! This week we talked about how people use music to celebrate. Each day we were introduced to a new music family and got to explore some of the instruments. Over the week, we planned and wrote our own class chant style "song", talking about what we like to do and what makes our Sparrows class special. In Maths we have been practising and consolidating our number bonds to 5. Next week is our Nativity and we can not wait to see you all there! If you havent already got tickets, please talk with the office. |
| 24/11/23 | You may have heard your children talking about someone called Stevie this week. Stevie is our class Sparrow toy who goes home with one child each weekend. Today is Stevie's birthday! All week we have been planning a surprise part for them. Writing invitations, cards, and lists for what we need to organise. Making decorations, organising party games and wrapping presents. It has been a lovely week exploring this celebration. Thank you to everyone who came to the stay and play this week. It is so lovely to see the children's excitement when sharing their learning with you all. Have a stunning weekend, and we will see you next week when we look at our next celebration style. |
| 17/11/23 | This week we have been learning about the Celebration that is the Harvest Festival. We made a scarecrow, explored new vegetables in play and cooking, discussed what vegetables are large and small or heavy and light, and cut our own vegetables to try. The children have been challenging themselves with daily writing tasks where they sound out words and record the phonemes they can hear and know. Thank you to those who made it to Stay and Play sessions this week, we will be in touch with new dates due to the cancellations on Tuesday and Wednesday. To prepare your child for next weeks learning you can ask them how they think people celebrate getting older? (You guessed it, we are looking at the celebration of Birthdays). Have a lovely Weekend everyone! |
| 10/11/23 | We have had a fabulous week in Reception, learning about and celebrating Diwali. We took part in a Diwali dance work shop, made our own diya lamps, created rangoli patterns with rice, played creating a Diwali feast and dressed up in saris. The children are showing great progress in there letter writing and are beginning to sound out cvc words and record the known letters. In Maths this week we read Pete the Cat and his Groovy Buttons, this is a story that looks at subtraction number sentences and the concept of one less. The children have really enjoyed using their maths moves when talking through number sentences. This term we are looking at a range of celebrations and will be looking at the harvest festival along side the artist Yayoi Kusama who loved nature and does a lot of art involving pumpkins. If you have any odd or "normal" pumpkins that you are not using, we would love to use them in our art and fine motor activities next week. I hope you all have a lovely weekend, and thank you once again for all the support you show your children. They are so involved in their learning and part of that is being able to talk to you about it at home. Thank you! From the Reception Team |
| 03/11/23 | Reception have had a spooktacular week reading the story Funny Bones. This has started off our terms topic "Celebrations" where we will look at different things and ways people celebrate. In Maths we have been consolidating our knowledge in comparing sets of things and knowing what numbers are fewer and more than others. This week we have had a skeleton friend in our classroom. In phonics and writing we have been tricking him by sticking letters and notes we have written all over him. We also painted special paper to reveal words we can decode using our phonics. Although the first week back is always exhausting for the children, they have persevered and shown great learning and participation. Wishing you all a restful weekend. |
| 20/10/23 | What a lovely end to the term we have had in Reception. The children have been working hard to remember how to form all their sounds learnt so far in phonics. In Maths we have been consolidating our number bonds to 5, while also comparing amounts using the terms "more" and "fewer". We read the story "Hair Love" and celebrated all our differences, beading hair, making playdough hair do's, and using descriptive language to describe our individuality in our hair. Thank you for all the support you have shown your children over the past half term. We will see you on Tuesday the 31st to start our next half term. Have a stunning break. |
| 13/10/23 | We have had a stunning week reading the story "So Much" and talking about families and how we show our love for our families. In Maths we have been exploring number bonds to 5 and using our number sentence symbols with our arms to help us remember the structure of an addition problem. The children have been showing great focus in phonics and are writing the new letters with all types of mark making material. See you all at Parent consultations next week! |
| 06/10/23 | What a fabulous week we have had in Sparrows this week. Our artist of the month was introduced on the same day as the new phonics sound "o", this was perfect as the letter o is the same shape as our Artist Kandinskys favourite shape… the circle. The children have loved exploring the concept of size, ordering shapes from largest to smallest. In Maths our main focus this week has been numbers to 3 and looking at the different combinations we can use to build 3 e.g. 1 and 2 makes 3. In Literacy the children have been writing first sounds and numbers in mud kitchen recipes that we then moved into the mud kitchen and used for our baking. Thank you once again for all the support you are showing your children in their learning. Please remember to return your reading books each Wednesday so we can give your child their new book to bring home. |
| 29/09/23 | Thank you to all our parents for your support this Thursday your children are still buzzing today after being able to show you their classroom yesterday afternoon. This week we have been so proud of Sparrows for their engagement and excitement in writing their new phonics sounds on whiteboards, paper, with paint, and in the tuff trays. This is a lovely age for learning and growing. To support learning these phonics sounds, each week I will send home a homework sheet with the phrases and pronunciation of the new phonemes we have learnt. If you are unsure of a sound, we have posted a link on our facebook page to the Little Wandle parents help site. Here you can find videos explaining how to correctly make each new sound. We have been reading "The Colour Monster" again this week and the children are becoming more confident at naming their emotions and are using different emotions in imaginative play. We hope you have a lovely weekend and we will see you on Monday. |
| 22/09/23 | Sparrows have had a week of exploring our emotions while reading The Colour Monster. We are learning to spot how eachother feels, and how to bring ourselves back to calm. like the green monster, when we become over excited, angry, scared, or sad. In DT we have been sewing our own colour monsters independently with an adult helping us thred the needle. Our first Little Wandle reading books are going home this week. All of the books have no text and are encouraging children in their oracy and hearing segmented words to blend in their head. The books have instructions to help parents on the back page. Please come and see me if you would like any more support with reading at home. I was so excited by the childrens enthusiasum and engagment in starting the statritory base line assessments this week. It is lovely to explore numbers, language, and new concepts on a one to one bases with each of your children. Thank you team for another fabulous week of learning. |
| 15/09/23 |
What a fabulous first week we have had in Sparrows class. Your stunning children have settled in beautifully, making friends, creating art, and learning their first phonetic sounds. In art this month we are being inspired by Picasso, using shapes and collage to explore cubism. Next week we will be creating our own cubism portraits. Our topic "All about me" has started with us talking about our face and how we all have a nose, ears, eyes… but still we are all different and unique. In Physical education we explored climbing and balancing. All the children showed great enthusiasm and confidence in this, which was lovely to see. Thank you for the way you have all supported your children to transition into school life. The Sparrows team are so excited to be a part of your children learning and growing. See you all next week!
If you would like to keep up with what your child is doing in class, please follow our EYFS instagram account where we share lots of photos of our day to day learning @darley_dene_eyfs |
