Friday 13th March

Our second week of being Fairy Tale gardeners has been highly successful.  We talked about changes in the season and discussed what we had noticed around us. We went outside to see what signs of spring we could see. In the EYFS garden we have planted seeds and bulbs in a little patch and made signs to remind people to look after the flowers. In order to find out about the parts of a plant, we have been observing, drawing and painting flowers and plants, taking care to draw the stem, roots, leaves and flowers. In maths, we investigated how we can make 10 in different ways using Numicon.  Finally, the Rosen class were super excited to notice that our bean in a jar had begun to grow a shoot and roots and curious to see what had happened to the bean with no light and the bean with no water. Ask the children to tell you what they observed. What wonderfully inquisitive scientists we have in Early Years!

Friday 6th March

We began our Science Week by discovering a letter from the Fairy Tale Science team asking for help from some skilled 'Fairy Tale Gardeners' to find out how plants grow and what happens at this time of year. We shared what we already knew and made a list of things we wanted to find out.  We have spent the week planting beans, sharing the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, setting up a growing seeds experiment and exploring different types of seeds through our play. A highlight of the week was a visit from the Science Dude. He was really funny and did some cool experiments with air.

World book day has been fabulous . Look out for photos on Tapestry and Facebook coming soon. 

Friday 27th February

This week we have been enjoying activities themed around The Three Little Pigs. We have retold the story with a story map and loved using the puppets too. Pig painting was great fun, as well as collaging the three pig's houses. We have been building towers with big building bricks and finding ways to knock them down in the garden. In Maths we have been looking at time and time vocabulary. On Wednesday we used words such as first, next, then and finally to organise and sequence. We helped Mrs Christy to prepare a snack by using our time words, then had a go at recording on white boards.  

Friday 13th February

This week we enjoyed learning about the Luna New Year. We listened to the story of the Great Race, made dragon masks and created a dragon dance. We also tried painting Chinese symbols and made New Year cards. We explored using chopsticks and scooping coloured rice into small bowls.  We finish the week with some lovely Valentine's tasks and then we say goodbye to Mrs Pruce who goes off to have her baby at half-term.  We will all miss her very much but look forward to a visit with her little one soon. 

 

Friday 6th February

From the Polar regions last week to Africa this week. Over the last few days, we have been going on a Lion Hunt. Our story is set in Kenya in Africa, and we have compared what it might be like there with The North and South Pole. We noticed the animals, and the colours and have been painting African sunsets. We enjoyed reading and retelling our story with actions as well as some writing about a lion.

In Maths, we have looked at odd and even numbers, doubles and have had great fun using numbers in our play. We particularly liked drawing our own hopscotch. 

Another fun-filled week!

Friday 30th January

This week our writing stimuli was taken from watching 'Andy's Wild Polar Bear Adventure'. We looked at the polar bear's features and talked about its thick white fur and wide strong paws. We then had lots of fun thinking about ways Andy could escape from being chased by a Polar bear.  Ideas we discussed were sliding on a tea tray, blasting like a rocket and rolling like a big snow ball.

During our busy time, we practised our maths skills outside by playing bean bag throwing games and counting how many we got in the hoop. We began to record our score on a white board too! A highlight for Hendra and Rosen this week has been making our sensory winter-themed bottles. We enjoyed mixing clear glue and warm water, pouring into a bottle and adding sequins and glitter. We loved watching how the glitter moves and floats inside the bottle. 

Friday 23rd January

We have been thinking about polar regions this week and enjoyed listening to the story Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers. During Busy Time, we explored ice and what happens when it warms up. We had a lot of fun trying to free the frozen arctic animals from ice blocks. 

Our Maths focus has been weight and capacity. We explored measuring mass with cubes, and using marvellous maths vocabulary such as balanced, equal, heavier, and lighter. 

Lots of children have been keen to explore writing and so the children had a go at making zigzag books by drawing and writing their own stories. There was a super segmenting of sounds to support spelling too! 

Friday 16th January

This week we enjoyed listening to the story One Snowy Night by Nick Butterworth and thought about how animals keep warm in winter. A highlight of the week was making hedgehog bread rolls. We took turns to mix the ingredients, knead the dough and then shaped them into little hedgehogs. We used clean scissors to snip in spikes.  We have also enjoyed some focused learning sessions practising, key skills in maths, writing and problem-solving. 

 

Friday 9th January

It was a cold start to the spring term on Monday, but we embraced the weather and enjoyed exploring the snow on the field. We looked at how the leaves and grass were sparkling with frost and listened to how the ground crunched under our feet. Some children began drawing marks in the snow and we looked for footprints and animal prints. It was wonderful to experience snowy weather together.

Our week has focused on New year and we have been thinking about resolutions, such as getting better at writing or remembering to hang up our coat. During the week we took some time to remind ourselves of our class promise and also discussed feelings and how to manage them. It has been good to see children helping each other and being mindful of how they handle toys and resources as well as being respectful to others. 

Well done Rosen - a great start to 2026!

 

Friday 19th December

Wow, we have reached the end of our first term in Reception! The children have come on so amazingly well and settled into school life. 

This week we were so proud to see the children perform their first school Nativity play. The singing and dancing were wonderful and the children were very brave to stand on stage in front of an audience.  

Our week has been full of festive activities: making reindeer food, painting poinsettias, decorating biscuits and learning about how Christmas is celebrated.  Wednesday was exciting with Christmas dinner in the hall complete with crackers and party hats and we finished the week with pyjama and movie day. 

Have a wonderful Christmas! See you in the New Year. 

Friday 12th December

This week, the children enjoyed learning about the Christmas story and why it is special to Christians. We used props to retell the story and made links with our Twinkly Nativity play.  In maths, we explored the concept of day and night, discussing the difference and the activities that we do.  Our phonics lessons have focused on naming the letters of the alphabet and forming capital letters. There have been lots of fun festive-themed activities going on, such as gingerbread play dough, decorating trees with pom poms, making elves and much more.  Our Christmas Jumper Day was so much fun, especially with the disco to finish the day off. 

Friday 5th December

Rosen class is beginning to feel festive as we start the countdown to Christmas! We have enjoyed some Christmas-themed activities, such as decorating our tree, painting Christmas puddings and building a Christmas tree window display. We loved playing in the sensory tray with winter spiced rice too. On Tuesday we had a visit from the Essex Road safety group who talked to us and our parents about staying safe when crossing the road. We learnt a song to remind us to 'Stop, Look, Listen and Think!'  Our highlight this week was writing letters to Santa and posting these on Friday in the post box on Villa Road. We hope Santa gets our letters in time!

 

Friday 28th November

This week we enjoyed learning about the painting 'A Regatta on the Grand Canal' by Canaletto, an 18^th Century painter from Venice.  We spent time looking at the way the artist had made marks to show flowing water and waves and explored wavy marks in wax crayon, then painted over a water-coloured wash of blues and greens. Later, we collaged boats to go onto to our wax paintings. We also took part in a drawing challenge, sketching a gondola in detail and painted our own version of Canaletto’s Grand Canal. We enjoyed lots of drama activities throughout the week. We used our bodies to build a gondola and role-played taking a ride on a gondola. We also used boxes, planks and fabric to build canal boats.

To expand our knowledge further, we have included some problem-solving and science in our Art mantel work. We created waterways with tinfoil and ducting. We had a problem when we wanted to turn a corner, so we experimented by moulding tinfoil in different ways.

A great arty week had by all. 

 

Friday 21st November

We have enjoyed Maths this week, finding 1 more and 1 less of a number by being aliens in a spaceship.  We sang 'Five little men in a flying saucer' and counted each time to see what happened when one alien flew away. Our story focus this week was How to Catch a Star.  We had lots of ideas about how we could catch a star, such as climbing a very long ladder, jumping out of a helicopter and even flying in a rocket. In class, we have been busy building rockets, collecting space rocks with tweezers and painting planets and stars.  In the garden we kept warm by moving around lots. We really enjoyed making long streamers and developing our big arm movements with waves, twirls and flicks.  A cold but very busy week in Rosen.

Friday 7th November

We have started this half-term off with a `bang!`, lots of talking and activities focused on fireworks. The children made junk model rockets, sparklers, and explored chalk on black paper to draw firework explosions. We made colour explosions in shaving foam which was very messy but loads of fun. 

Rosen class learnt a '5th November' rhyme off by heart, so look out for it on Tapestry soon.

A new activity carousel was introduced to our timetable this week. Each day we have a go at an activity that develops our handwriting, fine motor skills and maths knowledge. It was very successful and great to see some independent learning. 

On Tuesday, Mrs Loader and Mr Godwin showed new parents and children around our school. They spent some time in EYFS with us and Mrs Christy said she was super proud of how we showed respect and kindness to each other and to our visitors. 

 

Friday 17th October

This week our focus story has been 'The Tiger Who Came to Tea'. We have enjoyed learning the story and doing lot of tiger themed activities. We have enjoyed rolling marbles to paint tiger stripes, making tiger masks, having tiger tea parties outside and making and decorating playdough cookies. We continued to explore weighing in our play and have started to look at numbers and amounts in our maths sessions. I am sure you are amazed at how many letter sounds we now know and we are even starting to blend and read words. Great job, Rosen class.

Friday 10th September

We have thoroughly enjoyed using our imagination this week to role-play taking a ride on The Naughty Bus.  We took turns being the driver and made tickets for the passengers. It was great fun!  We also got creative painting bus pictures and each made a bus puppet to retell the story. Keep an eye out on Tapestry for our own bus adventure videos.  In Maths, we looked at patterns and had a ago at making repeating patterns with different items around our classroom. You could try making a repeating pattern at home with Lego bricks or leaves and conkers. What would come next in your pattern? 

Friday 26th September

We have really been working hard with our phonics this week. We have learnt lots of new graphemes and practised writing them in different ways.  We have learnt to identify initial sounds and have even started to blend sounds into words.

In Maths, we have enjoyed using our thinking brains to identify groups and sort items into sets.  PE in the hall was lots of fun as we learnt about using the space to move and our bodies to balance.  

Friday 19th September

This week we have started our phonics sessions and maths sessions. Both have gone very well and the children have been highly engaged. The children have learnt new letter sounds s, a, t, p, i and have become very good at spotting them around the environment. Our story focus this week is Elmer and we have enjoyed talking about belonging, linking that with drawing our family. 

There have been lots of interesting activities to explore this week. Particular favourites have been making gloop and mixing petals and leaves, scooping and pouring with coloured rice and making concoctions in the mud kitchen. As the weather was rather miserable on Wednesday, we were unable to get to the Hall for PE so we all got involved in Cosmic Kids Yoga. It was great fun! Look out for some phonics homework coming home on Friday.  You will be impressed with the phonemes we have learnt. 

 

 

Friday 12th September

The children have had a busy, fun and very successful first week in Rosen class.  We have explored the classrooms and the Reception garden, enjoyed 2 PE lessons, experienced lunch in the hall and played on the playground with the older children.  We have also enjoyed daily Dough Disco sessions, serving our own snacks and story time. Wow, with so much new learning, Rosen class have done amazingly well and have already become more independent. We are very proud teachers.