EYFS Newsletter 24.01.2025

At the end of another fun-packed week, we are half way through our half-term block – where does the time fly?!

We’ve continued our latest topic of ‘Amazing Animals’ by focusing on desert habitats and the creatures that live there. We’ve had topic time introducing and discussing some of the creatures that live there, such as camels, scorpions and tarantulas. The children are becoming more familiar with how to categorize different animals into groups by their characteristics. In groups this week, we took time to discuss the features of birds, mammals and reptiles and the children used this knowledge to help sort different animals into these categories. 

We’ve had lots of fantastic talk around animals and the children are becoming brilliant at asking relevant questions or clarifying and giving reasons for their thinking in different animal oracy games. And we’re seeing lots of fabulous creativity with the children exploring different ways to make artworks. This week we’ve had vivid sunsets painted with silhouettes of cacti and desert creatures added in black paper cut-outs; camels crafted from egg boxes and lollipop sticks; papercut spiral snakes and beautiful feathered birds. 

Maths has been extremely popular this week, with lots of activities taking up free-choice time after our dedicated maths time ended. Our focus this week has been odd and even numbers, with the children spending time exploring how to recognise which numbers are odd and which are even, taking note of the patterns that we found. By investigating numbers in practical ways, such as with blocks and Numicon tiles the children have gained a concrete understanding of odd and even which they can apply to mathematics as they progress in their learning. The Numberblocks characters, from the short BBC shows we watch in school, have been the inspiration for some lovely drawings this week, and lots of children chose to build numbers with Numicon tiles up to 20 and beyond!

Phonics sessions this week introduced the digrapghs (two letters that make one sound) ‘qu’ (queen) ‘ch’ (chick) and ‘sh’ (sheep). The children have had a go at recognising, reading and writing these sounds themselves and applying it to their work. We’re seeing some fantastic writing emerge as the children become more confident – with quite a few children feeling inspired to begin writing their own short stories this week in mini-book form!

Have a lovely weekend!

The Reception Team

Dates for the Diary

Tuesday 11th February – Valentines Disco

Friday 14th February – School closes for half term break