Welcome to St Michael’s Early Years Unit!
Who are we?
The Early Years is made up of Reception and Nursery, where children are able to join us from the age of 3. We are in two different groups called Robins and Woodpeckers. Our teachers are called Miss Simpkin (Robins) and Mrs Henderson-Hill (Woodpeckers). The learning support assistants in our unit are Mrs Ottaviani, Miss Smith and Mrs Bell (Woodpeckers) and Mrs Robertson (Robins).
Timings of our day
Nursery (Woodpeckers) – 8.45am-11.45am
Reception (Robins) – 8.45am-3.10pm
Our Favourite Activities in Early Years
Helicopter stories
Every week we take part in helicopter stories, this is where the children write their own stories. These are scribed by an adult before all the children help to bring their stories to life by acting them out:
“Helicopter stories is tried, tested and proven to have a significant impact on children’s literacy and communication skills, their confidence and social and emotional development.” Trisha Lee
Dough Disco
We enjoy doing Dough Disco every day.
What is dough disco?
Dough disco involves moulding play dough in time to music and performing different actions such as rolling it into a ball, flattening it, putting each individual finger into the dough, rolling it into a sausage and squeezing it.
Why do dough disco?
This activity helps to strengthen children’s fine motor muscles to enable them to develop their pencil grip which in turn will help to develop their writing skills. But most of all it’s fun!
What do you need to do a dough disco?
- Music – any song will do! We have had Abba, Frozen, Musicals and TV themes to name a few of our favourites.
- Dough – You can buy pots of dough or make your own with your child. See the recipe below.
- A set of moves – These can be done in any order and you don’t need to include them all.
What are the dough disco moves?
- squeeze it
- roll it into a ball
- roll it into a sausage
- poke it
- flatten it
- pinch it
We have also learnt how to make pizza and a doughnut with the dough which the children are brilliant at doing.
Here’s a simple recipe for you to make play dough at home:
Ingredients
- 1 cup of plain flour
- Half a cup of salt
- 2 teaspoons of Cream of Tartar
- 1 tablespoon of oil
- 1 cup of water
- Food colouring (optional)
Instructions:
- Mix all of the ingredients together in a saucepan. Stir the mixture over a low heat until it comes away from the sides of the pan.
- Tip the dough out and leave it to cool slightly.
- Store the play dough in an air-tight container or plastic bag and let your child use it every day (it should keep for about a week).
Here is a link to a video that shows how to do dough disco: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K-CQrjI0uY
Squiggle Whilst You Wiggle
Squiggle whilst you Wiggle is a kinaesthetic approach to stimulate early writing. It encourages children to focus on making large scale movements to music. The children then mirror these movements using pens on paper. It is the first stage in handwriting practice delivered in a super fun, lively way and it has been shown to increase handwriting confidence and progress.
Scribble and Drawing Club
Scribble club in Woodpeckers is an amazing way to explore early drawing and mark making through scribbling. The children invent their own magical adventures and have taken us to many magical places such as treasure island where the pirates are hunting for all the jewels or to unicorn world where unicorns and mermaids play together.
In Robins the children explore drawing club through the magic of stories. They are immersed in new vocabulary and are inspired to draw pictures and secret messages based on stories such as Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Not Now Bernard and We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.
Phonics
We use Read Write Inc to teach the children how to read in St Michael’s. Here is a link to a parents guide explaining how phonics is taught. https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/reading-schemes-oxford-levels/read-write-inc-phonics-guide/
The children in Robins are making great progress with learning their letter sounds. This video shows you how to say all the letter sounds that we teach the children at St Michael’s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkXcabDUg7Q&list=PLDe74j1F52zSCiOMSn3zQDSzgu9TrbQ1c
Mathematics
We enjoy exploring numbers and numerical patterns through play. The children enjoy counting activities every day and are learning how to subitise numbers.
What is subitising?
Subitising is the ability to instantaneously recognise the number of objects in a small group without the need to count them. An example often used to explain this, is to think of a die – we immediately recognise the number of dots without having to count each one individually. A parent’s guide to subitising is in the documents below.
Important Information
PE Days - Woodpeckers PE day is Wednesday and Robins PE day is Friday. For PE, we wear red shorts or jogging bottoms in cold weather, white t-shirt with St Michael's badge, plimsolls/trainers. The children can come to school in their PE kits but please make sure that any jewellery, including earrings, are left at home.
Outdoor learning – We go out in all weathers so please make sure your child has a pair of wellington boots left in school with their name on and bring a coat every day.
Library – Every Friday we visit our school library and the children will choose a book to bring home to share with you.
Uniform – Please put your child’s name in everything you bring to school. This makes it easier to trace mislaid items.
Reception Baseline Assessment - In Reception the children undertake the Reception Baseline Assessment which is a short assessment, taken in the first six weeks of starting Reception. A guide for parents is in the document list below.
Summer Term
Robins
This term the children have celebrated the King's Coronation, they have learnt about local maps and what they could recognise. The children created their own maps of different journey's they have done. They looked at how things have changed over time and learned the months of the year. The children have been practising for the Sport's Day that is due to take place in July. They have been working hard to master the skill of skipping.
Literacy
This term the children have read, retold and acted out We're Going on a Bear Hunt and Goldilocks and the Three Bears. They used a story map, small world and role play to retell the story. The children walked through all the of the elements from We're Going on a Bear Hunt and made porridge
Maths
The children have been learning about odd and even numbers, doubling numbers, sharing and grouping different amounts of numbers/objects, addition, subtraction, problem solving, composition of numbers. They have also learning to record number sentences to show addition and subtraction to show their learning. The children have been using a range of resources to support their learning.
Woodpeckers
This term we have been focussing on the wordless book ‘Float’ by Daniel Miyares. As well as discussing this book in-depth, the children have made their own paper boats and sailed them and made pictures of themselves, cutting out triangles for sails and printing the sea using Duplo. The children have also started learning phonics using our phonics scheme, Read Write Inc. and have been writing their names. They enjoyed celebrating the King’s Coronation by making their own crowns and being kings and queens for the day.
Spring Term
Robins
This term the children have learnt about Pancake Day, St David's Day, celebrated Holi and Chinese New Year. They have looked at foods that are healthy and can eat lots of and food that are not as healthy and eat smaller amounts. The children had a lot of fun celebrating French Day and learning about France. They have talked about different emotions and feelings; how they can tell how others are feeling by looking at their face.
Literacy
This term the children have read, retold and acted out The Naughty Bus and Jack and the Beanstalk. They used a story map, small world and role play to retell the story. The children planted their own bean to see if it will grow into a beanstalk.
Maths
In Maths the children have looked at different ways to make numbers up to 10, using numicon, tens frames, counters, and sorting bears. They looked at capacity using key words such as full, empty, nearly full, almost empty in water but also with other resources. The children have been measuring the height, length and width of different objects around the classroom. They used cubes as a measure. The children have been recognising and describing 3D shapes and 2D shapes using key vocabulary. 3D shapes: vertices, faces, curved edges and surfaces. 2D shapes: corners, and sides.
Woodpeckers
Autumn Term
Robins
The Autumn was spent getting to know the classroom, outdoor area, wildwood, the routines and each other. The children enjoyed exploring the different parts of their new environment. They have learnt about different festivals and important dates such as: Halloween, Bonfire Night, Remembrance Day, and Diwali
Literacy
In Literacy the children learnt the story of the Gingerbread Man. They used a story map, small world and role play to retell the story. The children baked Gingerbread Men and enjoyed eating them!
Maths
In Maths the children focused on recognising, subitising and counting numbers up to 5. They also looked at simple patterns.
Woodpeckers
We started this term in nursery with the children exploring the setting, getting to know each other and learning our rules.
Personal, Social & Emotional Development
Everyday the children record how they are feeling on our feelings board. We have used the Colour Monster book to talk about different emotions and circle times to take turns and show our respect for our friends by listening and not talking over them.
Physical Development
The children have PE lessons once a week. Some of the things that we have done this term are throwing and catching, yoga, parachute games, and riding a balance bike.
Literacy
The children have become familiar with the books ‘Dear Zoo’ and ‘Stick Man’ – learning the stories, acting them out, writing about them and making the characters.
Maths
The children are learning to count to ten and have made their own number line to help with their number recognition. They are learning to match a number of objects to a numeral and are learning positional language such as ‘on top’, ‘under’, ‘in front’ and ‘behind’. They are also exploring simple 2D shapes and learning to recognise patterns such as ‘spotty’ and ‘stripy’.
Understanding the World
We have covered many areas over the term including Halloween, Firework Night, Diwali, Remembrance Day and Christmas.
Expressive Arts & Design
The children get the opportunity to explore musical instruments and learn lots of rhymes and songs whilst in nursery; one of our favourites this term has been ‘I can sing a rainbow’ – the children learnt the different colours in sign language and painted their own rainbows. They have also made Christmas cards using their footprints and have enjoyed completing some collages related to our learning.
