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.