Term 4 

Phonics

English Lions continue to make fantastic progress during our phonic sessions. The children have adapted well to transitioning to different groups so that they can develop an understanding of the sounds that blend together to form words. We can decode many green words and we are able to read some red exception words. We also complete a separate handwriting session and we are learning how to correctly form the letters.

English

Our topic books: ‘Jack and the Beanstalk,’ ‘Handa’s Surprise,’ ‘The Little Red Hen’ and ‘Rosie’s Walk’ have been enjoyed as a class. We created actions to help remember the stories and we can say simple sentences related to the books. During the innovation stage, we have created our own stories based on the original books. We looked at heroes and villains and we wrote words and sentences to describe them. Writing sentences based on our stories has been a good challenge and we’ve also sequenced the events well. We especially enjoyed eating the fruit from the ‘Handa’s Surprise’ story to bring our stories to life. We have also enjoyed reading a range of non-fiction books related to our topic ‘Ready, Steady, Grow’.

Maths

During our Maths activities, we explored the terms: ‘heavy’, ‘light’ and ‘balance.’ We have also looked at different ways to make 10 including using a range of resources such as our fingers, ten frames, bead strings, numicon and counters. Additionally, we have begun to look at subtraction, writing numbers correctly and repeating patterns. The children have been able to identify numbers and write them using our number rhyme to support us form them correctly.

Topic

In the afternoons, we have explored activities related to our ‘Ready, Steady, Grow,’ topic. The ‘Parts of a Plant’ song has supported us in remembering what the different parts of a plant are. We have looked at different foods and we spoke about what is good food and whether it comes from a plant or an animal. We have painted fruit and daffodils; we have also planted, watered and watched our cress seeds grow. During child-initiated time, we enjoy a range of activities including: playing outside, creating our own role play games in the role play area and building our own creations out of construction blocks.

Term 3 

Phonics

English Lions have adapted well to being in different groups in phonics. The children have progressed in identifying the word that the adult says, the sounds for reading these words and making simple words with the magnetic letters. The children also participate in dough disco and handwriting sessions that has supported their writing ability.

English

Our topic books: The Tiger Who Came To Tea, The Smartest Giant in Town and rhymes such as Humpty Dumpty and Hey Diddle Diddle have been explored as a class. The children have used the talk for writing model to remember the stories and have created art and written words and sentences related to the stories and rhymes. The children have made good progress in talking to their peers on the carpet about the characters in the stories. Additionally, we have had lots of fun innovating the texts, for example we created a story about an octopus that came to a pizza party.

Maths

During our Maths activities, we have developed our understanding of positional language, by using the words such as ‘on, next to, behind and under’. We have counted to 10 in different ways using a range of different manipulatives such as ten frames, numicon and counting bears. Comparing numbers and amounts has also been enjoyable and we are have used pictorial representations to show ‘more’ and ‘fewer’. The children have also done very well with their number formation.

Topic

In the afternoons, we have explored activities related to our ‘Long Ago’ topic. We have compared pictures of Maidstone from the past and present and we have looked at toys and books from the past and compared them to now. We enjoyed looking at the book ‘Coming to England’ and we have looked at maps and compared the UK to Trinidad. We have listened to lots of songs from the past including nursery rhymes and we have developed our understanding of time by listening to songs about seasons, months of the year and days of the week. Our favourite activity was looking at pictures of us as babies and exploring how babies are different to children. We enjoy our child-initiated time too where we do lots of things including: turn taking, playing in the mud kitchen, role play, ball games outside and painting.

Term 2 

English Lions have enjoyed our topic of Marvellous Machines. We have enjoyed reading our topic books: Car, Car, Truck Jeep and No-Bot the Robot. Activities such as making a story map, writing the key words and exploring the emotions of the characters throughout the story has supported our Literacy, Communication and Language and Personal, Social and Emotional Development. We especially enjoyed making our own robots. In the afternoons, we explored activities related to our Marvellous Machines topic. We have developed our understanding of time by sorting different machines between old and new and have learnt about how machines work and why different machines are important.

English Lions have also completed a range of Maths activities this term. When exploring shapes, the children have confidently described the shape properties and begun to label the shapes correctly. We enjoyed rolling and stacking the shapes and we predicted what the different shapes would do. Printing the 3D shapes in paint has been exciting as we then recognised the circles, rectangles, squares and triangles left on the paper. Moreover, we also printed the shapes in play doh and made shape pictures.

Additionally, we have looked at numbers to 5 and have used a range of resources to recognise 5 in different ways, including five frames, cubes and showing the numbers with our fingers. We have started to tell number stories using the stem sentence: first, then and now. For example, first there were two bears then one more came along and now there are three bears. This has supported us in finding one more and one less of a number. Part-whole models have also been introduced and we can say different ways to make five. The children have also done well when practising how to correctly form their numbers.

Term 1 

Fine motor skills

In English Lions, we have adapted well to school. We begin our day completing fine motor activities such as threading, jigsaws and creating patterns in the peg boards; these skills are essential to support us in our writing and following instructions.

Phonics

Afterwards, we complete phonics activities where we learn our new sound, review previous sounds and begin to blend them together to form words. We are doing very well saying and using cued articulation to show the sound. Additionally, we have made progress in developing our phonological awareness through listening games and understanding the meaning of the terms: syllables and rhyme.

Maths

During Maths activities, we have represented numbers to five in different ways and we are beginning to compare amounts using manipulatives. Numcion, cubes, counters and dice have all been used to help us learn to subitise and talk about what we see and how we see it. When counting, we have learnt to put the items in a line and use our pointing finger to touch each one as we count. We have enjoyed a range of Maths activities both inside and outside, which makes our Maths purposeful and helps us to develop mastery of the concepts.

English

As the day progresses, we experience a range of learning activities related to our stories: ‘We Are Going On A Bear Hunt’ and ‘Mr Gumpy’s Outing.’ Some of our favourite activities so far this term include: decorating bears, acting out our stories and recreating maps of our stories out of construction materials.

Continuous provision

In EYFS we enjoy exploring outside both on the big playground and in our outside area. We play with the cars and bikes; explore the mud kitchen, sand and water tray; look for bugs in the bug hotel; play ball games and complete imaginative games with the construction toys. Through both adult-led and child initiated activities we develop skills needed for life such as: sharing, communication and learning to tidy up after ourselves.