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Burrsville Infant Academy

Create a Joy in Learning For Every Child

Welcome to Maple and Rowan classes

EYFS 2019-2020

 

See our curriculum map below to find out which exciting topics we will be learning about this year. 

Topic: Do you want to be friends?

Sparkling start: Tour of the school

 

We have had great fun settling into school and exploring our new environment. We spend part of the day in our own classes and use the rest of the time to explore the other classroom and outside area. Our teachers have been supporting us to make new friends, learn how to share and to follow our class and school rules. Some of our favourite areas to explore are the mud kitchen, creative activities, role play and construction areas. During our first few weeks of school we are working hard to get into a routine and manage our emotions. Here are some photographs of us exploring our new environment. 

We have also taken part in adult-guided activities, such as learning how to write our name, draw a self-portrait and talk about our families. The adults have given us practical activities to complete, such as counting a number of objects or ordering pictures from a story. This has helped them to find out what we know already and plan what they need to teach us next. 

Things that my grown ups can do to support me at home:

  • Teach me to write my name independently. This may start with tracing or copying to begin with. If I can write my name, help me form letters correctly and use capital letters in the correct place.
  • Practise my number recognition by hunting for numbers in the environment. Play lots of games that involve number recognition. I need to recognise numbers up to 20 and beyond by the end of the year. 
  • Encourage me to dress myself independently and manage my own personal needs, particularly when using the toilet. 
  • Explain that letters have a name and a sound. Introduce me to letter sounds first, but if I know letter names too this is great! Use 'Mr Thorne Does Phonics' on YouTube to ensure correct pronunciation. Begin with the 'Alphabet Series' to teach single letter sounds. 
  • Encourage me to use my words to communicate with other children and adults, including saying please and thank you.
  • Share my reading book and sight words regularly, daily if possible or at least three times a week.

For further suggestions about how to support my learning, please talk to the class teachers. 

Topic: Will you read me a story?

Fab Finish: Fairytale party and Family Fun Time event.

 

This term our learning was focused on traditional tales and stories. We learnt about how some stories are retold orally and changed over time. We began by learning the traditional tales, 'The Gingerbread Man' and 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears'. The children enjoyed making their own gingerbread people and enjoyed eating them even more! Our role play areas were linked closely to the stories we had been learning so we could practise retelling these stories and using vocabulary in our play. We applied our learning across the curriculum and completed a science experiment. We also used our counting skills to select the correct number of buttons and practised shape recognition when decorating gingerbread people. We went on to learn about the stories, 'The Jolly Postman' and 'The Jolly Christmas Postman', written by our authors of the month 'The Ahlbergs'.  

We have taken part in lots of celebrations throughout the term. Firstly, we took part in a skipping workshop to help us develop our gross motor skills. We then made our own poppies as part of a home learning challenge and took part in a Remembrance Day service. It wasn't long before we then started preparing for our Christmas celebrations! We worked very hard to learn songs and words for our Christmas performance. We also learnt the Christmas story and spoke about why some people celebrate Christmas or alternative celebrations. In the lead up to Christmas, we completed '10 Good Deeds in 10 Days' which included delivering Christmas cards to the local residents, making a Christmas hamper for the homeless shelter and caring for our school pets. We then took part in Christmas jumper day to raise money for 'Save the Children' and had our first school Christmas dinner! We went to the pantomime to celebrate all of the exciting Christmas learning that has taken place! 

Things that my grown ups can do to support me at home:

  • Continue to encourage me to practise my letter formation and write my first and last name, if I cannot already do so. Practise number recognition regularly, working to and beyond 20.
  • Talk to me about my school day and share my Tapestry learning journey with me at home. Contribute to my learning journey and share my home achievements and celebrations.
  • Share my reading book and sight words regularly, daily if possible or at least three times a week.
  • Ask me to retell stories that I have been learning at school.

For further suggestions about how to support my learning, please talk to the class teachers. 

Topic: What happens when I fall asleep?

Sparkling Start: Indoor cinema experience

 

We began our new topic by taking part in an indoor cinema experience. We watched some videos about day and night, as this will be one of the things we focus on this half term. We enjoyed sitting in the dark, having some snacks and playing games such as sleeping lions! This topic focuses on helping us to develop a sense of sequencing events by time. We have completed activities in adult-guided groups and in the provision linked to time and have been introduced to words such as:

  • Morning
  • Night 
  • Evening
  • Daytime 
  • First 
  • Next
  • Then
  • After 
  • Before
  • Early
  • Late 

The outdoor role play area that we have loved exploring is a space station! We have discussed what a space station is, who might be in a space station and the jobs they might do. We have enjoyed acting out our own space adventures, using knowledge that we have gained from stories and non-fiction texts to help us. One of these stories is 'Whatever Next!' written by Jill Murphy. Lots of us explained that we had a copy of this story at home and our teachers were very impressed when some children brought in other texts written by Jill Murphy to share with the class. Learning about space really engaged lots of us and we enjoyed completing the following activities:

  • Finding one more or less than a number.
  • Making rockets and planets using junk modelling and craft materials. 
  • Reading a range of different texts, including non-fiction books.
  • Writing words and sentences linked to the topic. 

Following on from our learning about day and night we learnt about diurnal and nocturnal animals and discussed reasons why animals might live in different places or be awake at different times. We continued our learning during forest school sessions and focused on similarities and differences in our immediate environments. 

In order to continue to develop our understanding and appreciation of different cultures, we took part in a Chinese dance workshop during Chinese New Year. We learnt about why people celebrate Chinese New Year, how it is different to the Gregorian calendar New Year and what the celebrations included. We enjoyed trying some Chinese food and talking about our own experiences of celebrations or family routines. This led to discussions about healthy foods and making healthy choices. 

Things that my grown ups can do to support me at home:

  • Share non-fiction texts, discuss their features (e.g. contents page, subheadings, index, glossary) and talk about how they are different to fiction texts.
  • Discuss family celebrations that we have and talk about how different people, cultures, communities etc might celebrate.
  • Discuss our favourite foods. Are they healthy or unhealthy? Which foods can we eat daily? Which should we have as a treat and why? What food groups do they fit into?
  • Talk about what new sounds we have learnt in phonics and write words and sentences containing these.
  • Discuss the pattern of numbers. Model counting on or back to find one more or less. Discuss how finding one more is adding and one less is subtracting. Model using a number line, fingers, cubes etc to support counting. 
  • Explore 3D shapes and discuss their properties. What shapes would we use to make a rocket? Would a.... be a good shape to use? Why or why not? 
  • For further suggestions about how to support my learning, please talk to the class teachers. 

Topic: Why do ladybirds have spots?

Fab Finish: Family Fun Time EAD activities (postponed due to school closure)

 

This term we have enjoyed learning about minibeasts. We learnt what minibeasts are, the features of them, how they different from each other and the environments they live in. Our role play areas (a minibeast investigation laboratory and explorer's den) have helped to support our learning and have given us lots of opportunities to develop our communication and investigation skills. 

We have used our learning about minibeasts to support us with our learning in other areas of the curriculum. In maths, we learnt about subtraction and practised taking away a number of minibeasts. In literacy, we read and wrote factual sentences about insects. We made paper plate minibeasts, using our creative and moving and handling skills. These are displayed around the classroom to show all of the visitors our current learning. We completed minibeast hunts in forest schools and used technology to take photographs of minibeasts found in their natural environment. 

Now that we are half way through our first year at school, we are becoming much more confident taking part in whole school events. This began when learning about Shrove Tuesday and we enjoyed pancakes in the forest and completing activities linked to this celebration. We then went on to take part in World Book Day. The celebrations included showcasing our costumes in a whole school assembly, having the children from the Juniors come over to read stories with us, listening to an author perform a reading of his own texts and sharing our favourite books from home. We also took a trip to the library that week, where we learned about the facilities at the library, listened to a story and had the opportunities to choose and borrow a book using our own library card. Finally, the whole school took part in Science week. We learnt what experiments are, why we do experiments and different scientific vocabulary. We completed our own science experiments, one involving colour mixing and one exploring floating and sinking. This inspired some of us to complete our own experiments at home and our grown ups have enjoyed seeing these on Tapestry. 

We have recently started a new whole school approach to teaching PSHE, which is appropriately matched to the EYFS PSED curriculum. The scheme is called 'Jigsaw' and we have been introduced to characters Jennie and Jerry who help to support our learning. During 'Jigsaw' lessons we have time to be calm and reflect, opportunities to share our ideas in a group, activities we can complete and celebrations of how we are showing our learning both in class and around the school. Some of the learning that has taken place this term has included different ways to stay healthy, such as healthy eating, the importance of exercise, why sleep and bedtime routines are important for good health and how hygiene is essential, particularly hand washing and using tissues. 

Things that my grown ups can do to support me at home: 

  • Support me to complete experiments at home. Encourage me to make a prediction, test my ideas and talk about the results.
  • Discuss daily routines that we do that keep us healthy e.g. brushing our teeth, washing our hands. Encourage us to complete all of these routines independently and share why it is important to maintain these. 
  • Regularly visit the library and choose books that interest us to help us develop a love of reading. Remember to return books that we have borrowed! 
  • Explore our gardens and local environments. Talk about what we find, how to care for minibeasts and how to use nature to support our learning. Use technology to record our findings.
  • Read and write daily. The end of year expectation to achieve GLD is to read and write sentences independently.
  • Explore doubling and halving using objects. Encourage us to explain our working in number sentences e.g. "Double 4 is 8 so 4 add 4 equals 8."