Early Years Archives - Page 2 of 4

Hello!

Welcome to Maple class’s Term 3 blog! It has been an exciting time for all of us and we have thoroughly enjoyed playing and exploring, learning and investigating, building and creating masterpieces! Here are some of the highlights of our first term together 😊

Our theme for this term was “Let’s Pretend”, and our Maples have really given it their all! We have learnt about different types of puppets, made both finger puppets and hand puppets, invented stories for our new friends and explained how they are feeling. We also produced our very own puppet show! I am very proud of their endeavours, take a look on the ‘Youtube’ link and tell us what you think! 😊

We have worked very hard on our Maths, through a variety of different activities. We are learning new songs and rhymes to help us all add up to twelve confidently, using cubes, dominoes, jigsaws, Montessori boards, ladybird houses, acorns… everything! We all really enjoyed using the Numicon shapes to help us make number bonds up to 10, and we made the most awesome collage display of numbers 1 to 12! We are learning to recognise and create simple patterns and we know that we can count in 2s on Pam’s Snakes and Ladders board 😊

Literacy is awesome and we have loved sitting, or lying down, to listen to stories, including “The very lazy ladybird”, “Fantastic Mr Fox”, “The Gruffalo”, “Three Little Pigs”, “Don’t wake up the bear!”, “The very busy spider”, “One Hungry Monster” and more. We have shown that we remember many key details, we can predict what can happen next and we are very good at sequencing events and empathising with characters in the story. Our Maples are also amazing artists! We are sharing the joy of reading by bringing our own books into class, e.g. “The Three Little Pigs”, comparing endings and saying which one we prefer, and why.

As well as reading, our Maples are learning Phonics through the Jolly Phonics method. We love the short stories and actions and our Maples have an excellent recall of all the songs they have learnt so far. They are teaching me well!

Our class love Art, and they put a lot of effort into everything they do. The children have enjoyed drawing puppets on paper plates, painting forest items on trees, rainbow waxing, cotton bud painting, making flowers out of toilet rolls, making finger puppets and hand puppets, even making Bear bookmarks! We have just finished our first Maple class canvas, but you won’t see the completed masterpiece until the auction… 😊

Our Maples love exploring both the forest and the orchard, and we are making our very own display of “Felix the Forest Man”, using natural materials found on our daily visits. We also use nature to help us count, compare and trace in the mud, especially when it is too slippery to go cycling outside. We are starting to classify and compare different items such as leaves, trees, twigs, (branches!) and flowers, and we are beginning to understand that we should not pick any flowers or leaves that are still living, as they will die. We are learning that the weather and seasonal changes impact upon nature, and upon animals habitats, and that we should leave animals where they are, including worms, as they prefer soil to concrete. Our Maples love free play and exploration, and they adore climbing trees! They are learning that thin branches are not necessarily the safest to stand on, and they must be very careful when taking risks.

Maple class are very musical and always eager to sing in different languages and embrace different cultures. They are learning about tempo and how to count the beats to a song, dancing whilst singing so that they can feel the music and relax. Just wait for me to introduce them to the Waybuloos….