Term 4 

Phonics

English Lions continue to make progress during our phonic sessions. We can decode many green words and we are able to read some red exception words. Our writing is improving and we are able to sound out many words with our Fred fingers and write the sounds we hear. Many of the children now read more challenging books at home.

English

Our topic books: ‘Jack and the Beanstalk,’ ‘Handa’s Surprise’ and  ‘Rosie’s Walk have been enjoyed as a class. We created actions to help remember the stories. During lessons we have 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. 

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 own plants grow. During child-initiated time, we enjoy a range of things including: playing outside, creating our own role play games in the role play area and building our own creations out of construction blocks. We have adapted well to changes in the school day too, we now do P.E. and have assembly on Friday and we go to the library on Tuesdays. 

Term 3

Phonics

English Lions have made excellent progress in our phonics programme. They know lots of sounds and are beginning to blend them together to form words. Our handwriting has also improved and we are beginning to say and write the words.

English

Our topic books: The Tiger Who Came To Tea, The Smartest Giant in Town and traditional tales such as Humpty Dumpty have been explored as a class. We have recalled the stories in our words, acted them out and used the Talk for Writing model to develop our own stories based on the model text. Rhyming words have also been explored and we have enjoyed activities based on matching and making up our own rhymes.

Maths

During our maths activities, we have developed our understanding of spatial language, by using the words such as ‘on, next to and under’. We have counted to 10 in different ways using a range of different manipulatives such as ten frames, numicon and counting cubes. Comparing numbers and amounts has also been enjoyable and we are using pictorial representations to show ‘more’ and ‘fewer’. We have also looked at terms related to time: now, then and later and made watches to develop our awareness that time passes.

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, we have looked at toys and books from the past and compared them to the present. 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. 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 

Fine motor skills

In English Lions, we start our day with early morning work, children practise writing their names and completing fine motor activities such as creating patterns with lolly sticks and placing pegs on different numbers. Throughout the day children also complete write dance, dough disco and sensory circuit activities to develop their focus, help them to follow instructions and develop both their fine and gross motor strength.

Phonics

Each day we practise our sounds using the Read Write Inc phonics programme. The children are able to say the sounds, use cued articulation to show the sounds and they are beginning to blend them together to say simple words. We also write the words we are learning to blend in different sensory resources and play phoneme awareness games to further support our learning. Reading books are now sent home based on completed phonics assessments.

English

Our topic books: Mrs Armitage Queen of the Road; No-bot the robot; Car, Car, Truck, Jeep and Rosie Revere Engineer have been thoroughly enjoyed by the whole class. 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.

Maths

During our maths activities, we have developed our 3D and 2D shape knowledge through shape hunts, shape printing and guess the shape games. We have also developed our understanding of maths vocabulary related to more, less and finding different amounts using a range of manipulatives such as cubes, 10 frames, numicon and natural resources.  

Topic

In the afternoons, we explore activities related to our Marvellous Machines topic. We have developed our understanding of time by sorting different machines between old and new. We have explored how and why the machines work and we have looked at different vehicles and even made our own vehicles using wheels and axels to make it move. During child-initiated time we explore the activities both inside and outside, the children enjoy building, working together in the mud kitchen and taking turns with the inventor’s role play area.

Term 1

Fine motor skills

In English Lions, term one has been very busy; we have made progress in learning the school routine and being independent in our learning. We begin our day by developing our fine motor control through 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.

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 this term include: decorating bear masks, making boats out of construction materials and retelling the stories using actions, which has helped us understand the stories more deeply.

Maths

During maths activities, we have represented numbers to five in different ways and we are beginning to compare amounts using manipulatives. We enjoy a range of maths activities both inside and outside which makes our maths purposeful and helps us to develop mastery of the concepts.

Topic

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.