EYFS Newsletter – 31.01.2025

As the first month of the new year comes to a close (in our calendar at least!) we have been feeling the chill in Reception – because our focus this week has been the polar regions of planet Earth and the creatures that inhabit them. Our Amazing Animals continues to inspire lots of great discussion and interest in the different creatures and their habitats. The inhabitants of Antarctica and the Arctic circle have proved very stimulating, with lots of interest in penguins in particular! We’ve watched beautiful nature clips from the BBC’s Frozen Planet series, and taken a closer look at these areas of our globe via Google Earth images. We investigated some of these polar animals via books, information slides and the internet to help us learn a little more about their lives – where they make their homes, what they eat and how they are adapted for life in these extreme cold climates.

Around Reception this week, we have had lots of fun activities to stimulate learning that have related to our polar theme too! Most popular was mysterious ice tunnel that appeared in the middle of class this week. The children were encouraged to request to explore the tunnel by writing a question on their own whiteboard (“Can I go in?”). Once they had written this and entered the tunnel, they were told to keep their eyes peeled for any polar animals they may see within. As they emerged (chilly but exhilarated) they were asked to put down in writing what they had seen, with their amazing writing rewarded with team point tokens!

Also we had a very peckish penguin visitor this week, that the children took turns in feeding different coloured fish. Whilst good fun, this also helped to rehearse careful counting skills and allows the children to explore the composition of numbers up to ten.

There have also been lots of fun artistic opportunities this week with many choosing to create a furry white polar bear; a fun paper-cut penguin collage; a rainbow bear (inspired by Michael Morpurgo’s story The Rainbow Bear); or an Arctic scene populated by walruses, foxes, hares and deer. These activities not only spark imagination and allow children to create in new and varied ways but also provide great chance to refine our fine motor skills such as careful line drawing, painting and cutting accurately with scissors. 

In our Phonics sessions this week, we have introduced three new phonemes: ‘ng’ (in ring) ‘th’ (in moth) and ‘th’ (in feather). These last two digraphs are very similar so require careful listening to distinguish. The ‘th’ in feather is ‘voiced’ (there is a more pronounced vibration in the throat as we say this ‘th’) and the ‘th’ in moth is unvoiced (it is much quieter/softer). These sounds are very useful for the children when reading and writing as they appear in so many words. This week we have rehearsed recognising, reading and writing words and phrases with these sounds involved. Most exciting was Mr Verdi’s very own game show “Thing in a Ring!” in which players work in teams to land a thing in a ring to win letters to build words as clues towards finding the correct sentence and picture to accompany these words. We are very excited to see such brilliant progress across Reception class in reading and writing and would like to thank everyone for all the hard work that goes into practising at home.

Maths sessions this week have returned to a unit on Shape, Space and Measure. The children have explored concepts of measuring height, length and distance in different units and using the vocabulary of comparison (long/longest tall/tallest etc.). To investigate these concepts and investigate them practically the children have compared lengths of ribbons and pieces of string; thrown beanbags and measured the distance thrown (in steps); and measured the height of the objects using (counting in a standard measure of uni-fix cubes).

Have a lovely weekend!

The Reception Team

Dates for the Diary

Tuesday 11th February – Valentine’s Disco – 3:30-4:30 (EYFS and KS1 only). Tickets are £2.00 (parent pay) and a tuck shop will be available (£1.00 will buy a sweetie bag).

Friday 14th February – Last day of Spring 1 term.

Monday 24th February – First day of Spring 2 term.

Wednesday 26th March – Foods of the World Parent Event – 2:00pm – parents and carers invited to join us in Reception to share in our learning and enjoy some delicious foods.