7.7.22

AHOY there! This week in Squirrels we've been learning all about pirates! On Monday the children learnt about some famous pirates including; Grace O'Malley, Anne Bonny and Cheng I Sao. They learnt their pirate names using an algorithm which combined their favourite colour and animal. We then learnt how to talk just like a pirate using some pirate phrases such as; aye me hearties, doubloons and land ahoy in our deep growly pirate voices and role played acting like pirates aboard a ship! The children then created amazing pirate hats, eyepatches and boats in art and DT and their enthusiasm and thirst for learning was evident as soon as you came into our under the sea themed room!

Well done Pirate Squirrels- shiver me timbers you all deserve a restful weekend!

8.6.22

25.5.22

This week in Squirrel class we've been learning all about the royal family and the jubilee. The children created flags to wave in our whole school celebration on Thursday, worked to build castles and Buckingham Palace in DT when junk modelling and cooked delicious Jubilee biscuits. The children worked together to measure out the ingredients, follow the method and decorate their biscuits. It was so much fun and it was lovely to see Squirrels being so creative!

We would also like to wish Miss Cooper good luck at university and on her next school placement. She has taught lots of exciting lessons, worked with groups of children and helped Squirrels improve their reading and writing. Thank you Miss Cooper and good luck for the future! 

Love Squirrel Class

20.5.22

This week in Squirrels the children arrived to find Goldilocks and the three bears were sitting in the home corner! Goldilocks had eaten the bears porridge, sat in their chairs and slept in their beds. The bears were not very pleased! The children created their own bears in art, role played the story in the woodland area and created maps of Goldilocks journey in maths.

The children followed maps in maths and created a giant obstacle course which they then completed as part of their PE lesson. They had a wonderful time working as a team to develop their map reading skills and finding the correct items in our outdoor area to create the course. They then completed the course, following the map which explained the order or obstacles. It was lots of fun and the children demonstrated great gross motor skills and hand eye coordination!

12.05.22

On Monday morning Squirrel Class came in to discover the reading den had been turned into a cottage made of sweets! They then read the traditional fairy tale ‘Hansel and Gretel’ and we realised it was the witch’s cottage! The children acted out the story using costumes and masks in the role play area, wrote character descriptions of their favourite characters and decorated gingerbread houses!

12.05.22

Squirrels learnt all about oral hygiene this week and how to keep our teeth clean and healthy. Much of our health begins in our mouth and we learnt all about the health of our gums and teeth and how their healthy is directly connected to our heart health and our immune health. We brushed giant teeth, used toothbrushes and mirrors in class so the children could practise brushing the teeth of dolls or soft toys. We shared stories about teeth and smiles and visiting the dentist. During the day we also talk about healthy food and drinks that help to grow strong teeth, and those that do not.

11.05.22

This week the Squirrels also developed an understanding of Stranger Danger. They learnt why it is important not to speak to strangers and why Hansel and Gretel shouldn’t have done this in the story. They even learnt strategies on what to do if approached by a stranger. We discussed who else we could trust besides our families and the children came up with a list of people who help to keep everyone safe; police offices, fire office, crossing guards and paramedics amongst many others! We played a scenario game which helped the children think of what they would do in certain situations and the children painted a range of people who help us too!

4.5.22

Squirrels looked at different materials in science including; plastic, cardboard and paper, metal and naturally made items. They had to sort the different materials, identifying which ones could be recycled. Each child made a recycling superhero mask explaining what their superpowers would be. Mrs Ayling played the ‘Guess the material’ game on the carpet. We all sat in a circle and passed around a feely bag containing a range of different materials. Squirrels had to put their hands in and identify the material, identifying it and explaining why they thought that before it was revealed! It was a lot of fun!

Our sunflowers, which we planted in Spring have grown very tall! Miss Cooper helped us to repot them so they had more space to grow! We talked about the different parts of a plant, what they need to survive and how we can help to keep them healthy.

This week Squirrels celebrated Eid al-Fitr. Reception learnt about how families celebrate Eid al-Fitr by putting on new clothes and enjoyed sharing meals with family and friends. To end, reception learnt that women and girls decorated their hands with mehndi patterns and this lead on nicely to our activity of creating our very own mehndi patterns as a class. The children created some fabulous artwork in class, role played cooking for their families in our home corner and played games based on the festival.

Spring Term

1.4.22

It’s been another busy week in Squirrel class! This week the children have continued re-telling the story of Jack and the beanstalk in their writing books. We were very impressed with some of our children even choosing to write up to three sentences using their phonics knowledge!

By using the story maps, they completed as part of their home learning, the children could also confidently act out the story with our puppets in the puppet theatre. It was lovely to watch them working as a team to act out the different scenes and using different voices for each character.

25.3.22

Squirrels have had another busy week this week! They have been working incredibly hard measuring and comparing lengths. We have been measuring lots of items around the classroom and comparing them to the giants footprint from Jack and the beanstalk! Squirrels have also built lots of towers of different lengths and compared them. Some of them were nearly as tall as the beanstalk that has grown through the roof in our classroom! 

Mrs Ayling and Mrs Coates have been really impressed with the children's reading again this week and their progress moving up the phonics blending books. Thank you to all of our Squirrel parents for reading with your children regularly at home. 

18.3.22

Squirrels have had another busy week this week! They have been working incredibly hard measuring and comparing lengths. We have been measuring lots of items around the classroom and comparing them to the giant's footprint from Jack and the beanstalk! Squirrels have also built lots of towers of different lengths and compared them. Some of them were nearly as tall as the beanstalk that has grown through the roof in our classroom! 

Mrs Ayling and Mrs Coates have been really impressed with the children's reading again this week and their progress moving up the phonics blending books. Thank you to all of our Squirrel parents for reading with your children regularly at home. 

11.3.22

Squirrel Class arrived on Monday morning to discover an enormous beanstalk which had grown up through the ceiling! Jack had snuck in over the weekend and planted some magic beans! Luckily, the giant stayed in his castle, but Squirrels have been incredibly busy completing lots of activities. We have been building our own beanstalks, counting magic beans and writing character descriptions from the story!

Squirrels have also been doing some super reading this week! Each child has read with an adult in school multiple times and changed their books. Thank you to all of our supportive Squirrel parents for reading regularly with your children at home. They are going from strength to strength with their blending and it's so lovely to see their enthusiasm both in and out of school. 

Well done Squirrels! Keep up the hard work!

1.3.22

This week has been another busy one in Squirrel Class. It was Shrove Tuesday so we read the story 'Mr Wolf's Pancakes'. In the story Mr Wolf needs help writing his shopping list of ingredients so we wrote our own to help him. We then chose toppings for our own pancakes on Shrove Tuesday and prepared and ate them at snack time. They were very yummy! In music we all learnt the 'Pancake Song' and sang it with actions! Please check out our class page on the school website to see us performing it for you.

On Friday Mrs Ayling brought in a secret hamper full of clues that had been wrapped up! Each clue helped us to guess which book we'll be focusing on for the next few weeks. There was a golden egg, a huge boot, some beans and a cow! Can you guess what book we'll be reading as a class?

That's right! Jack and the beanstalk! Keep an eye out on our class page to see even more pictures of the activities we'll be doing next week.

23.2.22

Today Mr O'Dell brought in some furry friends to see us! The rats and their babies were absolutely adorable and the children asked lots of questions about them. Mr O'Dell taught us all about their diets, life span, habitats and why they can make wonderful pets. We also discussed how the rats change as they grow. In a few weeks time, Mr O'Dell will be bringing them back so we can see how the babies have changed as they've gotten older. 

11.2.22

We celebrated Valentine’s Day this week by learning about the history of the celebration and the Roman God Cupid. We then got creative and made Valentine’s collages, Valentine’s playdough cakes, Valentine’s cards and Valentines confetti (brilliant for our fine motor skills)! The children have also worked in small groups with Mrs Ayling and I to write about someone who is special to them before drawing them. We were both so impressed with the children’s positive attitude to learning and beautiful letter formation.  

Please check out our class page on the school website for further photos and updates. We have also uploaded some activities the children can do at home under ‘Our Learning’ to support their learning in school.  

4.2.22

This week we have been learning all about Chinese New Year in Squirrel class. On Monday we looked at the Chinese New Year story and discussed all of the different animals. The children then chose an animal and wrote about them in their writing books. I have been so impressed with their phonics knowledge and want to say a huge thank you to all of our squirrels’ parents who read with them regularly and complete the home tasks. It's clearly making a huge difference and the children are always so excited to share what they've done with us! 

In our topic lessons we have also worked on our fine motor skills by using chop sticks and creating Chinese lantern collages. Well done Squirrels! 

28.1.22

This week I have thoroughly enjoyed teaching in Squirrel class and have been so impressed with the children’s phonics knowledge and positive attitude towards learning. Thank you to Squirrels and Mrs Ayling for such a warm welcome and I can’t wait to continue working with all of our wonderful reception children.

Miss Jackson 

 
This week we received a very important letter from Queen Elsa from the film Frozen informing us that she’d accidentally frozen her friends in ice and asking us for our help. The children opened a box and discovered several frozen characters. The children offered some suggestions about how we could free them such as ‘Bash the ice, crack it, use cold water, put them in the sun’. We used key vocabulary such as melting, freezing, ice, temperature, hot and cold when discussing how to solve the problem. The children then worked together during the investigation to save the characters in the ice. There was the most incredible buzz for learning in the air. The children were so highly engaged and focused on the task in hand and Mrs Ayling and I were really proud of them. Well done Squirrels for saving all of the characters!

We then wrote letters to Elsa letting her know we'd saved her friends and asking if we could play in her ice house with her friends.

Squirrels have had a busy week learning new sounds, tricky red words and working hard on our blending. We enjoyed investigating trees in the woodland area looking at the differences between each one.

Squirrels have settled really well on our first week back we have enjoyed learning about hibernation and the Animals, we went to the woodland with woodlands to explore winter, snow and look for signs of winter, sounds and animals

Autumn 1