Class 1

Early Years

Class 1 - 2022-2023

We had a visit from a guide dog today! His name was Burley and his owner was called Helen. They came to school to talk to us about the amazing job that guide dogs do to look after and help people who can't see very well. The children found out lots about guide dogs and what they should do if they see a guide dog. We did an activity in pairs where one person closed their eyes and the other had to be a guide dog and guide them around, the children did a great job of guiding their friends around. The best part was getting to give Burley a stroke, he was really fluffy. Thank you Helen and Burley for visiting us!

We looked closely at our oral health this week. We talked about who helps us to look after our teeth and what we need to do keep our teeth healthy. We practiced brushing our teeth for the whole 2 minutes and sorted foods into healthy and unhealthy for our teeth.

The children did some wonderful writing this week about what they wanted to be when they grow up. We had lots of aspiring firefighters after finding out about their job. We even had some scientists too!

We had some special visitors this week! Some of the firefighters who work at Ripon Fire Station took time out of their busy day to come and talk to us about their amazing job. The children had a fantastic time exploring the fire engine and listening to the loud siren. Thank you Ripon fire station for giving us a WOW moment to start our learning on people who help us, the children even wrote their own letters to show how thankful they were!

This week we have looking at 'Supertato.' We made our own super potato adding some different resources and materials to our potatoes to make it look like a superhero. We created our own masks and wrote some wanted posters for the villain in the story, The Evil Pea!

We had some special visitors in class this week, some stick insects. The children were keen to learn all about them and some were even brave enough to hold them.

We has lots of fun celebrating pancake day, the children did some great flipping and enjoyed eating the pancakes too!

We have had a fantastic start to our 'Superhero' topic this half term. The children created their own superheroes and did some great paintings of them. They then did some writing about them telling us what they were called and what their super power is. Making capes was a firm favourite with everyone and the children enjoyed flying out to their parents/carers at the end of the day.

We have been doing gymnastics with Mrs Collins this half term. The children have enjoyed learning lots of skills that make them a champion gymnast. They showed bravery and courage when using the wall bars.

This week we looked at the story 'The Gingerbread Man.' We enjoyed making gingerbread men, eating them and doing some recount writing of how we ate the gingerbread man using words like first, next, then and finally. The children did an investigation this week where they had to create a boat using different junk materials that could be used by the gingerbread man to get across the river. We worked out that plastic was better because it is waterproof but cardboard goes soggy in the water.

We were focusing on the traditional tale 'Little Red Riding Hood' this week. We enjoyed roleplaying the story in our very own cottage in the classroom, writing speech bubbles for little red riding hood and the big bad wolf and baking cakes for Granny. The reception children were able to practice their cutting and maths skills with their cakes as they were challenged to cut the cakes exactly in half, making sure it was fair by both parts being the same size.

Celebrating Lunar New Year 2023

We had a great week learning about the Traditional Tale 'The Three Little Pigs'. The children enjoyed lots of different activities including role playing the story using masks. We designed and built our own houses thinking about what our house needed to be so the big bad wolf couldn't blow it down. The children also did some fab writing when making wanted posters for the Big Bad Wolf!

Polar bears were the next animals we explored. We found out that they live in the Arctic which is at the top of the Earth. We learned lots of other interesting facts about them including that they can measure up to 3m long and they are really good swimmers. The children used an interesting painting technique to make their polar bears look furry and wrote some great facts they had learned.

This week we have been learning about animals that like to live in cold places. We explored penguins closely and found out a lot of them live in the Antarctic which is at the bottom of the Earth. We used our fine motor skills to cut out shapes to create a penguin, labelled different parts of the penguin and followed detailed instructions to make a penguin using a toilet roll!

We did a science investigation to finish our week. We thought about different ways that we could melt ice to help us with the challenge of getting all the penguins free that had been frozen in the ice! The children came up with some great ideas and then worked together in teams to try and get their penguins free using salt, warm water and some different utensils.

We have had a great first week back learning about the season of Winter. We talked about how the weather had changed and what we need to do to keep ourselves warm. We thought about different winter clothes we might wear and had a go at labelling them. We also did lots of fun maths, phonics and creative activities all based around winter.

We had a fantastic time at our FSU Christmas Party. The children enjoyed playing lots of different games, having party food and having a dancing competition. We were very proud of how grown up the children were about prizes and how happy they were for their friends if they won even if they didn't. Well done nursery and reception children!

We have done lots of super writing over the Christmas period. We drew pictures of Father Christmas and had a go at labelling different parts of him and his clothing. We also wrote a letter to Santa telling him some of the things we would like for Christmas.

We made Christmas cards for our families using different resources to make a picture of baby Jesus in a manger in a stable. The children did lovely neat writing inside for the message for their families.

The children did an amazing job during our performance of 'Wriggly Nativity'. We sang songs and did actions to tell the story of the first Christmas.

We had a forest school session this week with Mrs Goss. The children did fantastic listening when learning new rules and instructions. They had a great time making dens, making reindeer food, playing on the rope swing, exploring the mud kitchen and toasting marshmallows.

The children had great fun learning the basic skills of skipping and having a go at using a skipping rope in their Skip 2 B Fit session.

It was the start of Advent this week so we learned all about what Advent is and how we get ourselves ready for Christmas. We looked closely at Advent wreaths and talked about what all the different candles stood for and when we light them. The children then made wreaths in a range of ways and using different resources.

We started learning about the story of the first Christmas in RE this week. We listened to the story of Angel Gabriel coming to Mary and telling her the good news that she was going to have a special baby. The children enjoyed retelling the story using stick puppets they made and wearing costumes for the characters.

"Aha oho, prints in the snow"

The children enjoyed looking at the story 'The Gruffalo's Child.' We looked at different footprints and marks in the snow, the reception children tried to match marks in the snow with the animal that makes it. We also did some investigations with light and dark and making shadows, the children enjoyed retelling the story using the shadow puppets they made on the wall.

"There's no such thing as a Gruffalo!"

The children have had a great week looking closely at the popular story 'The Gruffalo'. The nursery children enjoyed making their own Gruffalo using a cardboard box, the children explored making Gruffalo crumble and the reception children did some super writing about a woodland picture and labelled their drawings of the Gruffalo.

This week we have been looking at Bonfire Night. We did lots of creative work around fireworks and learned about Guy Fawkes and why we celebrate bonfire night. The nursery children enjoyed making firework noises using different musical instruments.

Diwali 2022

We had a fantastic week celebrating Diwali in FSU. We learned lots about the festival and why it is called the festival of light. We re told the story of Rama and Sita using props and outfits and learned that the story is all about good beating evil or light beating the darkness. The children enjoyed trying some different indian foods during their special snack, made rangoli patterns using coloured rice and they concentrated hard to make and decorate their diya lamps.

This week we have continued looking at the season of Autumn but looked closely at hedgehogs. We enjoyed a range of different activities including adding pegs to hedgehogs as spikes, collaging hedgehogs with leaves, hammering pegs into pumpkins and investigating the insides of pumpkins.

In PE the children have been practising their ball skills. The children concentrated hard on their skills and did lots of kicking, throwing, rolling and catching balls. Here are some action shots!

In RE we have been thinking about how God made each one of us very special and unique. We looked at how we are all different and that no one is exactly the same as someone else. We looked closely at our faces and painted self portraits to look just like us.

We have had a fantastic week learning about the season Autumn. We have had lots of conker activities, pumpkin size ordering and autumn paintings. The reception children enjoyed going on an Autumn walk to the spa park and collecting some Autumn treasures. We even had a go at making the first letter of our names using leaves, twigs and feathers.

This week in RE we have been learning about God's love and how he loves everyone in the world. We talked about how God's love must be very big for him to be able to share his love with everyone. We thought about big objects that God's love would be bigger than and the children came up with some fantastic ideas!

Colour Week

We looked at the story of The Colour Monster and how different colours show different emotions. We looked at a certain colour each day and did lots of different activities around that colour. Our colour day was lots of fun especially our skittles experiment which turned our plates rainbow coloured!

Senses Week

We had our first RE lesson today where we learned all about how God created our wonderful word. We watched a video about how God made the world in 7 days and how he created different things on each day. The children then chose a colour from the rainbow stick and said thank you for something in God's world that is that colour.

Some children said:

Yellow - "It's warm in the sun"

Pink - "For milk, I like strawberry milkshake"

Blue - "I like walking in the sea"

We then worked together to retell the story of creation using different materials and objects to show what happened on each day.

This week we have been focusing on Road Safety. We talked lots about what we might find on the roads and what we can do to keep safe while walking next to a road and crossing one. We learned the 'Stop, Look, Listen and Think' sequence and did some roleplaying to show what we could remember. We also talked about high vis jackets and why they are important.

We have been talking about how we can keep our bodies healthy, in particular what foods we should eat to keep us healthy. We looked at examples of healthy and unhealthy foods and also what it is that makes them healthy/unhealthy. The children were great in sorting the foods and could talk about unhealthy foods having lots of sugar in and that we should eat lots of fruits and vegetables.

We talked about our bodies this week. We played 'Simon Says' and sang 'Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes' to help us think about all the different body parts we have. We then created our own body outline and had a go at labelling different parts. We even looked at some more difficult body parts like wrist, elbow and ankle.

The children did some lovely drawings of their families this week. We talked lots about each others families, who are in them and how they might be different to other children in the class.

We have been learning all about ourselves during our first week including looking at our faces and talking about our features. The children enjoyed looking in the mirror at themselves to see what they look like and then they used their cutting and colouring skills to create their own self portraits.

Welcome to our new Reception children!