Early Years Foundation Stage Update

CRÈCHE

We began last week with a new story ‘Polar Bear, Polar Bear, what do you hear?’ The children used their listening skills to explore the sounds within our outdoor environment. During our listening walk, we used an iPad to record the sounds in the surroundings. After this, the children made different animal sounds from the story. Some roared like a lion, some hissed like a snake while others brayed like a horse.

The highlight of the week was singing and dancing to the rhyme we learnt. How about singing along and making the movements together with your child at home? Here goes the rhyme…

Polar bear, Polar bear,

Turn around.

Make no sound.

Polar bear, Polar bear

Dance on your toes.

Polar bear, Polar bear

Touch your nose.

We also had polar bear paw trails in class and the children had fun comparing the sizes of their feet to the paw prints.

This week, we shall continue to play a listening and following instructions game, go on a listening walk and use the story characters to make animal prints on play dough.

FOUNDATION STAGE 1

Last week, the children explored ‘trains’ as another mode of transport. Through this sub-topic, we learnt that:

• A person who controls a train is called an Engine Driver.
• Trains use either steam, diesel or electricity as fuel for the engine.
• Trains have special wheels made out of steel and can only move on a railway track.

The song of the week was“The Good Morning Train is coming how are you? Choo choo.”

We have also been reminding ourselves about taking care of each other’s feelings.  We are happy to say that our Braestars are working hard towards being kind and gentle to each other and using their magic words.

The children have also named different sounds they can hear around the school as we went for sound walks and played listening games. Please continue playing listening games with your child; the listening skills they develop through these activities will aid in their reading skills.

This week we shall talk about road signs, which we will place at the wheeled area. Noticing logos and print in the environment is linked to early reading. To support this, please encourage your child to spot and identify different signs during your journey to and from school.

FOUNDATION STAGE 2

The trip to Trufoods (K) Ltd offered a vast learning experience for the children.

Before entering the factory, we all had to get into a safety gear which included, hair nets and mouth/nose masks.  We then sanitised our hands and started our learning journey inside the factory.

This is what the children saw:

• Grinders, mixers and sachet sealing machines for Choco Primo
• Boilers and coolers for sauces and jams
• Sauce and jam filling machines
• Labelling and Coding machines
• Sealing and packaging machines
• Operators
• Forklifts

They also learnt new words such as: rolling belt, pressure pipes and magnetic cleaner. After going round the factory, we had a picnic lunch at the garden within the factory. The children were then given some gifts which included a sachet of choco primo, glucose and jam cups.

During the week, we built on the children’s experience of the trip and linked this to the different learning areas. This was done by: building and constructing industrial machines, drawing and labelling some of the machinery, linking 3D shapes to what they saw and pretend play among others.

Kindly support the children’s learning by engaging them in similar activities. 

This week, we shall focus on machines found in our home kitchens.

EYFS Team