I have my fingers crossed that everything has worked out and that parents have noticed a flood of notifications coming into their in boxes as I know Ms Pindard has been working very hard to get pictures of all the wonderful work the children have been doing this week onto Tapestry.
Please let us know if you aren't sure how to access Tapestry or if you think it's not quite working. Shauna Pindard joined us on Monday this week and has already shown what a hardworking and thoughtful teacher she is. We are very lucky to have her with us until our new early years coordinator can join us after Christmas. The children have been engaged in great learning throughout the week - they are rocketing along with their phonics and looking through the comments in childrens reading records today I could see how proud so many parents of children in Ash Class are. The reading is really coming along at a pace. Children have been thinking about Divali about about the Gun Powder Plot with the topic of Fireworks making a bridge between the two. Children enjoyed decorating biscuits to celebrate Divali - some of the creations looked fairly toothache inducing to me but maybe four year olds see things differently. It was a great way to focus on children's fine motor skills and, as they were busy with rolling pins to flatten out the fondant icing, it was great for their developing hands and wrists too. There has been a great deal of very colourful painting going on this week too - my best white shirt may never be the same. It has been such a pleasure for me, as principal to see Miss Pindard taking over the class with great creativity and confidence. Well done Shauna. We have also welcomed Henrietta Johnston to the class this week. Henrietta has come into the setting with great aplomb and I know she is going to be a great asset to the school. Welcome Henrietta and Shauna.
0 Comments
Dear Parents and Carers, Finally we have reached the end of the first half term at school – and what a journey it has been! From those very wobbly early days, through the exhaustion (or is that just me?!) to where we find ourselves today. I am amazed and delighted to watch these wonderful children gel as a group, settle into the routines, and start so enthusiastically out on their long learning journey through primary school and beyond. I am very proud of them all, and am sure you must be too. So, this week we were mostly thinking about animal habitats. We kicked this off last week by venturing out into the Wildlife area to build dens for a ragtag assortment of animals collected from the classroom. It was great fun finding materials, make the shelters watertight and working together with friends to make a construction together. We then set about learning about the different habitats where animals live, including the desert, the woodland and the polar regions, thinking about shelter and how animals were adapted to their respective environments. We used our new builders tray to explore making habitats of different kinds for various creatures (including dinosaurs!) We also played a game, matching animals to their habitat using simple descriptions. The children were brilliant at listening and finding the correct environment. It stimulated all sorts of interesting scientific talk. And we have also made homes for animals, and done some random making, just for making’s sake – which is always fun. Here are a couple of our creations! And finally….
It is, of course, my very last week of working with this group of children, and with you as families. I am actually very sad about it: it wouldn’t be so hard if they weren’t such a wonderful class. I have grown very fond of them, and will miss them hugely. They really are an especially lovely group. I do have exciting things to do (work in refugee camps in Greece, early January 2022) but I am going to miss so much about the school, particularly my dear EYFS colleagues and of course the children themselves. I want to thank you, the parents and carers, for your support, your warmth and your care over the past few weeks. The next teachers are very lucky to be working with you all, families and children alike. I wish you all the very best of luck. I’ll be around Chagford until New Year so will no doubt see many of you out and about, so do come and say hello. With all the very best wishes for the future, and a lovely, relaxing half term holiday. Lisa Rowe Dear Parents and Carers, Another week down in the EYFS, and another very busy one it has been too! It has been a dry and sunny one, so we have been outside a fair bit, trying to sort out our outdoor area a little. We were excited to receive a parcel of new bits and bobs from the PTFA (thank you so much everyone!) which will make our play area a bit more colourful and fun. We got some blackboards for outdoor, all weather, extreme drawing…. And some exciting wooden chutes for water and toy car play. This required some assembly, which is a VERY serious business. We also focussed on using mathematical language to measure things, specifically animals, using the book ‘The Snail and the Whale’ and ‘The Enormous Turnip’ as a stimulus. It was fun making snails from playdough, which we then measured using interlocking bricks. It became quite competitive, I must say! Staying with the theme of size and measurement, we did some dance and movement based on ‘The Enormous Turnip’ in the hall. I was impressed by the children’s expressive skills and their superb pair work.
And of course we headed up to the church on Wednesday for the Harvest service. It was a delight to be able to head out of school and into the town again, and to sing our favourite harvest songs in such a beautiful building. The Big Robins were brilliant, listening beautifully and singing enthusiastically. It made me very proud. I count myself very fortunate to be able to work with such a wonderful group of children. This coming week I hope to start sending home some ‘proper’ reading books as well as the usual picture books to share. These will contain words which children can decode using the letter knowledge they have gained so far. Please remember that the most important thing is, still, to enjoy reading together. Children develop at such different rates and in different ways, and some will not be ready yet for this formal skill – but they will always benefit from love of books, and lots of great talk. Have a wonderful weekend everyone, only one week to go until the holidays! Lisa, Ed and all the EYFS team This week in Ash Class, we have mostly been thinking about baby animals, the life cycle of a butterfly, and how baby animals are born. We matched babies to parent animals, and noticed how some don’t look at all like their mothers! It was also fun sorting animals by how they came into the world: those which came from their mothers’ bellies and those which hatched from eggs. Children were surprised to hear that octopuses came from eggs, and that mother octopuses (octopii?) only lay eggs once in their lifetimes. We really enjoyed reading the old classic ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ by Eric Carle. Such a wonderful book, full of fun and learning. We have explored counting, the days of the week, and favourite foods as well as the life cycle of a butterfly of course. It was a perfect opportunity to get messy and do some potato printed caterpillars! And by complete coincidence Bella found a cocoon in her garden and brought it in to school. Freddie then found another inside one of our new tractor tyres! The hungry caterpillar in the story loved to nibble his way through leaves, so we had fun making holes on leaves with a hole punch, and counting how many holes we had made. I think that just about covers most of our activity this week! If you have any questions or worries, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. And most importantly, have a lovely weekend!
From Ms Rowe and the FSU team Hello again everyone. Here is your weekly bulletin from the wonderful EYFS at Chagford, where we have had a full, fun if rather soggy week. We have experienced our first ‘wet play’ after a few days of rain, but have also managed to bolt outdoors in the brief moments when the sun shines through. The children are doing brilliantly: continuing to settle in well, and feel more comfortable with the routines and the environment. Most have a little more stamina, though I’m sure you find they are still very tired by the end of the week! We have been joined this week by a couple of new children, two Little Robins and a Big Robin: we are delighted to welcome you to our class and our school. Continuing our thinking about all things Pets, we have displayed our paintings in the corridor, and have been further discussing how to take care of pets, including exotic ones. We also ‘Monkey Puzzle’ by Julia Donaldson, thinking about animal babies and how some of them do not look at all like their parents (think butterflies and caterpillars) We painted symmetrical butterflies which are now bringing a gorgeous splash of colour to our classroom. In maths, we worked on counting accurately and recognising the digits 1 to 10, playing various games to practise this skill. In out phonics work we have continued to learn new sounds and revisit ones already learned, with the emphasis on learning to recognise the sound rather than to write the letters, which is still quite a tricky thing for many children. Here is a photo of the words we have thought of which use the letters we’ve learned already. Can you think of anymore? The children have rather enjoyed the story of the Gingerbread Man, which we stumbled across in our literary explorations last week. Such was their enthusiasm that I thought we should make some actual Gingerbread Men – so that is what we did. Cooking with a large number of young children is certainly a challenge, but we did it! And it is full of such great learning as well as being fun and ultimately filling J Here are some lovely photos of the proceedings. I hope these make it home intact on Friday afternoon, and taste even more delicious than they look!?
Oh, and a little ask….please could children bring in (or parents email to me) a photo of themselves with their pet(s)? I’d love to do a show and tell with these, and maybe make another class display. My email address is [email protected] if you want to send me a picture – I can print it out at school. Many thanks for your continued support, and have a lovely weekend. All the very best Lisa Rowe Dear Parents and Carers Here is your weekly bulletin about the wonderful children of Ash Class, to tell you what we have been up to this week. No week is ever a quiet one in a Foundation Stage Unit, and this is no different. I think the children will be exhausted and need a restful weekend…. So, we are really getting stuck into our topic about ‘Pets’. It is no impediment if your child does not have a pet – we have been discussing pets we would like, as well as ones we actually have living with us. We have been working on our counting skills through topic work, practising recognising numbers and counting accurately up to 10, saying a number name for each animal counted. We did an activity where we had to put the right number of dogs into each bed, and some of us played the Spotty Dog game: I taught my two sons to count using this game, so it took me back! We also changed into our whole PE kits this week, for our Wednesday lesson. I was impressed that many children managed to get changed all by themselves, or needed only minimal help. Being able to dress/ undress independently is such a useful skill (and great for self esteem!) so if you know that your child struggles with this do support them to learn. Things like putting shoes on the correct foot, turning inside out jumpers the right way, taking off sweatshirts etc are major milestones for a young child – and it really helps us make the most of our time actually doing PE! Here we all are in our smart kits! Also, we have been painting pictures of real or would-be pets. I will put them on display in school and take a photo so that you can see the works of art in next week’s newsletter. Most days we have a short phonics session – we have already learned to recognise and even try to write a few sounds: m,t,a,d,i and s! At this stage it is most important that the children hear and recognise the sounds, and we don’t ‘push’ the written side of things. But most are willing to have a go! Frog has been helping us to hear words such as ‘m-a-t’ said slowly, to figure out what he is saying. This is an important early reading skill, and can be made to be fun, especially with the addition of funny voices 😊 And finally, we have been enjoying our Vets role play area. Some of our soft pets have sustained some serious injuries, but luckily the Ash Class veterinary surgeons are on hand to mend broken bones and give the appropriate (usually) treatment to the poor patients. Lots of rich language has come from this play, along with some lovely caring collaboration. It is a joy to watch!
We in the FSU team hope that you are hearing at least some snippets of what your children are up to in class. Often children don’t want to talk about it after a long day, so don’t be surprised if this happens. Sometimes this information only comes out at bath or bedtime! As always, if you have any concerns or questions do please drop us a line, or have a word at drop off or pick up time. In the meantime, have a wonderful, restful weekend. From us all in Chagford school FSU. Dear Parents and Carers, Well, we have reached the end of our first full week of school life, and the ‘Big Robins’ have coped extraordinarily well. Given that we were unable to do a proper transition, and that children have gone from the long summer holidays into full time, all day school, they have been wonderful. It is so lovely to watch them coming together as a class, learning each other’s names, playing with new friends and old, and slowly learning the ropes. They even felt confident enough to play in the ‘big’ playground with the older children, which I hadn’t expected them to be happy to try until next week! Mostly this week has been all about settling in, getting used to the classroom, the routines, and the various staff members who work in Ash Class. The second week, I find, is often a bumpy one. I think some children don’t realise until this point that school is every day, and that the school day is long! This realisation, coupled with the inevitable fatigue, can create some emotional reactions – often manifesting as an unwillingness to separate from Mums and Dads in the morning. However, please be assured that if a child continues to be upset once they are in, I will tell you. If you don’t hear from us during the day, you can safely assume that your child has settled and is contented. Equally, if there is anything we need to know about, something specific perhaps that has upset or worried your child, it really helps us to know about it. Please either mention it at drop off time, or write a note in the yellow communication books I gave out earlier this week. I hear that children have enjoyed sharing the picture books I sent home on Monday. I will aim to change these once or twice a week, so please ensure that you put the finished book back in the book bag on a Monday and Friday so that I can record that they have been returned. And as we get really stuck into teaching letter sounds, I will start sending home little books to share with you that practise the sounds we have been covering in class. This week we have already explored ‘m’ and ‘a’. Feel free to ask children about this! We have been writing these letters too using whiteboards but please don’t expect perfectly formed letters at this stage. Many children are still getting to grips with a strong pencil grip and the necessary manipulation skills, so the business of writing the sounds is honed with lots of practice with different writing materials over time. Children have also been practising recognising and writing their own name, through using various writing materials, painting and drawing. If your child is ready, please encourage them to try this whenever appropriate – in my experience, it takes very little time before the children can all recognise each other’s names as well as their own! We have started thinking about our topic of Animals and Pets! Soon, our role play area will be a fully functioning vets surgery. We also read ‘I Want A Pet’ by Lauren Child, and talked about which might be good or bad pets, and why that might be. We will be having PE on Mondays and Wednesdays, so please ensure that your child has a kit in school. So far we have only used the plimsolls, but we are building up to the full change over the next fortnight!
We hope that your child has been enjoying their first days at Big School. As I said, if there are any problems, or if you would like to chat with one of us, do let us or Elaine know. A strong alliance between families and school is such a powerful factor in children’s education, and in their lives generally. It is reassuring for them to see that they are always surrounded by adults who care about them - their happiness, relationships and their learning. We wish you a very relaxing weekend – maybe even with a little lie in?! All the best from Lisa Rowe, Ed Finch and the FSU team. We also had a music session with Miss Rowe and continued with our phonics.
I have it on good authority that the sun may appear at the weekend, so enjoy and we'll see you on Monday Sara and the FSU team This week we have continued our topic of Transport. We have been designing, making and testing boats! We began with a design for our boat which we then made using our chosen materials; selected for their waterproof, weight and aerodynamic qualities! During the testing process some of the children realised their boats were very unstable and possibly too heavy and they sunk to the bottom of the sea! The children's creation have probably sailed their way to your homes and we hope you have hours of pleasure testing and modifying them in order to make them sea worthy once again! Looking at the weather forecast for the weekend, you may just be very grateful of these boats!
See you all next week. Sara and the FSU Team We have had a fabulous week celebrating May Day; making Jack in the Green masks, learning Spring time songs and dances with Miss Rowe, making Flower garlands, listening to the accordion and dancing with scarves - not unlike Morris Dancing! and leading about the traditions of May Day and where it all began!
We have continued with reading and writing activities and we have been writing number sentences in our maths. Once again the weather has been kind to us and we have spent lots of time outside. Let's hope it continues for this long weekend. See you all on Tuesday. Sara and the FSU team |
AuthorWelcome to the class blog for Reception - Ash Class at Chagford Primary School Archives
January 2025
Categories |