🕷🕸... This week we are talking about spiders! 

We will be exploring these big idea questions:

• Why do Spiders spin webs?
• How many legs do spiders have? (Spiders are not classed as an insect because all insects have 6 legs!) 
• What is a predator?

We will be sharing these brilliant books to help bring our topic to life:

And of course singing and signing to these classic nursery rhymes: 

This week, the children in F2 are learning about 3D shapes and their properties. We will look at the shapes - cube, cylinder, cone, cuboid, pyramid, sphere.

We will be going on a 3D shape hunt in the classroom and seeing what we can find... Maybe boxes that are cuboids, a globe that is a sphere and dice that were cubes! Here are some ideas to support this learning at home - we would love to see what you get up to on tapestry! 

• We are hoping to be able to book our 'Lion Learners' animal experience for Wednesday 26th March - to make this experience possible we are asking for £5 contribution per child (to be made on Arbor please).  See this Lion Learners blog post for more information.
• (F2) The children are doing amazingly with their phonics - please make sure they are reading their RWI books or practising their blending book/speed sounds at home too. The school expectation is at least three diary entries a week (this can include sharing stories together too and visits to the Reading Lair). Keep up the super work F2! 

Our talk for write text this half-term is.... The Very Hungry Caterpillar! Hopefully the children have been re-telling the story at home.  

This brilliant story will help us explore our big idea questions:

• What is the lifecycle of a butterfly?
• What is symmetry? 

Watch the animated story below:

Here's the vocabulary that we will be sharing and talking about (and encouraging the children to use independently). 

We've been making lots of mini-beasts at our make and do table. Can you have a go at making one at home? Here are some ideas:

With butterflies being symmetrical, we will be looking closely at things we might see around us that are symmetrical. Check out these pictures: 

Can you spot anything symmetrical when out and about/around your house? 

• Monday 31^st March and Thursday 3^rd April are our parents' evenings - keep your eyes out for an email to book appointments.
• (F2) - keep up with star collecting on doodle maths - we are no longer in last place on the whole school table - well done! Let's try to climb even higher next week!
• We were hoping to get some tiny caterpillars delivered this week, but it's a little risky with the timings/current low temperatures and not wanting the children to miss the big transformation! So we've changed the date for the first week back after the Easter holidays... We look forward to them arriving and watching the amazing changes, before releasing the butterflies into the wild. 

Thank you for your continued support ☺️

Hello Little Adventurers! We hope you have had a lovely half-term and can't wait to see you all tomorrow. Let's announce our new topic (drum roll please)..... 

🕷🕸🐌🦋🐞🐛🐜 🕷🕸🐌🦋🐞🐛🐜 🕷

We will be finding out about magnificent mini beasts!

We will be exploring things such as- how many legs do insects have? Is this different from spiders? What mini-beasts can fly?  Where might we find mini-beasts?

We will be talking about and finding lots of fascinating facts about bees, spiders, ladybirds and many more marvellous creatures. We will be scientists observing lifecycles in the classroom and watching how a caterpillar transforms into a butterfly! 

As always, our topic will be brought to life through brilliant books. For more information please see our 'Big Ideas' poster below (a clearer version is also attached at the bottom of this page). 

Some ideas of how you might bring our topic to life at home: 

• Research your favourite mini-beasts - can you find any fascinating facts to share with the class?
• Make your very own bug hotel! There are lots of great ideas online- but they can be made from things such as: old plant pots, small rocks, sticks, stones, bark and leaves... You'll soon have lots of mini beasts checking in! 
• Go on a mini-beast hunt in your garden or local area/park - what can you spot? 
• Share and discuss the 'Big Ideas' poster, talking about the questions and key vocabulary. 
• Share any mini-beast-related stories you might have at home or spot at the library.

Thank you for your continued support - we look forward to seeing you all tomorrow! 😊

This week we are sharing the brilliant Supertato stories! (One of our favourites in EYFS, hopefully the children love it as much as we do!)

Here are the big idea question's that we will be talking about:

• How do we stay healthy? 
• Why are fruits and vegetables good for us? 
• How do we take care of our teeth?

We will also be continuing to explore of our overarching big idea question's for our books, books, brilliant books topic which are: 

• Can you tell me a story?
• What is a character?
• What does an Author do?
• What does an Illustrator do?
• What is your favourite story?
• Can you create your own story? 

The children are really enjoying our 'Books, Books, Brilliant books' topic... See if they can answer any of these questions at home or re-tell/make up their own story.

We will be making our own superhero characters and seeing what adventure/mischief they might get up to. Please send your child with a vegetable on Monday so they can decorate it in school and invent their own 'Supertato' inspired character.

Check out this video of Supertato being read on Cbeebies bedtime stories!

Here are some ideas you could try at home linked to 'Supertato'.
As always... We love seeing what you get up to.... Share photos on tapestry and the children can show their friends in school.

• We are hoping to take the children to Keyworth library on Monday 10th February. In order to do this, we will need some parent/family volunteers- if you are available and able to help out on Monday 10th February (2:00pm-3:15pm) we would be very grateful. Please let any member of staff in EYFS know if you are free.  Big thank you in advance!
• Remember to send the children in with a vegetable on Monday 3rd to create their own 'Supertato' inspired character (see top of blog post for more information). 
• Well done to all of those on their way to collecting their Bronze and Silver reading awards! Remember the school expectation is to read/share stories at least 3 times a week.
• A reminder that Friday 14th February is an inset day and school will be closed to all pupils.

Thank you for your continued support- the EYFS Team 🙂