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Burrsville Infant Academy

Create a Joy in Learning For Every Child

Welcome to EYFS 2020-21

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.We took a tour of the school for our sparking start and we visited the hall, kitchen, library, big playground and the forest. Here are some photographs of us exploring our new environment.

 

We have been introduced to our 'Jigsaw' lessons to help our personal, social and emotional development. We met the characters Jigsaw Jenie and Jerry the cat.

We have taken part in P.E sessions on the field and playground.

We have been working hard to learn our new sounds in our phonics lessons using the 'Read, Write inc' scheme. This will help us to improve our reading and writing skills.

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.

 

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'.  

 

In our forest sessions we searched for the characters from the story. We then tried to write the sounds we could hear in the characters names using our phonics skills. We enjoyed writing on the 'river'!

We have taken part in lots of celebrations throughout the term. Firstly, we took part in a spooky hair day organised by the PTA. We then made our own poppies as part of a home learning challenge and took part in a Remembrance Day service. We supported anti bullying week by having class discussions and creating a display of our pledges.

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?

This term we have been busy completing our 'Remote Learning' at home whilst some of our friends whose grown ups are key workers have been busy completing their learning at school. We began our new topic by thinking about our ‘New Year wishes’. We came up with our own individual wish of a skill we would like to practise and develop over the next coming year. We used our phonics skills to help us segment each word when writing our wishes. In maths we started to explore time and day which links in well to our new topic. We sequenced different activities throughout the day and the moved onto learning and ordering the days of the week. We continued our time learning by creating our own clocks to help us tell the time. We explored how and why New Year’s Eve is celebrated, from this we made our own firework pictures using cardboard tubes and different coloured paint. We have completed activities in adult-guided groups and in the provision linked to time and have been introduced to words such as:

  • Morning
  • Afternoon
  • Evening
  • Daytime 
  • Night
  • Today
  • Tomorrow
  • Yesterday
  • First 
  • Next
  • Then
  • After 
  • Before

The outside role play area that we love exploring has been turned into a space station to continue our learning of day and night. We have been finding out about space and have enjoyed learning about the different planets and the stars. We have been enjoying listening to non-fiction texts by our author of the term Jill Murphy. One of the books included ‘Whatever Next!’ where Baby Bear built his own rocket and travelled to the moon. From this we had a go at junk modelling our own planets and rockets. We linked this activity to our maths where we have been exploring different 2D and 3D shapes. We went on a shape hunt around the classroom and at home to see what shapes we could find and identify. To continue our learning about day and night we were introduced to nocturnal and diurnal animals and had a go at sorting them. We were very good at naming lots of different animals and had fun researching facts about them! To research our facts we explored different forms of technology, we used iPads, computers, laptops and other technological devices we could find. We have also been exploring different sounds by going on a sound hunt and creating our own instruments including rain makers. 

We explored another book by Jill Murphy which was ‘Peace at Last’, this allowed us to continue our learning about day and night along with exploring different sounds you may hear at night time. We created our own story maps for this book which we enjoyed getting creative with whilst developing our writing skills. We had a think about what our bodies need to stay healthy, this included sleeping, exercise and eating the correct foods. We created our own healthy food plates and lunchboxes to explore what foods are good for us and which foods we should only have as an occasional treat. We importantly learnt all about keeping safe when at school, at home and when out and about. We created our own keeping safe posters to inform others. In maths we have been creating number bonds to 5 and 10 using different methods, these methods included a five frame and part-whole models. We enjoyed using the Numicon as well to create our number bonds. We have a few special dates and events this term that we have been exploring the meaning of and the importance of them. These special events include 'Internet Safety Day', 'Chinese New Year' and 'Shrove Tuesday'.

Topic: Why do ladybirds have spots? 

We began this half term by continuing our 'Remote Learning' at home, we started by exploring our new topic which is all about minibeasts. Lots of us explored our outside environment by going on a minibeast hunt to see what insects and bugs we could find. We also explored different minibeasts in our literacy by reading a selection of poems from the book 'Mad About Minibeasts', we spotted the different rhyming words and then had a go at creating our own rhyming poems. In maths we began our learning by focusing on the number 0 (zero), we have been spotting it on number lines and in our everyday environment. We then moved on to focusing on the numbers 6,7,8,9 and 10, we found these numbers written on lots of signs, in books and on different pieces of technology. We continued our learning about technology by going on a technology hunt around our homes, we found different pieces of technology which include washing machines, tablets, televisions and our remote controlled toys. We have been introduced to a new selection of vocabulary this topic which include: 

  • Minibeasts
  • Habitat
  • Insects
  • Bugs
  • Body parts
  • Wings 
  • Antennae 
  • Environment 

We were excited to return to school to continue our learning and to see all of our friends and teachers. We spent time re-establishing our classroom and school rules along with settling back into our school routine. During our first week back we had the enjoyment of celebrating 'World Book Day' where we dressed up as our favourite characters and shared with one another our favourite books and stories from home. We also celebrated 'Science Week' during our first week back at school, we were all amazed to grow and observe our own rainbow in class using paper towels, colouring pens and water. We made predictions about what we thought would happen and then observed the rainbow to see if our predictions came true. 

Our learning about minibeasts continued as we explored the book 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' and created our own butterfly lifecycles. In literacy we wrote words and sentences to describe the caterpillar and how he turned into a beautiful butterfly, we used our phonics skills and our knowledge of capital letters, finger spaces and full stops to help us with our work. In maths we used the numbers we have previously been focusing on to count and compare different amounts of objects. We were also introduced to spatial awareness and the positional language of behind, in front, next to, under and on top of. We practised this by moving minibeasts to different locations and testing one another. At the end of term we explored what 'Easter' is and why it is celebrated, we were very interested in how chocolate eggs are a symbol for the new life which is created in the Spring such as chicks and lambs. 

Things my grown up can do to support me at home:

  • Discuss what minibeasts are the different insects and bugs you might find in your garden. 
  • Read books or poems that contain rhyming words, what rhyming words can you find? 
  • When going on walks what numbers can you find? Can you find any 0s? 
  • Continue to read with your child their phonics books and love of reading books regularly each week.
  • Practise your childs sight words and you could stick them around your home on post it notes to find. 

Topic: Do cows drink milk?

Our topic for the first part of the summer term was, ‘Do Cows Drink Milk?’ We were all very excited about this topic straight away due to our ‘Sparkling Start’. The term started with the arrival of 6 duck eggs! We were told that we had a special job to help look after them and to watch them grow. Our teachers explained the rules carefully and we observed them hatching in the incubator. Once they hatched, they moved to their cage where we could see them better. During their time with us we observed changes and made observational drawings and ordered pictures to show the life cycle of the duck. We enjoyed watching them explore water for the first time and have a little swim. We did a great job of looking after them and this prepared us for the rest of our learning, linked to animals and growing and changing.  

We had a busy term completing activities linked to the wider curriculum. This included decorating a feather for a school display, painting an octopus to celebrate 150 years of Clacton and designing our own postage stamp. We also took part in ‘Numbers Day’ for the NSPCC and dressed up in number themed outfits. As we could not go on a school trip to the farm this year, we had our own ‘Burrsville Down on the Farm’ day. Lots of us came to school dressed as our favourite farm animal or as a farmer. We started the day with some physical challenges and completed wellie throwing, games of ‘Piggy in the Middle’ and ‘Duck, Duck, Goose’. We then had a snack of milkshake, cheese and crackers and talked about where these came from. We then all completed a handprint of an animal to celebrate our day. We enjoyed lots of animal songs and stories throughout the day too, including some of the children’s own books that they brought in from home to share with their peers. 

Lots of our adult-guided focus work this term has been word or sentence writing, to help us consolidate skills that we learnt during remote learning. We have written about our farm day, written animal facts and about ‘The Little Red Hen’ story. In maths we have learnt about shapes and patterns and have used our number skills to count and compare quantities. 

 

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

  • Discuss animal life cycles with me and what happens to plants and animals as they grow and change. 
  • Plant seeds at home and keep a diary of how they change. 
  • Look for 2D shapes within 3D shapes and learn 3D shape names. Use everyday objects and sort them by shape.  
  • Share my reading book and sight words regularly, daily if possible or at least three times a week.
  • Use the videos on Tapestry to support my child to write words or sentences, depending on what is appropriate for them. 

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