We hope you have all had a lovely half-term, having lots of fun and some well deserved rest! 

We would LOVE to hear what you got up to over the holidays. It might have been having a film night, sharing a favourite book, exploring on an autumnal walk or dressing up for Halloween! We would love to see a few photos that the children can talk about with their friends in school.

If you could upload these photos in one post on tapestry that would be amazing.  We will print these and use these for our next topic, which will be... *drumroll please* 

OUR NEW BIG IDEA FOR THIS HALF TERM... LONG AGO... 

Time is such a tricky concept for children to understand... In this 'Long Ago' topic, we will help children grasp time by talking about their recent past (e.g. what they did over half-term, so those photos on Tapestry will be really helpful). 

 
We will talk about their history and how they have changed from when they were babies. We will bring this to life by seeing baby Rex again (Miss Inglis' baby), and talking about what he can do and is still learning to do/will be able to do when he is older, like the children in foundation!

We will be sharing sorties that have been told for hundreds of years such as Cinderella. We will be looking at castles, how old they are and how they are different from the homes that we live in.

We will also be finding out about dinosaurs! Your child will find out about the amazing prehistoric animals that lived on Earth. We will learn facts and discover how big some of these gigantic creatures were. They will learn about what we might find in museums and what the word 'extinct' means. 

We will also be sharing lots of different books, videos and photographs that help us explore the past.

Ways you could support our topic at home:

• Look at photographs of children as babies and talk about how they have grown and changed/what they can do now that they couldn't before. 
• Talk about and share photos of what your life was like when you were a child/grandparents were a child.
• Go to the CBeebies Dinosaurs website and explore the games and videos together. Can you find out any fascinating facts to share in school? 
• Visit a local castle or historic building (remember to share your photos with us on Tapestry!)
• Share traditional tales and see if your children can re-tell the key parts from the story (Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella, Snow White, Rapunzel etc).
• Share and discuss the ‘Big Ideas’ poster below (also attached as PDF for clearer version).

Thank you for your continued support 🙂 

This week our big idea questions are:

What do robots do?

What technology do we use at home?

We will be looking at different robots and machines and talking about how clever they are!
Including hoover robots, robots that can build cars and machines in factories that make things that we use every day.

We will be sharing this story with the children:

Along with the sequel... No Bot-The Robot's New Bottom!

We will be moving and grooving to these vintage Barney tunes:

Along with making our own 2D shape robots and of course doing lots of improvised robot dancing!

(F2) We are SO PROUD of how brilliantly the children are doing with their phonics. We are getting extra speedy with our sounds and trying really hard to form them correctly. We are starting to blend sounds together to read words! Keep up the super work Little Adventurers! 

The sounds we will be learning to read and write this week are: 

• Remember to book a parent's evening slot (links should be in emails from no-reply@mail.arbor-education.com) for a 10-minute appointment on either Monday 14th October or Thursday 17th October with Mrs Boon (F1) and Miss Inglis & Mrs Gerrard (F2). 
• Reminder to keep working towards those bronze reading awards, signing home school diaries and marking off the award page at the back. This can be done each time you share a story/practise speedy sounds etc. 
• To round off our topic, we will be having a 'Marvellous Machines' show & tell... Please let us know your child's favourite machine and send photos of some of the technology that you use as a family. This could be a photo of your car, the oven, a hoover, the freezer... The possibilities are endless! Send these photos on tapestry and the children can share them with their friends before half-term. 

We are continuing our 'Marvellous Machines' topic by looking at transport that travels in the air and on water. We will be looking at aeroplanes, creating our own role-play plane and finding out who Amelia Earhart is (ask us at home!). We will be looking at the wonderful underwater machine that is a submarine as well as making our own boats and testing out if they float or sink in our water tray. 

We will be sharing this fabulous story all about Emma Jane's Aeroplane and how she travels around the world 🌎✈️: 

We will be singing and practising some jazzy yoga moves to this song with lots of different transport: 

Check out this Cbeebies episode to have a look at lots of marvellous flying machines!

🚀 🚓🚐✈️🚡🚢🚜 🚖🚛🚙🚔🚋🚗🚀 🚓🚐✈️🚡🚢🚜 🚖🚛🚙🚔🚋🚗

(F2) This week we will be learning to read and write these sounds...

• (F2) Remember to keep being whizzy and staying in that green zone on doodle maths - Mrs King says little and often is perfect (5 minutes a day to collect those stars!). Let us know if you have any issues with your login (stuck on the first page of reading diaries). 
• Huge well done to everyone sharing so many stories and practising their speedy sounds at home! It is amazing to see so many children well on their way to their bronze reading award.

What a wonderful first week we have had! We are so proud of all the children and how well they have settled into routines. Well done Little Adventurers! 

This week we will be sharing the story 'The Colour Monster'.  We will be talking about emotions and feelings and how these can change throughout the day. Have a listen to the story below:

Sometimes, the colour monster turns all different colours when his feelings are mixed up. We will be making our own colour monsters, talking about what we can do to help when we feel a certain way. We'll also be colour mixing and experimenting with what colours we can make using red, blue and yellow. 

Our weekly song will be 'If you're happy, and you know it'

In F2, we will be starting our Read, Write, Inc sessions... We will be learning a sound a day and practising forming the letters correctly using the sayings to help us (e.g. round the apple, down the leaf).  

Over the next few weeks, we will be beginning to blend the sounds we know to read words. We will be playing lots of 'Fred Talk' games to help with this tricky blending process. At home, you could play Fred Talk games or games like 'I spy' to help children distinguish the initial sound in words.

We will send the sounds the children have been learning home (please keep these safe in their book bags, we will add to them each week until you have a full set). You can practise these speedy sounds, holding the cards up and encouraging your child to say the sound. Here's a video of the pure sounds. 

Remember to write in your child's reading diary each time you practise 'speedy sounds'...  Helping your child get on their way to their bronze reading award!  

Here are the sounds we will be learning this week:

• Check Tapestry and the blog regularly to see what the children in EYFS have been unto
  Please could you send a family photo on tapestry. We are using these to create a display. 🏡💕thanks to everyone that has already done this. 

Thank you for your continued support 😊

A new school year and a new class name... This year the children in EYFS (F1 and F2) will be known as 'Little Adventurers'.  We think EYFS is an endless adventure, and we are going to have so much fun! 

We are so excited to welcome you into school, we hope you have all had a wonderful summer, and we can't wait to hear all about it! If you get chance, remember to upload some photos on to tapestry, so the children can share these with their friends next week. Huge thank you if you have already done this. 

(F2 Parents) We've added the 'Welcome to Reception'  presentation as a PDF below, just incase you missed our meeting or want a reminder of the information shared. Hopefully everyone received their goody bags! (If not, we have some here and will hand them out this week). 
If you have any burning questions, add these to tapestry, and we will try our best to get back to you before we are back. 

We look forward to seeing you on Tuesday 3^rd September, bright-eyed and bushy tailed at 8:55am 😊 (unless you have agreed a different start date/time with Mrs Boon/EYFS Staff). 

• Please label everything! (including water bottles please).
• If children are staying for lunch, remember to remind them on the way to school whether they are having school dinners or packed lunch (before we are familiar with everyone's new lunch boxes, it will really help us with the register-thank you!)
• Let us know if you can't log into Tapestry - we will be using this to share lots of first week photos with you. 
• Remember to register on school milk, if you haven't already done so.
• (F2) Bring in your 'Super Me' sheets filled in on the first week back (don't worry if you've misplaced these over summer, but if you have them - we would love to see them). 
• We can't wait to see you soon!