Early Years Foundation Stage

This week the preschool children were learning about different shapes and sizes. Children were naming and identifying sizes through play and focus activities. Children were doing different puzzles and sorting different shapes in different areas of the environment. Next week is Easter week, preschool children will be counting numbers in sequence through Easter egg hunt and compare amounts: Maths – Develop counting in sequence & Compare amounts saying lots, more, or same. EA&D – Join in with songs and rhymes and making some sounds.

After the Easter Break our topic will be ‘Beautiful Beast’ where we will learn about, and read stories involving, minibeasts.

In Literacy we will read ‘Mad About Minibeasts’, a poetry book with lots of short rhymes describing minibeasts: slithery snails, buzzing bees and wriggly worms to name but a few!

During the second week we will read ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’, one of Miss Pinto’s favourite stories.

In Maths we will continue to practise subitising – recognising a small number of objects, without having to count them individually. We will also continue to work on our ‘number fingers’ to 5.

In Understanding of the World we will explore materials with similar and different properties.

In Expressive Arts and Design we will use salt dough/clay to create minibeasts; paint a butterfly and explore colour missing.

As part of our learning in PSED we will be welcoming new children into our Nursery Classes, reminding ourselves what it feels like to be new and thinking about what we can do to make other feel welcomed.

If, during the two week holiday you happen to visit a park, woods, forest, local common or the seaside please collect any of the following, which will help us replenish our natural materials:

• Twigs
• Small sticks
• Small stones
• Small wooden logs
• Pebbles
• Seashells
• Conkers
• Acorns
• And any other natural material that you think the children may love to explore.

Next week, in Literacy, we are reading ‘Oliver’s Vegetables’ and we will be focusing on writing
sentences, making sure we are using capital and lowercase letters correctly and checking over our work at the end. We will do this by writing invitations. In Maths, we will be consolidating the skills and knowledge we have learnt so far this term. There will be a focus on 3d Shapes and seeing different 2d shapes within 3d shapes. We will also explore, in more depth, their different properties.

InUnderstanding the World we will discuss where vegetables come from and why healthy eating is important. In Expressive Art and Design, we will explore more artistic skills by making watercolour vegetable still life paintings. In PSED, the children will look at different vegetables and types of healthy.