Hello everyone! Welcome to the Squirrels class page. Here you will find some helpful resources and information and also an overview of what we will be getting up to this half term.
In Reception, Miss Early is the class teacher and Mrs Tomlinson, Mrs Rowely, Miss Kean and Mrs Newton are the Early Years Practitioners who will be working with the children throughout the week.
Miss Harrison is the Early Years Co-ordinator who will be popping in lots to check we are having lots of fun whilst we learn. She will also be taking Squirrel Class for our weekly Forest School Session!
We want your child to be happy and to enjoy learning. If you have any questions or concerns please come and see us! Don't hesitate to get in touch with any questions, no matter how big or small. Email us at squirrels@coppice.derbyshire.sch.uk
Meet the Squirrels Class Team
Miss L Early - Reception class teacher
Mrs D Tomlinson - EYFS Practitioner
Mrs L Rowley - EYFS Practitioner
Miss S Kean - EYFS Teaching Assistant
Mrs S Newton - EYFS Teaching Assistant
Our topic this term is
'Magical Monsters'
Each week, we will be looking at a different story by the author Julia Donaldson – one of my favourite authors. Throughout this half term, we will enjoy getting to know the different ‘magical monsters’ in the books and familiarising ourselves with these much loved stories.
Week 1 - Stickman!
What did we do at Christmas time? What happened to Stickman? How did Stickman feel? Where did Stickman go? Where did Stickman come from? What can we use sticks for? What season are we in? What signs of winter can we find? Who is in your family? Where do you like to travel to?
We are kicking off our new topic with the story, ‘Stickman!’ This is a fantastic story to story to start with as it follows on nicely with our learning from last term’s topic, ‘Let’s Celebrate’. We will be sharing our own stories from the Christmas holidays as we find out how Stickman and his family celebrate Christmas.
In the story, Stickman travels through lots of different environments, including a snowy, winter environment. Now that we are officially in winter, we will be looking for signs of winter and going on a winter walk.
In Literacy, we will be having a go at writing some short sentences to match pictures from the book and we will have a go at labelling Stickman himself.
At the Creative Station, we will be creating our own ‘Stickmans’ using kitchen roll tubes, brown paint and googly eyes. I can’t wait to see what you create!
In PSHE this week, we will be looking at healthy and unhealthy food. We will be talking about different things we can do to stay healthy – exercising, brushing our teeth, eating healthy. We will be looking at what foods are healthy and unhealthy. We will be creating our own plates of healthy and unhealthy foods!
Week 2 - The Gruffalo
What is a Gruffalo? Would you be scared of a Gruffalo? What scares us? Where does a Gruffalo live? What does a Gruffalo look like? What would you expect to find in a forest/woodland? What animals live in the forest/woodland? How did the Mouse feel? Why did the Mouse lie to the other animals?
My favourite Julia Donaldson book! This week, will be looking at the story, ‘The Gruffalo’. We will be looking at the different characters in the story and having a go at describing the Gruffalo using adjectives.
In provision, we will be having a go at some independent writing based on the story, we will be adding different amount of spikes to the Gruffalo using playdough and completing pictures of the different characters at the Creative Station.
We will continue exploring the season of winter and looking at how the trees at school change in winter. Do all the trees change? How do they change? What happens after they lose their leaves?
In PSHE, we will also be continuing looking at staying healthy. We will be finding out about keeping our teeth healthy. How can we keep our teeth healthy? Who can we visit to have our teeth checked?
Week 3 - Gruffalo's Child
What is the Gruffalo’s child like? What could be our midnight feast? Why should we follow rules? How did the Gruffalo’s child feel? How can we make shadows? How can we be a good friend to people of all ages? What does being brave mean? What gives us light at night time?
Following on from Week 2, on Week 3 we will be looking at the Gruffalo’s Child. We will be heading outside on a journey as we read the story – just like the Gruffalo’s Child does in the book!
In provision, we will be exploring activities related to the Gruffalo’s Child. We will be using charcoal to create our own cave paintings and creating our own missing posters for the Gruffalo’s Child. We will be finding out about nocturnal animals and creating our own fact files too!
We will be exploring shadows. We will find out how shadows are created and have a go at creating our own shadows using the torches. We will explore how the shadows change depending on where we hold the torch and we will using felt tips to draw around our shadows too.
Continuing our theme of keeping healthy. We will be finding out why it is important to wash our hands. We will be learning and talking about germs and finding out how they spread. We will use paint to represent germs and watch as they easily spread. What can we do to stop germs spreading? How do we wash our hands properly? Why is soap important?
Week 4 - Zog and Chinese New Year
What happens at Chinese New Year? Which animals had a race? What vegetables are in our stir fry? What did Zog do? What accidents did Zog have? How could we help Zog? What would Zog enjoy if he came to our school? What would you like your dragon to look like?
We are continuing our theme of Julia Donaldson books and this week, we will be looking at Zog! – the flying dragon. We will also be looking at Chinese New Year this week. We will be finding out the story of Chinese New Year and finding out what animals took part in the race. Can you predict which animal won? How did the Rat win in the end? We will also find out what animal we are, based on the year we were born.
As part of learning about Chinese New Year, we are going to have a go at making our own Chinese stir fry. We will cut up the different vegetables we need and watch as they cook. Afterwards, we will all sit down and try the food we have made. Yummy!
We will be creating our own Chinese New Year silhouette paintings. This year is the year of the snake, we will be creating snake silhouette paintings by sponging red and yellow paint around a stencil.
Week 5 -Room on the Broom
Who is the witch and her friend the dragon? Who catches a lift on the witch’s broom? What magical skills would we want? How can we be a good friend and help each other? How would you like to travel? What could we put in a magical potion? How does the witch feel at different times in the story.
Week 5, we will be following the story of a witch and her unlikely friendship with a range of different animals she meets along the way. This is another one of my favourite Julia Donaldson books. I love the rhyming schemes in this book and we will have a go at thinking of our own rhyming words and writing these in Literacy.
We will also be taking on the role of a witch or a wizard and creating our own potions – mixing, pouring and scooping different liquids to make our magical potions. We will have a go at writing about our potion. What does the potion do? Maybe it makes you super fast or really tall?
Along with our potion making, we will be busy designing our own witch hats and creating our own magic wands at the Creative Station.
This week, we will also be looking at the person who illustrates all the Julia Donaldson books – Axel Scheffler. We will be finding out who Axel Scheffler is and what an illustrator does. We will then have a go at creating our own illustrations to go with a Julia Donaldson book.
Week 6 - The Smartest Giant in Town
What would it be like if we were a giant? Why was George sad? How could we make him happy? What clothes do you like to wear? What clothes would we wear in the winter? What would we wear in the summer time? What different shops could we find in a town? How could we help other people?
For the final week of this half term, we will be reading the story, ‘The Smartest Giant in Town’. We will be thinking about how George felt and why. How could we cheer George up? We will be thinking about the clothes that George chooses to wear in the story and clothes that we enjoy wearing. We will add some adult sized clothes to our roleplay area so the children can dress up in ‘giant’ clothes!
We will also be finishing our illustrations from the previous week and adding backgrounds to our pictures of our characters. At the Creative Station, we will using different junk modelling materials to create a house for the Giant to live in. What features have you given your house? Has it got a roof, a door and windows?
In PSHE, to finish off our learning about staying healthy. We will be finding out about medicine and also how to make someone feel better when they are poorly.
Reception Important Diary Dates
Here are the dates we have so far for this half term. We will continue to add to them as the half term progresses. Also remember to check your weekly newsletter for the most up to date information.
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6th January - School reopens for the new term!
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15th January – KS1 and EYFS classes to attend the reading café
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11th February – Internet Safety day
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14th February – Last day of term
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24th February - INSET Day - School closed
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25th February - Start of the new term!
Knowledge Organiser
To see the Knowledge Organiser for this half term please click on the link below:
Stomp, Chomp, Roar - Here Come the Dinosaurs Knowledge OrganiserMagical Monsters Knowledge Orangiser
Topic Web
To see the Topic Web for this half term please click on the link below:
Stomp, Chomp, Roar - Here Come the Dinosaurs Topic Web
Parent phonics information
Parents information Powerpoint : Meet the Level 2 Twinkl Phonics Family
The Early Years Foundation Stage
In Squirrels class we follow the Early Years Foundation Stage which is organised into seven areas of learning. These seven areas are as follows:
PSED - Personal, social, emotional development (developing self confidence and self awareness, making relationships as well as managing behaviour and feelings).
CL - Communication and Language (speaking, listening and understanding)
PD - Physical development (moving and handling as well as health and self care)
LIT - Literacy (reading and writing)
MATHS - Mathematics (numbers, shape, space and measures)
UW - Understanding the World (people and communities, the world and technology)
EAD - Expressive Arts and Design (exploring and using media and materials as well as being imaginative!)
Expectations
In school we have a set of non-negotiables for Literacy and Mathematics for the children to aspire to by the end of each year group. Click below to see what is expected by the end of their time in Squirrels class (end of EYFS).
Writing non-negotiables for Squirrels class
Mathematics non-negotiables for Squirrels class
We work towards the Early Learning Goals (ELG's) in Squirrels class. Click on the document to see what the Early Years curriculum is all about and what the children should be able to do by the end of their time in Squirrels class.
EYFS curriculum explained for Parents/carers
Squirrels' Stars of the Week
At our school we have a special 'star of the week' from each class! In Squirrels class we have Sammy Squirrel who goes home with the star of the week for a whole week and he has a special diary for the star of the week to fill in ready to be shared with the class the following week. Sammy can't wait to meet you!
Our School Values
Each week we have a new value – 12 in total. The children will have an assembly Monday morning about how to show and give respect to others both in school and at home! We will be expecting this to be demonstrated to all members of our Coppice community, it is important that even when we move onto a new value, the old one isn’t lost.
Our new core values will now form the basis of our ambassador passports (these have now been renamed – core value passports and the children can achieve their bronze, silver and gold awards throughout the year for each core value. We will of course keep you informed about how your child is getting on with this throughout the year.
Each week Mrs Seaton will send out a Newsletter that will reflect the value we are working on so that it can also be supported at home. We look forward to seeing our children bright and early ready to embrace the new weekly challenges!
Learning Journeys
During the last few years we have developed the way that we collect observations about what your child can do during their time in Nursery. Your child will have a gorgeous book called 'My Little Book of Adventures' where we put in evidence of what your child has been learning! As part of this we will be using an app called 'Tapestry' on our iPads to take photographs of your child completing different activities and make notes about what they are doing. One of the best features of this is that we can email you all the evidence we collect! You can also let us know of any 'wow' moments you witness at home. We will be sending home an information letter and permission form for this during the beginning of September!
We also love to hear what your child has achieved at home and so we ask you fill in proud clouds and share them with us!
Proud cloud letter - September 2022
Proud cloud template - September 2022
Information for Parents
The EYFS curriculum for parents/carers handout
Dough disco information leaflet
Letters and Sounds Phase 1 booklet
Letters and Sounds Phase 2 booklet
Letters and Sounds Phase 3 booklet
Coppice Primary School and Nursery - Early language development booklet for parents
Small Talk booklet - age related expectations related to communication
Communication friendly environments
Finger Rhymes
Stay and Play sessions
Each term we have a stay and play session so parents, carers and other family member can join us in Squirrels class to see what we do. The children love showing everyone their classroom and the type of activities we do every day in Squirrels class. We always end with an activity for both children and adults. This could be a story, a squiggle, a dough disco or a dance! Who knows!! We like to keep it a surprise!!
The children love showing their grown ups the Squirrels classroom and EYFS outside area. We cannot wait to welcome you to our stay and play sessions this year!
Have a question or concern?
We understand that there are times when you might have a question or concern! You have an open door policy in our school and you are always welcome and to come and speak to any member of staff. You can email me at Squirrels@coppice.derbyshire.sch.uk or our EYFS co-ordinator, Miss Harrison, at kharrison4@coppice.derbyshire.sch.uk. Alternatively you can ring school on 01773 712840 and we will do all we can to help.
Helping at home
There are lots of things you can do to help your child. We don't have formal homework in Squirrels class but below are some ideas of what you can do which are quick and easy and will help your child consolidate skills we have taught in school. Look on each topic web for some challenges we have set the children to help them gain extra points for their reward chart in school! If you would like any help or support please ask any member of EYFS staff. We would be more than happy to help with ideas!
Reading
Your child has a reading folder which includes flashcards, a homework book and reading book. Please practise these for 5 - 10 minutes every night if possible. We will hear your child read every week in school and will practise letter sounds and high frequency words in our Twinkl Phonic activities.
Phonics
Every week your child will have a phonics activity to complete at home. As we move through Level 2 and Level 3 phonics they will also be bringing flashcards home to practise.
Writing
Encourage your child to write their names on invitations and cards reminding them to have a capital letter at the beginning! As they learn their letter sounds help them practise writing them using the correct letter formation.
Mathematics
Play board games such as 'snakes and ladders' to encourage your child to count spaces to move their counters forwards or backward. When you are walking as the children to count how many foot steps from one place to another and ask the children to identify different numbers they see on doors or buses. Practise counting in order to at least twenty and backwards to zero.
Life skills
Encourage your child to put on and fasten their own coat, to put on their own shoes and to get dressed and undress by themselves. Remind them to wash their hands after going to the toilet and before eating a meal. When eating encourage your child to use a knife and fork correctly.