EYFS Newsletter – 09.06.2023

What a full and fun-packed first week back we’ve had in Reception!

Our topic for the last half term of the year is Dinosaurs and we’ve had a great deal to talk about already. When the children arrived to school on Monday, a giant egg lay in the middle of the classroom. There was much confusion and we discussed what might be inside, with children choosing to write and draw their predictions. There has also been lots of dinosaur themed activities for the children to get stuck into, with many choosing to make dinosaur artworks, complete on of our large dinosaur puzzles or dinosaur egg letter matching. Most exciting of all, however, was when we arrived at school on Friday to find a trail of muddy prints across our outdoor area and a special message scrawled on our playground! Even more thrilling was a CCTV clip that our caretaker had passed on of a rather large dinosaur plodding around outside our classroom! The children were eager to investigate more, and they were full of ideas and theories about what had happened, and where the mummy dinosaur had gone off to. We took an explore through the garden and field to hunt for clues – of which there were many! We have been told to keep the dinosaur egg wet in order for it to hatch, so with many keen eyes watching it, hopefully it won’t be long until something pops out.

Tuesday saw a day full of fun, with the children enjoying a music session with Mrs Durrant, Art with Mrs Ledda and DT with Mr Joy. In the afternoon, the children practised skills in preparation for the school Sport’s Day next month (date still to be confirmed, sorry!). 

In Maths this week, we have been learning to group and share sets of objects evenly. The children were given objects to share fairly and learned how to systematically distribute them in turn until all objects were placed. There was also opportunity to practice grouping objects and describing how many equal groups could be made. 

Phonics found is rehearsing our reading and writing with a focus on words with a cvcc pattern (mist, golf, hand). We have been so impressed by the effort and consequent improvements in everybody’s reading and writing in the past weeks and have been so glad to see children choosing to push themselves to write independently at all times of the school day.

On Thursday we had a visit from some lovely nurses who came to measure the weight and height of all the children and reported back how sensible and polite they all were, which was fantastic to hear.

One pleasant surprise for staff this week was the sudden appearance of a pop-up spa treatment centre on our music stage, with children offering and delivering massages, facials and manicures (a full list of treatments was written out by the children). Miss Rushworth was very pleased to have her make-up applied after a relaxing shoulder rub! 

We hope you all have a wonderful weekend. The temperatures look set to be high with lots of sun so take care out there! Perhaps find time to relax and take advantage of a spa treatment or two at the experienced hands of your little ones?

See you on Monday!

The Reception Team.